Marco........POLO:

aka: Where have I gone??

I am SO SORRY, I have NOT blogged since 2010!! I know I'm a busy mommy who has to prioritize.  I hope to try to blog at LEAST once a month!! LOL....we'll see how it works out.  It's all about time management....

So, we had a GREAT Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'll blog specifically on Christmas as soon as I can and HOPEFULLY BEFORE March, but no promises...Our theme was 'family time' so we got lots of gifts that would bring us together as a family.

This is went out with our Christmas card.

Now, onto other things.  God is doing some work on our little family. Please be in prayer for Gabe as seeks God's heart about some things that are precious to him.

God's been working on my heart to.  It took me (I'm ashamed to say) 8 months to finish Beth Moore's study on Esther and I LOVED IT!!  I've now moved onto her study about the tabernacle called "A Woman's Heart: God's dwelling place."  So far, I LOVE it too.  My goal is to finish by June...It's another 10 week study, and I hope to be finished way sooner, but June 1st is a good goal for me.  (insert snicker).  I'm also reading the Bible Chronologically...it's making so much more sense to me doing it this way.  God is speaking to me and I'm reading it more like a 'book' than 'the Bible'.  I'm ahead of my daily readings because, I want to know what happens next.  

Here's what I thought about Job when I finished reading that book (this is straight from my journal):

• Job was rich and LOVED God. 
• Satan had to ASK permission to test Job, God said 'yes', BUT put limitations on him.
• Job - like all of us didn't understand why his life had changed from GREAT to HORRIBLE.
• Others did not understand either, instead of his 3 friends praying WITH him and FOR him - they CONDEMNED him.
• Job then in turn had to DEFEND himself from his friends, but did not do this graciously.
• A younger man literally put ALL 4 men (Job and his friends) in their places by speaking wisdom to them about who God is since they had obviously forgotten.
• God then spoke to Job and REMINDED him that HE is GOD, NOT JOB and HE(GOD) is IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING.
• Job confessed to God his sins and his wrong thinking - which were his sins - he had been questioning God.
• God then blessed Job with MORE than what he had BEFORE Satan went after him.

You see, I often FORGET that GOD IS IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING.  God knew this about me so, he truly spoke to me while I read this book.  We need to be careful about how we 'address' our friends who are suffering.  We need to be careful about being judgemental, even if that is not our intentions...that is a problem that I deal with.  We need to speak truth to those around us, but we need to do so in a loving and kind manner.  Even MORE important, we need to be praying for those who are currently struggling before we do anything else or even more than anything else.  God is continuing to remind me of this with people he is putting in our lives.  

I feel like I may be forgetting this or God is truly speaking to them because sometimes I feel like I'm being pushed away...even as I try to speak truth in a loving and gentle way. I'm not sure....I do know that when things get really tough, these precious ones tend to push me away, so I also find myself BEGGING God to save them and am I doing everything I can to show them God's love.  It's tough, but I know that God is preparing me and them for 'such a time as this' to quote Mordecai from Esther.

I am currently in Genesis reading about Jacob (who is now Isreal) and all that he is going through.  I am VERY confused as to why it was okay for him to have 4 wives and what on earth were Leah and Rachel thinking giving him their maids to bear him children as well?  If I've learned anything up until Gen 31, it is:

1. Men should NOT be married to sisters - it causes too much drama and competition.
2. I am SO GLAD that this is NOT the way we live today...yikes.

I look forward to learning more as I read through the Bible. And just so you know, my resolution this year is to go wide AND deep.  So, I'm reading the BIBLE chronologically to go wide, but doing the Beth Moore study to go deep, and I can't think of a better study than the one on the tabernacle to go DEEP with.   Along with both of these I'm working on memorizing at least 12 verses this year as well.

I'll try to blog on Christmas and my thoughts about the Esther study as soon as I can, but for now, know we are all doing well and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2011. 

I have 5 children....

My sweet Alyssa, who is blossoming
into a BEAUTIFUL young lady.

This time in 2008 when my husband asked to get a job, I was reluctant, but God knew exactly what He was doing when He provided me the job that He did.  I got to teach one last time to a beautiful group of preschoolers  who are now in Kindergarten.  In that group of children, I have made some really good friends.  I LOVE each of those children I had in my class and I try to keep up with them as much as possible, but there are 3 that I consider 'mine'.



You see, these 3 'extra' children, well their moms are some of my dearest friends.  These children are some of the most precious children I know, and when I get the honor  of getting to take care of them, I just loop them into my family.  I treat them just like I treat my own children.

My precious Jesse, who is one of the
silliest boys I know! 

You see, I feel like God has placed them in our lives for a very special reason.  When I get a phone call from these special mommy friends asking me if I can help them out, I try to move heaven and earth to be able to get a chance to spend time with these great kiddos.

So, in the last 2 weeks, I've been honored to be able to attend special events at school for 2 of  my 'extra' kids.  When people ask me if they are all mine, I often hesitate and actually CRAVE to say YES, YES!  ALL OF THESE PRECIOUS KIDS ARE MINE!!!

