I'm going to confess to something- I may have prayed a few selfish prayers in my lifetime. I can say that over the last several months I've prayed a few selfish prayers regarding our adoption and how it relates to one of my grandmothers, who hasn't been doing well. The last 7 months have brought about various difficult situations within our family. We have experienced a number of dynamics in the first half of 2013 that have caused us to pray for our family like we never have. Several of those recipients have been our grandmothers who are still living. Up until about 2 weeks ago, Nate and I still had 3 living grandmothers between the two of us. I still have both of mine, and he still had one, until God took his last living grandmother home to be with Him mid-June. During this time of praying for grandparents and other family, I have prayed selfishly that God would allow my Granny A to live to at least see a photo of her next great granddaughter.
Selfish? Maybe.
However, I'm pretty sure that's not too selfish a prayer to pray. I can certainly think of worse, so as we wait to be matched, I continue to pray that God will allow us to be matched with our child before He takes her home.
Over the last 6 months, we've watched both of my grandmothers continue to battle different stages of Alzheimer's. There have been difficult days for sure, and quite honestly, I am thankful that my grandmother on my mom's side is still with us this summer, as we weren't sure she would be back during Christmas. Though it is hard to say it, we know her days are numbered and certainly want her to enjoy them. After recent conversations with her doctors, she has now reached a stage where she is hardly eating anything and unfortunately this disease has prevented her brain's ability to tell her body "You're hungry" and with that has come some difficult things to see over the last several months and particularly the last several weeks.
Now while this is certainly difficult to observe, we have chosen to still see the "good" in the midst of the situation, and have found it so cute that even though she won't eat hardly anything else now, she will still munch on a Pringle and a cookie in her room when she feels like it. She's always loved her Pringles, Oreos, & chocolate chip cookies. (well I guess you could pretty much say anything chocolate!)
It's one of those funny things about Grandma- she would always have something sweet after her meal, but boy you had better have a Pringle or a Ritz cracker close by because as soon as dessert time was over or her cookie was gone-
out came a Pringle or a Ritz cracker.
The fact that I was even able to get these photos of her on one of my recent visits, was quite miraculous as she's not always cooperative to let me take photos when I visit . I think she sort of knew something was up when I would snap a photo or two as she would give me all sorts of looks, but I told her I was just "testing my camera out".
While yes, it is such a hard thing to see happening, we have also taken the advice of doctors to allow her to enjoy what's left of the life that God chooses to give her. I must admit, God continues to give her such a fun personality and she hasn't lost that feistiness that she's always had. We had a great visit with her last weekend and as always, she was quite full of personality.
She certainly may not remember a lot these days, but boy is she quick with a comeback! (especially when my dad starts joking around with her-- those two can get out of control sometimes when they're teasing each other)
My parents and brother happened to be in town too when I visited, so we all had some fun conversations with her and enjoyed taking her outside on the front porch and letting her get a little sunshine. One thing about Grandma A, she's always loved to soak up the sun! This day was no different- even if she was only allowed 5 minutes of direct sunlight, she wanted to enjoy every minute and pretend she was laying out.
While we were visiting, the staff brought out a gift someone recently brought by for her-- and just so that you better understand it, she's always loved Jeff Gordon and has had a crush on him for years (in addition to cheering him on when she used to watch racing). She has always made jokes that he was going to come by and pick her up and take her on a date with him. Oh the stories we've heard about Jeff Gordon over the years! So recently, someone was kind enough to bring Jeff Gordon to her and now the staff at the assisted living home change the sign each day with some sort of funny note for her.
Certainly time will tell how long God will give our sweet Grandma A life on earth, but in the meantime- we are going to let her eat as many cookies and Pringles as she will in a day. She's lived a long and full life and something tells me a few chips and cookies each day probably aren't going to hurt. So, in the meantime, we'll continue to pray selfish prayers that God gives Grandma the ability to see the photo or face of her next great granddaughter, if it is His will, before He takes her home.
Yes, we did! (and no- we haven't been matched yet, sorry to disappoint) So let's back up just a bit and unfold our comical crib-buying adventure. On Thursday, we had to go to the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services) office to complete our fingerprints for our immigration approval form, as it was time for renewal. (This is the form that approves us to adopt a foreign-born child) So yes, even though you know we've been fingerprinted with what probably sounds like a hundred times, off we were again to complete what should be our last set. When we arrived, unlike last time, the immigration office was packed with people and the wait was very long, so we had no other choice, but to sit it out. Well, not realizing that we couldn't work from our phones while we waited (apparently putting them on silence was not enough) we had a funny moment when we both "got in trouble" for working on our phones. Oops! It felt like being back in school again when the teacher catches you doing something you aren't supposed to do and reprimands you in front of the class (haha). We both kind of chuckled, finished our current email, and put them away.
