Financial Miracles

Well, we have had several financial miracles and blessings from God recently, that I simply must share!

First, in October of last year, Joe and I were really desiring to go on a family vacation down to the International House of Prayer, but we didn’t have the money.  We figured we would need about $1000 to drive down and stay for a week, so Joe started praying and asking God about it.  We really wanted to go the week of Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day in the States) because Joe only had 4 vacation days left and it would work best to be able to go on a week with a holiday in it.  Time was running short and we had basically resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t be going.  Now, at Joe’s work they have an incentive program where the employees can submit ideas to improve their work stations or procedures in order to help them work more efficiently.  If your idea is approved and implemented, your idea goes into a draw for prizes that are drawn each quarter. If multiple people came up with the idea, the prize money is split up between them all.  There are 3 prizes and Joe had his name on 4 different ballots in the coming draw, but only one of them was his idea alone.  As you may be guessing already, when it came time for the draw, Joe’s idea was picked out for the first prize of….you guessed it – $1000!  And it was $1000 AFTER taxes!    God had totally heard our prayer and knew what we needed and answered it exactly, with just enough time for us to make all our travel plans!  As you may have read when I blogged about our trip, we had an awesome time and it was a total blessing and gift from the Lord.

Now, for the second story, we were still a little strapped for cash and Joe began asking the Lord for another $1000, since we found out he’d be missing a bunch of work around Christmas, because his place of work was shutting down the factory for several days.  As Joe prayed, he thought about our financial situation and then altered his request slightly, asking the Lord for $1000 plus some.   I, however, did not know that Joe was praying for this, so when one day I received a totally random phone call from someone we barely knew at all and this person asked if we had been praying about any sort of need, I was at a loss!  I figured this person wanted to bless us financially and a number of things went through my head that I could say, but I knew I had to be honest, because I hadn’t been specifically praying for anything.  After that phone call, I figured I had blown it - lol.  I told Joe about it when he came home from work & that’s when he told me that he had been praying for the $1000 plus some.  Not long after that we received another phone call from the same person telling us to go check our mail box.  When Joe opened the envelope, there was a cheque written for $1000 plus $400 in cash!!!!  Ha!  It was totally like the Lord to answer Joe’s request so specifically that He caused the person to separate the $1000 from the rest – it was very cool!

Third story.  A couple weeks ago, there was another draw at Joe’s work where everybody’s names were in for a prize and you guessed it again…Joe won!  So, this time we weren’t asking for anything, but God decided to bless us with a trip to Phoenix, Arizona!  Joe’s company is paying for 2 flight tickets and 2 nights accommodations at a hotel with the option for us to choose to extend our stay and pay for the extra nights.  All that Joe has to do is take a tour of one of their plants there.  So, this just felt like another kiss from the Lord to tell us that He likes us.   

Last story.  Joe has tried to sell his truck multiple times in the past with no luck.  He recently asked my dad if he could maybe try to sell it for him, since he didn’t have the time to do it himself.  Also, the truck has a few minor things wrong with it, that we were concerned may need to be fixed on the front end before we’d be able to sell it.  However, completely unexpectedly, when Joe’s parents came to visit us from Alberta a couple weeks ago, Joe mentioned his truck and they said that they’d be interested in buying it!  But even better than that, they are going to take care of the repairs and the cost of transporting the truck back to Alberta!  It couldn’t have been any easier or stress-free for us and was another incredible blessing from God.

So, this has just been really encouraging for us and a testimony that God will take care of our needs and even our desires when we trust Him completely with our finances.  It is our desire to continue to grow in our ability to trust Him and to surrender our finances to Him to be used as He desires, to learn to sow more generously that we may also reap generously.  We want to give out of love and then be “wooed and wowed” (as Mike Bickle says it) when God in turn blesses us beyond what we could imagine.  More and more we are discovering the joy and excitement of partnering with God with our money!

IHOP – Day 7

Alas, it is our last day here at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.  This morning I had a really lovely and enjoyable time in the Global Prayer Room, journaling about some things that God was touching my heart with from a book I started reading, “Entirety” by Dana Candler.  In the very first chapter, Dana mentions a time when her husband Matt said, “You know…we can be wholehearted before God right now.”  This totally struck me, because I, like Dana, have probably perceived wholeheartedness as being a distant, unattainable dream that is out of reach for my weak heart.  It never really occurred to me that any random, unlikely moment contains the potential and opportunity for me to seek to love the Lord with my whole heart, mind, soul and strength!  I just feel like there is a paradigm shift that the Lord wants to do in my mind and the way I approach this, which will probably require tearing down some mental strongholds and planting some seeds of truth on this topic – I’m looking forward to getting more revelation from Him on this!

