My Brother Seth

I've been thanking God a lot lately for my brother-in-law Seth. When we moved into our house a couple of weeks ago, he did a lot of stuff for us. He changed the locks, installed a shelf in our closet, fixed the door handle on our back door, and many other tasks. He brought smiles to people's faces throughout the day. Every time I start my water distiller now and read "Avoid steamhurt", I hear Seth talking like a caveman. Then last week, he was able to get in contact with my nephew when nobody else could. So we have been very blessed to have Seth around lately.

But this weekend, Seth had something happen to him in which his skull was fractured causing it to protrude into his brain. The doctors said it was very serious and he is lucky to be alive. He had to go into emergency brain surgery and have four plates put into his head. As soon as we found out the news, we alerted everyone we could think of to start praying. And it was amazing the amount of people who responded in such a short time saying they were praying for Seth. I counted at least 16 people who responded in a very short time with a message of encouragement and saying they were praying for him. This doesn't even include the number of people who were praying for him without telling us. For sure, his whole family was praying without ceasing as even my sleeping was full of dreams and prayers for Seth.

The good news is the surgery went well. Right now the doctor feels that is was a successful surgery and there should not be any swelling of the brain. What an amazing testament to prayer working!! I want to thank anyone who is reading this who was in prayer for Seth. But even more than showing the power of prayer, I have a great feeling of the testimony that this will hopefully be for Seth. For what it tells me is that God is not through with Seth yet. In the few short years I have known Seth, he has been in life threatening situations twice. Both times having to be sent to another hospital because of its seriousness. The previous incident was a diving incident in which he had to be put in a pressure chamber. Both times he has survived. This tells me God has a purpose for Seth and is not ready to welcome him home just yet no matter what may happen to him. With the seriousness of the two accidents, his purpose must be something great. I can only imagine how good his testimony will be when in "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

The hard part for Seth is not done. He is in a lot of pain right now. Because of other factors in his life, the painkillers are not effective and he has a long way to go before the pain will be over. But my prayer now is this. That this will be a major turning point in his life. That though God did not cause this incident, He will use it for good. Just like the refiner's fire, that this pain and experience will strenghthen Seth like nothing else could. That he will realize that if he could get through this with the help of God and the numerous amounts of prayer going up for him, that he can get through anything. (Philippians 4:13) And he will know without a doubt that God has a purpose for his life ahead of him. That he will have hope and realize what a strong testimony he will have to share with others when its all over. I look forward to seeing the hand of God at work.

And while I am writing about miracles and the hand of God at work, the whole time I have been writing this I am home alone with Elliana and she has been quietly playing with her toys. If you know Elliana, thats saying something.

Please continue to lift up prayers for Seth. For he still has more pain and battles ahead of him. But as a warrior of God, he can know that God will give him strength. And when he feels like he can't hold up his arms any longer, we will be there to support him. (Exodus 17:8-16) Thanks for your prayers.

Its Been a While

So it has been quite a while since my last post and lots has changed since then. So I thought I would just sit down and write about what is going on in the household of Love.

As I am writing Elliana is talking away. "Ah bah bah bah. Ah bah bah bah, deahah." She is such a social baby and loves to talk all the time. She loves to make people smile and will just look at them and smile until they smile back. She is the entertainer of the nursery. They will put her in her exersaucer and then sit the other kids in Bumbos all around her and let her put on a show. Every time she is around other children she just laughs and screams and flails her arms with excitement. She has recently learned that she can clap her hands. She now claps for herself for almost everything she does.

Another one of her favorite pasttimes is to pull herself up in her crib and then let go and fall down. Then repeat. She can have fun doing this for long periods time. She hasn't yet mastered the art of crawling. She can crawl backwards but is more interested in standing up then she is crawling. She likes to pull herself up on things and then push away to see how long she can balance. I may be biased but she is the cutest baby in the whole world.

In other news, we are settling nicely into our new house. Yes, its true. We are homeowners. We were blessed to have so much help from family and friends to make the move go really smoothly. Now we have tons of projects and chores to keep us busy. I am also really enjoying my new job at Wyndham. Kasey is thrilled to hear me be excited about my job and tell her all about my day. I actually get to come home and eat dinner and spend the evening at home. Yay!!! I even had time to write this short blog. I hope everything is going well with everyone. Peace.