Sunday rest

Two thirds of the kids were sick this past Sunday & I won the coin toss, so the well child & I trotted off to church. It was kind of nice just sitting alone - one of the benefits of attending a huge church - it can be easy to not be seen when needed. And I needed a little "solitude." The comforts were what I was craving.....a hot cup o coffee, great worship & some good convicting words....preferably from Andy Stanley this morning....just needing normalcy & comfort.
When I learned we had a guest pastor I kind of fell on the inside. Just not what I "wanted" this morning. Maybe I was wanting to go a little brain dead...I don't know. But I feel like I can hear Andy's words easily. I don't have to work to figure out what he's trying to say all the time. He challenges me, don't get me wrong....but because I have been listening to him for so long it's like hearing from an old friend. I trust him. So my defenses can fall a little. I don't know this guy. I don't want to absorb his words half-heartedly. So my antenna will have to go up to really listen.

Well, he was great. He was what I needed to hear. God is fun like that - reminding me from time to time that He can actually speak through other people. :) John Ortberg is his name....turns out he's written a lot of books so a lot of other people may know who he is.....not me.
And a friend send me an excerpt from his sermon today......the words I needed to hear again....so I'll share John Ortberg's words from Sunday am with you....
God knows exactly what you need to grow…what relationships, what problems, what experiences, what groups, what teachings, what learnings. God knows just what will help every human being on earth grow, and His desire is for it never to become routine, never to be dull, and it will never look the same as anybody else.
You think about how differently God treats all of His children.
God had Abraham take a walk, Elijah take a nap, Joshua take a lap, Adam take the rap. God gave Moses a 40-year time out, He gave David a harp and a dance. He gave Paul a pen and a scroll. He wrestled with Jacob, argued with Job, whispered to Elijah, warned Cain, and comforted Hagar.He gave Aaron an altar, Miriam a song, Gideon a fleece, Peter a name, Elisha a mantle. Jesus was stern with the rich, young ruler, tender with the woman caught in adultery, challenging with the disciples, blistering with the scribes, gentle with the children, gracious with the thief on the cross.
God never grows two people the same way. God is hand-crafter, not a mass-producer.
You are God’s workmanship. His plan to grow you up will not look exactly like His plan for anybody else, but He knows exactly what you need. So, our prayer on this one is, “God, how do You want me to grow?"

It's always comforting to remember that I am not on a conveyer belt being asked to look like the expectations of even good people around me. And what an important truth to be reminded of as we raise these children....each uniquely made for a purpose....bigger than us.

please pray & pass it on

Please pray for God & common sense to prevail here.
These sweet friends of mine have legal guardianship of a little girl who is in great need of medical care that the US can offer her. For whatever reason, & I won't pretend to understand the legal speak of it all, the US embassy has stopped issuing visas. So, they have a child who is their legal responsibility & they cannot bring her home. This can change, there doesn't seem to be hope for that....but there is always hope - there is a meeting tomorrow - my guess is it will be around the midnight -3am eastern time window so if you find yourself awake please pray for these families....all of them, but specifically the Levys.

the daily temper tantrum

So I had the privaledge of being with our friends as they dedicated their sweet baby girl at our church a week or so ago. & the way our church does baby dedication takes the parents through an exercise of prioritzing marriage & also thinking through now the character traits you hope your child will walk out the door with in 18 years. One of the things these parents mentioned was the hope that their daughter have a sense of gratitude. That she not walk through life feeling a sense of entitlement. That word always strikes something in me. I get what they're talking about. I agree with them. And I see the ugly monster of entitlement rising up in me all. the. time.
We have 2 friends (Troy & Mary and Amy, Sarah & Court)on 2 very different journeys in 2 different parts of the world.
Their stories make me see even more clearly how I have come to believe that I deserve many things. It's so easy to put the idea of people without clean water or food or a myriad of things we have total access to in the back of our minds.....as if on some far away distant planet...for someone else to think about. And I have been praying lately for it not to all seem so far away. Which has made me just a little more sensitive of my sense of entitlement......for instance...
I feel like I deserve, whether I approach it that way or not I realize my belief that I deserve these things as soon as I am inconvenienced of not having them for even a short period of time....
*good, strong water pressure in my shower
*the people driving around me to yield to my right of way
*'proper' service when at a restaurant
*for target to have what I need when I need it
*to enjoy the food I eat
*to have dessert
*to have a healthy family
*to live a long life
*to live in the house I want to live in
*to have clothes that let me feel good about myself in the environment I'm in
*for the guy in the line in front of me at Starbucks to move up just 6 more inches so that I can place my order - there is actually a lot more wrapped up in that one statement
*medicine to fix whatever is ailing me not just right now, but yesterday

