for the eager readers :)

so i know that it has been forever since i've written. time really has flown. school has started and we are super busy with sports. God has been good. but there isn't much to write about right now so i thought that i would upload some pictures. i took this picture of charlie. this was when he was being good. probably tired from a walk. :) and this picture of us is from our anniversary trip. we had a lot of fun spending time together. it was very relaxing.

the beast...doesn't he look so innocent...that should give you a chuckle those of you that know our dog. :)

the angels are rejoicing!!!

well - i hope i get all the details right here...i wanted to share this with the many of you that have been praying for us.

last night mark was talking to a former student from s florida on facebook. she said that she had a co-worker that lost a baby. so this girl showed her the notes that we've both written. she said that she would like to have the same faith and hope that we have. so she showed her the gospel and the girl got saved!

this is so exciting to me to know that God is still using Annika to bring others to Him. each day He shows us a little more of His master plan. thank you for all of your prayers! please continue to pray that God will keep using us and Annika to bring more people to Him!!!

GOD IS SO GOOD!!!

the One who holds your hand

the other day i was looking through the journal that i keep, and i found some verses that i had written down during my devotions a couple of years ago (when we lived in s florida during hurricane wilma). and i thought that these verses were so neat and really encouraged me during the time i'm going through now. so i though i would share these with you now to hopefully be an encouragement to you.

Romans 8:37
but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

- i love this verse. we won't just conquer, but we will overwhelmingly conquer.

I peter 5:10
after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

- yes life will be hard, but THE GOD OF ALL GRACE will use it to perfect you!
this last verse is my favorite...

psalms 37:23-24
the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. when he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.

- this verse is so encouraging to me...we won't be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds your hand...it just reminds me of the verse that says that (and this is jen version) God won't give you more than you are capable of handling. and all the while you're going through this hard time He is holding your hand! so cool!

these are some quotes that i found in a great devotional book called STREAMS IN THE DESERT.

"God turns our lives upside down so that we might see Him in a completely different and unforgettable way."

- so true...and if He didn't turn our lives upside down, we wouldn't get to experience the new things we learn about Him.

"Jesus Christ is not my security against the storms of life, but He is my perfect security in the storms. He has never promised me an easy passage, only a safe landing."

-sometimes we think that life is going to be easy because God is in our lives. but He never tells us that. He does say that He will be with us the whole time and that we can trust that He will never leave us or forsake us.

i hope that this is an encouragement to you. even if you aren't going through a hard time right now, its an exciting reminder of all that God does for us!

again thank you all for your prayers, please continue to pray for us as each day brings new reminders of our precious annika

God is good.

i have been wanting to post some pictures of annika so all of you could see her. i'm a little nervous about it which is kinda dumb i know. i just don't want any of you to be hurt. i want you to be able to see what a special gift God gave us.

by the way - she does have the levis nose for sure. :) mark thinks that she doesn't really look like him, but she did have pretty big hands (basketball player hands) :).

annika ruth corbin

june 9, 2008

8 lbs. 2 0z.

21.5 inches long

the picture below is from the private viewing we had at the funeral. she looked so pretty. although the shoes that we had for her were just a little too big :) . this picture is probably my favorite of all of them. its so neat to know that she is enjoying God's presence right now.

tomorrow will be one month since annika was born. i was just telling mark that it feels so much longer than a month. i think that its been so neat to see how God has taken care of us. people we don't even know that well have been sending us cards. words can't even express how much it means to us. yes we have our hard days, but God is good. He tells us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us. that was something that i never really did before and definitely didn't understand fully. but God has made that so real to me now. i know that i can trust Him with anything that comes my way. He is in control and He knows what is best for my life.

when we first got pregnant i was so worried about how we were going to pay for everything because we didn't have insurance at the time. i worried so much. we had so many costs come up as well as extra blood tests (fun ;)) but every time God provided. He took care of us. and in my journal every entry i wrote about how we can trust God and He'll provide and take care of us. little did i know how God would test us. But now 1 month later, i can say without a doubt that i trust God and He'll provide and take care of us.

