Uncovering Beauty, Embracing Brokenness, Discovering Joy.
Only four, my small but mighty one. Vying for attention, a mischievous grin, he spins wild in circles and tiny pieces fly in every direction. I cease to breathe for a split second. Unintentional words and emotions fly and the mess scatters to all four corners.
[Read more…] about Beautiful Pieces
We need the support and resources of a village to walk through this adoption journey. We have ask you to consider how you can be an active participant in reconciling a child to their forever family. We invite you to join this journey of love and assist us in bringing our child home.
God has placed a great desire on our hearts to continue growing our family through adoption. We feel called to take this leap of faith and we have taken the initial first steps. We have signed with an international agency and will begin our home study in this next few months.
For many years we have had a heart for Ukraine. In 2001, six months before meeting my husband, I went on short term mission trip to Ukraine and fell in love with the people and the country. My eyes were also opened to the oppression and injustice for children in third world orphanages. My husband has always supported my heart for Ukraine and over the years his love has grown for this country as well. For almost 13 years now we have continued to support a missionary family that own a small farm and provide a safe place for orphans who have aged out of the orphanage and need a place to live and learn life and work skills. We always thought that if and when we adopted it would be from Ukraine. After much prayer and research this door has been closed to us. The adoption process in Ukraine is very complicated and we would have little chance of being able to adopt a child that was close in age to our children. With some sadness but His peace, God has revealed to us that this is not the right time for us to adopt from Ukraine.
[Read more…] about Love Will Bring You Home (Part 1): Sharing Our Journey
A Spoken Word Poem entitled, “The Esther Generation” by Amena Brown Owen and Ann Voskamp at the If Gathering in Austin, Texas.
It has been almost thirteen years now since a small seed was planted. After years of taking root, burrowing deep and spreading wide, my heart has cracked wide open. God’s love has seeped in and I am powerless to ignore the constant ache and undercurrent that can no longer remain buried nor contained.
It all started with one short visit to an orphanage in Ukraine. I brought shiny stickers to share and I witnessed pure joy from something so small. I held hands and little arms entangled my waist and legs. We spoke different languages although their eyes told me much more than I wanted to know. They proudly lead me to the cold, bare and hard spaces where they played and slept. We danced, jumped and laughed. Their bright smiles yet desperate, hungry eyes are forever imprinted in my memory. The ache I felt when saying goodbye, their small arms wildly reaching and waving, I can not shake. I did not want to leave. When we drove away and I could not stop crying.
I am passionate, determined and known to take the road less traveled. These are my strengths in Jesus but they have been my greatest weaknesses. These weaknesses have come in the form of stubbornness, selfishness, fierce independence and rebellion. I gave my heart to Jesus at the early age of four. My love for Him was innocent and genuine. Even so, I had a lot to learn and surrendering my life to Him would be a long time coming. I would have to learn many lessons the hard way.
I have cared for cancer patients for almost seventeen years. I felt called to nursing at the age of nineteen and by twenty-one, I was working on an adult oncology unit as a nursing assistant. I had very little life experience and even less faith in God. I was not equipped nor prepared for the ways in which God would stretch me and how he would use me. My faith grew because God continued to show up when I was at the end of all that I knew.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
Ephesians 3:20
Ephesians 3:20 paints such a vivid word picture of the great power we have through Jesus. To think that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or even imagine. More than we can measure. More than we can ask. More than we can imagine. More than even this, His power is at work in us.
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