30 May 2008

Hello!

Just to update and thank everyone for their prayers and let you know how the appointment at the hospital went today....

We met with the consultant who was overseeing my care when I was pregnant with Lily. After looking at the test results taken at the time - she determined there was no infection present when I went into premature labor. (We thought it was an infection because at the time that was the reason they gave us.) So...unfortunately we have no concrete reason for why it happened. The consultant explained that sometimes it just does. Despite the lack of answers we've been waiting for, we had a real peace in the meeting. The consultant was kind, encouraging and gave us no reason why we can't go on to have a healthy, full-term baby. Praise God! The past few months we have been given words of promise of a family and this is confirmation.

God is a God of healing! It has been nearly 6 months since Lily was born and he has been healing our broken hearts. We've felt God's presence in a tangible way and know that He is good, faithful and true to his promises. Though we will always miss Lily and mourn that we were not able to see her grow here - we look forward to seeing her again and know she is safe in heaven until then.

Thanks for walking this with us...your prayers have carried us in the lowest times. We look forward to the times of joy that are coming!

Lots of love,
Dave and Beth

29 May 2008

In an effort to be more in touch and better about communicating with everyone we are trying a new approach - blogging! Bear with me as I learn what I'm doing.

Dave and I returned to Betel from our wonderful trip home on May 13th. (By the way...the picture is a self-portrait of us at the Washington Nationals vs. Braves baseball game we went to when we were home. Perhaps Dave's expression is a real indication of how he feels about my beloved sport?) We came back and hit the ground running! Dave continues to run the Gardening business here in Birmingham and it is a busy season for him. He goes and gives quotes for potential customers Tuesday - Saturday and works on gardening jobs on Mondays. I've just finished a major database project of entering historical records of those who've been in Betel since it opened here in 1996 and I've just learned in the last couple of weeks how to pull statistics from all that information. Now I have more time to focus on being a personal assistant for our director, Kent. He's moved out of the office and more as a general manager over our charity furniture shops.

We just had our third wedding in two months! Anthony and Angela were married Sunday, May 25th and will be living at our Derby property and supporting the directors there, Dave & Brenda Cox. It was a very rainy day (sort of what you would expect from England), but it didn't dampen the celebration. Anthony was a heroin and crack addict for over 6 years and has been clean for nearly 3 1/2 years. He and Angela grew up together and God brought them together in an amazing way...she found out about Betel and felt called to come and help and then they reconnected from a website that reunites classmates. God is creative!

We've had some disappointment this week following the joy in seeing victory in Anthony & Angela's marriage. Danny Nelson (who was a leader at one of the men's houses here in Birmingham) and Tanya Courtnage (the 2nd in the women's house) decided to leave this week. They felt they were no longer called to the work here. We understand, but they left rather quickly and that was a blow. We pray that the Lord settles them into a new church and uses them in new ways to advance the kingdom.

Tomorrow Dave and I finally have an appointment with the hospital to find out more information about why I went into pre-term labor with Lily. Please pray that the appointment goes well, we get information and we can get some closure.

Well...this is a longer blog than normal as it is my first in a while, but I pray that this will be a way to keep in touch in a more consistent way.

Thanks for all the love and support you continue to show Dave & I.

Blessings,

Beth