Listen Carefully

It is true that if you listen carefully God will tell you his plans.  The reason I believe this is because over the past few weeks I have been trying to listen as obediently as possible, and I feel more at peace than ever.  I know that God has a special plan for my life and my family by allowing us to serve others at church as well as those we come into contact with daily.  I've watched my husband grow and become compassionate for those he meets at work. I've listen to my son ask questions and show concern for friends and strangers.  I've grown up knowing that it was my job to serve others for the Lord by watching my parents, and being able to share that with my boys is a blessing. 


For this season of life, God has made it clear that he would like for me to continue to serve in the Preschool Ministry on Sunday mornings, but in a different position.  He has also been making other things very clear, not only for me, but for Adam as well.  For as long as I can remember I always knew that one day I wanted to adopt a child as well as have some of my own.  It has been almost 5 years since Copeland was born, and Adam and I have been blessed beyond imagine with our precious son.  Four and a half years have past by as we have tried to give C a brother or sister to love and play with, and over those 4 1/2 years there have been plenty of "maybe I am" and "maybe I'm not."  This use to get me down a great bit, but if you know me I really am an easy going person who can shake most things off and go on with life.  I credit that to my faith in God, and I know that he's the one who is really in control, so why bother and get yourself all in a tizzy!! 


Well over the years Adam and I have just mentioned the thought of adoption, but it was always one of those conversations you had in passing that really didn't have much depth to it.  That was until two Sunday's ago when I shared with Adam on the way home from church that I thought we should adopt.  He did his usual "yeah, okay" and that was that, nothing else really said.  Well, we have both been praying and talking with God about during our quiet times and without a doubt he has spoken to our hearts and made it clear that adoption is where we go from here. 

This is just the beginning, and I know there will be many hurdles to jump until we are able to adopt and bring another child into our home, but we are ready  to do whatever it takes.  My prayers have been asking God to keep us going in the right direction, to come in contact and with the right people, to bless the child who will be a part of our family whether he or she has even been born yet, and to help us keep our eyes on Him throughout the entire process.  So for now we are researching and looking at all of our options before we take the next step and go full throttle into this new adventure.  There are connections to be made and stories to be heard that will help guide us along as we begin our own adoption story.  We have talked with Copeland and explained what all of this means, and he seems ready and excited for what is in store for our family. 

Please keep us in your prayers as we follow God in obedience. 

Slow Down

Here I am living in this fantasy world we call Summer Break, and I am enjoying every minute of it.  Why would I even stop to think about work or getting ready for it?  Well that dreaded day that comes every summer came today.  The day where you realize time is speeding up and before we know it there will need to be lesson plans, name tags, cute bulletin boards/doors, etc... So here I am counting the days and seeing how smoothly I can do a little bit here and there without feeling like I am going crazy.  Luckily I know that this feeling won't stay for the next 22 days, but for this one day I will deal with the reality that is ahead.  22 days, that is plenty of time to have fun and prepare a little bit, right?  For now I would prefer to focus on play dates and fun times with my sweet boy!

A Balancing Act

The more I go through this journey of what it would be like to be a Proverbs 31 Woman, the more challenging it seems to be.  When you stop to think about it, we all have many different hats and jobs that must be completed each and everyday.  From wife, mom, Christ follower, daughter, sister, friend, full-time teacher, and so on, there seems to be no end in sight as to what needs to be done.  As I was thinking about all of this earlier, I have come to realize how happy I am that God has placed this on my heart during the summer months.  Do I have enough energy to complete everything? Not really, but I am able to get into some routine and take care of my family the way they deserved to be cared for.  It seemed so crazy at the end of the school year how exhausting/overwhelming everything started to be.  The house was a mess, dinner was rarely cooked by me, and there did not seem to be time to just sit and enjoy being with my boys.  It was much easier to be out of the house and doing this or that as opposed to being home and having to deal with the mess and choas that I had no energy for anyway.  And so I have now declared this journey a balancing act! 


Over the next month my goal is to figure out how to get it all done and still have a healthy routine.  When will the house get cleaned?  How can I keep it clean and not let it get out of control?  What about dinner?  Can we make time for the three of us to sit down and just enjoy one another's company? 


I know the challenges that lay ahead once school starts again, but if I can come up with a game plan before hand hopefully things will not be as overwhelming.  Proverbs 31:27 says She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness. That seems like an awefully tall order to fill, but I know some women who do a great job of getting it all done.  Are they tired, you betcha, but their family is happy and in return that makes them very happy as well. 

