Volume 10

~ News From "Your Birthing Family" ~

Issue 8

_______________________________________________

   

Our Charis Family Sara Dunn Dan and Sara Dunn with their seven precious children  Isaac 8, Jacob 12, Amelia 10, Ethan 14, Penelope 15 months, Miriam 6 and Hazel 3.5 Hello to all from King George, Virginia, a semi-rural community and home to my ever-growing family. I’m Sara Dunn and I’ve just begun my studies to become a doula and midwife through Charis Childbirth. I’m happy to have the opportunity to introduce myself to the Charis family. I grew up in a military family, living in a few different places. I met my husband, Dan, the first semester of my freshman year of college. We married one week after my graduation. At our wedding, an older friend told us we would grow up together. I thought she was silly. I was 21, a fully grown adult, thank you very much. Now that we have been married as long as I was alive before we met, I can say she was right. I am grateful for the way God has grown us together so far. We homeschool our seven children, Ethan 14, Jacob 12, Amelia 10, Isaac 8, Miriam 6, Hazel 3.5 and Penelope 15 months. While we live in an area of rolling fields and pastures, our only animals are a big Siberian Husky/Terrier mix and a bossy Boxer. We’d love to have enough land for chickens, goats and a huge garden someday, but for now we grow children and cram as much into our box gardens as we can. The Lord has just walked my family through a long and difficult season of life. In 2009 my father was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and began a painful and depressing downhill struggle. In 2011 we had to move Dan’s parents to an assisted living facility and our life became a whirlwind of doctors’ appointments and elder care errands. My father died in November 2013. My mother-in-law died in November of 2014 and my father-in-law died June 29th, 2015. During this time we also experienced the loss of three beloved uncles, major illnesses, miscarriages, surgeries, hurricanes, earthquakes, and that’s just the remarkable things. Between these things and the everyday challenges of life, it seemed like we would only catch a breath before the next wave slammed us under, over and over again. You cannot truly appreciate the Light until you take it with you into such darkness. We can look back at that time and easily see a hundred moments where God’s hand was vibrantly evident. So many times He brought encouragement, provision, and strength at just the right moment and often from unexpected sources. His mercy, grace, and love were abundant, overflowing at all times. He took us through that season to test us, strengthen us, teach us, and burn away things that were not necessary and may have become idols. During this time of sorrow, God graciously bestowed great blessings. We welcomed two little girls in 2011 and 2014, both born peacefully at home. We saw both my father and father-in-law acknowledge their need for a Savior just days before they died. Then, on August 2 of this year, my stepmother was baptized in the bay at Buckroe Beach as a public profession of faith in Jesus as her Lord and Savior. As I watched my sweet stepmother be plunged under the warm bay waters, I was reminded of all the times in the past six years when the waves seemed to push us under. During that time, I clung to Isaiah 43:1b-3 “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” As my stepmother came back up, symbolizing a new creation, it struck me that every time one of those waves of trial crashes over our heads and we come back up, it’s a reminder of victory over the grave. Now we enter a different season of life. Though I have great faith that this season will be sweeter as I begin to play an active role in helping mothers welcome new blessings into their lives, I know it will be no less busy or challenging. I could tremble thinking of all the work that is ahead of me, but I know my God is with me. The water will not overwhelm me. Though the flames burn all else away, they shall not consume me and God will bring good things out of the ashes. Praise be His Name.  'Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth,  Among  them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and The one who labors with child,  together,  A great throng shall return there...And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the LORD.'  Jeremiah 31:8, 14 ~~~ ©2015 Charis Childbirth Services, All Rights Reserved Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends in its entirety, leaving all attribution intact. August  2015