Natalie's Hospital Visit

To be honest, I didn't plan on starting this post with a few tears in my eyes... I was just taking another look at all the pictures of Linnea and Hannah, which is always dangerous. What a beautiful gift friendship is! And to see it develop at such a young age is so precious! I love the joy my daughter gets anytime we talk about Hannah...and then we talk about how we can not go see her (usually once a day still), and there is a little bit of ache there (for both of us!) So yeah...I miss my family...

So I guess now would be a great time to say how very thankful we are for our church family here in KC! A week ago today took us by surprise, in that a visit to the urgent care for Natalie landed us in the hospital for 4 days! Our sweet little "punky" had a very swollen gland that I had noticed, and come to find out, it was an abscess that needed to be surgically drained. The abscess was apparently from a staff infection that somehow got into her gland. Aaron was at the Shepherd's Conference, and flew home early on Thursday night to be with us before her surgery on Friday. She was miserable most of the week last week, as well as on the day of her surgery, but praise the Lord, it has all been uphill from there!

And Aaron and I have been amazed at the love from this church body. A dear gal stayed with me at the hospital most of the day Thursday, and when she left, others came! People were always with Linnea and a family from church took her in for a few days! Aaron and I ALWAYS had at least one person offer to bring us food around every single meal time while we were in the hospital. And now dinners have been provided for us since Monday and on until Saturday! We are overwhelmed with the encouragement and care!

It was so difficult watching my little girl suffer, and being unable to do anything for her. I remember going home after Aaron arrived at the hospital to gather some clothes and toiletries. I went into Natalie's room to get a few things and just broke down at the thought of losing our precious little girl that the Lord has given us. And at that same moment I was overwhelmed with the love of God the Father, in sending His Son to the cross, for MY sins! He not only watched His Beloved Son suffer tremendously on the cross, but He SENT Him there! And to top it all off, He poured out His wrath on His Son, because that is what it took to pay for MY sins! Jesus had to bare the full wrath of God for my justification!

"For God so LOVED the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

~Jn. 3:16~

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!"

~Rom. 11:33~

I'm so thankful this experience has given me a deeper understanding of God's sacrificial love for me! Well...praise the Lord, Natalie's surgery went great, and she just had her follow up appointment with her new physician today (who is a gal involved in the music ministry at our church!), and is looking really healthy! The doctor said no more bandaids on her incision, which is healing up quite nicely. We are incredibly grateful to the Lord that this whole situation wasn't something worse and that the Lord has seen fit to entrust Natalie to us for a while longer (hopefully the rest of our lives here on earth!)

This is what her neck looked like before surgery

This is Debbie! My substitute mom for the day. :)

Getting her first of 4 ivs (1st if 8 tries)

All tired out from getting the ivs in (and they gave her some strong pain meds!)

Kathy brought much needed Chick-fil-a!

Patty, Liz, and Kim all stayed with me in the evening until Aaron arrived!

Dr. Neuhart checking up on her. Children's Mercy Hospital and Staff were such a blessing...couldn't have asked for a better hospital!

Getting her ultrasound right before suregery

This is a few hours after surgery! Already starting to have some happy times (hadn't seen that in a long time!)

Kim and Rick stopped by after her surgery.

Linnea was dropped off at the hospital to visit us, and had lunch with her...her very first corn dog. My daughter was BORN healthy. She didn't touch her fries and decided she liked the hot dog better without the breading...oh, my. :) (I know, not that a hot dog is healthy to begin with, but you know what I mean!)

There's my happy girl! :) Glad to have her abscess gone!!

Home safe and sound and happy as can be!

Sisters are loving being back together!

