Timing mine or God's?

Well I must say that I will take God's over mine anytime. When I found out I was expecting I began to try to figure out the due date. I went to my first doctor appointment and they told me June 18th. Not what I thought but ok I will take it, talked about the fact that I wanted to have a scheduled c-section...they would get my records about the c-section from the hospital where Pearl was born and that would determine when I would be scheduled for. I once again tried to predict the date and when I hoped it would be. Well at my next doctor's appointment I was told it would be scheduled for June 13th. So than came Holy week and my admition to the hospital. At first they said we want to get you to week 37 which would be a birthday May 30th. Than they said no we can't wait that long you will deliver at week 34. Which ment I would deliver and was on the OR schedule for May 9th. Well on the morning of May 6th the doctors said we are done this baby is coming today...sometime between now and noon.
Well Isaac was offically born on Friday, May 6, 2011 at 3:16 PM
On Sunday, June 12th, the day before he was to be born at 5 weeks Isaac was baptized at annual conference by Bishop Bickerton...shortly before Corben was ordained a full elder in the United Methodist Church.
Who would have thought this was possible and who could have figured out all the details and arranged this...none other than our Lord. Praise God for His hand in all the events leading up to and including Sunday. I am thankful for His timing and will trust His timing for everything.

God is Good

Well I have now been home from the hospital since Mother's Day. I had been preparing myself since I was admitted to the hospital for the idea that Isaac might have to stay longer than I would...however when the doctors came in to tell me that I could go home...all I could do was cry. I must admit that it was the hardest most heart wrenching thing I have ever did was walk out of the hospital without him. I think I cried almost the whole way home. Yes I knew that he was in good hands and was where he needed to be and that my little girl needed her mommy at home but it did not make it easier.
It did get a little easier over the next two weeks as I went to see Isaac in the hospital...however it broke my heart everytime I walked out those doors without my little boy in my hands. As we were visiting one day the nurse gave Isaac a new binky so they gave me his old one to take home...as I walked out I began to cry...Corben asked what was wrong and I said I don't want a stupid binky I want my son. Two days latter when we walked in they told us that we could take Isaac home tomorrow. I can not yet put into words how I felt when I heard those words. We went to pick Isaac up after church on Sunday, May 22...two weeks and two days after being born and exactly two weeks after my heart wrenching walk out those same doors...this time as we walked out I again cried but this time they were tears of joy. We were finally going home as a family of four. Pearl could not understand why if I was so happy why I was crying.
Pearl has been a great big sister. She will help do anything we need unless it involves a dirty diaper. On his first evening home every little noise he made she would go running to see if he was ok.
Last Tuesday Isaac went for his two weeks out of hospital or one month check-up. His doctor gave him a clean bill of heath. Isaac weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces and the doctor said we should have no trouble with premature issues.
Praise God for all He has done for us and how He has blessed us. God is good all the time. All the time God is good.

WOW

I have now been in the hospital for over two weeks, and God continues to show me how He has had is hand upon this whole situation.

My blood pressure seems to be somewhat under control now thanks to the medicine that they are able to give me. Isaac everytime they monitor him the word is he's perfect.

Due to the fact that the only way my blood pressure seems to be under control with the blood preasure medicine that they are giving me, which at this time is the max amount. Also the level of protien my body is putting out makes me severe preeclampsia. Therefore for the safety of both me and Isaac they will deliver me at 34 weeks. For me that is this Saturday. I am scheduled as of today to have a c-section on Monday, May 9. So the goal is for there to be no spikes in my blood pressure that would cause IV drugs between now and than.

At first they were telling me I would have a baby in the NICU...but upon talking to one of the head people in the NICU they think that Isaac might not have to go there at all. He has to meet certain critria so our prayer is that:
1. He weighs at least 4.8 pounds....which they believe he will with no problem because on Monday, April 18 when they did a sonagram he measured at 4 pounda
2. He needs to be able to breath totally on his own with no assitance....which also looks good due to the fact that I got the two steriod shots that help develop his lungs among other things and evidently because of the high blood preasure Isaac has been preparing to come out early...someone said it is God's way of preparing the babies for early birth
3. He needs to want to eat...so I said we will pray that Isaac has his father's appetaite than....at least for the first couple of months

I have been amazingly at peace with this whole thing....even with all of the things that I wanted to have done before Isaac was born....it all seems so unimportant

It is like God has taken over and given me a peace that can be explained no other way than a miricle from God...He has put everything in place up until now so why doubt and question it at this point.

