Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Signing Off
Well, it's been a fun ride at this blog for the last few years. Thanks to those of you who've taken the time to keep up with our fam through this little blog. I'm heading over to a new blogspot. If you're on our email list, you should've already received the link to the new one. If not, leave a comment, and I'll get you the new address. Thanks!
Monday, October 25, 2010
We're still alive!
Whew, life is certainly a whirlwind these days and probably isn't going to slow down for some time. In the meantime, here are some pictures from my mom from our time in Richmond. Enjoy!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Multitudes again
*a post from a looooonnnggg time ago that never got posted* (better late than never, right?)
For those of you who don't know about this Gratitude Community that is keeping my blog alive (albeit barely alive), please read about it and drink deeply from this sacred blog (I know, it sounds like an oxymoron to associate "sacred" and "blog" but really, it's true for this one.)
*Adam's last day of work!
*For God's provision for our family through his job for the last two years
*Seeing an old friend
*And enjoying her hospitality
*And conversation with her
*visiting the legendary Wheaton College
*Katie's complete awe upon opening the doors
For those of you who don't know about this Gratitude Community that is keeping my blog alive (albeit barely alive), please read about it and drink deeply from this sacred blog (I know, it sounds like an oxymoron to associate "sacred" and "blog" but really, it's true for this one.)
*Adam's last day of work!
*For God's provision for our family through his job for the last two years
*Seeing an old friend
*And enjoying her hospitality
*And conversation with her
*Meeting her husband for the first time
*Meeting her second-born for the first time
*And her meeting ours!
*And her meeting ours!
*First-borns playing together as if they're old friends
*Country fairs
*Michigan summers
*Frankenmuth
*Beauty
*Strategies from friends (and tents and noise machines) to aid in sleeping in the same hotel room with your kids
*Cousin fun
*Acoustic instrumental Beatles' albums
*Hearing your favorite Beatles' song playing when you walk into a coffee shop
*Coffee shops that have used books for sale
*including a Carson commentary for 50 cents
*visiting the legendary Wheaton College*Getting to see THE REAL WARDROBE!
*Katie's complete awe upon opening the doors*And discovering that fur coats were hanging inside
*The awesome warning inside, "The Wade Center is not responsible for any persons who might disappear into this wardrobe." (or something to that effect)
*Lewis' desk, Lewis' pipe, Lewis' teapot, and Tolkein's desk at which he wrote The Hobbit
*"super-pizza" (thanks, Ryan and Sarah...and Adam W for coining the phrase)
*that He gave our family grace to sleep in the same room for days on end!
*but that He also gives us separate rooms for my each of the girls at home
*sleeping in a room without my children
*a few days of normalcy
*Lewis' desk, Lewis' pipe, Lewis' teapot, and Tolkein's desk at which he wrote The Hobbit
*"super-pizza" (thanks, Ryan and Sarah...and Adam W for coining the phrase)
*that He gave our family grace to sleep in the same room for days on end!
*but that He also gives us separate rooms for my each of the girls at home
*sleeping in a room without my children
*a few days of normalcy
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
I Have a Shelter
Listen here for free.
I have a shelter in the storm
When troubles pour upon me
Though fears are rising like a flood
My soul can rest securely
O Jesus, I will hide in You
My place of peace and solace
No trial is deeper than Your love
That comforts all my sorrows
I have a shelter in the storm
When all my sins accuse me
Though justice charges me with guilt
Your grace will not refuse me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
Who bore my condemnation
I find my refuge in Your wounds
For there I find salvation
I have a shelter in the storm
When constant winds would break me
For in my weakness, I have learned
Your strength will not forsake me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
The One who bears my burdens
With faithful hands that cannot fail
You’ll bring me home to heaven
I have a shelter in the storm
When troubles pour upon me
Though fears are rising like a flood
My soul can rest securely
O Jesus, I will hide in You
My place of peace and solace
No trial is deeper than Your love
That comforts all my sorrows
I have a shelter in the storm
When all my sins accuse me
Though justice charges me with guilt
Your grace will not refuse me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
Who bore my condemnation
I find my refuge in Your wounds
For there I find salvation
I have a shelter in the storm
When constant winds would break me
For in my weakness, I have learned
Your strength will not forsake me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
The One who bears my burdens
With faithful hands that cannot fail
You’ll bring me home to heaven
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
One week...
In one week from today we will be leaving Louisville.
Wow. Now you know why there has been a blogging drought. Somehow I haven't been able to justify in my mind spending time uploading photos and writing witty things about the amazing travel experiences we have had in the last six weeks (EIGHT different states seen! whew!). But this morning as I wrote that first sentence in my journal, I could no longer resist the longing I've had to pause and to reflect on what God is doing underneath the crazy chaos that is our life right now.
"And Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going."
What a comfort that sentence is to me this morning. Two weeks ago, as we began taking pictures off the walls and posting our possessions on craigslist, I found myself thinking with greater frequency, "Are we crazy? What are we doing? Are we completely foolish to be leaving our apartment and life here when we only have 27% of our monthly support raised?" But as a precious friend said last night, these times (when our circumstances strip away all that we normally cling to and rely upon and expose the deep needs that are really in our hearts), these are the times when His promises become concrete realities, when we are faced with the decision to trust or to fear, and when His Word can become fresh and new to our often hard hearts. (Click here and here to see to this playing out in other friends' lives in much harder circumstances than what we are experiencing.)
"And Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going."
"By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise."
The land of promise. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Sounds like golden sunrises and scarlet sunsets, like bunnies hopping and streams trickling and milk and honey and picnics. But according to Hebrews 11:9, the land of promise is really more like living in a tent in a foreign country. How does that sound to you?
