Our Blog Begins

Welcome to the blog of The Phipps Five! We wanted to start a website for friends and ministry partners to be able to see and read about what's going on with our family and our transition to life in Italy. Though we're still several months away from actually moving, the "transition" is definitely beginning, as we're being faced with more and more change and more decisions that need to be made. The adventure has begun! We hope you are encouraged to read through our journey of faith in following God to Italy. We feel like every day we are asked to exercise a faith we didn't know we were capable of. And yet, every day, God provides even the faith to follow Him. We count it such a privilege to be doing what we're doing.

So, I (Jen) couldn't think of a better way to begin our family's blog than with the announcement of the birth of Benjamin Lewis Phipps. Our precious little guy arrived two weeks early, on March 13. We induced early because of concern about his size and my blood pressure beginning to rise. God was so good to provide all we needed during Ben's delivery. It was all we could have asked for. We were especially thankful for an incredible nurse, who really made it possible for me to have the almost completely natural delivery we had wanted, despite having to take Pitocin. From beginning to end, labor was 1 hour, 59 minutes--another sweet gift from God. Despite having done this twice already, Cody really came through like never before in the coaching department. We would both say it was definitely one of the most incredible experiences of our lives.

Benjamin has been with us for two weeks now, and already we can not remember life without him. He is an absolute delight! He is a very laid back little guy, really not making much noise unless he's hungry or needing a diaper change. And he's already allowing us a six hour stretch of sleep at night. We have been savoring this precious time of his first few weeks. We've been cuddling at every opportunity. The kids LOVE him. Gavin especially. Gavin is our nurturer, and he is loving looking after his little brother. He has been very concerned that for some reason we would leave Benjamin somewhere. He has been so, so sweet to Ben. Hannah has shown a soft heart to her new little brother too, offering to give Ben his first bath. It has been really fun to see how grown up she is with this new brother.

And in the midst of this sweet time with our little one, we will be putting our house on the market on Monday. God has been so good this Spring to allow us to get all of the little projects done we needed to, to get our house ready. It is a bittersweet time for us. We are so thankful for our house. We see so many ways God so perfectly provided it for us. We have loved living here! And so it is hard to get ready to say goodbye. We also know it is one of the many things God is asking us to give up in order to follow Him. It is a cost we are willing to pay. But it is something we also have to grieve. We have been so blessed by our home that we are praying for a new family to buy it that will be just as blessed. Since it is our first house, we are also praying for God to provide the money we need to get out of it. We are leaving for our International Training on June 6, and we're praying we'd be able to close and move before then. Again, even selling our house is a huge step of faith for us.

Well, I think this has been a good beginning to our little blog. We'll post more as God continues to bring all the pieces together. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your prayers on our behalf!