Stepping Out of the Boat: January 2011

1.28.2011

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday - Jan. 23, 2011

There is a Pregnancy Resource Center or Crisis Pregnancy Center near you!

YOU can SAVE a life and bring HOPE by being involved!

Stop the music from the playlist at very bottom of blog so you can here this :)

1.27.2011

BRACELET BLITZ!!

They say P U R E religion with a cross symbol in front of the P U R E

Okay! Time for some serious marketing! :)

I have around 180 bracelets left! (and my son in Spokane has around 95!) I know, I know...what was I thinking?

I was thinking they would magically sell and all the teens would swarm the house in hopes of owning one! Apparently, I am not a great marketer!

So...please help me redeem myself in my husband's eyes :) He is a little hesitant for me to start another fundraiser until these sweet things are all gone!

Please pass our blog along to any friends, family members, acquaintances, and your dentist to get the word out!!

There is a new paypal button on the right to order and pricing is according to how many you buy :) Shipping and handling included!

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!

P.S. They are great for youth groups, presents, you can make balls out of several of them, fit perfectly around the bottom of glasses to tell whose is whose (a suggestion from a friend)

1.25.2011

What is keeping me from....

February is right around the corner!

My JOY is in the garage and our picked- from-the- forest Christmas tree has been cut in half and recycled into a Valentine tree :) The day we took down JOY and the lights wrapped around another tree Micah wanted to put them on this recycled tree in the pot. So we transferred them from one tree to the next. Then he wanted to put heart decorations on it. So we made heart decorations out of those plastic overhead sheets. Colored them purple and red with Sharpies and hung them on the tree. He loves it!

We are working through the Radical Series in our Bible study. It is very challenging to me personally and convicting... URGENCY Jesus is telling the disciples the harvest is now...not in 4 months. So what is keeping us (me) from being urgent about the harvest?
The Samaritan women went and told all that Jesus had told her...immediately.
The pastor talked about us seeing people as immortals...not just people with a physical body but souls that will live forever...either with Jesus or without. Our challenge to each other was to be watching for those opportunities that God placed in our lives and to actually share HIM.
In Sunday school we are doing a series by Andy Stanley. He talked about the people who have intersected our lives that God used to bring us where we are today. In all our stories we can think back to a relationship/relationships that drew us towards Jesus. Andy asked are we willing to have that awkward conversation...putting our nose in someone else's business because we know the Truth and can be the person who points them to Truth. Are we willing to invest in our co-workers, neighbors, grocery store clerks lives and be urgent about it?? I had the start of that conversation yesterday with my neighbor in the middle of the sidewalk in between her dog running off and the kids running around. She brought it up and I joined in :)

"Our intimacy with God-His highest priority for our lives-determines the impact of our lives."

"It's only through your fellowship and communion with God that you can truly affect other people's lives in a way that lasts eternally." 30 Life Principles by Charles Stanley

John 4- need to read the whole chapter :)

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "^(A)Rabbi, eat."

³²But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."

³³So the ^(B)disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?"

³⁴Jesus said to them, "My food is to ^(C)do the will of Him who sent Me and to ^(D)accomplish His work.

³⁵"Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white ^(E)for harvest.

³⁶"Already he who reaps is receiving ^(F)wages and is gathering ^(G)fruit for ^(H)life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

³⁷"For in this case the saying is true, '^(I)One sows and another reaps.'

³⁸"I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

³⁹From ^(J)that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "^(K)He told me all the things that I have done."

Our Quail visitors the other morning

1.12.2011

JOY In January?

Yes, there is JOY in January... at least on my front lawn :) I am a sunshine person...I LOVE the sun and seem to have much more motivation and energy when it's out! Winter is hard when we have days of inversion and freezing cold... (although I am not complaining because Utah mostly has beautiful sunny days even in winter). So I have to remind myself where my JOY comes from... I know some of you are like me and so let's remember together... "The Sun will come out tomorrow..betcha bottom dollar that tomorrow will beeee...tomorrow, tomorrow, I love Ya Tomorrow..you're only a day away!" :) (Imagine music with that!)

Most importantly though...my JOY comes from abiding in Jesus. John 15:11.. "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." The previous verses Jesus is talking about being the true vine and us abiding in His love by keeping His commandments.

Also, Prov. 17:22: "A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones."

Our joyfulness or lack of it even affects our physical bodies! I know there are lots of broken spirits all around us so I pray that we who know the truth will share our JOY from abiding in HIM. I can be the sun in someone's life even if it isn't shining outside! :)

taken by CPA in our backyard last year

PS... It's also encouraging to have an awesome friend named JOY! :) If you don't have one get one :)

1.07.2011

Happy Foggy Friday

Well, this is what we woke up to today. Our world covered in a thick fog and every tree branch covered in white icy stuff. This was a little fat sparrow sitting on our back porch railing wondering where the bird seed went. Terrible picture with my camera but it is what it looked like :)

I am finally getting our fundraiser up and out to you!! (remember I mentioned it eons ago?)

PURE religion silicone bracelets!

They are a great conversation starter and also help us with our next costs. They have a cross symbol in front of the PURE. One of our sons wears both colors!

Kids and teens love them! They are pink and yellow (my oldest son said those were the colors to get) and come in one size.

I have LOTS of them so don't feel shy about ordering lots and passing them out! He, he! :)

2.00 each if you are local and I will hand deliver.

If you are long distance please check the paypal button for prices.

1.04.2011

The Journey So Far

After having an exciting, crazy, fun -filled Christmas and New Year with all our kids home from college, Memaw here from Texas and my brother from TN I thought I better take a moment to sit and give you all an update.

Our homestudy has been completed and approved. Our next step is to send that in to the immigration department along with some other paperwork and receive back appointments for fingerprinting and authorization to bring an orphan home from another country.

Right after the time our homestudy was completed we became aware of 4 young girls in need of a home. Their parents had come out of a polygamous community, were in the process of a divorce, and not able to mentally or physically take care of the girls. Instead of putting the girl's in the foster system a Christian home was being looked for to take care of the girls. One other family along with us said we would take the girls in. We both met with the parent's along with a counselor, social worker and a couple of other people so the parent's could meet each of us. The other family was chosen (who already had girls :)) and they are becoming guardians of these girls.

Through all this our eyes were opened to the need for foster parents here in the state of Utah and that there are children here already in system in need of forever homes and to be adopted. We have been praying about if that is the direction we should take or continue on with Ethiopia.
Also, going through our online training we learned that worldwide there are more people requesting healthy infants than there are infants available for adoption. The majority of orphans in need of homes are over the age of 5. Although we are requesting a girl up to age four we are still struggling if this is the best way to make a difference (of course to that one child it makes all the difference in the world!).
Because we have Micah who is 5 we want to stay in birth order and adopt younger than him. After learning that we having been talking/praying whether we should adopt a child with some special needs.
Coming up with the finances for Ethiopia is a main concern as well but I am trying to think of creative ways to save, earn money and fundraise!

With over 147 million orphans the need for them to have loving families is so great it can be overwhelming but we can all make a difference together one way or another! :)

So that is where we are at which seems to be in limbo : ) but God knows and we are praying He gives us clear direction.