Muscadine Jelly... my first canning experience!

 

One of my hubby and boys' favorite treats is Muscadine jelly, made by Grandma in Georgia. On our Saturday morning trip to the ASU Farmer's market, I was pleasantly surprised to find muscadines in Arkansas!! I bought a gallon of muscadines, received some instruction from the kind lady who sold me the muscadines, and decided to try out this jelly making and canning process:)

fresh muscadines

crushed muscadines--thanks to my strong hubby:)

I boiled the crushed muscadines in a couple inches of water for 25 minutes and then strained them.

Muscadine juice (about 4 cups) after boiling and straining (with colander and strainer or cheesecloth)

I brought the 3 to 4 cups of juice to a boil for 5 minutes, added about 6 cups of sugar and boiled for about 5-10 minutes. I added 1 packet of SureJel and boiled 1 more minute.

After all of the boiling, I poured hot jelly into prepared jelly jars.

I boiled the sealed jars for about 5 minutes.

 One of the things I am most passionate about is... cooking! However, I have never attempted the whole process of canning. I usually freeze our garden veggies and soups, instead of canning. I learned that canning is definitely not as difficult as it looks, and I'll be doing this project again soon!

Finished product!!

Sidewalk painting

The boys had so much FUN measuring the ingredients, mixing colors and painting creative pictures on the driveway! We're thankful to have art class outside in this beautiful weather!

Equal parts cornstarch + water + 1-2 drops of food coloring=               an afternoon of FUN sidewalk painting!!

Evan painted "power"

Ben painted a machine and a tree

Muddy and thankful moments with my little men

I still need to give an update on our move and big life and job changes... but for now here are some great pics of our muddy morning in our NEW backyard!  I love experiencing these precious muddy moments with my little men! I am so blessed and have much to be thankful for!

best friends!

I LOVE this face!

An unexpected turn in our Journey!

Many of you have walked along side us through our adoption journey, that began Fall 2010. We began the adoption process of a child from Ethiopia and have been blessed to see God's provision and blessing through this journey! We have been on a wild ride as we journeyed through the book of James this year, read more about that journey here.

Some of you may not know that a couple months ago, we began inquiring about the possibility of adopting ANOTHER baby. Baby "Ann" is a precious little girl that was dropped off at an orphanage run by some of our friends in Thailand. As soon as we heard about her... we wanted her to be ours! We knew people might think we're crazy to pursue an additional adoption, while still adopting from Ethiopia, but we were ready to try to make this work.

About 3 weeks ago, we received an email telling us that our paperwork hadn't reached Korea in time and baby "Ann" was going to be adopted by another family... a great family (pastor, stay-at-home mom of two kids). We're so thankful that baby "Ann" will have a home, at the same time we were disappointed she wouldn't be ours. Can I tell you... I could not have predicted the rest of the events of that crazy day!! Within hours, we were surrounded by tornadoes... but that is definitely not the craziest part! Just hours after receiving the news about baby "Ann", we found out that we are pregnant!! God's timing can be pretty hilarious sometimes!!

Please continue to pray
--that God will give us faith to trust Him through every step of our journey
--for this pregnancy (we're only 2 months along and have already had some complications/bleeding and have had 2 ultrasounds)
--for us on our crazy journey of seeking the Lord and the next place of ministry to plant our lives
--for our adoption, for the child God will bring into our family
--for our two boys (3 and 4 1/2) during these transitional months

Thanks for ALL of your prayers, support and encouragement!!

Kelly's catering... cooking again!

Our Adoption Story

    About a year and a half ago I read David Platt’s book Radical. The Lord had been stirring in me so many of the things that David wrote about… getting away from our selfish Christian “spin on the American dream” and really seeking to be who God has called us to be… we are follows of Christ. The Lord continued to burden us to reach the nations and began breaking our heart to reach more people with God’s glory, love and mercy.

    

    God was also working on Josh and I separately and planted seeds of adoption in each of us. Josh attended a minister’s conference called Catalyst, where he heard Mac Powell’s testimony about his family’s adoption. About a two years ago we had an early miscarriage. The Lord really opened my heart to add another child to our family. I immediately wanted to get pregnant again, but Josh did not. I prayed for God to change Josh’s heart because I just knew we were supposed to have another child. He didn’t. Finally I began praying that God would change MY heart… He immediately did!! God placed adoption on my heart. Through this time Josh was preaching through Ephesians 1 on our adoption in Christ. That really hit home with us as we were praying about adoption for our family. We are overwhelmed by God’s love for us and His adoption of us in Christ. Our motivation to adopt is to demonstrate Christ to a child and the world. We started talking about adoption, prayed about it and stepped out in obedience.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

Is this path going to be easy?? NO

• Do we have to sacrifice material possessions of this world? Yes
• Do we have to raise $30,000---YES! The Lord has already provided more than half of that!!
• If we are polluted and corrupted by the desires and pleasures of this world, not only would we be unable to answer this call to demonstrate Christ to the world… but we would not have even heard the call. Matt. 6 Jesus says do NO worry about what you wear, what you eat, where you will live (for that is what the pagans run after). God tells us to “keep oneself from being polluted from the things of this world”, so we can hear and obey HIM!
• One of our family’s big concerns was that we will experience racism because we will be a transracial family. Do we avoid following God’s call just to avoid discomfort?
•  Would I reject the idea of being a missionary, or even a mission trip because it is uncomfortable?? NOOOO!!!

Christ experienced much discomfort for me on the cross and calls us to take up our cross daily and follow HIM---does that sounds comfortable to you? But it is a very blessed life to follow Christ!!!

