The book above is one our family reads every advent. For those that might be newer to reading my blog we read a book a night until Christmas as our advent. When the books are gone then the presents appear as it's the celebration of Jesus' birthday! I will try to share more in detail this year as we read each one now that we have our books pretty established.
Last night's book, The Prayer Chain, is one of my favorite books as it ties in so well with how much our family has such an intercessory heart to pray for others. You know the paper chains everyone makes to decorate for Christmas? (our family does this as well!) Check out my cousin's blog as their family did a delightful display of their paper chains this year! Well, in this book the little girl decides to write down every prayer that was answered through out the year on slips of paper and then she makes them into a chain to wrap around the Christmas tree. So every year added to our own colorful paper chains we also make a white paper chain to hang in our tree with prayer requests and prayers answered written on each link. Each year when we read this book for advent we get out our prayer chain from the previous Christmas and see how amazing God answered each and every one of our prayers. We then add to the chain.
If you look at my left hand module you will see our family has been praying for specific people. These people have been on our prayer chain for quite sometime! It brought me such joy to bring out our prayer chain last night and let the children read each of the requests they have been praying for over a long time. My children clearly see God's hand working in other families' lives as well as their own!
Here are a few examples on our chain that the children had written down previously...
Mrs. Snow to be healed and get better--- remember last year during this month I was asking for prayer for this family because Melissa was in her final days? She had hospice taking care of her and her kidneys were shutting down. Her children were having to say their goodbyes to their Mom and getting prepared for her to be with Jesus possibly near Christmas. Their prayer was that Melissa would not go on Christmas Eve or Christmas for the children's sake. Well, if you click on Melissa's link to her website you will see that a year later she is still with her family, with us here on earth, getting better and still working with her hubby for the Kingdom of Heaven!! Hospice is no longer at her house because she is no longer dying! There is no other explanation why that tumor has not taken her life except for a miraculous healing from Jesus!
Benaiah to live and get better --- again remember when I asked for prayer for Benaiah, a teenager in our church, who had a skate boarding accident by colliding with a truck? Not only can you go to his website and see that this Christmas season he is living and healing but he is also writing his own updates now! I saw Benaiah in the hospital immediately after the accident when he was not conscious. I then saw him later when they were getting ready to send him home but still not very alert and not able to do anything on his own. Honestly, even my faith was shaken a bit not sure how the outcome was going to be. My children's faith never wavered that their friend Benaiah was going to be healed! Today they are able to worship Jesus side by side with Benaiah in church as he is fully functioning. Benaiah's life is a miracle! There is NO doubt about that fact in anybody's mind at our church!
Jillian to be healed of cancer --- we keep our prayer chain out until about March when we then pack up our winter decorations. I believe it was in February that little Jillian was diagnosed with a large tumor in her lung. Jillian was added to our prayers. Today Jillian is cancer free! We do continue to keep her in our prayers as she continues to heal.
Great Grammie to be healed of cancer--- Grammie had been on our prayer chain for two years because she had colon cancer. I thought this was going to be a hard one for my children to read again as they all knew that Grammie was not healed in an earthly sense as she went to be with Jesus this April. I tried not to explain anything as we read this link of the chain together. I wanted to see what the children's reactions were going to be on their own. I wanted to see where their understanding and hearts were before I tried to console them. To my surprise the boys both spoke up quickly to say that "Grammie received something even better! She is now healed of cancer and with Jesus!"
Mama's headaches to get better --- my children pray for this faithfully every night. Unfortunately, my migraines have gotten worse not better. Again, I thought this might discourage the children but their reaction was quite the opposite. They very eagerly grasped faith again and said that God will heal me just like He had for all the others. I'll take that faith and run with it!
God's will to be known on buying a larger house --- we have not bought a new house, yet. This was a great opportunity for Eric and I to explain how we had seen confirmation in each situation that was presented before us that the Lord did not want us to move. It was also a learning time for the children that God always answers prayers but it may not mean it's a yes or in the exact way we think. The reason being as Jared so perfectly put it "because God's will is best!" Now looking at the housing market and our financial status we can see why the Lord has said no for the time being. Our little cape is just perfect for our budget and it helps our family to be better stewards as we all have to fit and live in it together as we continue to grow in size with more children.
Our adoption Loan would be paid off --- this was in regards to the loan we had taken for our twins' adoption in 2004. We are happy to give testimony that God answers prayers even this far out! Our adoption loan was completely paid off by an anonymous, generous giver as of this November. (!!!) An awesome testimony for the children to understand persevering while waiting for God's answer. They have been praying faithfully with us for three years for this request.
A larger vehicle for our family --- as you all know we have found that vehicle that so nicely fits our family and the children yet to come. The children have joined us in prayer that we will be able to completely pay that off as well. I cannot possibly go into the whole story on how we found our vehicle on an already long entry but there is no doubt in our minds that God brought it our way! We even have a testimony of the salesman going to church, learning to read his Bible and pray because Eric witnessed to him. God set up a divine appointment through a mundane activity like purchasing a bigger family vehicle! Again my children's faith (and mine!) has been boosted greater by this experience of God's provision.
Papa's Mission's Budget to be raised --- we are almost there! This semester we were released to go part time back onto campus because our budget was coming along so nicely. Now if we can just get over the hump of that last bit we will be commissioned to go full time. We are all excited to see God's timing and faithfulness to us regarding meeting our needs as we are faithful to Him!
Our Babies in Ukraine to come home --- this one was again a neat testimony to reflect on as we have been praying for this for over a year and still no babies are here. However, we never had a clue as to what was going to be ahead of us in regards to other family needs. My Grammie's death, my Mom's tumor that has resulted in three surgeries, my Sister almost losing her life as well as her unborn baby and now my little niece Vivian is struggling after open heart surgery. There is no way I would want to be out of the country when family needs our love the most. God knows what is best and we are standing in prayer as each of the above needs have been added to our prayer chain this year both as praises and continued requests. We are thankful that God knows just how much we can handle and HIS timing truly is what is best. Our babies will be home when the time is right. From past experience with our twins our babies that God has hand picked for us probably are not even available for adoption yet.
There is so much more I could share! Our prayer chain is long and we delight to stand in the gap as intercessors for others along with watching God work His miracles. God's desire is to fulfill the desires of His children's hearts! Never forget that. If you have a need know that God has an answer! You may not see it just now but in God's perfect timing He will reveal it to you. Do not think for one moment that I am saying our faith is perfect. Quite the contrary!! We struggle as any other family out there. We have our moments of uncertainty, allowing emotions to create chaos and just simply choosing to not persevere. I can tell you though that God is a great God! No matter where you stand, no matter what you have done, no matter how you feel and no matter how little faith you have He is standing with His hands out stretched waiting for you to lean on HIM to get you through life's trials. It is NEVER God that separates Himself from us but rather we separate ourselves from Him. Thankfully, He is always there to fully embrace us when we turn to Him!
May each of you be blessed as you have read the testimonies of God's faithful love!
The kids love a good story read to them by their Mini. Actually, truth be told, Mama loves to listen to Mini read too!
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Phoebe did the same thing with pink pajamas she got from her Mini in a picture you will see below.
), preparing for piano recital and getting excited to spend Thanksgiving with my Mom, Grampa B. and all my silbings including my newest little niece Mariah. Life is good... 
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