We really are thankful to have our happy Natalie back! I was starting to think she was just going through a cranky phase, but I think this thing in her neck had been bothering her for a couple of weeks, because she is now back to her old self! (And has given mama 7 straight hours of sleep these past two night! Woohoo! :))

Sick Day

Thankful for the live feed on sick days. :)

Friendship in Family

Thank you, Kimiko, for your precious post on your blog, and all the priceless pictures. I couldn't help but repost it on my blog. We miss you all so much already, and are so thankful for the friendship we had (and still do!). We had a good cry last night, realizing what we left behind. But we look forward to what lies ahead, and are praying the Lord supplies some new sweet relationships. No to mention our prayer that the Lord brings you out here. Even if we have to wait a coupe of years. ;)

"Goodbeyes"....by Kimiko Parker

Sunday night was a night I was dreading. It was the night we were saying goodbye to Aaron, Kim, Linnea, and Natalie before they left for Kansas. I was hoping that somehow we could just skip that part, because I knew it wouldn't be easy. We'd gotten so used to having them so close and being able to walk to their house and visit them anytime we wanted. Our girls are best friends and get so excited every time they see one another. We've swapped a lot of babysitting nights. We became more than just family; we became friends.

While Sunday night was the hardest time of this transition, there have been little things and realizations here and there that have been hard, too. For example, the other morning I realized that I wouldn't ever hear an unexpected knock on the door and open it to find the Johnsons standing there, stopping by on a walk. It's also hard, because Hannah's been very sadly and pitifully saying, "I want Linnea" lately. It's hard explaining the concept of time and distance to a 3-year-old. All this to say, we are so thankful for the years we were all together and we're looking forward to continuing our friendship long distance. We are so excited for what the Lord is doing in and through the Johnson family and couldn't be more thrilled for where they are!

The week leading up to their move, we spent a lot of time with the girls while Aaron and Kim packed, painted, and prepped, so I took advantage of what time we had left and took a lot of pictures of the girls! I figured these would be pictures that not only we, but also Hannah and Linnea, would cherish. Below are a few of the pictures I took. You can see more of them here. Just beware! The link will take you to an album with 81 of these photos!

I framed this one, so Hannah could have it in her room. :)

In a bout of nostalgia, I compiled these pictures showing how Hannah and Linnea's friendship has developed over the past 2 1/2 years. It's so fun to look at how much they've changed and how they've grown into such great companions.

Hannah checking out her new cousin. She's apparently not quite sure what to think.

The first time we babysat Linnea! I love how excited Hannah is!!

Haha...this one cracks me up. This was Easter 2010.

Going in for a smooch. :)

Hannah thoroughly enjoys the role of older cousin. :)

Love the kisses!

The cutest little puppy and giraffe ever!

Hannah loves helping out her little cousin.

Helping Linnea with her buttons.

Best friends.

Sometimes Hannah shows a little too much love for Linnea's preferences. :)

Again, too much love, Hannah.

Anytime we're anywhere, walking together, they hold hands.

Stopping to chat.

Hannah makes Linnea laugh a lot!

Laughing together.

So Aaron, Kimberly, Linnea, and Natalie, we all love and miss you SO much and we are so thankful that we'll get to see you a couple times this year, Lord-willing!

We Made It!

We have officially made it to Kansas, and it is not just a visit this time. :) It has been a whirlwind of a week, and we arrived a little battered, bruised and worn, but we were able to get our first good night's sleep in a long time...praise the Lord! We are so thankful for His sustaining grace this past week!

Let me first say thank you to all those who showered us with love, help and support before we left. We couldn't have done it all without you, and we are so very thankful for the body of Christ! You all were an example to me of the kind of servant I want and need to be!

Well, we are so excited to be here and the welcoming was overwhelming! According to MRBC, we have officially been "pounded". If I had any more tears left, I would have cried...the love and generosity we received in our tree of gift cards and massive pile of goods in our new home was overwhelming! Did I already use that word? :) we are eager to get to know all the people behind these gifts, and are looking forward to serving them as they have served us!

If Aaron and I have learned anything through this whole process, it is that the Lord will always take care of our needs, and often goes above and beyond what we could ever imagine. I know the path the Lord takes His children on looks different for everyone. For some it is a much harder path than others, but I am certain that our God is ALWAYS a good God! Even if His good doesn't look like our good.

Here are some pictures from yesterday. More updates and pics to come as we begin our new journey here in Kansas City! Thank you so much to all who have been praying and loving on us!

Hi-ho! Hi-ho! It's off to Kansas we go!

