Beautiful Things

My head is spinning in many directions, and I know this is when I get lengthy and wordy. Whew.

Taking a breath and going for it.

Today I finally got to open an email a friend sent me over the weekend. It was a song I had never heard before called Beautiful Things. Before I go on, listen to this:

He makes beautiful things out of the dust. He makes beautiful things out of us.

Hope is springing up out of this old ground...Out of chaos, life is being found...in You.

Before I tell you about this weekend full of His "beautiful things"...with these beautiful women...

...I have to show you THIS most beautiful thing that was literally "hope springing out of this old ground".

Thanks to Chet and Sarah Erwin, and their amazing organization Holden Uganda (formed in honor or their precious son, Holden), there are hundreds of people in Uganda drinking clean water. And, one of the newest wells built there has our son's beautiful name on it!! Did you see Chase's name and life verse on this well? Is there anything more beautiful than that?

We have been so blessed this week by this amazing gift, and pray that many more people are given fresh water because of Holden Uganda. If you'd like to donate toward a well, please visit their website!!

And, now, about the weekend...

I had the opportunity to get away from the hustle bustle of life and spend a weekend of quiet rest with nine other mommies who have lost their sweet babies.

Ten women of God, who are desperately trying to follow the Lord, as He redeems and restores...as He heals and guides and brings new life out of the dust. Ten mommies who didn't know what to expect, as we all met for the first time. (I was glad to hear that I wasn't the only one wondering how this was going to go!) But, instead of awkwardness or disconnect, we found lifelong friends in a matter of hours, as we spent time sharing the most intimate details of our walks of grief...of our walks with the Lord...of our dreams for this life we've been given.

I loved the peace I felt this weekend. I was totally completely relaxed. And, totally and completely filled up. It was a beautiful place to get away. And, it just made the perfect environment for letting down your guard and being totally at rest. Isn't it beautiful? (And, most of these awesome pictures are from Tisha, our personal photographer!)

I loved that even though Satan tried to find ways to keep us from coming together (weather, discouragement, illness, flight cancellations), he was unsuccessful. He was defeated, and we were greeted...by a God who was excited to love on us for the weekend. And, let me tell you, I was BLOWN AWAY to see this huge sign on the front gate as I drove up! AMAZING!

After winter weather delays, I was the last to arrive on Friday night, even behind those who came from Canada, Washington, and Michigan! Isn't that crazy?

As soon as I arrived, I was greeted by the girls I was so ready to meet, and I was immediately handed a drink and a comfy place on the couch, as we began listening to the awesome local talent of Lost Creek and worshipping with them. We literally got our own personal concert in the living room!

As we sang songs like Let Your Mercy Rain and I Will Rise, I looked around to see the most beautiful, humble, broken, and receptive hearts in that room. Wow. I told the girls on my couch that I could have worshipped like that all night.

We were all ready for God to move in us and among us, and He most certainly did.

With the help of some amazing people, like the Shuffields and the Selah Springs Ranch, as well as some sweet people from Brady, Texas, we were treated like queens the whole weekend. Not one detail was forgotten. I mean, down to the soap and shampoo selection in each bathroom, the array of yummy snacks, and the s'mores tray by the outdoor fireplace. Absolute hospitality from top to bottom.

We also received two amazing talks from wise women about the walk we are on, and how we can glorify God through it. (I got some very direct messages from God in both of these that I will share later.)

We received amazing meals all weekend, prepared by loving hands who prayed over us, encouraged us, and blessed us through their servant hearts. There were scripture cards all over the lodge, and I smiled every time I found a new one. We even had prayer partners from the Shuffields' church, who committed to praying for us for 30 days. Each girl there received a note from their prayer partner, and it was truly the biggest blessing to me. I plan to use that idea in the future, because it meant so much to each of us.

We had plenty of quiet time in the afternoon to run, walk, explore, or read...guess which one I did. :)

(I have more to say about my quiet time later...God did some important talking during those hours with my Bible!)

