Friday Encouragement...

    
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see Hebrews 11:1

Sometimes life gets rough, the stress of coping with the day to day is overwhelming. The hamster wheel we are stuck on is spinning, faster, faster, faster.... It is hard to believe on those days. It is hard to "be sure" on those kinda days. 

5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.








But God promises strength for the bad days, peace for the stormy days, and wisdom for the crazy days. 









He doesn't promise a bed of roses, He doesn't promise prosperity, He doesn't promise the easy road. No, he warns us of the challenges, he wants us to be tested so that we can not survive on our own. Not because he is a mean God, but because he loves us. He wants to be our all in all. Our only hope, our peace, our strength. If only we allow Him. 

Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

However if we learn to align our desires with his, our hearts to His, He will often bless us. The road to becoming refined is often painful and unpleasant. But oh, the rewards.

     

Be encouraged today. God is working, sometimes He is working on you and sometimes He is working for you. But either way, you are a beautiful part of His Great Plan. You were born for a time like this... 

TBT April 2010 and April 2011

 Read Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3  to catch up on the Story...

This is the final part of this story, a series of TBT. Be sure to read the entire story, to see how God worked! 

I was a love mommy to 7 different children. But I wanted kiddoes to stay, I wanted permanency.

That's when I got two beautiful little kiddoes. There is a long God Story for each kiddoe I adopted. Some day I will share those...

But for now the short version...

August 2008, Lee age 4 and Elizabeth age 4 came to live with me. We hoped to have the adoption finalized in 6-12 months.But foster care is never that simple and 3 years later on APRIL 15, 2011 they became legal members of my family!

In Sept. 2008 I got a call for another sibling set. 3 kiddoes, ages 10 mo, 2 yrs and 4 yrs old. At that point God opened the door for the younger two to come into my family. This was to be a temporary placement, 3-4 months.

Sept 2008, 

Pic taken 24 hrs after the second sibling set came to my house. I had 50 lbs of grapes to take to juice! 

But God had other plans, baby Ty went to live with his daddy after about 10 months,  on APRIL  9, 2009. Meanwhile in Feb. 2009, big brother David had come to live with us and we were looking at adoption instead of reunification. I was no longer lonely or alone...;)

My crew Christmas 2009. 

Miss C 12 yo (who lived with us off and on for several years) David 5 yo, Fayth 4 yo, Elizabeth 4 yo, and Lee 5 yo. 

David and Fayth were adopted on APRIL 14, 2010. Yup, they were adopted first!

In August of 2010 Nesiah joined our family through the this website.

With lots of hard work from my amazing caseworkers, we participated in another miracle and Nesiah was adopted along with Lee and Elizabeth.  ON APRIL 15, 2011.

My family was now complete, a perfect story of redemption... or so I thought.
However, you will need to wait for the final chapter of this story because at the moment I can not blog about that! 

Easter 2014.... Not the best picture, but it's #reallife with lots of kids on a Sunday morning! 

“Enlarge the place of your tent,

    stretch your tent curtains wide,

    do not hold back;

lengthen your cords,

    strengthen your stakes.

For you will spread out to the right and to the left;

    your descendants will dispossess nations

    and settle in their desolate cities.

“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.

    Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.

You will forget the shame of your youth

    and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.

For your Maker is your husband—

    the Lord Almighty is his name—

the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;

    he is called the God of all the earth.

The Lord will call you back

    as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—

a wife who married young,

    only to be rejected,” says your God.

“For a brief moment I abandoned you,

    but with deep compassion I will bring you back.

In a surge of anger

    I hid my face from you for a moment,

but with everlasting kindness

    I will have compassion on you,”

    says the Lord your Redeemer.

Most everything I own has a story...

Most everything I have ever bought has been prayed for or bought at some great bargain, sometimes both.

We had long discussed a swimming pool for our backyard but considering we live on the side of a very long hill, there is very little flat area in our yard. So we mulled, dreamed and discussed. Finally decided to check with the landlord to see if they mind if we do some "yard work". They were fine..

So we dreamed some more and started searching craigslist. I found the most amazing deal, practically new swimming pool with everything we need including sand!

Last Saturday we took a road trip to pick up this set up. You never know what you will encounter with craigslist, but I had done a bing map search and the house was in a nice development, so I felt comfortable taking the kids along.

We drove through this cookie cutter development, house after matching house on postage stamp lots.. (I always find the BEST craigslist deals in these kinds of places!) The guy I had been emailing was out in front of his house, he had everything set out for us. It was perfect.

I think he was a little shocked to see a single woman show up with shovels and totes to haul sand and the entire pool set up! My boys happily pitched in with shoveling sand and with some heavy duty tugging, shoving, pulling and pushing we loaded the sand into the van!

Love it that my van can double as a truck with the bonus of a lift!!! 

Unloading the pool... 

Now lets move that sand out... 

More pushing and pulling. Teamwork makes things easier. I am thankful for my STRONG boys! 

You ok there bro?! 

The entire set up! So excited for summer!! 

We are hoping friends will help us level off the spot in the backyard. We are removing the old swingset and putting sand and woodchips down. I want to add a smaller kiddie pool and my hammock and make a nice little hang out spot for this summer!