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"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel" Isiah 7:14 Merry Christmas, friends! Tis the season to rejoice in the Savior's birth. I don't know when you started preparing for Christmas, but I'm a staunch advocate of doing nothing involving Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. And, no, I don't mean after the lunch dishes are cleared away, it's game on for Christmas shopping or for decorating the tree. I mean nothing until the day after Thanksgiving at the earliest. I'm having a hard time with everyone trying to make the Christmas season begin sooner, and just yesterday I got my first email for after-Christmas sales. This year, I tried hard to create (okay more like force) memories to cherish. Decorating the tree, decorating cookies, Christmas concerts, Christmas lights. One by one, I dreamt of Rockwell moments that would be forever etched in the hearts of...

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night." Psalm 92:1-2 ESV For the past month my Facebook feed has been full of friends and family participating in thirty days of thankfulness. While I have some friends that have rolled their eyes at the daily posts of this and that, I thought it was rather nice that the majority of status updates weren't about how annoying traffic is or how wretched Mondays are, but instead were saturated in thankfulness for the many blessings in life. Some of you were thankful for family, friends, health, employment, and yes, some of you were thankful that is was Friday and the promise that work was out of sight/out of mind for two days. I myself chose not to participate. Not out of spite or some noble stand against peer pressure to do what everyone else was doing, it just wasn't something I felt like taking part in. But, as ...

Let's take a minute and update the status of things in my household with regards to the adoption. I'm in education overload, people. Seriously, I think I might deserve some sort of associates degree in adoption/foster care/orphan care. I'm not asking for a doctorate or anything, but maybe something with a #1 or a smiley face sticker in the corner (ooohhh...scratch and sniff stickers, I love those) that I can post on my fridge or on my sweater for all the world to see. Since the beginning of this journey, I've: Read  Adopted for Life  by Russell Moore - a good place to start for those of you considering the call to adopt Read  Orphan Justice  by Johnny Carr - an excellent book if you'd like to get the big picture of orphan care and if adoption might not be in the cards for you and your family Read  The Connected Child  by Karen Purvis - the must have book for those who will ever have anything to do with children from hard places, Karen does a wonde...

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27 ESV While in Haiti, our team visited three different orphanages. I, myself, went to two, and they were two very different experiences. I probably won't share both stories in this one post. Anyhow, if you can recall, before I left for this trip, I wrote that one of my reasons for going to Haiti was that I didn't just want to write and share my heart for orphans when I'd never been face to face with one. I wanted to be hands-on. I wanted to be a woman of my words, not just a writer of my words. So, before we departed, Jerry (a wonderful godly man who helped arrange our trip) asked us what did we want to do while we were in Haiti. And several of us girls, with smiles on our faces while bouncing a little in our seats replied, "We want to go to the orphanages!" Yes, we want ...

" 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,  because the Lord has anointed me  to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,  to proclaim freedom for the captives  and release from darkness for the prisoners,  2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor  and the day of vengeance of our God,  to comfort all who mourn, 3  and provide for those who grieve in Zion -  to bestow on them a crown of beauty  instead of ashes,  the oil of joy  instead of mourning,  and a garment of praise  instead of a spirit of despair.  They will be called oaks of righteousness,  a planting of the Lord   for the display of his splendor."  Isaiah 61:1-3 NIV One week ago today, I stood in the place where this picture was taken by my own camera. Haiti. A place that seemed far away from the bluegrass hills of Kentucky. A country that many said they would never go to. Unfam...

I've yet to mention the price tag that comes along with this adoption, and I'm not about to start giving spouting a list of facts and figures to you right now. Surprising, I know, as I love that kind of thing. Suffice it to say, adoption is more expensive then a brand new car and less than your average mortgage. For many, that many-digit figure will be the stopping point. It can be overwhelming to look at the bottom line. Hopeful musings turn into impossible dreams, and adoption becomes that thing that other people do. The people that can pay that much money. As for me and my house, we aren't those people on paper. I don't have thousands sitting in an account that I just couldn't figure out how to spend, nor do we live at the top of the tax bracket. In fact, most of the adopting families I spend time with fall into the same category. But, we do recognize that God has blessed us with more than enough, and so we choose to sacrifice, to budget, to save and to work ...

Friend, let's have a little personal confession moment. I am an emotional eater. Just about any day that falls on the calendar is a good day for food. And, if you'd like any recipe, restaurant, grocery store item recommendations, I'm pretty much your girl. So, as mother of three (including one teenager), as well as trying to be mother to four (insert long wait for fourth child via mountains of paperwork, interviews, and international adoption process), this point of my life has a variety of emotions. They aren't even what I would classify as "negative" emotions. Mixed in with the stressful, "pretty sure all my hair is going fall out before this is said and done" moments, and more often than the "what am I thinking, I'm not even doing a good job parenting the ones I have" moments, are plenty of "life is wonderful" and "God is just blessing my socks off" moments. Cue emotional eating. Graciously, God has been...