God in Baby Gliders and Root Canals

Life has changed dramatically for Becki and me with the arrival of our firstborn son on Feb 17th. Time has sped up. The last four almost five months have been a blur. If I thought we had a laundry monster living in our house dispensing mounds of contaminated clothes before, I was sadly mistaken! How can one little baby produce so much dirty laundry?! I now know special meanings for and have poignant memories of the words “latch”, “frenectomy”, “rash”, and “spit-up”! In this flurry of laundry and learning, this new stage in our lives, Scripture has come alive as God has answered prayers and provided for us over and over again.

Since arriving home from the hospital, we have discovered that all of our furniture is not conducive to baby feedings and snugglings. We did some recon research and set our sites on a glider at Babies R Us. Distressed wood, charcoal gray padding, locking mechanism, it screamed us. If we opened a credit card there we would save 10% which meant a nice savings based on the size of the price tag. We loaded our family into our mini-van (strange for this new daddy to type that phrase!) to buy our prize. As we pulled out, I prayed that God would guide us and give us favor. We were greeted at the store by a sign saying instead of 10% the discount was 30% for the day before and the day we arrived.

Ephesians 3:20 Amplified, “Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us”

Psalm 37:23 King James Version, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way”

Two weeks ago, completely out of the blue, Regions bank sent us a large check in the mail to refund overpayment into our house’s escrow account. This was my first time hearing of or seeing a check like that. A week later I woke up with a random tooth ache. The next day my dentist told me I needed a root canal (props to the strength of that decay to wreck such havoc as to cause a root canal in one day’s worth of pain). I believe God knew we would have the expense of a root canal so He put things into motion well before we knew to get a large refund check in our hands right before being told.

Isaiah 64:24, “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.”

God is good. God is powerful. God is able. God is faithful. God is love. God is omniscient. Etc. Etc. It has thrilled me to watch Him demonstrate His attributes on the stage of our growing family. Put your trust fully in Him and watch what He can do on the state of your life.

Baby Poop and God’s Provision

Saturday, February 18, at 7:02 PM Becki delivered our firstborn, Daniel James Calaway. Leading up to that and since has been an incredible journey. Right now, I am talk texting this blog entry with him snuggled in my arms as we wait for his 1 AM feeding.

We are feeding him breastmilk and apparently that makes newborns poop often and in a wide variety of colors. Our little guy poops probably every two hours. This afternoon in the middle of changing yet another poopy diaper he farted and then gave me more poop to clean up. I’m glad I had his dirty diaper under his butt to catch the addition!

With all of this poop action, Daniel developed a diaper rash. We were given some Desitin to spread on his butt from the nurses at the hospital when we were discharged on Thursday. Friday evening, we noticed that we were running low. Early Saturday morning we ran out. We scheduled a Walmart pick up to get some but would not be able to get there until late afternoon Saturday. We considered one of us running out to get it but did not want to leave the other one alone at home.

As we contemplated the situation, a mom of one of the youth who has come to our small group texted us totally out of the blue. She said she was in Walmart and wondered if we needed her to pick up anything. We texted back our need for Desitin and in about 10 minutes it was sitting on our doorstep!

Isaiah 65:24 NLT, ‘I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!’

The same person signed up through our church to bring us food that evening. We were treated to London broil, mashed potatoes, and green beans. We received our much needed Desitin and had a yummy dinner all because God used this kind woman as His hands to provide for us.

All along this journey God has made Himself very known to us and taken care of us (‘us’ used to mean Becki and me but now it means Becki, Daniel, and me). It has been something to see He Himself involved through His presence, peace, and favor. It has also been something to see Him use the people of His body, the church, as His hands and feet in our lives.

I am thankful to God. I am thankful to our family and friends. And, I am thankful to play my part in His body both receiving and giving.

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