It was at this point we really just sort of sat and took in the moment. It was quite amazing to take in all of the different nationalities & languages represented in the room. I commented that it felt a little like what Rev. 7:9 will be like when all nations, tribes, and tongues will be gathered in heaven (though I joked the USCIS office is far from heaven- mind you), but I think you get the point. Finally our numbers were called and we finished up our fingerprints and were then off to our next order of business-- going to check out and potentially buy a crib. (did I just type that?!?!) Yes, it is crib buying time.
Rewind about two days prior, I had come across an amazing sale on cribs (as I get random email offers emailed on different products) and upon seeing the ad, I thought, "Well, might as well see what they are offering because eventually we have to make this purchase." The great thing is that we just happened to also have a great discount coupon that had been emailed to us earlier so that was also in the back of my mind. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE a bargain, a sale, buying/selling on craigslist, or that great deal at a yard sale. I'll pinch a penny anywhere that I can (Nate and my dad both have such wonderful stories of this "attribute" of mine...haha- don't ask) so seeing there was a crib sale AND a great coupon on top of it-- well, I couldn't resist at least "looking" (as I was convinced we'd buy another time).
We had researched this stuff earlier and had asked several people their opinions on the matter, so we felt like this one was the thing we would probably purchase new for the nursery- though we had no idea how many options/colors and prices there were for cribs-gracious-- reminiscent of that feeling of buying your first car all over again (so many options, prices, and things to know). I must say, though, there are some absolutely beautiful cribs out there (which of course come w/ a very pretty price tag too, that we just couldn't personally justify) so we concluded to keep it simple, safe & sturdy. The one that happened to be on sale was classic and simple, at about the lowest price out there for a crib and had great reviews. It was very well made and after asking some questions and doing some research, we had the store put one on hold for us while the sale was still going on & while we could still use our coupon-- "JUST IN CASE" we actually saw it in person and decided to purchase-- knowing of course that there was no way we were going to purchase this little piece of furniture yet. Well, if you are a lady and reading this, there is one thing you must know when taking your husband shopping, don't expect to spend very long in a baby store and just understand that they will probably just agree with anything you pick out as long as the price is right, just so they can quickly get out of the baby store. (haha!) So with a quick look at all of the cribs and the one that was on sale, we made our purchase in less than 15 minutes (minus the earlier research, which for me was a miracle in and of itself) and off we went to pick it up out back. (all the while both of us commenting how weird it felt to actually buy a crib)
One missing detail though- the sale clerk was a really young girl who had given us the dimensions by showing us hand motions of how long/wide the package would be and based on that, was convinced it would certainly fit in our car... OR NOT. She met us out back and wheels it out and the width of this thing was twice what she had expressed to us and I immediately laughed knowing this was going to be fun to figure out how to fit in our car. We have fit many ridiculously long and wide things through the trunk up and through our back seat before, but this one wasn't having it. We then attempted to put it in the backseat sideways and after some serious struggling to force the box in(or should I say Nate, as I was probably more in the way than anything) - we got it in and were relieved... only to find that one of the doors wouldn't close--seriously? It was SOOO close, but not close enough. (insert laughter here on my part, but not so much for Nate) So now we were left to try to figure out how to get it back out (which I cannot even begin to say how funny it was since it was not coming out no matter how hard we tried (mind you- the sales girl is just watching this whole fiasco unfold). Nate asks me to assist him so part of my job was to hold/balance part of this 70+lb box while he pushed, etc. (all the while I know the sales girl is looking at us and thinking "Why is your pregnant wife out in this heat assisting you with pushing/shoving/holding heavy boxes?" Ha--oh the things that probably ran through her head-this is when I needed a shirt that said "We're adopting-It's really ok")
Nate is finally successful and gets the box back out and we decide to check the weather (no chance of rain it said) to make sure we can just strap this thing in and have half of it stick out of our trunk on the 2 hour drive home. Thank goodness we keep bungee cords in our trunk-- they saved the day.
Off we went laughing at this whole drama (our day really would have made a funny episode of a sitcom) until we see some serious black clouds rolling in. Before we know it, we check the weather again and there is now a 100% chance of rain and strong storms coming our way (it is still a mystery how this storm was missed just minutes earlier) so instead of "storm chasers" we became "storm racers" and were tracking this storm and where it was every minute so we could outrun it. We carefully timed our drive home based on where the storm was along our route because now we have an unprotected baby crib sticking entirely out the back of our car and it's about to get drenched & ruined. So, the rest of our adventurous evening centered around how to avoid rain on our way home & our emergency action plan should we hit heavy rain- it was nothing short of hilarious. We don't have pictures yet to post of the crib (stay tuned for that later), but I'm sure that will make an equally funny post as we attempt to put it together in the weeks ahead.
