Corneal Ulcer

Sunday evening when we got home from church Bryan's eye began to feel very uncomfortable like someone had stuck their dirty finger in his eye.  By the time that we were going to bed the eye was getting more and more red and starting to hurt him quite a bit.  We finally got him to sleep by putting some drops in his eye and putting some ice on it.  I thought the ice might settled the irritation but I knew it might take his mind off of it.  Well he got through the night but it was really really bad this morning when he got up.  He was in major pain and he couldn't open his eye.  So I suggested he call the eye doctor and get an appointment.  

An hour later we where on our way to Northridge to see Dr. Yook.  Sure enough he has a pretty bad infection in his eye and a corneal ulcer.  I posted a picture above which was taken after he had already put some of the drops in his eyes so it is not as red as it was but you can see the little ulcer on his cornea.  

The Lord is good and took care of us again.  Dr. Yook did not charge us for the visit today because he believes so much in the seminary and believes it is his ministry to help out.  We are so grateful and Bryan's eye already feels better after one application of the drops.  

8 Months Ago...

Eight months ago the Lord decided it was time for Nathanael Nelson Payne to begin life in this temporary world we live.  Even though time has flown by, I will never forget that moment that I saw him for the first time.  The love that I felt, the tears that streamed from my eyes, and the thankfulness to the Lord for the gift of Nathanael.  

We have had such a great time learning and loving him over these past eight months.  He is such a joy and it is an honor to be his parents.  We celebrate the life of Nathanael today as we reflect on the "gift of God" that he is.

Our prayer continues to be for us as parents to show him the love of Christ daily so that he would grow up desiring to love and serve Christ.  We continue to be amazed at the kindness of the Lord!

Praying for Our Children

This morning I was reading and stumbled upon this and thought it was great.  I know sometimes I am not quite sure what exactly I should be praying for Nathanael.  Bryan and my desire is for Nathanael to be saved and to fall deeply in love with his Savior.  To have specific scripture to pray is important so hopefully you can find this as helpful as I did.

Texts to Pray for Our Children

by Jon Bloom

That Jesus will call them and that no one will hinder them from coming.  Matthew 19:13-15

That they will respond in faith to Jesus' faithful, persistent call.  

2 Peter 3:9

That they will experience sanctification through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit and will increasingly desire to fulfill the greatest commandments.  Matthew 22:37-39

That they will not be unequally yoked in intimate relationships, 

especially marriage. 2 Cor. 6:14

That their thoughts would be pure.  Philippians 4:8

That their hearts would strive to give generously to the Lord's work.  Exodus 35:29

That when the time is right they will GO!  Matthew 28:18-20

Nathanael Crawls!!!

Nathanael has started crawling...boy is he going to be hard to keep up with!  He has a ton of energy and when he sees something that he wants, he goes for it!  Enjoy...

Hudson Beats Up Nathanael

This is what happens when a one year (Hudson) old tries to put a hat on a seven month old...

An apple a day...

Nathanael is very serious about his apples.  He goes to town with his two bottom teeth.  He can bite off really big chunks... then I have to retrieve them from his mouth so he doesn't choke. 

He has also started crawling.  It is very slow but it is crawling.  Once he gets close to what he wants he reverts back to the army crawl.  I think that he wants to be like our dog Tilly... she wants nothing to do with him!

Home sweet home!

Since we've been home we have gotten all of our clothes washed and put away, gone grocery shopping, spent time with our friends, tried to get caught up on sleep, nursed Nathanael back to health and gotten the news that we are excepted to Harvest Bible Fellowship!  Yep, you heard me right... .we are going to Chicago and they want us to plant a church in Austin, TX when we finish! We are so excited that the Lord has given us clear direction as to where we are supposed to go to proclaim his name!  We couldn't be more excited! 

We have prayed and will continue to pray for the Lord's direction in our lives.  We own our own business that needs to sell so that we can move on with the ministry that God has called us too! We trust in the Lord's goodness and will continue to pray that he bring the right person along to buy it.

New Year's Day

Chloe...my niece

dad, cooper (nephew), old poppy (grandpa), Nathanael, and me (4 generations)

Today we just spent time loving on family and reflecting on the year 2008!  What a great year!  