*****Wow it only took me 2 weeks to get back to this post!!!!*****

When it all comes down to it, I need some major organization!  I am working on it slowly, and my house is slowly coming together.  The more I walk around this place the more stuff I see we don't need, and I am actually getting read of what I can.  This is a big progress for me.  Now this seems easy as I am home for another couple of weeks, but I hope to come up with some sort of routine/way of doing things around the house that even a full time working mom can do when she gets home.  Any suggestions are gladly welcomed.  Maybe you have a system that works great for you and your family.  I know I am not the only one here that could use a little advice!

Family, Friends, and New Beginnings

This past week has been filled with family, friends, and new beginnings.

We were lucky enough to start our Monday with our 7 year anniversary, and dinner with some wonderful friends from church.  It was a great time of fellowship and getting to know each other.  They have a precious little boy, so Copeland was happy to play and keep him busy while the adults finished up dinner.  It was definitely a fun evening!

Tuesday C and I made our way towards Atlanta to enjoy lunch with my daddy at work.  We try to make it down there during summer break so that he can see where his G works and meet all the people who hear stories about him daily.  This time was one of the best visits, as C decided it was okay to follow G and talk to everyone he came in contact with.  That is a big deal :).  We enjoyed some Chick-fil-A and hanging out with G before he had to head off to do another surgery!
Wednesday was a very eventful day for us.  Copeland and I met up with one of his friends from karate and they had the best time playing at Catch Air.  I love going to that place because there is plenty to keep C active, and he seems to want to play for hours.  The boys had a blast, and I enjoyed getting to know his little friends mom.  We see each other at karate and have carried on the polite "hey" or "how are you", but it was so nice to sit down and find out each other's story.  I see plenty of other play dates in the near future!  I know that we all had a fun time. Amazingly enough my little guy still had enough energy to head to karate that afternoon as well.  We were really happy that Gammie was able to come and watch him practice for the first time. 

As always, Wednesday is also "family dinner night."  We had a great time catching up with my side of the family on what the week had already had in store for them, as well as what was yet to come.  I can honestly say that Wednesday's are my favorite dinner nights, not only because we all take turns cooking for the group, but we also take the time to relax and enjoy each others company.  There are just too many nights it seems easier to sit in front of the TV, or feed each other dinner as we have time the other weeknights.  This past week my mom was the cook and we enjoyed pork with a blueberry sauce she made from the fresh blueberries picked from my Papaw's house. 

Thursday was a pretty chill day, but we added a little excitement to it by picking up our friend Betsy and heading to grab some frozen yogurt before karate.  Copeland was very excited about this because he had asked Betsy the week before if she would come and watch him one night at karate.  She gladly accepted his request and seemed to really enjoy watching how fast pace and fun karate class could really be.  I must say C was showing off a little bit more knowing he was the one that invited her to join us :).

Friday and Saturday were centered around my best friend Tara's wedding.  Adam and I were able to hit the road pretty early Friday afternoon to make our way to Byron, GA.  That night we enjoyed a good meal and getting to know the grooms family.  Saturday morning seemed to come pretty early the next morning, and it was a running start for getting our hair done and driving to the venue!  Coffee was our friend that day!!  There was plenty to keep us on our toes as we got ready, and I can honestly say there was never a dull moment.  The wedding was beautiful, the bride was even more beautiful, and the happy couple are enjoying their honeymoon as I type. 

Whew...what a whirlwind of a week, but we enjoyed every minute of it.  I truly enjoy the summer months and getting to have some downtime with my family and friends.  I feel each day we are making stronger friendships with those we meet, and making the most of life and its new beginnings that God puts in place.  Thankful is the only word that comes to mind right now!

Goal Setting

God is definitely encouraging me through different things today to work on my goal of becoming a 31 woman.  The first sign I received was while I was up at my Papaw's house for a visit.  He had pulled out some paintings that my Mamaw had bought many years ago from artist Ken Holland in Kentucky.  Every painting is based on a verse or chapter of the Bible.  Within the pictures you have to look closely to find the verse that is written as part of the picture.  As we were going through them I found a few that would be cute in the kitchen and went with our color scheme.  About halfway through my aunt pulled out another picture that would fit the kitchen theme and it was painted with Proverbs 31 in mind and the virtues of the 31 woman hidden within the picture.  The second sign of the day was while I was on Pinterest. I saw a that someone had posted a book My So Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife by Sara Horn.  I searched and read the reviews, then downloaded it to my Kindle immediately.  Now to trust God and see where this takes me!

While we are discussing goals, my husband has set another goal for the two of us.  He received P90X this morning and is beyond excited to begin the journey of an exercise and healthy eating program.  He actually compared his excitement as to mine and Copeland's when we were getting ready to head to Disney World a few weeks ago.  Hmmmmm.... I think it's a little different ;), but to each their own!

