A Desert Song
(by Hillsong)

This is my prayer in the desert
And all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in the hunger in me
My God is a God who provides
And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames
And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon forged against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here
And this is my prayer in the battle
And triumph is still on it's way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand
All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship
This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've recieved I will sow

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Incredible Love



Love that restores, comfirms, strengthens and establishes, Love that cares, Love that is peace, A Kiss of Love..... Christ. The Faithful Creator has been reminding me of HIS love, that HE Himself lavishes HIS love on His children. We are called beloved!!!!! And this is the true grace of God! I have been humbled in so many different ways through so many different people I have met, so many different experiences I have felt, so many different sights my eyes have seen, so many different sounds my ears have heard, smells my nose have breathed in, flavors my tongue has tasted, and it is the true grace of God. So many stories. So much fullness.

One experience that has affected me the most this week has been meeting a lovely young British couple that are just precious. We have had the privilege to share a meal with them almost everyday since we have gotten here. This couple, Rachel and Will, and their precious daughter Lily, have intrigued our whole family. They are in the process of almost completing their adoption of Lily, an 11 year old girl from Burma, whom they fell in love with in Thailand at an orphanage. She is deaf and cannot talk and has a mild case of cerebral palsy. The way that we have observed the love that they have for this beautiful child is incredible! It has brought me to the Father, thanking Him for His love for me and for thanking Him for adopting me as His beloved. He has an incredible love that He promises to never withhold. The beautiful example this couple lives in the way they love this girl has done so many things to my heart. THEY just love her and it is obvious that she is a special gift to them.





It has challenged me spiritually to really meditate on God's increduous love for me, for His children and as I do, it has brought me to repentance quicker, to love others easier, and to be HUMBLED, which is my constant prayer.

It has challenged me to love my own family more selflessly. To see the 4 (almost 5!!!) beautiful, healthy, special children He has allowed me and Jonathan to care for as gifts, pure gifts to lavish love on is HIS true grace. When I think about His magnificent LOVE for me, a sinner redeemed, a sinner loved, a sinner being restored, it makes me want to love more deeply, to see these lives as gifts, as the GIVER says they are, not ever as inconveniences, not as annoyances, not anything but His little BIG delights!!!!! Just as He delights in me, I am free (because of His love) to delight selflessly in them, which leads them to the Savior!! I love His love, it leads us back to Him!!!!!! So, I have been humbled by this experience to incredible love.



Our own Lilly has been drastically affected by this opportunity to spend time with this family and observe them. Her heart is beautiful, and has been challenged as well. I never know how any situation will affect my children, and this one has been quite a wonderful one to watch Lilly be changed by. She has seen this love bestowed by Rachel and Will to their Lily, a love that my Lilly cannot take her eyes off of! My Lilly has seen a beautiful, vivid picture of adoption to one who was unloved, weak, and cast off from her own birth parents. My Lilly has had a growing passion in her heart to adopt one day, and the Father has really designed our girl in an amazing way, she loves to serve, she has compassion, she is selfless and she gets her need for the Savior. She has expressed her desire to one day adopt from other countries, needy, disabled children and to love them. I am brought to tears (JOYFUL tears) as I thank the God of love for how He has given Lilly this huge heart of love already. It is unique, it is love only from the Father, and she teaches me. I love being taught from sweet Lilly, oh how sweet it is to be taught by a little child of God, who has taught me not to withhold ANY love!




Jonny and Brax have been affected as well. Brax has made true friends with Lily. He has constantly tried to communicate with her with learning sign language, and saying "cool" and "you are my friend" and "love," it has been not only precious but has made me laugh because of his cute expressive personality, who so much wants to make sure Lily knows she is his friend. She even signed to her parents that she had made friends and they could go sit down (A FIRSt experience for Lily!!!)
Jonny has insisted he sit near her for every meal. And Ella, oh sweet Ella, picked out lots of barettes to wrap up and give to Lily as a present and insists that she wears her hair the same way as her!!!! So cute!




Jonathan and I have been taking this time to pray about God's family vision for us and I believe He has shown us clearly and very simply, to love deeper, to love incredibly and to love like HE loves us. PERIOD.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

FUN in the SUN!!!!!!












We arrived in Thailand last week and have been relaxing beachside and poolside for the entire time, praise the LORD!!!! It has been truly a sweet blessing to be here. We flew out of India and had a fantastic flight to BKK, then hopped in a taxi-van and drove 3 hours down to the beach. We stopped by MCdonald's on the way and had our first real beef hamburger in almost a year, a BIG MAC, baby!!! Jonathan ate 2!!!!! We arrived to a brand new cottage and have been lavished with blessings. The kids immediately made precious friends, we have eaten GOOD food, our laundry has been taken care of for the entire time, and we have been building sand forts, collecting shells and swimming til we are water-logged!






The Father has cared for us so well, and has been refreshing our souls through His word, through fellowship with other believers and through prayer!!!





God has been teaching me about HIS care, HIS tender care that is fatherly and gentle and never-ceasing. His Word is truth and it tells of His mighty love, his strong hand and outstretched arm, that cares for us. His love has drawn me closer to Him and I thank Him for His gentleness with me, with our family, and it brings me to worship. Truly to worship.


Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Boys' Birthdays!!!!!!

Happy 7th Birthday to Jonny!!!!! "J-Dawg" was born on June 5th, 2004, 2 days early!!!He was a bright-eyed 8 pd 2 1/2 oz cute little boy who has grown into one of the most adventurous smart, kind, handsome little guys I know!





He celebrated his birthday with a pizza party,

cake and cookies,

his friends,

playing nerf guns,

Mcdonald's,
and games!

On his actual birthday, he went to a week long camp in the mountains! He came back with a skateboard and lots of cool stories!


It has been a complete blessing to watch this boy grow in his love for Jesus, his obedience to the Word and his compassion for others. We pray that God would continue to draw Jonny daily to Himself, overwhelming him with grace to love his family, friends and that the Father would grow a love in him for the nations. We praise God for Jonny's life and pray that his life would be used to glorify God! We are thankful for how God made him and uses him in our lives everyday!!!!


Happy 5th Birthday to Braxton!!! Braxton was born on July 7th, 2006, 2 weeks early, weighing in at 8 pds 8 oz!!! He came into this world with the same cute chubby cheeks he has today!



It has been a wonderful 5 years of laughing( he is hilarious!!), singing (he is the musician of the family), dancing (he has rhythym!) and playing imaginary superheroes (he totally could be a character from Star Wars under all that skin!) I am convinced he will be a musician or filmmaker when he grows up!



More than anything, we pray that God would use his life for HIS glory and Braxton would love the Lord with all of His heart, soul, mind and strength and he would hunger and thirst for righteousness and be filled overflowing!!! We pray that Brax's strong willed personality and amazing imagination would be used to influence others towards Christ and one day disciple others to follow God. We praise God that "B-ROCK" loves Jesus and has a desire to tell others about Him!

We celebrated with pancakes for breakfast,

Mcdonald's for lunch,

homemade pizza for dinner

and special starwars cookies/cake per his request!





We played games with his new nerf gun and bay blades!



We had to postpone his little party until he felt better cause he was sick.
So, a few days later, we celebrated with his very best friends, Micah and Levi, and went to Mcdonald's and then to an arcade and bowling! It was a hoot, there are 2 bowling lanes on a third floor of a building in our city, it was a first for all of us!!! :) They had so much fun and he felt completely special!