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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Surprise! Big Life Changes for the Honeas!

There's a honeybun in the oven!
I am PREGNANT!!!!!!!

I'm officially 13 Weeks now, and so we decided to go public and tell everyone.  We are very excited to be welcoming a new member to our little family around January 15th, 2014! (Jonah was born on his due date, so I have absolutely no idea what to expect with this one; therefore, I'll just tell people the due date and say "It could happen again, you never know!") Jonah and new baby will be 20 months apart, and we think he'll make a great big brother.  We feel so blessed to be given another little person to love and raise!  I think we are even more excited this time because we know just how awesome it is to be parents. God is so good to us, even when we are far from deserving!
Baby Honea #2
This does cause a lot of life changes for our family. Please keep us in your prayers as we plan to leave Waynesboro and this job in the somewhat-near future.  House Parenting is best done with no dependents. To put it mildly, it has been difficult with our own baby and Other Baby.  It is not even feasible to attempt to do this job with a newborn and 2 toddlers.  Jonah makes our bedroom feel crowded as it is, and we don't want to share a bedroom between our family of four.  If we have 2 kids here it will also limit the number of kids the village can take in because there can only be a total of 6 children on each side.

Thus, we are accepting that we were placed here:
 and now our time is drawing to an end.  We'd also like to have steady/stable prenatal care close to where I plan to give birth, and if we wait too long then switching doctors could become complicated with insurance, and other personal issues. I am hoping and praying for another natural labor and safe and healthy delivery.

We have complete peace about leaving though, because over the last few months God has really been changing John's heart about where He wants to use him in ministry.  When John went to seminary, most people would ask, "Oh, do you want to be a pastor?" and my husband would answer, "No, I think I want to be an evangelist, or work with college and career, or do family ministry or recreational ministry type jobs."  As he prepared to graduate, John went pretty far through the hiring process with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Then, when it got right to the end of the process, they decided to go with somebody else.  John was shocked and upset because he had really felt like he would do so well ministering with FCA with all of his coaching background.  A few weeks later, John interviewed and accepted a position at a sweet church in Hickory Wythe as "Youth and Recreational Director," but just felt no peace about the job, and ended up quitting on what was supposed to be his first day there. Both of those experiences led him to start being open to other ministry opportunities and that was when we decided upon pursuing this job as House Parents.

However, over the course of the past year here (which has often felt like our version of walking through a valley) John is feeling led to pastor!  It's like God led us here to teach him that! He has been reading and writing sermons.  He has been jotting down notes and telling me about sermon series ideas.  He has been reading through commentaries, high-lighting, note-taking, and really digging into the Word! He has been thinking about organizing and using different groups in the church for different ministry opportunities. He has been thinking about the way he'd like to take groups on mission trips.  I have always greatly admired my husband's leadership abilities, and I am so excited to be his helpmate and partner in this new journey! You can watch him preach a sermon from right after Thanksgiving on YouTube here. I have to tell you though, he has lost about 50 pounds since this video, and my hot hubby is going to ROCK some sweater vests this Winter! Which will be right around the time I am about as big as a house...

Now all we need is a church to pastor. :)

Please pray with us that God would lead us to the flock He desires our family to work with, in His timing, not our own (although we would like this to happen sooner, rather than later, of course).  Please also pray that the Lord would keep all FOUR =)  of us safe and in good health as we pack/travel/move/seek our new journey.  We are also trying to sell our van (and buy two cheaper/older vehicles instead) so that we can be completely debt-free before we quit.  We are holding tight to all that God promises.

If you'd like to read about the pregnancy so far, I've written about this neat picture:
Southern Made Photography

7 comments:

  1. Great News! Congrats on "Honey Bun" and the new direction in ministry. We'll pray for you as God places you with the church He already has picked out!

    Kirk

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  2. Oh, Congratulations! Yay for babies! Hope your pregnancy is going well so far!!

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    1. Thank you! It is going well! I am blessed with good health, and definitely feel better than last time.

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  3. What a blessing! :)
    My girls are 22 months apart and they are (finally) becoming the best of friends. It is such a precious thing to have children close together. Looking forward to reading more about this journey and what God teaches you on it.

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    1. I'm glad your girls are developing a sweet friendship. That does sound really neat to be able to cultivate and watch. I hope my kids will be close too! This will certainly be a journey through another move, pregnancy, and trying to find the work God has cut out for us, but we're excited to be on it together! Thanks for reading.

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  4. That has got to be the best picture!! Congrats girl I am so excited for you.

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