En route, we stopped at one of our favorite quick bites- Pei Wei (because you can't do Chinese adoption tasks and buy a crib & not eat Chinese food to celebrate, right?)
I thought these fun little messages in both of our fortune cookies were applicable:
1. A dream you have will come true.
2. Soon you will be sitting on top of the world.
I don't believe in fortune cookies, of course, but I'll take these cute messages anyway as a sign that good things are to come, all in God's timing. We'll continue to post over the next few weeks as we begin working on the nursery & highlight what's been going in our lives the first half of 2013.
Wow. Two months. Really? We just realized that we've been quite delinquent in our posting- where does time go? More on that later. It would be too long a post.
For today, we're going to focus on an exciting upcoming adoption event this Sunday hosted by an amazing organization that is near and dear to our hearts- Show Hope. I could go on and on sharing wonderful things about this organization, as the agency I work for is closely connected with this ministry and has a wonderful working relationship with their incredible staff. We are proud of their commitment to serving families, but more importantly- children around the world. If you are involved in adoption, foster care, orphan ministry and advocacy, or want to learn more- this is a great ministry doing amazing work in these areas.
Show Hope sponsors programs in many areas helping children both in foster care as well as orphans around the world. They are also passionate about assisting Christian families with financial assistance to help offset the cost of adoption domestically in the U.S. as well as those adopting internationally. Our family was blessed with a grant from this organization and have also attended the"Empowered to Connect" Conference that Show Hope sponsors each year in several locations around the U.S. It is a conference every adoptive family (both domestic and international) or families actively involved in foster care should attend, if given the opportunity.
Founded by Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman, this ministry is celebrating it's Ten Year Anniversary this year and is hosting an incredible lineup of musicians (Casting Crowns, Steven Curtis Chapman, Laura Story, and more just to name a few) this Sunday, May 26th at 7pm CDT. It will be a night of worship and a time to share the miracles and stories of how adoption has impacted the lives of many. Click Show Hope Eventto learn more about this Sunday's event and sign up for free to watch this adoption celebration this Sunday at 7pm CDT.
In honor of their Ten Year Anniversary, here is Show Hope's "Top Ten List", as noted from their website, addressing why you should consider viewing this event in your home and inviting others to join you:
1. If you are adopting, this is a perfect opportunity to share your story
family and friends.
2. This is a great reason to gather your church small group for a night of worship and fellowship.
3. Miracle testimonies told at the event will help inspire those considering adoption.
4. Use the webcast to begin conversations, with your family, about the plight of orphans.
5. If you are a Show Hope Sponsor, this is a worshipful way to share with your family the impact your giving is having on orphans.
6. If you are a sponsor and have encouraged family or friends to become a sponsor, this is a great tool to invite them to prayerfully commit.
7. There will be special surprise guests you don’t want to miss hearing from!
8. Students involved with orphan care projects can use this event as a tool to convey their journey with peers.
9. Starting an orphan ministry in your church? Host a meeting around this event.
10. Simply rejoice, pray, and worship as a part of the extended Show Hope family!
I'm sure there are many things you could watch at 8pm EDT on Sunday night, but we'd encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to attend this free concert online and learn more about orphan care, adoption, and stories of the lives that have been impacted around the globe through the ministry of Show Hope.
Wow. Has it really been a month since we posted? I can honestly say it doesn't surprise me. Every time I thought about sitting down and then tried to kick up my feet and write, well- something else was just more important and had to be accomplished; therefore, another day and no posting. Several days quickly turned into several months of very few posts. So because a month has passed since we last posted, I think we are well overdue. Easter has now come and gone and we were reminded that a year ago this week, we mailed all of our adoption paperwork to China. Hard to believe.
So I think it's about time we let everyone in on a little adoption secret....
ARE YOU READY?
WHAT?
Did you think we were going to say we have been matched with our referral and are traveling to China? Sorry to disappoint, we're not quite there yet-- one step at a time. (We'll provide more updates soon on what you can expect to hear from us as we get closer to being matched...we'll save that for another blog post though)
Today we WILL share that we are back at it again in the world of adoption paperwork and items as we move forward in 2013. We are working again on what in the "adoption world" we call a paper-pregnancy, and so we begin "Round II: Updates". It comes with its own set of frustrations, long days, tiring hours, and bumpy moments, etc...it just lasts way longer than 9 months! I've always counseled my clients through this process, so now I'm having to remind myself to follow my own advice-- take it one day at a time. Otherwise, one can easily get overwhelmed with the process and paperwork. (even if you know what you're doing and are familiar with this process)
Over the last few months we've had a number of things come up in our lives on both sides of our family and we've learned everything works for the better when we've given things to God, knowing that He promises He won't give us more than we can handle and we must trust Him in that. Some things we don't always understand, but remind ourselves that He knew it before it would happen; therefore, we trust Him. We've had some incredible moments in the last few months (i.e. mission trip to Guatemala in January [for which I STILL owe you stories by way of our blog] and some neat answers to prayer) and yet we've certainly had some difficult days in 2013.