We are so blessed to have 2 new lives in our family.  Baby Nate and baby Cooper, what sweet little men the Lord has seen fit for us to raise.  We must not leave out Chloe Grace... to see her grow in her understanding of what it means to love her family and to get so excited to celebrate Jesus' birthday is so fun to watch!  She loves her mommy and daddy and is such a special helper with her baby "tooper."  

Old poppy, my grandpa has had several health problems this year but it was a blessing to have him around for another year!  I have posted some pictures of him with the 2 babies!  He loves the kids and they love him... there is never a dull moment in the house when we are all together!

New Year's Eve

our desert at Christopher's

my mom and dad...flirting

me, my mom and sister

On December 31st we made our way back to College Station to spend New Year's Eve with my family.  We had dinner reservations at Christopher's World Grille.... it was fabulous.  I ordered the Christopher's House Filet and ate every delightful bite of it!  We also ordered yummy deserts...see the pictures!  Family and food was a great way to bring in the New Year!

Later that night we joined some of our friends, the Carlson's and the Kirbel's.  We sat around a fire and enjoyed great conversation about churches. 

We have been blessed with very special family and friends!

On to Grammy's house we go...

My sweet hubby-Bryan, my niece-Ashton, my son-Nathanael

Grammy and Nate

My niece- Ashton, Nephew-Todd, and Nate

About an hour from my parent's house is a little town called Montgomery.  This is where Bryan's mom, sister and her family live.  This is also the home of our dearly beloved Lakeside Bible church, the church that we served in before coming to seminary.

While we were in Montgomery....we just relaxed around the house, had Christmas with Bryan's side, ate dinner with the Ramey's, went on a much needed date and got to catch up with our sweet friends the Carlson's.  We had a full but fun time!  

Bryan had the privilege of preaching to our dear friends at Lakeside Bible on Sunday, Dec. 28th.  He is always excited to get to share from the pulpit what the Lord has been teaching him!

On Monday the 29th, April, Bryan's oldest sister and her family came for a short visit.  We just has family time on Monday night and on Tuesday the guys and girls went their separate ways.  The guys went to the golf course and drove carts around while the ladies went shopping.  After that we all met back up for some yummy Mexican food. Thanks Grammy!

College Station here we come...

My grandma with Nate

My cousin's baby, Ana and Nate

"Muss" and Nate

Cooper, my nephew

Chloe, my niece and Nate

On December 19th we left Austin city limits and drove about 2 hours to my home town of College Station.  Our plan for the time spent here was to relax and enjoy family.  The only problem was that I hadn't even started my Christmas shopping. Yikes!  I did get it all done with no stress at all!  Bryan got to enjoy playing some golf with my dad, reading and hanging out with Nathanael.  There was never a dull moment in the house especially with all three grandkids!!!

We celebrating Jesus birth by baking him a birthday cake and singing Happy Birthday to Him.  Chloe, my niece, loved this...this is all she wanted for Christmas.  On Christmas Eve we went over to Madisonville, TX which is where my grandparents live.  We celebrated my great aunt's 94th birthday and opened our gifts from the family.  

On Christmas day, my parents hosted everyone at their house for late lunch!  The house was decorating beautifully and the steaks were great!  After the yummy meal the guys went to play golf, the girls cleaned up and I actually took a nap!  

Later that evening we packed up and moved on.....

Austin, TX

Our second stop on the holiday tour is Austin, TEXAS!  We are thinking and praying about planting a church here in Austin.  Our goal in coming here is to meet some people who would potentially be involved in helping get that church planted.  There is a real interest in having a good Bible teaching church in the Austin area.  

We have a heart for people who have grown up in a culture of christianity but aren't truly saved and for those that just outright reject Christ.  Our desire is to see these people saved!  We are excited to see what the Lord is going to do in Austin!

Chicago

Our holidays started on December 12th with a trip to Chicago.  We went to do our final interviews with Harvest Bible Chapel for Bryan to become one of the residents in their church planting ministry.  As we were going through the interview process the thing that we continued to come back to was that we felt encouraged and challenged spiritually.  I got to attend my first church service at Harvest and I absolutely loved it.  The worship was amazing and the preaching was solid.  We also got to stay with Jason and Grethel Fevig which are our friends that are currently in the church planting program.  At this point we do not know an answer as to whether we are excepted or not so we will just continue to pray and ask the Lord to give these men wisdom in their decision making process.  We left Chicago on the 16th of December and headed to Austin.....