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD."
~Isaiah 55:8~

This picture says a thousand words...really. This is a picture of Aaron and I singing at Mission Road Bible Church in Kansas. Yes, I did say Kansas. Most of you know this, but it is about time I finally share with the blogger world that the Johnsons are moving! Yup! That's right. And to a place we like to joke is "the middle of nowhere." :) a.k.a...Kansas!

I never in my wildest, or not so wild, dreams, would have seen this one coming. In fact, I have always informed the Lord that I never want to live in the Midwest because it is equidistant from both oceans, which to me once again means, "the middle of nowhere." Haha...how I laugh at myself. Apparently the Lord knows better than me when it comes to my human desires. But you know what else...He CHANGES human desires.

Ok...let's rewind a bit.

Aaron and I found out early on in the summer that due to budgetary reasons (mainly), he was probably going to be let go from Placerita Baptist Church. This was then confirmed in August. I won't go into all the details, but our world was turned upside down for a while. We were quite surprised, and lets just say that the sponge (our lives) was being squeezed, and the water that came out wasn't always so pretty. But to sum it all up, we are so thankful for that squeeze. The Lord showed us sin, mainly pride, that we didn't know was there. He showed us that although we thought we were loving people, that love was not exactly Christ-like, which remains unchanging through ALL circumstances!

I can say that this summer until now has been precious, because our relationship with our heavenly Father has been so much more intimate. During the time of wondering where we would go from here and what job the Lord would provide, our need for dependance on the Lord was made so real. I wish I could say that this dependance is always there, even when the practical blessing abound, but it's so easy to get caught up in self-dependance. One of my prayers through this is that we would ALWAYS see that we need Christ for everything, and that we are nothing without Him. Not only is He the ultimate provider of our monetary needs, but more importantly, He is the essential provider of our spiritual needs. And we are certainly spiritually needy people! ALWAYS!

So that is just the tip of the iceberg in lessons we are learning, but since I do not have time to write a book, let me share with you how events have unfolded since this summer. As soon as it was announced to the church body about Aaron being let go, He posted on facebook that he was looking for a new job, preferably in church ministry. Not even 24 hours later and he was on the phone with Rick Holland, who is the senior pastor at MRBC in Kansas City, Kansas. After many phone calls, a visit by the associate pastor from MRBC to PBC, and a trip that we made to visit MRBC, the Lord made it so very clear that this is where he wants us to go. We are absolutely amazed at God's grace....ABSOLUTELY!

There were fears about looking at churches, because in the beginning, Aaron was applying at churches we knew nothing about. So I started praying in the summer, "Lord, please provide a church through connections, so that we can somewhat feel like we would know the senior pastor through reputation." I NEVER in my wildest dreams thought that the Lord would have Aaron work alongside a man we have heard preach quite a few times, and have always grown and been inspired from those times we were able to sit under his teaching (at Grace Community and Resolved conference). Haha...I even remember listening to Rick and Kim's (his wife) tape series on dating when I was about 16.

About my desires...well, to be honest, when I first found out where MRBC was located, I cried. But seeing Aaron's excitement and how the Lord answered my prayer above and beyond, I haven't once looked back. And the picture above reminds me of the wonderful time we had getting to know just a portion of the people at MRBC. I can honestly say that I am completely excited to move to the middle of nowhere! :) Don't get me wrong...just the past couple of days, as Aaron is about to head into his last official week of work at PBC, the realization of all the goodbyes that will be coming in the days ahead causes my lips to quiver and my eyes to water. The goodbyes are going to be hard. Very hard. But I know the Lord will give us grace for that as well. He promises that His grace will always be sufficient, and therefore we have nothing to fear.

Aaron will be done working soon, but we are taken care of financially through the end of January, and then he will begin in Kansas the first week of February. We do not have a set date yet for moving, but we know it will be towards the end of January. If you could pray with us as we have a bit to do in order to prepare our current home to be rented out and that the Lord would provide good renters for our place. If you know of anyone who may be interested, be sure to let us know! :)

Now I just need to find me some red shoes and hit the ol' yellow brick road!

My girls...

Sending you all a little bit of happiness from the Johnson home!

Best Friends...

Can you tell they are cousins with that same precious smile? :)