Please Continue Praying for Gabe

An update on Gabe...

Ben & Angie received a huge shock last night when they were told that their little guy does in fact have a heart condition. Gabe has Long QT Syndrome and will need to be on medication for life to help his heart from going into arrhythmia. They have been told that he will be able to lead a normal life but will need medication several times a day.

Please pray for these friends and their baby. Pray that God would give them grace to keep trusting in Him and resting in His perfect care for their son. Pray that Gabe would be able to leave the NICU soon and that his body would continue to do well with the medicine. Pray for rest in the midst of the weariness. And pray for wisdom for all the decisions that need to be made right now.

They are grateful for your prayers.

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Please Pray for Gabe

Well, I didn't expect to be shooting out another NICU prayer request but...

Please pray for our dear friends, Ben & Angie, and their new little guy, Gabe. He was born Saturday morning and everything looked great until some concerns over his heart rate emerged. Basically, he had a very low heart rate that kept dropping and wasn't raising when he was active/awake. He was taken to the NICU for testing and the results have been very encouraging! It appears that his unusual heartbeats/patterns are beginning to resume more normal functioning.

Please pray that the tests that he is given tomorrow will confirm that he is doing much better and that his heart will function completely normally in it's patterns/rhythms/beats. Please pray for continued peace for Ben & Angie; they are trusting the Lord and declaring His goodness and faithfulness! Pray that peace continues to reign in their hearts when they are able to take him home and for the time in between. I can't imagine how hard it must be to go home without your baby.

If you want to leave any comments for them on here, feel free to do so.

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Please Pray for Eli

As of Monday morning, Tali, Owen, & Addie have a new cousin to love! Eli David (Josh's sister and brother-in-law's little guy) made his appearance via c-section and is spending some time in the NICU before his mommy & daddy get to take him home. He was 5 lbs 2 oz (I hope I'm getting that correct!) and is undergoing tests to determine what exactly is going on with him as his blood work didn't come back with the numbers hoped for and he's under the lights full time for high biliruben right now.

Please pray for Eli, that his body would be perfectly healed and that he'd be able to live a healthy life. Please pray for Amy; this is her first baby and it was an awful labor experience to put it mildly (think induction late Sunday afternoon, 3 hours of pushing beginning Monday morning that ended in a c-section.) Now she's healing from a c-section and barely getting to see her new baby at all for a variety of reasons. I can't imagine how hard that must be. I know they'd love your prayers as they seek to trust God through this!

I guess that March is NICU month around here...so glad that God is there, even in the NICU.

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Please Pray for Brandt

Our dear friends, Aaron & Andrea, have been faithfully trusting God for years waiting for Him to grant them the joy of becoming parents. On Monday, 9 weeks earlier than expected, their little boy made a surprise visit. God's mercy and kindness are surrounding them all as they pray for Brandt's growth and physical strengthening during his NICU stay. These friends are heroes to me; their faith in a sovereign and loving good God makes me believe in Him all the more. They inspire me to see the all satisfying love of Christ above all else. It is really an honor to know them and watch them bringing our Savior glory by their trust in Him.

Please pray for Brandt. And even if you don't know them, I know they'd be encouraged to hear that you're praying for them. Please leave a little comment on Andrea's blog to let them know!

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Prayer Request

Some of you probably know or have heard of Bob Kauflin. I've been incredibly blessed by his music and leadership through Sovereign Grace Ministries. His son and daughter-in-law (Jordan and Tali) recently found out that their little boy has leukemia. Please pray for Jack's complete recovery and for much strength and grace for this family. Jordan's in the Pastor's College right now and Tali gave birth to their 3rd child a little after we had Addie. Such a severe trial and yet they are trusting the Lord and resting in His care. Please pray for them.

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Fenska News

Hi All.

Wanted to update you on some news around here. I had hopes of posting a cute video of Tali telling everyone but I'm too busy right now to be creative like that.