Then, when nothing was planned, we spent the time talking and sharing in the most natural of ways.

I loved sitting back and looking around the room at all the smaller conversations taking place. At one time, I would see one small group crying with kleenex in hand, rubbing the back of one friend, or listening intently to one mom's story of grief. Then, at the very same time, another small group would be smiling and laughing and sharing their hearts in another way. It was just so good. It's hard to explain unless you were there.

Every night, we spent until two in the morning talking about anything and everything that you would imagine. We talked about our babies, our husbands, our roads of grief, our families, our friends, our support, our fears, our worries, our surrender. We cried over the pain we've walked through, but we also cried over the amazing ways God has carried us, bringing us to places of deep joy. We talked about the things no one else could understand unless you've said goodbye to your baby this way. We asked the questions and made the remarks that others would think was crazy.

We laughed HARD. We had the best time together and I just kept thinking "How am I this relaxed with these women? How am I saying things so freely to them? How am I laughing so hard with them?"

And, this is why. Because God makes beautiful things out of the dust. He arranged this weekend for us (with the great help of the Shuffields!) and it was so evident in every way. Most of us don't even know exactly how we found each other, which gives full credit to God, who put us where we were for exactly this time and place! And, many of us don't know what is coming next. But, we have no doubt that we will all be connected as it happens.

One thing I really want everyone to be praying for is the newly formed Hope Mommies ministry.

Erin is heading this up, already creating this beautiful logo, and beginning to work feverishly to get a website of encouragement and resources for families who are enduring the grief of losing a baby to stillbirth or other birth complications. She is perfectly gifted for this calling and is going to do amazing things for the women who need to be ministered to in this way. Please join me in praying for God's guidance as this ministry is formed. And, please feel free to forward me info of anyone you know who is needing a group like this. I can already tell it's going to be helpful for so many reasons. And, I can't wait to share it with others!!

As some of us were getting ready to head out on Sunday, we walked down to the river, sat in the middle of the water on huge rocks of granite, and had a time of prayer.

As the sun shone on our faces, and the water rushed beside us, I was overcome once again by His goodness. We have all faced our own "rough waters", yet the Sun continues to shine on us, making something beautiful from our lives and giving us such peace in the middle of it all.

The prayers that were offered up on that rock were amazing. Prayers over future babies, pregnancies, and adoptions. Prayers over future ministries that are being birthed out of the pain and loss, and are now reaching others who need God's love. Prayers over our husbands. Prayers over our roads of surrender. Prayers of thanksgiving for our precious little ones. Oh, it was such a sweet time.

I just love these girls so much, and have not stopped thinking of all that God taught me in the last few days.

I have much more to share, but it's after midnight and my mind is muddled. Thank you, Sarah, Kelly, Erin, Holly, Melissa, MaryBeth, Whitney, Sara, and Lauren (get a blog) for an amazing weekend of encouraging, challenging, and healing conversation.

Praying for each of you daily...

...And thank you, God, that you continue to grow a garden of beauty in the valley so many are walking.

Abby Kate + Chase = True Love

I've had some sweet conversations with Abby Kate lately about Chase. As I've said so many times before on this blog, Chase is in our conversations every single day, especially among his sisters.

I love that his name is just always called out in the "list" of family members. I love that his cute little baby self is always drawn in his big sisters' pictures. I love that the pumpkin by our fireplace was named Chase, and that every "C" we see is for "Carlie and Chase". And, I love that Abby Kate is especially obsessed with her little brother.

As we decorated for Christmas tonight, everything was a little hard. Just like last year, I kind of secretly dreaded doing it. And, just like last year, my dread was turned into gladness, as I watched the JOY on those girls' faces as they unpacked boxes of memories and decorated the house.

But, bringing out the decorations still reminded me of last year...which reminded me of the pain...which reminded me that he's still not here...which made me think about what a FUN age he would be for this Christmas...which made me sad.

