Birthday in the making!

When I was approaching my 30th birthday, I asked Kevin if we could do something "more" like take a short term missions trip overseas instead of go to Paridisos! ;) He thought that was a good idea so we checked into it. Long story short... we were asked if we'd consider going overseas for a couple months, then a few months, then a year, 18 months... 2 years?! We felt like the Lord was leading us to keep stepping forward and so we kept saying yes. Well, preparing for a two week trip is different then preparing for a two year trip! So after going to training and then itenerating for a few years, we finally boarded a plane for our overseas trip! In the meantime, my 30th birthday came and went, and so did my 31st, 32nd, and 33rd. We were almost here by the 33rd - missed it by like two weeks. But now. Here we are. Overseas. Trying to stay humble and obedient. Still taking steps of faith. Still growing and going forward. Still trying to do "more" and live out abundant life! But we are here in Armenia. We can still celebrate my 30th birthday for a few more years anyway, right?!

(First pic... by the Cascades just after taking the kids out to Taco Maco!! Second pic... Me -with Kev- at the Marriott downtown at the Republic Square!)


34 years old and still celebrating my 30th! :)

60/70

Just a shout out to my Dad, who turned 70 in January and Kev's Mom, who turned 60 this month! Whoot! We love you both so much. So glad we get to call you ours! :)

Spacious Place

Quite a while back, I'd read a few verses about a spacious place. These verses came back to me on our recent trip up to Georgia. We're driving through these winding, mountain roads. The kids and I all have some small to larger cases of motion sickness. So this time we took some motion sickness pills (after having one child who was throwing-up motion sick on the last trip up there!). We twist and drive and turn and breath. Heh. It's really pretty but when you're motion sick, it takes away from that a little bit. The roads can be narrow in places. We drive along the edge of drop offs with cars coming toward us in the other lane. The roads are also usually rough with construction or just rough because they're worn out! This road north also has three tunnels that we get to drive through. We like tunnels... they're kind of exciting. But these are dark, pot-holed tunnels. One really looks like you're driving through a cave! (And it also has a ginormous pothole in the middle of it!)

So now that you have an idea of the mountain roads, let me get on to my point. After a couple hours of all the twisting and bumping, we get over the mountain passes and it starts to level off... then there's a really pretty place where you can look back and see the snow capped mountains behind you and a river with some flat land and green grass beside the road. It's pretty. Pretty and spacious. We've passed all the twists and turns and now we can see out a ways. (Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm from North Dakota and we can see forever there, but...?) I like getting to that place in the drive.

Psalm 31:8.
"You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place."
(You give me relief.)

Psalm 18:19 (and Deut 22:20)
"He brought me out into a spacious place... He rescued me because He delighted in me."

My enemy isn't completely like David's... I don't have someone with a spear chasing me or a whole army looking for me. Heh. But I have questions that aren't answered. I wonder about the future. I am unsure sometimes. I can't see around the next curve. I don't like it. I like to see out ahead of me... I know the verses about how His Word is a lamp onto our feet and I've thought about how it doesn't say it's a beacon into the future! But also I like that the Lord says that even now, in this life, there will be spacious places for us. We will be brought out into them and our feet will walk into the spacious place. We will see and understand a few things. Maybe not all things... but at some time, we will see some space.

Isaiah 33:17
"Your eyes will see the King in His beauty and view the land that stretches afar."

Our eyes should be longing to see the King in His beauty... after that, we get to view the land that stretches afar. Focus. My eyes so often want to see what's next. I'm learning to look for the beauty of the King, trusting that in time He will show me more. More of Him and more of His plan for us. Good plans... future and hope plans. Spacious places...

I have a Secret

"I have a secret." I said to my friend.
"What?"
"I want to adopt!"
"Jill! That's not a secret!"

So I guess I don't have a secret! :) From the time I was little, watching Little Orphan Annie and adopting Cabbage Patch Kids, to when I was old enough to babysit and work in preschools and getting my degree in Early Childhood Education... I've always loved kids. Especially kids who need extra love. Then Kevin and I had baby Joshua who was so sick and we were told to abort him. Love that son of ours. We had him with us for two months and have never regretted it. Along the way, we've had four more of our own, we've checked into adopting a little girl with a cleft lip/palate in Kazakhstan whose picture we saw online, and we've filled also out a form for Holt International wondering where that might lead...? Nothing came of it. But we did end up heading into missions and here we are in Armenia. Is it possible that we were lead here "for such a time as this"? I'm not sure, but we are open to the possibilities and checking into things here. We found an agency in Carolina that works with Armenian adoptions and got tons of papers from them this week! Super exciting and faith building! As another friend put it, it's like stepping out of the boat!

Ruth asked me to read that Bible study for devotions today. (Each week, each of the kids gets one day to pick the family devotions...) Peter walks on water because he dares to trust Jesus! Crazy! I also heard the story of the miracle of the 5,000 fish today, too... Andrew saw the possibilities of what Jesus could do when he saw the five loaves and two fish!

The kids were all on our bed the other morning (imagine the scene from Cheaper by the dozen...) and we were talking about the possibility of adopting. Elijah says we should adopt 100 babies and give 100 kisses! Ruth says she wants to adopt somebody in a wheelchair! Hannie says when she grows up she wants to adopt... And Benjamin, our almost 11 year old, says something like... isn't it expensive? Heh. So we got into a good discussion about how God provides and if He directs us to do something according to His plan, He can provide above and beyond. We'll have to pray and trust Him. Yeah, they know He provides but this is big (feeding 5,000 or walking on water big!).

Then we went out to have breakfast and devotions. We read stories of Elijah and Elisha (guess who's day it was to pick the devotions...). We read three days worth since they were each short stories. So we got three "Thoughts for the Day":
-Blessings come from God.
-God's ways are not our ways.
-God provides for us as we show faith.
Awesome. I love it when He speaks and we hear!

Psalm 68 talks about how God sets the lonely in families... so our prayer has been that He would do just that! That He would bless our family as He sees fit and prepare us for it!

Now you know my not-so-secret secret! :)