I am looking forward to this time next week holding and feedin our son Isaac Amos Russell and introducing him to many family and friends over the next couple of weeks.

I am also looking forward to seeing a vision that I have had for years now come to be...which I did not see how it could in my mind...but in God's plan it is perfect timeing.

God's Time Not My Time

Since Pearl was born we have adored her and loved her. We also have always had a desire to have another. I had always dreamed of at least two children and with in a year or two of each other. So that when I was done with diapers and other baby stuff I would be done. However month after month since 2004 the answer was no no no. I became very irregular with my cycle and went through about a year of testing and medicine to get regulated and to see if there was a medical reason as to why I wasn't conceiving. Nothing, no reason medically. Was told I could go to a fertility specialist and we said no. We did not feel that was what we needed to do. We have always said when it is God's time it will happen. During this time of testing a lady told Corben that not to give up hope he would have a son, while he was in Kentucky for school.
Over the next couple of years i just tucked that away. It was not always easy to accept what I was telling people including Pearl.."when it is God's time it will happen." Pearl so wanted to be a big sister and has been asking since she was three. I had many times when I was just plain sad and angry. You name it I know I thought it and more than likely said to at least Corben. We even had got rid of just about everything from when Pearl was a baby, cause I didn't want to keep moving it. And than I in late summer early fall this year had pretty much got tired of all the counting and stuff to figure out best time when to take a test and was really tired of seeing no. Not this month, maybe next. I had coincided to the fact that this was our family of 3 and that is what God was blessing me with and I was going to be content with it.
So we headed to Florida to celebrate Pearl's birthday in October. I carried with me the whole time a tampon because I just knew I would need it any day now. Well our week at Disney passed and I never needed that tampon. So when we got home I thought well I am about two weeks late I better take a test. So off to the store I went and the next morning to my utter amazement and joy it said I was pregnant. Corben and I couldn't contain our joy. We had waited so long. What a gift God had given us.
Everything was going great all tests good and progressing normal. Pearl was and is so excited to be a big sister. We than found out what I figured would be we were expecting a little boy.
Than while Corben was in England I found out my glucose test was high and would need to do the 3 hour test upon his return. So we did and that came back good. Praise God!!!
Than last week I noticed my ankles were swelling and not going down like they did with Pearl. So I just knew there was something going on here. Corben and Pearl even put me on their version of bed rest and left Mommy alone during the weekend but to no avail. Sunday night we took my blood pressure and it was up. So Monday morning it was off to see the Dr. My blood pressure was up and I was sent home on bed rest and lab work to be done. Well Monday night it spiked and so off the the hospital we went. They kept me over night to run test and monitor me.
And the verdict came in gestational hypertension severe of course...every number is 1 or 2 under being diagnosed preaclympsia. They say once this starts it doesn't get better just worse until the baby is born. They expect I will present myself to full blown preaclympsia next week...it is just a matter of time.
So here I am at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown West Virginia until little Isaac arrives. The ultimate goal is to get to 37 weeks...I am currently 31 weeks...34 weeks is also a possibility. It all depends on how I and Isaac deal with the high blood pressure.
So after all of this I am very thankful for it being God's time and not ours because:
*Corben is done with school and all his provisional stuff
*Pearl is in school all day and independent
*We live with in a 1/2 hour of a hospital equipped to handle high risk pregnancies and a NICU for Issac when he comes early
*We have a great friend who works in the NICU who can answer questions and has all her friends looking after me and Isaac

Thank you God for your time and not mine!!!!!!!!

