Saturday, November 26, 2011

Wait

I ran across this about 2 years ago, 6 years after God prompted us to adopt. It still fits to this day. Still Waiting on Your direction Lord. Through the years I have been watching His plans unfold. Things that weren't possible at the start of this calling are now become clearly possible now. So I wait on His timing, most of the time very painfully I wait, but none the less, it is after all HIS plan! This fits anyone but it spoke volumes to my heart about our adoption journey. For you though, it could be about whatever struggle He is taking you through, just remember He see's the WHOLE picture. This is by Russell Kelfer.

Wait
Desperately, helplessly, longly I cried,
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I plead and I wept for a clue to my fate...
and the Master so gently said, "Wait."

"Wait?, You say Wait?" my indignant reply,
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know, why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and am claiming Your Word.

My future and all to which I relate,
hangs in the balance and you ask me to wait?
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no', to which I'll resign.

"You promise, dear Lord, that if I believe,
We need, but ask, and we shall receive.
Lord, I've been asking! I need a reply."

Then quietly, softly I learned of my fate,
as my Master replied again, "Wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
and grumbled to God, "So I'm waiting.....for what?"

He seemed then to kneel and His eyes met with mine....
And He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun,
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

I could give all you see and pleased you would be,
You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint,
You'd not know the power I give to the faint.

You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in me, 
When darkness and silence are all that you see.

You'd never experience the fullness of love,
When the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give and I save, as a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of my heart.

The glow of my comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask,
From an Infinite God who makes what you have last.

You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My Grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if I lost what I'm doing in you.

So, be silent my child, and in time you will see,
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know Me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still, Wait."


Blessings and Ladybugs :)

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The One Post I Promised

To all my local bloggy friends, here is a Christmas blessing for you! I wish I could have ALL my bloggy friends come along but alas I know that it would be some tough travel for one night of worship! So let me pass on this blessing to everyone who can take a break out of their busy schedule who can sit back and worship and sing along with us at our church. THIS is one of the highlights of the season for our church. We have a pretty good size sanctuary that seats probably 500. The past years have gotten so much of an awesome (God) response that our sweet Music Pastor has decided to add yet another performance to our schedule which makes it 5 all together!! Isn't God great?! I have had the honor of participating in this for the last 3 years and was not sure I was going to be able to do it this year after my surgery, but our God is gracious!! So that is exactly what I am doing! Thank you Father for the blessing of my voice and Your healing hands on me! May I honor you with the voice and the breath you gave me during this season of worship. May You be glorified and honored in all we do at FIRST!! Here it is...........FIRST CHRISTMAS 2011!! Please come and join us!!



Blessings and Ladybugs!! And Happy Thanksgiving and a very Merry "Christ"mas season!! Love to you all!!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Being Still

Lots of times in my life I just can't figure things out. But in the last 10 years or so, I have learned to take those times to pray and be still! God has a great race for us, we just have to be all in it for Him. That is so hard sometimes! This world tries to take over and distract us, we however, must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Otherwise we will loose Hope! Speaking of Hope! She is doing wonderful! She has had surgeries to correct her health issue and is thriving and walking now! We are so glad to be a part of her life and watch her grow. As  Sponsors it just touches our hearts to see the progress he has made since arriving at AOW! What a beautiful thing God is doing in her life! We just continue to wait and Be still to see what plans He has for her! We must continue to have hope in all that we do, it is there that we find Jesus walking beside us!

Isn't she a darling?! Love this girl!

God is up to something in my life, some recent changes remind me of that.I do not like change! It shakes me to my core! Makes me worry and fret and wonder what I could have done different to keep it from happening. There have been times though that change is good and makes me stronger. I always see that on the other side of it though. Hey I am only human! Its those tough changes that you don't ask for that just gets thrown in your lap that are hard to deal with. They make you second guess your choices and sometimes who you are. That is when I have to go back and be still and see where God is taking me. It is scary! I have been through so much in my life that change makes me uncertain and a real fear creeps in. I just have to remember God is in control, and HE has my best interest at heart. What can I do anyway that is not under His watchful eye? He loves me enough to protect me and to send people to comfort me and build me up and remind me He has this planned before time began. That is with everything, my kids, my hubby, my family, and even this adoption journey. Keeps me going back to Jeremiah 29:11! LOVE that verse!!


My hubby and I with our Son
on Senior night
God does bring me joy in the waiting! Oh how I love His joy! This past Thursday my hubby and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary! Now just a bit of background on us, we were YOUNG when we got married. I don't recommend that with everyone. But just let me remind you, God has a plan. He will fulfill that plan in spite of your circumstances. I have loved that man of mine that God gave me, every single minute I have spent with him! I cannot imagine another man more perfect that fits so well with me! We have looked back over our lives and seen times when God almost brought us together before we actually met, and it just makes us smile at His perfect timing! I bragged on my hubby in my last post so I will not do that here, but just will say, I love him with an eternal love, that I know HAS to come from God. So I am blessed and thankful that we have spent 22+ years together and God allowed us to be Man and Wife! We have great kids and we adore each other. That is such a blessing! After all this time I am still crazy and madly in love with the man I married, and I am honored that he calls me his bride!! Such JOY!!!

Blessings and ladybugs!

