praise You in this storm

I was sure by now,

God, that You would have reached down

And wiped our tears away,

Stepped in and saved the day.

But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining.

As the thunder rolls

I barely hear You whisper through the rain,

"I'm with you"

And as Your mercy falls

I raise my hands and praise the God

Who gives and takes away.

And I'll praise you in this storm

And I will lift my hands

For You are who You are

No matter where I am

And every tear I've cried

You hold in your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I will praise You in this storm.

I remember when

I stumbled in the wind

You heard my cry

You and raised me up again

My strength is almost gone

How can I carry on

If I can't find You

And as the thunder rolls

I barely hear You whisper through the rain

"I'm with you"

And as Your mercy falls

I raise my hands and praise the God

Who gives and takes away.

And I'll praise you in this storm

And I will lift my hands

For You are who You are

No matter where I am

And every tear I've cried

You hold in your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I will praise You in this storm.

I lift my eyes onto the hills

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

The maker of heaven and earth.

I lift my eyes onto the hills

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

The maker of heaven and earth.

And I'll praise you in this storm

And I will lift my hands

For You are who You are

No matter where I am

And every tear I've cried

You hold in your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I will praise You in this storm.

Written by Mark Hall

Info ...

Hi. Thanks so much for all your prayers, love and concern. I can feel all of your prayers ... God is wrapping His arms around me and sustaining me because of your prayers. This has been a very hard two days and I'm sure that things won't get easier as we go. I do ask that you continue to pray for me, my family, and Jonathan's family. I am so thankful that my parents are going to be arriving in the states Saturday afternoon. Here is the information for the services:

Visitation: Sunday, February 24 @ 6-8pm at Munford Baptist Church, Munford, TN
Funeral Service: Monday, February 25 @ 11:00am at Munford Baptist Church with graveside service to follow. There will be a reception after the graveside service at Munford Baptist Church.
Flowers can be sent to Munford Funeral Home -Munford Chapel. Or monetary contributions/gifts can be sent to Union University Recovery Fund in memory of Jonathan.


I will try to keep you updated if anything changes. Thanks again for everything.

...

Words cannot even express what I feel right now. My emotions are a whirlwind. Today, I lost the love of my life. Jonathan went to be with the Lord today. Many don't know, but he suffered from severe depression. And it became too much for him to handle.

Jonathan was a godly man. Someone who I admired so much. I have no doubt that right now, Jonathan is in the presence of God, praising Him, and suffering no longer. I thank God for bringing Jonathan into my life. He was a great husband and a wonderful father and we miss him so much.

I ask at this time that you would please keep Andrew and I in your prayers. I pray that as Andrew grows up, I will have the opportunity to tell him how much his daddy loved him and about how godly a man he was. I know that you may be wondering how you can help ... and I just ask for your prayers. These next few days, weeks, months, and years will be challenging. I ask prayer for healing to my heart, prayer for strength, prayer that I take it one minute at a time. I also ask prayer for every member of my family - for the same things I mentioned for me. We will never understand why things happen they way they do or when they do, but we must rely on God for everything. "God is my rock and my fortress." God's plans are so much higher and better than ours. And it is by faith in God that I will make it through this time in my life.

Thank you so much for all of your thoughts, prayers, and love. It is appreciated more than you will ever know.

Exciting Weekend

Well, our weekend begin on Friday afternoon -- Sarah's last day at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital. She has worked there for 2 1/2 years -- it was her first job after graduating from PT school. She has enjoyed working there and has learned so much. She will miss all of her co-workers. They threw her a little good-bye lunch. And then, some of them, attacked her car -- with post-it notes! At least they wrote some sweet notes on them!

Andrew is still enjoying eating. The only thing he doesn't like about eating, is getting done!

On Sunday we had the opportunity to meet up with some friends of ours from college, Josh and Michelle Gilmore. They also have a little boy, Aiden -- he was born August 27 -- three days after Andrew. We haven't had the chance to see them since our boys were born. We met up at McAlister's and had a great time of visiting.

After lunch, we headed to a birthday party. Annison Kiphut turned one this past week and celebrated with a big party. Sarah worked with Annison's mom at HealthSouth. This was Andrew's first birthday party and he enjoyed it. But, no cake yet!

Annison -- the excited birthday girl

Andrew and Annison - the birthday girl!

Andrew's Adventures

Andrew is doing great! He is such a joy to have around and he always keeps us smiling! :)

Andrew had his first play date a couple of weeks ago. A friend from Sarah's work dropped Chloe off while she ran some errands one evening. Chloe is about one month older than Andrew, but he is just a little bit bigger (longer and heavier!). They had fun playing together.

Crutcher watching over Andrew -- he was laying his head on Andrew's bottom before I moved to get the camera -- it was cute and sweet!

Andrew playing with the dogs -- he likes to watch them play together and he likes to give them lovin' when they come close.

Andrew is loving hold his own bottle and he does a pretty good job with it.


Andrew sitting up and playing with a new toy that he received at Christmas.

Isn't he just SSSSOOOO CUTE?!?!

We went for a walk this past Saturday -- our first in a long time. It was warmer outside, but we still needed a coat. Andrew started out awake, but fell asleep within just a few minutes. Guess the walk wasn't as exciting for him as we thought it would be!

Jonathan is still going up to IL every week to work on building Matt's (jonathan's brother) house. Things are going okay, but it sure is hard to build a house in the winter! Andrew does miss his daddy during the week, but loves the weekends with daddy. This past weekend, Andrew decided that he wanted to go with Daddy to IL -- but the suitcase was already too full!

And one last picture ... Andrew holding his bottle tonight -- thought it was cute!

Union University

As many of you may know, last Tuesday (02.05.08) an EF-4 tornado hit Union University in Jackson, TN. Jonathan and I both went to school there. And Tobey and Lem (Sarah's sister and brother-in-law) live on campus in married housing. Thankfully, Tobey and Lem's apartment and cars are fine. Several dorms were damaged and several dorms were completely demolished. In the pictures, it looks like a bomb had exploded. And God was watching over and protecting all the students that night. Even though several people were trapped under the rubble, there were no deaths. To read more about the tornado and to see pictures, click Union. Please continue to keep Union University and the students & facaulty in your prayers. If you would like to give to Union's Rebuild fund, click here.

Please watch this video -- it is a good video with lots a footage and stories.