THANK YOU JESUS!

Our Angel is coming home! TOMORROW! We are so excited we can't even think straight. I have such little faith, I didn't think she would be home for Christmas, but once again God shows his amazing love and faithfulness and has given us the desires of our hearts. We are so unworthy.

We'll leave early tomorrow morning and should be home (with our baby in our arms) tomorrow night! Please continue to pray for her for a smooth transition, for the foster family who's had her since birth and for safety for us traveling.

Thanks for going along with us on this journey. We have felt your prayers and we praise God for his blessings.

That's What Friends Are For!

Ok, I'm done whining! :-) Thanks friends for encouraging me to use this time to get some things done. Another friend also found this devotional and it was just perfect!

The Time Came For Her Baby
by Jon Walker

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. (Luke 2:6 NLT)

We manage time; we waste time. We spend time and we save time. We wish the time would come; we wish the time would pass. We see time fly, and we feel time drag. We watch clocks and carry calendars, creating the illusion that we somehow control time, yet all the while moments flow forward like a mighty river that cannot be stopped, harnessed, or re-routed.

Yet God controls time. He created time and we, his creations, are fenced by his time, directed and guided by his holy and loving hand. Do you think God was surprised that "while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born?"

We're often surprised by unexpected developments in our lives, yet the Bible teaches that God is never surprised, even in the most disastrous turn of events. How would your faith differ if you believed God was not surprised by your current circumstances and that he's working, at this moment, for a holy and healthy conclusion?

What does that mean? God is always on time, at just the right time. George Mueller, the great prayer warrior from the 19th century, once waited on a dock for a special chair to be delivered. He had a bad back and needed the chair for the ocean voyage ahead of him. When the departure time grew close and the chair still had not arrived, Mueller's friends offered to buy a substitute chair, but Mueller said no - "Either God will provide the chair, or he'll give grace to do without it." Like a Hollywood ending, the chair arrived just in time, right on time. Mueller noted, "If the chair had arrived earlier, we might have dismissed the provision of God." This Christmas, point out the provisions of God when you see them.

What if you were certain God would provide? How would you act, think, and live differently if you were absolutely certain God was at the end of the deadline? That is, even if there were mere seconds left, you still believed with certainty that God was working through your circumstances? Believing he's there and about to provide is the essence of faith. Tell God, "I believe; help my unbelief."

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Time cannot diminish Christ's love for you or his power to work within your life. He is there in the past; he is there in the now; and he is there in your future.

A thousand years are like a few hours to God (Psalm 90:4). God is working to bring you into eternity, not just to get you through the end of next week. Praise God for his grace and for a love so strong that he wants you to spend an eternity with him.

Home

It's good to be home. Even though we stayed in a plush, comfortable amazing hotel this weekend it's so good to be home.

Some days I'm so homesick. Not for my earthly home but for my heavenly home. To be in the presence of our heavenly Father, Jesus, my Savior, my Friend! To worship God and no longer have tears or pain or sadness. Talk about amazing!

Do you have a reservation at the Father's House? Are you 100% confident that when you die you will be going to your heavenly home? If not, send me an email and I'd love to visit with you more.

I'll share more about our weekend later.

Beating the Odds

Sorry for the scary picture. That was me and Hubby last year at his work's Christmas "Prom" party. Ya! 80's all the way!

Anyway, I'm so excited for this weekend. Hubby and I are attending the Weekend to Remember marriage conference AND we splurged and are staying at a hotel even though the conference is in our home town.

Our marriage didn't start out so hot. We were both unbelievers. I was running from my first marriage and Hubby was running from being alone. We were hurting which caused us to be hurtful and low and behold getting married didn't solve anything. About 6 months after getting married I recommitted my life to Christ and things just got worse. About 6 months after that Princess got saved and then Hubby was really in a bad situation (or so he thought!). I eventually learned to keep my mouth shut (most of the time) and show Hubby the love of Christ instead of my own selfish love. It was actually a fight between me and Princess that brought Hubby to his knees and he accepted Christ as his savior.

And things didn't get better. Not right away anyway. I remember hearing Dr Phil share that marriages that start the way ours did, only about 10% of them last. Sorry Dr Phil, you got nothing on us because our God is bigger than 10%!

On New Years Eve we'll be married 5 years. Every year since we've gotten married has been better than the one before and God has shown His mercy and grace to us in so many ways. So I'm thankfully able to say we are not attending the Weekend to Remember conference because we're struggling in our marriage. However, we both learned the hard way that marriage takes work. It takes committment. It's not about feelings - it's about being committed to each other through anything and being committed to Christ makes that journey alot easier.