What's funny is that Abby Kate has talked about him constantly lately...so I wasn't alone in my thoughts of Chase tonight. :) She loves him ALOT.

I wanted to write a few of the recent things down, so I didn't forget.

*Last week, Mark had the big girls in his car, and Abby Kate was driving home with me from a little Starbucks run. Granted, she had a big cup of hot chocolate, but I still don't know why she was as chatty as she was. Maybe it was because she was finally alone!

She began talking about the clouds and what shapes they were. This led immediately to talking about Chase, since in her mind, he lives on a cloud.

"Mommy, Chase lives on the clouds and he bounces to them and then jumps on the star and then he's gonna come back down here. He will be bigger then."

Then, a few minutes later....

"Mommy!! Did you see that sign? It said "Chase lives in heaven!"

Two minutes later...

"Mommy! There was ANOTHER sign! It said 6-3-5-Chase is with Jesus!" (Now, this part was funny because we were on I-635 in Dallas, so she had read the numbers on the side of the road and added the Jesus part herself. :)

I told her how much I love her and that I was so glad that she loved her baby Chase so much.

She said "I do love Chase so much."

*Yesterday, Abby Kate talked about him after church. She learned about sharing with others in class, and she told me that she will share with Kendyll and Carlie and Chase.

*This afternoon, she said "Mommy, when we get our baby from Africa, we will have ALOT of kids. We will have Kendyll, Carlie, Abby Kate, Chase, and a baby. And, I think there will be TWO babies from Africa...one from Ghana." Not sure if she is prophesying or what, but I LOVE that Chase is a part of her list. :)

*She had quite a few questions tonight at dinner about Chase. The conversation started because of her friend in her class named Eli. She said "That's the same as baby Eli!" (her cousin)

Me: "And, Eli is about to have a birthday! He's going to turn ONE!"

AK: "Then, Eli will be older than Chase!" {This really confused Carlie, who then asked me "Is Eli older than Chase?"}

Me: I explained that Chase was born before Eli, and that Chase would have turned one already.

AK: "Where was Eli when Chase was borned? Was Eli already a baby?"

Me: "He was in Aunt Cassie's tummy. He was growing and growing like Aunt Cortni's baby is right now."

AK: "Why did Chase come out and hold Daddy's hand?" Wow. This was a new one.

Me: "Chase had already died before he came out, Abby Kate. So, we held him for a while and took lots of pictures so we could show him to you."

AK: "And then you sent him up to heaven?" Wow again. This hit me hard. She just assumed we had chosen for him to go to heaven?

Me: "Chase did go to heaven, but we didn't send him there. We wish he could be here right now eating dinner with us. It made us sad that he died, but, now he is living in heaven forever. This was followed by a brief explanation of death and heaven. "After we die, we get to go to heaven with God. So, that makes us happy."

WOW. This was deeper than AK had ever gone before, and it made me realize even more about how this cute little mind works.

Honestly, it broke my heart. She longs for her brother to be here, and doesn't fully understand why he's not. She wants to be a big sister so much, and would be SO good at it. I really wish she was. I know she will be, but I want it to be NOW. She loves Chase so much, and I'm very glad for that. I am so thankful that he is not gone from our hearts or lives or conversations. But, oh, how my heart ached to have to verbally say again that he is gone forever.

And, that he won't come back after he plays on the stars. As much as I wish he would. :)

Tonight, we were decorating each of the girls' trees in their bedrooms, Abby Kate got very excited about adding Chase's special ornaments to the big tree downstairs. I am looking forward to taking them to get his new ornament this year too. I can already tell that it will mean ALOT to our little Katers, especially.

CHASE Day Family Fun!

