Sometimes I need a reminder of how we’ve gotten through (or rather, how God has gotten us through) big issues in the past, as an encouragement to get through a big issue I might currently be going through. I’m reminded of one particularly difficult time – and of God’s provision during that time – nearly every day.

it was more like "Pregnant again???!?!!?"

Three days before my daughter’s 2nd birthday (on a Tuesday), we found out we were unexpectedly expecting our 3rd child. Yes, I said 3rd! Daughter was 16 months old when Son#1 was born, and all of a sudden our plan of waiting to have 2 more kiddos until my Sweetie finished graduate school was completely dashed. We KNEW we were listening to the Lord. We felt like we were following closely with what He wanted for our lives, and that our ‘plan’ was in line with His plan, so this was a real shock to us. We were on student visas as Americans in Canada, with only 1 term left to go. This development meant that either we’d be traveling and moving late in my pregnancy (a pregnancy that might end up being high risk with 2 previous c-sections), or we’d somehow have to stay longer in Canada. It looked less than ideal, and very confusing.

To say this pregnancy totally snuck up on me would be an understatement. I was very familiar with my body’s patterns, and not only had we obviously conceived in spite of that familiarity (and 3 forms of birth control!), I was also 11 days late in my cycle before realizing that being pregnant was even a possibility. With my first 2 pregnancies, I knew I was pregnant before I had even missed a cycle. This time, I was feeling pretty awful, but thought it was stress from the end of term stuff with my Sweetie, and maybe that I’d eaten something that hadn’t agreed with me. As soon as I realized I was indeed late, I put all the pieces together and thought, “Yes, absolutely, this IS how I feel when I’m pregnant. How did I miss that?”

I’m almost sad to say that I was devastated. I was having real faith issues. I felt almost betrayed by the Lord – How could this happen, when we were so careful, and when we had been listening intently to follow His leading, which hadn’t seem to include another kiddo so quickly? Were we wrong in what we were so sure we were hearing? Had we really missed the boat so badly? I was honestly heartbroken and in shock at being pregnant, and was already so very sick (I was morning sick with all of my kiddos through the whole pregnancies). I didn’t want to feel bad about having a baby (I do firmly believe that children are a blessing!) but I was confused and not at all happy about being pregnant right then.

Sweetie’s parents were coming up from the States for Daughter’s 2nd birthday party, so we decided to wait until they got to our house in Vancouver, BC to tell them the news. Since we weren’t planning to have any more kiddos until we were ‘planted’ in a church somewhere, and apparently God had other plans, Sweetie’s parents were absolutely clueless about this development.

At the time, we had a Jeep Cherokee Sport, and it barely fit our two ginormous car-seats in the back seat. I had no idea how we’d transport a 3rd kiddo, too. It was another detail that made no sense to me, and created more confusion and frustration. I was a mess.

Little did we know, that on the very same day we found out about our pregnancy (Tuesday), Sweetie’s parents were making an appointment with a mechanic in their city for the next day (Wednesday). On that Wednesday, the day before they left (on Thursday) to come to our house for Daughter’s party (on Friday), they bought us a mini-van. The day WE found out about being pregnant was the same day that Sweetie’s parents booked the time to buy the van. (jaw-dropping realization for me there!)

It was the only red mini-van she could find - so it's a PARTY van!

Sweetie’s parents knew that once we were in a church somewhere that we’d need a 2nd vehicle, and that having been students for so long heading into a church role somewhere, we likely wouldn’t have money to get another one for a long time. They had discovered this Ford Astrovan, had it all checked out with a mechanic, and got a great deal on it that they couldn’t refuse. It was to be a graduation gift for Sweetie graduating from seminary. They couldn’t bring the van up to us right away (it would need to be properly imported and stuff). So they stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way and picked up a red “Hot Wheels” mini-van to be our ‘for now’ present until we could get the real van.

We sat the parents down after Daughter’s party, saying we had news to share. They looked very nervous! When we told them we were expecting a another kiddo, they were thrilled, of course. They were doubly, even triple-y thrilled. They really thought we would be telling them that we were headed to Asia or Africa or other far away place to serve in some church. A new grand-baby was MUCH better news than that! And the 3rd ‘thrill’ was from the news that they brought…

Then they shared that they had bought this mini-van for us on Wednesday, and presented us a card with a long poem in it as well as the “Hot Wheels” Mini-Van in a little display box. I just sat and cried and cried. Nobody had ever purchased anything like that for us before, and I was amazed and surprised.

And more than that, God had taken care of our need even before it really presented itself. He knew what we needed, and was providing for details before we even knew what the details were to ask for help with. I was blown away. WOW!

It was after that when I began to feel more settled about the pregnancy. Maybe we weren’t wrong after all. Maybe God just wanted to go about His plan in a different way than we understood at first. He was obviously taking care of details. Maybe it would all be ok…

It was almost a month before I could even be excited about having another baby. We got things worked out to stay in Canada on a post-graduate study visa, which provided another year for us to figure out exactly where we were supposed to be and what God was planning. All 3 of our babies were born in Canada, and if it hadn’t been for this pregnancy, we might not even be in Canada still today. While having to wait on the Lord through that time, we watched many doors close that we thought would surely be open to us in the States, and many many opportunities become available in Canada. It was clear that He wanted us to stay, and we probably wouldn’t have considered it if we’d stuck to the plan of going ‘home’ to the States after graduate school was finished. Canada is home now, it’s where our heart is, where the Lord wants us to be, and we often say that MrCutie, our 3rd kiddo, was a huge part of that happening.

MrCutie himself is often a reminder of God’s work to take care of all the details and provide for all our needs.  Driving the red Astrovan we called “Clifford, the Big Red Van” (because it had a Clifford security system in it with a big “Clifford” sticker on the dash) was often a real clear reminder as well.

Even though we don’t have the Astrovan anymore, I still have that “Hot Wheels” mini-van. It sits on the top of my stove, where I see it at nearly every meal time. As the old Hebrew proverb says: “Put something where you can see it, so your eye can remind your heart.” That little red mini-van serves as a nearly constant reminder of God’s very real provision for our family.