Kings and Queens

The past few months as I have been thinking about us doing foster care

or adopting a special needs child this verse kept coming back to me.

 

Then the righteous will answer him,

"Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,

or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in,

or needing clothes and clothe you?

When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"

The King will reply,

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did

for one of the least of these brothers of mine,

you did for me."

Matthew 25:37-40

 

I just heard this song for the first time today, and I had to share it with you.

It's Kings and Queens, by Audio Adrenaline.

 

 

I am praying that God would give our next child a crown of beauty instead of ashes!

 

 

Bet you didn't know...

SJ and his Jack-o-Lantern, he carved it himself!

 

***The first Jack-o-Lanterns were made from turnips.

 

***The largest pumpkin ever measured weighed 1,810.5 lb.

 

***Halloween was not widely celebrated in the United States until the early 1900s.

 

***The practice of trick or treating is American, but probably has it's roots in All Soul's Day in England, in which poor people would receive "soul cakes" from the rich in exchange for praying for their dead relatives.

 

***Illinois grows more pumpkins than any other state.

 

***Pumpkins are native to the Western Hemisphere and colonists learned about them from the Indians.

 

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself,

than be crowded on a velvet cushion." ~Henry David Thoreau

 



Psalms on Sunday

I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;

apart from you I have no good thing."

I have set the LORD always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

You have made known to me the path of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalm 16:2,8,11

 

Just enjoying God and his gift of a beautiful fall day today

and a wonderful family to share it with!

1,000 gifts!

 

Over a year ago I read the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, and as a result

I decided to make my own list of things I was thankful for, adding a few each day. This

has been such a blessing in my life!  God is always good and gives us good gifts, even

through the hard times- like failed health, difficult relationships, and droughts.

 

Well, today I finally made it to gift number 1,000!  I would like to encourage you to

make your own list too, it helps keep things in perspective, especially if you tend

to be a "glass half empty" kind of person, like me. (:

 

You turned my wailing into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.

O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

Psalm 30:11-12

Home...

What makes a house feel homey to you?  Having your family there would be the first thing I'd think of, but what else makes your house a nice place to come home to?  Sandi, at Rose Chintz Cottage, is having a blog party where you can post what you do to make your house a home, and I thought it would be fun to join in.

 

 

I love this corner of our dining room.  It makes me feel happy every time I look over there, because it's filled with things I love and things that bring me good memories.  The red and cream pie safe that holds my transferware came from my great-grandparents' home.  Family antiques are very special.

 

 

I just received this quilted wall hanging in the mail a few weeks ago from a dear friend.  She told me that during last winter when I was having health problems she decided to make this for me and pray for me while she stitched it together!  I am so thankful for her and so now when I see this cute wall hanging it reminds me of her.

 

 

On top of the pie safe is this old blue canning jar filled with seashells that we gathered on vacation in South Carolina back in 2000.  That was a fun trip because it was the first time I'd seen the ocean.

 

 

And of course, I love red transferware- all the interesting scenes on each one make them fun to use for everyone in the family.  I let the kids pick which plate they want to use for our holiday meals, and they all have their favorites.

 

 

So, using things I love for decorations is one way I try to make our house a home.  I'm looking forward to seeing what other people share!











Adoption and Foster Care

The other day as I was walking through our meadow I came across this little purple daisy, all alone in the middle of the grass.  There weren't any other wildflowers around it, it was all alone.  It reminded me of our next child, who is all alone in the world somewhere, waiting to belong to a family. 

As I've mentioned before, we are in the middle of taking classes to become either foster parents or adoptive parents through the state, so adoption and foster care are on our minds a lot lately.  After our last class, which emphasized the foster parents' role in keeping in contact with the child's bio family while they are in our home, I came to realize the very different outlooks you have to have when you are doing foster care versus adoption.

Andy and I have a heart for adoption.  We love being able to serve the Lord through providing a needy child with a secure and permanent home, unconditional love, and a sense of belonging.  We love each of our children so much and are grateful to God for how he has put our family together.  Adoption is very child-focused, it's all about giving an orphan a family.

Foster care, on the other hand, is more whole bio-family-focused.  In order to do foster care well, you need to have a heart for re-unification.  Your desire must be for the bio parents to change and improve their behavior so that they can get their child back.  You obviously can't go into foster care with the mindset of, "I hope the bio parents don't improve their life so we can keep their child".  Unfortunately sometimes the bio parents aren't able or willing to make good choices and they do lose the rights to their children and they become available for adoption.  Then your focus can shift to the child and away from the whole family.

So, we are thinking through where our heart is and whether we should do foster care or just seek to adopt again.  We would appreciate your prayers as we make this decision!  We are praying that God would lead us to the child he wants in our family, however that may come about.

October's Bright Blue Weather

 

October's Bright Blue Weather

~Helen Hunt Jackson~

 

O sun and skies and clouds of June
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

 

When loud the bumblebee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And goldenrod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

 

When gentians roll their fringes tight,
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burs
Without a sound of warning;

 

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

 

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

 

When springs run low, and on the brooks
In idle, golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

 

When comrades seek sweet country haunt
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers hour by hour
October's bright blue weather.

 

O sun and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.