Your stories keep coming in and I love reading each and every one. We have heard about so many wonderful acts of kindness...everything from buying groceries for men in the military, to sending handwritten thank-you's or anonymous treats to people who don't expect it. Whether you were taking food to shut-ins, new moms, the homeless, your coworkers, or your child's teacher, you were being the hands and feet of Jesus. Oh, how inspired we are by all of you! And, more importantly, how glorifying this is to our God!

And like so many of you have said, it makes me want to be more intentional about reaching out to others on any regular old day.

In fact, we plan to borrow some of your ideas, as well as continue some of the things we did last week. All the little ways of thinking of others definitely need to "stick" in our family from now on.

One idea we had read in Kurt Warner's book "First Things First" was to decide as a family on someone to bless with a surprise meal when you're out to eat. This isn't an all-new idea, but it's certainly one that we've never done! We did this last week at Outback, as we watched an older gentleman eat his steak alone. I wish you could have seen the look on the faces of our girls, as they got increasingly excited about surprising this guy. I really think we walked by his table at least 8 times. (John and Cheri, he was truly a "Papa"...and we smiled as we thought of him.)

So, that was definitely something we have decided to do more often. It was a great way to have fun as a family, as we watched the blessing be handed to someone else. Something so simple. Yet, we've so easily forgotten and paid attention only to our own {usually crazy} mealtime...until now.

Another "first" for us was making and handing out "food packs" to homeless men or women we pass on the street.

Embarrassingly, this is something I've intended to do for months and months. We finally did it. And, I was in tears as I watched my husband bless these men like I never could have done. They were given food, but were also given encouragement. They were prayed with and talked to like they were real people. I'll be honest--this is not my strength. I never know what to do or say to help homeless people, and I was just so taken back by how easily Mark ministered to the people we met.

And, the girls have still not forgotten their names...or forgotten to pray for them. Once again, I learn another lesson from my children...and my husband. :)

I don't want to stop doing that either. We now have a box of meal packs in the back of the car. And, Carlie is constantly looking for someone to hand them to. (Even people who aren't homeless. :)

That has been my favorite part by far of CHASE Day...seeing my kids get excited about serving and surprising others. They planned quite a few ways to bless their friends, including surprise packages in the mail, surprise "door dropoffs" (which was HIGHLY exciting, as you can see here...)

and even a kidnapping. :)

Emily called me at the beginning of the week, and wanted to share an idea she had for Chase Day. She wanted to have a balloon release, but write on the balloons first, so Chase got birthday messages from all of us. I loved the idea, of course. So, we kidnapped Blake, Emily, and Ellie for a surprise balloon release and message writing party. It was SO sweet. Emily wrote "Dear Chase, I love you. This is the best day of my life."

She was SO excited and so sweet to think of this idea and do it with us. Way to go, Emily! I know Chase LOVED his balloons!

Another sweet group of kids did it up BIG for Chase Day too! The Sunshine School kids at the preschool where I worked for many years, and where many of my church friends attend also, made it CHASE Day for the whole preschool!

Each child brought $2, and gave one of those dollars to His Chase (which we collected over $400 from!!), and the other dollar went toward lunches for the homeless shelter in downtown. The kids decorated sandwich bags, lunch sacks, and made sandwiches for the people served by the shelter.

They also learned all about Africa in chapel, and prayed for the kids in Ghana. Oh my goodness....you already know where this is headed. Tears. I had more of them. Kids and their BIG hearts melt me. And, these sweet teachers who thought of this idea also melted me. Some of my best friends in the world. Thank you to all of you for making CHASE Day so special.

Here is the huge sign they made---isn't it cute!!

And, here is Kendyll setting up coffee and donuts for our FAVORITE teachers in the whole world!

It was such a Happy Chase Day at Sunshine School!

In the midst of all of this, we also spent time saying "thank you" to those who walked so closely beside us last year.

Mark and the girls got to surprise our amazingly gifted photographer, Amber, and deliver a little "thank you" to her house. I wish I could have been there, but I'm so glad the girls got to meet her, and show her Chase's video, which she was such a huge part of, since most of those pictures are hers!