So why would a person do such a thing? I asked myself.
"For he was looking forward
to the city that has foundations,
whose designer and builder is God....
"As it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city."
What is my hope, my reason, my motivation...
...for going out, not knowing where we are going?
...for living in tents, as it were, in a foreign country?
Promise. The land of promise. The promise of a city with foundations, designed and built by God, a better country, a heavenly one, that He has prepared for us. And not only for us, but for them as well. And them. And them. Someone just has to invite them.
So it's encouraging to read in Hebrews 11 that, no, we're not crazy for doing what we're doing. While it may seem and feel and look like crazy, it's actually just what the Bible calls faith.
Wow. Now you know why there has been a blogging drought. Somehow I haven't been able to justify in my mind spending time uploading photos and writing witty things about the amazing travel experiences we have had in the last six weeks (EIGHT different states seen! whew!). But this morning as I wrote that first sentence in my journal, I could no longer resist the longing I've had to pause and to reflect on what God is doing underneath the crazy chaos that is our life right now.
"And Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going."
What a comfort that sentence is to me this morning. Two weeks ago, as we began taking pictures off the walls and posting our possessions on craigslist, I found myself thinking with greater frequency, "Are we crazy? What are we doing? Are we completely foolish to be leaving our apartment and life here when we only have 27% of our monthly support raised?" But as a precious friend said last night, these times (when our circumstances strip away all that we normally cling to and rely upon and expose the deep needs that are really in our hearts), these are the times when His promises become concrete realities, when we are faced with the decision to trust or to fear, and when His Word can become fresh and new to our often hard hearts. (Click here and here to see to this playing out in other friends' lives in much harder circumstances than what we are experiencing.)
"And Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going."
"By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise."
The land of promise. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Sounds like golden sunrises and scarlet sunsets, like bunnies hopping and streams trickling and milk and honey and picnics. But according to Hebrews 11:9, the land of promise is really more like living in a tent in a foreign country. How does that sound to you?
So why would a person do such a thing? I asked myself.
"For he was looking forward
to the city that has foundations,
whose designer and builder is God....
"As it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city."
What is my hope, my reason, my motivation...
...for going out, not knowing where we are going?
...for living in tents, as it were, in a foreign country?
Promise. The land of promise. The promise of a city with foundations, designed and built by God, a better country, a heavenly one, that He has prepared for us. And not only for us, but for them as well. And them. And them. Someone just has to invite them.
So it's encouraging to read in Hebrews 11 that, no, we're not crazy for doing what we're doing. While it may seem and feel and look like crazy, it's actually just what the Bible calls faith.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday
"Lord, what do You want me to do today?" I groan under the weight of an onerous to-do list, taking another clean glass out of the dishwasher.
"Find Me today." The voice is quiet but clear.
I sigh, knowing it's true but not wanting to do it. Knowing that He is Peace but still holding onto the futile hope that activity and action, busyness and productivity, doing and going will give me the rest I crave. It seems silly when I write it out like that. Yet that is the decision that faces me day after day, moment after moment, the decision in which I too often make the wrong choice. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your labor for what does not satisfy? My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.
"To know God is to realize there's no such thing as ordinary and all our ache is only for more of His glory," she writes. It rings true. Then why do I resist it so? It takes faith. "For the things which are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." I am an Israelite, wanting the immediate satisfaction (that doesn't last) of a Golden Calf I can see rather than the truly satisfying rest of the Invisible God.
I chafe under the waiting that will open my eyes to His glory. Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by You.
Oh, God, give me a heart, a taste, a desire for Your glory. Give me courage to wait for it, to choose what is unseen, to choose the better portion. Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Is it really true? Will I really find the rest I crave if I just go to Him? A holy experiment. "Come and see," He says.
"Find Me today." The voice is quiet but clear.
I sigh, knowing it's true but not wanting to do it. Knowing that He is Peace but still holding onto the futile hope that activity and action, busyness and productivity, doing and going will give me the rest I crave. It seems silly when I write it out like that. Yet that is the decision that faces me day after day, moment after moment, the decision in which I too often make the wrong choice. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your labor for what does not satisfy? My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.
"To know God is to realize there's no such thing as ordinary and all our ache is only for more of His glory," she writes. It rings true. Then why do I resist it so? It takes faith. "For the things which are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." I am an Israelite, wanting the immediate satisfaction (that doesn't last) of a Golden Calf I can see rather than the truly satisfying rest of the Invisible God.
I chafe under the waiting that will open my eyes to His glory. Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by You.
Oh, God, give me a heart, a taste, a desire for Your glory. Give me courage to wait for it, to choose what is unseen, to choose the better portion. Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Is it really true? Will I really find the rest I crave if I just go to Him? A holy experiment. "Come and see," He says.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Multitude Monday
182-200
*that I have seen so much beauty and received so much grace lately that I feel a little overwhelmed at the prospect of recounting it all
*a out-of-town membership to Lewis Ginter (thanks, Mom!)
*the Children's Garden
*exuberant 4 year olds who boldly dash in and out of the spray
*shy 16 month olds who gradually warm up enough boldness to reach out and let the spray hit their hand 
*getting caught in a warm rain shower in the middle of it all
*laughing at the situation
*the walk back to the top through the dark green shadowy trail
*"This feels like Neverland!"
*getting sick at Grandmommy's
*camping out on the sofa and watching The Sound of Music
*4 year old decorated birthday cakes
*train rides with Grandmommy*the Farm
*my daughters getting to spend the night in their great-great grandmother's house, great-grandmother's house, and grandmother's house in a 3-day span!
*kissin' cousins
*sandboxes*laughing hard with cousins
*catching up
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