Blessings and Raindrops

seeking joy in the midst of the ordinary

thankful. days 11-13.

Day 11: Today, I am thankful for a pantry full of food for my family.

And, I’m thankful that, even after I spent an entire afternoon organizing these boxes and bags and cans, I can laugh with my silly boys who decide that these items are better off being used as train cars.

{Why is Ben wearing a winter hat? Really, why not?}

Day 12: Today, I’m thankful for a warm fire and a roof over our heads.
I’m thankful for this place full of love and warmth and joy that we call home.

Day 13: Today, I am thankful for a perfect, peaceful spot to have a very important chat with my Savior.

I’m thankful that I am His child and loved more than I could ever comprehend.

And, I’m so immensely thankful that He is in control and He is writing a beautiful story for our family.

updated numbers & encouragement.

Remember how I told y’all that God was moving in really cool ways while we were at the beach? Oh, how sweet He is. He knows when His kiddos need a little encouragement {I still like to think of myself as God’s kiddo even though I’m a “grown-up”}.

I will admit that I was a little frustrated when we received our latest adoption number update. Our agency hasn’t had a lot of movement this past month and I was starting to feel like the wait would be endless. I started to do the math – averaging out the wait times and the number of families ahead of us and coming up with a depressingly long wait ahead…blah blah… it was a fruitless exercise.

I was quickly reminded by my ever-trusting {sometimes annoyingly so, why can’t he just freak out with me one time?!} hubs that God has got this. I can go ahead and let it go. He has this whole master plan thing figured out. And, He loves our child more than we can even begin to comprehend.

Okay, I know all of these things in my head. But, my heart. Well, my heart was aching. My heart was aching for those babies being abandoned in a market and for all of the children going to bed hungry. My heart was aching to do something. For movement. For forever families. For children to be in a loving family that wanted them desperately.

And, God did what He does best. He intervened and allowed me to meet this family on the beach. He gave me a glimpse into how beautiful our family will be when our newest member comes home. And, most importantly, He reminded me that there is plenty of work to do while we wait. There are amazing ministries like Mission Ethiopia that I can support, encourage and pray for during this time of waiting. I was blessed to meet Dave McIrath that day on the beach and am so encouraged by the good work his family is doing in Ethiopia.

But that’s not all. It gets better! God decided that what I really needed was to spend a quiet morning having coffee with a sweet friend that I had never even met in person. Courtney and I found out that we were both vacationing on the same beach and we were staying only a few houses away from one another {now really, if that doesn’t have God’s fingerprints all over it, I don’t know what does!} so we made plans for a Thursday morning coffee date.

Courtney is another AGCI momma and she is about to travel back to Ethiopia to pick up her GORGEOUS daughter, Reeve!!! I was SO blessed and encouraged that morning with Courtney. She showed me photos of her precious little girl and I got a photo tour of Hannah’s Hope {our agency’s transition home} and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We talked about God’s sovereignty and how His timing is always perfect.

I was so encouraged and uplifted through these encounters. He truly restores my soul {Psalm 23:3} and I am so grateful.

Even though our numbers are higher than I’d like, we can rejoice because there are TEN {!!!} less orphans in Ethiopia this month!!!!!!!!!

Blessings!

blessings and raindrops.

I have a grateful and a heavy heart today. I’m feeling such mixed emotions as I experience abundant blessings while another family in my area is in the midst of a tumultuous storm full of rain and sorrow.

I am immensely grateful to be home safely. Dave and I feel abundantly blessed as we praise God for His protection and favor on our family.

I will share more from our vacation soon but I had to share this today. Reminders of how fragile and precious our lives are tend to shake me to my core. And, this time is no different.

We had an extremely scary drive home from our trip when Dave completely lost steering on his truck on the interstate. I don’t know all of the technical terms but I do know that the pole {I think it’s called a drag link} that holds the tires together and connects them to the steering wheel, came out of the driver’s side tire when we were going 75 miles per hour. Dave could not turn the tires and had no control over steering the car.

