Please Pray.

Please pray for baby Stellan.

Currently he's not doing well and is in need of your prayers.
Please head here to show your support: MckMama
Please take a moment to pray for Stellan and his family. For his doctors and the nurses that are caring for him. For the decisions that will be made that will change his life.

Intercession

Hi Margaret,
In praying for you and your family, the Lord has shown me a beautiful image of you and Leif reaching out to those whom the church normally would not. That is powerful for the Kingdom of God and a ministry in great need. Keep seeking Him for your calling in Christ Jesus.

Last night someone sent me this message and it really meant a lot to me. First, that someone was praying specifically for Leif and I, and that God put this on their heart. And second, that He has a plan for us. Ever since we found out about Monterey I felt like God was leading us there to do something great for His Kingdom.

Continue to pray.

Hallelujah!

I love this picture so much.
I feel like it says so much about my relationship with Leif
&the love we share.
I'm happy I get to serve God with him.

God is in control!

God has given me peace. A lot of it.

Leif will no longer have a job come June 11. There's no more funding for his position and they're over budget. Its understandable, no one is concerned with giving NASA money because there are more important things to spend money on at the moment. We found this out on Tuesday and at first I cried and was upset. But then I spoke with my mom and she told me I had a choice: "I could mope or I could trust God". I decided to Trust. So while Leif and I could be complaining, stressing about money, worrying, etc. We have chosen to allow God to do His job. We have chosen to trust Him with everything and continue to live our lives knowing that He is good and He will take care of us.

With this choice God has given me peace. I have no fear. I simply have hope. I also have excitement:) While this is very unexpected, we're seeing it as a blessing in disguise. We're considering so many different options. School being the top one. Leif was a psychology major and has wanted to go back to school since he graduated two and a half years ago. We're talking about grad school. Should he pursue a MA or a MA & a Phd? Where would that put our family for 2 or 5 years? We are talking about what we should do, where we should go, but we don't want to forget that God is the one who is really in control and at the end of the day we're going to end up where He wants us, and doing what He wants us to do.

Tonight was a bit hard though because we've become so involved with our church and have grown close with so many people. It really hit me tonight, after I spent a weekend at church, that I might not be here for much longer. That I won't be around all the wonderful people that bless me so much in so many ways! Its hard for me to imagine leaving this community that God has blessed us with. I've never felt apart of a family and community like this and it scares me a bit to leave it. I love church, I love being surrounded by people that are constantly uplifting me and encouraging me. Leif and I are finding ourselves being blessed always. Why do we have to leave?!

At the same time, I know Leif and I will leave the church knowing that we have learned a lot. Although we haven't been there for very long, we have learned so much. Especially me. The women in the church have been great examples of godly wives and godly mothers. They are godly women. The type of woman I am striving to be everyday! I know God is good and He will guide Leif and I to a church that He wants us to be part of.

While its a bit daunting not knowing what our future looks like, where money will be coming from, its so comforting to know that God is bigger than job loss:) When we were in this situation last year He took care of us. Why wouldn't He do it again? We know He will!

Hallelujah!

Please keep us in your prayers, we appreciate them. We definitely believe that when two or more are gathered, prayers are answered!

Prayer Requests

I've been praying for Riley from the minute I knew I was pregnant, and actually... I was praying long before then. When Riley was born I found myself praying for her more often, praying little things, and big. From sleeping well to knowing Jesus in the future. While in the process of praying for Riley more, I've found myself praying for others more often as well. Simple things like praying their day goes well, that they pass tests, do well in work... so forth. I've really been enjoying it plus that's more time with God!

I think its important to pray. I also think its important to pray for others. It doesn't take long, just a simple prayer asking God to bless someone and give them strength. If you pray and even if you don't, please offer up one for my family and I:) And if you have any prayer requests you would like us to pray please let me know! Even if its just a quick prayer that you have a good day at work or get some sleep, Leif and I will be more than happy to pray for you and your family.

Sacrifice.

Leif and I are in the process of taking bigger steps to get ourselves out of debt and to save money. We have goals for ourselves and our family. Leif would like to further his education in computers since that's what he does at JPL. Then eventually, hopefully be able to go back and get his M.A in Psychology, since well that's what he went to college for. I want to finish school but need to find a new major since my old one was limited to Biola and other private Christian schools. We want to be able to buy house, but only after debt has been taken care of. Thankfully I'm not having to pay off any of my school loans (Thank you wonderful parents) and so we only have to deal with Leifs. A year from now a big portion of our credit cards will hopefully be paid off and we'll have saved a bit of money.

To get to the places we would like to, it calls for sacrifice right now. Sacrifice is not always something I enjoy. Somedays are better than others. I think its hard to keep sacrificing when you don't see any change happening. I expect this BIG change right away, but sometimes its gradual. And with our current situation that's how it is.

Leif and I made a big decision to downsize from our current apartment to a smaller one. I had a really hard time with this. One, because I love my apartment. Its the first place I've ever lived on my own and called my home. Second, its so big and comfortable. I like being comfortable. I love all the space. But the smaller apartment is a smarter choice because: It costs less. Ugh. It still has two rooms and we'll be getting hardwood floors and ceiling fans. So I can't be that upset about it:) We also feel this is the way God is leading us. We can't really say no to Him, and we don't want to.

I know that in the long run this is what's best for our family and where we're headed. I know I'll look back a year from now and be so grateful we did this. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement. I really appreciate them:)

The obvious.

Right now I wish that God would just give Leif and I a sign. A very clear one to be exact.

We recently decided that we are ready to move from our current apartment to something closer to Leif's work. We knew we wanted to do this when we first moved here to Monrovia. Leif's work is in Pasadena, about a 20 minute drive from where we live currently. And since its LA there's usually traffic in the mornings and the evenings, so really its more than 20 minutes.

We've found a few places by his work, but so far they've either been taken, too small, too expensive, or just crappy. Yet, there is one that is perfect. Its a little out of our price range but that's okay. Right? Well we want it to be alright, but we're not sure. We made a pro's and con's list and while the pro's outweighed the con's that wasn't enough to base a decision off of. I thought it would be though... Then we went over our budget, still that wasn't enough to make the decision. We prayed of course. But we still have no idea what to do! I thought it would be obvious what we were to do but its not! Do we move to this house? Or do we wait for another one? This is where I would like a sign to appear, or some guidance. Patience is not one of my virtues, I really want an answer now. When it comes down to it though, I simply want to do what God wants us to do, and I want to do what will be best for our family.

So if I could just figure out what that would be...