Merry Christmas... Joyeux Noel...

Our family takes great pleasure in wishing you a wonderful Christmas season, and a Happy New Year 2008. We pray that this will be a great season in your life, when the fact of Jesus’ coming to this world will take significance in new and meaningful ways.
One our favorite Christmas songs is Michael Card’s “Joseph’s Song.” In that song Card imagines what was going through Joseph’s mind while holding baby Jesus. The refrain sings:
Father, show me where I fit into this plan of yours.
How can a man be father to the son of God?
Lord, for all my life I have been a simple carpenter
How can I raise a king? How can I raise a king?
Through these words, one sees a Joseph who is perplexed and humbled, yet very aware of the task at hand and asking of God to help him carry out his responsibilities. As we read the Christmas story with Daniella this morning (Sophie was sleeping, like baby Jesus would have doneJ), we could not but stop and ask God to show us anew what his plans for our lives were, and more, to show us the part he intended for us to play in the redemptive story that continues to unfold. We also thanked God for two other very precious gifts to us, Daniella and Sophie, and prayed that he would show us how to raise them in his ways.
Whereas Joseph played a very unique part in the story, our situation is not very much different from his. At some point in time each person needs to wrestle with what to make of Jesus and there is no better time to ask God once again to show us where we fit in his plan.
Merry Christmas!

The Road to Recovery

We want to take some time to thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf. We are doing better. Daniella continues to improve and is coughing less. Please pray that the cough will go away completely and will not return. It has been a cycle. She gets better, and then the cough comes back (as if out of nowhere). Sophie’s x-ray did come back normal. However, she is still coughing and is very congested. Lara is also feeling much better and has regained much of her strength back. This was a huge blessing as I was gone most of the time this week because of class. I am still trying to stay healthy, although I am not 100% at the moment.
Overall, we are feeling better than we felt two weeks ago. We credit your prayers for that and are grateful.

The Test of Winter?!

We thank you for your continued prayers on behalf of our family.
This note is to request special prayers for Lara and Sophie. They have been coughing too for a couple weeks now. Lara's cough got so severe that we went to the doctor yesterday, and she was diagnosed with acute bronchitis. She is taking medication to alleviate her pain and remedy the situation.
Sophie's cough got worse on Friday. I just returned from the doctor (Tues., 4:00PM) and they said it is either bronchitis or pneumonia. We have done a chest x-ray and are awating the results.
I am still standing and doing my best to stay healthy. Pray that God will touch the girls so that they can get better (Daniella continues to improve). Pray that God will give me extra strength as I continue to care for them, write, and get ready for an intensive course next week.