Taylor family update

For the three people who told me that they read my blog:), I decided to add a post.  This past month has been quite eventful!  And the past six months have been a reminder to me that we are ultimately not in control of everything in our lives.  I hesitantly confess that I occasionally listen to K-Love on the radio which either makes me shed a tear or want to wretch it is so cheesy.  But they do play a beautiful song by Laura Story called "Blessings".  Here are the lyrics:

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
As long that we have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

I have shed a few tears listening to this song:)

This song reminds me of the C.S. Lewis quote: God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. 

I have to believe that God redeems suffering in some way or I just can't make sense of some things.  In December, I unfortunately had an unexpected miscarriage.  It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me though I know it is not rare occurrence.  It happened right on Christmas which made it even worse.  Quite honestly it was terrible.  When you have a baby you are surrounded by lots of supportive people.  When you have a miscarriage you are physically in the dark and on your own.  I did have my wonderful family for support, but it is just different.  Thankfully over the past year, I have been memorizing different Bible verses.  During that dark time, those verses were to me a great comfort for my soul.  The words that I had memorized became more than words, but promises and words directly from God to me.  I felt God speaking to me and loving me during that time.  Now I don't think I'll actively be praying for hard times, but God's comfort was certainly a merciful gift.

Okay so back to this month.  Rumors have been circulated for a while at IBM about them selling Brian's division.  Finally, an article was published on the internet and the next day it was announced that Brian's division at IBM, Retail Store Solutions, is being sold to Toshiba.  Another thing we have absolutely no control over.  When IBM bought PSI we never thought that nine years later he would still be working at IBM.  But with no plans to leave and a family to support, an uncertain change can rock your world a little.  Thankfully, everything is pretty much staying exactly the same.  Same bosses, same job, same location, etc.  The change should take place sometime this summer.

And... we found out last month that we are expecting a baby.  I was cautiously excited, but since I had a miscarriage, they did an ultrasound and saw the baby and heartbeat.  Praise God!

A few other notes, Hannah is finishing up her Kindergarten year at Forest View Elementary School.  She has an amazing teacher and I am so happy the year has been such a success.  She is number 7 on the waiting list for a charter school here in town that actually goes through high school.  We are waiting to see if she gets in, and if she does we may switch her.  But, we are so happy at Forest View that if she doesn't get in, it is no big deal.  She has taken ballet this year as well and will have a final performance sometime in June.  I have renewed my commitment to read her chapter books and we are just finishing up Dr. Dolittle.  It is a great book for her age with a few pictures so things stay interesting.  We looked up all the different kind of monkeys that were mentioned in the book.  She is growing up so fast!!!

Charis is finishing up her first year of pre-school.  She has had a great year as well.  Charis really needs physical activity so I am kind of dreading her being out of school full-time.  She is so full of life.  We'll have to spend lots of time at the pool.  She has a will of her own and basically wants to wear the same things over and over again even though she has a closet full of some super cute clothes.  She is going to look back at pictures one day and say, "why did you always dress me in the that ugly shirt!"  Ummmm because you had a complete melt down every single morning and I didn't want to put up a fight.  She basically wants to do the opposite of anything you want her to do.  This morning she asked me to get her a blanket.  I brought her one and she immediately said, "I wanted the pink one".  It is exhausting.  But she is absolutely adorable, curious and loves people.  Apparently, Brian had the same will of his own growing up... according to his mom.

Well, if you are still reading I am very impressed!  Maybe I'll write another post in a few months:)