However, no matter what is going on in your life, in the world of international adoption, some things won't wait and you have to move along with certain pieces of the adoption process when certain timeframes come along. One of these items is updating your home study (the document that basically shares your life story and that you have been approved to adopt) and the other is renewing your U.S. Immigration form which grants your child entrance into the U.S. when adopting from overseas. We knew these items were coming up in 2013 and had to be updated and so knowing we couldn't delay these any longer, we began our process of paperwork renewals in March.
Paper
Paper
and you guessed it-- MORE Paper.....
Along with filling out numerous documents, we also began the task of being fingerprinted again (because we all know both Nate and I look sneakingly suspicious and criminal-like), and will have had several sets of prints completed by the time we complete our adoption. During the fingerprinting process this time, I had to laugh as I actually took a moment to read some of the "fine print details" of the FBI fingerprint cards and various codes used on them- let me take a moment to amuse you as you can certainly tell the FBI has expanded their options over the years in several of the following categories:
Hair Color
This has been expanded beyond the typical black, brown, red, blonde, grey, white and bald and now includes the following options: orange, pink, blue, green, purple, or unknown. (I am still trying to figure out the last one- do people really not know what their hair color is, or perhaps this last category is for the person who has changed their hair color so many times even they are unsure of its original color) This was the first one that made us laugh quite hard, but it gets better. Read on.
Eye Color
Pink, multicolored, and maroon got added to the list of standard eye colors. Now I can completely understand pink in the case of someone with albinism, as that is normal. However, I am a little stumped by maroon. (Are we the only ones?)
Abbreviations for Fingerprints
This section provides abbreviations one should use if they have any fingers which do not print correctly, which certainly can be common. It is in our case and we have to use one of these abbreviations for a print where a skin graft was taken years ago. However, the options for this category aren't an exact science and certainly don't cover everything (as is our case), but I thought you might find it a little amusing.
The ones that made us laugh the most were two categories that basically fall under the same purpose. These were abbreviations for a finger that was either "Missing" OR "Shot off" (keep in mind there were several other options for standard things such as an amputated finger, a fingertip that was amputated, a finger that was missing at birth, or a finger that was deformed-- these all make sense and are certainly common occurrences) However, last we checked if your finger was shot off, that would mean it's missing, or at least I would assume so anyway. I won't begin to ask why "shot off" occurs as a category- maybe it's best we don't know.
Aside from fingerprints, we get to go through medical exams, TB tests, blood work, HIV and other communicable disease screenings, just to make sure we don't have any communicable diseases. (In case you're wondering... we're good to go in this area. I know you were curious)
Which then brings us to the actual home visit again with the social worker where our home is inspected...
questions are asked, and notes are taken to make sure we aren't crazy are able to adequately provide a loving home to a child. A long report is then written and provided to our agency and then to us so that we can re-file this report and a renewal application to USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services) to make sure the U.S. still approves us for bringing a child into the United States. USCIS will then ask us to come and do one more set of fingerprints at another fingerprint center once we file our immigration application.
Whew....that made me tired just reading it. So this has been our last several weeks- working on paperwork, visiting doctors, meeting with our social worker and basically going through our version of "labor pains". We're almost done, at least for the moment. There are still a few more things to finish up and send off, but at least we can check a few more items off the list (because we both know we love our lists and love to see items checked off- yes, we are organized like that...) We're going to share more updates in the next few weeks so be looking for that as things are starting to move forward a little more, now that we are in 2013.
Ok, so don't get too excited as we're not exactly giving money away, but we are giving it back- back to the One who already owns it. We're all familiar with the concept of "Walking by Faith- not by Sight"....sounds great on paper doesn't it? However, as we all know, this is a much more difficult discipline to live out. I think what will be shared below is for every single individual so keep reading. It's the "real life stuff" that each of us as believers, must contemplate on a day to day basis. Are we trusting in God, or are we trusting in what we can do on our own, leaving very little room for Him to work and showcase His power? I was reading a blog last night of a family who lives in Africa and I felt that what they wrote fit so perfectly about living by faith.
I'll share that in a moment.
Here is a quick background to how this "Faith walk" is suddenly becoming more tangible to us in recent months. Not only has being in an adoption process for the last year been a complete step of faith, Nate and I are part of a church plant that has been meeting in a school for 3 1/2 years and are now moving towards a permanent facility.