During the following intercession set, I chose to spend some time standing on the “LIFE lines”, which are basically lines of red tape on the carpet where anyone can stand and pray for the ending of abortion and life for the unborn.  I spent about 20 minutes there and it was really good to just spend some concentrated time praying for this issue, both for Canada and America.  This is an issue that is becoming increasingly important in our continent as pro-choice leaders make their way into positions of government in America in the near future and for Canada where the issue is simply ignored by politicians and something they seem to try to keep hidden in the closet because they’re afraid to address it.  It is so crucial for me to really have this as an ongoing part of my prayer life and I think it would be great to have a place where people can stand and pray for LIFE in our own house of prayer in Winnipeg!

After this, I decided to make a short visit to the Justice Prayer Room, which Joe had visited on Wednesday and told me a little bit about.  After going myself, I totally agree with him that it reminded me very much of our own house of prayer!  It’s smaller, has less resources, and there were very few people sitting in the chairs – it totally felt like home – lol!  So even though the surroundings were rougher and the sound was less polished, it was really encouraging to be there and I really enjoyed observing the team working through hiccups and experimenting with their instruments and singing a little off key here and there – there is hope for us yet! 

I’m now back at the hotel and all our stuff is packed up and ready to go.  Joe is at the prayer room and Justice is napping.  The plan is to the go to the other IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for supper and if Justice has a nice, long nap right now, we’ll hopefully catch most of the Encounter God Service tonight before heading out on our 14-hour long drive back home through the night!  If you think of us, pray that we’ll have a good, safe trip back home!  And although I’m looking forward to being back in our house, I can’t say I’m looking forward to the ice and snow I’ve heard has arrived in Winnipeg. 

IHOP – Day 6

Today was a fairly uneventful day.  Joe went to the prayer room in the morning and I went in the afternoon, after which we brought Justice to the house where our friend Christina is staying while she does the Commission internship.  She generously agreed to babysit Justice so that Joe and I could have a date tonight!  We didn’t have much of a plan, so we just found a small park and went for a walk and then sat under a nice tree and talked for awhile before going out to Cinzetti’s – a fabulous Italian buffet – for supper.  I ate WAY TOO MUCH food, but we had a really nice time, continuing to talk about some of the things God has been speaking to us.  Sadly, the crepes stand was closed, so I didn’t get to partake of that particular chocolatey & fruity goodness, but overall it was a delightful evening.  When we got back to pick up Justice, it sounded like they had a pretty good evening with him until after they gave him a bath, at which point he is used to getting his nightsnack, so he got a little cranky.    But Christina did a great job babysitting & all was well once again as soon as he was back in mommy’s arms – haha.  We only have one day left here at IHOP and we’ll be driving back during the night tomorrow.  We’ll be sad to go, but also happy to be back in our home.  Justice is becoming less and less fond of his bathroom nursery, so I think he’ll be happy to be home too.    I am also looking forward to seeing how some of the things God has done and spoken to us will take shape in the season ahead!

IHOP – Day 5

This morning, Joe was kind enough to get up with Justice and feed him before heading off to the prayer room, which gave me some extra time to rest my eyes in bed, even though I obviously couldn’t actually sleep.    Justice and I hung out and then I got my chance in the prayer room in the afternoon.  Today I decided to sign up for the healing rooms and I had to wait quite a while to get in, but it was definitely worth it!  Through an amazing married couple, probably in their 40′s, the Lord ministered to my heart and some really awesome ways.  I was led through a time of confession and repentance for sins, communion, worship, renouncing curses and lies and demonic strongholds, and receiving prayers of healing and blessing.  It was SOOOO good for me!  Several tissues later, I felt like the Lord accomplished some beautiful victories in my heart and I really am trying to take a hold of the lady’s word for me that “today was my day”!  I am choosing to believe that I am now healed, regardless of the symptoms I feel in my body, and I am resolving not to give in to fear and self-pity any longer!  Another amazing thing is that the lady shared with me two scriptures that the Lord had pointed out to me several weeks ago in regard to my health problems, which was just a great confirmation for me & also some encouragement to continue to meditate on those passages and declare them over my life.  They were…

10  My bones suffer mortal agony
       as my foes taunt me,
       saying to me all day long,
       “Where is your God?”

