It's a Girl: Grace Christina!

Many of you have heard by now that Jennifer is expecting again...cue the "do you know what causes that" questions ;-) She wrote about that journey a bit here. It has been quite the year for us. It has been a year of firsts for us. Let's see we have started the journey to adopt here in Guatemala, we have begun another part of our ministry here, Iglesia Nueva Vida, and many other new things, such as me going back to school etc. etc.

We have been praying for about 15 years for a little girl. "Our plan" was always to have 2 boys and 2 girls so after about the 2nd boy (Levi, who will be 16 in December) we started praying for a little girl. I am laughing right now as I write this because we had 3 more boys after this. After a few years after Caleb came I was ok with all boys. Then the Lord put it on our heart to adopt a little girl from here in Guatemala and we have been in process for this for a while but it hasn't happened yet.

But Jennifer over the last few years has wanted to try again to have another of our own. So we have been trying. You can read about that journey on the above link to Jennifer's blog. About 4 months ago Jennifer got pregnant which is always hard for us especially the first few months since she has had so many miscarriages. But things have gone well so far and about 6 weeks ago or so we had an ultrasound and found out that it was a girl. I was in complete shock. I asked the Dr if he was sure and then again at the next appointment and in certain ways I am still doubting but at the same time getting more and more excited!

For the first time in our lives our home is beginning to fill up with pink and purple stuff. We have cried tears of joy over and over. We are so grateful to the Lord for this new life and big blessing coming in December. Thanks to all of you who have prayed with us about this over the years. I am reading through the Bible and came across Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2. This is her prayer of praise for allowing her to have Samuel after years of not being able to have kids and then the Lord blesses her with Samuel. I leave you with the first few verses of this prayer. We are praising the Lord and very grateful. Maybe He be glorified and praised through this pregnancy and life of Grace Christina Kunkel!

Then Hannah prayed and said:

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;

in the Lord my horn is lifted high.

My mouth boasts over my enemies,

for I delight in your deliverance. 

“There is no one holy like the Lord;

there is no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God.