Prayers Please

My cousin's wife, Kristina, has been admitted to a hospital in Ft. Worth, TX and is scheduled for a C-section in the morning. She is 36 weeks pregnant with their second baby girl, Matilda, who, they learned early in the pregnancy, has a rare heart defect and down syndrome.

Her doctors had hoped Matilda would make it to term but today found signs of heart failure. After the c-section, they will attempt to stabilize her enough to give her the heart surgery she needs.

Much prayer for Matilda, for my cousin Weslie who just began his pastoral call to an LCMS church in Burkburnett, TX and will be away from there a lot during this time, for his sweet wife and for their other baby, Edith who is just 14 months old.

*Update - January 29th - Matilda was born this morning. My cousin writes:

"She's doing better than we had hoped! 5.10 lbs (2530g). Heart rate is in the 140s. Oxygen is in the 80s all by herself."

 Thanks to God for this and continued prayers for what's next.

*Update - January 30th - Matilda's heart surgery began this morning at 8am. Planned to be a 6-8 hour procedure. Hoping to hear how all went soon.

My cousin baptized Matlida yesterday! Praise be to God for all His good gifts.

Welcome Baby Micah!

Renata K. announces the birth of another son! Micah Robert Keith was born at 7:33am on January 7, 2013. 7 lb. 6 oz. 21 inches. Mom & baby doing well. 

 

Meet Sarah

Where do I start?

I suppose I can start by saying how awesome it is to have ladies to be able to relate to. And a huge thank you to Aubri for starting this blog to get us together and help each other through things!

My name is Sarah Seymour. I have no Lutheran roots in my family at all, and it was God's will for me to make them. My husband, Ryan, and I got married January 18, 2003 and I planted my Lutheran roots pretty deep. Having no church in my life as a child, I was so hungry to learn God's Word!

I often compare my husband to Jonah. He knew that God was calling him, but he was running in the other direction, trying to find something else. After the birth of our first son, Caleb (9), I told him he needed to go. Follow God's plan, not his. So when Caleb was 2 (2005), we moved to Mequon, WI for undergrad. 

 On June 2, 2006, our first daughter, Hannah was born. When Hannah was 2(2008), we were FINALLY done with undergrad and moved to Fort Wayne, IN for Seminary. 

 4 weeks before vicarage, on June 28, 2010, Zoe was born. SURPRISE!! 

 Ryan had his vicarage in Lincoln, NE with Pastors Clint Poppe and Lance Berndt. Needless to say, it was an amazing vicarage and I fell completely head over heels for Nebraska. 8 weeks before our FINAL move, April 27, 2012, Jude made his appearance to our family! 

 Talk about keeping it hectic... one week after he was born was graduation, two weeks after was call night. Being emotional is an understatement.   

 

We moved 10 hours away from family and friends to rural Nebraska. Our smallest city has been Danville, IL (our hometown) of 40,000 people... so moving to a tiny town was a culture shock, but a FANTASTIC one! I have fallen in love completely and I'm not sure if i'd recover if we ever moved. But after moving around so much already, I have told people that i'm not going anywhere. Ryan is pastor to two churches, and we have acquired such a huge support system with two fabulous church families. 

My hobbies.... well, when I HAD spare time, I LOVED to paint. Acrylics, Oils, Watercolors... just don't ask me to paint you a person... because I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to tell what it was... I LOVE taking pictures. I was blessed to receive a great camera, and I can honestly say I never have to pay for pictures of the kids again! I love to crochet. although trying to find time to do that is a chore, and by the time I get a chance to sit down and do it, I am so tired from the day of four kids, basketball practice, dance class, this, that, and the other things, that I don't even want to. :)

When Jude is in school, I want to start school myself. Ryan and I got married when I was fresh out of high school, and I told him that God's plans were more important than my own, and I'd wait for him to graduate from seminary to go to school, and now, I can't imagine trying to go to school with kids at home. I might find time in a couple of years, but I'm in no rush, my vocation as a stay at home mom is fulfilling enough :)

I love pretty sunsets, which are plentiful here in rural NE, coffee, chocolate, and spending time with my husband. Those moments that we have to actually hear each other in a conversation without a child needing something, or the reminders going off for tomorrow, are so wonderful, that sometimes(most times) we spend those moments in silence. 

I'm excited to have a place to come to for advice and encouragement. I picture needing quite a bit. :)

Care for Us

A pastor's wife writes:

It’s almost midnight and he just left.
I should be sleeping, alone, but instead I am here at my computer with my questions.
God has heard them before, but I ask again:

Why ,God, would you do some miracles for this woman, and then just… not?
Why, God?