We also brought treats to the Labor and Delivery nurses at my hospital to thank them for all the work they do!

(By the way, a total side story. The nurse kneeling down next to Carlie is the nurse who voluntarily heads up the Bereavement ministry of L&D. And, I ran into her in Canton the next day! I was looking at gift wrap and all of a sudden I hear "Excuse me, are you Chase's Mom?" Oh, those words were SO SWEET! I've never been asked that! I just smiled huge and said "YES, I am!!" Then, we talked for a while about how quickly the treats were eaten and how thankful we are for the work they do. It was such a little gift of a moment for me to be known as Chase's mommy. :)

Okay, that was a total tangent. We also brought a few copies of books to Marilyn, our sweet, sweet chaplain who cared for us SO well last year. We hope the books will bless other families for the journey they are on.

And, of course, we took treats to my doctor as well. It's always such a fun office to visit, and the girls enjoyed getting to see Dr. W and love on her for all that she does for us. We talked about how amazing it is that she delivered each of these girls so long ago!

While we were there, I also got to see "Chloe's Room", where families who have lost a baby can go and be comforted. I never visited last year, but my family spent time there. This is also where the sweetest people on earth leave keepsake things for the families. This is where Chase's blanket and hat came from....things I couldn't think of or pick out at the time. And, I'm SO glad Chloe's room had all that I needed.

One of Kendyll's good friends lost her baby sister two years ago, and has been donating little precious lovies ever since. Kendyll was so excited to see Ainsley's lovies when she walked in Chloe's Room!

And, we were excited to add a scripture canvas for those families who will be visiting this room in the future. Thanks to Laura and Angie, at Written On Your Heart, for designing the perfect canvas for these words of comfort.

Laura and Angie also designed a canvas that I gave my whole family and some close friends, that had one of the most significant verses for me through all of this. It was so nice to be able to say "thank you" with God's word for their homes. Thank you, girls, for making that happen for me!

By the way, look what ELSE they did for me!! :) I LOVE it!! It's already hanging!

Whew! After a full day, we got to see one more group of VERY special people...our family!

We had a fajita dinner at our house, with an "official" one year balloon launch in the yard.

Abby Kate even let her "#1" balloon go "up to Chase"! She picked this out at the store for him and called it "Chase is a Rock Star" balloon. I think she meant to say "All Star", but Rock Star sure was cute. :)

The kids planted Chase's Corner with new fall flowers, which involved alot of dirt throwing, of course!

These cousins are SO cute!!!

I did not get many pictures from the evening, but it was a wonderful, very relaxed night with our family. The perfect way to end CHASE day. :)

God and His Big Ideas

So...this kind of feels like it did this time last year, as I stare at the blank blog page, not sure where to begin.

Mark has asked me for two days when I was going to blog, and I have felt overwhelmed at the idea. Not because I don't want to share, but because I don't know where to start.

How do I sum it up? How do I begin to share the deep gratitude I feel that literally makes tears spill out of my eyes every time I think about what we have received this week?

How do I describe in words how God has come near to me? How do I tell you all the little ways He made Himself known---I mean REALLY known---this week?

How do I share what it means to me that so many have blessed countless others this week, in the most giving, creative, joyful ways?

How do I share all the stories, all the testimonies?

I know I never possibly could. But, I have prayed, yet again, as I have begun to type...for the Lord to make my words clear, and my heart able to express what is literally spilling over from inside me.

Wow. What a great problem to have. To try and find a way to share how overwhelmed we feel by the love...

So, since I don't know where to start, I'll start with God and His big ideas.

About two months ago, on a Sunday afternoon, I had what I like to call a "freakout". Now, these are not uncommon for me (just ask my husband or my sisters), and they usually involve a little bit of crying (ha) and general feelings of being overwhelmed. This day, the freakout came because I began to think about the upcoming one year anniversary of losing Chase, but also about how much God has done in a year. So many good things!

