Tough issues... surrender ALL

One of the issues that I've seen come up among friends and many believers is... family planning/birth control/pro-life/pro-choice issues. I begin this by saying that I am unashamedly a child of God, follower of Christ and completely pro-life (because God is pro-life).

I have seen so many people wrecked with grief over their own infertility... yet years before had told God they didn't want children (through actions of taking pills that would cause "temporary infertility"). I believe it is very dangerous to say to God (verbally or with action) "I don't want children, I don't want children, I don't want children"... and then flip the switch one day and say, "OK God, I want children NOW". Who are we to take away God's role as Creator?? Who are we to decide WHEN God will bless us with children?? Are those actions really displaying God as Lord and Master over every area of our lives? These are tough and personal questions... questions I'm thankful that women of God challenged me with years ago.

I am so thankful for people in my life who opened my eyes to the realities of what birth control is and does to our body (Thanks Hollie Farr!). Today's birth control does not always prevent the fertilization of an egg. Rather, it can and does prevent a fertilized egg (baby) from implanting in the uterus. When I was newly married, I had no idea that a birth control pill I was taking could cause me to unknowingly abort my baby. This "low dose" type of birth control is called an abortifacient. Since I'm completely against abortion, I immediately stopped taking birth control pills and began charting my cycles (becoming aware of my body and cycles). I'm also thankful to Carla Sibley (the wife of our pastor in Watkinsville, Georgia) for challenging me even further in trusting the Lord with our "family planning" and giving that role back to God, our Creator and Lord. I hope that I can be a light to others, as these women were to me.

When we confess Christ as Savior and LORD, we surrender our lives and decisions over to Him and follow Him and His authority, which He has made clear through Scripture. I can not give only parts of my life to Him and pretend to still acknowledge Him as Lord and Master. I have to surrender ALL of me. Through that surrender, I am absolutely blessed to find myself in the loving and wise hands of our Sovereign God. Trust Him in and with all things, you will be blessed beyond belief!!

Another issue, is abortion. It's a shame that even many who call themselves Christians would justify the murder of an unborn child due to circumstances such as rape. When do two wrongs ever make a right??? How would killing a child in the womb ever right the wrong of the crime, or bring healing to the victim of the rape? While so many people are against taking away that women's choice and making that decision for her, someone needs to be the advocate and make the choice for that child's life.

"If God wants us to care about the orphan who is endangered because his parents are dead... then how much more should we care about the child who is endangered because his parents want him dead?" --David Platt, regarding Abortion

FYI about my family: My husband and I have been married for 8 years, are thankful to be blessed with two boys, are pregnant with boy #3 and are also in the process of adopting a sweet child.

UPDATE (6/2/15)
FYI about my family: My husband and I have been married for almost 12 years, and are thankful to be blessed with 4 boys (3 biological and 1 adopted).  

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!