Guess who got a hair cut???

Guess who got her hair cut tonight?

We decided it was time to even up the back, though it was a little hard to cut those curls off :( The ends still curl, so we are happy :) SK asked after I was done, if she could do mine....

This was the face I got after asking her to make a "pretty" face. We need to work on our pretty face a little I think.

Snow Day #765

Maybe I exagerated, but it feels like it has been that many. We headed out this morning to swim lessons and it was bitter cold. It felt strange putting on swimsuits, then bundling up to head out. As we headed home from lessons it was beginning to snow and it is still coming down. We thought it was going to be maybe 2 inches, but instead we have been dumped a good 6 inches. I am so over the snow. Yeah, I guess it is pretty, but it is almost April! It is Spring. Not supposed to happen. At least the roads aren't bad, they seem to be pretty safe. Oh well. Here is a quick glimpse into how we decided to spend our afternoon:


I wish I could say with confidence that this is probably the last of the snow for the season, but unfortunately there is more snow forecasted...hopefully just a mix of snow/sleet/slush, but still. I am ready for real Spring weather to come back around. It was a nice night of warm tomato soup and sandwiches. I can try to be positive right?? And SK had a blast getting to play in it. But, man is it cold.

Crafty Chore Chart and Ted Drewe's

I am quite excited to finally put together a chore chart for SK. She has been doing chores for some time now, but I think it will help her to have the chart and see what all she has accomplished. We are thinking we will start her on an "allowance" or whatever you want to call it for her completing her chore chart each week. We are doing this for multiple reasons. We think this is a good time to start teaching her how to be a good steward of her money, learn counting, ect. For each button (completely chore) for the week, she will get a nickle. It will looks like lots to her, but in reality it will probably be between $1 and $2 a week. I think this will be fun for her and help her with counting. We are planning to show her how we are called to give back a portion of her $ to the Lord and how saving some is important too. We are wanting it to be her desire to do this, not our enforcing of it. We shall see how it goes, we are still figuring it out and deciding how best to teach her these things. So far she is very excited about it! We shall see how it goes! I had fun making the chart with material I had already and ribbon from my stash, and the buttons were from Grandma that I have had for some time now. Perfect use for them and even better that it didn't costs anything except for the magnet board which came from Hobby Lobby. The buttons have magnets on the back, so we will be able to clear the board each week to start the new week.

On another note, we checked out Ted Drewe's for the first time earlier this week while it was still warm outside, not so much the case now since we have snow on the ground today :(

Sk loved Ted Drewe's so much that she was stealing Daddy's after finishing the one she shared with Mommy :)

More reflection

Just wanted to share a few more thoughts ....this time on the idea of dealing with the hurts and pains of life. I will first share a quote from a book I read earlier this semester called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, by Peter Scazzero. Scazzero actually credits the second half of this quote to another author named Gerald Sittser.

"Turning toward our pain is counterintuitive. But in fact, the heart of Christianity is that the way to life is through death, the pathway to resurrection is through crucifixion...

...the quickest way to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west chasing after it, but to head east into the darkness until you finally reach the sunrise."

In another book I read by Dan Allender called The Healing Path, Dr. Allender uses the story of Hosea's wife Gomer who was a whore to depict the "the healing path" that we must take. God takes us into the desert in our suffering and hardship to strip us of our "other lovers" who will not follow us there. These "other lovers" are the idols of our hearts and God shows us that they will not rescue us from the desert. But God will. He resorts us there and returns His adulterous bride back to Himself.

When we are honest to ourselves and to God about our hurts and pains, it is there that God often reveals Himself to us. God invites us to wrestle with Him. He can handle it. There are countless examples of this in scripture. Job and the Psalmists are great examples. Take a look at Psalm 13:

In the first stanza David is expressing his sorrow and questioning God about it:

1 How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Where then should we go after we have begun to wrestle with sorrow? It is usually one of two places. One might be to abandon faith and hope and a turn away from God. The other might be what the spirit of God leads David to do in the next stanza:

3 Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

David cries out to God in desperation. When we find ourselves is the desert, will we look to the only one who will follow after us there, or will we turn from Him and wonder of into the horizon of hopeless despair? When we turn to the Lord He reminds us of who He is and what He has done as David recounts in the last stanza. He closes in praise to his Savior.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the LORD’s praise,
for he has been good to me.

I hope this is encouraging...It has been for me.

Spring break - time for reflection

Hello all! Its Michael...it's been a while since you have seen me on here. I have been out swimming in the sea of seminary just trying to keep my head above the water line. It has been great so far, I only wish that I had more time to soak in some of the stuff I am reading and learning. Now that I am on spring break, I am playing catch-up, but I am also taking it easy and attempting to reflect on what the Lord has shown me thus far. I thought I would make a post to record some of that...so here is a humble attempt to share.

Approaching culture and the unbelieving world....My thoughts below on a book I read called Learning Evangelism From Jesus, written by one of my professors, Jerram Barrs.

