A Prayer for my Sister

I know I say this all the time, but this blog is like one big scrapbook for me.  Honestly if not one person read this thing, I would still be so thankful that I have kept this online scrapbook of my life the last 3 years. I do know though (even though you people don't comment) that I have a blog following crowd, I try to be somewhat vulnerable as I write about my life and what I am learning and I do pray that it would minister and encourage those who do read.  That being said, I try to be very careful about writing things on here that are not my story alone to share.  Honestly some of the biggest things I have been learning the last 6 months have been through hard things going on in my relationships with others and things going on in the lives of those around me.  Sometimes I want to share those things because it is part of my story, but I also want to protect those involved and be honoring to my friends and family!  

That being said, meet my sister!   

Today is my big sister Catherine's birthday. 

 For the last couple years on Cat's birthday I have prayed that the Lord would give her and her husband G a baby. Each year I think this will be the year that they become parents!  And now another year rolls around.  And although I will admit my faith is often weak, I pray again on this year that the Lord would give Cat and G a baby!  

I say this because as I have watched my sister pray and wait and pray and wait I have seen her cling to the Lord in a new way.  The last 6 months specifically I have watched her and G get soooooo close a couple different times to adopting a baby and then for one reason or another get the dreaded call from the social worker saying that this would not be their baby after all. There is great pain in this.   

It it so hard to understand God's ways and understand why this is their story, yet we put our trust in a sovereign God who is perfect in all his ways.  

I write all this on her birthday because I think I have grown to respect my big sister even more this past year as I have watched her walk with God through not the easiest of days.  She is an example to me of a woman who is putting her hope in the Lord and being faithful to Him.  I think it is so cool that many people have come to know their story and I know that she and G both have ministered to many around them in their waiting and trusting.

Although Catherine and I are in different seasons of life we are both learning what it means to surrender our desires to the Lord and wait on him.  Waiting is a form of suffering and I never realized that until recently.  There is pain in waiting, but ultimately there is purpose and joy and such an amazing opportunity to know the Lord in a deeper way.  I pray that we will both look back on this season of waiting with thankfulness knowing that God's timing really was perfect!  

And because I know that the "prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective"  and "God can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine"  I would love it if you would pray with me for my sister!   

Happy Birthday Catherine!