happy monday to me

six loads of laundry: done and put away
groceries: bought and dinner made (chicken and veggie fried rice...yummo!!)
lemon tartlets: made and they are delicious
spinach ranch pinwheels: made and also very delicious (the two westies agree)
shower: now mildew free
sinks: clean and shiny
toilets: sparkling
rugs: free of fur
phone calls my husband requested i make today: done and i took notes
baby shower gift: super cute, wrapped, and in the car
dishes: clean and put away
trash: taken out (i even bought new trash bags)
bed: made (and i never make the bed!)

granted...my hair is still in a knot on top of my head (even higher up than usual), but all in all, i think i kicked monday in the teeth. go me. now let's see if i can get the hubster to rub my feet...

so proud!!

in case you didn't already know...my sweet husband is the assistant coach of the martin luther king lady royals basketball team. he is awesome. he really cares about these girls and tries to teach them lessons from both basketball and life. i have had the privilege of attending every game thus far (and a few jr. varsity games as well) and truly enjoy watching him coach. it's been a difficult transition for him, going from a middle school head coach position to a high school assistant coach position, but he has done it with more grace and patience than i can even pretend to possess.

tomorrow begins the regional tournament, something that the MLK lady royals have never had the opportunity to play in before. he is helping them make history! i'll be there again, screaming my head off and crossing my fingers for them all. i can't wait to see them play their hearts out!

i couldn't be more proud of him...of his accomplishments and the character with which he has made them.

go lady royals!!!

been there. done that. need to do it again.

it is never my intention to confuse the readers of my blog (all five of you), but sometimes i don't quite know how to explain things that i'm feeling. occasionally, i'll find a picture or a song that seems to really represent what i feel and that is the case with this picture.

in struggling with some recent decisions about fertility treatments, my dad reminded me that trusting in God is very much like being in a hammock. getting in and getting out are the hardest parts...the best part is after you've struggled to get in and can simply rest in the comfort of the hammock, letting it support you and hold you in, not struggling or working, just resting.

hammocks always trigger happy memories for me. my grandparents had one when my sister and i were kids. we used to sit out under the grape arbor, swinging in the hammock. we would talk, dream, play games, and try not to fall out of the hammock. my grandfather rigged a small rope that we could reach from the hammock so we could swing ourselves without having to be pushed (ingenious of him, right?). we spent hours out there, just relaxing and having a good time.

trusting God is a like being in a hammock. however, i seem to keep climbing in and out of this hammock, sometimes able to rest in God's grace and other times feeling all twisted and tangled in the netting of life. this picture makes me think of what i know God wants for me, to be able to depend completely on Him, with no worry for my life. He is the hammock in which i can rest. i just have to stop strugging, stop tangling things up, and simply be still in His arms.

take your pick

there is a song we sing in our church that talks about all the different names of God used in the bible. at first i didn't really like it. i remember thinking, "how is this relevant to today? why do i care what people called God a bazillion years ago?" as is typically the case, God let me have my ugly little attitude...and then He showed me why i was wrong.

there are so many names for God. the people in the bible called out to God when they needed Him, and they used the name that was unique to their particular situation. i can do the same. He is all of these names and more.

Elohim: Creator, mighty and strong
El Shaddai: God Almighty, or God All Sufficient
Jehovah-Jireh: the Lord Will Provide
Jehovah-Rophe: the Lord Who Heals
Jehovah-Nissi: Lord our Banner, God who lifts up, our God on the battlefield
Jehovah-M'Kaddesh: the Lord Who Sanctifies, the God who makes me holy in His sight
Jehovah-Shalom: the Lord Our Peace (peace is translated to mean "whole, finished, fulfilled, perfected")
Jehovah-Rohi: the Lord Our Shepherd
Jehovah-Shammah: the Lord Is There
Jehovah-Sabaoth: the Lord Of Hosts, commander of the armies of God
El Elyon: God Most High
El Roi: God of Seeing, the God who opens my eyes
Yeshua: Savior

it's interesting to me to look back at my life, to think about the ways that God has blessed me, the ways that He has provided for me, corrected me, and held me close. He has been all of these names to me. my favorite is Jehovah-Shammah. the Lord Is There. i like that it doesn't specify where "there" is. that's because it doesn't matter where "there" is. it's wherever i am and it's everywhere i'm not. He is here. He has gone before me and is in my future. He has been in my past over and over and over again. Jehovah-Shammah. what a calming breath that is to me. no matter what i am going through, no matter what i may face in the future...Jehovah-Shammah.

monday's prayer

let my soul look up
with a steadfast hope
and my will be lost in Thine

my superbowl par-tay

this year's superbowl party was somewhat non-traditional. the game was on, of course, but there was no yelling at the tv screen, there were no big groups of people. we didn't have buffalo wings. we didn't drink beer.

we sat around in pajamas. we ate poppa's chili, pasta salad, homemade salsa, cucumber dip, nana's bacon twirls, fruit salad (yummy, yummy), rotisserie wings (not the same as buffalo wings), hot dogs, and something else...oh yes...tida's amazing, fantastic, oh-so-incredibly delicious buttermilk pie. yes, i had some of all of that. i will try to ellipitcal it off tomorrow.

i played football with my three year old nephew, luke. he went grocery shopping and used uncle jj as a checkout counter (he purchased peas and strawberry cupcakes, among other things). i watched my husband give drawing lessons to our niece scarlet. i tried her new fave snack (carrots dipped in mustard...i am not a fan). i watched helplessly as the new "doctors" on duty (scarlet in goggles and her doctor's apron, luke helping out, and our other niece lily giggling hysterically on the couch) sawed my husband's leg off...and then carefully put it back together with nothing but an ace bandage and a few well-placed knots. fortunately for jeremy, they did anesthetize him with a few shots first. they tell me he will survive. later on, my eavesdropping was rewarded with a fabulous rendition of taylor swift's "tears on my guitar" sung shamelessly by lily and uncle jj.

there are moments in our lives that make us smile, moments that you put away in your mind and bring out when you are feeling sad...these kids always make me laugh, they always make me forget my troubles and allow me to revel in the simplicity of just having a good time, being silly, and looking at things from a child's perspective. i love my family...all of them...and these three little monkeys are so good for my soul, such salve to an often broken heart.

and watching my husband play...that, my friends, is good for my marriage. i love that he can love those kids the way he does. i love that they skip over me to rush to him when he comes in the door. seeing him forget himself and just hang out with them... they aren't our kids, but they were definitely placed in our lives for a reason.

so thanks for a good time tonight scarletto, lily bean, and lukey boy. we needed it. aunt jenn and uncle jj love you.

join us

so many of you have been thinking of us, praying for us, encouraging us, and loving us through the last year (and most of our lives). this sunday, we would be honored if you would join us in spirit for a special time of prayer. we have completed our adoption paperwork and have asked our pastor to pray with us over the whole stack, not because the papers themselves need prayer, but just as a time of prayer for what these papers represent. we have spent the last five months getting to know ourselves, our families, and each other. we have shed tears, had laughs, and made some difficult decisions and some easy ones. our hearts have felt empty and then full and everything in between.

we turn in all the paperwork tuesday. after that, we are three interviews and a home visit away from being a "waiting family"...waiting for God to show us His plan, waiting for someone to choose us to raise their baby...our baby... and we continue to wait hopefully for a healthy pregnancy.

we'll be praying at 10:30 am on sunday. we hope you will be too.
we love you all.