Adorable Bella, who often is mistaken
for Perryn's twin!!

I think God is giving me a glimpse to what He might have up His sleeve when I have all of these kiddos in my van...sometimes I have all 5 together, but most of the time, I only have 3 or 4 total...at one time - when I say 3 or 4 that includes my two! heehee.

So, Lord, I can't wait to see how you bless our little family of four and make us a bit bigger.  I can't wait to see what kind of house you provide for us so that we can keep adding to our family.  I can't wait to see the cute faces, races, and specialties that you are going to put into our family.  But....

since it's not time to add to our family, please help us to love on the single moms that you have brought into our lives, the families that need a little extra help because they have two working parents and they need us to just step in every so often.

Help me to bless those families that are currently adopting with fundraisers and my voice.  Please help us to pray for, love, and encourage each of these families and those others that you bring into our path.

World Aids Day

Please watch this video about Adoption and HIV/AIDS.  I pray that if God blesses us with more children that we will not be hesitant or ignore those children with HIV/AIDS.  I feel that He does have some special plans for us in adopting some really special children.  I pray that we are open to adopting the ones that He places before us.

Giving

So, I'm one of those people who LOVES, just LOVES to do things for others and watch smiles be put on their faces.  That's why when God showed me/told me that I needed to revamp my creative business, I didn't argue with Him at all!!


You see, I also LOVE to be creative.  It's almost more of a stress relief to create things for others than it is to go running or exercise in general.

I love to be creative with my baking (I'm more of a baker than a cook).

 It took me stepping out of my comfort zone to make both this pirate and the crane cake.  I like to be more a 'paint by numbers' decorator not so much a free hand decorator.

I love to be creative with paper as well.  I LOVE to create something that is a representative to a family.  For example: the pink daisy announcement represents a client whose baby, Savannah, was born straight into the arms of Jesus.  The three daisies represent her, her husband, and their son Jaythan.  The butterfly represents, Savannah.

The Ladybug card is for a friend who wanted to announce the adoption of their daughter, Kaiya from China.  The large daisy represents, daddy - Russ.  The medium size daisy represents mom - Angel, and the small daisies represent all three girls together - Zoe, KK, and Kaiya becoming sisters.

I'm not sure where else one could find a place to really put so much TLC in the things that are made for them.

Well, last weekend, Nov 13, Perryn and I went to a Holiday Open House.  We sold bookmarks, Christmas cards, raffle tickets, and cupcakes.  You can find out how Perryn was a special part of the Open House here and how our table did here.   I had agreed to do the Open House to help fundraise, then I felt I was getting too stressed, so I tried to back out.  Well, God knew what he wanted me to do.  Perryn and I went to the Open House and we sold, what God wanted us to sell.  Here's the COOLEST part about the whole thing.  Even though I walked out of there at the end of the day with approximately $250 of profit in my purse, I really only made $9.  How you ask?

Well, I got to write 3 checks.  Two went to Children's HopeChest for part of their "Change their Story" campaign that we are kind of doing, but in a more unique way.  But I also got to write a check to a family who is using me to fundraise for their adoption in Russia.  Here's what she said on facebook:
"Oh, my goodness!!! You are beyond amazing!! I just opened my mail, and have not stopped crying! I had no idea you were selling Christmas Cards at that event to raise money for us and the adoption!! I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love for your servant's heart that is so full of God's love!!! Love you!! So grateful for you!"

This made my day.  Not because I was looking for any glory, but because my HUMAN side wanted to keep more than just $9  from that day.  For about 2 minutes I struggled with the profit I made, because I have NEVER made that much profit at one time with my little business.  But, I quickly was reminded by God that HE wanted me to bless others.  That's why I have been blessed with the talents that He has given me.  It was a really cool feeling to mail those three checks....almost a surreal feeling.

I know, it's taboo to talk about faults and I kind of feel like I'm 'bragging' about what happened last week, but I'm not trying to do that.  I want you to know that their are several causes (adoption/orphans and Child Trafficking/sex slaves) that are close to my heart and I am so glad that God has blessed me with ways to help them out.  To help make a difference to others.  This is our way of beginning to celebrate Advent this year.  Instead of focusing on just us, I want our family to really focus on giving and blessing others.

My voice is really small, because it's only one, but I need YOUR help to make my voice a little bit louder.  Please help me spread the word about a giveaway that I'm hosting.  There are 11 DIFFERENT ways you can enter it to win a handmade Advent calendar PLUS 4 books signed by Tom Davis, CEO of Children's HopeChest.   Will you please help me spread the word,and enter the giveaway?   So, please hop on over here and find out how YOU can enter this giveaway a WHOPPING 11 times. You don't have to purchase anything if you don't want to, but please look around and help spread the word for my giveaway.  Many thanks and blessings.

Raffle Tickets

I would like to help a dear friend of mine get her little girl, Emma Charity, from Russia.  She is currently selling raffle tickets for $5 and I have 20 of them.   Please let me know if you would like to have one, so we can connect and get the info that we need for you to be entered.

The drawing will be on Dec 19th and will be shipped where ever the winner lives!!