One Year Later

Now that most of you understand that the Emma Is… book was our announcement that Emma Is a big sister, I wanted to give you the rest of the story.
Spring of 2010 our fellowship group was having regularly scheduled meetings. We called these “storm gatherings” because back in February God had warned us that there would be a holy storm come to our group. This meant we were going to experience some tough things together as a family, and He wanted to prepare our minds and hearts. So, we began meeting once/week for several weeks.
On April 6, 2010, we had one of these meetings scheduled. Todd and I went to have a regularly scheduled ultrasound that morning and found out our baby had anencephaly. We went to the meeting that night not really knowing how to tell our dearest friends. We were gathered in the kitchen about to dive in to something our leader had prepared when everyone’s attentions was diverted to one of the babies taking his first steps. The whole kitchen erupted with laughter, clapping, smiles, and awes. I immediately thought “my baby will never do that”. It was more than a momma’s heart could bear and I ran to the bathroom with uncontrollable tears.
Todd helped console me, called everyone into the living room, and we told them our news. The hours that followed were some of the sweetest in our long journey. We gathered around, prayed, praised God, and just all offered Him again our lives, our children, and agreed we knew He knew best for us and accepted anything from Him-even difficult news.
Well most of you know the rest of that year brought many ups and downs. We were able to walk through that time being sustained by a small group of friends who were Jesus’ hands and feet.
After Emma went to heaven, we felt very sure we were to have more children. God kept confirming for us that our family was not complete. During the months of trying to conceive, I had some difficult cycles and was beginning to wonder if God planned to finish our family through adoption. Todd and I had this conversation and decided to ask God what to do.
In the meantime, our group had felt the nudging of God to get together to commemorate the day we all discovered the news of Emma Grace. We felt it was important to discuss how God through Emma had changed us, and what work He still had in front of us.
April 5, 2011 I was lying in bed in the evening and Todd came in to the room and asked if I was sick. I told him that I was either fighting a virus, or I was pregnant. So, on April 6, 2011 I took a pregnancy test and was thrilled to discover that God had given us another precious life. We went to our scheduled-by-God meeting that night and shared stories of God’s work along this journey. At the end of our talk, Todd let everyone know that very morning God had seen fit to deliver some different type of news. Of course, everyone jumped for joy and had tremendous excitement for our sweet addition to the Bittle family. Then we all sat back in awe of what we had just seen Him orchestrate.
Do you see, my dear friend, how involved God is in the details of our lives if we only allow Him? He redeemed April 6th for us forever. That could have been a difficult day for us for years to come. However, now, we will see April 6th approaching and think only of God’s favor, love, faithfulness, and mercy.
He wants to do the same for your life. He counts all those tears. He sees the hardships we endure, and has a plan. Let us allow Him to work out everything in our life for the good!
Blessings to you all! And again, thank you for reading!