Blessing Number Eight Arrives – 11:36pm, December 28, 2008

Mama and baby are doing very well!!! Thank you for your prayers. Gabriel (Man of God) Leander (Lion Man) Primer (First Reader of the Sacred Scripture at Mass) seems to be a very mellow and laid back lad. He weighs every bit of 9lbs 2oz (according to Julianne ) and is 20 inches long (short and stocky… just like his uncles ). Both he and his mama are looking forward to a long winters nap. Daddy is very pleased and thankful to his Faithful Heavenly Father for another blessed world changer. "Lord, may you grant me the strength and wisdom to lead him, by word and by deed, to the foot of your cross."

I want to thank you all for your prayers. I also want to convey my deepest gratitude to our loving, caring and extremely experienced midwife, Terry Rogers, for her calm and sweet disposition and her deep love for us and for Christ. Also, for our dear sweet friend and sister in Christ, Tracy Berard, who served and served and served us throughout the whole labor, so graciously. We thank God for such wonderful gifts.

We have given him the name Gabriel… to honor the day the angel came to Mary. Our celebration of Christmas is so meaningful to us. This year especially the celebration of the gift of a child has been precious. Gabriel means "Man of God". We pray that Gabe will follow hard after his great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Leander (Lion Man) in honor of our dear friend, father, brother… Dr. Leander Eckard. May Gabe have the sensitive, evangelistic, stubborn-headed drive of his namesake!! We miss you Doc! Did I mention, Gabe is short, stocky, barrel-chested, has two or three chins, and wrinkles on the back of his neck?  It was easy to name him Leander.

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Brian

The Blessings of a Faithful God

As our building fund decreased to nearly nothing, and our fall ministry and activities increased, we began to think perhaps we were going to spend another winter without making any progress on the lodge. But, we are so close to being able to finish! As we prayed about the situation and patiently waited for something, we both became content with letting the progress go in God's timing, not our own. This is something that we have had to do over and over and over since we started.
Well, recently a dear soul called and said they had a check for us, could we stop by. Not only was it enough to make the few final necessities, like sheet rock on the bathroom walls, countertop in the kitchen, and some wiring and septic fixtures, but it looks as though we will be able to purchase a cistern, pump, and all we need to have RUNNING WATER.
Brian has been making calls about what pump to use on our 600 foot well with our solar power system. Then we took a trip to town to look at poly cisterns and see what all that entails. The pump has been ordered and arrived a few days ago, and the pump guy is scheduled to come out next week.
So, as we look forward to celebrating Christmas this week, we have more than a few things to be thankful for. We are still amazed that we are able to build this big, wonderful house, without a bank mortgage, on our modest income and growing family. It is nothing short of a miracle really, which is the whole reason we named our home Providence Lodge.
As the snow has been falling, we imagine how cozy and romantic it will be to observe the winter stillness from within the rustic walls, a cup of our favorite tea ("Preacher's Passion"**) in hand, and little munchkins snuggled in all around us, but alas, we will be happily content with our little parsonage until that momentous day arrives. As with waiting for a baby to be born, it is always NOT my timing, but as God wills, and what a wonderful lesson to learn to sit it out with a rejoicing heart.


May you be encouraged as you read this, of what a great, good, loving God we serve, and be thankful for all the good things He blesses you with each and every day. Merry Christmas!





** Preacher's Passion tea: 1 part of each of the following: chamomile, oat straw, passion flower, peppermint. Each herb calms a specific system within your body, making for a very relaxing, de-stressing drink, and it tastes really good. We encourage our children to drink LOTS of it. ;-)


We got the recipe from THE BULK HERB CO, where we also guy the herbs to make it, 1/2 lb. of each makes a huge batch that lasts (even us) for months.

Beginning the Interior Walls

Our next project is building the bathroom walls and running the plumbing lines. We have one wet wall downstairs, with another directly above on the second floor, allowing our lines to pass through the floors as easily as possible. There will be two bathroom on the second floor with the one wall accessing both. This was a fairly trickly part of our floor plan, as we needed to make sure we would not run into a floor joist, or have drains hanging down into the living areas. We have been pleased with how quickly the walls went up, and hope to be hooked up to the septic lines and drywalling soon.

Just for fun, here are some too-good-not-to-share pics our budding photographer daughters took.

A Front Door and Some Heat

Last year we went door shopping and came home with a 7 1/2 foot tall knotty alder used door from a salvage yard for just slightly more money than a standard door from Lowe's.
We were pretty thrilled with it and, now that is installed, we are still thrilled with it. We were blessed to have some expert help from friend and fellow pastor Dave, who helped us build a jam for the door.
Again, it seems everything in connection with a log building is complicated and took longer than expected.
The lock set will establish a tone for more black metal fixtures inside the home, and really makes the door look great.

Meanwhile, Brian and Julianne have been working on a hearth for the wood stove that will be the primary heat in the lodge. We really have our heart set on a Kuma stove, with glass door and turned legs, but that is not in the budget at the moment so we have a free bee Blaze King set up. It is a super stove, but boy it is ugly!
We are modeling the hearth from a photo of a Kuma stove setup in their brochure. It will look like a fireplace with a stove set in it.



For the time being, the hearth is in phase one, with just the wood structure and stove sitting on it.
We have been gathering rock via a friend, and will be wrapping the entire hearth in stone and finishing it off with a log mantle.
Well, the stove is functional for the winter, and with the door on and all the cracks and crannies sealed up we are ready to efficiently heat our home, a good thing with snow in the forecast!
We have been blessed with an unusually pleasant fall, of which we are very thankful.
Now for some firewood!!