By Faith......

    Last night my hubby preached for the first time at our church. The week leading up to it, we as a family spent a lot of time in prayer and in the word. One of my favorite prayers was from my 7 year old. "Jesus, please don't let daddy mess up and if he does help him to keep going and not give up because he wants to do everything for you. Amen"..... Sweetest prayer ever! I feel (not biased at all) that he did an incredible job. I could really see the Lord speaking through him. I am very excited, and a little nervous, to see where God takes all this.

  The main point that my hubby was speaking about was being comfortable. He related following Jesus to jumping off a cliff. That Jesus is saying follow me, take the jump with me and instead we all will sit at the edge and dangle our feet over thinking that is good enough, or we will just stand there waiting to see how far it is to the ground. Instead of trusting Him and giving Him our all, we think it's okay to give Him a little. Well it's not. I'm reminded of Hebrews 11. Where the title says "Great examples of Faith" (NIV) or By Faith (ESV) it gives illustrations of the faithful men and women of Israel's history. Moses, Abraham, Sarah, Etc.  Hebrews 11:13-16 is where the Lord led me.

"All these people died still believing what God has promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it.They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads on this earth.
Obviously people who say such things are looking for a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.
 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."

 They had such great faith that they did not have to know where they were going. They knew that as long as God was in the drivers seat then they knew they would be taken care of. They also knew that this earth was not their home. They left their "comfy" lives and took up their cross and followed Jesus.  I love where is says " if they had longed for the country they had left then they would have gone back." I truly believe that Jesus wants to take you so far away from your comfortable worldly life and what you feel you are entitled to, so that you can really see your brokenness, your need for Him and then you will finally see that their is something so much greater then yourself. He takes us so far from our comfortable place in this world that we no longer long to go back. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God.. That is a huge statement. As my hubby said, God is not asking you to sit in your chair and say I love Jesus, He is requiring you to get up, burn that lifestyle, follow Him by picking up your cross DAILY. Not 99% of the time. ALL the time. He requires all or nothing. God does not need us, we need Him! 

Father, I want to return to you what is all ready yours, me. I want to give you my all. Help me Father to live a life dedicated to you, not my husband or my kids, but you. Help me to truly die to self, to really feel what it means to be broken, to never long for that place of comfort in this world that is not even my home. Father I long for the day that I can sit at your feet. Help me to not just talk  the talk, but to walk it all out in Faith keeping my eyes on you. More of you King Jesus, less of me.

On the Adoption Front:

I will be ordering all the shirts in one week, so make sure you order yours today!!!

Also here is an update to our puzzle. It just melts my heart to write the names on the back. Most of whom I have never even met. It is only $10 to "sponsor" a piece and your name will permanently be written on the back!

Help us put our puzzle together

 

 

 

‎"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8). "The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." (Proverbs 16:9) "For I know the plans I have for you...... (Jeremiah 29:11).... Trusting and resting on your promises Father.

 

Discouraged!?!

      I honestly thought that by the end of July we would have our money to send in our dossier. When that didn't happen, I felt discouraged. When I added up money that people told me they were going to mail me and then they didn't, I felt discouraged. When my friends who are also fund raising with me got their money in, I felt discouraged. When I realized that the money count was wrong  and I was NOT actually $500 away I was depressed! I made the HUGE mistake of adding money that I was told from several other people was coming and it didn't. I just got to excited and was on a roll, please forgive me for that horrible mistake.   Now it can still come in, but it has been a couple of weeks and so I needed to change the thermometer to where it actually is and not "promised" money. I needed to let go of the thought that it was coming :( This was horrible to do. It just feels like I can't even get close. I will not make that mistake again. I will only count the money that is in my hands. It is truly discouraging!

   BUT This past week I have received several precious emails from people just sending me encouragement, those emails always seemed to come at just the right time. (Thank you dear friends) Then, today some wonderful people in Oregon who I have never even met are having a yard sale  for some families who are adopting and we are one of them! Funny how God works. Even though I want  to feel discouraged, maybe even a little defeated and even though looking at the money that we still need kills me (have I told you how much I hate money?) I am not really all that disappointed anymore. My hubby and I have been in the word a lot this week together. More then our normal routine. We have been praying more together and just allowing the Lord to work more in our marriage and in our lives. I truly feel the Lord around me and He keeps giving me peace and believe it or not patience surrounding all this fund raising. I believe to my core that He is in control and that He will provide.

 Your continued prayers and support are very much appreciated!!!!


  Just a friendly reminder:
You have ONE more week to order your awesome adoption T-Shirts! These T-Shirts are not just for people who are/have adopted but they are for all of us because " In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will." Ephesians 1:5  .....  What a great conversation starter!

The women's front. 

 

Winner and Let the sales begin!

This was the best giveaway I have ever done. It was so much fun and it just melted my heart everytime I saw it on FB. Thank you all so much who entered and who shared our blog.

I had my hubby draw a name and the winner is.................

                                                 Tricia Dixon!!!!!!!!! 
I just love Tricia and she is ALWAYS encouraging me and lifting me up. I am so happy you won! ( I promise, hubby closed his eyes and drew a name) Tricia just let me know which shirt and the size.


We are now going to be selling our shirts. They are $25 each including shipping. If I do not have to ship it to you then they are $20. All of the money minus the cost to get them will go towards our dossier fee. I hate that we have been at the same amount for over a week (God is in control...repeat....) But the Lord does have a plan and hopefully selling these shirts will get us there.  I have a picture to the right and just let me know in the instructions which shirt and which size. We will be doing a pre sale. You can order them starting now and ending on Monday August 30. That gives everyone a little over two weeks. I will then send the order to the printers on that Monday. Thank you all so much! I pray you love these shirts as much as we do. Please email me if you are having problems ordering.



