Happy BIRTHday Abigail Lamb

I am so excited to announce the birth of a very healthy baby girl, Abigail Lamb, to the proud parents, Jenn and Kevin, at 4:30AM on January 21, 2008! Jenn and Kevin are on our staff team and therefore we welcome their little Lamb as our newest (and cutest!) staff member. Jenn is my discipler and it has been so special to watch her grow (literally!) into motherhood. . .it feels like years ago that she told me she was pregnant as we had lunch at Pizza Solo! Abigail has already traveled far and wide in the womb (she spent a summer in East Asia!) - oh the places she'll go now that she has burst forth into the world.

Here's Jenn and me. . .holding Abigail a little awkwardly - she's only 10 hours old, I wanted to be careful!! :)

And here I am, a very proud Auntie to say the least!

Wow, what a weekend it has been. God has used these past couple of days to refine my understanding that He truly does give and take away. . .and through it all He calls us to bless His name. Blessing His name comes so easily with Abigail, but it's so much more difficult when I think of my friends who are mourning right now. And yet in the midst of life and death God, our Creator King, remains unchanged and therefore we worship Him, trust Him and obey Him - but all because, and only because, He first loved us through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of His perfect Son and my Savior, Jesus Christ.

John 16:20-23

20Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.