That lil Something That Changed Everything

We didn't know that lil something
that changed everything
when we took this photo!

November of 2015 on a Thursday afternoon, I think, we sat in Pastor Kevin’s office in a meeting. I’ll never forget the rush it was for me to get there on time. We were so excited to host our friend Justin for dinner and I had gotten everything to make some good homemade chili and cornbread. We had been trying to find a few hours to catch up with him and the time had finally come. I had to run upstairs to the break room and temporarily store the refrigerated stuff during the meeting. I remember Kevin starting with small talk asking what we were doing this weekend. I replied still a little out of breath, “we are FINALLY going to get our Texas driver’s licenses” and explained the many reasons it had taken us so long to get to this point. Biggest reason being our missing “important papers” that we finally found buried in storage. I remember his laugh at my determination. Leah, his wife, then knocked on the door and peeked in with, “hey I was downstairs when a couple entered the building asking for some help on an issue in their lives and it is in regards to Living Hope. I asked them to have a seat in your office while I tried to find you.” Chris was up and out of his seat ready to greet and walk through some potentially very heavy topics with this couple. I was standing in the office saying, “wait… don’t you think we should really pray about this before we go in there. Are we really prepared for this?” Leah kept walking and Chris followed. I am pretty sure Kevin was laughing really hard on the inside watching us in two totally different modes. Chris ready to conquer and me very unsure of what lay ahead. But, I followed my husband down the hallway and into his office to find our beautiful daughter and son-in-law sitting at the table! I know I punched Kevin or at least tried. I’m still not sure why I did that. I didn’t think I was a punching kind. But, it’s on video. The surprise of seeing two of our kids here in Texas without any notice was beyond explaination! What joy filled our souls! They were in for a long weekend. They had found a super deal on flights and Kevin and Leah and Brynna worked together to make all this SURPRISE possible.

Chris was set to preach Sunday on the main stage for the first time at our new church and we were pretty excited. Kevin told us to go home and enjoy the rest of the day off and not to come back till then. So, we did! We showed the kids around the church a little bit and then went home. When we got back to the house on SouthHampton Lane we were given a greeting card announcing that we were expecting a little firecracker on July 4th. A what? A baby! The Lord had seen fit to knit together in our daughter’s womb a precious little one. Wow! That night my prayer life changed forever. I had occasionally prayed for my children’s future children, but now I had knowledge that our first daughter was growing a tiny human in her little belly! And that tiny human was a new budding leaf on our family tree. A leaf to be treasured and trained up in life. We would find out around Valentine’s day what this tiny human’s gender was. And we were thrilled either way, but it is a boy! 

We enjoyed that “long” weekend that felt really short when it was over to the fullest fullness. We took them to all the important places we knew of and loved here in our little tiny part of Texas. We took pics to announce our expectancy of our lil firecracker. As we put them back on the plane to Louisville, we knew they’d very shortly fly to India for a mission trip over Thanksgiving week. It was different now that there were three of them letting them go. It was harder. There was more at risk. And we began to realize that the Ward Family Risking the Ocean experience had just taken on a whole new meaning. Even though this little guy would be a Matthews, he has Ward in him and Whitt and Daniels and Cobb. He had an entire legacy from which he was growing. And we know he is going to make a mark on this world. We are praying that he will grow up in the knowledge of the Lord and will love, honor and obey Him with abandon all the days of his life. To know Him and make Him known.

In what way(s) have you been surprised? Just when you think you have your weekend plans set and something changes everything...no matter how big or small... what do you do? We hope that any surprises that have come your way have been good surprises or that you've been able to see how God worked it or is working it all together to bring Him glory.