Monday, March 16, 2009

Joy.

Life with five small children is hard...h.a.r.d. God has realllly been working on my heart lately and has shown me that I'm not always doing the daily things with a joyful heart. I prayed for these babies for so long and now that its hard, its not always as cool as the original idea of it was. I love these kids with all of my heart but when everyone is whining and its raining and freezing and nobody is listening its not so fun.

God really spoke to my heart a few weeks ago though and said..."hey, remember all those people you saw in Africa who were soo joyful? Their circumstances were even more not fun than yours. In fact, they had some of the worst circumstances you could ever imagine. But they trusted me. They knew that I have a plan for them. If you would just stop being so darn selfish and know that I have called you to this and that I will give you everything you need to complete this task, you can do it. Not only that...You can do it with joy." James 1: 2-3 says "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."
God has called me to the awesome task of being the big sister to 5 precious orphans who are orphans no more. I realized that I was not enjoying them as much as I could be because of my selfish heart. Within the past few weeks though, I have really begun to pray for God to change my heart and give me a servants heart. I want to be Jesus's hands and feet and I want to love my siblings the way Jesus loves them. I want to serve them the way Jesus would if He were here.
Let me tell you, in bringing Christ into my thoughts more and continually going to Him in prayer when it gets tough, I have been able to enjoy my siblings in a whole new way. He has given me new eyes to see this situation. Instead of having to feed the kids breakfast while thinking about all the school I have to do...just in devoting my thoughts to getting the kids fed and talking to the boys about things while Im doing it has allowed me to enjoy them more and I'm not as short tempered when something unexpected happens. (something usually does.)
I have seen everyone in my family in a new light and I really believe that Jesus has answered my prayer and has allowed me to see a little but more of how he views them and has allowed me to know Him on a deeper level then before. I have learned firsthand these past few weeks that our joy truly can not be full until we are depending fully on Christ for our needs. I can not do anything in my own strength but through him, I can do all things. I want to decrease so that He may increase.
Luke 21:19 "By your endurance you will gain your lives." By serving Christ, we are given the oppurtunity to truly live.
1 Peter 1:7 "so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ..." I pray that God will refine my heart through the hard times and I pray that most importantly, He will use me to show His love to the littles. He has allowed me to enjoy this...:)

Family Friends...

We have some families we see regularly now who have adopted Ethiopian children and it is so awesome to see how the Lord is working in all of our lives through adoption. The Campbell Family recently got home with beautiful baby Abe. Is he beautiful or what? The Craigs. We are pretty much BFF's. I love them a lot. They adopted Amber and Amon. :) Kezzie is basically in love with Amon and if he's over at our house. She's not far. I wish I had a better picture of Amon because then you would see why Keziah thinks he is so cool. He IS so cool. My Bestest friends. Amanda, Morgan, Morgan's little sister Amber, and I. Beautiful Amber. Nathan and Amber Craig. I'm so blessed to have the greatest friends in the world. They have amazing hearts for God and orphans and I'm so thankful for them!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

It's official.

I stink at blogging.

Tomorrow is my nephew's first birthday party! Time has flown by and I can't believe he is turning a year old already. He is so precious and we love him to pieces.
We have had sooo much going on lately! I've been so busy with school and school + family + friends and... uhh...+ facebook= no time for blogging. I refuse to become one of those people who resign from it completely though. I will just continue to do a crappy job of it when i can. :)
I hear this week if I'm going to China!! I'm trying so hard not to be anxious. But that being said....I want to know if I'm going. kind of like as in...i want to know right now. I'll be content with either way because God knows best but I really hope I got in!
P.S. My friends Julee and Chrissy are in China now! ( We traveled to China together last summer and i love them both sooo much.) They will be there for a year working with orphans. :) They have sent out a prayer request for an orphanage they are working with that has recently become infected with a very serious case of the chicken pox and its spreading. Please pray that these babies would be healed and that it would not continue to spread!

Life with the Littles.