Tell of His Mighty Deeds

Scripture instructs us to praise the LORD. 
In good times.
In tough times.

And right now, I just have to praise Him for His continued provision! 
He is ever good and ever faithful. 
ALL HIS WORK IS DONE IN FAITHFULNESS.

In the last 4 days we have had some big prayers answered, and some small ones too.  And by small, I mean things that are pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  Things that don't really matter.

First I want to back up to last week.  God has provided a way for Kenneth and I to take the older two boys to Disney, but we are not having to pay for the tickets.  This was a very generous donation, and straight from the Lord because there is no way we could ever take our kids there.  This trip is a surprise for Noah and Aiden and we leave next week!  In preparation, I thought it would be fun to get shirts with mouse ears.  A few weeks back a friend of ours had a Mickey theme party for her daughter and her sister had made the exact shirts that I was picturing in my mind!  I asked if her sister could make us some shirts and I would pay her.  She agreed even though she said she doesn't feel confident enough to actually make them for other people.  When we got the shirts back, which are great, I asked her how much I owed.  She said something to the effect of, "Growing up my dad was a pastor.  So often God provided for our family through people leaving bags of vegetables on our door.  Please consider this my bag of vegetables."  I cannot tell you how much that blessed me.  The blessing for me was the testimony of God's faithfulness to this family and His continued provision for them.  How encouraging for me!

On Saturday our family was at my brother's college football game.  We knew this would be the last game we would ever see him play.  As the minutes wound down Kenneth said, "God, I would selfishly love to see him score a touchdown."  Just then guess who scores a touchdown?  My brother.  See, this is sorta silly.  But isn't it just fun when God grants our silliest, non-eternal, requests when we know that that is what they are?  It is as if God is just saying, "Hey, I love you.  And I can give you that little blessing just because." 

This weekend I also discovered that Noah has no clothes for this fall.  He had a couple of pairs of jeans, but no shirts.  My mom bought him some items, and I had a gift card that I was able to use to get a few things.  That was a blessing in and of itself.  We really do not have the budget to just go buy a bunch of clothes right now, so I was very thankful.  But then yesterday Kenneth came home carrying a bag of clothes that someone from church had dropped off for us.  When I opened it up there were several pairs of pants--in Noah's size!

I hesitate in a way to detail this last part.  Simply because I don't want to give off a wrong impression.  However, I do feel like I want to be as faithful as I can to proclaim the deeds of the Lord.  Hopefully it will encourage someone else going through a similar struggle.  Please know my heart that I say the following to praise God for His care.

Last night I was going over our budget.  We have some needs in a few areas.  This morning I talked with Kenneth about it and we prayed.  We thanked God for the ways He has always provided for us in the past, we praised Him that He will meet our needs and we asked that the Lord would show us what we need to do.  During my Bible study today I read the following commentary on Matthew 6:33, "We must put God first in our lives, and He will see to it that we always have all that we need."  How comforting to me after the last few days and after bringing our needs before Him this morning.  The crazy thing (not crazy with God) is that I am studying James 5 right now.  Not Matthew 6.  Just so happened that there was a cross reference and the commentary gave that insight.  So less than 30 minutes after I finished my Bible study I received a call from Kenneth.  He told me that he had just received a check out-of-nowhere that covers half of what we need!  In 7 hours God had already provided! 

My heart just delights in Him! 

I will admit that it is very humbling for me to experience His provision this way.  One of my greatest areas of struggle is worry over finances.  I also do not like to be dependent upon anyone for anything.  In my pride I don't want to put anyone out or take anything.  God is always humbling me by using others to meet our needs.  From loaning us a crib, to meals, to gift cards, to giving us hand-me-down clothes, diapers, baby supplies, groceries, cleaning supplies, free babysitting, a car, an I-pod for listening to sermons, money for the adoption....the list could go on and on and on.  I cannot express how humbling that is, and how ever grateful and mindful I am of all the ways so many people have blessed us.

To me, this is a beautiful picture of the Bride of Christ.  And a beautiful picture of God taking care of His beloved children.

Aiden has had one of his off weeks this past week.  Getting sent to the principal's office for spitting in a girl's face at school on Friday, several time-outs, do-overs, etc.  We usually go through this cycle.  We have a great few weeks and them BAM.  Terrible. 

Today he had a difficult time at church and continued to be disobedient at home.  He then pooped his pants, which was the last straw for me.  I told him that he was going to bed early and reminded him of his behavior over the last few days and his need of a heart change.

