Visitors from Mexico

This month has been a busy, fun, exhausting, action packed time of year.  Hence the dire lack of blog posts.

{Cece happy to see her little friend again}

This month we have the honor to be able to meet up with some dear friends of ours from Mexico.  They were up in Canada for a few weeks visiting family (My friend Amber is originally from Canada) and they  managed to squeeze a beach day with us into their busy schedule.   

These were the folks we hung out with while we were in Baja this past December, and the friends we met for the first time while we were on staff at an orphanage back in '09.  

It really was great to see them and their adorable kids again, and to catch up on conversation (something we never seem to lack).

My sister in law and nephew have been spending the month with us too.  That's her hiding behind the umbrella post.  Great photography I know.   

We are already dreaming about, and making plans for our next trip down to Baja.   I miss "my" kids! Seriously.  I'm going to have to do a post about them.   Amber has been kind enough to not only be looking out for them, making sure they have food etc. but also to send me the occasional photo and even letters from them.   But beyond just visiting the friends and "family" we've accumulated over the years there, we have a new venture that's been on our hearts, and in the back of our minds for a while.      

  Our passion, other than loving kids living in desperate situations,  is ministry that is discipleship based.   Ministry that does more than hands-outs with a side of religion...but deals with the core heart issues that are at the root of so much generational brokenness, addictions, poverty, neglect, abandonment, abuse etc.   We want to see people, who are often cast out of society, given the tools they need to provide for their families, live with purpose, and know their Savior.  We have a desire to see men, trained, given job skills, and pointed toward home to love and serve their families.  Something that is SO lacking.  We want to see legacies changed.  I know that's not something we can accomplish, but we serve a mighty God who brings beauty from ashes.....so with what little bit of time we have, with our limited resources, we're going to start getting our feet wet.   We'll hand Jesus our few little loaves and fishes and wait to see what he chooses to do with it.  If nothing else, it will stretch our faith even more and be another fun family adventure....and we'll get to hang out and work with our friends Amber and Saul again.  

We don't have any of the details worked out, we don't have a clue how we'll get there, or when, ....but we're hoping and praying to make it down for another 6 wks this winter.   Not a lot of time, but with everything we have on the go even getting there will be no small feat.  I'll fill y'all in when it becomes more of concrete plan.    

The little nephew I met for the first time 3 summers ago, has now morphed into a young man trying his first cup 'o Joe.  Don't let his sophisticated look fool you though, he's still as goofy as ever.  He has grown  SO much since last summer.  I love that we were able to meet him while he was still little, it's fun to look back over the last 3 summers and see how much our crew has grown.

My friend and sister in law with my daughter while we were at Family Camp (our traditional place to go for a week when Brook is staying with us).   

Between lake days, camp, and visiting friends is a whole lot of laundry, weed pulling, berry picking, lawn mowing, packing/ unpacking, and garden produce picking.   Not a lot of time for posting, but I miss doing it...and I don't want summer to go by completely unrecorded (my secret reason for blogging is my senility).  Another couple weeks of summer and we'll be into Harvest season.  This summer is going by way too fast!

I heart summer

Our dietary standards drop to include things like hot dogs and Popsicles.

We spend more time playing with friends.

We get to wear clothes that don't include fleece. 

We squeeze as much camping, marshmallow roasting, beach playing fun into our too short summer as we can.   

One of the best parts of July is the arrival of our 2 extra house hold members.

This is our third summer spent with my husbands only sister and her son.  She lives in Seattle but she will be staying with us for the next month.

I met her via email and phone for the first time 4 1/2 years ago, and then after a year and a half of building a long distance friendship we met in person July 2010...and we've been doing our summers together ever since.  It's been such a blessing to make up for lost years, watch her son grow up, and have them both in our lives. 

We spent this past weekend camping with my husbands brother and his family, and his sister and her son.  It was so great to get all the cousins together for a weekend of camping.  These 8 kids hadn't all been together since we reunited with Brook, and I took these pictures  2 years ago.  They've all grown up so much since then!  