Plus we figure that Lord willing we'll have a baby soon so we won't have a chance for a weekend getaway for awhile. Hope y'all have a great weekend. I know we will!

Laughing Out Loud With A Mouth Full Of Ice Cream

Oh it's good to laugh. It's good to eat ice cream. It's really good to laugh and eat ice cream all at the same time. Tonight after youth group four of us "old" ladies and a few of the kids were hanging out chowing down on ice cream like we hadn't eaten in six days. We had Twix ice cream bars, Snickers ice cream bars, Dove ice cream bars, Butterfinger ice cream bars, juice pop things and super duper chocolately rich yummy dessert leftover from the Day Spa.

Now I'm not going to tell you how many ice cream bars I ate. Let's just say I'm not going to be able to eat tomorrow or the next day or the next. But that's ok, it was worth it. It was so yummy good. And ice cream tastes so much more yummier when you're hanging out and laughing with friends. The funny thing is that we were sharing struggles, frustrations, sorrows and trials that we are going through right now.

And then we'd eat another ice cream bar. And then we'd laugh. It was awesome.

Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." Psalm 126:2

I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 63:4

Hello stranger!

I know it's been a few days since I blogged. Hubby has been accusing me of having a blogging addiction so I had to prove him wrong! You'd think he'd be impressed that I haven't blogged or even turned on the computer for 3 days. But no, he just says "you've been too busy...you didn't have time to blog anyway." Ya whatever, there's always time to blog!

Anyway, I have been busy. Today was our Day Spa for Women and it was amazing! Very exhausting. The last few days have been full of talking to mom about supplies and plans, preparing a message to share, memorizing a skit plus trying to get all my work done at my job and keep the house somewhat in order. We had about 20 women come today and the Lord's Spirit really moved. It's so humbling to be a part of His work. You can check out our Day Spa for Women blog here - Ya, I got my mom addicted, I mean excited about blogging! :-)

So pray for the women that came to the Day Spa today that the time they had with the Lord today would renew them and refresh them and they would sense the God's Spirit with them each and every day.

I know, I know... I promised a picture of hubby's Jeep. Good news, we found the battery charger for our camera and it's charging as I type. So hopefully tomorrow I'll post that picture for ya!

Words To Live By

Take a moment and read this post from Boothe - you'll be blessed.

Open Your Eyes

A devotion by Princess...

Are you aware of everything God has done for you? Are you thankful of what He does? Every breath, every sunny day, every rain cloud, every loss. Its all for you! Its all to help you understand His love for you, and to grow closer to Him.

Yes, loss hurts, but look beyond what you lost. In that loss run to Jesus. Let Him comfort you and carry your burden. That is the blessing, Jesus can help us even though we aren’t perfect, and He does it willingly.

Do you run around outside with your eyes shut? As your drive to go get your daily coffee fix are your eyes shut? NO! So why do we walk around with our eyes shut to Jesus? Why are we not afraid of crashing without Jesus? Why can’t we throw our eyes open and look directly at the one who saves?

Because we sin. But He died so we could approach Him. We don’t have an excuse anymore, so stop looking for one. God has given us everything we need, and more. So stop. Think of all Jesus is blessing you with. Praise Him. Praise Him again, and again, and again.

Glory

Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth. Psalm 108:5
For the Lord is high above the nations;his glory is higher than the heavens. Psalm 113:4
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness. Psalm 115:1
Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For his name is very great; his glory towers over the earth and heaven! Psalm 148:13
They were calling out to each other,“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” Isaiah: 6:3
“Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” Luke 2:14
For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. Romans 11:36

Pressure

I was on my way to work this morning thinking about my blog. "I wonder if anyone reads my blog." I thought to myself. "Hhmmm, I better come up with something way better than 'Life with Charlie'."

Talk about pressure. Does anyone else feel this tremendous weight on their shoulders to come up with witty, informative, inspirational and life-changing blogs? I've noticed that a good majority of blogs are written by women. No offense, guys, I've seen some good blogs written by you too. But the majority of those that I read are written by women. And the majority of the ones that make me laugh so hard I wet my pants or cry so hard my husband thinks Charlie died, are written by women.

Women. We do it all don't we? Among other things we pay the bills, buy the groceries, keep the house in order, kiss the kid's owies, make marvelous meals and keep our hubbies happy. Ok, we don't really do it all. As a bible believing Christian woman that would be disrespectful of my fabulous husband to convince you of this. But I do have to say, us womenly folk do alot.

And now, thanks to blogland we have the added pressure to create masterpieces of wit and charm, bring encouragement and comfort to complete strangers and convince about a gazillion people that we actually know what we're talking about...