Our church recently launched "Movement", a generosity initiative asking each person to give generously above their tithe not to just help attain a permanent facility, but rather giving towards a movement of God that will reach our city and the world with Christ. It's not about a building, but about impacting lives -building a movement of God that will out live our lifetime. The goal of "Movement" is that each of us would, in turn, spend intentional time in prayer and come to complete dependency on God to provide financial resources that are far greater than what we could ever do on our own, thus living out our faith tangibly by asking God to provide that for which we decide to pledge to give to Him.
Those who have been a part of this process over the last several months, know that it is not always easy to make decisions about giving away money or much less about giving BIG when God calls you to do it and when you don't know where the money is going to come from exactly. However, giving out of what "we have" versus giving out of "what do not have yet" stretches us and puts us a position to pray harder and rely on God to come through for us in ways in which He wants to already do, if we but ask.
For Nate and I, we have enjoyed going through this process together and reading the book 'The Treasure Principle' by Randy Alcorn. ( a great, but quick read)
Nate and I are both naturally "savers" and "planners" by nature and we thought we knew where God was leading us personally with our pledge about a month ago, but then about 2 weeks ago we felt God telling us to go back to the drawing board and reconsider our amount we were to pledge towards 'Movement'. We felt our original pledge amount was an amount that we could "somewhat tangibly" come up with on our own over time. We prayed about it and then came back together to see where God had led us.
That is when God had laid the same idea on our heart as to what was holding us back from giving an amount that only He could provide-- and as we shared about what we had been led to give, we had come to the same amount and same reason God had led us towards this particular amount. We realized our adoption process with all of its unknowns and its expense was what we were holding onto in fear that somehow "we" had to come up with both the amount for that as well as the same amount for our pledge. Simple faith was again what we were reminded of and since we knew God owned it all anyway, we decided that God wanted us to "take a leap of faith", step out, and trust Him.
We've both certainly seen time and time again in our lives both before and after we were married, that faithfulness to tithing and giving to God are incredible ways to see His faithfulness demonstrated, as God always out gives us every time. We would be lying if we didn't say this whole process is a bit scary at times, but we are honestly excited to see how God will bless obedience as He promises in His Word and we encourage you to step out in faith too and trust Him. (in whatever it is you are facing right now)
When we held our "Leadership Movement Night" last week, I have to say I've never seen so many people gathered in one place exited about giving money away! It was an amazing time of worship together and in pledging to give back to God
what He already owns.It was exciting to see this passion in our church leaders and volunteer teams and will be exciting to see what God does through our church tomorrow. Remember, without faith it is impossible to please Him.
Which brings me back to the blog from the couple who lives in Africa. It pertains so well to what our church is currently experiencing and what many of us experience on a day to day basis as we live by faith. The rest of this post was written by the Arndt family- some challenging thoughts for each of us to consider....
“Anyone can get happy after the miracle has come. Show me someone who celebrates before the answer, and I’ll show you someone who is about to experience the answer. This is the nature of faith—it looks ahead and lives accordingly.”
'Hosting the Presence'- author Bill Johnson
Faith is enacted, either by believing something that God says to you or by that which is initiated by your own spirit, based of your belief in Who God says He is or who you have already experienced Him to be. How much more pleasing to Him is it, when we step out in faith before we have even experienced a certain aspect of His nature?Although, if we look closely many of God’s greatest attributes can be seen in His gift of salvation alone. Interestingly enough, we experience salvation through faith. But experience should not determine our measure of faith. Faith is the precursor to experience.
This is why Faith is so pleasing to Him. It is stepping out on the belief that God is who He says He is; that He loves to give, reward, provide, heal, comfort, perform, rescue, intervene, forgive, and interact with us. Faith steps out in expectation regardless of the risks, it says, ” I believe the Character of God is consistent with what I am expecting Him to do, and therefore He WILL do it.”
This is evidenced by all the people and situations listed in Hebrews 11.
Are you wanting to please God with your life? Looking for ways to honor Him and express your love to Him?
Step out in FAITH; start expecting Him to do something BIG that is dear to your HEART. Asking, trusting, waiting, and expecting Him to come through is seen by Him as worship. Position every department of your life to a place that absolutely requires Him to come through for you. Not only is it the safest place to be, and the most worshipful posture we can assume, it’s the most opportune position for us to see everyday miracles.
NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things we hope for, being the evidence of things we do not see. But without faith it is impossible to please Him. Whoever comes to God must believe that God is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:1 & 6)
In Hosting the Presence, the author writes, “To honor Him fully, we have to live in such a way that unless God shows up, what we are attempting to do is bound to fail.” For example, when Jesus sent out the disciples two by two, in a paraphrase he basically said, “Go into a city. Find a place to stay. Don’t bring any money. Don’t take enough clothing that you can take care of yourself for extended periods of time. Make yourself vulnerable in your abandonment to My purposes, so that unless I show up to provide and direct, it will not work.”
Living this way can literally be scary, and by earthly standards “unwise” and God even works graciously in the the absence of this type of faith. However, a lack of radical faith severely limits His work in and through us. His ultimate goal, to fill the earth with His glory, is going to continue to be stunted until more of His church starts exercising FAITH. Faith for more of His rule and activity dispensed here and now, in our lives, families, jobs, churches, and communities.
So for all of you romantics out there, you probably think that this post is going to be strictly about Valentine's day or my wonderful husband, don't you? As much as I could say so many wonderful things about Nate, I'm going to actually spin this post a completely different direction today (sorry to shake things up, but it's more fun this way!) I figured that since Facebook seems to be doing a wonderful job today of highlighting what holiday it is (for those that wanted the reminder and those of you who probably didn't care to be reminded), I figured I'd let them handle the numerous posts of photos of the usual Valentine "stuff"- cards, candy, flowers, treats, quotes.... the list could go on and on, right?
Instead, I thought I'd take a quick moment to highlight a few things that I haven't taken the time to post about since returning from Guatemala a few weeks ago. I promised many of you posts from our trip, so I think I'm finally ready to begin sharing... but where to really begin?
GO. BE. LOVE. This little phrase was coined by a global mission organization (or at least I assume they came up with it) and so I do want to show credit where credit is due in that this wasn't a phrase I came up with. In looking at today's posts on Facebook, I saw that they had posted what they called "love messages" each hour of the day as part of Valentine's day. These were photos from mission trips they have sent teams on from around the world. Each photo spoke volumes and behind each photo- a story.
I want to begin by saying this phrase is a challenge in and of itself. A challenge to GO to a hurting world that is out there, (whether it be serving those that are hurting in your local city or on the other side of the world)
BE. (I like to think of this as "be" the hands and feet of Jesus- which can look so many different ways),
LOVE. (this one is pretty self-explanatory, really, but sometimes requires us to stretch ourselves in ways that aren't always easy or comfortable sometimes).
This last one, for most of us, can present to be the most challenging of all. (love isn't always easy, pretty, or simple; true love isn't always how our modern-day media likes to portray it)
I think about this phrase and think back to the first day our team met together and we let everyone share why God was leading them to participate in The Village Project- Guatemala and what we wanted God to do in our lives through the trip. As we went around, there were team members who were certainly ready for the challenge, but scared to death of what it might look like to GO.BE. LOVE.
This demonstration of love would require taking risks, getting dirty, having a heart break for the things that break the very heart of God. This is what love looked like for us while serving in Guatemala.
John 13:24-35 (I'll let you look that one up) is a great verse, but I John 3:18 also says it well, "Little children, let us not LOVE in word or talk, but in deed and truth." When I think about our recent trip, I'm reminded we didn't just show love to those we met just by what we said or shared with them, we also demonstrated our verbal love through our actions as well.
I plan to share some of these specific stories in the days ahead, but for now, I'll keep it short and simple as it can be summed up in this amazing verse which I'll use in honor of Valentine's Day- " We LOVE because HE first loved us." It is because of His love that we love and should have a desire to share His love with those both here and around the world.
GO. BE. LOVE.
I promise this one phrase alone will change your life if you live it out. That's my challenge to you on this "love holiday". How will you GO. BE. LOVE?
As many of you know, I am just returning from our mission trip to Guatemala in the last week and yes, this blog has been a bit silent for the last few weeks as we were busy prepping our team to leave and preparing for our time of ministry there. Our church is starting a ministry project in Guatemala called The Village Project, where we will help identify a local church planter and begin transforming a village both physically and spiritually.
Through our church, we are working with a stateside ministry, World Help and with Hope of Life in Guatemala, to adopt a village in a rural part of this country where famine and malnutrition continue to take the lives of many. Through this long-term Village Transformation Project, we will support a local church planter, provide clean water, rebuild the school, provide discipleship materials and training, build a church, provide food and medical assistance, and send teams down throughout the year to accomplish these goals and more over the course of the next several years.
This was the first time a team had gone in to serve the village we are adopting and there's nothing like serving in a village of over 700 people and knowing that almost everyone in this village had never even heard the name of Jesus before. We had the privilege of being the first team and also of visiting other villages nearby as well; however, God clearly confirmed that Curva del Pino was where He wanted our church to invest long term and I'm sure as time goes on, He will direct us to other villages there where we can minister.
