Good news!

Well, life has continued on in the Johnson household, and since I last wrote, much has happened!
First things first....

I'm Pregnant! :) Turns out shortly after my last post, we found out that we are expecting baby number 2! I am actually about 17 weeks along now, and just have a few more weeks to go until we find out if we are to have another boy or a girl! We are most certainly blessed and cannot wait to meet this new child God has given to us! What a wonderful responsibility we have been entrusted with to nurture and raise children up, teaching them God's Word and showing them the love and attributes of God in day to day life! It is a serious and grand task, but it is a privilege to be steward of God's precious children!

What started out joyous quickly became challenging as I almost immediately got sick just as with Daniel. I was throwing up 4-5 times daily, and just felt awful and exhausted constantly. I had little relief as Andrew had to continue plugging away with the semester and keep working both jobs! And about a month or so into this difficulty, we were face with more challenges...

Daniel somehow managed to fracture his left femur with a simple, seemingy normal, everyday fall that he took, right in our living room! We could not figure out what was wrong, as the last thing on my mind was that he would have broken his leg from such a simple fall! We took him in that night, only to find that nothing seemed wrong with him clinically, and were sent home without any answer. Daniel was in so much pain that night (poor guy!) that he did not get a single wink of sleep. Therefore, neither did his pregnant and very sick mommy.....! It took us almost 2 weeks before we finally got some answers and figured out he fractured his femur! In the meantime, Daniel had to pretty much be constantly held or just camp out on the couch with mommy...which worked pretty well considering how terrible I was feeling! But we had a very scary first time trip to the hospital where Daniel underwent a bone scan, for which he had to be put under anestesia! Very scary! Thank God he did just fine, and the bone scan proved to provide answers we needed! In the end, Daniel healed up just fine, but it was indeed a very frustrating month or so of trying to get answers and waiting for our little boy to start walking again! In the midst of all this, my poor husband had to continue to keep up with homework and work full time....he was exausted as well and ended up getting bronchitis....that was fun too!

Phew! But, God proved himself to be so faithful and give us the strength we needed to pull through! I learned so much about dealing with insurance and doctors....Ireally feel like maybe I am an adult! :) I also learned a lot about myself and how I react in the midst such trials. I had never before in my life gone through a trial like I have these past few months; at least nothing that tested me and pushed me as hard as this. And I found something out about myself during this test through the fire that I am not proud of. During all this, my time in the Word fizzled out to nothing. I did pray quite a bit, but I really did not cling to God as I should have....I tried to blame some of my sinfulness on my extreme nausea and fatigue, but really, that was not a valid excuse. I simply tried to get through each day on my own. Why?!! How often have I heard that we cannot do anything in our own strength? How often have I encouraged others who were going through a rough time to wholly depend on God? And yet, in the first big test of my life, I failed! I failed to continue to cherish my time with God and my relationship with Christ! I let the struggles of the day take front seat while Christ was left somewhere in the backseat! Why? How could I fail so miserably? All I know to answer that question is because I am a wretched sinner. I think I'm strong enough, but I'm not. But what blows me away more than my wretchedness is that despite my sin, Christ still brought me through. He still gave me strength and He still loves me! His blood still atones for me! I cannot understand it, but I will cling to that great and wonderful truth. And I know that this is a huge lesson learned. A hard lesson, but I pray that through the next storm, I will cling to Christ, and cherish his Word now with more vigor and enthusiasm then ever before.

May we all have ever growing, ever abounding joy in Christ!