God's Blessings!

God is so great; His grace is so abundant. In the last few weeks since I hurt my hand, He has shown us His love in so many ways. Have you thought recently about the fact that God doesn't always bless us based on the fact that we do or don't do something right. I use to think that if I was walking with God and doing the right thing that God would bless me even more for my "righteous works." But that's not true! Or have you ever had a day when you weren't walking with God and you didn't feel that close to him; yet He blesses you unexpectedly in some great way? I have. Those are the days that God humbles me and causes me to be even more grateful for the fact that He gets joy out of blessing me not because of anything I did to deserve it. If His blessings were dependent upon my actions, I'm afraid I wouldn't be on the receiving end...ever!

I just wanted to share a few ways in which God has blessed us in the last few weeks so that you all as family and friends can glorify Him with us! Because I burned my hand, I've been out of work the last three and half weeks. It was easy for me to be concerned about our financial situation. Early on, God gave me the grace to trust Him in this area. God has blessed us in that He provided for us through gifts from family, church family, and friends. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the people God used.

Another area God has blessed us is in the healing of my hand. I must admit that I am surprised at how quickly my burns are healing. I shouldn't be surprised since the Great Physician has been in control of my healing from the very beginning. The doctor said I will have little to no scarring and I'm going back to work this week!

The last blessing I want to share, and probably the most exciting, is that I'm pregnant!! God is creating within me our very first child! I'm about 10 1/2 weeks along and due on May 10th. Many of you who read our blog, probably already know. But we would appreciate prayers from all of you who already knew and who just found out.
Praise the Lord for His blessings!!

Our first baby purchase ......................................................................................................................Our first ultrasound














One of our first baby gifts- stroller/carseat from our Nana and Papa. TJ proudly posing after putting it altogether.


We told our church in a fun way through a mad gab game. We had a Harvest Activity and decided it would be a great time to tell everyone together. As you can see, we shared the moment with our good friends the Hines, who are also expecting their first.

Burnt to a Crisp...well, not quite!

Two and a half weeks ago I experienced the worst pain of my life! I left some oil unattended on the stove and when I returned the pan and oil were on fire. In a state of panic, I picked up the pan and searched for the fire extinguisher. In the process, I dropped the pan, probably because it was burning me. After I muffled the fire with a towel, I looked at my hand and realized how badly I had burned it. Praise the Lord my landlady was home and able to take me to ER. They treated me for second degree burns on my left hand and the index finger on my right hand. It was probably the worst few hours of my life. God gave me the grace to endure it along with some pain medication. :) In the two weeks since then, I have been out of work and attending physical therapy almost everyday. It is amazing to see how God is working to heal my burns. I have almost all the movement back in my fingers and Lord willing I hope to return to work in a couple of weeks.
TJ has been a huge help and encouragement to me. Thanks babe for being there for me. I have also been blessed with help from my mom the last couple weeks. I don't know what I would have done without her. And for all of you who have known what happened, I want to thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and many acts of kindness. You have all been such a blessing. It is amazing what we take for granted until we suddenly lose it. I had no idea how much I needed two hands and especially my thumb. One of the things I have learned is to be more thankful for the things God has allowed me to do with two hands such as cooking, playing the piano and flute, doing hair (mine as well as others), making projects, and many other things (like posting on my blog). God has truly been gracious to me throughout this experience and the mistakes that I made. He's teaching me to keep looking toward Him that He might continue to work in me for the praise of His glory.
P.S.
In case any of you are wondering, I do have pictures of my burns but I didn't think it was a good idea to post them for all to see. It is not a pretty picture!

Here's a pic of the offending pan and my burned hand in bandages.