I must say, there is a great deal that I can take from this book to apply to my own life, but I will attempt to be concise and to discuss the things that most impacted my thoughts on evangelism. There is something so simple and yet so very extraordinary about the idea of learning evangelism from Jesus. In my mind, I affirm the fact the Jesus is the greatest evangelist, but it is not until I read this book, and contemplated the nature in which Jesus seeks the unbeliever, that I gained a greater understanding of what evangelism truly is.
As I fight with the little pharisee that is in me, I have received weapons for that battle in this book. One theme that runs through this book is that every human being has been created by God to bear His image. This is something that I have always known, but have often failed to truly see. In my own sin, I often times look at another person and only see the ugliness of their sin rather than their beauty as an image bearer. How then, can I see God's image in others? How is that supposed to flesh out in my life? I get an answer to my question when I look at how Jesus interacts with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus looks beyond the social barriers of His day to reach out to a woman who is a social outcast in every way. Jesus dignifies her by asking her for some water. He shows her (and the rest of us for that matter) that she has something to offer. She bears God's image in something as simple as being able to provide a drink of water to someone who is thirsty. By looking for the good things that a non-believer has to offer (the common grace of God) I am able to truly see God's image in that particular person. In so doing, I am then able to build a bridge on this foundation. The Syrophoenician woman's love for her daughter, and the centrurion's care for his servant and reputation among the people were bridges that Jesus used to bring the gospel to them. Each of them were bearing God's image in a particular way.
When do I give the law to someone and when do I give the gospel to another? This is another question that is addressed in this book. I have always thought of evangelism as sharing the good news of the gospel with the unbelievers of the world. After looking at how Jesus gives the law to some and the gospel to others I am beginning to see that it is necessary to understand the needs of the person. The religious upright people who are attempting to obtain their own righteousness are the ones who need to understand their own depravity and need for a savior before they will be receptive to the good news of the gospel. Those are the individuals who will need to hear more law in hopes that they will understand that they cannot fulfill the law. On the other hand, there are many who are completely aware of their brokenness and sin. These individuals will only be further condemned by the law, and are in desperate need of hearing the gospel of grace. When Jesus extended forgiveness to the sinful women who washed His feet with her tears, He was meeting her deepest need. On this very same occasion, when Jesus challenges the righteous man by asking him why he did not greet Jesus with a kiss or wash his feet, Jesus was meeting his deepest need as well.
When it comes to evangelism, I am often troubled by knowing what to say or when to say it. The great encouragement that I have received from this book is that Jesus is truly the greatest evangelist and the only one who is able to convert the hearts of men. The great hope that I have is that it is, therefore not up to me to change the hearts' of the unbelievers. I am to simply humble myself in obedience to God as a co-laborer with Jesus.

Weekend activities

Just thought I would do a quick post about our fun weekend we have had. Yesterday morning we headed to our 2nd swim lesson. After trying to get a nap in unsuccessfully, Daddy got home from work and we got ready to head out for dinner. SK fell asleep on the way to dinner, so we ended up eating dinner with SK asleep laying across the booth in Mommy's lap :) The weather has been warming up a bit, so today (Sunday) we got home from church and decided to head out for a walk. We first ventured over to the same park SK and I went to last week, then headed a bit further to another nearby park that also has some nifty places to eat and more importantly a fun candy shop. Sk and I got to pick out some candy that Daddy treated his girls to, then we walked back home, making a pit stop by the store for icecream and fruit :) Good combination right? We decided to eat our icecream on our front balcony then headed to our front yard to rake some leaves and tidy up the yard a little bit. Now that we are all dirty from playing outside so much today, we are in and about to heat up leftovers and rest for the evening around here. Hope everyone else had a lovely weekend!

A change of heart...

I know I have shared on here of our hearts being drawn to adoption. I wanted to share how the Lord has changed my heart with all of this. Don't misread that. I have not changed my heart in wanting it, but my heart has changed in how I look at it. When adoption first came up between Michael and I, I was excited. I felt like the Lord was beginning a great work and we truly came to feel like the Lord was going to bless us with more children and create such a beautiful family. Honestly though, in the beginning, I was excited to look more into adoption, but wanted see badly to get pregnant. I wanted adoption to be put on the backburner due to pregnancy. For months I thought this way. I would say in my head, "if we are pregnant this month, then we will wait to do the adoption thing till after this baby is a little older..." I wanted adoption to be a part of our future, but not to replace getting pregnant and having another biological child. I don't think, at least at this stage, I would have been happy and content to not have any more biological children and just have more via adoption. I'm being honest right? Well, my heart I feel has changed. Thanks be to the Lord, not me for that. Do I still want to get pregnant? YES, of course I do. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. But, I feel like my heart has changed in that if the Lord's plans for our lives is to bless us with more children via adoption and no more biological, then that is ok. I couldn't have said that a couple of months ago. It really is ok. I can now excitedly (is that a word?) say that if we were to have SK have brothers and/or sisters from across the world playing together and growing up together, I think that would be a beautiful thing. I still would love to get pregnant, but am content with however the Lord decides to grow our family. This whole getting pregnant thing is hard still though. I try not to think about it and let the Lord be in charge (not like there is any other way, right?), but man that is hard. It's hard not to wish each month that this will be the month it will happen. And, of course, I hear people get pregnant when they decide to "stop trying" and relax, but how do you do that? ugh.
Does that counter what I said earlier? Maybe. I go back and forth in my head I think. I am just ready to see how the Lord will work. I am not a very patient person I guess. It makes sense in my head though. I will be happy if the Lord blesses us with more children either way. Truly I am. And that is how my heart has changed. That wasn't the case a couple of months ago.
I heard someone say yesterday, "we want lots of kids..." And the Lord might bless them in that way. But, I remember having conversations with Michael years ago before having SK that I wanted 4 or maybe even more. I loved the idea of having lots of children running around and having them close together too. I'm not in charge though. I wanted to say, "good luck with that" or "We did too.." or "too bad you can't make that decision.." but I think I might have scared her a bit. Not necessarily something to say the first time you are meeting someone. At least I am honest on here right? I guess the worst that will happen on here is you may stop reading or think to yourself that girl has lost her mind or is crazy. Think that. It's true.
Well, SK is still singing away in her room, not napping. You would think after a rough night due to stuffy noses and swim lesson today, she would be ready to get a good nap in. Oh well. Maybe it will be a movie kind of afternoon till daddy gets home and takes us out for a date night with his girls :)