Rockin and Waitin!

In a few hours we'll be heading to LifeLight to rock out for Jesus! The Lord gave us a beautiful weekend - last year there was about 2 feet of mud and it was a horrible mess. This year it's going to be sunny and beautiful. We're so thankful Lord!

We're also waiting for more news about the adoption. I can't tell many details but I can share that a family has selected us for adoption. The babies are due next month! Yes, I said "babies" - it's twins! PRAY FOR US and for the birth family and babies. The Lord has given us peace through this all and for that we're thankful. Now we're scrambling to finish our basement and get all our paperwork in order.

Maybe we won't spend too much time at LifeLight! The basement is calling our name!

LifeLight Festival...

...starts this weekend! It was 4 years ago that I re-committed my life to Christ at LifeLight so needless to say it's very special to me. For those not familiar with LifeLight check out their website, www.lifelight.org.

We ask you continue to pray for us as we wait to hear from a family that is considering us for adoption. As soon as we can we'll share more details with you but for the time being you can pray for God's will to be done. So far we haven't been too anxious as we wait to hear more - we pray that God continues to give us peace through this whole process.

Where Is Your Hope Built?

We've recently learned of a family in the states considering us for adoption. I can't go into details yet but needless to say it's been very exciting but has left us a little anxious.

So two nights ago I was sharing my worries with the Lord and told Him, “I don’t want to get my hopes up.” As soon as I thought the words this song came to mind "my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness". I was so thankful for the gentle reminder that my hope is not in anything but Christ – not my family, not my job, not material possessions or even my desire to be a mom.

It’s easy to built our hope in things or people other than Christ when we forget to remember the Lord’s working in our lives. Psalm 103 speaks a little of this...

Praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being, praise His holy name

For all that I am, everything I’m made of, every part of me…

Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits

Do you take time each day to remember the blessings of God. I so appreciate Hubby in that every day, even after having our home for 4 years he thanks God for providing us with a home. He’s so thankful for what God has blessed us with. Take the time to read Psalm 105 – David spends time remembering the benefits of the Lord and all the times He rescued his people.

Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases

Have you forgotten the magnitude of your sin? When you compare yourself to someone in the bible do you consider yourself to be more like Jesus or more like Peter?

Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion

Have you forgotten where Christ rescued you from? Not only does He rescue you from sin but He does so with love and compassion. One day some of the youth staff and I were praying and one of them was praying about God’s love and I was overcome because we are so blessed. What other “god”, what other religion can say without a shadow of a doubt that their “god” loves them. That their “god” wants to crown them with love and compassion and shower them with mercy and forgiveness.

Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

Oh cool, we’re going to get whatever we want – whatever we desire! I don’t think that’s necessarily the case but when our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus our desires change. The definition of “good things” changes and our focus turns toward heaven instead of toward the world.

Even though we're excited about this new opportunity for adoption we are thankful that whatever happens our hope is built on Christ.

Psalm 23

Making Progress

Ok, you can't really tell from these pictures but truthfully the basement is almost done! Hubby finished tiling the bathroom today (looks great by the way!) and Princess stained the cupboards that will go in the bathroom (along with staining her face and arms and clothing! :-)). Almost there!

A Devotion by Princess Quittem

Simple Pleasures
Psalm 16:11

Many times in life it seems like I skip over the small, relaxing, pleasures to continue with my busy schedule. But we can’t continue to do that. Imagine if we skipped over every simple pleasure in our life. Skipping over sunsets, chocolate, afternoon naps, family time, alone time, flowers, the sun, and God’s love. What if we skipped over all those great things, especially the last one? God’s love. If we skipped over that can you imagine how messy our life would truly be? Our life would be pointless.

But there is a simple truth to that simple pleasure. God sent His son to die for us because He loves us. No matter how busy God gets, He has time to provide us with all those simple pleasures. So make sure you find time to enjoy all those simple pleasures our God created just for us. Most importantly, make sure you find time to enjoy the greatest simple pleasure ever created, God’s love.

Dear Lord,
Thank you for creating all the simple pleasures in each one of our lives. Help us to make time in our busy schedules for all your great creations. Thank you for your Son, so we can enjoy your love as a simple pleasure too.
Amen.

10 Things I Can't Do In A Boot

1. Mow the lawn??
2. Take the dogs on a walk??
3. Work in the basement??
4. Clean the bathroom??
5. Load the dishwasher??
6. Help Princess with homework??
7. Take out the garbage??
8. Get off the couch??
9. Pay the bills??
10. BLOG!

Ok, so there's not alot that I CAN'T do in my new boot but I sure love to milk it for all it's worth! I tore a tendon on the bottom of my foot and get to wear this lovely boot for 3 weeks. Please pray for my wife!

p.s. That's one of our dogs Charlie in the picture checking out my sweet boot!

PQ - aka Super Hubby

First Day of School

Monday was the first day of school for Princess! She's so grown up - only two years left til she's out in the real world on her own! :-( We're so proud of her. God has gifted her with the gift of writing and drawing and she has been using those gifts to glorify Him by writing devotionals. She's also kind and tenderhearted and funny and compassionate and a good listener. Most importantly she loves Jesus and desires to serve Him with her whole life. Pray for her this year and all the kids in school. They are faced with so much temptation and peer pressure. As parents we need to be engaged and be in the center of the lives - even if they aren't always happy about it! A good book that Hubby and I are reading through is "Pass The Faith Please" by Lori Borgman. I recommend it for any parents or parents to be out there!

Garage Sale

UPDATE! We actually made $1000! I had counted our funds on Sunday night and it was $700. When we went to the bank on Monday it was $1000. Either I count bad or God is amazingly awesome - I think both!!
Our garage sale was a huge success! We had many people come out who had adopted and wanted to encourage us through the process. That was great! We raised $700 and that was really only one day as on Saturday the weather was cold and rainy. We did open for a few hours but it was pretty slow. Thanks to everyone who donated items or came out in support of our adoption!

Almost There!

It seems like I've been saying that for a long time, in reference to our basement. But really it's only been about 6 weeks. Our basement is very very close to being finished. Hopefully this week we'll finish up the last things before our carpet can be installed.

We painted Princess's room and the extra bedroom and the living room. The living room is very yellow. Hasn't quite grown on me yet. I told Hubby that one of the walls has to be something other than yellow. I'm all for brightness and sunshine and all but it's a little extreme. :-)

The garage sale is this next weekend! We spent the whole day yesterday sorting and organizing and cleaning. We have alot of stuff and I still haven't went through my stuff and there are a number of friends that still have stuff to bring over. Pray for us that it will be successful in raising money to go towards our adoption.

Poor Little Kitties

Not only is Princess allergic to cats but Hubby is not so fond of them and we also have three dogs. Needless to say we are "dog people" to the core. But when I saw these pictures I couldn't help but feel completely mortified that people would do such things to their little kitties. Ok, I did laugh out loud too. Enjoy! :-)

More Kitties