I stand corrected. The title of this post should be privilege.

Peace

I haven't written much lately about our adoption. It's not that I haven't had anything to say. Maybe I've had too much to say and didn't know where to start.

The Lord brought such healing and peace to our hearts through the not-adoption of the twins. Our church family is amazing and we felt their prayers. We still pray for the twins and think of them and their birth mom often. It's amazing how you can become so connected to people and not even meet them. My prayer is that some day I can meet her and pray with her and encourage her.

Going through the process with the twins made me question my views on adoption. I know everyone has their opinion and their is no "right" way. However, after a number of past experiences Hubby and I had decided closed adoption was the best option for our family. This was one reason the twins seemed so perfect because it would have been a closed adoption.

However as I heard about the twins being in a room by themselves at the hospital and the birth mom or her family not even being able to say goodbye, or they not even meeting the family that would raise and love the twins my heart just broke. I can't even begin to imagine how the birth mom and family is feeling. So I'm doubting my feelings of closed adoption and wondering if we wouldn't have more peace with a semi-open adoption.

We've also been praying about adopting a sibling group, a 1 yr old and 2 yr old. We felt real peace about it so we sent in our profile. We then found out it would be just the 2 yr old. I really had my heart set on both of them and there were some other things that caused us to have uneasiness and loose that sense of peace. Hubby talked to the social worker and we came to a decision that it wasn't God's will for us to adopt any of these children. And the Lord gave peace.

It's amazing the wisdom of my Hubby. I'm totally emotional and it's like "any kid, doesn't matter, we'll take 'em!!" He's just a little more rational (thank you Lord). But he's also so patient and doesn't force anything on me. He'll wait patiently for me to come to the place where the Lord wants us to be. For that I'm so thankful. Hubby definetly doesn't wear his feelings on his sleeve so sometimes I doubt his excitement of this adoption. But to see him cry and hear him say, "I envisioned the twins, what they would look like, what our family would be like," just broke my heart and gave me peace that he wants to grow our family as much as I do.

As you can see, the theme today is peace. That even when my heart aches to be a mom and have little ones in our home and the pain is great as we think about the twins that won't be in our family, the Lord miraculously brings peace. It really is a peace that passes all understanding.

Everything

A Word From Pastor Paul

Pastor Paul is my boss and a pastor at our church. He sent all the staff this encouragement today.



What a beautiful picture!

Think of this as someone who is intimate with God.

This magnificent garden did not get that way by sitting idle.
Weeds would have come up.
Instead, it got that way through loving care and cultivation over time.

Think of that as the discipline and the time God desires to spend with us on a regular basis.
Let Him cultivate the weeds out so His new creation can shine in all it's beauty!

The Transformers

I laughed hard tonight. It was the first night of Life Groups. Life Groups are our high school youth small groups. They meet every Sunday night in homes. I have the priveledge of being an adult leader and it's one of the most rewarding things I do.

We have two student leaders for each group and they pretty much do everything. They plan the lesson and the games and whatever else we do. I'm just there to provide help when needed but these kids are so awesome - they need help very rarely.

Since it was our first night tonight we just hung out and talked and laughed SO MUCH! We talked alot about the name of our Life Group. Last year we were PowerHouse (taken from Eph 3:17-21) but we have a new group of kids so they wanted something different. Oh my goodness, they are so funny. The final vote came down to...

Circle of Friends
GPS (God's Postal Service - delivering His Word)
Global Warming (something about the fire of God ??)
Revolution
Transformers

The winner was Transformers and our verse is Romans 12:2.

These kids are so awesome. If you aren't involved with kids, whether it be babies, toddlers, preschoolers, elementary, middle school or high school I really encourage you to pray about how you can be used. It is so rewarding and I learn something from these kids every night. They really aren't all that scary :-)

I'm not sure what the names of the other Life Groups are but I do know we have the most amazing group of Transformers and I count it all joy to spend my Sunday nights with them!

A Day Spa for Women

Today my mom and I traveled to Marion, SD. Not the biggest town you'll see :-) but for sure some of the nicest people.

So the Day Spa is a women's retreat my mom and I started last year. There's worship and we talk about our really amazing God and we eat of course. And then we do "prayer stations" where the women journal and pray and one of the stations is foot washing/massage and hand massage. So it's not really a "spa" but it kind of is - it's a God spa.

