Jim Daly Video from Focus on the Family on Vimeo.



Jim Daly Video from Focus on the Family on Vimeo.

Check this out...http://www.icareaboutorphans.org/WaitingKidsinYourState.aspx

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"Cherish the gift of all those perfectly ordinary days."

I heard that saying a while ago and I loved it.  These precious days do go by fast and the proof is in the pictures!  It amazes me to see how much my babies have grown. 

Today was a chore day and I loooove chore days!  My girls have come so far.  Where once I was doing all the cleaning, now my almost six year old is mopping and my 5 year old is begging to mop.  I love their eagerness in wanting to help mommy.  My almost six year old honestly thinks she is ready to marry her prince now that she can mop.  Seriously!!  Can you believe that!?!?  

While doing chores you will always find us rocking out to our praise and worship music and it never fails a great conversation is always around the corner which starts with a sweet question or comment.  I think it just depends on what the girls are hearing around them that causes their little brain to think which then leads to a comment or question.   Today's topic was adoption.  I love that my children call my uterus my womb.  My middle child was dusting picture frames and while doing so she was admiring the pictures in them which led to... "mom, maybe God will open your womb again or maybe not?  Maybe it will be closed and we can adopt another baby who needs to come home.  Maybe he or she will be born in a hospital close to us or maybe a hospital that is far from us."  I love love love that they are thinking about this, talking about it, and praying about it.  I am so blessed by their sweet innocent questions and comments. 


I treasure these conversations, I live for these conversations, I couldn't imagine missing out on these conversations, I would be so sad if these conversations were with someone else. 


This to me is true education!

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I wrote that post yesterday, so last night when I was updating hubby on our daughters sweet comment we were both wondering if her comment would have been the same if all our daughter heard when people asked us if we were done with children "oh gosh yes!  We are so done!  No more kids for us!!"  

Yesterday we were at the gym and I ran into my old spin instructor as I was walking out with my children.  She said "oh I didn't realize you had 3!  I bet you are so done!"  I could tell you she was not expecting to hear what I had to say after that.  It was so great because we ended up talking for 15 minutes longer.  She asked questions and I got to share a bit of our story.  My instructor asked where I found my faith?  She said she was wowed by my faith and asked if it was something I found within myself (HA! if only she knew how depraved I was!) or if it came from something else?  So amazing that I got to share all of this in front of my children.  They got to hear me share a bit of the gospel along with the fact that my children are such a blessing and that we would be honored to have more if God saw fit.


We may all believe that children are a blessing but, what are we as Christians communicating to the world...More importantly, what are we communicating to our children?   "Oh gosh no, we are soooo done; I think I would go crazy if I had more; The children I have is already too much;  I am already going crazy, why would I want to add to that." And on and on. 

A Message Everyone Should Listen To!!! Soooo Good!

If you know someone whose adopted, if you know someone who has adopted, if you have ever considered adoption..Listen, Listen, Listen.

5 Years ago today, I got a phone call...

"You need to sit down" is what she said.  "Oookay" totally perplexed??  And then she said  "Are you sitting down?"  With a giggle I replied "Yes, I am sitting down" wondering why the heck she would want me to sit down, I mean, if she was going to tell me that the birth mom chose us I would be really excited and do a little dance but to sit down was dramatizing it a bit.  She continued on with, "well, the birth mom chose you"  of course I said, "Great!"  and then...there it was, the reason she had me sit down..."and the birth mom is having contractions...you are going to be a mom anytime now."  Jaw on the floor, eyes staring into space, completely confused?????  She continued on to tell me that the adoptive parents they planned on going with fell through, the reasons why the birth mom chose us, and all the details about the birth mom which took a few minutes.  Of course my eyes were still big as saucers, my mouth was still catching flies and I must have looked like a deer in head lights....THEN she said it... the question and response I will never forget to this day, the question that caused me to blink, close my mouth and come back to reality... "do you want to know what you are having?"  Well of course after going through a 7 year journey of infertility filled with many many MANY tears, and pleading with the Lord for children,  I really didn't care if she said I was going to have a frog!!  She said..."Jeni, you are going to have a baby girl"  Phone drop to the floor, knees drop to the floor...uncontrollable tears of joy and praise flooding my face. I will never forget that day, the day a simple phone call changed our lives forever!


Hebrews 11:1

My Heart skipped a beat today and I am so encouraged!

I have never seen compassion in my Daughter like I did today. PRAISE JESUS!!! We have two adopted daughters if you did not already know that. One of our daughters came home from Russia at the age of 15 months. At the time we had no clue what was ahead of us and I won't get into that now but I will say it has been a challenging road. We praise God for the challenge and welcome the wisdom and growth it brings to my husband and my life. It has caused us to go deeper with the Lord and really take a look at our own lives.

Through the wisdom of some friends who had gone before us in adoption, it was brought to our attention that our daughter may be dealing with some attachment issues. After the many many hours of reading and talking with wise counsel in regards to attachment issues it all seem to fit. Even though we knew we had a journey ahead of us, somehow we felt relief with the fact that we were not CrAzY (although some would debate that) and we now could make some sense of it all. Honestly for a while I really felt like I would be better jumping off a cliff cause this adoption was NOT what I expected. Feed the child, clothe the child, love the child and we were all good, Right? WRONG!!!!

Anyway without going into the whole story (I will later when I have the time) I just have to share a HUGE blessing that happen today, one that I have never seen in my daughter.

When learning about attachment I came to realize that our daughter had gone into survival mode. She was making sure that she took care of her needs and was not relying on mommy or daddy to meet her needs. It is hard for her to trust us with her discipline, and for her to be able to see beyond the end of her nose is such a struggle because she is so consumed with making sure #1 is taking care of. Sharing with others is an issue too (which I know it is with most kids, but the root issue in why she is not sharing is different). It is very hard for her to be mindful of others around her, and not knowing how to deal when others get hurt is also an issue among others that we are working through.

Wellllll today she made a bad choice in not trusting mommy to take care of her baby sister. She decided it was her responsibility to handle the situation. In doing so she hurt her baby sissy. After having a talk with her and helping her realize what she had done I thought it was settled but two seconds later after we had parted she began to sob. I asked her what was wrong and she said she was really scared because she thought she had really hurt her baby sister. She was truly broken at the thought she may have hurt her. I have not seen this type of genuine softness in her.


P R A I S E J E S U S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God you are so good. You have encouraged my heart and you knew I needed that today! I just can't even begin to tell you what that has done for my heart today!

I am so proud of you Girl and blessed to be called Mom!!!