You said, "Ask and you will receive whatever you need."
You said, "Pray and I'll hear from heaven, and I'll heal your land."
You said your glory will fill the earth like water the sea.
You said "Lift up your eyes," the harvest is here, the kingdom is near.
You said "Ask and I'll give the nations to you."
O Lord, that's the cry of my heart.
Distant shores and the islands will see your light as it rises on us.
Probably a lot of people have heard this song. I will admit that each time I hear it and sing it I am in tears. For one, it is convicting. It makes me question if the cry of my heart is weak. What do I dare to ask of my God? Am I content with reqeusting a bigger house when their is a harvest that needs to be reaped? Ashamedly, I musst admit that the cry of my heart is indeed shallow. Yes, I would like bigger space. It may be considered a need. We need a van. I would say that is a need. I would also say that considering I do at least 10 loads of laundry a week and our washer just broke, well, a washing machine is a need. Really though? I am the kid who is content with mud pies when the Lord has an entire beach to bask in. So tonight as we sang this song I once again found myself longing for poverty to end and for the crack houses of telfair street to one day be inhabited by a family of believers. I so badly want to see the children of those crack dealers won over to Christ so that the cycle of poverty and drugs will once and for all end with them.
Lord, you say that your heart breaks for the nations. You say that your son died for the nations. Let it be in my family, allow our hearts to cry out for your son to be glorified in the nations. Bring Jordan, Micah, and JW to know you early so that they may profess your fullness to hungry, broke, and begging people. I confess that I am too often satisfied to pray for the temporary. Thank you for faithfully starving us for days, sometimes weeks and months on end so that we would be satisfied with only you.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Words Are Cheap
So I will let this picture do all the talking. Or laughing.
I think if he was a little older he would haul off and slap her. Or sit on her. Whichever is most effective.
I think if he was a little older he would haul off and slap her. Or sit on her. Whichever is most effective.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Adoption Sunday is 11/8/09
Not only is Adoption Sunday coming up, but this is Adoption Awareness Month. There is a month for everything, isn't there? But this one is, for obvious reasons, so very close to my heart. Aside from partnering with Scott, I believe that being an adoptive parent is the single most important, life changing, and world changing thing that my sovereign God has called me to. What greater way is there to stand up to abortion than to embrace those children whose birthmoms also bravely stood against it? I believe that adoption is the height of being pro-life. Think about it, how has standing outside an abortion building ever done anything? I guess I am assuming way too much. It would be stupid of me to think that God hasn't rescued babies through someone standing outside an abortion clinic with a cross, sign, or the Bible. I am sure he has. But then what? In my humble opinion, I believe adoption is the obvious conclusion to a pro-life heart. This is why I say that adoption is the single most important thing God has called me to do. It is the culmination of all I believe my God to be. He loves orphans. His heart is for the orphan. Adoption is evangelism in it's simplist form. It is a ministry to a birthmom who is reaching out to someone for help, for someone to love her baby as much as she does. As a Christian, I also believe that adoption is a rescue effort. It is saying yes to a baby that could otherwise go to be placed in a home where not only is Christ not preached, but is denounced. Tell me this is not close to the heart of God! Adoption is taking a risk, yes. But it is also a step of faith; it is saying to God "Show up in a great way!" It Gideon's fleece in a modern world.
Adoption has not just changed my life, but it has changed the life of my kids. I don't want to think about where my little JW would be right now had his birthmom not stood up to the culture around her and made the most selfless decision she could ever make. In today's society, she had a choice to make. The choice she made allowed Scott and I to know Big Boy in all his bigness. She looked abortion and death in the eyes and said "You will not have my child!" Then she lovingly placed him in our arms after asking us to love him for the rest of our lives. Humbling, isn't it?
I also believe that adoption hasn't just changed our lives, but it will change the world forever. My family line has forever changed. It is no longer white. Scott and Shannon as we exist through our kids, aren't white anymore. We will reach generations of people that we would not have reached otherwise. Our kids will be friends with people that had we had bio kids we would have never met. I am sure that we will meet and minister to parents of their friends who we may not have ever seen face to face were it not for our kids. Because of this I have no doubt that the adoption of three little babies will change more than I can think or imagine. Scott and I have always carried a torch for the poor in our world. The vast majority of America's poor are African American. We pray that our babies will also carry this vision as well; being that they are African American I think they will reach people that Scott and I could never reach. Praise God for adoption!