Generally, I am ready to dive in and talk about all of the details immediately upon returning from most of the trips, but this time it was different and took me a good week to begin processing all that we experienced and all that God did during our time there. From serving in the village, feeding families in a dump, worshipping with other villages, to holding toddlers that were less than 10 pounds- these moments will be forever grafted in our hearts and minds.
Though I've served and led mission teams in many developing or third world countries over the past 13 years, there were elements of this trip that again were a harsh reminder of the reality of how the rest of the world lives and how spiritually dark many places around the world really are. Yet, in this darkness, it was wonderful to know that there is still a light that can shine brightly in this dark world through the lives of believers reminding us that Jesus is still the Light of the world.
Little girl from Kelly's House- a special needs center
I plan to share a number of stories in the days to come and certainly a lot of photos as well; but in the meantime, I'll let our Guatemala Documentary Video from our trip show you some of the things that we experienced and some of the thoughts I've been processing since our trip. I hope that you enjoy this special video. You will need to click the Vimeo Icon in order to view it and we hope it impacts you just as much as it did our lives.
I don't know about you, but can someone tell me how we are we are already in January 2013? Does anyone else feel the same way? We were reflecting the last two days that the last few weeks of December were a blur, full of many events- some planned and some not planned-- and though we had wonderful intentions of posting a number of things during December, it just didn't happen for many reasons. (and that's ok) So, in light of that- let me give you a fun pictorial overview of how our year ended and highlight some of our fun, funny, and not-so-funny moments from December and Christmas.
"Our Top Ten 2012 December Highlights".... (in no particular order)
1. Our First Christmas Together in our New Home
Definitely not our first Christmas together, but the first one together as homeowners in our new home that we moved into in October. I LOVE that we had a little snow the day before Christmas.
2. Our Last Christmas with Just the Two of us Before "Little Miss" Comes Along
[We will likely be matched with our daughter and travel before the end of 2013--based on the stage we are in with our adoption process.] It was a surreal thought this Christmas knowing it was our last one with just the two of us and that our daughter is already born and living somewhere in China. While most children everywhere were unwrapping presents and spending time with family, she likely spent her Christmas in a much different way. I think that this song best captures her story this past Christmas and our family's prayer for her. [as it was written by a father who adopted from China] It's an awesome song and certainly worth a few minutes of your time if you haven't heard it before. Click HERE for the lyrics.
3. The Local Christmas Market (with lots of fun local made goods and foods)
Varieties of Fresh Christmas Wreaths
4. Christmas Cookie Exchange
(This was hosted by a friend, but I am excited to say that somehow I managed to win a prize... which was completely unexpected since I am not sure you can categorize "haystacks" as a Christmas cookie, but it was in our family- as my grandma always had them at her house every Christmas)
(Didn't I tell you she did a great job hosting this party?) So much fun.
5. Decking the Halls
(or shall I say- decorating our house for Christmas)
Since I'm slightly in denial that Christmas is over-- I'll stretch it out just a bit more and share just a few fun tips you can use next year...
(and the first tip of all- NEVER spend a ton of money on your Christmas decorations...there are always sales before and after where you can get things for hardly anything, so it's always worth waiting to get those bargains- or at least that's my viewpoint anyway...but be sure to buy what you know you like and items that will be somewhat timeless- then you can use them for years)
Each Christmas I love to gather random ornaments (bought years ago for about $3 total) and put them in glass containers for our shelves for that added "Pop" of color.
I also pick some of our various colored ones we use with our tree and put them in a bowl for a centerpiece for our coffee table...
Almost every item of our Christmas decor was bought on sale, much of it after our first Christmas together when we hit up those 'after Christmas sales' [TIP: we saved a few of our wedding gift cards and used them after the holidays that year-- just a little note for those of you who might be getting ready to get married :) ]
They are a mix & match of ornaments from all over. (some of which are wonderful Target/Walmart finds or picked up from some places that had significant meaning to us and we also have a bunch we made ourselves)
These large ornaments below are plastic and cost us $1/ea. (though you can't really tell that until you pick them up) I use them to decorate our table with some other items I purchased at an after-Christmas sale long before we were even married-- (I started collecting things well before I knew Nate and tried choosing things that would pretty much always be Christmas classics )
We jazzed up this wreath that we made about 5 years ago, and added some extra berries and a bunch of silver ornaments to the bottom since the bow I made for it had seen it's best days and had to be retired this year. (I do not have good bow-making skills might I add) Total cost to make this wreath-- $5. (the additions to it this year were free since we had some random ornaments to pull from and Nate knows how much I love a bargain!)
(and please excuse the bare/white walls that we have not yet gotten around to painting yet downstairs-- maybe in 2013?)