But, my frustration came as I started to try and plan what I wanted this week to be. And as hard as I tried to determine the perfect way to mark this day, I just felt frozen. I told Mark that I didn't really know what I needed. I had no picture in my head of how it should look. How would I know what would be best? I also felt like everything I thought of required too much planning, or too much work, and I didn't want that to become the focus for me (which easily happens when you're a "planner" like me!).

So, we talked through it. I called my sisters. I called my friends.

And, then, I called on the Lord. (Why does it always take us talking to everyone else first, before we do that?!)

I just laid our plans before Him, and asked Him to make it what it needed to be. We wanted it to glorify Him, help us celebrate what He has done, honor Chase, and be what we needed emotionally...which is something I never know until I'm right there in it.

Mark asked me the perfect question: "What is the biggest blessing we have to celebrate this year? Because that's what we need to focus on." And, after discussing our answer, it was clear. We decided to make Chase's day all about giving back to those who have blessed us and sharing God's goodness with those who are in need. I know you already know all of this.

But, what you may not know, is all the ideas we had besides that.

First, we really discussed hosting a night of worship on September 30th. There are so many songs that have healed my heart and provided words for what I have experienced. I wanted an evening with family and friends, just worshipping and praising God....and I wanted Jaron to lead it. :) Of course, we decided that it was too hard to coordinate and had too many logistics to work out. So, we let it go.

But, God didn't.

Last week, sitting in church just days before, we heard that a night of worship had been planned by the church staff for September 29th. What?! I told Jaron later that this worship time he was planning was God's gift JUST for me. And, oh my goodness, I had no idea then how true that would be!

Every song spoke to my heart. And, the Lord was SO CLOSE to me that night. Chris Seidman had us pray through a passage of scripture. And, of course, it was Isaiah 43, where Chase's life verse is found. As Chris read CHASE'S LIFE VERSE on that stage---not having any idea the significance of that passage---I just wept. I knew that God was saying to me "I know you, Chelsea. I know what you needed. And, I provided it. I see you. I love you. And, I love your boy." I was so amazed by the whole evening. It was truly a night of worship like I have never experienced, (especially as we celebrated our friend Chip's miraculous healing that day as well!) and as I told Jaron and Chris the next day, I will never ever forget that night.

Mark prayed with me for a long time, and as we prayed, we heard the words of sweet songs being sung that have blessed us and healed us. I could not contain the tears. They just streamed down my face, my neck, and on to my shirt. THAT's how moved I was. THAT'S how good God is. And THAT'S proof that He listens and cares and has BIG ideas. He gave me the night of worship I was hoping for. Without any planning on my part. :)

And, it didn't stop there.

Our other "big idea" that we had months ago was to bring Selah, the Christian group who has also meant the world to me in the last twelve months, for a concert. We had great visions of raising money for His Chase, celebrating with songs we loved from Selah, and blessing our family and friends with this great experience on Chase's Day.

Well, once again, we decided it was too much effort. As much as we wanted to see them, we didn't have the funds or the time to dedicate to pulling it off. So, we just decided to do it some other time.

And, then we find out God's up to something again.

Two days after CHASE Day, Selah was scheduled to perform at the Christian Works for Children Auction, which we attend every year! When we received the email from our friend (who knew of this original plan of ours), we were blown away. So Saturday night, October 2nd, we got to sit at the feet of a group that I adore---not only for their amazing voices, but for the similar road they have walked before. I again had tears streaming as I sang along to the songs that have literally changed my life.

And, it gets better. I had the opportunity to talk with Selah after the show, and told them how much it meant to me that they sang I Will Carry You and Unredeemed.

