Crack Me Up!

Prov 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy.
NLT

I read this verse today and was musing on how accurate it truly is. Of course lately, I tend to bring everything back to the adoption, but it is really true...the things we have to wait for ...the things we've pined in our hearts for...are the things we tend to truly cherish and appreciate once our dreams have come true.

If I can say one thing for my son, it's that he constantly makes me laugh. He fits in perfectly with our family because we're all a bit nuts and laughter is a main staple in our home...but this kid cracks me up!

It think it's mainly because he lives life with such abandon and hasn't gotten old enough yet to worry about being "cool" and dignified all the time. Oh, how I wish I could be that age again!

We bought a badminton set to take on our beach vacation and we've been practicing every night. I have so much fun watching him whiff and swat at the birdies and dive and crash to the ground. My husband calls it "Baryshnikov Meets Badminton". It's hilarious! I can't decide if he's playing badminton or doing ballet!

Devin's baby brother gets adopted by a dear friend of mine on Monday. What a blessing that these boys will get to know each other and more importantly know that each other is safe. It's amazing how God worked the timing out on that whole situation so that my friend were able to get the baby easier due to our adopting Devin. There truly were so many reasons our hope had to be deferred, but I'm thankful that I have a God who knows the "behind the scenes" story.

Rich Like Me!

Life is tough sometimes, but life is also very, very good.

Americans are told every day that the news is bad and it's only going to get worse, and it just might, but God has been showing me over the past few months how truly rich I am.

I am one of those who lost their jobs due to the economic downturn and things have had to change around here, but God is always good and He is giving me hope that I've never had before.

As I have been busily clipping my coupons and looking for deals at every turn, I've been reminded of the things that I have that I couldn't have purchased had I wanted to and things that no one can take away no matter how hard they try.

1. My faith. I don't know how people live without the firm belief that this is not all there is. To me, if this were it, life would be pretty shallow and purposeless. I know that even in this down time, God is purposeful and loving and good and that He will never take His loving eye off of me.

2. My family. What a bunch of nuts, but boy do we have fun! We were all together for the weekend which is a rare treat for me. I'm so lucky that we all just enjoy being together.


3. My friends and my church. Again, not a bunch of perfect people but a bunch of great people. We take care of each other and are accountable to each other. I never have to worry about me or my children going without as long as they are around and they know the same is true from our end.

I know it looks bad out there, but take a minute to think about all that you can't lose. I still love to hang our sheets out on the line because it always reminds me of the fact that God loves me so much, He took time to make the air smell great. I just had to take a minute to hang up my sheets and capture it.

Let's all hang out the sheets in our mind today and try to capture something that God has given to us that we hadn't taken time to notice. I think this is a good way to maintain perspective in these trying times. We are so lavished upon by God every day and we fail to see our abundance!

I hope today that you are all rich like me!

Catching Up

It's been a while since my last post. Life seems to go at a hundred miles an hour these days.

We're busy about the process of life as a family...a permanent, legal family. Last Sunday at church we had a sort of dedication service for our whole family. Afterward, we had a party for those closest to Devin. It was so fun to watch him be the center of attention. It had a redneck country theme so Devin was in his glory! Something that really touched my heart was when I had a couple of people who have known Devin much longer than I have who said to me, "I've never seen Devin smile so much." That meant the world to me. His happiness is so important to me. Even in the midst of the happiness, I have lingering guilt about taking him away from his old life and friends. I want his new life to be the best possible!

God has been so good to us over the past year. We have learned many, many hard lessons about trust and God's perfect timing in everything. "Trusting God" by Jerry Bridges has not been out of my reach for most of the year. If you haven't read it yet...go get it. God really is in control and I can't wait for someday in heaven when God shows how every event, trial, joy and pain that we go through fit perfectly into His perfectly woven plan. I think when we then see and fully understand, we will truly fall to our knees and say with the angels, "holy, holy, holy is the Lord!"

Life is changing quickly. In just a few short months my baby girl Erica will be graduating, Devin will start driving (yipes!) and Erin will be getting her AA from Santa Fe College. Time flies by so quickly. For those of you with young ones, hold on to them tightly...they don't stay that way long!

Well, today I sit in jury duty. God bless those people having their fates in the hands of those of us not smart enough to get out of jury duty!

Love to you all!