Blessings Day After Day

We have been praying for certain situations pertaining to our family, finances and adoption. We know that God has been working out our situations all along, but recently He has been letting the blessings flow out. We have been busy for sure, but busy hands are better than empty hearts. Gabe continues to improve.  He is starting to let the words roll out, a new word a week at times. He is so much more alert these days.  He is becoming more social and personable. This is all a long way from where he started several weeks ago. We thank God for the people he has put in our path... our pediatrician who first saw the signs of Autism and started us on the tasks of evaluation, our speech therapist who dedicates so much of herself to reaching in and pulling Gabe out each week, and our pediatrician's wife who is working with us and teaching us the ins and outs of Autism, vitamins and therapies. Did I mention that our pediatrician and his wife are also the parents of an Autistic son?? Yes, God has been preparing our path that long... Four years he has been our family pediatrician, not to mention the pediatrician of my now 17 year old nephew.  And though the staffing has changed over the course of 27 years, it is the same pediatric office I went to as a child. So, Yep!  God has been working with us a long time.  :)
Our oldest son Matthew turned 4 years old this past Saturday. Mike and I took the boys out to eat at Cracker Barrel for supper Friday night to celebrate.  Our waitress brought Matthew a chocolate sundae and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He was so surprised and really loved it. In the words of Matthew: "It was all so cool!" Saturday we celebrated with a birthday party for Matthew. We were blessed to make such sweet memories with family and friends. After the party, Gabe went home with Grandma and Grandpa so that we could surprise Matthew by taking him to a movie.  We went to see Planes. We love love LOVED it, such a good movie.  When we got back to the car, Mike went to get in the driver seat and crank the truck while I buckled Matthew in. Matthew looked at me, smiled and said, "Thank you, Mom."  Then he leaned into the front seat and hugged his Daddy and told him 'thank you'. It was such a sweet moment.  We know that God truly blessed our lives the day He made us parents and started us out with Matthew.  We won't say it has always been easy... parenthood never is, but oh boy is it worth it!
Then came Sunday.  We enjoyed Sunday School followed by a message on Conquering Circumstances in Your Life. Sunday evening we attended the first of six sessions of New Members Class.  Technically we are not that new of members, but this is the first time this class has been offered.  We enjoyed learning about the history of our church and the Disciple Life model and meeting other new(er) members. From there we went across campus to PS33, a praise and worship experience like no other. We enjoyed food, fellowship and upbeat music and a hard hitting message entitled "What are you passionate about?" based on Psalm 33:20-22. If you are wondering where the kiddos were during all of this, they were having fun with their friends in the children's department while learning about God and Jesus.  :)
Just when you think things can't get better, here comes Monday. Bright and early Mike got a call telling him that he got the promotion that we have been praying for!! WHAT A BLESSING!! This will open up so many doors for our family. It will help us to afford the vitamins, diet/food and therapies that both of our boys need. It sets us on the path to finally build the house we have only been able to dream about thus far. It also will allow us to move on with our adoption process, knowing that we will have adequate space and finances for our current and future children.
These past few days have literally been filled with blessings and answered prayers! We are thrilled, excited, amazed and humbled. The road has been hard.  We have lost friends and family along the way. God has never forsaken us.  He has been a constant presence in our lives, filling us with a peace that can only be found through a relationship with Him. We didn't know how or when things would work out, but we DID know that they would indeed work out how and when GOD intended. Though it would seem as if everything is a "happy ending", we know that this is only the beginning. Each day ahead will hold its own challenges and circumstances, but we don't worry about them knowing that God is already there.