Beauty in the Storm

Thankful for the beauty in the storm and new perspectives.

It's through the storms that God shapes us and makes us more like Him, and that is beautiful.  There is truly beauty in the storm. 

Thanks to Jeff Cox for this amazing photo and reminder! 

Go Cards!

Colten had his first game Saturday.  He got his first game jitters out of the way!  I got my photo session in before the game at home so I did't embarrass him in front of his teammates :)

Thanks Be to God...

Thank you...

for slow days to refresh my soul,

for these quiet moments,

for filling my soul with your spirit,

for satisfying my everything,

for season's change (fall is on the way)

for these gifts I find joy in using

"I can bring beauty out of the ashes of lost dreams.  I can glean joy out of sorrow, and peace out of adversity."

Jer. 31:25 "I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint."

2 Cor. 13:4 "For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power.  Likewise we are weak in him yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you."

Prov. 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and he will make your path straight.

"The most direct path from point A to point B on your life journey is the path of unwavering trust in me.  When your faith falters you choose a trail that meanders and takes you out of your way.  You will get to point B eventually but will have lost precious time and energy."

The Crazy Sheriff's in Town

So yeah, this kid makes me laugh!  He comes walking out of his room unannounced, dancin' like a fool, and sayin, "the sheriff's in town!"  I'm so thankful he can make his  momma laugh!!!

I love you Colten Matthew

Satisfied Craving

Our souls crave love, that's how we were created... to crave love.  God created us this way so that He could satisfy that love deep in our souls.  We become dependent on His love.  We crave it!

Speaking of love...
"We are most alive when we find it, most devastated when we lose it, most empty when we give up on it, most inhumane when we betray it, and most passionate when we pursue it."  Erwin Raphael McManus

I would like to add...fully satisfied when we accept it.

I thank God for his never ending, unconditional love that satisfies my soul!  So many people are lost and hurting still searching for the one thing that satisfies their soul.  If they only could see it's been before them the whole time from the beginning of their creation.  The creator satisfies their soul.  Why do we run from him?

I am thankful to be fully satisfied with God's love!

Blessed by Love

How do you begin to even put into words how thankful you are for that one special person God has allowed you to walk hand in hand with?

Eleven years ago, I married my high school sweetheart, best friend, and love of my life!  Today I see so much destruction in relationships and thank God for the blessing of love he has placed in our lives.  Together we make it every day better than the next.  

Tonight we went out to dinner and our waiter asked, "So what's your secret?" Without a second thought we replied, "God man, He's the secret."  I know it may sound cliche, but it's the honest truth!  We would be another statistic if we didn't strive to place Christ in the center of our relationship.  It's Him that holds us together.

  I wouldn't ask for any other...I'm thankful for you Matt :)

For you Matt:

This world, is full of love

love, love

But no one's got what we got, 

Oh no baby,

You're laugh, your style, your smile,

Oh I love you,

No, one fits, me better,

We're quirky together!

I'm gonna write you a love song,

I'm gonna make the words so sweet,

I'm gonna write you a love song,

cause you're everything to me, 

you're everything to me.

You, and the way, you hold,

Me close when we're dancin',

Even, when, I'm tryin',

to cook in the kitchen,

It's the little things that make me happy with you,

Like kissing my cheek,

Holding my hand,

and pillow talks to 1 a.m.

I'm gonna write you a love song,

I'm gonna make the words so sweet,

I'm gonna write you a love song,

cause you're everything to me,

you're everything to me.

I could sit and write for years to come,

of just how much, you've won, me over,

I'm so thankful that, God gave me you

We're a puzzle,

and the missing piece I need is you!

A few of my favorite pictures of us together over the years :)

Love you, now and forever...

Habakkuk 3:17-18

"Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior."

What do you hear when you read that scripture?  To me is says, when the world is raining on my life and it feels like the waves are beating me deeper into the deep, my heart will still sing because I know I am richly blessed to be called a daughter of the King!

