Birthday Fun!

Jason had a birthday this week....which included yummy food, homemade cheesecake, a new grill and some baseball:

Happy Birthday to my husband!!



True Beauty...

We recently joined a Life Group with our church and have started a study called Living Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  This weeks lesson is called "Profile of the Lukewarm" and it asked us to look up several verses and make notes of our thoughts, challenges, etc. that come to mind when reading these scriptures.  About 10 scriptures in I read this:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."  (Matt. 23:25-28)



I realize God speaks to all of us differently and we each take different thoughts away from scripture.  I know this scripture is talking about hypocrites and professing to be a Christian yet living another way....

....to me though, it said so much more.  I have struggled with an on again off again negative body image for at least the last 18 years.  I've gone through phases of addictions to exercise and can easily obsess and have anxiety about food.  As I read this scripture I was drawn to the part of the cup and dish being clean on the outside, yet the inside is full of these undesirable things.  I began to analyze myself.  Realistically I've spent years of my life trying to gain this positive body image that I thought would come from a certain look, a certain weight, etc.  I was absolutely overcome by how much time, energy and thought have I spent on trying to attain this image and still come up unsuccessful.  I was completely broken by the thought of..... what if I had spent that same time, energy and thought on cleaning my inside to look more like Jesus.  God breaking us right where we are can be painful yet bring a sense of freedom.  This morning at church our preacher said..."An unexamined life is an ineffective life."  It takes digging in and really looking at ourselves to bring out the person God truly created us to be....a TRUE beauty!

~~I don't think this waiting period of adoption is a waste.  I think God is molding Jason and I into the parents He wants us to be for this particular child.~~

Excuses, excuses....

So, a month has come and gone and I haven't written once. WHY you might ask????? Well, my first excuse is there is no adoption update.  I like the people that ask me every other day what's new with the adoption.  I always feel like I'm letting them down when I say...um nothing still waiting.  :) The truth is adoption is a LONG process and we have no way of hurrying things along.  We emailed our adoption coordinator last week and she still has not heard when the next "matching meeting" is.  So.....we wait some more.

Hmmm...well I guess that's my first and only excuse.  We have just been living and learning the last month.  God never quits challenging, never quits moving and never quits loving.  Our preacher, JD, at church has been doing a series on spiritual warfare.  It's been such a blessing to soak up what God has been saying through him about battling Satan.  This war with Satan is some SERIOUS hard work and it's never ending.  This last week our preacher referenced the armor of God.  He spoke about the Breastplate of Righteousness and about right-living.  I had an eye opening experience when I realized what God was trying to tell me in this area.  The breast plate covers 2 things...our heart and our gut.  JD explained that our heart represents our mind and our gut area represents our emotions.  These two things...mind and emotions...dictate our affections. I have a tendency to not guard these areas like I should.  I have a big heart for people and want to leave a positive image on peoples lives.  This starts out well and good until before I know it I realize my mind, my emotions....MY affections are places they shouldn't be and aren't protected.  Leaving them unprotected allows Satan to sneak in and do damage.  JD said people always ask him..."how are you supposed to guard your heart?"....his answer...Put a fence around your affections.  Now that statement is for someone ready to go to war with Satan.  Someone ready to stand their ground because they realize the battle belongs to the LORD.  I love it.  Thank you Lord for the ways You speak to us.

I always want to do better with this blog but if there isn't an adoption update I tend to struggle with what to write about.  But...I was moved this week and maybe someone else out there needs to hear a watered down type version of what I got this week :)

Just LOVE Coffee...

We are kicking off a new fundraiser this week and selling African coffee!  $5 of each bag of coffee sold will go towards our adoption expenses.  

 

https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/florafamilycalling/



Step in the Right Direction...

We received approval on our Form I-600A application this week! This is where we traveled to St. Louis a few weeks back to get fingerprinted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.  We had submitted a copy of our home study when applying instead of an original copy so it slowed things up just a bit. 

The first line of our approval letter kinda makes things feel real and official:
"USCIS would like to congratulate you on your Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, approval and for completing the first step in the adoption immigration process."!!! Just hearing that we COMPLETED a step is exciting!

So...now what?? Well, we are still waiting on the next "match meeting" in Lesotho.  Our agency director told me a couple weeks ago that she didn't know when the next meeting was and a date hadn't been set yet.  For some reason I feel like we will be matched at the next meeting...I don't know why and I guess we'll see but it's just a feeling I get. 

Please continue to pray for that special little one and his/her parents.  I apologize that there isn't exciting and wild news every other week to blog about on this journey.  It's a very slow and uncertain process but "the best things in life are worth waiting for".

en·cour·age

en·cour·age

Verb:

Give support, confidence, or hope to (someone) Give support and advice to (someone) to do or continue something I know that God gives us spiritual gifts and that we are instructed to use them to His glory.  I've often wanted to have gifts that I've seen God instill in other people.  I've been blessed to be around people that possess the gift of teaching, singing, hospitality, witnessing to others and those that speak great words of wisdom.  I once read that spiritual gifts are used to "strengthen others" and not to worry so much about trying to find the correct "label" for your gift before using it to build up the faith of those around you.  As I was driving home today I was thinking about the people God has placed in my life over the course of the last year.  I began to realize that I've gotten to walk with so many of these amazing people as they were going through something tough...whether that be a tough relationship, health problems, a death, job loss or just a down right bad day.  I don't know that there is such a thing as "the gift of being an encourager" (hmmm...that sounds a little too wordy) or to necessarily say I'm good at it, but it's been a blessing to walk through life with people and help them realize they aren't alone.  It's been a blessing in my life to really dig in and make relationships with people around me.  It's amazing to see how taking the time to invest in people and really love them can in turn be such a blessing to me.  I like the definition listed above that states "to encourage is to give someone support, confidence and hope."  To be able to give someone that ....or even more for God to show someone His support, confidence and hope THROUGH me is a big deal.  

john 14:27

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

This verse stuck with me as I read over it this morning. I always seem to be in this battle where I'm trying to find peace in my world through the things of this world.  Searching for peace in relationships, myself, work, home, finances, etc. etc.  It was refreshing to read this and get a reminder that TRUE peace comes from God. God wants us to have peace...His peace. 

Happy New Year to all of you!!