Opportunities to share

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend! We had our last homestudy visit this past Saturday. I am truly thankful its over. Its really not bad-but when its your second for the same adoption-the endless questions that you have answered so many times get old. One thing that has been hard is this gal is learning all about us and she isnt very personable. Oh well-its done.
We had a visitor at church Sunday to preach. He spoke on reaching out to the Muslim community. One thing that he really stressed was that this religion is not a peaceful religion and we can really reach these people by loving them. 1John 4:11-Beloved, if God so loved us , we ought to love one another. Pray for these people. They are blinded from the truth that can set them free for all of eternity. A lot of these Muslims dont like the mean part of the religion and are open to the gospel if we will just present the message to them. We are ambassadors for the King of Kings and the Lord or Lords. Get out there and do your job!:) I have been thinking of this since so many in Africa are Muslim. I pray that God will give me opportunities to share the truth to these people.
May you be blessed-A

praise in the storm

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We had a nice fall weekend for once. Its been so rainy and wet-but one of things that I love about a cooler fall is the beautiful leaves! They are awesome right now!
One thing that is amazing to me is how timely our pastors messages are to life. We have been going through the book of John and we were in chapter 6 yesterday. In this book the disciples are going across the sea and a storm hits. While they are freaking out and trying to make it through the storm-Christ is just out for a evening stroll on the waves of the sea! Well Christ comes walking by and they freak all the more. They think he is a ghost. Well Christ just comes over and gets in the boat and the bible says the waves were instantly calm and that they were immediately at their destination. Well our pastor was explaining to us that sometimes God puts us in a storm to keep us safe. Maybe we are getting to much like the world and forgetting that this place is not our home. Or maybe we loose sight of the big picture. Whatever the case-we may think we are going to be capsized by the waves but God is all the while keeping us safe from a more dangerous situation. So whatever you may be facing this week-remember that God is there right beside you and that the waves will not over take you. There are two kinds of christians in this world...the ones walking into a storm and the ones that are walking out of a storm:) The joy is that He always brings us through the storm! May you be blessed this week and remember to praise HIM in the storm-A

A Weekend to Remember

Hi Everyone! Today Brett and I leave for the weekend! I am super excited for this. We are going to the Weekend to Remember put on by Family Life Today. Its a christian based program and I am hoping to gain a lot of knowledge. I listen to their program almost every day on Moody. They have lots of wisdom for families and couples.

Please pray for us. This is the first time we will be going away, just the two of us, since Mia was placed in our arms! Please pray for her. I am trying to not worry about her:) She is going to be staying with Bretts parents-so you can pray for them too!

Hope your weekend is blessed-A

Its a grand life!

Hi everyone!
Life has been on fast forward! Two weeks ago was Mia's birthday party. We had 28 people and lots of fun presents. Pictures will follow another day:) It was a fun evening and she had a lot of fun with all the children. I cant believe that she is already two. Its kinda sad but I know there are many fun days ahead. She is such a blessing to us. We cant imagine life with out her. I was a little sad just wondering about her birth mother. I always think of her and wonder if she is sad or if she thinks of Mia on the special days, and then I pray that God will give her a special peace. I hope she knows how much we love her for the hard choice she made. We tried to do Guatemalan things-like the pinata! But I had gotten a pink horse and Mia loved it and was upset that we were wacking away at it with a bat! Maybe next year it will be more fun.
Well next on the list of crazy life items-we are adopting agian! We have been working on this since March and recently found out that the gal that did our homestudy was not really licensed and so we now have to redo. Just lovely! But I keep thinking that God knows our future-He called us to this and there is always a reason for the timing of things. We are adopting from Ethiopia and Lord willing, we hope to bring home two children. We have been called to this and we know that God is going before us to make a path. Its going to be a ride of watching miracles. We have no money for this adoption and the economy has not been good for farming-yet God called and we want more than anything else to do HIS will! So we jumped in with both feet! Its a little exciting and a lot of scary. We had our first homestudy this past Saturday. It was interesting. Glad its over. Its hard to explain that God called you to something and that you have the faith that He will work it all out according to His will. A worldly view does not understand. Plus I wish the people who did this kind of work had first hand experience in adoption. You cant know all until you have done it, and even then there is a lot of unknown!
Number 3 on crazy life items-Mia's getting 5 teeth!!!! I have had 4 days of crying and fever and I feel a wee bit cranky myself. I cant wait until this is done:)
Well that should update you for now in our life. I have lots more to say but since its nap time I had better work like a wild women!!:) May the good Lord Bless you-A