Yesterday I got the privilege to sit and laugh about memories with a dear friend of mine from high school who is battling a tough fight with cancer.  I was saddened by the news of her turn for the worst, and to be honest, reality strikes a little when you think...that could be me, leaving my family/children behind.  I really prayed for the holy spirit to guide me through our visit, and as usual, He taught me a lesson through her!

You see, she knows her days are numbered.  She knows the day will come when she has to say goodbye to her little girl, but she's thankful!  I know CRAZY right?  But I think she has this spirit because she gets what this scripture says.  See the trials of this life are weighing down on her, and one could say they see nothing good right now.  But she rejoices knowing she is a daughter of the King and one day soon she will meet Him.  She taught me something when she spoke these words...

"I'm thankful for the time I have left.  Some people don't get the chance to say goodbye.  My mom didn't give me that chance to say goodbye when she took her own life.  My friend didn't have the chance to say goodbye, I didn't have that chance with my dad.  So I'm thankful.  I want the end of my life to be a celebration."

I walked into her home thinking I was going to encourage her, she taught me a valuable lesson and encouraged me!  I am humbled and honored to be able to call her my friend and can't wait to hear of more stories of how she encourages others with her constant smile and contagious laugh! 

I am thankful for the life God gives us, and am thankful for the life He is giving Carrie and the lessons He is allowing her to teach us through her fight.  

Praying for continued strength for Carrie, her daughter Kyla, and her family.  We love you Carrie!

A New Way of Thinking

Why is it the most elementary way of thinking is sometimes the hardest lesson to learn? Practicing thankfulness will bring you joy...God has been speaking this to me for several months now in my time spent with Him.  I can't tell you the number of times I have read 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus," in the past 3 months!  (Thinking I may need to plaster it all over my house?)  It's obviously a lesson I'm needing to learn at the moment!

I used to think praying for understanding would bring me joy.  Through God's understanding I might have peace which could open the door to joy.  Then it hit me...Solomon was the wisest of men, God blessed him with understanding and he couldn't think his way through to peace!  God never intended us to understand because we are not capable of it.  We can never fathom his ways.
There will always be challenges and trials that we will pray for understanding for, once we overcome one another arises; it's a never ending battle.  One that can wear on the soul.  Being thankful takes our mind OFF our circumstance and ON to Christ which brings us peace and joy.  It was never our job to 'fix' our circumstances and battle our way through our trials, it's God's.

The past few months have been filled with a lot of heartache, being stuck in the past, and Satan tearing me down.  I have read over and over again 1 Thess. 5:18, then God gives me a challenge in my devotion today..."See how many times you can thank Me daily, this will awaken your awareness to a multitude of blessings." 

So today I start.  I know it's the 'thing to do' in the month of November, but I truly believe that thankfulness can open my mind up to seeing what God has blessed me with, which in turn opens the door of my heart to Joy!

I'm not saying each day I will post a thankful thought, (that's just setting myself up for failure...we all know that won't happen) but each day I will be thankful and take time to verbalize thanks to Him, and when I get a chance will share my thankfulness on my blog.  Maybe you can join me and we can share in the great blessings of God together through living the life He called us to live through Christ.

So here goes...

He First Loved Us

 Their first night with us, sleeping peacefully!  I'll never forget the night we kissed them goodnight and that feeling of peace/relief..."sigh...finally, we're together...forever!"

Another favorite memory of mine was the night we said our prayers, kissed them goodnight, and told them as we did every night, "I love you".  And Onah giggled and said, "I love you too" as he continued to giggle.  I don't think he knew exactly what it meant to 'love us' but he knew we loved him first, and that love went hand in hand with caring, belonging, and happiness, and he wanted to be apart of that so he loved us too...

Kinda how our love for God is.  He says he loves us and we can't comprehend how deep/wide/long his love for us is, yet we know it goes hand in hand with caring, belonging, and happiness and we'd be crazy not to want to be apart of that so we love him because he first loved us!

