Answered Prayers

Howdy dear friends!  Did you miss me?

Yesterday, we (well the Hubs) received a huge answer to prayer.  Hubs has a job!!!!!!!!!!  To say that we are thankful, blessed and excited would an understatement.  It has been a very long 6 months on our round three of unemployment.

God has been so faithful.  He has provided miraculously. He has held us together through his promises and his word.  He has done amazing work in us through this long wait. 

We continue to pray that God would work through this job opportunity.  While, it's not the perfect job, we know that this is part of God's plan.  That he is still at work.

I have so much more to share about the job and the many amazing provisions we've received, but I'll save that for another time.

From the bottom of my heart, I'm so very grateful for my dear prayer warriors!  I love you all!

xo

Lori

Wondering where I am?

I just realized that it's been a month since I last posted. I thought maybe my friends may wonder why.

The main reason is that I have exceeded my blog storage and have to pay for more. Now this fee is quite small, but since it's not a "need," I am not purchasing more storage.

I assure you that I've written a handful of posts. obviously haven't posted them because blog posts are more interesting with pictures!

So unfortunately the blog will be on hold except for a few posts here and there.

Life has been very busy and complicated. I've spent the first 9 days of the new year sick. We had to borrow $800 to repair our van. I've had to face some difficult family issues. The Hubs is still without work and I'm so very tired!

Through it all, the Lord has blessed us beyond what we could imagine.

As we usher in 2013, I'm working on surrendering all to the Lord.

And, I'm choosing to find joy in it all!

xo

Lori

Keeping it Simple

Since getting over my pity party that I discussed here, I'm happy to report that my attitude has changed!

I'm so thankful for God's unfailing grace. His patience with me. How he can show me what I really need to be doing.

I've been praying that God would help me focus on the birth of Christ and find ways to make the season more memorable than what's under the tree. Or what's not under the tree.  I'm a slow learner so it has taken me time.

In fact, I'm thinking that next year our Christmas may look the same.  Whether the Hubs has a job or not.  I've been wrestling with the sad commercialization of Christmas.  The amount of money wasted on "stuff."  I have a few friends that have radically changed the way they do Christmas and I am eager to do the same. I read this article posted by a dear friend on facebook that rocked my world!

I want us to give more.  To serve more. And to buy less.

 So, here's a list of ways we're keeping it simple...ways we're focusing on Christ, the real reason we celebrate.  Some of these things we've done all ready, some are still to come:

* Obviously, with no income, we're keeping gifts to a minimum.  We have always kept gifts to 4 total.  A need, want, and spiritual gift.  And there's the Santa gift (#4).  I know, I know....we started it and so we'll continue until the youngest, well you know.  We have been blessed by some amazing friends who have helped us purchase a few gifts of mostly needs for the girls.

* Serving those in need.  We all ready sponsor a Compassion child.  We will write letters to her this month.  We will also participate in our church Giving Tree and I plan to find ways to serve at MUST ministries.

* Using Scripture Adventures curriculum called, Christmas Adventures.  Each day we read a verse and find out where some of our Christmas traditions originated and how they point us to Jesus.

* Making a Jesse Tree from the website A Holy Experience.

* Attending Back to Bethlehem event.  An event that recreates the city of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth.

* Attending Johnson Ferry Baptist's Christmas Packages.  Though the girls are nearing the age of being too old for this one, it has fun activities and crafts for the family.

* We have a few parties to attend with friends and at the girls' school.

* We'll be watching movies, making cookies and crafts.

What I'm not doing is fussing over my decorations, or trying to make too many goodies.  I'm not worrying about who I can't buy a gift for. I'm not filling every day with an activity or a place to go. 

With the Hubs home, I've been trying my best to enjoy time with him.  To relax and just let each day contain what it may.  Some days I'm great at it, and some days I fail.  Thankfully, each day is new and I get a do-over!

It has been such a blessing to all be home together. Though I wish the circumstances were different, I wouldn't give up this extra family time for the world!

Trying to be Thankful

The last couple weeks have been quite busy.

I have to admit though, that I had a really hard time being thankful this thanksgiving. I had about 2 days where the tears just kept falling. I would be fine one minute and then crying the next.

I didn't want to travel to see my family. I didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to celebrate Thanksgiving or even think about Christmas.

I was overwhelmed with the fear of the unknown. Fear of wondering how much longer we could continue on unemployment. I began to wonder if God's plan is for us to lose our home. Whether I should put the girls back in school and find a job.

I didn't want to decorate for Christmas because I knew that we wouldn't be buying much.

I guess you could say that I was having another pity party. Never did I imagine that we'd be on week nine of unemployment, round three.

Then God gave me a reason to be thankful.  Well, several actually.

We were asked to pray for an 11 year old girl that was just diagnosed with bone cancer. A girl Chloe has met. Then a local pastor was tragically killed leaving behind a wife and 3 small kids the day before Thanksgiving.

