Gratitude

The light from the cake shining in my heart still as she blows the number 6 out and another year with this little girl has passed and the Lord has been so good.

1. Learning to read and tying shoes 
2. Learning to change diapers
3. Learning to cook
4. Learning to serve
5. Learning to hope in the Lord.. "since I turned 6 Daddy, I'm going to ride my bike without training wheels."  

Channie-Mae has had a wonderful year of health and happiness and as I become "more familiar" with this beautiful person whom the Lord has allowed me to raise up I'm amazed at His goodness..

The old saying goes, "Familiarity breeds contempt". We tend to take for granted the things that have been

a regular part of our lives.We don't live with a sense of appreciation for the lavish food, clothing, housing, and health we enjoy. We are incredibly rich but we do not live with a sense of privilege.

Yet in my life I live with the most beautiful expressions of God's love and  

I don't want to be too familiar that I forget how special she is, how special they all are.

I don't want to ever forget that it is a privilege.

 I am a mother and for the privilege of that one job I am thankful. 

1. Reading stories
2. tea parties
3. library days
4. teaching her to read
5. teaching her about the Lord
6. going swimming
7. holding hands
8. kissing her boo-boos
9. sharing my bed
10. watching movies
11. teaching her to cook
12. holding Rosie
13. smelling her hair
14. jumping on trampoline
15. braiding hair
16. ice cream

She is a sister to many and she wants more.

 He is a boy from Africa who will tell you straight up that

God saved him from a certain death.

I remind him everyday..what God has done for him.

I've taught him to live with a sense of gratitude at what the Lord has done.

He will remember that the Lord orchestrated his adoption and he should live out

his life with gratitude. 

You're looking into the eyes of the next generation and the Lord

has given me marching orders to teach it to them. The brown in their different shades always looking and I pray that I always look into their eyes and see something different..Never becoming familiar and losing my focus and my agenda.. 

Teach it to the next generation.

I remind her that when she was born the cord was wrapped around her neck two times...She was breech and they (the doctors) were going to try and manually move her and after much prayer we decided not to let them.  Later that week when she was born the Dr. said if we had done the procedure the cord would have tightened around her neck. I tell her the Lord preserved her life and how she should live with a sense of gratitude. I help them to remember what the Lord has already done in their life and to look to the future with a great sense of Hope and trust in Him.

If we don't do this our children will never feel connected or see the foot prints of the Lord in their life at an early age. Keep reminding them how faithful the Lord has been. Teach them to tell others their story of adoption, how He healed them with open heart surgery, or how the Lord saved them at birth.

Teach them to look at their life and know that the Lord has had it all mapped out from the very beginning and He's been there.  

His finger prints etched into their very core. 

That's what I tell them.

Channie-Mae, your life is mapped out by a living God who adores and delights in you.

May you, my darling, live your life in such a way that 20 years from now I can still look

upon these pictures with delight and happiness and say, "she has only grown in her Faith"..

May you always remember you were born to Glorify and Love God forever. 

March 31, 2012

love you forever,

mom  

Capturing Faces

The rain was filling buckets but I went anyway. I usually try and take the kids out and celebrate them a few at a time. As the mother of a large family it's so easy to miss little things about each of them so I try and spend time with smaller groups on occasion. This little group ended up having me in belly laughs the whole afternoon.  I took them to Red Robin and they sang, danced, ate, and watched the t.v that was directly behind me. I sat across from Ellie and Josie and Cullen and just kind of sat there listening and watching their beautiful faces. They broke in to their little music so often that people around us were laughing. Everyone stopping by to see these two. I watched. I celebrated.....as they sang Rain, Rain Go Away and Old McDonald's Farm.

 Enjoying who God made them to be. They are funny and these girls can eat. They kept sharing their food with Cullen and taking his as well.

The big moment came when I ordered the biggest mountain of ice-cream cake ever and Ellie's face couldn't take it all in. They are that special...To order the big thing off the menu and build these memories that I will never forget and never let them forget. The time when their feet dangle under tables and ice-cream and cake
still shake them up.

These times of motherhood seem to slip by if you don't stop and make time to celebrate the simpleness
of your everyday life. Carry a camera, capture the faces, and get ready to build your memories.