.....and the list goes on & on & on & reading their stories has been a humbling experience for me. We all have it. We all get bent out of shape when something doesn't go our way. Which I think keeps me, (I'm not going to speak for you but my guess is that maybe you, too) from truly knowing how to walk the way Jesus asked me to. How can I "lay down my life" if I am so wrapped up in expecting things to be a way that I "deserve" them to be?
So what are the things you feel "entitled to"? And if there's nothing - then a word of advice on how to keep mine at bay would be helpful.
I listened to a sermon a few months ago about submitting to one another......and how to practice to art of submission. He mentioned going to a hot lunch spot at 1130 . Stand in line for 30 minutes......and then walk to the back of the line. That one visual, I think, is a helpful one.
And I can't say that I have improved.....I have just been slapped in the face every time my blood pressure rises or I raise my voice for simply not getting my way. And then I hear the voice in my head...the one that says these words to my children on an almost daily basis...."are you having a hard time because you are not getting your way?"
Yep.
That would be me.

Calcutta

I actually have pictures, stories & thoughts swirling around my head....and I'll get to that. But for NOW - our good friends are in Calcutta....and following their story is important......I hope you enjoy reading for yoursleves.

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the perfect southern January day!

60 something & sunny! Such a great day......Spring we can't wait for your arrival!!!!

some favorites

I don't have a ton of words today - but I was looking through some pictures & these are a few that I ran across from the recent past. Some really good memories - mostly from around Thanksgiving.

This was taken late one night as we were getting back to the hotel....my husband is a strong man :)

the Levys

There's this amazing family that I have gotten to be friends with & right now, Amy (the mom) is in Uganda to bring her little girl, Sarah, home. Sarah is in the hospital right now & there are many prayer requests that we would love for you to join us in.......check out their story here.

so.....

who does the baby resemble the most? I know these pictures aren't totally fair as their ages aren't lined up correctly.....but it's the best i can do since the computer crashed & sent my photos into the abyss to never be recovered.......but, what do you think?

oatmeal snapshots

This was just me trying to get a picture of the baby eating oatmeal. She was having the best time & she is in desperate need of a bath & whenever the camera comes out she reacts a lot like Chandler from Friends

snow!

Can't talk right now - making hot chocolate to warm up these littles :). Hope you're enjoying your day as much as we are!!!

revisitng the 70s

I mean, it looks like I took a curling iron to the sides of her hair. And anyone who knows me knows that I am not of the schooling that will acutally add something like curling my infant's hair to my to-do list. I do love her hair.......and she has a personality to match.

big change

My girl just came in here to tell me that her brother told her that her favorite color was brown & she was mad because her favorite color in fact is not brown, it is pink.

"Is it true?" I said.

"No" - she responded with sniffles

"Then tell him it's not the truth and then shake it off" and then I did a little shimmy shake dance to, you know, illustrate the shaking off.

She smiled.

What if for your whole life you believed something so strongly that you would do anything because of that conviction. What if you were told your whole life that you were allergic to peanuts - spent your life avoiding all peanut products & things made on equipment that is also used with peanuts.........and then one day you learn that you are not allergic to peanuts. Maybe things within your body changed. Maybe you were never allergic to peanuts to begin with. I don't know. But would you immediately start eating peanuts? I think I would have a hard time. I think all of the years of being afraid of & accustomed to avoiding peanuts would make it more difficult to just jump into a peanut eating free lifestyle.
I read about Paul. No one was more convinced of his rightness that he was. Few people have moved forward in a mission to defend what he believed to be true & honorable. We can all agree that from the outside his ways seemed wicked - but his heart believed that he was defending God. And if Jesus wasn't Jesus, then maybe he was.
Paul, who at this point is called Saul, was on his way to take believers in Christ to prison & he had an encounter with the Lord. Everything changed. Everything he had believed was different. And he didn't run from it.
The truth was so big for him, that he changed his mind. He learned - it says he sat with the disciples for several days.
He was teachable.
That's the word that most people will use to describe my husband. A quality that I am learning from him. A quality that I am seeing my daughter learn from him. An amazing quality.....and rare. So, I guess today I am thankful for my husband.

