My Little Cowgirl

Today Annika danced at the TCU basketball game. She was so cute and knew every step! She was a doll! She smiled the whole time and told me tonight she wants to do it again! Maybe we can show up to next week's game and see what happens! My mom flew into see her and got it all on tape on her new, fancy HD recorder. It is amazing- it totally beat my Nikon camera and she was a lot higher than me in the stands! I guess I know what to wish for now. :)

Annika dancing at the TCU basketball game

After the game we headed to the car and found this fun, new water fountain. The girls played for at least 30 minutes and had the best time! It was so fun to watch them- but hard to keep them out of it!

melts my heart

As you can see, I wasn't successful at keeping them out of it- so I decided to join the fun.

brrr!

Quick...

Olivia as a Party Girl

Olivia with her friend in the Nutcracker. She was amazing. Have I mentioned that? I promised she would not be doing this next year, but how can I keep someone so perfect for the Nutcracker away from it? {She was also an angel and bonbon}

Annika in AR

We traveled 20 hours for Thankgiving. It was a lot, but it was great! I am so thankful we have family to visit and that we can get there by car because we live close enough!

Bonfire

We went to the little town I started out in to my uncles' farm. We ended the night with a weenie roast and making smores with cousins. The girls {and I} thought it was so fun! Looking forward to Christmas because it should also include a heating of delicious marshmallows to quickly be stuffed in the mouth. Right?

Significant

I was just reading Suzanne's blog at Joining the Journey and I had to share this. She says it so well...

We have ONE chance at this life. ONE.

ONE.

Are you going to stay in your comfortable little place and make sure that you and every one else around you is happy and comfortable? We have the rest of our lives to be comfortable...in heaven...FOR ETERNITY. I wanna go outta her all wrinkled, tired, and ragged...LOOKIN like I have lived life to the fullest. At this ONE chance...a very SHORT chance (called life on earth)....DO SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT to bring God and God alone glory.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I just read this verse and feel so blessed that God sought after me. And I love this verse when thinking about adoption. Enjoy your day!

They will be called the Holy People,

the Redeemed of the Lord;

and you will be called Sought After,

the City No Longer Deserted.
Isaiah 62:12

Bad timing

Well, we got that call I was talking about- right in the middle of the busiest time of our year- parents visiting, Olivia in the Nutcracker, getting ready to travel. Anyway, got a call at 10:30pm for a 1 year old girl. One is my favorite age. To be specific I like about 15 months and on. Thankfully Travis was our voice of reason- but I didn't agree. :) But don't worry- I prayed God would change his heart- and I knew he would if that precious girl was supposed to be with us. Turns out it didn't matter what we thought- court date too far away so we couldn't be okayed for travel. So, we are back to waiting for that call. :)
Olivia was amazing in the Nutcracker. I coudn't have been any prouder if she were on Broadway. I wanted to stand up yell- that girl belongs to us! Seriously- she knew exactly what to do in 3 big parts and looked amazing doing it. Like she's done it all her life. It brought tears to my eyes. I am so thankful she got to do something that has been her "dream." She loved every minute of it- even the 5 hour practice on Friday night! So, so proud of her.

Botanical Gardens

We are loving this fall like weather! It took us a while to get it, but we have missed the cooler weather. The other morning we decided to go visit the botanical gardens and they were amazing. We actually had to layer to stay warm enough. Olivia doesn't have a light coat that fits (mom to the rescue- she ordered her a really soft one from the Gap and is bringing it with her this weekend!), so she is having to wear her vest all of the time. Thankfully here that is pretty much all she needs.


Japanese Gardens

 

Is is against the rules to climb a tree at the botanical gardens?



If we were sending out Christmas cards this would be the picture I would use!

The girls had so much fun running all around the Japanese Gardens and the Texas part. It was so great because we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. We will definitely be going back. We've lived here almost a year now and this is one of my favorite things we've done!

Olivia is in the Nutcracker soon. I can't wait to see her. She has practiced so much and their costumes and things are amazing!! Hopefully Annika will find it entertaining enough to last the whole time.

We are still waiting for "The Call," but I feel like God has helped us to fully enjoy the time while our little family is still the same. I know things are going to be knocked totally out of the little nitch we are in now. It's a nice little nitch, so I don't mind enjoying it. But there is a part of me that is anxious to be doing what God has for us. I have learned so much about his heart lately and I am so grateful. I have learned about a lot of neat organizations that are helping orphans all over the world. Sometimes it is too much to carry and learn about. For example, how children are taken from their families and then sold as slaves, prostitutes, beaten, etc. My mind and heart can hardly go there. But there are people trying to make a difference in the lives of these people all over the world. One really neat organization I've learned about is Sweet Sleep. They have a blog that will really open your eyes and also make your heart smile. They give beds, mosquito nets, bedding, and a bible to children and it is amazing to read about their journeys! 