6. Decorating the Tree
This is where the real fun begins during the season and of course this picture isn't complete without fun Christmas music playing loudly during the tree decorating process...
Below are some of the items that we stuff our tree with....berry branches we cut up into smaller pieces and other florals we picked up in past years from Michael's during those fun after-Christmas sales... (stuffing a tree was a tip I learned from a mentor of mine who had numerous trees in her home.) The options-as you can imagine-are endless!
The random hook on the berries was not supposed to be pictured...haha
I've also learned over the years that with white lights on a tree, anything clear or transparent (whether it is glass or plastic) will reflect beautifully as will anything that has a little "glam" or "glitter"- silver being one of the best (even though I actually don't like glitter- there's something about it that works during Christmas and adds a little sparkle) Though most people are surprised by this, we have a lot of ornaments on our tree that are are not glass, but made of different types of clear plastic, but you can't always tell the few that are glass from the ones that are plastic.
All of the ones below are plastic or made of materials that won't break...
(a.k.a.- kid-friendly)
There are only a few ornaments that are made of glass, most of which Nate and I made together our first Christmas (and trust me, I'm pretty sure that was a one time event for him-- but he was patient enough to sit through it with me and assist me in my crazy little "our first Christmas together project" -- which was tons of fun for me, but I'm pretty sure bored him to tears... gotta' love him for that!) It's always a fun Christmas memory for us to laugh about when we decorate our tree.
And below is one of my all-time favorite ornaments we made that year- it always glistens with the white lights... (notice that after doing one side of it we got tired of working on it and decided to leave the back empty and just hide it in the tree each year...shhhh- don't tell anyone)
And to finish off the tree.....you have to have a partridge in a pear tree, right? (well, in our case we just have the pears-- little silver ones that again, are child-friendly which will come in handy in the future)
and the end result.....
7. Family Time
Unfortunately, this year was a little different and quite a few of our family members were unable to be with us on Christmas day or during Christmas week... we missed seeing them this year and trust that they had a wonderful Christmas even though we weren't together. It was also different this year as both of my grandmothers are experiencing more memory loss so it definitely added a different element. They were still as cute as ever though! (well- most of the time anyway)
My Grandmothers and siblings
Despite all, we were able to spend some time with Nate's mom and then with some of my family, including my sister who was able to fly in on Christmas day (although we missed having her husband around)...
A certain someone was missing during the picture taking frenzy- but I'm not going to mention any names...I think he was in the house hiding somewhere during this time...though we did manage to get one photo out of him before the night was over.
9. Celebrating our Savior's birth & Reflecting
on the Past Year
As always, an end to a year is a wonderful time to reflect on all that the Lord has done throughout the year and how much we are truly blessed. Some highlights from this past year for us:
Completed our Dossier(paperwork for our adoption-waiting now to be matched)
Celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday in July
Celebrated my mom's 60th birthday in February
Rejoiced with friends who recently got engaged, married, had babies or adopted
Purchased our first home together this past summer
Spent hours and hours painting the new home (haha- I don't recommend this)
Moved into our new home in October
Had ladybugs and stinkbugs take over our home (I'll let you decide if you think this was a funny or not-so-funny memory of ours)
Celebrated with our church on its 3rd anniversary in October
Spent time with each other and with family and friends
(this could be an endless list of course...)
9. Prepping for our Guatemala Trip
A portion of the final weeks of December were spent finalizing details and working alongside our team to finish prepping for our upcoming Guatemala trip with our church; making sure everything was in order for our team to leave to serve. It's hard to believe it's less than two weeks away! Everyone on the team has contributed their time and effort in different ways over the last five months and our church and children's ministry also stepped up in a huge way this Christmas in preparing boxes for the children in Guatemala.
We are excited about what God is going to do through this long term partnership our church has with World Help. I know that He is going to do big things through this trip and through other future trips in the New Year. As you think of it, please pray for our team in the upcoming weeks as we head out and serve.
10. Our New Year's Eve Celebration
...so how did Nate and I close out 2012 and celebrate on New Year's Eve? Let's just say we had made plans to get away from "the craziness we call life" for a few days together and enjoy some of our vacation time off; however, God had another plan-- instead, one of us spent most of our Christmas vacation and our New Year's Eve with some new friends that we quickly became acquainted with... they are pictured below:
It certainly could have been worse from what I hear that's been going around, so we're definitely thankful for that. One of us was sick and one of us got to give out pills and vitamins. Ahh....'tis the season.
(and the last time I can say 'tis since Christmas is now over)
So there you have it-- our snapshot of the month of December, our ringing in the New Year, and what the next few weeks ahead holds in store; but for today, it was back to work for us.
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and though it's a day late-- Happy New Year!