just to explain all the noise

These are some of the pictures to help you understand the noise level on Christmas morning. I wish I cuold say they were playing in unity a rendetion of "Joy to the World" but it was really nothing like that. At this point i wonder if we will ever have visitors again....the loudness, the licking of the food.....it's just his food remember.....but still, who would really want to visit at this point? And why would I keep telling about it all?? Well, friends, it's just the reality....and we kinda like the reality. We kinda like it a whole lot :)

Christmas morn

This picture actually helped to explain a lot of Christmas morning to me - after the fact. You see, I realize from this particular picture that my boy was woken from a deep sleep to come check out the festivities. He was confused. He is 2. He wasn't even sure what was going on. And some of the gifts given involved noise - a trumpet, a violin, a harmonica, a saxophone, a guitar........it was loud. It was nuts. And there was crying. Lots of falling apart & crying. I remember looking at Lee with my arms out with a "What in the world is going on here!??!" Now, don't get me wrong......there were happy moments & I was successful at recording each smile on film. Just a lot of pictures taken one right after the other.
Following a good breakfast, lunch at the grandparents & a nap....the Christmas magic was back in action. All smiles & giggles......& jumping.....Granddaddy sent a mini indoor trampoline & the kids just jumped & jumped. Our families were SO incredibly generous with gifts, as they always are......i haven't been able to pick which gift was the favorite of the year...which is great. The kids have been joyfully occupied by all of their new gifts. Was there a favorite gift in your house this year?

cookies & saliva

I am just so behind on documenting this season....it was crazy. Crazy fun. But nevertheless, it was a little bit full of the crazy. I am making notes to avoid - or at least try to avoid - the craziness next year. These are pictures from Christmas eve. Our church gave the kids the ingredients to make cakes or cookies to celebrate Jesus' birthday. So we made them & my boy licked his hands & then touched each cookie so only they truly got to enjoy the sugary goodness of the cookies. We have actually learned that in my boy's short life not to ever eat after him.
He licks his food. You should know that if you ever come over here. He "marks" his food the way a dog marks his territory...a little different in that I have never seen him pee on his food - but he does lick it. And that falls into the same category in my opinion.
Just know you've been warned.
It was a great December! The kids are at such fun ages.....except for the baby - a story for another time.
Much to update.....I know. I'll get it done. Just check back this week....you'll see.

the unexpected

As we get ready for the big celebration day I can't help but remember that the people of Israel were waiting for a King - the Messiah - a Savior - one that would rush in and save the day. And He came. God kept His promise. He sent a Rescuer. And He was not what they expected. Which simply reminds me to take hold of that unexpected excitement & enthusiasm that I see in my children & place it everyday in my walk with the Lord. To remember that when I learned the truth of who Jesus is - He was not the condemning, mocking God that I had expected him to be. He is not to be figured out. He was expected, though unexpected. He was a baby. He was poor. He was a servant. And He is the King. I pray you will hold dearly to the celebration of this Christmas. Merry Merry Christmas!

"Ooh!" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.""That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly.""Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about being safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

MERRY Christmas!

my baby

Lots going on & am too sleepy to write anything, but these pictures made me smile. She's getting too big too fast.

a great gift

At the beginning of this year I sat with my daughter's teacher to tell her some useful information about her personality & to learn some specifics of what they would be learning. One thing she told us was about the particular Bible they would be studying. The Jesus Storybook Bible - where every story whispers His name. I wanted to know a little more. So she got up & got it & just said something to the effect of "it shows all through the Old Testament the picture of Jesus" and went on to say, "just like with the story of Jonah - so many people use that story to show God punishing Jonah for disobeying (eh-hem, guilty) and it was actually God rescuing Jonah." Well, there was a perspective shift for me.....I ordered it immediately. I realized in that moment that I have read so much of the Bible with ME as the main character. Learning about what God has to say about ME ME ME ME ME! And it was all about Him. Every story was a whisper pointing us to Jesus. I was amazed.

Even with the story of Abraham & Isaac..it concludes with...."...many years later another Son would climb another hill, carrying wood on his back. Like Isaac, he would trust his Father to do what his Father asked." I felt like scales had dropped from my eyes once more. How I have gotten so hung up on the scary-ness of that story for...well, for as long as I've known it.....because i feared God would ask me to do something that unthinkable.

I see God's mercy differently now.

I see, once again, that I have been shown so much that I don't know.....that there must be so much more that I don't know.

So, if you need an AMAZING Christmas present for your child....that will end up being an amazing Christmas gift for your whole family...this is it.