Tracy and I went to Northwoods church last week to be prayed for. Its called 'Soaking Prayer' in which 2-3 people pray for you for an hour. It was an amazing experience as we have never done anything like that before. It was out of the ordinary to have people lift us up as we are used to being 'in the other chair'. The 3 people that prayed for us were 3 of the most amazing folks in that they were all very different but all were full of the Holy Spirit's influence. Their absolute compassion for us and their absolute trust in God's providence was so re-assuring. We told our story and they spent a greater part of the hour praying and interceding for us. It was like walking in from the cold and having someone wrap a warm blanket around you. The Lord showed himself to us in a starkly different way through those servants of His. They, to a person, told us to not dwell on the thoughts put into our heads by the enemy and believe that God is a good God and the outcome is in His hands. He has planned for it to be good, we get to see what the 'good' is. I'd like to think that it is having a child but the reality is that what we do know is that whatever the outcome its for our best. I am reminded of many instances in my life when I didnt get what I thought was best but the outcome was so much better. I found myself at the tail end thanking God that He didn't give me what I wanted.

It's begun!

Hello all!

Well, the time has come and we have started the process. I started my period today....unfortunately 4 days earlier than expected! So, we are really cutting it close. I will have to go straight from the plane (arrive in Johannesburg at 3:00pm) to an ultrasound appointment! I guess we must remember we never thought this would be easy! :). Also I have an appointment with my OB/GYN here to have an ultrasound and blood tests done tomorrow to make sure all is A'OK.

So for those praying for us........
1. pray everything goes well with my tests tomorrow.
2. pray for everything to go as scheduled on our flights, no delays!!
3. pray that we can get everything pulled together at work to leave.
4. pray for our staff, that they will be able to manage the business without us and for their personal lives.
5. pray for extra seats on the plane.
6. pray for our health, especially Gabe's, the weather has been terrible here and everyone is sick.
7. pray for our hearts as we get ready....that the Lord would give us the peace that only he can give.

We will be leaving on Sunday morning and spending the day and night at Dale's friend from college who lives in Wheaton, he is really excited to see some of his old college buddies! Then we leave on Monday morning at 11:00am from Chicago to DC, then straight to Johannesburg at 5:00pm, arrive Tuesday at 3:00pm.

Thanks to all!

Tracy

Gabe's prayer

Hello all,
Everything is going well and we are busily getting ready to leave. We leave in just under 2 weeks now. The most precious thing happened last night.....when we asked Gabe what he'd like to pray for he said "a baby". No kidding! And not even prompted! So now we have a new member who is fervently praying for us.

Thanks to all of you who are "in this" with. We really appreciate your prayers, strength and encouragement.

Another Try

Hello Family and Friends!
Well we are at it again, on our way for another try at IVF in Africa. The decision to do it again was very clear while we were there....as some of you may remember, I woke up one morning with a clear understanding that it didn't work and that we'd need to come back again, all before we knew for sure. Sometimes it has been hard to remember how clear that was during the last three months, I (tracy) have second guessed myself on multiple occasions....wondering if I can do this again. Remembering God's faithfulness is sometimes really hard to do! So, here we are back in the place that we were last September, getting ready physically, mentally, spiritually, financially, professionally, etc to go again.

We had booked our tickets in November for our trip which was supposed to be Jan 27th-Feb. 22nd. I had also made a visit to a Chinese medicine doctor at the same time. In an attempt to try "everything" humanly possible this was the one last thing we had never done. We have been taking lots of herbs and because of this my menstrual cycle has extended by 3-4 days. This is a great thing for my body physically, but has pushed my cycle back by ~10-12 days. So....we changed our tickets and we now will be gone from Feb. 4-29th. Also, we plan to add a third try in (if this one doesn't work), it will look something like this.....Dale will leave a sample, Dale, Gabe, Pete, Wanda (yes, they are there in Africa right now) will fly home, I will stay and do a third set of treatments and come home about 2 weeks later. Clearly lots of things will have to happen for this to work, but we want to be ready for the opportunity if it presents itself again.

Although I am thankful for the opportunity to do this again, it is significantly harder emotionally. I can't really pinpoint why, but some days I dread it and had even decided at one point to not go at all. This will be a very different trip for me (and I say me because dale feels differently, so he will have to speak for himself :)). I daily have to ask the Lord for strength and amazingly so He gives it to me! So we begin this new (and similar) adventure. Our desire is to glorify the Lord in everything we do from getting ready for, going and doing. Our prayer is that we allow God to do a work in all of us, that we will know Him better, understand His ways, and learn of His great love for us no matter what our circumstances are!

So with that, we will be posting blogs often, so you can look as often or as little as you desire :). For now, please be praying for the following:

1. That my (tracy) heart will change towards this trip.
2. That we will all stay healthy leading up to the trip (winter!).
3. That we can work diligently and get the things we need to get done with the business.
4. For our flights...that we'll have extra seats for Gabe.
5. That we will have and make time for the Lord to speak to us, not get caught up in the busyness of leaving the country.

Thanks again for all your prayers, concerns, words of encouragement, etc along the way so far.

In His Hands,

Tracy, Dale and Gabe