11  Why are you downcast, O my soul?
       Why so disturbed within me?
       Put your hope in God,
       for I will yet praise him,
       my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:10-11

 1 Praise the LORD, O my soul;
       all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,
       and forget not all his benefits-

 3 who forgives all your sins
       and heals all your diseases,

 4 who redeems your life from the pit
       and crowns you with love and compassion,

 5 who satisfies your desires with good things
       so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:1-5

After that, I sat in the prayer room some more and just read Psalm 103 until it was time to line up to register for our appointment in the prophecy rooms.  At this time, Joe came with Justice, and all three of us got to go together to receive some prophetic ministry.  God spoke some really interesting, encouraging, and also challenging things to us which will require some more prayer and asking the Lord for discernment on how He would like us to respond, but it was really good!  We then drove around again and picked a random Mexican restaurant called On the Border.  It turned out to be very good & I would definitely recommend it!  I am now back at the hotel, Justice is sleeping, and Joe’s at the prayer room.  Life is good.  Vacations are good.  God is good.

IHOP – Day 4

This morning, Justice didn’t want to sleep either, and Joe ended up with him sleeping on his chest for a while!  I got showered and ready for the day while Joe fed Justice breakfast, but then Joe got a migraine headache, so I hung around for a bit longer to help out until my coffee date with Christina!  I met up with her at Higher Grounds and we had a great talk about what things God is working on in our hearts and things about the prayer movement and our house of prayer in Winnipeg – good stuff!  It will be good to have Christina back home with us in just a few weeks!  After that I went back to the hotel to pick up Justice so that we could go to the Malachi Prayer Meeting (MPM), a prayer meeting for parents and their kids, led by kids!  It was so awesome to see the worship team of young people leading the room in worship and intercession and all the kids who repeatedly got in line to pray on the microphone for issues like abortion/adoption, healing/signs & wonders, and the Onething conference – I even got prayer for healing from the kids!  Since I’ve never really been a part of children’s ministries, I think it’s important for me to get a vision of where our children can go in God and what we want to teach them about intimacy with Jesus, the Word and prayer and intercession.  I think I have an idea of what I desire for my children to be able to enter into in their relationship with God, but I don’t yet know how we’ll get there.  We are definitely on a huge learning curve and need the wisdom and guidance of the Lord in how to raise our kids to be in love with Jesus and partnering with Him in advancing His kingdom!

After the MPM, I took Justice back to Higher Grounds where I bumped into Joel again and fed Justice his lunch.  Then Justice and I went to catch a little portion of the Worship with the Word set in the Global Prayer Room (GPR) where they were singing about the Song of Songs and how His name is like perfume poured out – love it!  At this time, Joe was in the prayer room as well, so we said a quick hello and brought him some tissues for his tears (gotta love it when you get a good cry in God’s presence), and then headed back to the hotel to give Justice a bath and a nap.  After his nap, we went to pick up Joe from the GPR and headed over to John & Tracie Loux‘s house where their son Nick did a photo shoot with us, which he is doing as a fundraiser for their adoption of a little boy named Aiden from the Ukraine!  (Feel free to visit Tracie’s website for more details if you would like to donate to their adoption)  We sadly had sort of yucky weather with a misty rain in the air, but we made the most of it and we were totally impressed with Nick’s photography skills and his ability to give us direction and come up with creative ideas!  I couldn’t help but laugh though when Nick was taking some pictures of just me & we came upon a bridge with a metal pole railing and he instructed me to “interact with the pole” – lol.  We also got to meet the rest of John & Tracie’s children – Taylor, Isabelle and Elia.  Elia is 2 years old and it was quite amusing watching her play and interact with Justice.  She is really sweet, but definitely more assertive than what Justice is used to, especially since he doesn’t have many opportunities to play with other children.  It didn’t look like he quite knew what to make of her, but I think he still had a fun time!    It was also great to have the brief opportunity to chat with Tracie, whom I had only previously known from reading her blog and talking to her on Twitter.  It’s always great connecting with new people who are of like mind and heart and seeing what you can learn from them.