As I was bathing the younger two I hear Noah yell, "Mooom!  Aiden just said you were giving him away."  I called for Aiden to come into the bathroom.  He confirmed that he had said that to Noah.  I said, "Aiden, why would you say that we are giving you away?"  His response, "Because I do bad things." 

Yikes.
Big time.

My heart just broke.

I looked into his eyes and affirmed him, his place in our family, that we will always be his mommy and daddy, and all that stuff.  It seemed to assure him and comfort him. 

It blows my mind that even after over two years being in our home he STILL thinks that he can be bad enough that we would send him back to Africa.  I never realized that at the young age of 2 the loss and the pain would be so deep that it would still be ingrained in his mind and heart.

Lord, give me the wisdom, the patience and the grace to be the parent to all my boys, but especially in caring for these tender and wounded hearts.

An Ode to Asa

An Ode To Asa

The potty is the coolest place

I’m tellin ya, so you’ll you know

That if you would just poop in there

No tantrums would I throw

Why do you prefer your pants?

The kitchen floor or the yard?

And just yesterday the sandbox?

Child, is it really, seriously, this hard?

The underwear I always wash

They make my stomach churn

So we have tried everything,

Dear Child, when will you learn?

Just put your poop in the potty

Because that’s where it belongs you see

Now please repeat this simple phrase:

“The potty’s the place for me!”

“The potty’s the place for me!”

Aiden Goes to School

I know what you are thinking.  Cutest kid ever.  Yup.  Knew it.

Aiden has been pumped to go to 4K.  He has watched Noah go to school the past couple of weeks and he has been green with envy.  When I told him that his teacher was going to be Mrs. Mandy, Noah's teacher from last year, he was salivating with anticipation.  When I told him last week that he was finally going to get to go after Labor Day he got his backpack and almost refused to take it off.  

So, September 4 was the big day.  

The night before he gladly went to bed early, picked out his clothes, and put his backpack by the door.  He woke up in a great mood.

I was prepared for a terrible day to be honest.  Our last preschool experience was not so great for Aiden.  His teachers were out-of-this-world fantastic.  He loved them.  He loved his classmates.  He just wanted nothing to do with academic stuff.  He was having accidents, chewing and sucking on his shirt and ruining clothes by stretching them out at the bottom.  I warned his teacher about all of this.  I sent him in pull-ups.  I stashed mints in his backpack to suck on if he got nervous.  I put a coin in his pocket that he would rub if he needed to soothe himself.  

And he didn't need any of it.

He had a great day.

A great week!

And, come to find out, he recognized a whole mess of letters that I fought with him tooth and nail about this summer.  I think I am the most shocked person ever over this alone.

I am so proud of Aiden.  So proud.

I am thrilled that he had a great week and he is so excited to go back.

He is currently mad at me because tomorrow is Monday and his school week is only Tuesday through Friday.  He wants to go the whole week like Noah.  He wants more school!

Well, let's hope this lasts for the next 13 years.  

I doubt it.

But I am going to enjoy this ride while I can.

Noah Goes To Kindergarten

Today was Noah's first day of Kindergarten!  I really cannot believe he is old enough to be in school.  How in the world did that happen?!

I got to take him to school today.  I thought I might be a mess.  I rarely ever cry or get emotional.  Can't even remember the last time I really cried.  But, what happens is that it just builds and builds.  (Quite understandable when you maybe cry once or twice a year.)  So when there is something that makes me emotional I have the ugly cry every time.  Kinda like 365 days of crying comes out at once.  I was hoping that my ugly cry took place before today, or it would have been REALLY ugly.  Thankfully, I got that out of the way yesterday.  So no tears today.  For me or Noah.  Score.

Noah was so excited to go to school.  He was jumping up and down, literally.  He got to meet his teacher on Friday and he loved her.  She is super organized and dresses pretty (his words).  They are going to get along juuust fine.

I have concluded that after being in the classroom just five minutes Ms. Pearson is going to have an interesting year.  There were two boys in the class that did not stop talking the entire time I was in there.  One was going on and on about his brother's first day of school (in a hilarious southern accent) and the other was saying, "Ms. Pearson, do you like my shoes?  Ms. Pearson do you like this color?  What are we going to do to today? etc etc"  They weren't being wild, just talking and talking and talking.  I started to feel like I was at home, but minus the screaming and sounds of things slamming into the walls every two minutes.

I left him in the room, already anxious to hear about his day.  I thought about him all day long.  I missed him.  I wondered what he was doing.  I wondered if he was having fun.  If kids were being nice to him.  And it seemed like 3 pm would never come!  It finally did, and then the bus was 25 minutes late.  So I finally got to see him around 3:30.  He was so excited he practically ran all the way home from the bus stop.