1)  Lord willing, we will be having baby #3 this November! We are grateful to God for this undeserved gift.  We'd love your prayers for a healthy baby and for grace as I've been feeling pretty sick this pregnancy.  I'll have an ultrasound in a couple weeks so I'll relay our actual due date and info like that when we find that out.

2)  Next Monday we will go from being a home of 4 to a home of 10!  Our dear friends, the Maxims, will be moving in with us until they find a home in our area.  Josh and I spent a year with Jamie & Angie when we were at the Pastor's College in Maryland.  In God's kindness, our church is bringing Jamie on staff to serve as a pastor with Tab & Josh!  We could not be more excited for all that the Lord has in store for our family and our church as we get to benefit from these humble, faithful servants of the Lord.  Please pray for their transition and for ours as we prepare for them to move in.  

Thank you!

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Feeling Sick and Heading Home

The Lord definitely answered all of your prayers on our trip out here.  Would you be so kind as to pray again?

1)  For healing for me as well as strength for the flight-I've not been feeling well today and spent most of the day asleep.  I need all of the energy I can get to creatively care for 2 tired kids on a 4 hour flight.

2)  Grace for the kids; they are tired and cranky.  They desperately need the Lord's help to make it through the flight without fits of crying.

3)  Wisdom for Josh: he's doing more of the work since I'm feeling so yucky.

4)  A quick transition back to our own time zone.

Thank you so much!  Grateful that the Lord is more eager to bless us than we are to ask Him...

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God Hears Us

Yesterday was the start of another fever/sickness thing with Tali. These things are getting familiar as she's had so many but they are still scary. Anyhow, the dr. wanted me to bring her in to see if it was UTI. Checking for UTI means...you got it-urinalysis. A urinalysis on a baby who is not potty trained means a catheter. A catheter means excruciating pain for your baby and an all-out awful and hard-to-forget experience for the both of you.

So, on the way to the dr's office I asked the Lord to help Tali pee in the little bag that they'll do as a first try thing so that the cath wouldn't be necessary. The whole way to the office I talked w/her about what would happen when we got in there and how once she "went" into the bag we could go home. Guess what? They put on the bag and we waited 10 minutes. Then I said, "Ok girl. You need to go right now into the bag." And my little lady "went"!!!!!!!! It was such an answer to prayer and I'm so grateful that she didn't have to go through the pain of the catheder. And of course, once again, all of it was for nothing because she doesn't have a UTI, she has some sort of puking flu. :)

Anyway, there is no way that she would have gone into that little bag apart from the Lord's doing. She is not potty trained and she has never gone on command. So I just wanted to share that as a reminder that He hears our prayers and He does answer them in very specific ways for His glory. May He be praised for His faithfulness!

Oh, and for those who are wondering-after this trip to see the dr., Tali said, "Duhd dob, Tah-ye! You a bid dull! Yay!!"

We'd love prayers for her quick recovery

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Please Pray for James

A while back, I asked for prayers for the baby of our friends, Jimmy & Kristal. Baby James has undergone many, many health challenges over the past year and continues to need the Lord's healing. Would you join me in praying for this little boy? This is a critical time for him as his reflux is particularly bad right now and in the past couple days he has been throwing up every 6-7 minutes. The concern is that the fluid will get in his lungs and also that he may become dehydrated. Imagine the pain that this little guy is in and imagine how scary and hard this must be for his parents to watch.

Jame's dad, Jimmy, has asked for the following prayer requests:

Pray for James: Pray for complete healing and comfort. He is overly tired and way uncomfortable.

Pray for the Docs: That the Lord would grant them good decision making abilities.

Pray for Kristal: We haven't been getting much sleep lately. This morning we got up at 4 am.

Pray for me: I have to stay up with my studies in the midst of all of this.

You can follow the updates on James via Jimmy's blog: Context is King

Thank you for seeking to "bear one another's burdens" and to faithfully pray as the Lord has commanded us. I know that it means so much to Jimmy & Kristal.

