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Urgent Prayer Request…

I had Anna on my heart this morning so I sent Jodi a message just to let her know we were thinking about them and praying for them. I found out that Anna has been admitted to the hospital with a 105/106 temp.

Please friends, cover this precious girl with your prayers. She finished her last round of chemo but her poor little body is ravaged. She has no ability to fight on her own and she needs us to stand in the gap for her. We know our God is bigger. We know our God is good. Anna needs each of you to stop and pray.

Specific prayer requests –

Wisdom for the doctors, to choose the right medicines to fight what is causing the fever

Anna’s body to be able to withstand this storm and keep fighting

For the fever to break

For her numbers to begin going up

For Mike & Jodi – there is no anguish like holding your child and not being able to fix it. Pray for supernatural peace to guard their hearts and their minds. Pray for strength as I know they are not physically and emotionally tired

I will update as I hear, but until I do just continue to pray fervently.

Until later,
‘Carrow, for Anna, Mike & Jodi 💙💙💙

Psalm 118:24
This is the day the Lord had made. We will rejoice and be glad in it!

Indeed, this is the day the Lord has made and oh what a beautiful day it has been. One full of family time and healing. I know each day of our journey will be different – some days will be harder than others. We will have days when we weep with grief, and then we will have days like today where we enjoyed God’s beauty and just being a family. I know there will be ups and downs, and that is ok. Because I know God is using each of those ups and downs to teach us. Grow us. Make us better able to relate to others that have been (or will be) on this path.

I know if we choose to walk closely with Him, He will be our shield – and the lifter of our heads. What an amazing promise that is! I don’t have to have the answers. I don’t have to be ok all the time. I will draw my strength from the Lord and have more good than bad. But when I struggle, He will shield me. He will uphold me. Even on the hard days, I have no reason to fear.

Psalm 3:3
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.

Isaiah 41:10
10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

Deuteronomy 33:27a
27 The eternal God is your refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you.

I don’t know where you are today or what you are facing but if your salvation is in Jesus, then you have access to these same truths. This is your God. You have no need to fear, no matter the circumstance before you. Stand tall my friend in His grace and mercy. And while you are standing firm, don’t forget to readily extend grace and mercy to everyone around you, whether they deserve it or not. We certainly didn’t earn our place, it was our precious gift from God the Father through Jesus His son. If we want to draw others to our precious Savior, then we need to be the kind of people they want to be around!

Until tomorrow,
‘Carrow💜

The nasty stomach bug seems to have finally departed. Grace succumbed to it late last night but started feeling a little better by this afternoon. We were finally able to venture out for a little bit, just to drive around and take in a movie, but that was still quite an improvement from the last 36 hours!

It seems as the fog of sickness rolled out the fog of sadness had room to roll back in. I never wanted to be a family of four. As I sat tonight pouring my heart out to the Lord, telling Him that I trust Him but that I am so sad, telling Him that I just wanted Kayleigh back, asking Him to draw near because my heart feels so broken, and then He showed up. Just like always.

I opened my devotion “Every Day In His Presence” by Charles F. Stanley, and this is what I read…

“Today, be grateful for what you have. It may not seem like much – it may not appear to be enough at the moment. But give the Lord thanks anyway.”

My family of four may not seem like enough today, but they are. Oh how much I have to be thankful for. Yes, I still grieve, but I know where Kayleigh is and I know it is only a matter of time before I see her again. I also know that I still have two beautiful blessings from the Lord. Blessings that are counting on me, that need me. How Tim and I choose to respond each day will greatly effect how they respond, and we want them to respond with hope, faith and trust.

So, we will choose to trust in the Lord. Choose to trust in His plan. We will choose to keep our eyes on Him and trust Him to direct our path. Really, it’s all about the choice.

Tonight I am reminded of all the good things in my life and who is responsible for them. Thank you Lord for your continued blessings.

James 1:17
17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

Until tomorrow,
‘Carrow💜

Well today did not go quite as planned. We had intended to enjoy being a family, instead Tim and I both woke with a stomach bug… yuck!!! We have been quarantined to our room nearly all day trying to keep it from the kids. It’s funny though, months ago I probably would have been frustrated by this nasty monkey wrench. But not today. Don’t get me wrong, I felt genuinely horrible, but from my room I could hear Grace and Cole playing.

Where we are we have no wifi so they had to actually interact with each other. Yes, there was a little sibling squabbling, but overall it was just right. Both of the children are sad, but Cole has been struggling the most. Kayleigh was his partner in crime. Being only 18 months apart they were just naturally close. He is battling being mad, and sad, and just not knowing how to process it all. But today there was a little shift. He and Grace enjoying each other. It was good.

So somehow I get to say I am thankful for a stomach bug. I will be thrilled if God doesn’t use this method again to draw the kids together though. It’s awful.

We would appreciate your prayers for a speedy recovery. That tomorrow we will be able to actually get out and enjoy the town. And that the kids do not get it!

Romans 8:28 seems like the perfect verse tonight. God says EVERYTHING will work together for good, not just some things. So if you can shift your thinking from what’s going wrong to what’s going right you stand a chance of seeing God in action in the smallest of things.

Romans 8:28
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

For those of you that did not see Kayleigh’s Celebration of Life service but would like to, here is the link. The slide show in the beginning is wonderful. So many sides to our precious girl 💜

https://livestream.com/cbcdecaturlive/prayersforkayleigh

Until tomorrow,
‘Carrow💜

November 19, 2016

Hello friends,

Welcome to day 1 of “Now What…” For the last six months and 9 days our world has revolved completely around Kayleigh. We have treasured every moment, spent countless hours together, built beautiful memories. Yesterday’s Celebration of Life service was the culmination of what I am beginning to look at as Phase One – and now we are waiting for God’s perfect plan to come together.

I believe God allowed us to walk this path with Kayleigh for a reason. I believe he did not answer our prayers for earthly healing for a reason as well. I don’t know what that is just yet, but I know God will reveal it to me in time. His time of course, not mine.

So, as we woke this morning as a family of four, we packed up and left town. Tim and I decided a little time with just the four of us would probably be a good thing. Going somewhere that we are not quite as well known and allow the children a little space to breathe and begin to heal.

We would very much appreciate you prayers for all of us. Particularly that our children will lean into God and find peace. We also very much need help discerning what we do next. But, for now we are going to relax, recharge, and wait for the Lord to tell us where to go next.

Thank you for continuing to walk with us!

Until tomorrow,
‘Carrow💜