Memories Uncovered

June 9th we celebrated the 2 years Onah and Marie have been home!  It is really crazy how time goes by so quickly!  Usually you hear people say, "it feels just like yesterday!" but in this case, it feels like SO long ago!  I couldn't believe it had only been 2 years!  Feels more like 3 or 4!
To see how far they have come in their development and growth it's hard to believe it's only been 2 years!  As my dad says, I can remember not being able to understand a word they said! :)
It feels like they have always been apart of our family, and I guess really, they have!  We just got to spend our first few years as a family separated by the ocean.
I was looking through an old SD card today and found these pictures.  I was so excited to find them because we thought they had all been destroyed!
As you may know, while sitting on the beach distracted by the soccer game going on behind me, a huge wave surprised me, soaking me, and sweeping my camera into the ocean!  A sweet Liberian boy chased my camera out in the water and brought it back to me, but we could not get it working again!  So somehow I found these pictures today and was SO EXCITED!!!
Here's a few pictures I found of our first week with Onah and Marie...

 Every day we would visit the orphanage at some point.  While there Onah would never leave Matt's side!  He was SUPER proud to show of "HIS daddy" to all his friends, and would get extremely jealous if Matt would spend time with the other kids.  He was afraid we were going to leave without him too!

 Brushing teeth!  They were so fascinated that the water came straight out of the faucet!  They liked turning it on and off, I think they also liked the bubble gum flavored toothpaste...that was a first :)  (What...candy cleans your teeth?) haha

 First mommy daughter mani-pedi :)  I made sure I took all my polish to paint our nails as well as ALL the girls' nails in the orphanage.  I painted all the girls nails and came back the next day only to find out they had scraped it all off expecting me to do it every day, only no one filled me in on the plan, and I didn't bring my polish back the next day! :(  I loved how much they loved being treated like princesses though!  Special memories!

 Onah's first experience with a straw, haha!  And they LOVED drinking sprite.  I think they liked the fizziness of it.

 He was so curious about all our stuff!  Here he had found my headband and was trying to figure out what I used it for...Perfect star trek head gear! :)

 Downtown Monrovia Libera

 Marie and her buddy Kai

 Our first walk on the beach.  That soccer ball that's twice the size of Onah attracted several Liberian kids which of course meant Matt Lee was going to take them all on in a soccer game on the beach!

 Beautiful Ivory Coast in Liberia...the last few pictures I was able to take before this beautiful ocean took my camera from me!

Great Friends and the Great Outdoors

Memorial Day weekend we made plans with some great friends to head to the camp grounds.  I was in for some camping as long as I could take my blow-up mattress and not be made fun of :)
We headed to Brookville, IN to Mounds Recreation Area, not to be confused with Mounds State Park, with a van packed so tight, no one could move!  I was pretty impressed with Matt Lee's packing abilities to get everything in our van with 4 kids AND the dog!
The first night was Matt's favorite.  It was 40 degrees and freezing in our tent!  It definitely was NOT my favorite!  I could not sleep I was so cold!  But, Matt however, learned that 40 degrees = mandatory spooning all night long!  That was the only way I could sleep for more than 5 minutes at a time.
So night two....I went shopping for more blankets!  Needless to say, Matt was not thrilled but I slept so much better!!!  We enjoyed some wonderful food cooked by the chef, Gabe, and loved Cody's waffle cone recipe over the fire!  YUM!  Enjoyed a hike that was supposed to take us to the beach but instead lead us to a creek :), and watched some good baseball.  Overall, I just loved watching the kids play and getting to hang out with some old friends!  Can't wait to do it again!  Below are some pics of our trip...

 Sausage and cheese sandwhich for breakfast...Yes please! ;)

 

 Brushing teeth.  (One of those pictures I couldn't refuse!)

 Hiking the "Beach Access Trail", which dead ended...

 Here!  But you know kids, rocks, and water make for great fun!

 Colten always finds treasures!

 Everyone took a turn crossing the creek...

 Of course Izzy didn't get tired until the hike back uphill!!!!  My thighs were BURNIN'!

 Yep, I love him still :)

 Not sure what it is about water and this girl but it cracks her up!

 Man's best friend...

One of my favorite pics! 

 He was such a good dog the whole trip!  Love this pup!

 Izzy had such a good time hangin' with this lil' man! :)

 Onah learned to ride with NO TRAINING WHEELS while camping!