I ache for the family suffering out there, where pastor-daddy is. (Care for them,
Father.) I ache for the family here, too, where pastor-daddy is not.

I was the one who read the bedtime stories, said the prayers, and tucked the covered
tightly around the children. They nodded brave faces when I told them that daddy had
to go "be with the sad family" yet again. That's why our plans changed tonight. Yes, I
know he has been gone a lot lately. I miss him, too.

I respect and support this man, and the work God does through him, but that doesn't
mean it isn't hard.

The children do not understand why dark hospital rooms win out over family nights,
but for a pastor, they do, they must. I spare them the details of the sad situation he
faces in the hospital.

They say goodnights without complaint, except for one boy. He cries quietly into
his pillow. When I lean over to kiss him, he clings tightly to my robe, and I hear his
muffled confession, "Mommy, I wish that daddy was something other than a pastor."

Father, what am I to say to this child?

You have promised to be with us always, even in times of suffering. Help your child,
the one who is called to be a pastor to the sad family, because I can see the weariness
in his eyes, and I cannot help him. Uphold him, Father.

And help your child's other children, the little ones who share in the suffering through
tiny sacrifices, the little ones who do not understand. Care for them through other
hands when daddy is away-- through mine, through your Word, through your other
children. Care for their little hearts, that they may learn to lean on you in times of
trial.

The needs are here are more than I can meet, Father.

Care for them, Father.
Care for all of us.
Amen.

Tend to Me: Devotions for Mothers

I just received an email from Emily Cook to let all know that her second book, Tend to Me: Devotions for Mothers, is now available!

Emily is a pastor's wife and mother of six. She knows sin and God's Grace and always points her readers to Christ, so I'm really looking forward to this book.

I was blessed by and recommend reading her previous book, Weak and Loved: A Mother-Daughter Love Story also Ifind much wisdom and encouragement through her blog, Weak and Loved.

And to let you know, Emily will be giving all the profits from her book to the ministry she writes about below:

I am excited to announce that all profits from this book of devotions will be given to Project 24, a mercy project helping orphans in Kenya.  Read why here, and learn more about Project 24 here.  This project is near and dear to my heart. 

Writing is one of my joys, as you know.  

I write because the flowers grow,

because grace showers down on me

and I am compelled to gather it up in words.

Living, Daring Confidence

"Faith, however, is a divine work in us that change us and makes us to be born a new of God. It kills the old Adam and makes us altogether different men, in heart and spirit and mind and powers; it brings with it the Holy Spirit.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. This knowledge of and confidence in Gods grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and all creatures.

And this is the work that the Holy Spirit performs in faith. Because of it, without compulsion, a person is ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, out of love and praise to God who has shown him this grace."  Martin Luther

As I live and breath in this body I am minute by minute reminded of how sinful I am and really I minute by minute ignore how sinful I am. I can say "I see my sin" but there are many many sins I choose not to see, worse I deny.

I don't know how many other vocations will reveal your sin to you the way being a parent will. The dying, the humiliation of it. The constant servitude. The demand to stop what I want and give. Give my time, my attention, my care, my love. And how often do I willing give any of these things? How much more often do I give them begrudgingly, or out of guilt or just not at all?

I cling like a nasty spoiled brat to my SELF, my WILL and say NO I will not love you right now. And when we get this honest with ourselves we see the worse part, the anger of it all and the pride. I'm angry that I'm needed, I'm angry that I can't do what I want when I want all day.

But as a child of God, I'm not supposed to be this way right? Why can't I gladly serve and suffer? Questions for better Theologians than I.

What am I supposed to do then?

I think I'm slowly learning the answer to that and the answer humbles and frustrates and relieves all at once. It's all a poor miserable beggar can do, repent and be forgiven, repent and be forgiven, repent and be forgiven.

In that is the faith that Luther speaks of, the "living daring confidence in God's grace". Apart from that we are all doomed.

Lord help us to live confidently in your Grace.

Update on Baby Ephraim

Just wanted to let all here know that Ephraim was hospitalized yesterday with moderate dehydration and more weight loss but we are very pleased with the improvement we are seeing today. After fluids and some potassium, he is not only looking so much better but he is also finally starting to make more "normal" diapers. I'll spare you the details, but just say I've never been more excited about poop in my life!

Thanks be to God for His gifts of doctors, medicine and the love of friends and family. Please continue to pray for Ephraim as we move toward the possibility of taking him back home and figuring out how to keep him on the mend.