I know everyone has their own personal beliefs and opinions regarding prayer. I, however, believe that God’s Word is the truth and it says in James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” My heart is so heavy for so many people right now and it’s easy to feel helpless when others are hurting. This blog is getting an average of about 800 views a day, that’s a LOT of people and while I know many of you may not pray, I’m hoping that at least some of you will. Prayer is powerful and asking for prayers for these people in need is a way that I feel I can help them.
*The Green Family: Many of you that read my blog also read Katie’s. You can read all about her sweet third baby from her own blog entry about their situation here. Please lift this family up in prayer. Her example is SO amazing and I’m beyond impressed with their unwavering faith in God. I know God can do anything and prayer is powerful – I pray that this baby can keep beating odds and that further tests will reveal better news. If that is not God’s will then I pray that the Green’s will continue to find strength and will continue to count all the many blessings in their lives while coping with such pain and sadness.
*The Boruff/Davis Family: I blogged back in November about Devan and Taylor’s awesome wedding. Today I am heartbroken that I will be attending the visitation for Taylor’s funeral tomorrow. Devan is so, so young to know such tragedy in her life and I simply cannot even fathom the emotions she is going through. It’s a situation where no words or good deeds can even come close to comforting her, all I can do is lift her up in prayer to God and trust that He will guide her through this dark time.
*Titus/The Megow Family: On Monday I babysat for Crissy and had the scariest experience of my life. Going over the details of everything that happened is not really something I want to do here as it’s painful for me to relive and tough for Crissy to have to read – but they are thinking that Titus (who is 10 months old) had a seizure under my care and that is what caused him to go unconscious, having to be rushed to the hospital via ambulance. I am so thankful that he is okay and I ask you to pray that his tests results later this month give them answers to what happened and a way to prevent something like it from happening again. I hate that they won’t be able to do the testing until the END of JULY as I know it’s scary for Seth and Crissy to have that fear that he could potentially have another seizure at any time. Please also pray that he continues to be the happy, healthy little man he is and that they don’t witness such a horrible sight again like I had to deal with on Monday.
*Hayden/The Vinson Family: I have blogged before asking for prayers for Hayden. He recently turned one and the family still does not know exactly what is going on. They are still doing test after test trying to figure out why he is behind developmentally. A full year of unknowns. Of hopes getting raised on answers only to be shattered by more “nos.” Since she doesn’t have a blog (although she totally should – her positive outlook and deep devotion to her son would inspire SO many, as it has me!) I wanted to share something Bobbie posted on her Facebook on Hayden’s birthday. I cannot read it without crying and I hope each of you will add Bobbie, Hayden and their family to your daily prayer list.
My Trip To Holland
When you’re going to have a baby, its like planning a fabulous vacation trip- to Italy. I bought a bunch of guide books and made my wonderful plans. The coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. I learned some hard phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. I packed my bags and off I went. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes on and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!” I said, “What do you mean Holland?! I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy!” But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there I had to stay. The important thing is that they haven’t taken me to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place fully of pestilence, famine and disease. Its just a different place.
So I had to go and buy new guide books. And I had to learn a whole new language. And I met a whole new group of people I never would have met. It was just a different place. Its slower paced than Italy. Less flashy than Italy. But after I had been there a while, and I caught my breath, I looked around…and I began to notice that Holland has windmills….Holland has Tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone I know was busy coming and going from Italy…and they were all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of my life, I will have to say, “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.” And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, EVER go away…because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But if I spent my whole life mourning the fact that I didn’t get to go to Italy, I may never had been free to enjoy the VERY special, the VERY lovely things….about Holland!
Someone gave me this poem “Welcome to Holland” by Emily Perl Kingsley soon after we realized my trip to Italy was re-routed. This poem has helped me accept that plans change…and its OK. I LOVE HOLLAND! This past year has been one of the longest, if not THE longest year of my life. But through our faith in God, and with the help of prayers and support from friends and family (and even some strangers) we made it through! THANK YOU to all of you who have helped in one way or another. Big or small.
Our trip is not over……I don’t know if it ever will be. Hopefully, someone will come around with answers telling us “Its time to go to Italy” (it’s always possible) But if not, we will stay in Holland and it will be the trip of a lifetime!
*Me: I know you have been able to tell that this week has been difficult for me. I mentioned it in both of my posts on Tuesday and Wednesday. The experience with Titus was horribly emotional enough then adding the sad news of Taylor Davis and Katie’s baby only made me struggle more. I truly do believe that the devil is trying to use these tragedies to affect my faith and I refuse to allow that to happen. I feel more afraid for my own unborn baby than I ever have before, even in my entire pregnancy with Kye. On top of all those things I also had a couple scares with Kye this week – he fell off a small bridge while at the beach (more to come in those posts, he’s fine, but it was scary to witness) and last night he fell down our flight of stairs (again, thankfully he’s okay, but it was another scary, stressful moment for me!). I know I am SO blessed in this life and part of me doesn’t understand why I am being blessed while others are experiencing hurt. I know I can’t question God and I know that I, too, will face hardships along the road. I am thankful for the examples that Katie, Devan, Crissy, and Bobbie are all setting for ME. I ask you to pray that I can give my worries up to God and not continue to carry them with me, I pray that my ultrasound on Tuesday goes PERFECTLY and that Blitzen is 100% healthy!
I’m thankful to each of you for keeping all of these in need close to your hearts and in your thoughts. It is such an honor when someone asks you to pray for them and I take that duty very seriously – I hope you do too!
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Well said Emilie! You are such an amazing friend!! And sister in Christ!! Thank you for the prayer requests. Life is so unfair sometimes. We do have to keep our Faith for sure. It's so hard to see our loved ones go through such heartache. And yet so many people go through so much but can still lean on the Lord for comfort! Awesome!!!
I'll be praying for you and your friends.
Will be praying for your friends and for you/your family.Italy … we just booked a semester there for one of our college daughters in the fall 2012. Hope she doesn't end up in Holland, too :)Hoping this will post. The last couple of attempts on other posts didn't work. wb
Emily, Please know I will be praying for all of these families, and for you as well! God has a plan for everyone involved. Thank you for posting all of this.
Hi Emily!I read this yesterday, but never commented. Thank you so much. We totally need the prayers. And I will be praying for your other friends. I hope next week is better for you!!!!! Love ya!XOXOXO
aren't they all such inspiring women??? it def gives me encouragement to see people live their lives for God!!!! 🙂 thank you for your sweet words!
so jealous!!!! that's a WONDERFUL experience for your daughter! so great! i'll go back and see if i can find old posts, sometimes they work but i don't get the notification! 🙂
I'm sure you are already feeling lighter as the Lord is taking on the weight of this pain for you, SO many people are lifting you guys up in prayers!!! I'm doing better so far, eager to see this baby tomorrow for sure. I hope you're having an amazing 4th! can't wait to see what amazing pictures Chris captures 😉