He remained incredibly calm in the situation and I have no doubt that God’s hand directed our car off of the interstate and allowed us to safely maneuver to the Firestone building directly off the exit. There is no other explanation. Dave and the mechanics who surveyed the car agreed that we should not have made it off of that exit. The car had to be pulled with a cable wench onto a tow truck and taken to the Dodge dealership about twenty miles away.

The boys and I took a cab to a hotel while Dave waited for the tow truck to arrive. We had stopped in a pretty dangerous area of town and the wonderful and helpful folks at the Firestone building advised us to quickly get the boys and I to another area of town before nightfall. We didn’t hesitate and left immediately.

I was anxious waiting for Dave to arrive but the boys kept me occupied. They thought it was just another adventure and loved spending time in a hotel. The highlights: jumping on the bed and talking on the landline phones. They each grabbed a phone immediately and called “Nana and Papa at the beach in Florida.”

We were able to rent a car yesterday morning and drive the seven hours home. Dave and I will make the seven hour trip back to Jackson to return the rental car and pick up his truck {hopefully} later this week. I’m not looking forward to another fourteen hours in the car but it is our only option.

As I waited for Dave to return with the rental car yesterday morning, I opened my Bible to find words of encouragement in Isaiah 1: 1-4, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba as a ransom for your freedom… because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.”

This verse first caught my eye earlier this week because of the reference to Ethiopia. I read about how God gave these nations to Persia in exchange for returning the Jews to their homeland. I highlighted the verse and planned to go back and study it further.

However, when I read it again yesterday morning, what really stood out to me were these words: “you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.” 

We are covered in His love. We are precious to our Father.

And, while I am so thankful for God’s love and protection, I am also feeling incredibly heavy-hearted for all of my friends who lost a dear friend in a car accident on Saturday night. I learned about Matt Turner’s passing from a friend on Sunday morning and have felt so broken-hearted for his wife and little girl. Since first hearing the news, I’ve read countless facebook messages and blog posts from friends who were close with his family. I didn’t know him or his wife, Julee, personally but I am in prayer for her and all of his family and friends.

You can read more about ways to pray for and encourage the Turner family on Kelly’s blog here.

Would you all please join me in lifting up the Turner family in your prayers?

Blessings to you all this week!

just the eight of us.

I spent this past weekend with seven of my all-time favorite gals. I’ve known these girls since we traveled the country working for our sorority as leadership consultants the year after we graduated college.

We had each signed on for one full year on the road. We would fly from city to city and spend anywhere from a few days to a few weeks at each college chapter in our territory.

We literally lived out of a suitcase that year. Breaks were few and far between. We hauled gigantic suitcases full of thick three-ring binders {I know, right? We had computers but I guess this was before everything went digital – we are old}, clothes and shoes from school to school.

We never knew what to expect upon arrival. Our receptions ranged from heartfelt and warm to cold and distant. We stayed in either a luxurious chapter house or {more often than not for some of us, poor Lauri} a dirty dorm room. We ate a lot of take-out and way too many bowls of TCBY {okay, that was just me. I ate way too many bowls of TCBY}.

We learned to adapt and make the best of just about any situation. We polished our “people skills” and were able to initiate a conversation with anyone, anywhere.

We also learned what it meant to be in a room full of people and be lonely. Homesickness set in more than a few times that year.

Gratefully, we had all bonded instantly during our training sessions the summer before hitting the road. We knew we would lean on one another during the year. We knew we would laugh together and maybe even cry together. We knew that our lives would never be the same. But, we truly had no idea how much would change that year.

We started traveling in August of 2001.

Most of us had only been on the road for a few weeks when our country halted and life changed in an instant.

September 11, 2001.

I was in Walla Walla, Washington when the world stopped. When fear and confusion and grief and agony and pain whirled around us. As I watched the tiny television in the basement of the girl’s dorm, my mind reeled. My heart ached. I sobbed alongside strangers and ached to be home. I was on the complete opposite corner of the country from my family in Florida and I longed to be there where safety and love and hope had to be alive. Because in that dorm in Walla Walla, I felt nothing but emptiness and despair.

