Reflecting on Adoption Day

On Friday November 22nd we adopted our twins.  A boy and a girl named Luke and Ava.

This year we completed two adoptions!  Life is wild when you truly say yes to wherever the LORD leads.  Many people tell us we are blessing these sweet children, but I am here to tell you it is the other way around.  Trevor, Luke, and Ava have brought more joy into our lives then I could have ever dreamed of!  We have gained Aunties and Uncles. Cousins and Grandparents.  Our heart is full with the love that surrounds us.  What has happened through our adoptions is not of this world.  

Adoption is love.  Just as we are adopted as sons and daughters of God because of his great love for us.  To quote a friend adoption takes something broken and makes it whole.

So here we are all 7 Stone's

Isaiah 61:3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion-

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of Joy

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD

for the display of his splendor.

Praise our LORD for he trades beauty for ashes!  May all 5 of our children follow him all the days of their lives and may they bring him glory in all they do.

When your bubble makes you a pharisee?

We all know those people who only hang out with people just like them.  Everyone believes the same things, thinks the same things, and does the same things.  And above all else only with each other.  Long time friends are set aside unless they want to talk about what you believe, and not to criticize or question it.  Because well...hmmm I guess that's not being real now is it. Well that's the kind of bubble that turns you into a pharisee.  You feast with the insiders while the "outsiders"  aren't welcome unless they want to tell you that you are right or they think they can convince you they are right.  And you can't bother with telling others about the Hope that you have found in Jesus because you only want to hang out with those who have it.  Oh wait I don't think that's what you the Great commission said.

You see the Pharisees were in a bubble too.  If you were Jewish, if your were circumcised, and if you followed all the rules they set out then you were in.  You see we can do this so easily too.  We get so caught up in the rules we forget to see Jesus.  We are so afraid of being tainted by the world we pull ourselves out of it.  We want to be safe.  The problem is Jesus isn't safe and he didn't call us to be safe.  So why are we trying to be safe.  Well if you are safe Satan wins!  Yep I said it if you are safe Satan wins, because he does.  You see the Gospel isn't rules or perfect looking families with children who obey always.  The Gospel is action.  Jesus usually started with an act of love and then followed with words.  And he didn't only love those in his circle he loved everyone the "unclean", the outcast, those who had no hope.  Often times we think our bubbles are just keeping us from being of the world but it actually keeps us from the world.  The same world he called us to love.

When I think about being "safe" as a christian I think about myself, how I used to be that believer stuck in a bubble. I'm still trying to make sure that I don't find myself there again. This false idea of safe brings to my mind the words in this song:

You have called me Higher-All Sons and daughters

I could Just sit

I could Just sit and wait for all your goodness

Hope to feel your prescence

I could just stay

I could just stay right where I am and hope to feel you

Hope to feel something again

And I could hold on

I could hold on to who I am and never let you change me from the inside

And I could be safe

I could be safe here in your arms and never leave home

Never let these walls down.

But you have called me higher

You have called me deeper

And I will go where you will lead me LORD

Be brave.  Be radical.  Love Jesus.  Love all people.  Teach your children to love like Jesus did.  If it means you don't cook dinner one night a week so you can go help others that is okay. It's okay because it teaches your children; it teaches them by example.  So go into the world and let the LORD grow you and change you.  Because in the end when we bless others we always end up being the one who is blessed more.

Matthew 28:18-20

Sorrow and Joy

So blogging has been put on the back burner due to the addition of twins to our household.  Just a little busy with 3 under 2???  Busy and full of blessings!

Well right now our house is full of sorrow and Joy I think I am truly learning what that means.  We are overjoyed with the addition of the twins and the upcoming adoption finalization of our little man.  And yet at the same time I am burdened with sorrow as my dear friend has been diagnosed with Leukemia.  The feelings I have experienced have surprised me in many ways as I just recently watched one of my husbands mentors loose his daughter to Cancer.  She was young sweet and innocent.  We were devastated when she passed away.  There are some things Kate Merrick wrote that now hit me harder.  You see as much as I have seen cancer I have not SEEN cancer.  It is something I wish no one would ever have to witness.  There is something about seeing someone you love in pain.  When you see them weak and weary.  It is heart breaking.

In all of this I know I have two choices.  I can become bitter and full of hatred and anger, or I can fix my eyes on the promise of Jesus.  I choose the later.  I could ask why or I could ask the LORD to come and be in the midst of this.  I choose to ask Him to come.  I know her cancer is treatable and I do not know how this will all end, but I do know I serve a God that is bigger then her cancer.  I also know that I serve a God that loves her more then I could ever love her.

So I press on with my friend in this battle and at them same time enjoy the blessing we are experiencing in life and they feel so much more joyous!  And I share those joys with her because in the midst of her pain I know the LORD intends to bless her in ways she could never imagine.


Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Romans 8:18 "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

Joshua 1:9 " Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you where ever you go."

When I hear this song I feel I am both the beginning of this song at the same time and yet the theme is the same "I will bring Praise!"