Home sweet Home

Hi! This is going to be my 3rd attempt at this post! I have no clue what happened to the first two so who knows! We have been busy. First off-thanks for the prayers for little Charlie. He is doing better-released from the hospital and back to the orphanage. God is so good to care for the orphans.

We just got back on Thursday evening from Washington. We went to visit my family and we had so much fun! Mia loves her litte cousin Shay and is still asking for her each time she wakes up or we head for the car. They had so much fun together. Grandpa Aaron watched them most evenings while the rest of us played Dutch Blitz. It was great! We got to go to Ellensburg-which is where I grew up. Labor Day is Rodeo Weekend in this town and they have a great parade. We left Pasco at 6:30 am to be there and get good seats so Mia could run out and get candy:) It rained on us but it was the best to be there. It was fun to have Brett see the funkiness that I grew up in! We also got to visit my elderly friend Kitty Moe. She is 104 and has the neatest stories to tell. Her family was some of the founding fathers of this country. Mia sat in her lap a little and I think Kitty was thrilled.

Well its been back to craziness since we got home! I have a ton to do and Mia's first birthday home is this next week. Praise God for this little girl who makes our days so filled with joy and laughter, and sometimes complete frustration:)

May you be blessed-A

lots to take to Jesus

First off-I will get some pictures on here soon:) I know some of you are waiting for them!
Its been a little crazy the last little while. God has blessed my garden with a bountiful harvest and I have been doing lots of tomatoe processing. I hope to make a lot of salsa tomorrow! I am also going to try making tamales for the first time. I hope they are good because I love tamales!! This past weekend we spent with the hubbys family and it was fun. We were up at the lake and it was really cool this year-about 65. Not good swimming weather but the little boys all got in and so did some of the girls. Mia and I had a nap on the deck all bundled in a down comforter.
Sunday we had a end of summer band and bbq at the park. It was nice and the hotdogs were yummy. I dont know how many people were there but I do know that they fixed about 150 hotdogs!
Now for the serious stuff. Our friends-Jeremy and Addi Camp lost there baby at 14 wks. Please lift them up to Jesus and Addi asked for healing for her body.
Next-Please pray for little Charlie. He is the little boy of our friends and they are waiting to bring him home from Ethiopia. He has phenomia and its a long ways away from mom and dad. Please pray for them that God gives them peace during this time.
Well I have a lot of stuff to do to get ready for the salsa making process tomorrow-so I must go.
May you be blessed-A

Good reading

One of the things that I have been doing in my life is trying to get rid of baggage from the past and be REAL! This is scary because you have to feel and hurt and allow yourself to cry and admit things about yourself that are not pretty! I have also been reading alot lately. I have not yet figured out how to link stuff so I will just tell you that most books are available on Amazon.
First I read "Scared" by Tom Davis. Heart renching....Now I am reading "Red Letters" by him also. I will read a little bit and just have to sit and think and digest. I am hard core about reaching the orphans of the world. I just dont know yet how much I am to do. Still seeking the Lord on that one. I do know that expanding our family through adoption is one of them-Still seeking the Lord on that one also. Anyway, if you have time to read-reaching the Fatherless is a concern to you-these books are amazing.
I am also trying to plan Mia's 2nd birthday-First birthday home. If any of you know of Guatemalan birthday traditions beyond fireworks and pinatas, let me know!
May your day be blessed-A