After our photoshoot, we headed back to the hotel where we fed Justice his supper and gave him pureed chicken for the first time!  Ha!  He continuously gagged and coughed until I mixed it up a bit with some squash – I don’t think it was the taste so much as the texture that he had a rough time adapting to.    While I was feeding Justice, Joe perused the Streets & Trips software that we borrowed from my parents, which also shows you where restaurants are.  We decided to drive to one area where we saw several that looked interesting and then ended up going to Old Chicago, which turned out to be a specialty pizza type joint.  Kristi, you’ll be happy to know that they had the sweet Raspberry Iced Tea, which I tried – I liked it, but found it was actually a little too sweet for me.  Joe and I both got Calzones – kinda like a huge pizza pop, except way better!  Then, since it was our first time at this restaurant, they have us a free ginormous, soft & gooey, warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream – yum!

After supper, Joe and Justice stayed back at the hotel and it was my turn to go to the GPR!  Luke Wood’s team was leading the intercession set, which was packed, since it was Tuesday and an all-staff prayer meeting.  The theme was Israel, so I just entered into agreeing and joining in with the intercession for this nation.  Towards the end of the meeting, Wes Martin told anyone who was sick to stand up if they wanted prayer, so I did so and several young ladies came to pray for me, which was awesome!  More than just praying for me to be healed, a couple of them gave me prophetic words, which really encouraged and ministered to my heart.  I then stayed for an hour of the Worship with the Word set being led by Jaye Thomas, but I was beginning to crash, so I headed back to the hotel for some sweet sleep after a very full day!

IHOP – Day 3

Well, today started out a little rough, since Justice decided he wanted to wake up for the day at 6:00am, but we’re learning to roll with it & he just spent some time in bed with us until we were ready to get up too.  After breakfast, Joe headed to the prayer room while I spent most of the morning blogging and reading and playing with Justice.  I had leftover Applebee’s for lunch and then Joe & I switched roles again as I got my slot of time in the prayer room for the afternoon.  I had a really good time prayer journaling during a sweet Worship with the Word set led by Grace’s team, but after awhile I started doing the headbob from not quite enough sleep, so I went to Higher Grounds to get a latte and I bumped into Joel, who had just recently arrived with Jordan and Jehu from SHOP in Winnipeg, so Joel joined me for coffee outside in the freezing cold, since there was no room in the coffee shop.  I was quite happy when I bumped into Candace Nashman and also got to say hi to Matt Gilman, both who had been in Winnipeg for the Onething conference last year and Matt had stayed at our house with Tim Reimherr and Marcus Meier.  It was good to see them both!  After I finished my coffee, I headed back into the prayer room for some more God-time in another Worship with the Word being led by Jon Thurlow’s team and then at 4pm it was time to head back to the hotel.  Since Justice didn’t nap very well in the morning or the afternoon, we gave him a third nap at 4:30 and I decided to take a nap as well!  We then joined up with Joel, Jehu & Jordan at Chipotle for supper (6 J’s all at one table!) and then made a quick trip to the WalMart SuperCenter (a first for me – sick, it’s huge!).  Joe then went to the prayer room for the evening & I just finally got Justice to go to sleep at almost 9:00pm (he usually goes to bed at 7:30pm), as he kept crying every time I tried to leave him.    So, I will probably read a bit and then go to bed, because tomorrow’s a full day! 

IHOP – Day 2

Well, Justice slept great during our first night at the hotel, in his new nursery (AKA the bathroom) and after all having breakfast and showers we all had a nap!  lol.  I love vacations!  It was such a nice relaxing morning and then when Justice woke up, we quickly got ready to head over to Forerunner Christian Fellowship (FCF) for the 10:30 am service.  We were pretty stoked when we got a parking spot right at the doors because we have a baby with us – woohoo!  Every now and then there’s some nice benefits to being parents.    Then we sat in the bleachers at the back of the sanctuary and Matt Gilman led a rockin’ time of praise and worship that had the whole place clapping, shouting and dancing – it was a lot of fun!  Both Joe and I really enjoyed it, since we sometimes miss the big, loud & boisterous corporate worship services that we were used to in the Pentecostal church we used to attend.  I can hardly remember the last time I danced, so it was fun to do that again – although I think I’m paying for it now, since I think it caused my muscle strain/pull/tear (not really sure what it is) in my leg to flare up.  Oh well, at least I had fun!  I think Justice was enjoying it too, since this was definitely a new experience for him.  He was totally enthralled by all the noise and activity and was flapping his arms around happily and excitedly during the worship! 