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No Time To Blog (and other stuff)

Ok friends, things are getting a little crazy around here! Not that I was posting all that regularly anyway, but given how busy the next several weeks will be, I'm not sure how much time I'll be devoted to blogging. Soooo....here's some stuff that's going on. We'd love your prayers!

* We got back from New Attitude on Tuesday, exhausted but grateful to God for the work that He did in our hearts. It was an incredible time of soaking in rich truth unpacked by some of the most gifted preachers & humble men of our day. Thanks for praying for my trip down there alone w/Owen; it was pretty uneventful and I'm grateful to God for that!

* This Monday we're moving to Sandwich to live with my parents for a while. We'll physically start living there at that point, but for the next several weeks we'll be packing up the place we're living in now. In the meantime, this house is going on the market so it'll start being shown.

* We're in the process of looking for a home. Though we've put an offer on a house that was foreclosed, we've now been waiting 8+ weeks to hear if our offer was accepted and it's time to put an end to that and start looking elsewhere. We've seen several places we're interested in and are praying for the Lord's guidance as to which house will serve us & serve the church best.

* This Thursday Tali has an appointment with a neurologist to follow up on some of the shaking that she's been experiencing for a long time now upon waking up (you may remember me posting on this about a year ago). Blood tests have determined that it's not blood-sugar related. We're praying that it's nothing serious and that she will not need further testing.

So that's a bit of what's going on around here. We could use prayer, as always. Please pray for us as the Lord leads you, and especially that we would look to Him and joyfully trust Him during this busy season with uncertainties and changes. I like order and I like consistency and we'll be having neither but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I want to hold fast to that truth and seek my peace in Him and not in anything else.

Here's some pictures for fun!









Thank you for your faithful prayers for our family!

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The God of Grace

Thank you so much for your prayers! We really were so aware of God's grace yesterday as we traveled to Iowa to see my dad. Tali & Owen were excellent in the car; we didn't even have to stop on the way home as O slept the whole way.

On our way there, we got a call from my dad saying that his procedure got pushed back to today (Saturday). So, as of 8:00am (unless something else changed), he is undergoing his colonoscopy. If the doctors don't find the source of the bleeding, they will go ahead and then go into his mouth with a tube to see if they can determine the problem that way. (We're praying there's no need for that as it's much more invasive.) He is in really good spirits as always and is grateful to be getting some help. They didn't have a lot of rooms available in the hospital so right now he's in the Oncology ward...nothing like being surrounded by those in severe pain or with a terminal illness to make you think about the gift that life is. Pray that the Lord uses that.

My grandma made it through the bypass and did well. I haven't heard from anyone today but yesterday they said that it will be a long road to recovery.

Please do continue to pray:

* For my grandma's quick healing
* That the doctors determine what's wrong with my dad
* For God to continue using this in the lives of my family members for His glory
* For my mom who is there caring for her mom while knowing that her husband is hours away at another hospital. She is looking to the Lord for strength and He is giving it. Please pray that scripture is brought to her mind and that much peace is given to her.
* For our friend, Jim Snowden, who is in the hospital after having some kidney stones removed. Pray for his healing and especially that pain would be removed and that he would stay hydrated.

Thank you!

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Updated Prayer Requests

Please do continue to pray. Here's the update:

Grandma: Is going to need a quadruple bypass as all four valves are blocked. Please pray for a safe procedure and quick recovery.

Dad: Probably has a bleeding ulcer but they aren't sure where. He will have a colonoscopy at some point today. Please pray that they can figure out what's going on.

Mom: Has had some palpitations (she has AFIB so this happens at times) so please pray that they quickly cease.

Thank you for your prayers!
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9:30pm Update

What a blessing it is to know that people are praying! We feel the peace of the Lord and know that He is sovereignly working good in this situation. Here's the latest:

* At 10:00am tomorrow (Friday) my grandma is having her quadruple bypass. Please pray for her. She is a believer (as is my grandpa) and they are greatly encouraged by all of your prayers.