This last paragraph will be very short. I never need confirmation that we did the right thing by adopting both babies on the same day. Our money is due to the JW's lawyer by November 16th. I talked with the girl in charge of our account today. With all of our grants, gifts, and a few discounted fees, we will only need to come up with about $2500 out of our own pockets for my sweet sweet Big Boy. God has provided and raised close to $15,000 for us. I didn't think I needed this simple reminder from God that he does indeed own a cattle on a thousand hills. But I have to admit that each time God surprises me with his own faithfulness I realize how frail my faith really is. Our Lord is good; I am thankful that he has chosen to reveal himself to me through adoption.
Adoption has not just changed my life, but it has changed the life of my kids. I don't want to think about where my little JW would be right now had his birthmom not stood up to the culture around her and made the most selfless decision she could ever make. In today's society, she had a choice to make. The choice she made allowed Scott and I to know Big Boy in all his bigness. She looked abortion and death in the eyes and said "You will not have my child!" Then she lovingly placed him in our arms after asking us to love him for the rest of our lives. Humbling, isn't it?
I also believe that adoption hasn't just changed our lives, but it will change the world forever. My family line has forever changed. It is no longer white. Scott and Shannon as we exist through our kids, aren't white anymore. We will reach generations of people that we would not have reached otherwise. Our kids will be friends with people that had we had bio kids we would have never met. I am sure that we will meet and minister to parents of their friends who we may not have ever seen face to face were it not for our kids. Because of this I have no doubt that the adoption of three little babies will change more than I can think or imagine. Scott and I have always carried a torch for the poor in our world. The vast majority of America's poor are African American. We pray that our babies will also carry this vision as well; being that they are African American I think they will reach people that Scott and I could never reach. Praise God for adoption!
This last paragraph will be very short. I never need confirmation that we did the right thing by adopting both babies on the same day. Our money is due to the JW's lawyer by November 16th. I talked with the girl in charge of our account today. With all of our grants, gifts, and a few discounted fees, we will only need to come up with about $2500 out of our own pockets for my sweet sweet Big Boy. God has provided and raised close to $15,000 for us. I didn't think I needed this simple reminder from God that he does indeed own a cattle on a thousand hills. But I have to admit that each time God surprises me with his own faithfulness I realize how frail my faith really is. Our Lord is good; I am thankful that he has chosen to reveal himself to me through adoption.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
I Need a Reason To Post Lots of Pictures
Lately I am becoming painfully aware of how fast my kiddos are growing up. I have heard this certain phrase from three different people this week. "The days may seem long, but the years go by so fast." How true is that? Jordan is 3 now, and the babies are coming up on 6 months. Wow! When did that happen?
My big girl is so grown up these days. She is fiercely independent, ornery, and yet very cuddly. Of course the cuddly part could stem from a hint of jealousy, but we won't go into that.
She can put her own shoes and socks on.
She tries desperately to dress herself. She is unsucessful the majority of the time though. She loves ballet, so this particular day she wanted to put her ballet gear on. She put her leotard on over her long sleeved dress by pulling the bottom of the dress up over her shoulders. Then her tights went on over the leotard.
That Julia Roberts 1000 watt smile of hers still melts my heart.
Big Boy is truly big. This is no illusion or weird angle of a picture. His head truly is that large. He is anywhere from the 90th to off the charts for both height and weight. He is our little/big linebacker.
He has the best smile possible :)
He wants to be held all.the.time. Today he fell asleep in the ergo while on a family walk. He really is a lap baby.
He reaches for whoever passes by, as if to say "Please pick me up." Aunt Amber falls for it every time.
A few days short of her 6 month birthday, this little cutie is crawling and into everything. Her favorite thing to chew on is a cord. Yes, she will keep me on my toes.
She loves the exersaucer. She and Big Boy chew on all the same toys.
Aunt Amanda has fallen under her spell.
She loves to sit up and play with toys. This girl is active!
Someone else likes to steal the babies' toys from them...but that is another story.
Baby girl is loved my all, especially her Grandma Bob.
I am hoping that one day she will smile for the camera instead of just doing this same look every time I pull out the camera:
Halloween came and went; Jordan is still talking about wanting to go to a halloween party. At my mom's annual pumpkin party the kids decorated pumpkins with stickers, markers, and crayons.
Baby Emma was adorable in her fairy costume.
One of her brother's was a scary something or other that involved a scream mask.
Emma enjoyed much of her time doing a little digging for gold.
Jordan wore off a good amount of energy by just running. She ran after the other kids; she ran after the dogs. She just ran by herself while saying "Mama look! I'm running!" The need to point out the obvious must be a 3 year old milestone or something.