Rick Joyner was there to preach and he spoke on revival, which was really good.  Something that I found sort of funny was that during the message, a young woman sitting in front of us with her husband, turned and was smiling at Justice who was playing with some toys & then she pulled out this really nice camera and motioned to us to see if it was okay if she took a picture.  I nodded & smiled and then she snapped a couple shots of our adorable baby – he’s just that cute that random strangers want to take his picture!!    At the end of the service I wanted to maybe chat with her, but then I noticed her take earphones out & realized that she was having the sermon translated for her, so who knows where she was from or what language she speaks – just another unique thing about the IHOP community!  During the message, I had to step out with Justice to feed him some lunch, and I passed Kelsey Bohlender with one of the twins – wish I could’ve stopped to say “hi” and maybe hold Anna or Mercy, whichever one she was, but it was neither the time nor the place – too bad!  I got to listen to the rest of the message on a T.V. in the Student Lounge and one of the ushers and a random young lady helped me with Justice, which was so nice – I love the body of Christ! 

After the service, we accidentally stumbled upon a restaurant that had been recommended to us – Sonic – which is a modern drive-in restaurant.  It looked very cool, with all the little drive-in stations where each stall had a full menu board and equipment for you to pay for your meal & where you could sit in your car and have your meal brought to you.  But, since Justice was getting grumpy and it was soon time for his nap, we just went through the drive-through.  The food was still good though & now we can say we went there.    Justice and I then headed back to the hotel while Joe went to the prayer room.  I spent some time on the computer and reading a book while Justice napped and then fed him and played with him when he woke up.  When Joe came back, he shared with me some great stuff that God was touching his heart with on David’s vow from Psalm 132 on finding a dwelling place for the Lord.

We then decided to go out and have some family fun time, so we found a little park off of Red Bridge Road that had a play structure and we played on it with Justice.  He had his first experience going down a slide, which he seemed to mostly like, but everything was a little beyond his playing capabilities – I think Joe was having more fun playing with everything! After that we took Justice in the stroller and did some serious off-roading along some bike paths that went up and down steep hills with big tree roots jutting out everywhere – ha!  I was a little nervous, but if you know Joe, you know that he loves adventure, so I didn’t have much say in it!   By this time, it was quite dark & I was using a flashlight to light up the path for us & it was getting a little chilly, so we decided to leave.  Well, just as we were packing up, a police car pulls up behind us & is shining it’s spotlight on our van!  We don’t know what’s going on or what to do, so Joe gets out of the van to find out if there’s a problem – WRONG MOVE!  lol.  The police officer was NOT impressed that Joe started to approach his vehicle and he gave Joe a bit of a rough time, questioning him about why we were at this park, when apparently it was closed and it was dark & where were we from & please sir, take your hands out of your pockets where I can see them!  He took Joe’s driver’s license and we had to sit and wait for several minutes before he came back to the van & he was much more pleasant then & told us that since he didn’t have his red & blue lights flashing, that we could’ve just driven away, but we didn’t know that!  Anyways, it definitely added to the adventure of our little family fun outing!

     

We then wandered around, looking for somewhere to go for supper – it’s a little difficult when we don’t know the city at all or where to go to find restaurants, but we found an Applebee’s and had a nice meal before heading back to the hotel.  After feeding Justice, it was then my turn to go to the prayer room and Joe stayed behind with Justice, who went to bed.  At the prayer room, it was an intercession set being led by Luke Wood’s team and I chose to spend the time reading my Studies in Joel notes, which was really good, because it was all about the importance of our intercession in impacting how things go for us in the end-times.  It just stirred some things up in my heart again on the topic of intercession, which was awesome.  I then stayed for an hour of the next set, which was a Worship with the Word set with Ashley Prior’s team, and just spent some time journaling before heading back to the hotel around 11:00pm.  It’s been a little strange getting these alone times with the Lord, when I’m so used to always having Joe and/or Justice around, but it’s been really enjoyable and I want to take advantage of these opportunities to be in His presence without any distractions (even though Joe & Justice are both wonderful distractions) and just focus completely on Him.