Pearl you are a child of God

Yesterday Pearl and I were not home for our normal Sunday morning routine. We were at my parents house for the weekend. It was communion Sunday at my parents church and like any other communion Sunday for as long as I can remember my Mom was getting the bread and juice ready to take to church. At their church they cut the bread into little squares to be served to the congregation. Pearl got so excited about communion, that Mamaw had extra work to do. Pearl needed her own set of communion she said. So what Pearl wants Pearl usually gets and yesterday morning was no different. So Mamaw cut up a couple slices of bread for Pearl. Than she asked for the special juice. So with a cup of juice in one hand and a pile of bread in the other hand she set out from the kitchen to....deliver communion to everybody in the house. There is no better way to share the Lord's supper than first thing in the morning brought to you by a child of God.

It's Been Forever and a Day!

I can not believe we have not posted for over a year!@! what a messed up world it is when i can't even take a few seconds to drop a thoughtful heartfelt post here and there.

I am reminded of the passage, Acts 28:1-6, of Paul traveling to the destination of Rome when he found himself gathering wood, bitten by a viper, and it hanging from his hand. It is interesting that the islanders see this and condemn Paul for they believe bad things happen to bad people and when Paul is not affected that he is a God, but how often do we fall in this mindset as Clergy or as Leader and even everyday church attenders? Why do we make things a prosperity gospel or drawn out to a logical conclusion that God is the author of evil?

What if in God's infinite wisdom we are created in His image... I think this is even Scriptural.... NIV Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Yes when the above has written man I believe they mean people... men and women.

So if we are created in His image then maybe we have free will and with that the responsibility of our, as a plural all people or humanities, actions.

I am glad we have God that can be described, from Exodus 34:6-7 as "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

But even more when I think about good and bad I am uplifted by Ephesians 1:4b-12
"In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment-- to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. 11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. "

Just a few thoughts from the Pastoral Penut Gallory
Corben

Posting, Posting, Posting!!!

I am not sure what happened, why, or how, but I have recognized a few signs on the way! I noticed I stopped posting as much on the Blog and started posting more on Facebook. Then I noticed my posts started getting smaller and smaller. I am not sure the size was due to my lack of writing larger material or that I had fewer responses when I wrote larger amounts of posts. Either way... it seems there has been a clear shift, at least for me, from blogging to Facebooking in an almost twittering way. Also the ease of posting on Facebook through my cell phone definitely has its advantages. I can upload pictures of events at the churches, I can upload family stuff, friend stuff, communicate via Facebook-email and more. I think there is another technology shift even though this has been available before it is now easier, cheaper, and more widely accepted, this facebooking and such through the phone.

I admit it is great that I can get emails on the phone, respond to important things quickly, and keep people updated, but I ask at what price?

What are we loosing in all this? and moreover if we are created to be relational beings as I believe God created us to be, then how is this foundational aspect of humanity being affected?

Just food for thought

Few moments have topped today… in my whole life…

Few moments have topped today… in my whole life…

I got to play outside with my daughter in our blow up slide-fort-pool!!!

After an amazing day of spending time with immediate and some not-so immediate family, i.e. Gramma & Grandpap Aegan, Mamaw, PapPap, Aunt Dottie and John as well as Becky, Cooper, Calvin, and Bailey… Pearl and I washed the van and then went swimming in the pool.

As Pearl and I played I started singing to her, in the tune of nick nack paddie wack give the dog a bone, a made up song: I splash you, you splash me, we all splash as a family, with a Pearly splashing me and dear old dad getting ready to get a bath!

After that we went inside… warmed up from the cold well water… and relaxed together as a family watching some DVR recordings of our favorite show!

Now this is a day to remember… the smile on Brenda’s face as we all sat down and ate a wonderful lunch… as Pearl and I played in the pool… as Pearl slept and even sat up sleeping while on the couch as Brenda and I watched The Unit… and of course seeing Grandpap’s face light up as it always does every time he talks about Justin.

Today was not only a good day, a grace filled day, a blessed day, but a moment or better yet a snapshot that I will never forget and will always be dear to my heart!

I am not sure why but this passage seems to fit with today:

NIV Hebrews 2:11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.