Remember, no matter how horrible the situation may seem, God has a plan. He can see the big picture. He can see the road ahead. i just need to trust Him and He will take care of the rest. i just want to thank everyone so much for all of the prayers and support that you have given us. There is no way that we would be making it today without them. and if you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior, i hope that you will accept Him today. with Him your life can be an abundant life.

a bend in the road

this has been a week that will be etched in my mind forever. it all started on sunday, i was 4 days past my due date and contractions started. at first i didn't really realize they were contractions so we went to church where they continued and then out to eat afterwards. by the time we got home i finally realized what they were and we started keeping track. we went to the hospital around 12 that night and they admitted me right away. the contractions were really close together and mark kept telling me to just relax. whatever obviously he hasn't experienced contractions before :). finally the doctor with the pain medicine came in (i couldn't figure out how to spell it correctly :) ). the epidural was fabulous. i was dilated 4 cm when we came in and by around 6 i was fully dilated. they wanted to wait a little longer so that the contractions were closer together and the baby would face downward. then they lost the heartbeat. there was a bit of panic and they had me in a couple of different positions. finally they rushed me in for an emergency c section. which i must admit was really scary. the doctors took really good care of us and tried to calm us down. all the medication that they gave me combined with the hormones made me shake really bad. mark was really scared and we prayed probably the entire time. God really took care of us. when they took the baby out they found a heartbeat but she wasn't breathing on her own and she wasn't moving or responding. her eyes also weren't dilating which means her brain was probably damaged too. they finished the surgery and took us back to our room. we talked to the doctor and he gave us a very grim picture. at this point we didn't know that she had a heartbeat. after he left we prayed that God would work a miracle and He gave us an amazing peace. we asked if we could go see her and the nurses made sure that we could they even rolled my bed into the nicu and we got to see her and hold her. they even took her off the ventilator and unhooked all her tubes so that we could see her. my mom was there along with mark and our pastor and the rileys. it was the hardest thing i have ever had to do, but amazingly God gave us the strength and we said bye to our baby girl. we knew deep down in our hearts that God had a specific purpose even if we couldn't see it right then.

we had the funeral yesterday. i kept telling mark that i feel too young to have to do this. we had a private viewing which actually was really nice. both families were able to see her and she looked so perfect and peaceful. we even got some more pictures of her since she was all cleaned up and in a beautiful dress. the only problem was that her shoes were just a little bit too big. ;) we had the memorial service around 2 yesterday. it was beautiful. there were so many flowers and so many of our students and athletes came. the whole time i was a little worried. i really wanted to see a slight glance of God's purpose and at the end of the service Bro. Marne (our pastor) gave a salvation invitation and at least 2 people got saved. it was so encouraging to me. i knew that annika was special, but it was so exciting to see results of her impact so soon!

and lastly i want to thank everyone for all of your prayers and support. i don't know how we would have done it without our friends, family, and especially our relationship with God. and we want Him to get all the praise and glory for everything that has happened!! God makes no mistakes!!

baby update!

sorry about the last blog. i'm so tired and cranky that i had to vent somewhere! ;)

we were just at the doctor yesterday, and he said that i'm progressing nicely but it doesn't look like she will be early. which is good for me if you read the last blog. it will be nice to have the baby when i don't have to worry about my class behaving and getting things done for a substitute. as reassurance the doctor told me that he wouldn't let me go past 41 or 42 weeks. ugh!! i don't think that i want to wait that long. but so far everything seems okay.

we have the baby's room all ready to go. we picked up the last few little things that we need last weekend so we're ready when she gets here. we will definitely post pictures of her and her room as soon as we can!

through all of this it has been neat to see how God has taken care of us and the baby. i'm excited to see what she looks like and how God continues to take care of us in the future!

another update

well - here we are may 19 and only 11.5 days of school left. (that doesn't include the weekends!!) that also leaves me with only about 2.5 weeks until i'm due. everyone has been giving me encouraging words about how i'm going to go early. but for me its not that encouraging. pregnancy has not been that horrible for me except that i'm so tired and have to use the restroom all the time. plus if i go early then i have a substitute for my class the rest of the year - which i am prepared for but would rather not have. so i guess i selfishly want to keep my baby where she is until june 4 then by all means let her rip!! :)

sorry if i sound a little bitter. i just get irrritated because every day someone is telling me - oh you look like you could go any day now. and really i would rather not go any day now. i just need to remind myself that God is in control of the timing of the birth and not those around me. his timing will be perfect.

anyway - sorry about that. so far so good. the doctor checked at my last visit and i wasn't dilated at all and i haven't had any contractions so we're doing okay. we did visit the hospital and pre-registered and saw the rooms and its actually really nice. i think that its neat because we kinda just picked a hospital without knowing anything about it. God really worked it out. this whole pregnancy has been a trust issue for me. God has really proven himself to us! well we go to the doctors on wednesday and we'll see if he has any new news for us. otherwise we are just trusting God and waiting on HIS perfect timing!!!