P.S. Promise to post about First Christmas in just a few days! So excited!!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thankful


 Hi there everyone! I know its been awhile so I am not even going to try and catch up, just maybe a quick one but other than that just moving forward! What have we been up to? Loads, but like I said a quick update! I have thought about this post for awhile. I have even thought of shutting my blog down for multiple reasons, 1 does anyone really read this or is it me just typing away to myself, and 2 some have posted some things on here that hurt me and although I am weary of that person reading my blog because I cannot stop that, I can however screen their comments, so that is what I have chosen to do. So those of you who do comment ever so sweetly thank you so much and please do not be offended by me looking over the comments first. I don't want anything on here that will hinder the purpose of this blog. That is why I decided to keep blogging. This blog is set up to honor God and share my faith and family and our adoption journey whenever it begins. I will not let that be hindered. OK enough about all that. Here is my post! :-)

 My kids are great! I though to myself today will ever stop calling them "kids" especially now that 2 are out doing their own thing and our youngest will graduate soon. Ernie is doing well, hard to keep up with him sometimes. Guess that's what life is like when you have an adult child. I do get random calls asking Mom questions, which really just make me laugh and remind me, there are times he still needs his mom, not always, but sometimes. Vickie is doing great as well, quite the little pastry student I might say! She always looks so cute when she leaves for class all dressed up in her chef uniform! I still look back and think "WOW that's my little girl all grown up into a beautifully talented young lady chasing her dreams!" I am so proud of her!!

 Tommy has had some set backs lately. Mostly because of his surgeries on his foot. Yes I said surgeries, plural! The boy had the first one taken care of and it SEEMED to be going alright, but, being Tommy he has to do things his way. He got a staph infection in the surgical site! So another surgery had to be done. And that was a huge setback for his senior year. Things he wanted to do he couldn't and was limited to. He is just struggling with it all. He is still under a dr's care for his foot. It is healing and he is able to finally use a regular shoe after 4 months but the incision sites are being monitored very carefully. He is on antibiotics still but its healing well. The kid is a riot on anesthesia, too funny! AND he remembers none of it, so of course we had to tease him. I love that boy so much and I am thankful God is taking care of him. He is making me worry about his future plans, I will not reveal those till he decides for sure, lets just say, my Mamma's heart will be praying constantly for him. He got some of his Senior stuff yesterday and was so excited. Just a reminder that my job as mom is ever changing. I know to be happy about it but I am sad as well. My life has been surrounded by sounds of children, then teens wandering my house. Now it will be empty and quiet. So I have slowly started to make the transition. I have found a new appreciation for my husband!

So let me tell you a little bit about my husband. He is my best friend, My soulmate, my confidant, my sounding board, my safe place. He loves me in spite of myself and my weaknesses. I do not know anyone who loves me more, or the way he does. I honestly in my entire life have never had someone love me unconditionally like he does, other than Jesus himself! So I am just gonna brag on my husband a bit. Some of you may know him, some may not. He is a wonderful person. He loves Jesus, his family, others and then himself. He will go out of his way to help anyone at anytime with anything he is capable of. I believe that is his spiritual gift. He has a servants heart. And he loves affection! A hug from his family, a pat on the back from his friends, or a hand shake. Those fill his love tank! The guy is amazing and I don't tell him enough. I am not sure he'll read this anyway but I am gonna say it. If it weren't for him I would not be the person I am today. Here is one reason why I love this guy!
Recently I had major surgery and he never left my side! Took 2 days off from work to stay with me at the hospital. He took care of me at home. I was on lots of restrictions, could barely sit up and he came over and put his arms around me and lifted me up to where I could sit up on the side of the bed. I had some set backs but he was there every step of the way. Since I was in bed for so long and off work he had to take care of EVERYTHING. Kids schedules, housework, grocery shopping (with coupons, which he hates to do) cooking, cleaning and not to mention going to work and doing his own crazy schedules as well. And during all that taking Tommy to the dr's to have his check-ups on his foot. He became both Mom and Dad for awhile.As soon as I was able to try and move and help he made me go back to bed and in his words "You just get better it takes time." I am doing much better and have taken most of the burden back on my own. There are still things I cannot do which makes me NUTS! I hate having to wait on someone to help me do things. For instance no lifting hardly anything or straining to hard. You know how hard that is as a Mom and virtual household manager?! Difficult! Especially since I am short and cannot reach anything anyway, I am use to stretching or even climbing sometimes to get what I need, but none of that, dr's orders! Think about all you do as a mom then limit that to about half! So I am very thankful for his help. At one time during my recovery Tommy and I were both down and we were quite a pair to look at. But Bud just kept at it and took care of us both! It could not have been easy for him but I am so thankful he loves us that much and is that type of godly man! I thank The Lord for him every single day of my life! I know we are about ready to move into the next phase of our lives together and I am looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us! Next Thursday we will celebrate 21 years of marriage! Here is to the next 21 years Angel! Where ever God leads us I will be right beside you! Where you go I'll go, Where you stay I'll stay, when you move I'll move, I will follow you! Your people shall be my people, and your God my God! I'll love you Forever Angel!!


So if you don't know my hubby at all there is a little peek into his heart, and if you do know him a little, well I hope this helps you know how big of heart he has! He would never do anything on purpose to hurt anyone, that truly is his heart! So there ya have it, there is my updated post! Thankful for my God who loves me enough to surround me with these wonderful people I call family! My kids, my hubby, my wonderful brother and Sis and sweet nephew, oh and that exciting news I hadn't caught you up with! My Bro and Sis are having another baby!!! I get to spoil him rotten along WITH my nephew! Father thank you for the gift of family, and of friends who are more like family than any family I have been given!! Thank you for our freedom in this nation and our freedom in Christ! May You be honored in my life. Next post, First Christmas!!! Right around the Corner. I will update soon!! 

Blessings and Ladybugs!!!