I was reminded...again...that my girls are healthy today. My husband is here by my side loving me more today than ever before.  We have an army praying for us.

We have an amazing life. Our problems are so meaningless in comparison.

As I go into this Christmas season, I'm trying to focus on these things. Instead of the petty things I can't buy, I'm trying to focus on what it's all about. Jesus.

When everything is taken away, that's all that matters.

I know that I will still have moments of sadness. Moments where I'm fearful of what God's plan is.

But I can be sure that my God is one of grace and mercy. And he will graciously remind me again of what truly matters.

Girly Gifts

For the girls at Elevation, I decided to make a few take always.

I wanted first to eliminate the possibility of having 50 cups lying around the house. I decided to make the girls all water bottles. This was probably the best single idea I had!!! I found these at walmart for under $1 and then used my silhouette to personalize them.

I also wanted them to be covered with scripture. I found a cute back to school idea and adapted it to fit our event.

 Each bag had Hershey kisses, hair bands, mints, a pen, journal with their monogram, and gum. Each item represented a reason to celebrate the goodness of our Lord and had a Bible verse to correlate.  My goal was for them to be reminded that they need to fill their minds with the goodness of God's word!

Our Church Home

When we moved to the Atlanta area 6 years ago, we left behind the only hometown I'd known.  I spent nearly 30 years in the same 10 mile radius.  My parents and grandparents live in the only homes I can remember.

We also left behind the only church home I knew.  The church I gave my life to Christ in.  The church I was baptised in.  The church married my best friend in. And the church I dedicated my babies in.  This church home was where I learned to become a Godly wife, mother and friend.  It's where I found the most amazing friends that showed me what it was like to have a family focused on the Lord and his word.

These dear friends, though older (hee hee sorry girls), were much wiser and meant more to me than I could ever express.  We shared our early married years together, stories and aches of pregnancy, and navigated life as new mothers with babies and toddlers.  I truly don't think I would have survived those first years without their constant support, encouragement, and girls night outs!

So when we moved to Georgia, I agonized over finding a church home.  I thought we would never find a place where we'd feel at home.  Where we'd get connected.  Where we'd find amazing Godly friends.

We visited lots of churches.  The Hubs visited several while the girls and I still lived in Orlando.  One morning he called and said he had visited one, but didn't even get out of the car.  He just knew it wasn't for us.  I mean seriously, after attending a mega church, where do you go?

We even visited one church for 6 weeks and decided it wasn't for us.

So while at Chloe's first fall festival at her new school a sweet woman handed us a balloon and announced she was from Cedarcrest Church.  I quickly said, well, tell me about your church.  I'll never forget the first words from her mouth: "well, we meet here, in the school gym, and that's our pastor over there."

I thought seriously?  The elementary school gym?  No way!

Setting up and tearing down?  Are you kidding?  Let me assure you that other than the free coffee and donuts, this church had very few of the luxuries we were accustomed to.  (yes, I realize how bratty that just sounded).

Welp, God started moving me to visit that church that met in our school gym.  When I told the Hubs I'm pretty sure he laughed.  Nonetheless, we visited and after the initial shock of sitting in a small gym with maybe 100 people (2x the size of our previous sunday school class),we began to enjoy that small church.

At some point we knew that it was where God wanted us.  We had been searching for a large Baptist church and obviously that's not what God wanted for us.  And I'm so glad we followed his lead.

We joined that small church at a time in which they had just raised money to purchase property.  The chance of being a part of what God was doing was exciting.

Over the past 5 years (plus), God has grown the Hubs and I more than I could ever had imagined  He has used this small church to move us into places of ministry we never dreamed of being.  He has blessed us with incredible friends that have carried us through immense trial and heartache.  He  has given us friends in unexpected places that have become more like family.  He has taken us out of our comfort zone.  He has worked in the hearts of my girls.  He has taken the Hubs into the mission field.

Yes, he could do all this at any church he so chooses.  I'm just so thankful it happened to be one in our own backyard.

I'm thankful he moved us to attend the church in the tin can gym (as I so lovingly called it).   I'm thankful for the imperfections and how I've learned what truly matters most in ministry from them. 

I can't wait to see what God does as he prepares His church and His people for our new building.  I can't wait to see how he grows us and molds us for his glory. 

ELEVATION and the Hubs

A couple weeks
ago, I posted about our ELEVATION weekend, but failed to mention the hubs.

He spent the week building pieces for the set design and the wheel of destiny (a wheel the youth would spin to choose their afternoon activity).

The hubs helped set up the event at the local church we teamed up with and served by working his "light man" magic at the rallies.

What did he think of a house full of girls??? Welp, he was so busy he barely noticed! I must add that he did a tremendous amount of work helping me prepare for my girls.

It truly was a family affair. And in case you wondered where sweet Ry was, she was with Aunt B and Uncle S being pampered!