I waited a little over a week before flying out again to my next stop in Seattle. I boarded my flight trembling with panic and knew that my year traveling would not be anything like I had imagined.

I was then and remain to this day, eternally grateful to the seven women who have since become my dearest friends. We lifted one another up during that season of despair and throughout the year. We did, in fact, cry together. And, we did laugh {a lot} together. We linked arms and held on to one another. We were each other’s lifelines that year. No one else understood what we were doing or what our daily lives looked like. We drove hours to see one another if our trips to the same state coincided. We divulged our struggles and triumphs over our “voicemail” system. We provided one another a link to the world. We didn’t have facebook or twitter or blogs. We had email, phones, a group voicemail and each other.

Since that year, we have been there to celebrate the happiest and most joyful moments of our lives together. And, we have walked alongside one another during the darkest and most grief-filled days.

These seven women have challenged me, uplifted me, inspired me and made me a stronger, better person. They see my heart and know my soul’s deepest desires.

We do not live in close proximity to one another and our career paths are as varied as you could possibly imagine {how many other groups friends do you know that consist of a dentist, a pilot, a news producer, a salesperson, an event planner, an actress, a fitness instructor/volunteer extraordinaire and stay-at-home mom?}, and we don’t even all share the same religious views. And yet, it works. We always pick right up where we left off.

We came together this past weekend to celebrate the very last wedding among the group. Brianna knew her soul mate was out there and she refused to settle for anything less. And, we are all SO thrilled that she didn’t. God led her to Weston and they are perfect together {let’s be honest, they’re a little too perfect – Barbie and Ken  Brianna and Weston would make me a little nauseous if I didn’t love them so}.

Their wedding day was a gorgeous, romantic, fun and perfect day. I cannot wait to share more about their amazing day, but I haven’t even had a chance to upload the photos from my camera yet.

And, I had to give you the full background on these girls first. They are so special to me and our friendship is one I treasure. I am beyond blessed to have these girls by my side for this crazy ride called life.

Even though this post is entirely too long already, I had to share a little sneak back in time at some of our favorite moments together. I snagged all of these photos off of Vicki’s facebook page because I am just too lazy to go back into my archives and dig ’em up. Thanks, Vicki!! 🙂

Every year, we have a reunion trip … here are some of the highlights…{completely out of order}

Lauri’s wedding was the only one I missed!! I had just had the boys and they were still in the hospital at the time. So, a trip to Lake Tahoe was out. I am so sad to have missed this day! Aren’t they an awesome group??

We are such dorks. Really. This is in Seattle in front of the space needle. What are we doing? No idea.

Aww…my girls and I on my big day 🙂

In Ohio for Vicki’s wedding! 

We’re such KIDS! In San Francisco a long, long time ago…

Hilarious. This is during our summer training before traveling. We are so young!

Napa! So fun…

This picture will forever make me laugh. out. loud. We got a teensy bit of sun that day at the beach in Florida.

Look at these kiddos!! Training before traveling. {Why are we sitting in a tree?!? Your guess is as good as mine.}

I love us. Really. We think we’re HILARIOUS. And, honestly, we are. 

This is in Kentucky for Molly’s wedding! 
In Virginia for Beth’s wedding 🙂

A little shopping on Miracle Mile.

What? It’s not completely normal to take a picture in an elevator? I don’t believe it for a second.

I couldn’t find photos from a few of our other trips. We also went to New Orleans {Allie’s wedding!}, Nashville, Kansas City, and Vegas over the years.

Sorry for the long post! But, I had to share!! I’m so grateful to have friendships like these.

Please know that my heart and thoughts are with all of those who mourn the loss of loved ones on this day. And, my heartfelt gratitude goes out to all of our men and women serving in our military to keep our country safe!!! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.