We're headed off to a camp next week, which has become our traditional thing to do while Brook is here, so posts may get a bit sparse.  We've got lots to do before we leave!  

Actively waiting

Learning to wait with patient endurance seems to be a recurring theme in our lives, but our adoptions have pushed us into a whole new stratosphere of learning to wait

 (or maybe just into a new level of obsessive psychosis) 

I should start by saying, I naturally suck at waiting.  I'm a go for it, get it done kind of person.

Waiting and being forced to be still when all I want to do is sprint is sometimes a bit crazy making.  I am learning though...

There is some progress being made in both our foster adoption and our Ch*na adoption, albeit seemingly slow progress (by my clock anyway).   I know that our God is never late though.  His timing and perspective is so far beyond my own narrow little agenda.  

So while we wait for files to move, for court dates to be set, for a Dossier to go to Ch*na...

we prepare.  

We're preparing for the child that we trust God will bring to us.  We are preparing to raise an older child who may come with various physical, behavioral, and emotional special needs (by reading every book and blog on attachment/bonding, therapeutic parenting, and adoption I can get my hands on.)

Although we are still waiting for our referral, and our preparation will be much more focused at that time, it does feel great to get a few things done.  To feel like this is actually happening.

We have a grubby little man cave room in our  basement.   It is a utility room/ storage room/ man junk dumping sight room.   We decided in order to make more space in the upstairs bedrooms (3) we needed to create another bedroom for our oldest son who is very eager to have a little space of his own.     After a few trips to the dump...my husband began framing a small bedroom and the rest will stay a utility room.   We are doing it on the cheap...fortunately our son isn't at all picky and likes a "rustic" look.

The finished product will be fun.  A "man cave" for our biggest little man.  

Another part of waiting and preparation has included scrounging money any way we can.  

We are selling our 2003 Expedition (still for sale)....we bought a used 12 passenger van a few months ago (another way we're preparing and making room)

We sold our Thule (that was only a few months old and only used on our last trip to Mexico)

and the hardest thing to part with....

The Hobiecat.

You can see pics of it flying up in the corner of my blog header.

My husbands baby has been a part of our family for several years now.  He fixed her up and enjoyed many summers of sailing it.   However, even before we began our adoption process, he felt he just couldn't justify the alone time he needed to keep up with his hobbie.  Our summers are too short and our family is too large.  

I was so proud of him, although a bit sad, when he volunteered to sell his Hobie to help fund the adoption.   

"It's just a thing, people are more important"

I could hardly watch as someone came and picked it up (what was worse is the person wasn't very nice)....but we joyfully added a few more thousand dollars to the adoption fund.  We were able to sell the fixed up version for more than we paid for it originally. 

We trust in God to provide for this adoption in whatever way He sees fit, but that doesn't mean we will be exempt from sacrifice ourselves.   If we are recipients of the most sacrificial love, how can we be unwilling to live sacrificially in order to love?

We consider it a privilege to be a part of what God's doing...even just in this small way. 

"Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favour that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. "

Martin Luther

{a final goodbye}

So as we wait we are not passive....we prepare, we trust, we pray, and we persevere.

Patient endurance is active.  It's persevering. 

I must admit I didn't realize  the level of utter resolve an Int. adoption takes.  

Not only do I have to battle my own selfishness, apathy and laziness...we have to battle a world system that is mostly opposed to (and entirely suspicious of)  adoption...and makes it as difficult as possible.   We battle doubts, fears, discouragement, opposition, criticism, financial mountains and impossible situations....but we know that we do not battle this alone, in fact we are entirely dependent on His grace for each moment...and we consider it all joy.  

Our eyes are set unwavering upon the work of Christ, as we journey the course that has been set for us, and open our hearts to the child that He will choose for us.  

"Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.  Never by lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."  Romans 12:9-12

"And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins"  Col.  1: 10-14

As Christ loves the Church

Ephesians 5: 22-29

"Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her" (v.25)

I wanted to share something with you that spontaneously happened this past weekend as we camped with our church family.   Our church is a smallish group, a newer church plant,  but we are very diverse in race, national origin, age and demographic. Despite all our differences we are a family.  I would say that the biggest demographic in our church is a lot of young families, young couples and university students.  We have tons of kids under the age of 6.  It's an exciting and vibrant church to be a part of.