We were ALL once lost, orphans in need of a Father who would redeem and adopt us. God has bought, redeemed and adopted us in Christ. We are now true sons because of Christ’s death and resurrection.

“Adoption is about the reconciliation of the rebellious. Our confusion comes when we look at human adoption and end up focusing on the fact that a child needs parents. God focuses on the fact that a lost person needs saving” (Dan Cruver, Reclaiming Adoption)

Don’t get me wrong, there are so many kids in need who are hurting and we can do something about that. Less than ¼ of all people in the country we are adopting from have clean water to drink. Things that we take for granted--taking a bath… those kids have never experienced! Some orphans have never even been outside, felt the wind or water. Many babies in orphanages no longer cry, they know that NO one will come if they cry, so they just stop trying to get attention or comfort.

However, “The ultimate purpose of human adoption by Christians, therefore is not to give orphans parents, as important as that is. It is to place them in a Christian home that they might be positioned to receive the gospel, so that within that family, the world might witness a representation of God taking in and genuinely loving the helpless, the hopeless, and the despised.” 

(Dan Cruver, Reclaiming Adoption)

Can you imagine if more Christians took this step, how would that look to the world… would people see what redemption & unconditional love really looks like?!

Please continue to pray for our adoption journey... our dossier is in Ethiopia, translated and in their system. We are now officially waiting. This wait could be over a year. We are also exploring another possibility... of adopting a precious baby girl from Korea. Please pray that our Sovereign Lord will work out ALL of the details and continue to provide and meet every need. We are so thankful for your prayers, encouragement and support!

Our Journey through James... stepping out in faith and trusting GOD!

    This year has been an amazing adventure of trusting and following God, even when we don't know what the next step on the path is going to bring. We are so thankful for our All Knowing, All Loving Father, who has blessed us with the privilege to proclaim His Name in a life of ministry! God is so faithful to give us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). We are thankful that God's word is living and active!! As we have journeyed through this year of stepping out as God has led, we are amazed at how clearly He has spoken through His word!!

    We are going through James with our church, small group, and college students... we didn't realize we would be studying James in every group at the same time! I participate in Bible Study Fellowship on Wednesday mornings, we are studying the book of Isaiah this year. We began sensing the Lord's leading toward adoption this Fall. While we were beginning the adoption process, God was affirming us through Isaiah 1: 16-17 and James 1:27.

"Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong and learn to do right! Seek justice, encouraged the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:16-17

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted from the world." 

James 1:27.

    We are blessed to be on this journey of adoption, and very thankful for God's continued affirmation through His word! Just an update, we began the adoption process in September and our paperwork (dossier) is now in Ethiopia. We are currently waiting on a referral for the precious son or daughter God has for our family!

    For the past 6 years, Josh and I have been blessed to serve in collegiate ministry at Williams Baptist College. We have seen the Lord work in amazing ways in the lives of students: students trusting Christ, students sacrificing and serving, answering the call to ministry/missions, stepping out in and following God's leading to mission fields all over the world.  Over the past year or two, Josh and I have been sensing the Lord leading us out (from our safe, wonderful ministry and community at Williams Baptist College) to a more unreached campus. This was one of the toughest decisions we have ever had to make... leaving dear friends, a job, home, a comfortable ministry, and the place where we have seen God grow our marriage and family in leaps and bounds! One of the books Josh read this year, Just Do Something, by Kevin DeYoung, also spurred us on this journey of stepping out and trusting God.

    Through God's leading, we stepped out in faith and began searching for the next place/campus God would have us serving Him, sharing the Gospel, and ministering in His name. We began the interview process with an incredible church in Alabama that has the desire to reach the college campus in their town*. One of the things God has been teaching us through our study of James is, " Let your 'Yes' be yes, and your 'No', no" (James 5:12). In March of this year, we knew that God was leading us out to a different location/ministry. Therefore, when it came time to sign contracts to commit to stay at Williams for another 16 months, we knew our answer had to be no. We didn't know the next path the Lord will take us on, but we know that we trust the Lord who knows ALL!!

Through this decision, we were studying James 4:13-17, and once again God so faithfully gave us the courage and faith to step out and follow His leading. This year I have been studying Isaiah with Bible Study Fellowship. In the week of this big decision, I was studying in Isaiah, where the Babylonians were trusting in fortune tellers, visions, and other spirits to know the future. Our learning principle was, "don't trust in the future, but in the God who holds the future". We are learning so much about truly trusting God for EVERYTHING! We are so thankful that we serve an ALL Loving and ALL Sovereign God!!

    One of my biggest prayers in the beginning of this journey, was that God would be glorified through every step of this journey. The human side of me would have loved to have everything all neatly planned out... having a job and house lined up before giving notice to our current job. However, had we trusted in our own plans and circumstances, we and others would have missed out on the blessing of trusting and seeking God alone, and the peace that comes from trusting and knowing God as our Provider. One of the unexpected blessings is the impact our decision has had on Josh's current students. Even though we are leaving this ministry, the students have been absolutely supportive and encouraging, saying how thankful they are to see Josh acting out the faith and principles he has been teaching them! I am very thankful for my husband, who is an amazing man of God, a wonderful teacher and preacher of the Word, and an incredible example to our sons (who at 4 years old already wants to be a campus minister and tell students about Jesus when he grows up:) I look forward to more adventures on this journey alongside my husband and family!

 * Unfortunately the opportunity with the church in Alabama did not work out. Please pray for us as we seek God's leading for a new home and ministry to plant our lives.