* At 8:00am tomorrow my dad will have a colonoscopy to hopefully determine where the bleeding that he's experiencing is coming from. Last time he had a colonoscopy, his heart had some trouble so please pray that God protects his heart. If the results don't show what's going on, they will have to go down his throat with a tube to do some other searching. Please pray that that is not needed. Please pray that the Lord would use this for good in my dad's life to show him the glory of the Gospel.

* My mom is feeling better. She'll be driving to Davenport late tomorrow afternoon. Josh & I are taking the kids there tomorrow morning to be with my dad. Please pray for safe travel and grace for our children & us.

Thank you so much for petitioning the Lord for us! We are strengthened in knowing that our God is the ultimate physician who created my grandma and my dad. He is perfectly in control and will not slumber or sleep.

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New Prayer Request

Well, my family is not at the peak of health at the moment. Prayers are much appreciated. My grandma is having a heart attack and is currently going in for an angioplasty. My dad was on his way to go be with my mom who is caring for my grandma and he had to check himself into the emergency room in Davenport. They are running tests on him but think that he has a bleeding ulcer. Please do pray:

1) That the doctors would discern what is wrong with my grandma's heart and be able to help her.

2) That the doctors would discern what is going on with my dad's health and be able to help him.

3) For peace for my mom as she is in Des Moines waiting to hear about my grandma while my dad is in the hospital in Davenport.

Thank you for your prayers. I will update as I get word.

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Prayer Request

My grandma, Joanne, was taken to the hospital in DesMoines, IA today after being in the ICU yesterday for some sort of heart problem. They are unsure if it's a heart attack or something different. Please pray for Grandma's healing and for compassionate and quality care from the doctors. Also, please pray for my grandpa as he isn't feeling too well himself (bad cold) and is waiting to hear how my grandma is doing. Thank you!

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Updated Prayer Requests

Thank you so much for praying! The Lord does hear and it is a joy and humbling privilege to come to His throne of grace. Just wanted to update you on the prayer requests:

1) Baby James Snowden is in need of continued prayer. He was taken by ambulance last night because of low heart rate and what they think are slight seizures where he "blanks out." He is scheduled for surgery Monday morning to have his g-tube back in as it is essential that he gets the proper nutrients to thrive. Please, please, please pray for James and Jimmy & Kristal (his parents). My friends have earnestly sought to trust the Lord and are examples of how the Gospel really does transform lives such that you can have peace even when circumstances are overwhelming. I would plead with you to pray for this baby and to check in on their blog to hear any further updates.

2) Tali is still sick, but it seems like a very small thing compared to what baby James is going through. She is much more chipper, eating a tiny bit more, and less clingy so those are good signs. Our little girl is still having stomach trouble but hasn't become dehydrated (praise God!). She will need to go in to the doctor on Monday if the diarrhea hasn't cleared up by then.

3) Baby boy has still not arrived. The Lord is giving me grace to trust that "This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him." Psalm 18:30. Though I would love to go into labor without being induced, if Cervidil and Pitocin are what God's way is for me, then it is perfect. I'd still love prayer that the little guy would come before then, though!

Thank you for praying!

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Some Prayer Requests

As a dear friend reminded me today, God loves to answer our prayers and gets much glory as we thank Him for His answers. So...I wanted to pass along a couple of requests that you might share in rejoicing with me at however the Lord chooses to answer.

1) For little James, the baby of my friends, who has been struggling to live from the day he was born eight months ago. Pray especially that the Lord would help him to eat and that God would give sustaining grace to his parents as they care for him.

2) For Tali's health. After just ending her meds from the sinus infection she had, she now has something else. I think it's a stomach thing because she won't really eat or drink, is having some nasty diapers & gas, and is crying a ton. It's very sad to see her feeling so yucky.

3) That our baby boy would come before my scheduled induction next Wednesday. And if not, that the Lord would give me joy in trusting His sovereign good plan.

Thank you so much! May the Lord be glorified as we bring these requests before Him. I look forward to sharing how He has answered.

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