I have determined that I do, indeed, have the yellowest teeth on the face of the earth. And no, I do not have a problem with exaggeration. This is the truth; me teeth could pass for corn kernals.
And once again, another holiday passed during which I failed to get a family picture. That will change on Saturday because I am chosing to spend a couple hours torturing Scott at the Picure People. ugh. I truly dislike that darn chain. I love my photography and my style of photography. Too bad my kids will not sit still for mom the photographer. I am hoping the Picture People can do better than I did today. This is the best of the 20 or so I snapped in 5 minutes. Why only 5 minutes? Because for each and every second of that 5 minutes, one of the three was crying. No lie. At one point all three were crying. Too bad I couldn't get that on camera. Trust me, if I had, it would be my Christmas card. The caption could read "May God bless you richly in 2010 as he has blessed us in 2009." Or if I want to go completely the other direction I could say "You better not pout; you better not cry..." But alas, I couldn't even capture all three crying at one time. Come on kids! Work with me here!
I really hate this picture. The color is off, the exposure is off, there is a huge sunbeam in my shot, etc. And, one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to pictures is seeing the bottom of someone's shoes straight on. I just think it looks ugly. Jordan would not sit indian style.
My big girl is so grown up these days. She is fiercely independent, ornery, and yet very cuddly. Of course the cuddly part could stem from a hint of jealousy, but we won't go into that.
She can put her own shoes and socks on.
She tries desperately to dress herself. She is unsucessful the majority of the time though. She loves ballet, so this particular day she wanted to put her ballet gear on. She put her leotard on over her long sleeved dress by pulling the bottom of the dress up over her shoulders. Then her tights went on over the leotard.
That Julia Roberts 1000 watt smile of hers still melts my heart.
Big Boy is truly big. This is no illusion or weird angle of a picture. His head truly is that large. He is anywhere from the 90th to off the charts for both height and weight. He is our little/big linebacker.
He has the best smile possible :)
He wants to be held all.the.time. Today he fell asleep in the ergo while on a family walk. He really is a lap baby.
He reaches for whoever passes by, as if to say "Please pick me up." Aunt Amber falls for it every time.
A few days short of her 6 month birthday, this little cutie is crawling and into everything. Her favorite thing to chew on is a cord. Yes, she will keep me on my toes.
She loves the exersaucer. She and Big Boy chew on all the same toys.
Aunt Amanda has fallen under her spell.
She loves to sit up and play with toys. This girl is active!
Someone else likes to steal the babies' toys from them...but that is another story.
Baby girl is loved my all, especially her Grandma Bob.
I am hoping that one day she will smile for the camera instead of just doing this same look every time I pull out the camera:
Halloween came and went; Jordan is still talking about wanting to go to a halloween party. At my mom's annual pumpkin party the kids decorated pumpkins with stickers, markers, and crayons.
Baby Emma was adorable in her fairy costume.
One of her brother's was a scary something or other that involved a scream mask.
Emma enjoyed much of her time doing a little digging for gold.
Jordan wore off a good amount of energy by just running. She ran after the other kids; she ran after the dogs. She just ran by herself while saying "Mama look! I'm running!" The need to point out the obvious must be a 3 year old milestone or something.
I have determined that I do, indeed, have the yellowest teeth on the face of the earth. And no, I do not have a problem with exaggeration. This is the truth; me teeth could pass for corn kernals.
And once again, another holiday passed during which I failed to get a family picture. That will change on Saturday because I am chosing to spend a couple hours torturing Scott at the Picure People. ugh. I truly dislike that darn chain. I love my photography and my style of photography. Too bad my kids will not sit still for mom the photographer. I am hoping the Picture People can do better than I did today. This is the best of the 20 or so I snapped in 5 minutes. Why only 5 minutes? Because for each and every second of that 5 minutes, one of the three was crying. No lie. At one point all three were crying. Too bad I couldn't get that on camera. Trust me, if I had, it would be my Christmas card. The caption could read "May God bless you richly in 2010 as he has blessed us in 2009." Or if I want to go completely the other direction I could say "You better not pout; you better not cry..." But alas, I couldn't even capture all three crying at one time. Come on kids! Work with me here!
I really hate this picture. The color is off, the exposure is off, there is a huge sunbeam in my shot, etc. And, one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to pictures is seeing the bottom of someone's shoes straight on. I just think it looks ugly. Jordan would not sit indian style.
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