IHOP – Day 1

So, we left for Kansas City, Missouri and the International House of Prayer around 6:00pm on Friday night.  We almost immediately had to detour because of an accident or something on the perimeter highway in Winnipeg, but thankfully it didn’t delay us too much.  We got through at the border with no problems, praise Jesus, even though we hadn’t thought to bring a birth certificate along for Justice (note for next time!).  At the border, we changed & fed Justice and were back on the road by 7:30pm.  It didn’t take long at all for Justice to fall asleep and he pretty much slept for the entire trip, only waking up whenever we stopped to fill up gas or take pee breaks.    He was an absolutely perfect little travel companion and we couldn’t have asked for him to do better. 

We had some blowing snow and ice, but it wasn’t bad at all and the roads were pretty good for most of the trip.  I only drove 3 hours out of the 14 that it took us to arrive, and I was slapping myself trying to stay awake – ha – but at least I contributed what I could.  We had drive-through Little Caesar’s pizza and crazy bread for supper around 9:00pm on Friday and the rest of the time we snacked on candy from Joel, Spitz, and cookies.  We took a few wrong turns when we arrived in Kansas City, so I was super thankful for the GPS tracking device and software that my dad lent us – it definitely came in handy!  We’re staying at an extended-stay hotel, which is sort of more like an apartment building, but the price was right and our room has a little kitchen, so it’s perfect for us.  What’s even better is that the bathroom is quite roomy, so we can fit Justice’s playpen in there for his naps & hopefully for the night, which means that Joe & I can still use the rest of the room for ourselves without having to worry about waking him up. 

 

When we arrived, we had to wait a couple hours before we could check-in, so we had breakfast at Higher Grounds, the IHOP coffee shop and then caught the 2nd hour of Justin Rizzo’s team doing a Worship with the Word set on Song of Songs 5:9-16!  It was really good!  After that we got settled in at our hotel and we all had a good nap!  After a quick lunch at the hotel, I went to the prayer room again for a couple hours while Joe stayed back to take care of Justice.  Misty was doing a devotional set, so that was really great to enjoy, except when all the bad food I had consumed during the drive caught up with me & I spent a good portion of time on the toilet – lol.  Oh well!  After that, we went to Panera for supper and then I dropped Joe off at the Encounter God Service and Justice and I headed back to the hotel.  I’ll soon be putting Justice down for the night and then I’ll have some quiet time by myself and probably go to bed early.  All in all, the trip down was a success and we’ve had a great first day of our family vacation! 

Onething and Our 4th Honeymoon!

The last two weekends have been FULL!  First of all, we hosted a Onething regional conference here in Winnipeg and Joe and I personally hosted 3 of the team members at our home for the weekend!  It was such an amazing time getting to know the team from IHOP and connecting with other young people who have the same heart and passion for prayer that we do.  Everyone was so great and fun and they did such an incredible job of putting on this conference for us!  Even though many of us at SHOP were volunteering for a lot of the time, we also got to enjoy a few of the sessions and received much from the Lord.  I also believe that much was sown in the spirit in our city and the youth and young adults here. 

Then, the very next weekend, Joe and I went to Calgary where the Onething team was doing another conference, which just happened to be at the church where we attended before moving to Winnipeg!  So it was the perfect excuse to go and visit our old friends there that we hadn’t seen in over a year.  This time, we got to enjoy the conference without having any responsibilities and then at pretty much every single meal or break, we were going out with friends to reconnect, which was really great!  Busy – but great! 

After that was all over, we took off to Canmore where we had booked a lovely suite with a fireplace, jacuzzi and king-sized bed for what was quickly appointed the “4th honeymoon”!    I basically like to call any time away for just the two of us a honeymoon, just because it makes it feel more special!  We spent three nights there and really loved just being in the mountains again, going out for nice meals, and sitting in front of our fireplace reading our Bibles or a book and talking about God and simply enjoying one another’s company.  It was a lovely, relaxing time that we had been looking forward to for a long time and which may be our last holiday like that for a long time, with baby on the way!  Yet, while we may not get that same level of quiet alone time at a nice hotel, I believe it’s so important to make time for each other and make it feel special, even after baby arrives.  I realize it will look very different (although I honestly don’t truly have understanding of just how different until I experience it) but I plan to make our marriage a priority, even in the midst of transition, because if our marriage isn’t healthy, then our family as a whole won’t be healthy and happy.  So here’s to many more honeymoons, no matter what form they take!