for my Wordless Wednesday pic, and my Word filled pic, here ya go, I know it is late, this took me awhile,

cuteness by Jesus, outfit by www.jumpinbloomers.com and story by me

“I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.”  Psalm 89:1

This is Mercy our youngest. Everyone always asks why we named her that, and it is a hard story for me to write but it attests to the goodness of God, so here goes. This is actually the short version.

Several years ago, in 2001 to be exact, I was pregnant with another child, the one before her. The pregnancy was fine, I always have an easy time. But the season in our life was very hard. I am going to try to write this with enough details to get the story across but not enough details make the offending parties look anywhere near as bad as they were. We had bought some property from someone and built a home on it. The one we bought from was remorseful for selling it to us at the price he did and started getting getting greedy trying to come up with a way to get us to sell it back. We wouldn’t sell so he took. There were plans of progress in the area which made the land suddenly worth about 3 times what we paid for it. Through a series of events we were intimidated and stalked and threatened. We had things stolen and people hiding in the woods spying on us. I believe our phones were tapped and other such things. Well in small town America things are not always just. It is sometimes more about who you know rather than how you behave.  Finally false charges were brought against us for something we did not do and we were sued. After court cases where the judge literally slept, and a lot of frustration and several lawyers saying, “this can’t be happening” we lost our farm. Of course we did nothing wrong so we weren’t in trouble but we were literally run out of own. And followed, by a madman with a weapon. The Lord had plans for us somewhere else. The man is forgiven, he was just a pawn.

While we were still in that house in the midst of all that turmoil our son Levi was born. When I was in labor, Jim was praying and singing, he does that a lot, sings while he prays. Well he began to sing a song about a baby girl that would be named Mercy and would be a blessing to us. She would be like the prophetess Anna who prayed day and night. But I was pretty sure  I was having a boy, so we figured it would make sense later. Well it was a beautiful healthy boy we named Levi. He was one of those easy babies. Happy and easily pleased.

Needless to say we moved. To another county. The Lord provided a way for us to purchase another farm. Small and needed lots of work, but we have never been afraid of work. There were creeks and it was beautiful. In the winter both of the little boys got colds. Children do that, wasn’t a big deal. Jacob was a little worse than Levi but neither were really complaining. They both started getting better and we didn’ t think too much of it. Until, while sleeping in my lap, Levi stopped breathing. We called 911 but it was too late. They did an autopsy and said it was pneumonia, that kind that was not easily detected. Our son Levi passed from my arms into the arms of Jesus on Feb 10, 2002.

I really wanted to just climb under a rock and stay there. But I had other children who were hurting, and I kept feeling the Lord say I needed to take care of myself. For what I wondered, then realized I was pregnant. Just a couple weeks. I knew then it would be a girl. In the fall we had a beautiful baby girl, who has Levi’s smile. We named her Mercy. Because Jesus is truly merciful.

God did such a big work through our whole experience and never once did I doubt His love. It is so true that our present sufferings are nothing compared to His Glory that will be revealed within us.  I know that His plans for me are often not easy but they will produce His love in me if I will allow them. I know that He loves me and only wants what is best for me. I know that He wants to bless me, and that means that I will surrender to His plans to do whatever it takes to bring me to  closer understanding of His love. He is God, I am not. I do not question that fact.

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