November 15th

Lord, thank you for...

Wonderful news at Ezra's appointment with his eye surgeon on November 12th. Though his eyes are indeed crossing, they are not crossing consistently (sometimes they measure 2 or 3 degrees off; other times they measured 16-18 degrees off. Still much better than the 40 degrees off they were when we had to do the first surgery.) There is so much to be grateful for. We were afraid our doctor would want to rush into a second surgery, but he didn't! We're to carry on patching, three hours on the right eye on odd days, and two hours on the left eye on even days. In January, Lord-willing, we will follow up again. I'm grateful!

Good times with my dear hubby over the past few days. We were able to go on a date last night to what may be our very favorite restaurant. Aaron won major romantic points by surprising me with flowers and chocolate on the way out the driveway. (He left work an extra 30 minutes early just to grab me flowers from my favorite place on the way home. How I love him!) I'm so grateful for my in-laws, who even drove all the way out to our place to watch him after a busy day with five of their other grandkids! And on top of the date, we've just had some wonderful times to talk and hang out the past few evenings thanks to some good sleeping on Ezra's part. Nothing like being parents to make you incredibly thankful for a quiet evening!

I'm grateful, too, that Aaron has a group of men to meet with on a monthly basis for encouragement, good food, and accountability. And I'm thankful that he's willing to get up crazy early on a Saturday morning to do so.

I'm grateful for the joy of watching Ezra learn to pray. Last week at church, we had some guest missionary speakers, and for some reason Ezra is fascinated by the concept of a missionary. We've prayed for them a lot this week, and if we're praying but haven't brought up the missionaries yet, he'll ask to pray for them, too!

Finally, I'm grateful for peace and purpose in what has felt like a long season of waiting. I have wished for another child for a while now, but for whatever reason God hasn't seen fit to give us one yet. But just the other day, I realized that perhaps He is giving me this time for a reason, and for that, I am so grateful. There are some dreams that I treasure close to my heart, and ways I hope God might one day use us. But I know in order for those things to happen, I must first be faithful in little before being made faithful in much. And I realized today that perhaps now is my time to learn to be faithful in little. Yes, my family is small. But when I don't feel fruitful (in the sense of bearing children), I'm learning that faithfulness can be a form of fruitfulness as well. I'm so grateful for this time, though it is not what I would have chosen, nor easy. But with Ezra being born so quickly after our wedding, things moved at a very rapid pace for our first year or so of marriage. If I had gotten pregnant again soon after Ezra, the exhaustion and busyness of being a mom of two very young littles may have prevented me from learning the lessons God is teaching me in this season, lessons I just have a feeling he is going to use later in my life for His glory. And so, I thank you, Lord.