Blessed....

May you feel the richness of His love  today. ..

But God—so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,

Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved ([a]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation).

And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us [b]joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.

Do the next thing....

I remember back about 2 years ago. I was pregnant with our 5 child, and we were still working on our adoption from Haiti. At one point, the childrens ages looked something like this:

Zoey 7
Joshua 6
Abigail 4
Karlee 3(at that point we considered her as much part of our family as any of the others even tho she wasn't with us)
Kaitlyn 2
Jorden 1

Something like that. Although I love love love children, and I loved my life, I felt like I wouldn't be leaving the house alone for a very. long. time.
I was a busy mama.
I didn't know how I was ever gonna survive.

But guess what. Two years later  I feel like I am "on the other side". I look back now and wonder what the big deal was.
I am no super mom.
I don't have it all together.

But the last two years I did go away, and our family did a lot of fun things. Our house is still standing, and I am quite sane.

I have LOVED the last few years.
We've grown as a family.
God has been good.

I am here to testify, that God gives grace for those "big things". He gives strength for the hard days.
Some days, when it all looks big, do the next thing.
Sometimes its laying the work aside to read a story. Sometimes its just putting the next load of laundry in. Sometimes its making the most out of naptime by tidying as quickly as possible and sometimes its by taking a nap too. 

Sometimes, it's doing the next thing. Whatever that may be.

I think what helped (and even now, currently ) us was / is routine. 

Routine that is predictable but routine that can be changed with whatever God brings into your day. As our family grew so did the need for a schedule. Children thrive on it, and it allowed us to do things we couldn't have done otherwise. 

Grace will meet you  wherever you are.. and these busy days can be beautiful. Rejoice.. do heartily with love... this mothering thing is precious and important in God's eyes.  

Hats off to all my mommy friends! !!

Happy Birthday Abby!!

Birthdays are a time of celebration at our house. I think its an amazing thing, to celebrate LIFE. Its such a miracle, to have another year to celebrate this gift.

Abigail turns 6 today, and I am so blessed to be her Mama.

 

 

 

 

 

Summer of 2014

A quick snap before going on her birthday date with mama

 

God gave us a special miracle, in that when Abby was about 6 weeks old, we discovered she was vitamin K deficient. God granted us LIFE, when some people have less than 24 hours after discovery of this deficiency until their child died. We are forever grateful.

 

 

What do you think of when you hear the word "minimalism"?  I don't  recall hearing it in the past, until I happened upon an article, and there, I nestled down comfy. I realized I have been on a journey toward that for years.

Before you get concerned that you will come and find my house stripped down, don't worry. I have learned I am actually NOT a minimalist, but rather have been hovering several steps away and loving

 

 {SIMPLE}

SIMPLICITY--- Its my word for the year. Doesn't it sound quiet? Peaceful?  I have found it to be .. but as it is in everything, I am on a journey. There are extremes for everything in life, it seems. So I pray God will continue to show me what He wants this to look like for me, for us and our family.

I ask myself.. how did I start down this road? I used to love picking up free, cheap,  and STUFF wherever I found it.

I think I can pinpoint one way. We started traveling in and out of Haiti, and everytime I came back I felt the need to purge. ( at that point, it was more like, rearrange aka organize, my things.) I think seeing how little some people live with, and realizing we did without all our stuff while we were away, and we didn't even need it, woke me up.

"If you have to buy more stuff to organize your stuff, maybe you have to much stuff"-Courtney carver

" Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions." -Peace Pilgrim

“Owning less is far more beneficial than organizing more.”

At its heart, organizing is simply rearranging. And though we may find storage solutions today, we are quickly forced to find new ones as early as tomorrow. Additionally, organizing our stuff (without removing it) has some other major shortcomings that are rarely considered

 It doesn’t benefit anyone else. The possessions we rarely use sit on shelves in our basements, attics, and garages… even while some of our closest friends desperately need them.

It doesn’t solve our debt problems. It never addresses the underlying issue that we just buy too much stuff. In fact, many times, the act of rearranging our stuff even costs us more as we purchase containers, storage units, or larger homes to house it.It doesn’t turn back our desire for more. The simple act of organizing our things into boxes, plastic bins, or extra closets doesn’t turn back our desire to purchase more things.  The culture-driven inclination to find happiness in our possessions is rarely thwarted in any way through the process.It doesn’t force us to evaluate our lives. While rearranging our stuff may cause us to look at each of our possessions, it does not force us to evaluate them—especially if we are just putting them in boxes and closing the lids. On the other hand, removing possessions from our home forces questions of passion, values, and what’s truly most important to us.It accomplishes little in paving the way for other changes. Organizing may provide a temporary lift to our attitude. It clears a room and subsequently clears our mind, but rarely paves the way for healthy, major lifestyle changes. Our house is too small, our income is too little, and we still can’t find enough time in the day. We may have rearranged our stuff… but not our lives. ( I'm sorry I don't recall the source for this)

So I started not just organizing, but de-cluttering and (post yard sale) we will DE-OWN. The shelves that held things I didn't even use, for years, are happy, empty, quiet spaces in my house now. Simplifying to what I LOVE, and USE,  blanketed with  learning contentment is turning out to be a precious blessing. I believe many of us have bought into the lie that owning the newest, latest, (and sometimes its not just the newest and latest, but simply MORE THINGS and LOTS OF THINGS)  will make us happy, and nothing could be further from the truth.  

This journey is impacted by several other things that I am sure I will share here, sometime. Until then, what imput do you have? I'd love to hear from you:)