New Beginnings

The surgery yesterday went well...thanks for all of the prayers and encouragement. I was terrified of going under and very nervous about the surgery but everything went better than I thought. The only crazy part was I passed out twice and threw up all over myself on the way home from the hospital much to Mark's horror. It is laughable now but very scary at the time. Afterwards I was so weak Mark had to carry me into the house! I was very tired the rest of the day but woke up this morning feeling renewed...

The phrase "Beauty for Ashes" kept running through my head this morning. Each time we have lost a baby the Lord has used that time to draw us closer to Him and to bring fresh perspective to our lives. This time is no different. We have felt the Lord's love carrying us and it has brought us again to a deeper place of relying on Him. It is good. I don't know why it sometimes takes these hard things to bring us to that place. I am looking forward to the NEW things He wants to do in our lives...the beauty He will bring from the ashes.

A friend of ours gave us a leaf like one of these a week ago with a note. She wrote how there was still beauty in the leaf even though it had fallen from the tree and left to die. I had saved the leaf in my journal and just thought of it now and how it is totally "Beauty for Ashes". I know even though there has been death...there is LIFE in heaven....and God is bringing about NEW life in our hearts through this!

"(I will) bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor."
isaiah 61