One afternoon as we sat around the campfire one of the young men, a newly wed of 1 year, confided in the other men something he wanted to do for his wife.  They decided it was something they needed to do too. 

The wives were invited to sit down in a row of lawn chairs, as a row of  men stood in front of us. 

The first young newly wed, began with tears in his eyes to confess that he had not loved his wife as she deserved to be loved.  He bravely took ownership and responsibility for the turmoil of their first year of marriage.   He told her he had not loved her unselfishly and sacrificially as Christ loves the Church.  He humbly asked for forgiveness as he looked into the eyes of his wife.   They knelt and embraced as they kissed the tears streaming down each others faces.

Then on down the line, a brotherhood of men, new believers alongside elders and even our pastor.  Each spoke to his wife, each vowing , by the grace of God and empowering of the Holy Spirit to love her more unselfishly, asking for forgiveness for the areas where they failed to do so.  The areas where they had chosen their own comfort, apathy, or laziness over loving her well. 

As if that wasn't enough....they pulled out tubs of water (similar to the picture above,...although that picture was one I swiped off the internet...we weren't dressed that glamorously!)

and gently washed each of their wives sandaled, dirty, camping feet.  

It was an act of love and service, not one of domination by either gender.  It was a perfect picture of loving leadership described in Ephesians   It was complementarian structure of home and church at work in the everyday grubbiness of life.  

The funny thing is we could all look at these committed, Jesus loving, hard working, mature family men and justify that they are a cut above most men in our world.  They could also look at all the pathetic excuses for men in our world and puff themselves up with pride saying, "I'm way better than those guys....she should be glad I don't do the stuff he does".   Fortunately, as Christ followers, we have no business comparing ourselves to others....the only mirror we have is Christs perfection and God's holiness.  Next to that we all look pretty wretched.    As the Spirit convicts , our life becomes one of repentance and transformation to look more like the one we follow.  

I'm so glad to be a part of a church that encourages our eyes to focus on Christ, and continually draws us to a life of repentance.  That is what keeps us from growing luke warm.  Our understanding of our own imperfection keeps us utterly focused on the generous grace of God.

Complementarianism   ( a word used to describe a biblical structure for marriage and church) gets all kinds of flack from those who do not understand, and have not witnessed it at work.   It is much maligned and hated by femanist culture , which sadly has also influenced much of the Church (universally speaking).   Fortunately we hold to the Bible as authority rather than culture and it is amazing to see the fruit of that in both healthy thriving churches and families. Of course it has to be more than just lip service, or even worse a twisted distortion of God designed marriage.

When you look at the Acts 29 church network (which our church is a part of), or other churches who hold this high standard for men to lovingly lead their homes ( rather than to dominate, oppress, selfishly remain uninvolved, or passively ruled over by their wives).....women thrive.   Daughters thrive.  Boys thrive under Godly example of how to love, protect and honor women.   Our marriage has thrived as my husband has found a brotherhood of young men who he can not only respect but who pull him closer to Christ in every area of his life. 

It's a beautiful thing.  

 Like my daughter wisely observed "I know when Dad has friends like those guys he could never ever get away with sinning against his family, they love him too much to let him. "  

That's the power of community, the corporate body of Christ loving and speaking truth to each other.  

I love that my sons watched as their Dad humbly vowed to lead and love his family, and lay down his life for his wife.  My daughter watched her mom humbly submit to, and accept that love as she also lays down her own life to serve and honor her husband.

Marriage, Biblically, that is modeled after Jesus relationship to the church,  isn't a partnership of friends who stay together as long as they are both benefiting from the arrangement. 

Christ gave his life without requiring anything in return.  It is a covenant of unconditional love and service....and for every covenant there is one who bears the responsibility for it.  That is self sacrificing leadership, and I joyfully submit to that love.  