Proverbs 31 Woman

Not very often does this actually happen (at least during the summer), but I woke up before my little guy.  Hmmmm...what to do with the extra time on my own, you know the 10 - 15 minutes before he realizes mommy is up.  Perfect amount of time to dive into some quiet time.  This morning I felt the need to read Proverbs 31.  We all need goals in our lives and encouragement to reach those goals so reading about the Proverbs 31 woman would be a good place to start.  Have you ever stopped to wonder how the 31 woman was able to do everything so perfectly, or at least she made it come across that way. Seeing as that is a whole lot to live up to and could be extremely overwhelming to try and achieve at one time I decided to take this one verse at a time. I am encouraged to start with verse 25 She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. I remember a time that every thought I had was optimistic and everything was right with the world no matter what other people said or did.  Sadly over the years events have come and gone and the girl who was so believing in anything has had a harder time being so optimistic.  Now don't get me wrong I am a glass is half full kind of girl for sure, but I know there is more and sometimes you get tired of being brought down by those who do not necessarily have the same outlook on life.  This can happen anywhere with anyone you come in contact with.  The challenge is to keep that positive outlook on life whatever the circumstances maybe and to let that shine through the way you interact with others.  Maybe the verse is saying that she, the 31 woman, has the strength to overcome the hardships and disappointments, and the dignity to not let those around her bring her down in the process.  This in return would allow her to "laugh" or enjoy the days to come based on her decisions and the way she handles herself when such instances arise.  The 31 woman needs to have the faith I talked about in my last post.  Luckily I know of some women who show strength, dignity, and faith in their life even through the hardest days.  Click here to read about one such woman and how God is working in her family's life during this challenging time. I have been encouraged daily reading their story and updates on sweet Parker.

Faith Like a Child

Since last week, I have felt a need to come back and blog.  Our poor little blog has been frozen for years, and it is time that changes.  Over the past week I have thought about what I would like this blog to be. How should I go about this?  The answer I came up with is not very clear, but I know that if you read the blog you will probably see a variety of posts about our family, devotions, recipes, school stuff, and well just about anything else I can think of. So here we go!!!!

Last week was my favorite week of the year...Vacation Bible School!  It is a week filled with friends, kids, worship, Bible stories, memory verses, and a whole lot of fun.  For the second year in a row I have been blessed to work with the 3 year old class.  How much fun they are, they soak everything up around them and long to learn about the Lord.  This was also the first year my own child was able to be with the "big" kids, which was "awwwwwwesome" as he would say.  Every morning I was in love with how he would sing the songs and do hand motions in the back of the car as we drove to church.  To watch him worship and not worry about what anyone else was thinking was pure joy.  All week I thought about how wonderful it was for all of the kids to worship and praise our Lord and not be ashamed. 5 exciting days were followed by a huge celebration Sunday morning during our church service.  Those that could came back to sing during both services and there were others who shared their obedience to God through baptism.  It was awesome to see all the excitement coming from the kids and you could feel a different tone in church that day.  There is something about the innocence of a child and how they look at the things of this world and most importantly the wonders of God. 

As those thoughts had been running through my head all week about challenging myself to be more like a child in my faith, Pastor Chuck preached on that very thing using Matthew 19:13-15 The Little Children and Jesus. 

Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

I sat and pondered that verse and what was being said along with all I had thought about this past week.  My own child flashed through my thoughts and how innocent he is as a 4 year old little boy and the way he looks at everything around him, wanting to learn new things and always know what is going on.  He is a sponge soaking up EVERYTHING around him.  This little boy forgets nothing!!!  At what point in our lives do we lose that innocence ourselves?  When do we grow up and worry about anything and everything?  Based on verse 14 God desires us to have faith like a child and to marvel in his wonders and scripture. 

God was not finished with me yet because this discussion continued into our small group Bible study last night as well.  What did Matthew 19:14 mean to us?  A few of our group members vocalized some of the same points discussed through the message at church as well as a few new examples based on our own children and their view of life.  There is so much to learn from the actions of my 4 year old little boy, and how he looks at things around him.  His unconditional love, the way he learns new things and wants to share it with everyone he sees, the thoughtfulness he shows to those around him, and many other characteristics that make him who he is. 

My prayer is that I will be able to stop and spend more time in God's word.  Be the woman he created me to be, not only for myself, but for my family and those I come in contact with everyday.  I long to have the faith of a child again.  As someone in our group put it last night, we should long to be extraordinary, not just ordinary.