The Fox Adventure

Most of this year I have been camped out in the Old Testament. I’m talking like base camp. It took me reading 2 Corinthians chapter one and listening to Annie F Downs’ podcast to realize why I was spending so much time reading these ancient stories of God’s chosen people.

Verse six says, “If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.”

It’s not always linear: distress, comfort, and then endurance. The beauty of this walk with Jesus is in our distress, there is comfort. You can’t just tell stories after you’ve been comforted. Keep telling stories. Even in the hurt. Those stories in the midst of chaos and confusion are the ones that shine the brightest in the darkness. They shed the light of salvation and provide the confidence of true comfort.

When we tell the story from a mountaintop perspective, others find comfort and endurance. Those who are walking through the valley go, okay, I can survive this too. It reminds us that sunny days aren’t promised but God’s presence is, and He is there within the heartache – that is why you keep pressing on.

I realized I have been gleaning comfort and endurance through the lives of God’s people.
▫️Watching God’s faithfulness play out in Sarah’s life.
▫️Seeing over and over how God never left nor forsake Joshua.
▫️Finding how to persevere from the story of Ruth and Naomi.
▫️Learning how to wrestle with God through Habakkuk’s account.
▫️Searching Esther for how to wait on God.

The Lord put a whisper in my heart to share my story of distress, my story of longing and waiting to be a mother. Obeying God can be hard, we have a choice to ignore his calling or to walk faithfully with Him. My prayer from the beginning was that He uses this for His glory. I am choosing to lean in. I am choosing to share this story.

Fertility has been a topic that is not discussed enough, it’s a hard, emotional and different for every couple. Andrew and I have been trying to get pregnant for over two years. When we got married at 20, we had a lot of growing to do, personally and as a couple. We wanted to grow together before we brought a human into this world. Both of our parents had no trouble conceiving, so in our minds, there would be no issue for us. We both had magic ages for when we should start trying, Andrew’s was 27 years old and mine was 25 years old. We meant in the middle and went off birth control shortly after our 26th birthdays. We could have never imaged two years later, we would still be hoping, wishing and dreaming to be a mother and a father.

These two years: “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Matthew 7:25

If the foundation was our righteousness, we would have crumbled. If it was our strength, we would have folded. If the foundation the Fox family was built on anything less then the one who is faithful –  we would have quit. But God’s character and compelling grace have kept us going.

xx katie