The Portion of my Inheritance

Aniyah~Look to God                                                                                                                    Grace~The free and unmerited favour of God shown toward men.

It was 4:44 am when my phone went off.  It was a text from Andrea that said, “I think it’s time.”       I woke up the guys and we gathered our stuff and headed the 20 minute drive to their house.    The moon stood just over our house as I waited in the truck for this long awaited journey.

A midwife was already there when we arrived and was preparing everything for the delivery.  Two more would soon arrive. Aria was still sound asleep in her bed and we settled in. 

Everyone had a role.  Gumps made coffee and waited for his playmate to wake, and I pulled out the frozen meals we prepared a couple of weeks ago for this moment, checking in with Andrea from time to time.  Jason stayed close to his wife and Kory slept on the couch.

Aria woke about 8:30 and I fixed her a pancake, then they came to me and said it was time for me to come into the room.  Gumps took Aria into her room and closed the door for a long winter’s play. A dream come true for her.  Gumps all to herself and they played for hours as they waited.

I experienced the miracle of Aria’s birth and now I would be here for the miracle of Aniyah also.  And how else can you explain it?  This overpowering love that burst in your heart and runs wet down your face. And grace?  Well, you know, it’s that unmerited favour from God, that which you don’t deserve and you know it well. But there it is all the same, like a glimpse of heaven, a glimpse of His glory in this tiny little person. Grace that is written in the face of your own child as she bears the weight and pain of her delivery and the beauty of her as she gives what all mother’s give. . . her all.

And the father?  So gentle and loving, whispers of love and encouragement to his beloved as she labors on, and he wipes her brow and my tears fall. And he turns to me and says, “Come look, she’s here!” And through the blurry vision I stumble over and my eyes see her for the very first time and I am looking grace straight in the face.  

And my heart knows, it is Him, the miracle maker that did this just for us. And we look to God and rejoice, not just in this new born baby, but in the Gift giver Himself!

And Aria meets her sister for the very first time and one by one they come and see this long awaited blessing.

And our hearts are full and thankful this day.

The Evans family.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights,  James 1:17a

After a week of having a nasty virus, I developed a secondary infection.  

Fever, cough, tightness in my chest with still the left overs from the virus.  Not good timing since our new grand daughter has only been here on this earth for four days. This is one sad mammy, not being able to be around her or Aria.

Going to the doctor is a last resort, having no insurance and trying to stay away from antibiotics, so I try to rely on herbal medicines.

 But, in his eagerness to see his grand babies, gumps forgot my Echinacea. When my daughter called to see how I was feeling I asked her if she had any on hand and she said she would look.

When Martin arrived home a while later he carried with him a whole arsenal of medicines from our daughter.

My Christmas present from her and the family was a set of herbal teas with a container to steep the tea.  For the past several days I have been drinking 3-4 cups of the Double-E Immune Booster with raw honey.  Super yummy! You can find the tea here:

http://www.bulkherbstore.com

Raw honey, what can I say?  I buy it in a five gallon bucket!  I use it everyday.

She sent Echinacea and ALJ, a bronchial and respiratory support herb.

Promethazine is for the cough and chest congestion. And oh yea . . . a very sweet sleep.

This is her beloved thieves oil, an essential oil, consisting of cloves, lemon, cinnamon, rosemary and eucalyptus. The combination works as a antibacterial and antiviral as well as many other things.  I rubbed it on my chest and throat, but you can also simmer it on the stove.  This really is amazing stuff and it smells wonderful!

On my way to feeling better.

He sent His word and healed them. Psalm 107:20a

He feel asleep on the couch and his dad tried to wake him up to go to bed, but he wouldn’t budge.  I worried that he would get too cold, so I covered him with a blanket and turned the heater up a couple of degrees, then found my own way to bed.

I couldn’t sleep, I thought he would get cold out there, the fire had died out and the temperature had been really dropping at night.  

Then my thoughts turned towards them. After the last 4 1/2 years I could not ever lay in my comfy warm bed without thinking about them.

I have seen them, lined up side by side along the street, stretched out for the night. They are the overflow of the surrounding shelters that already held it’s limits.

I read about it today, that for Christmas night a hotel in Dallas housed 500 homeless people. For just that night they had a warm bed, a hot meal and a place to get out of the freezing cold.  

On the last trip to the streets I met a mother of four, homeless. Her 8 year old daughter stood there with us as she talked. She told me she had lost her home a few months back and they were waiting to get into the women’s and children’s shelter. Through her tears she told me they could stay at one place but they would not allow her 16 year old son to stay and she couldn’t leave him.  I prayed with her and promised to continue praying, and I just can’t stop thinking about them. 

How do you hunker down in ice and snow? How do you console your children at Christmas when there is no place to lay your head and no place to get out from under the icy breath of the arctic air that blows through your layers and bites your bones.

How do you keep going back time and time again to the same stories that rip your heart out?  How can you not?  Didn’t He tell us to go?

But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?  My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.  1 John 3: 17-18

And doesn’t He tell us that whatever we do for the least of these, we do it for Him?

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ‘for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.”   Matthew 25:34-36

He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, But he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.  Proverbs 14:31