What happens when...

His children are faithful and not only listen when He speaks but act on what the Lord has told them? The answer to prayer sometimes changes and that's what happened with Nana Porter. On more than one occasion before AnnaBeth was born, we had approached Nana about providing daycare for us after my maternity leave. We believe that if possible, family should care for the children if either Mommy or Daddy don't have the option of being a stay at home parent, so of course, Nana was our first option. However, each time Nana prayed about it, she was told no. We know that Nana would have loved to be able to care for AnnaBeth but all three of us also know that you better listen when the Lord speaks because He knows what's best even if it's not the answer that you wanted.

With the answer that Nana was being given, we looked at the rest of the family but knew that it wasn't going to be possible for Julie or Jill to care for her so we started trying to find daycare outside the family. A co-worker referred me to his daycare lady and when I spoke to her in February, she told us that she didn't have a spot for an infant at that time. We still had quite a bit of time to find someone so we continued to pray about it and just waited.

At the beginning of March, we asked Nana if she could put something in the bulletin at their church to see if there were any possibilities for daycare. I also started asking people from our church if they knew of anyone who did daycare out of their home. We had one lead and while we would have loved to use someone from our church for daycare, the pick up hours weren't feasible for her and her house was out of our way. That same week, my co-worker's daycare lady called to say she had an infant spot open again. We interviewed her as well but she had risen her rates, which were now way more than we could afford a week so she wasn't an option for us anymore either.

Now that AnnaBeth is here, the daycare situation has really been weighing on us. Our neighbor down the street was going to talk to her daycare lady for us to see if she had an opening for us but we haven't seen her since we talked about it. We have continued to pray about this situation but have still just been waiting for guidance because none of our options we've come across have felt right.

Yesterday the answer to our prayers about what to do were finally answered. Nana called to ask how AnnaBeth was doing and to also share some news with us. She had a solution for our daycare dilemma. The answer was not one I was expecting. She told me that SHE was available as many days a week as we needed to watch AnnaBeth. I couldn't believe it and was so happy that I was near tears when she told me (and no, it's not just from my hormones...)! I asked her how that came about and she said she didn't know, just that the Lord was telling her very firmly that she was the one to watch AnnaBeth while we're both at work. The Lord works in mysterious ways and our persistence in being still has paid off. I told Nana yesterday that I really think patience is one of the lessons the Lord teaches in EVERY situation and by having patience, we all were able to truly hear what God was saying to each of us. When I told Kent what Nana had called about he said "that's enough to make me want to cry."

A huge burden has been lifted off our shoulders and I don't even know where to begin to express to Nana how much this means to us. AnnaBeth is extremely lucky to have a Nana like her and to be able to spend 4 days a week for 10 or so hours a day with her Nana is indescribable. A daycare person would NEVER love AnnaBeth like her Nana does and a daycare person would NEVER be able to teach her about God and all that He provides. As Tia YaYa said yesterday, Jacob has such a sweet heart and a lot of that has to do with Nana caring for him for most of his life (he gets it from Jill too!) and that will carry over to AnnaBeth. Nana says she isn't perfect but to us she is. We could never ask for a better person to care for our baby day in and day out. Nana has had so much practice (and patience) with the Porter children and grandchildren that she'll know just what to say and the best way to handle anything that comes her way.

So Nana, thank you so much for your persistence in prayer. Not everyone would continue to pray about something like this, especially after they had been told no on more than one occasion. They would have taken the answer and moved on. And thank you for being the Godly woman that you are and seeking the Lord in everything you do. AnnaBeth will learn so much from you about what it truly means to be a child of God and we are so grateful for that! It makes me cry (which in turn makes it hard to see the computer screen to type) to realize once again, how amazing the Lord is and that He truly does know what's best for us. And this is just another good reminder that He answers prayers in His time and according to His purpose.