I think many husbands think of giving their lives for their wives as some hypothetical action movie scene where they run in front of a moving train or into a burning building...as noble as that may be, a man who gives his life unselfishly to his wife and children each and every morning, in all the little moments and decisions is much more heroic.   He is not whipped into being a servant by a nagging "goddess" who demands to be served....but rather a voluntary, courageous taking of responsibility for the well being of his wife and children.  

That moment was such a genuine display of love and humility.  

It was Jesus love at work in his people.  

A beautiful afternoon

This past weekend was a pretty special one.  

I had the privaledge to witness my oldest daughter be baptized.

It is something she has been asking to do for a while now, and this year she was unwaveringly serious it was something she wanted to do.  My first instinct was to say "you're too young" but I chose to squelch my knee jerk response in favor of a more prayerful one.  We had some long conversations, and did some Bible reading together.  Our wonderfully gracious pastor sat and casually chatted with her on a few occasions about her desire to be baptized and asked he lots of tough questions.  We didn't do any formal "baptism classes", quite honestly the Bible doesn't make a huge formal deal about preparing for a baptism...the only qualification is salvation, faith in the finished work of Christ. I believe that she has a repentant heart, she confesses Jesus as her Lord and savior, and she is showing signs of a heart regenerated.  Believe and be baptized...and that's exactly what she wanted to do.    This is a girl who knows what she wants.  We supported and encouraged her. 

So with her Daddy and our pastor by her side she made her own faith visible through the testimony of baptism.   

I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for this little spit fire.  She is passionate, creative, ambitious, and  she has a huge heart full of big bold dreams.  She is counting down the years until she can go care for  orphans in China, or teach school in Africa, or serve the poor in Mexico... she's full of big ideas.

 I'm praying that this little light would not grow dim but would shine for His kingdom and glory.  May she live up to her name as she bears His light.  

Baptism does not save us.  It doesn't "seal the deal", it doesn't push us into some new level of Christianity...it is obedience.  It is an outward sign of an inward work.  The Holy Spirit knows that inward work in her heart, we can only take it at face value.  

As we have been brought from death to life spiritually, baptism is a beautiful picture of dying to ourselves and being resurrected with Christ.   That new life is one of repentance and humility.  It is a life of joy, as we become adopted children of God, even though we aren't in anyway entitled (through our own effort or works)  to sit at his table or benefit from his great mercy and grace.  We live in great awe of his grace each day.

It was a beautiful afternoon.

That is one proud Daddy.  

Actually it was a beautiful weekend.

We spent the whole weekend camping with many of our church family.   

We've been blessed to be a part of this fellowship for nearly a year now.

Church isn't a place to go on Sunday mornings, a building, an event, a social club, or a political agenda platform....it's Jesus' people.   The bride of Christ.

I happen to really love His people. 

I've never seen a group of people serve each other so completely and joyfully.  I've never seen lives so genuinely transformed by God's grace from the inside out.  It's genuine. 

We share communion every Sunday as we fellowship together.  This weekend we joined together after the baptisms to share in the cup and bread, which is a celebration that always points us back to Jesus.  

It was a super fun weekend as we shared our hearts, lives, kids, smores, hotdogs...and even some fresh fish.

( This is a video made about our church.)

Acts 29 and C2C Saskatchewan from Crimson Filmworks on Vimeo.

Boys can have tea parties too

Especially when they have a 2 year old sister that they adore.

Love can make a man do all kinds of crazy things.

My Little Entrepreneur

A couple weeks ago Aili set up this little store on main street of our tiny village hoping to raise some money to bring her new sibling home from China.

She invited her cousin and brother to come and help staff her little store.  

She sold home made chocolate chip cookies 

as well as ear rings and other beaded necklaces (the hand crafted jewelry had been donated and was left over from our previous garage sale)

After only about 1hr out in the mosquitoes and drizzling rain she had sold all the cookies and a few pieces of jewelry.

For a grand total of $26.00 to add to our adoption fund.

Thankyou Aili!  

Your generous spirit, soft heart, and creative ambition makes your mama proud!

You are such a delight to have as a daughter.