We were invited to do a 1/2 day spa in Marion for a ladies church conference. Given all that has happened in the last few weeks I was not looking forward to going. In fact on Wednesday night I had decided I wasn't going to go. One of my dear friends and co-workers said, "Oh you ARE going Missy! It will be good for you." And she was so right. It was so refreshing and encouraging - I just love sharing with other women. The Lord laid it on my heart to share a little about the experience of the last few weeks.

At the end a couple ladies came up and said they wanted to pray over me. That is what is so cool. These ladies who we'd just met and they were reaching out to me and sharing the love of Christ - when we had come to minister to them. Isn't God cool. We said that alot today and it's so true.

I was able to stay home on Thursday and the Lord brought such great peace to my heart - just like His word says - a peace that passes all understanding. Don't get me wrong I'm still sad about losing the twins but we are trusting in God's plan and look forward to the next adventure.

For those in the area we're doing a Day Spa at Linwood Wesleyn on October 13th and one at Abiding Savior on November 17th. If you're church would like to look into hosting a Day Spa for Women let me know!

Rocky Mountain High

Kids from our youth group on top of a mountain at Estes Park, CO.

How awesome if the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth! Psalm 47:2

A Devotion by Princess Quittem

Stop talking. Stop thinking. Focus. Praise God. Praise God alone...

Lord you are so mighty, so incredible. You save us with ease. Lord, I will worship you. My King.

I’m sorry for breaking your heart. Thank you for breaking my heart so I can see your glorious beauty fully. I will sing to you forever Lord, your love reigns forever, your power, your light, your grace, you reign forever Lord, forever. I’m so sorry for letting Satan have control of my life. You are my pilot, Lord, for eternity.

I’m no longer just a planted seed. I have sprouted. I’ve blossomed Lord. Your beauty has brought me out of dirt into shinning light. I’m ready to stand Lord. I’m ready to fight against the rain, the wind, and all storms for Your name.

Please help me live more for you. I can’t explain how excited I am! But You understand completely. You are so great! I can’t describe it. You make me scream with joy and shake with fear at the same time. Only you Lord, only you. Lord, remove the wall that is holding back your flowing river of grace. I’m not ashamed Lord, never again. Don’t let me hide the power and passion you have planted in me. Take it all Lord. I’m going to fly with you Lord. Sin is no longer weighing me down. You got me, and you are never letting go.

Lord, help us all to see you as you are. Give us wisdom, teach us to love you. Teach us how to approach you. Embrace us Lord, make us whole again.

Let your light shine through me to the world you have placed me in. I will love you always, and live for you always. I yearn for you. You are my only strength. I am fully dependent on you Lord.

I love you Jesus. I’m ready to fly.

Amen

Romans 8:15-17 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Overwhelmtion

Ok, I know "overwhelmtion" isn't a word but that's how I feel. Overwhelmed with sadness of possibly never carrying a child; overwhelmed with mountains and mountains of paperwork for our adoption, overwhelmed with task after task to finish our basement, overwhelmed with doubts and fears - is Ethiopia really where we are suppose to adopt from, what age of child, how many children do we adopt, how in the world are we going to pay for an adoption and not go completely, miserably into debt, etc., etc. Putting all that together the only word I could think of was "overwhelmtion". Definition: the state of being WAY more overwhelmed then just overwhelmed!

Elisabeth Elliot writes, “I had been praying for something I wanted very badly. It seemed a good thing to have, a thing that would make life even more pleasant than it is, and would not in any way hinder my work. God did not give it to me. Why? I do not know all of his reasons, of course. The God who orchestrates the universe has a good many things to consider that have not occurred to me, and it is well that I leave them to Him. But one thing I do understand: He offers me holiness at the price of relinquishing my own will.”

Through our adoption process we have been reading a book titled, “Adoption Parenting”. In it we learn about adoption loss that an adopted child experiences and how to help a child through these feelings. This has also caused me to think of “infertility loss”. I have been praying that I could have children for over 8 years now. And so far God has said “no”, at least biological children. But I love what Elizabeth says “One thing I do understand: He offers me holiness at the price of relinquishing my own will.” Lord willing, we will have children through adoption and as much as this process overwhelms me, it also brings me great joy. So I will leave my state of overwhelmtion at the Cross because it’s only through the relinquishing of my will that I find holiness in Christ.

The Cross is really the only place for my overwhelmtion because Christ alone knows all things and sees all things and can lead us in His will. I love the song "Bring the Rain" by Mercy Me - my favorite line is, "... can circumstances possibly change who I forever am in You.. ". Regardless of what situation I face or what trial or circumstances comes my way God is still God - He still sits on the throne - He is still good and perfect and loving and just and merciful and faithful. Today I will choose to trust in Him and lay my OVERWHELMTION at His feet.