Balaam’s Donkey
21 Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. 22 But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road.
24 Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. 25 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again.
26 Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. 28 Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
29 Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”
30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”
“No,” he said.
31 Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.
April 4th marks our 1 year anniversary of having a positive pregnancy test. Almost one year ago, our lives completely changed. We had already been living our lives for Jesus but now God was going to bless us with a little life to take care of. He was going to let us experience and give us that glimpse of just how much He loves us. Our world would never be the same.
Tonight I printed off my past year on Facebook. There was a tremendous amount of praising God. God is sovereign. God is just. We had an exceptional year.
Status Updates from that first weekend...
Brandi Shantil
Would like to thank God for the quick rainstorm and for saving the sunshine for the game.
April 2, 2010 at 2:37pm via iPhone ·
--On March 2nd after plenty of praying and discussion, we felt led to start trying for a baby. This was much sooner than we had originally planned. Our original idea was to be married for a year then start trying but as we would truly discover, God's timing supersedes our planning.
The month had gone by quickly and as my missed period day was approaching, I religiously began taking pregnancy tests. 5 days before a missed period, 4 days before up until the day we were leaving for Texas to go on a mini-vacation with my niece, Janie. Lance and I had planned on making the trip to the first Rangers game and had planned on hitting Six Flags so we thought we would bring her along. That afternoon before leaving out for Texas, I took one last test--there were rides to be ridden and hot tubs to soak in. The test was negative. Seeing as to how I was technically now 3 days late for my period and still the tests were negative, I assumed I was merely late and we went on about the weekend as planned. There was a chance for rain so I prayed the 3 plus hour trip there. This was Janie's first pro-baseball game. I wanted her to enjoy the whole experience.
Brandi Shantil
Had the best time with the fam in Texas. I enjoy the road trips where my husband and I can sing and praise Jesus. We got an awesome surprise when we arrived home. We have so much to be thankful for. Thank you Jesus:-)
April 4, 2010 at 12:10am via iPhone ·
The day had been exhaustive. We had stayed up late at the hotel. They had a hot tub and a pool and I wanted to make sure that she got to enjoy every perk of a vacation. So she spent the late hours with us taking pictures on the hotel grounds and then jumping in and out of a cold pool with a new found friend from Canada. We woke up early and walked over to Six Flags and rode the rides all day in the hot Texas sun. Janie had never been to Six Flags. I enjoyed seeing the amazement and excitement in her eyes when venturing new rides and seeing new things. After Six Flags, we made our way back home. 3 plus hours and a lot of christian screaming/singing later we were finally home. She was probably thankful to no longer be a captive audience for her aunt and uncle's "You are Holy/Prince of Peace" duet. We were all worn out and ready for bed but we had to take one more test. Tomorrow was Easter. Lance's parents and my mom and step-dad would be at church so what better time to find out I was pregnant and be able to share the good news.
We had been living in a very tiny remodeled 2 bedroom/1bath home in Muskogee. Lance and I huddled into the cramped bathroom and the testing commenced. One line, two lines...TWO LINES. We jumped. We yelled. We hugged. We kissed. We praised God. My niece had no idea what was going on in the bathroom! We came out and she just looked at us like we had completely lost our minds. Lance looked at me and looked at her and said, "can we tell her?" Lance told her and she smiled and she sat there. I'm not sure she knew what to think. Lance asked her if she was excited and she said, "yeah, but I'm tired." I took a picture of the test and then finally we all crawled into bed. I can't say that I got much sleep that night. God had just confirmed in us that He wanted us to have a baby.
Brandi Shantil
is going to be a mommy. What a perfect Easter present. My savior continues to give:-)
April 4, 2010 at 6:24pm via iPhone ·
The morning was exciting. We took Easter Sunday pictures while Lance placed his hand on my belly and repeated "mama" (pronounced maw-muh by him). I had told Janie not to tell anyone because we were going to make the announcement later on to everyone at the same time. But that's not exactly how it worked out. We had the camera at church and withouth thinking, Janie gave the camera to my mom to let her see our pictures from the morning and from the weekend. As she was scrolling, she came to the stick with two pink lines. She looked up at me and instantly I realized what had happened. I grabbed the phone and told her to "sshhh." I wanted everyone to find out together--our church family and our parents. Tears had already began streaming down her face. We rushed to our seats and awaited the praise reports/prayer request call. Lance stood and gave the announcement. His parents, brother, nephew, my mom, step-dad and with all of our church family gathered, he shared the good news.
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