Aware of God's blessing, 7 weeks to go!

Hi All,

Yeah, I know....  It has been way too long since I have updated my blog...  Just when you think you have things under control, everything gets flipped around again, turned upside down, and somehow it all works to the Glory of God.

We are just a little more then 7 weeks from Gabriel's expected arrival date!  He is so big now I feel him move around constantly, kicking me in the ribs, sticking his little knees or butt out in a particular direction, you know?   Just the other day, my friend Julie felt him move and she said to me "Wow, there is really a person in there!"  You got it...  There is a little person whose reality at this time is sheltered, protected, and nourished, by my body.   That is the only reality that he knows.  I wonder if he has a sense of how much we love him already.  I wonder often if he somehow can sense that as soon as I found I was pregnant with him the awe I had at the mystery of conception, the amazement at God's creation and the sense that He is using my body to bring one of his little ones into the world.   I wonder if he knows on some level that he has three brothers who are eagerly anticipating meeting him, holding him, playing with him, and making him laugh.  I wonder if he knows he will have one of the all time greatest dads, ready to stay up late at night holding him and rocking him and kissing him on his baby-smelling head.

And yet, even as I am blessed to experience God's child growing within me, I have some close dear friends who experience firsthand the pain of miscarriage or infertility, as well as those eagerly anticipating taking that test to see is this the time that it finally worked?...  I know women who would make wonderful mothers, whose arms ache to hold their little ones, or who feel deeply in their hearts that God is calling them to welcome another little person into their home.  I think it is one of those things I simply don't yet understand, I just turn my heart up to God and ask Him why?   Why is it that the miracle that comes so seemingly easy to some is only a distant dream for others?   It seems a heartache that only the Lord in His sovereignty can understand, only He can answer.   I wish I knew how to rectify the abundant blessings I have been given while being aware of the heartbreak that others experience.  And yet I know that somehow all of our sufferings, whatever they may be, are in turn part of God's love-story with us.   Somehow He draws beauty out of sadness, fashioning fragile and intricate vessels to hold His love in broken hearts.  I think our Heavenly father's heart breaks every time one of His children experience heartbreak and loss, I don't think it is His will.  And yet, the beauty of His son on the cross is written into every suffering and reveals it to the world.

So today, I just ask your prayers for moms everywhere.  Pray for those with babies in Heaven, those who are pregnant, those who would love to be pregnant!  Pray for each creation that God sends into this world.

Love and God Bless, Elaine