This is the first time in several years that I have truly looked forward to Thanksgiving and the holidays. Last year we were in the process of moving here and the three years before we were in OH. Those were really hard and sad times. But it feels so good to be on the other side, so I am praising God that we are here. That he took us down the path to get here and that we are finally here- in a better place (for us- we're from the South!). But not just location- life in general. I am truly thankful! 

Redeemed

I have so much to say and have no idea where to start. So here goes.
Four days ago I picked up Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. Awesome book. I re-read it in 3 days. If you've read it, you know it is over 400 pages- I had school to teach, dishes to wash, laundry to do, and sleep to get. But I couldn't get enough- that is after I made it past the prologue. I don't want to ruin the story if you've never read it, but a little girl grows up in a horrible situation and ends up being forced into prostitution at the age of 8. The last time I read this book I didn't have 2 little girls, nor was I getting ready to foster a child that could very well have been in this position. The story is based off of Hosea in the bible, which talks about us basically being prostitutes (to the world, other gods, idols, etc) and God continually taking us back- in a very raw sense. It made me think heavily about my own life (situations I was put in at an early age and poor decisions later on), about the life of the foster daughters that may pass through our house, little girls around the world born into and forced into terrible situations (and then the women they become- hurt, hard, humiliated, angry, bitter women who become mothers to children that need more than what they have), and where God is in all of this.
~So first off for me- this made me think more about God redeeming my life. There are things in my life that I wonder why God let happen...where was he when...? But God has redeemed me from everyone of them. He has freed me from my bad decisions and other's bad decisions as well. And the thoughts that can so easily haunt and entangle you when you look back on things. And of course, on a much bigger level, he has redeemed my life that was headed straight to an eternity without him-through the death of his precious son Jesus- I have NOTHING to do with it. The thing as- as I look around- both here and around the world, I could have easily been born into a family that forced me into prostitution at a young age or into a poor African village where death due to starvation happens daily or any number of other terrible things. God specifically, by his grace, put me here where I am. I will never understand why, but I will be eternally grateful that he did.
Several definitions of redeemed that I found are to recover ownership of by paying a specified sum, to pay off, to set free; rescue or ransom, to save from a state of sinfulness and its consequences and to restore the honor, worth, or reputation of. I can think of specific examples for each one of those in my life. And God is responsible for everyone of them.

"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death." Hosea 13:14

~The exciting part to me- that God totally awakened while reading Redeeming Love, is that we get to be part of God's plan to redeem one of his precious daughters. I want to run out and gather all of the hurting little girls and bring them to our home and teach them that they have not been deserted, they are worth redeeming and that God will redeem them-both spiritually and emotionally. Obviously not realistic to gather them all, but nonetheless, I am thankful God has put his desire in my heart. I have a feeling I may be re-reading this later on when things get tough!

"...for in you the fatherless find compassion." Hosea 14:3

And as I thought more about this- what does it look like everyday in the life of a little girl? Is it a romantic story of love, hurt, redemption, more hurt, and more redemption as in Redeeming Love? Probably not. It will be a story of loving regardless of the response we get back; getting up in the middle of the night to comfort bad dreams; daily showing mercy and grace to a little one who was never loved as God intended for her to be; possibly letting her go back to her family trusting God to protect her; lots of time spent in prayer for wisdom in how to parent, love, and demonstrate God's amazing love for a wonderful creation that has been crushed by the sin that surrounds us daily.  

"I will heal their waywardness and love them freely..." Hosea 14:4

Right now the hard part is living with knowledge and not expecting everyone else to feel the same way. It is almost like convictions. You may feel convicted not to see a rated R movie, but that doesn't mean that is something I need to not do {although I really have no interest in most of them- just an example!} I have found in reading blogs and hearing comments from those who have adopted- it is almost like they are angry that others don't understand where they are in their desire to adopt and get offended when you ask questions about their adopted children. I do not understand this at all- honestly. I don't ever want to be that way. It is like there is a super fine line to walk...how do you live something out passionately without making others feel badly for not doing the same thing? How do you even talk about adoption/fostering with others who aren't where you are? God has given us each passions for things that mean something to his heart. There is no way I could possibly be passionate about all the things God is- I simply couldn't take it. I couldn't stand knowing all the things that are wrong in the world and what God wants me to do about it. So I need to take the piece of his heart that he's given me and honor him with it- whether I've got someone to walk along side me in this or not. 

When thinking specifically about redemption- that is something we can and should all be excited about. "But now says the LORD, your creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine!'" Isaiah 43:1 How can that not be exciting? The cool thing about redemption is that it is woven through the bible from the beginning to the end. And he's not done with us. He is daily redeeming us from things we drag around with us- the hard part is trying to live in that freedom and to keep from wandering from Him.

So maybe part of the fostering/adoption classes they should make everyone read Redeeming Love. :) If you are still here- thanks for reading something that God put on my heart so heavily I could barely breathe until I typed some of down. It was funny because this morning another blog I read- a sweet family that has many adopted children also talked about how adoption is redemption. I feel blessed beyond words to get to be apart of a God's redemption plan for one {or more} of his sweet daughters.