Big News!! :)

Now I guess we'll find out who my faithful blog readers are! Actually, my husband is asking to blog so I'm handing this over to him!

OK, so you probably read (or at least skimmed) Anda's 12 page blog from back in September '08 about having more kids. I just have to tell you that every time I look at Malachi I think about what an ignorant person I am. I really thought I knew what would make me happy. I really thought that we'd be better off with no more kids.

But then God came and shook everything up. He made it very clear that we needed Malachi (by giving him to us), and then he made it clear to both of us that we needed to stop trying to plan the size of our family. I cannot tell you how much peace we have had since Anda came to that conclusion. Still almost every time I look at Malachi, I think about how thankful I am that God miraculously gave him to us. (I could tell you all the details of that, but trust me, we were being very careful NOT to have a baby that month.)

I remember the night Anda found out she was having Malachi. She wept, and they were not tears of joy.

Well last night it was different. No tears, no shame, just a glorious glow and peaceful smile. She was looking across the table at me as we drank coffee together and she said, "We need to pray a lot because we have seven kids."

Praise God for his kindness to us. We don't deserve such blessings. Please pray for us that we would be filled with the Spirit of Christ as we raise these seven wonderful blessings. (By the way, she's due on November 15th.)

Randy

Okay, it's Anda again. WOO-HOO!! I wish I could describe how I feel about this baby! It's different than any of my other pregnancies because I'm not pretending that I'm in control. That probably sounds weird, but knowing that this life is totally in the hands of God and that He sovereignly ordained this little life before the creation of the world gives me so much peace. What I just said was completely true for all my other kids, but I didn't really believe that because I thought I was deciding when and IF I needed them.

And I just love His timing. I went to a conference for moms in Dallas a few weeks ago with a friend of mine led by a lady named Sally Clarkson. I wasn't sure what to expect, but wondered if I would leave feeling somewhat defeated as I pondered all the things that I'm not doing or could be doing differently (and the list is endless). I was SO pleasantly surprised. Her overall emphasis was that if you're looking for a method for raising children, you are seeking the wrong thing. She talked about how, esp. in our culture, we either parent by our flesh (we figure it out on our own, etc) or by a method that someone else has established as THE way (I could list you five or six right off the top of my head that we've tried out). They both fail miserably at some point (don't I know it!! and if they don't fail on the surface then God gets no glory because we think WE'VE done something great). She talked about how parenting (or doing anything for that matter) in faith by walking by the Spirit is the ONLY way to be at peace, without fear and without total exhaustion. I've never heard anyone well-known parenting "experts" talk about parenting like this couple and it was just what I needed to hear. I needed to be reminded again that living by the flesh is death. And life is only found in Christ, which means lots of time with Him and in His Word. (And a little side note: I was encouraged by the Lord a few weeks ago to read the whole Bible through quickly. I was going for 90 days and I'm already behind, but I'm still already into Numbers! Anyway, I've been struck again at how children were always considered a blessing. You just don't read any stories about how so-and-so was so sad when she found out she was having a baby).

All this to say that we are so excited and our children were so excited! We took them to Chili's today for lunch (okay, this is big time for the Browns) and when Randy prayed for our food he thanked God for our seven kids. They promptly resumed their coloring, except for Luke who said, "Dad, we don't have seven kids." Randy said, "Yes we do." Okay, they're all STILL clueless. Then distracted McKenna pipes up and says, "No we don't Luke, we have 8!!" LOL! As I'm saying "WHAT?! Are you kidding me?!" Josiah looks confused and says "Mom's not pregnant...Mom, are you pregnant?!" So they're all making excited exclamations about another baby and pregnancy while onlookers in the restaurant watch us, obviously confused. Surely we can't be having MORE children! Ha! McKenna hasn't been able to stop touching my stomach and talking to the baby and they've been talking about names and how they want twin girls all day. Lord have mercy! It has been a big celebration all day! My close friends either squealed or cried with joy. When we told our sweet neighbor, Ms. Murray, she just inhaled and said, "OH! What a blessing! You all are so BLESSED!" We really, really are.

Lord, You are Creator of life! I am utterly AMAZED at how You can take microscopic cells and make everything work just right to make a person - it is UNREAL and could only be done by You! I praise You because You delight in children and because right now You are knitting together another life whose story You have known before the creation of the world! You know that our family needs this child and wouldn't be complete without him/her. You are holy. You are perfection. You have taken us from death when we were doing NOTHING but rebelling against You and redeemed us. My sin is GREAT - I keep getting more amazed at how great. But with more understanding of the depth of my sin comes a bigger view of the bottomless treasure of the riches of Your grace!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are the most wonderful person I know. I love You more than I ever have!! Amen!