Friday, November 9, 2012

adoption awareness month.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month, so I thought I'd share a little about my heart and passion on the subject.

Ever since I was a teenager I have always had a desire to adopt. I can even remember begging my mom to let me sponsor a child through Compassion. It broke my heart to know that there were children who didn't know or feel the love that I knew. I also knew I was commanded to take care of these children. James 1:27 "Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans..." I didn't really have any excuse.

Once I got married I didn't think as much about adoption. We had discussed it and thought let's just try one on our own first. (There is so much irony in this statement!) So we began to plan to adopt in the future, possibly WAY in the future after we had raised our kids and were kinda "done." Now it kind of dawns on me Wow! How selfish! I wanted to do things my way. Have my beautiful family, receive the glory, then we'd see about adoption. I was trying to be more convenient then obedient. Then we started trying to have our own child and it was difficult. It took us about 7-8 months to conceive. Then after our son was born we were hit with a whole new reality. Long story(that I will tell one day, so stay tuned) short, I can't have anymore natural children. We were faced with this reality a couple months after our son was born and I mourned and mourned over the loss of those children. The children I had dreamed about since I was a kid. The ones that would make us a big family, the siblings to our son. However a few months ago I was told again, but this time with the realities of why. I had a great peace about it. Maybe because I had already mourned the loss of those children, or I remembered how hard my pregnancy was, or I had just accepted a new calling on my life. I had a wonderful peace. And I'm pretty sure I smiled at the Doctor and told him "It's ok, God will give me a child." What started out as a future plan after we tried one of our own(who would end up being our one and only) has now become the real and only option for having more children.

God has opened our hearts and minds and we are so excited for the "not so distant" future. Through this process God has made me aware of the depravity around me. Most days I go through my life living in my "bubble" not paying attention to the darkness and heartache around me. He has definitely made me more aware and sensitive to this through Abba Adoption. Every day woman are choosing death instead of life and innocent babies are dying. My heart aches in a new way, like never before. I have mourned and wept over the loss of these children. And so many times I think we forget the mother's in the equation. Yes what they are doing is wrong but they are still woman that need to know the love of Christ and need to be ministered to. I would love the opportunity to minister to one of these women one day and hopefully reach out in time to save two lives, both physically and spiritually. I was given a second chance and adopted by my Savior, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, by whom we cry, Abba! Father! Romans 8:15. We have to share what we have experienced. In the mean time we pray. We pray boldly that conviction would happen and God would save these babies. We pray that people, brothers and sisters in Christ, would step up and adopt these children, these orphans, who were saved and now have no place to go! We pray for the organizations and people ministering to these women and children. We pray for these women, that are lost, confused, callused and heartbroken. We pray.

God placed a small desire in my heart so many years ago and after much prayer has replaced it with a huge flame. I am excited to see how God will use this and what will happen. I know that heartache and more tears will follow, but in the end blessings and joy will come! I experienced that blessing and joy once before and it has overflowed my heart.

I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 1 Samuel 1:27


Thursday, November 1, 2012

fall is here!

It's here! It finally seems like fall is here! Sweaters, boots, scarfs, fall jackets and soup.  The weather has gotten cooler (except for this weekend) and Halloween is under our belt as Thanksgiving quickly approaches. As my son gets older and this time approaches I keep trying to hit the brakes, but it doesn't seem to do much good. The weekends keep flying by and Christmas is on its way! (It's my favorite season so I secretly don't mind)

We have been so busy the past few weekends enjoying the weather and cramming as much as we can in 2 days! A few weeks ago we went to the Pumpkin Patch. It was muddy from a big rain we had the night before and it was kind of chilly. We all were pretty filthy, but it was fun. I snapped a few pictures while we were there. (I'm a believer of "a picture says more than a thousand words" so I'm sure each post will include at least one picture!)

(notice those cute grins at the top, yeah he was actually SCREAMING "cheese" because I kept asking for a smile!)


 While we were there Gavin's Gigi picked him out a few pumpkins. He really just wanted the little baby ones and he still ask to play with it. Although it was a lot of work we still managed to have our little picnic lunch. Overall, I'd say it was a success day full of lots of memories with Gigi and Granddad.

Last week Gavin had his school Fall Festival and the church Trunk or Treat. He ate way too many sweets, but hey you're only young once right! So I totally let him indulge and skip a few naps. I quickly discovered why structure is so important! Shortly after we arrived to the church I realized I forgot Gavin's sword. Then I turned on my camera and discovered my camera battery was going to die any minute so we had to take some pictures quick! I was bummed...but that's life.

Last night we decided to take Gavin trick or treating for the first time. Although this may not be a yearly tradition, it was fun to dress up and do something different for a night! Gavin really just wanted to run around outside and follow all the big kids while I collected all the candy! After a few pieces of candy he had a meltdown so we cut the night short!


So this is how our family has kicked off the fall season. I hope you squeezed in a little time outside or with a pumpkin...even if it's in the form of a latte. If not there is still time! Don't forget I love to read blogs and learn more about the people around me. So leave a comment with a link to your blog!

                             
Happy Fall!



Friday, October 26, 2012

the start of something good.

Well after debating over it for about a year I've decided to start a blog. What will you see here you might ask. You will see a lot of me; my life, what I love, what I'm passionate about and things that interest me.  You will also see my family. I want to be transparent and remind people that blogs don't always have to be about the highlights of life because let's face it, life isn't full of just highlights.  This is my life, my story and I want to be real about it. Our family has been through the valley's and overcome mountains and I look forward to sharing all of that. 

Things you will not find on my blog...correct grammar. I'm really bad at it! So please just disregard that. 

Here's a small introduction to my family!


Michael and I have been married for 6 years (wow!) and you wouldn't believe the life we've had in that short amount of time! I will expound more on that later. In May 2010 we welcomed a little boy into our family.


Gavin is the highlight of our life, so you will see plenty of  him. He's only two, but he has a lot of great stories to tell as well. 

I am excited to share our stories and hear feedback. I also really enjoy reading blogs so leave me a comment with a link to your blog so I can follow along.



Lindsey