Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my friends. Yes I am still alive, and life is good. I'm not sure why I haven't been blogging lately... but God has taken this past year and has been doing a new thing in me. He has taken away all my desires for my "vices" and given me Himself. He is transforming me as a mom and wife... and it is a very quiet and still place, yet gut wrenching sometimes... and I don't think it is over yet. I truly desire to be a woman that my kids rise up and call "Blessed"... and I KNOW they are not there yet. :-)
So I will continue to be still and discover who this God is that I have followed and served my whole life, yet don't really feel that I know.
On a more real note... in a couple of months I will be runnermom5 (of course I guess I already am the mother of 5 kids, one just still in the womb)... I don't think that has really sunken in yet, except for the fact that I am ready for this pregnancy to be over!!! No I do not have difficult pregnancies... in fact they are really very easy and simple compared to most people and my labor lasts about an hour. I don't even get that big... it's just another part of my selfishness God is trying to rid me of. I like being Gina the runner in my own skin... and I don't get to get out in the fresh air and find quiet sanity in my favorite hobby. I have also been out of the baby stage for a couple of years and am not sure I want to go back (Cealan will be almost 4 when this baby is born). God has such a sense of humor... and someone's getting a surgery after this!!!
Anyway, I don't think I had mentioned it is another boy!! Yes, Phelicia and I both cried. Oh well, I guess it's taken 5 kids, 4 being boys, for God to get my attention attempt to rid me of my self. I know the refining process is not over yet, but I am very excited about this next year. I believe God has some exciting stuff for our family, I just have no idea what. We are still in the process with the IMB (International Mission Board) ... but have given all that to God and His timing and purpose. We know where our hearts are and we know what our gifts are, and God has been working overtime on us this past year to prepare us... we just don't know for sure what that looks like yet. So continue to pray for us. There is a lost and dying world out there many who have never heard the gospel... we just want to be a part of reaching them.
I pray God blesses you in this new year and you find yourself unable to escape His refining fire in your life so that we all can reach the masses for Him.
In His love,
Gina