During the concert, they asked anyone who had lost a child to stand up, and then sang the song that has been played countless times in our house for the last year. As I was telling them that I feel like they sang that just for me, Todd Smith said "We weren't even going to sing that. We just decided to do it right before we went out there because we just felt like we were supposed to." I said through tears, "That's because God knew I needed it. It was JUST for me." And, I do believe that. I felt God's gentle voice again, just telling me "Enjoy this, Chelsea. I planned it just for you."

So, you would think that would be enough. But, apparently it wasn't.

The last "big idea" we had for Chase week, was always said rather flippantly, because we knew it would never happen. When Mark asked what I wanted to do on Chase's birthday, I told him I wanted to hug the kids in Ghana for the whole week. We joked about just taking off and spending the week in Ghana instead of here. But, again, we KNEW that wasn't an option.

But, on September 30th, about 1:00 in the afternoon, Pam Cope called my cell phone. She tells me that she thinks the best way for me to spend my afternoon on Chase's birthday, is to come to her house to love on Emmanuel, who was HOME with his forever family, from Ghana!! I was SO excited. This is Emmanuel, in case you've forgotten his precious, adorable, smiling face from our trip in July.

And, this is me ON CHASE DAY...loving on a child who I would NOT know if it wasn't for Chase.

And, even better than that, I got to watch my children love on Emmanuel too! On the way to Pam's house, Kendyll let out a squeal and said "Mommy, I can't BELIEVE it! I'm going to really meet Emmanuel?! I feel like you did when you went to Ghana. It's like he's my best friend, but he doesn't even know me." Oh, sweet girl, I know the feeling so well. They know these kids by name, by face, and by personality, even though they've never met them. And, to watch them hug on Emman, ride scooters with him in the front yard, and eat popsicles like they've known each other all their lives, was just amazing.

Oh my goodness, I don't have the words for what that blessing felt like.

Once again, could God have planned ANYTHING more perfectly? It was almost unbelievable.

(And by the way, isn't it a miracle that little Emmanuel...who was FOUR when he was rescued from slavery on Lake Volta, is now living with his beautiful forever family in Oklahoma? They've been together for two weeks, and Emman looked SO good. Here is his beautiful Mommy, Audrey. She was another blessing in my day for sure!)

Of course, Mark didn't get to be there for this reunion, and I was so sad that he didn't get to give his love. (He was at home getting ready for our whole family to come over for dinner!)

So, here comes God again. Doing what He does best. Showering us with the unexpected.

The day after I saw Emmanuel, we walked into the hotel where the auction and Selah concert was being held on Saturday night. We were 20 minutes late, and in the wrong lobby. And, who is standing there getting ready to leave for dinner? Emmanuel and his entire family.

Needless to say, there was a slow-motion run from one end of the hotel lobby to the other as Emmanuel embraced Mark. (and rubbed his head. :)

Yes, God had another big idea. He never ceases to amaze me.

I still can't even believe we ran into them...and that we were there in perfect timing to see all of these people who we love. All of these people who we now get to partner with in rescuing and taking care of kids in Ghana.

All of these people who I might never have known, had God not given us Chase exactly as He did.

Oh, my. There are so many more blessings. There are so many more stories. There is so much more to say. In the next post. :)

But, the final thing I will say, is to feel God's blessing like we have this week, is one of the most humbling experiences in my life. To know that the God of the Universe took the time to show us...not just once...but practically every day of this whole week...how much He loves us and knows us and is lavishly pouring His love on us. There are no words.

Actually, an elder's wife at church on Sunday said it perfectly, as she hugged me with tears in her eyes. Sunday morning, Chris briefly shared our story of God sending His word to us during the worship on Wednesday. And, she said, "That story brings tears to my eyes. Because YOU, Chelsea, are blessed and have found favor with the Lord."

Oh, God. Thank you for the blessing. Thank you for coming near to us. Thank you---that even though we don't deserve ANY of it---You find ways to shower your favor on us.

I will never forget it, Lord. I will never stop sharing YOUR story of redemption, joy, healing, and blessing that You have given our family.