Decisions Decisions

This message couldn't be more timely for us.  We all have decisions to make in life and I have to say I am guilty in thinking it was God's trail of "bread crubs" that lead me to making the right decisions. 

I have to admit what he is talking about in the sermon is huge in the Church and I am guilty of it big time!!  Eye opening and life changing on how to make godly decisions.

Olivia Ann (Anastasia)

Olivia: Kind one

Anastasia (ah-nah-stah-SEE-yah)
spiritual meaning: Resurrection - The state of one who has returned to life.

To be honest with you, I did not know the meaning of her name when I gave her the name Olivia. Her name in Russia was Anastasia so we decided to keep that as her middle name. As far as her first name...I was praying over names before my girls came home...before I even knew I was going to be a mother to two girls. I had heard the name Olivia and my heart was drawn to that name.


I LOVE that her name means kind one. When she came home from Russia she was anything but kind (not that a 14 month old could be kind but believe me, she was anything but kind due to orphanage living).

For the past few years I have made it a tradition to crawl into bed with the birthday girl the night before her birthday and tell her of her special story...about how God brought her home. As I laid in bed with Olivia reminiscing over her beautiful story we were laughing about the funny things she did as a baby. One of those funny, but not so funny things she did was hoard things. Her sister could not crawl yet so she would take all of the toys and put them just far enough to where her sister could not reach. Then as her sister grew she would take her sisters toys and her toys and hide them. As she got older we use to find things under her bed, under her pillow and things hidden in her closet. Through the years I have seen her heart majorly soften towards people. She is the one who will quickly serve her sisters first when helping mommy with lunch or dinner. She has recently told me that her friends and family are worth more than her things. She told her sister the other day..."you can have my toy, because I love you more than I love my toy."
 Tonight after doing our Advent tears ran down her face over her sin. It was such a sweet brokenness. She told me she hated her sin so much and she wanted the Lord to come now. She said she wanted to see Jesus and thank Him for dying for her sin. It was such a sweet sincere cry which of course made this mom bawl like a baby. It gave me a glimpse of how the Lord may feel when we come to him in our times of brokenness. It made me want to hold her and make her feel loved and forgiven and cherished. It was a good hug tonight.

I also love that I get to encourage my daughter with the fact that her name means kind one.

I love too that fact that her middle name means Resurrection. There is no life for a child in an Orphanage. The fact that she is adopted...chosen, out of all of those babies, by God, for our family! God returned her back to life.

                                          HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET O

Another Amazing Opportunity for the Duggars

My heart hurts for the Duggar family and I pray for healing, the only kind of healing God can bring. If I know the Duggar family, they WILL use this pain to encourage others. Glory will go to God, they will turn their hearts to the Lord, their children are going to learn first hand how Christians deal with pain through the example of their parents, their marriage will strengthen, and they will go on trusting the Lord with the size of their family. The most amazing thing...America will see a true and steadfast faith and how much peace we can truly experience in our most difficult times.  He is a faithful God and I have no doubt He is going to bring so much good out of all of this.  This opportunity IS His goodness.

What's My Reason?

He legitimately had every reason in the world to keep the change for himself. 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DXL9vIUbWg   (just incase the video dosen't show up)