Wanted to share something with y’all that JW realized the other day.

While he was in the Far Country 7 years ago, I continually received God’s promise of double. I couldn’t understand why God kept whispering double when my husband had moved out, was seeking a divorce, and seeing another woman! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Then we get pregnant a month after He restores us and I think that’s the double…my husband plus a baby! Then we get pregnant with Ariel and I think that’s the double…2 parents have 2 kids! Only to get Annelise later to now have a quiver full which met more than my expectations. LOL! But in that time, we miscarried a couple of precious babies and experienced much heartache and loss. We didn’t want to try anymore. Finally, we found ourselves walking a dark journey with Ariel’s leukemia diagnosis, and we didn’t have time to think about anything. Yet, God used our distraction with her to sneak in one more baby…I will be honest, I wasn’t thrilled. I was barely hanging on as it was. We had just come out of the darkness her initial cancer diagnosis flung us in, and I was so fearful the whole first 3 months of pregnancy that I would lose another like I had the last one (carried 3 months then lost unexpectedly). I couldn’t be happy. All I did was take a day at a time with the pregnancy and Ariel.

But God in His mercy slowly reminded me to “rejoice.” That will forever be a precious word to me. In 2012, when JW had said he would come back home, but slowly began retreating from that decision, God told me to “rejoice.” So I stood on what the Holy Spirit spoke, and not the words my husband said. Guess who turned out to be right? 😁

So, God, if You tell me to rejoice again, I’ll believe You and not what all my fears say. Now, here we are 35.5 weeks pregnant, expecting a newborn baby in August 2019. And that’s what JW realized: August 8, 2012 was when God restored our marriage…this baby is coming 7 years almost exactly to that date! Isn’t that just like God to fulfill His promise of double in 7 years which represents “God’s completion and perfection?” From two messed up imperfect people, God has brought forth four children who are continually trained in the truth of God’s power and great love for His people. Our kids know our story, they know God restores and heals. Through Ariel’s story, they also know God provides and protects. We may not understand His plans, but we teach our kids to believe He has them and they’re for our good.

For a final tidbit, I’ll share the story behind the new baby’s name. Many times we wanted to use the name Isaac for a boy, but we either had little girls or loss. This time, when we found out it was another boy, neither of us had the heart to use the name Isaac. We knew Isaac meant laughter, and that just wasn’t where we were with everything that’s happened in the past year. After God started telling me to rejoice again, I began to look up names that meant rejoice…only to discover the exact wording of what Isaac means: “I will laugh/I will rejoice!” I couldn’t believe it. But what I loved the most was that it was a name of future promise…”I WILL…” God was telling me that better days were coming! And that is what I cling to Every. Single. Day.