Better Late Than Never!

Wanted to post some pics from two recent snowfalls we had. Don't get much snow here, so it's always a big deal when it comes. We live on the side of a hill, so we have the best place for sledding! I actually set a family record for the longest (in length) ride down the hill on a sled. Mac couldn't stand that, though, and promptly risked his neck (literally) to beat me at that!

The following pictures are of our first snow, in January.

Here's a picture of some bird tracks. They were looking for water and seeds. We've gone through bird seed like crazy this winter!


DJ and Jake, making snow angels!

One of my favorite places in our yard during the spring and summer. There's usually full flower pots, and the trellis holds the most exquisite morning glories. Dad made the chairs years ago, before 2 kids became 4!

These are pictures of the next snow, which fell in February. Dad got busy with DJ and Jake making his version of a snowman. We had fun with these pics!

Namely...

Wanted to change it up a bit here.

We started blogging back in 2007 when we started, full-swing, into our adoption journey. The actual first steps were taken back in 2006, but we found out in September of '07 who Jake was. And knew that blogging would be a great way to allow others to keep up with us as we got closer to bringing him home.

I was -- and to a great extent, still am! -- fearful of having our identities fully exposed to the general public. There are some truly sick people out there, and I want to be as careful as possible, especially where my kids are concerned!

For that reason, I never named anyone in our family except for Jacob. He was the whole reason our blogging experience started, and it seemed natural to talk of him by using his name. Everyone else, though, has been referred to with descriptive phrases, only.

Well. I'm bored with that, and never even thought about nicknames until my daughter started writing her own blog & used nicknames.

All that to say: I'm switching to nicknames, something to personalize us a bit more and give me less to type.

Dad and I are still... just... Dad and Mom. Good enough.

My only daughter, oldest in the family, is Mem. Or Memma Lou. (Yes, there's a story behind every one of these!)

Oldest son is Mac. Sometimes Big Mac (because myword!! that kid has grown in a scary way)

7-year-old, the one missing his adenoids but can now hear a pin drop 2 miles away, is DJ. Yes, like "disc-jockey" -- and you really don't want the story on this one. Just know that funny & weird things happen here sometimes! Family stuff that's better kept under wraps!

Rounding us out in the best way is Jake. Short for Jacob. Sometimes known as Jay-COB, because DJ has his own nicknames for everyone. Daddy is "Daddy-Joe" and I am called "Momma-Joe."

I like those much better!

Just another Tuesday

So ~ how did you spend your Tuesday this week?

Yep. Something big happened in our world. DJ got his tubes in and adenoids removed. This poor child has not been able to hear much of anything for several months now. He has felt so bad for quite a long time!

I look calm, yes? Ha! I was feeling a bit nauseous and ready to pounce on anyone who caused any pain to my little guy.

Which is ridiculous. I've been here so many times with my mom, and the doctors and other staff in these parts of the hospitals are always so kind and caring. They know they are dealing with nervous, hurting people, and they are mindful of helping their patients with much tenderness and compassion. I was just really, really nervous about my 7-year-old having to leave my side and be put to sleep. Dad was a much, much better bedside companion! Which is apparent with the next picture: a quick gift from Dad. DJ drew a face on him and took him to surgery for comfort.

Post-op yuck. He was full of anesthesia and Demerol and was out of his head!

Funny thing about this picture. DJ rolled over at one point, with pitiful little tears streaming out of his big brown eyes, and asked Dad: "Daddy, I need to ask you for somethin' big, really, really big." Dad was ready to fly him to the moon. Anything is game when your little guy is laying on a hospital bed in pain. Especially with the tears falling.

"What is it, Buddy?"

With the greatest of emotion: "Would you please go home (sob) and get [his older two siblings] and Jake? I want them here!"

My heart was so sad for my sweet boy. He was wanting his sister and brothers there with him. I tried to comfort him: "Sweetie, you know we'll be out of here soon, very soon, and we'll go straight home and you can see them then!"

[Reality check here...] "But Mom! They won't get to see my tubes!"

Ah... So, we took a picture for the showing and telling for the siblings.

This was the point where we were about to get dressed and get out of there! Sweet, sweet nurse Christine was just wonderful!


And I must say, there is nothing more fun than watching a post-op 7-year-old under the influence of Demerol eating a grape popsicle, insisting that, NO THANK YOU! I can do this myself!!!

The Calling of Grace

I've stared at this screen for 5 minutes without moving a muscle. Pleaded with the gray matter to create a fabulously interesting opening line.

(To create, in the truest sense, means to make something out of nothing. So to ask this brain to come up with an interesting first line is truly creating.)

That didn't happen, so I guess I just need to dive in. Cause what happened today was that God spoke very clearly to me. Doesn't happen often, as in daily or weekly. And I suppose it would be unfair to say it doesn't happen often. God speaks to me in His Word, in the (purposefully) quieter voice of the Spirit, through His creation, through His people that He has kindly surrounded me with.

But there are those times. Those moments when He is terrifyingly close. When He enters in on a level that I cannot deny and speaks to me alone. And it's usually to draw me into the hard places. Because I am still so stinkingly weak and stubborn and deaf and hard. ugh...

Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Anyway, today was that. And because I believe that when God speaks, the earth should stand still, that the most important thing to do is to listen, then I am compelled in ways I can't quite define to proclaim. Not in some mystical, "ooooh... I got a new word from the Lord" kind of thing. There is nothing new here, but God spoke the old to me in a new way, and I don't think I'm supposed to be quiet about this sort of thing.