      There is another great giveaway from my friend Rachel   so go over to her blog and enter that one as well, but not to many times, I really want to win :) 


     Let's buy some shirts and help bring home our son!! 

Win it before you can buy it!!!

      We have our shirts! I am very excited to be able to show everyone our shirts! It only took a couple of weeks (praise God) to get the design right and now they are here!! We thought it would be fun to do a GIVEAWAY first. Then after the give away we will be doing a pre-order. So without wasting time here are the shirts!!!

Women's front

The womens back  (I cropped it weird)

The women's shirt is super duper soft. Seriously, it is soft. It is a military green scoop neck made up of 100% organic cotton. These shirts are pretty true to size. I normally wear a medium or large and in this shirt I prefer the Large.

The men's:

The men's front

The back.

The men's shirts are very true to size it is super duper soft as well. It is made up of 100% pre-shrunk cotton.  I know some women love to wear these as well and that would be great.

     I feel that the shirts pretty much explain themselves. We wanted a shirt that did not have a specific country on it. All adoption is beautiful and God breaks our hearts for different places.. We are also all adopted into the kingdom of God so this shirt, to us  has different meanings. I hope you love our shirts as much as we do!!


    We have decided to do a giveaway before anyone can actually buy it. We will be running the giveaway  starting now and ending on Friday August 13. You can win a shirt of your choice. After the giveaway is over we will be doing presales. More on that later.

To enter our giveaway and get your name in the hat it is very simple.

1. Become a follower of my blog. If you all ready are then you get one entry
2. Facebook about it. For each day that you do it, you get an entry. That can be 5 entries for just that. ( I will need to be your friend so make sure you friend me:)
3. Blog about our giveaway
4. Leave me a comment with what you have done.


I told you it was easy. Can't wait to see who wins!!!

It's like chasing after the wind......

       Solomon was a great man who had it all, wisdom, power, and even God's favor, but even he knew that everything is meaningless apart from God. Solomon in Ecclesiastes is somewhat testing our faith and challenging us to find true meaning in God alone. Nothing is ever enough. We will always want more, we will never be satisfied. I don't want to live my life searching this world to find meaning, I want to pursue God who gives meaning. As Solomon puts it "It's is all meaningless-like chasing after the wind."

       In Ecclesiastes 3 Solomon talks about how there is a time for everything. "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under the sun." This adoption process has got to be the hardest thing I have ever gone through. My hubby and I asked God at the beginning to not only break our hearts for what breaks His, we also prayed (and still do) that He would make this adoption hurt. That we would truly have to sacrifice for Him, that this journey would strip us even more of our idols and allow Him to be glorified. The "His perfect timing" part has been hard. At least when you are pregnant you know about when you will have your baby in your arms.You get ultrasounds to know if he is all right.We have nothing. It literally kills me, but as God keeps reminding me, we have Him (which is more then enough). For me to have peace with God concerning this issue I need to accept and appreciate His perfect timing. And I do....sometimes. I'm no where near perfect and I am trying. I am trying to stay focused on Him, I am trying to repent every time that I don't and I am trying to remind myself that Jesus is enough, that everything else is meaningless apart from Him. I don't want to chase the wind. I don't even want to take a step without God directing it , so I need to and want to wait on His timing, I do, even if sometimes my actions don't show it. Even if that ache in my mommas heart keeps getting stronger, even if the money takes months to come in, I am patiently waiting and listening for Him to guide me. And it's not even about the money that I am talking about. It's hard to not know who he his, or if he is being loved on. I have blogged about this before. It's hard. I love though hearing my babies  praying for him every night and not just a quick bring my brother home prayer, but real meaningful heartfelt praying, that Jesus would protect their brother and love on him prayer. Melts my heart every time. I do though want to make sure that I enjoy this time of waiting. Just as when you are pregnant you make every effort to enjoy your kids you have now more, and enjoy alone time with your hubby and friends, because wants he gets here everything will change. I want to enjoy where God has us now.

      Speaking of Jesus being enough, if that is true then I can let go of my.......gym membership. My goodness that was the hardest thing to do. (I had a scholarship so it was super cheap)  That is me time! I loved going to the YMCA. My kids did too. And when my kids were driving me nuts I could just go to the gym and they could play with their friends and I could run off all the stress and listen to worship music and/or sermons. You know it's an idol when you have to argue about letting go of it. God has been telling me for some time to get rid of it and I really, really did not want to. Today I finally did it and it actually felt good. I knew I wasn't obeying God and that burden  is now lifted. Maybe this will just be for a season and in His timing He will call me back to it or maybe not. There is more that He is calling us to give up, for some reason that one was hard. It's sad, I know. Jesus you are enough!

    Just wanted to share one more thing.....We are having a yard sale this Saturday (come on by) and as I was cleaning out the kids rooms today I realized that we could fit another bunk bed in each of their rooms. That's three more kids after our little man gets here!!!  Just thinking ahead :D ......"Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him." Psalm127:3  God values children so highly and if He is calling us to fill our home even more, then I welcome it! I know I just talked about how hard it is and how badly my  heart aches, but it is so worth it. Even at this point in the process I can say that.


        May we all find meaning in our Lord Jesus Christ and may we all stop chasing after the wind. This world will burn with everything in it. Jesus is everlasting!