So. This morning, I sat in my yellow chair, opened to John 16, the last few verses. Jesus was talking to His disciples, very close to Calvary's work. He had just told them that He would stop talking to them in parables. They (and I don't get this)... they stated that because He was choosing to speak plainly to them, they now believed that He was from God. (Still scratching my head over that. Something got lost in the translation for me.)

Jesus answered in His usual pointed fashion: "Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave Me alone... I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart..." (I'm leaving a bit of these verses out, just typing the words that served to undo me this morning.)

Jesus knew. He knew all along who these men were, who they would be to Him. Before He said, "Let there be light," He chose these men to be His closest companions on earth. His comforters. His confidants. His supporters. And knew that these men would scatter, leaving Him alone at His lowest, loneliest moments.

Now, when those closest to me hurt me, I am wounded. I am hurt. Often I am angry. And I almost always shut down in some way. I retreat. I cold-shoulder. I stew. You are supposed to love me and care for me... but this is what you've given instead?

And if I'd known for, forever, that these people would one day hurt me in the deepest way... I don't think I would ever, ever allow them access to my heart. To my love. I would battle hard to be cordial, but they would certainly be held at arm's length.

And I would be so unlike the One I've claimed as Lord. Looking nothing like Him. I said, "I will" to "Take up your cross and follow Me," but there is no cross-bearing in a heart with the back turned.

But that isn't the final twist. Jesus doesn't just call these men to Himself, loving them, pouring His life into and out for them, caring for them, feeding and nurturing them. He draws them and He saves them and He forgives them before they ever turn away... and He goes ON and blesses them.

"I have said these things... that in Me you may have peace."

"...take heart..."

This LORD goes on to balm with peace and encouragement. He pursues the turned backs. He fellowships with those who forget and become as an enemy, wounding as they love themselves more.

I can't do this. Plain and simple. I can't do this.

But He is calling me to do it now. Today. With a particularly difficult relationship or two.

I am battling greatly to love this way. I truly, from somewhere deep within, desire to love in this way. To just lay it down and love without expecting anything at all in return. To be a true disciple. To follow Him every, every step of the way.

And because He has called me, He has enabled me. And He will grace me to do this. The proverbial ball, though, remains in my court as I battle to slay my will. This is hard. The But-What-Abouts and Why-Should-I's and Aren't-You-Going-to-Deal-with-(the other person's)-Sin's are swirling. But this battle, like all of the others, isn't about anyone else but me.

And, am I going to obey the Voice that spoke so clearly to me this morning.

"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

'Today, if you hear His voice,

do not harden your hearts'..."

Hebrews 3:7-8

Ouch, again...

I subscribe to a wonderful daily devotional e-mail from an organization called Grace Gems. This devotion came my way today.

The Art of Living a Christian Life

(J. R. Miller, "How to Live a Beautiful Christian Life" 1880)

"Whoever claims to live in Him--must walk as Jesus did."

1 John 2:6

We have only successfully acquired the art of living a Christian life--when we have learned to apply the principles of true religion, and enjoy its help and comfort in our daily life. It is easy to join in devotional exercises, to quote Bible promises, to extol the beauty of the Scriptures. But there are many who do these things--whose religion utterly fails them in the very places and at the very times--when it ought to prove their staff and stay!

All of us must go out from the sweet services of the Sunday--into a week of very real and very commonplace life. We must mingle with people who are not angels! We must pass through experiences, that will naturally worry and vex us. Those about us, either wittingly or unwittingly, annoy and try us! We will meet many troubles and worries in ordinary week-day life. There are continual irritations and annoyances!

The problem is to live a beautiful Christian life--in the face of all these hindrances! How can we get through the tangled briers which grow along our path--without having our hands and feet torn by them? How can we live sweetly--amid the vexing and irritating things, and the multitude of little worries and frets which infest our way, and which we cannot evade?

It is not enough merely to 'get along in any sort of way', to drag to the close of each long, wearisome day--happy when night comes to end the strife. Life should be a joy--and not a burden. We should live victoriously, ever master of our experiences, and not tossed by them like a leaf on the dashing waves. Every earnest Christian wants to live a truly beautiful life, whatever the circumstances may be.

A little child, when asked 'what it was to be a Christian,' replied, "For me, to be a Christian is to live as Jesus would live--and behave as Jesus would behave--if He were a little girl and lived at our house.

"No better definition of the Christian life could be given. Each one of us is to live just as Jesus would--if He were living out our little life in the midst of its actual environment, mingling with the same people with whom we must mingle, and exposed to the very annoyances, trials and provocations to which we are exposed. We want to live a life that will please God, and that will bear witness to the genuineness of our piety."

Leaving you an example--so that you should follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21

Wow... This cut me to the quick. Praise God! There are so many days I find myself biting and whiny and thankful that the day has just ENDED, for crying out loud. For the past couple of months, though, the LORD has been convicting me that this will never bring joy into the atmosphere of our home. And that is truly a desire of mine, to have a consistently joyful & peaceful mood around our house.

I would hate for any of my kids to leave this nest and have a head full of memories of a weary mom who was burdened by little annoyances and glad to see most days end. Ugh...

Lord, help me to live in each moment with joy, with thankfulness for every person around me. Help me remember that I am also an annoyance to others with my own slew of irritating and vexing traits. Help me to number my days with the sweet gifts of my family and treasure these years when we are all together! Help me to be the example I long to be! Only by Your grace...