Tonight at dinner he got to eat off of our family's "You Are Special" plate.  (A little tradition of ours.  We have a special plate and you get to eat off of it on your birthday or for special events in your life.  The kids get so excited when that plate is used.)  Kenneth then took Noah to pick out some ice cream for the family and we ate dessert to celebrate his first day of Kindergarten.

Here are some pictures from Noah's day.  Probably one of my favorites is the one where he is with his new friend.  When I dropped him off today I took a picture of Noah at his table and a picture of Noah with his sweet teacher Ms. Pearson.  Then this kid said, "Hey!  Will you take a picture of me?!"  I said, "Sure!" He hopped out of his chair and ran right over to Noah, posing for the picture.  It was so funny.

What God Does

I don't even have the words to describe what I am about to attempt to post.  Know that much.

A while back I wrote a post about all the car troubles that we have been having.  It has been exhausting and expensive.  We have put nearly $2,300 in that car (in repairs) in the last year.

We began praying when this happened: Car Drama  ...and then this.  We prayed for the Lord's wisdom and provision.  We prayed for His perfect timing, even when we wanted it to be our timing.  We have been praying almost daily since April.  Within a few weeks of the first incident I began sensing that God was going to give us a free car.  A few weeks after that I confided in Kenneth, and to my amazement/encouragement he said that he felt the same way.

Now, I am going to be the first person to tell you that I don't go by feelings.  Rarely ever. One of my favorite quotes is, "Feelings will deceive you.  God's truth never will" by Sarah Bragg.  Lots of rich truth in that.  I tried repressing this feeling about a free car, but it just kept coming to my mind every time I prayed about it.  Still I was hesitant.  But then I thought, "You know what?  If God wants to give us a free car.  He totally can.  I wonder where this is going to come from.  Wonder what it is going to be?"  I felt so strongly about this that I even neglected to look at cars available.  I did agree to allow Kenneth to contact a wholesaler to begin looking for a good deal at the auctions.  Because, after all, my feeling could be wrong.

We waited and waited.  We never heard back from the wholesaler after the first few conversations.  I felt the Lord saying, "Just wait on Me."

....And then it happened.

Kenneth got a call a couple weeks ago from a man in our church (I don't even know this person).  He asked Kenneth if he would be interested in a car that his daughter and son-in-law were looking to get rid of.  Kenneth said he would be interested.  Then he said, "Well, they want to sell it to you for one dollar."

What?!

Okay, so maybe it wasn't free.  But seriously!?!  $1!!!!!!!!  FOR A CAR!!!!! That is free if you ask me!  (This is crazy, radical stuff, isn't it?)

Kenneth told me he just sat there and then finally told the guy that we have been praying for months about this.  And he simply said, "Well, consider your prayers answered."  Thank you, Lord.
Kenneth went to pick the car up last week.  It is a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer. 

I am reminded so much of James 1.  That whole  Count It All Joy thing (James 1:2-5), and now the whole "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change" thing (James 1:17).  If we had not gone through those trials we would have never experienced this good and perfect gift from God.  Had God not brought us through some exhausting and expensive stuff we would have never been able to experience Him in this way.  Sometimes I wonder if God just listens to our prayers and says to Himself, "Oh, you just watch what I am about to do.  Girl, you don't even know.  Juuuust watch.  I got this."  He must, right?!

Once again, He has proven to be our perfect provider, having the perfect timing.  And He indeed supplies ALL of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).  Oh, how I praise Him!  Won't you praise Him with me?!  Look what He can do!

At Least My Floors Are Clean

So today was a pretty typical day.  I feel like I have been in a funk the last couple of weeks though.  The kids are being pretty unruly which not only is hard to deal with but is exhausting.  I hate having to discipline ALL.DAY.LONG.  I want to be consistent, so I cannot let stuff slide that they know is wrong.  I feel like I have been totally impatient and tired.

They feed off one another.  Aiden is always hitting and grabbing which makes Asa or Nathan or both scream and cry.  Which then leads Noah to his favorite job of tattle telling.  And so the constant whining is just like nails on a chalkboard to me.  I just want to start whining and crying with them.

But, in all of this, I know that discipline is necessary.  To discipline them is to love them because I cannot allow them to continue in their sin.  I want to shepherd their hearts that they would grow to love the Lord and be obedient to Him. 

And so I have to discipline myself and practice lots of self control for moments like this...

I was sitting outside today watching the boys play in their pool and run around the yard.  Next thing I know, I look over and see Asa holding something in both hands.  Is that???  Surely not.  O yes, it is.  Oh.mi.goodness.gracious.  There is Asa holding two ginormous pieces of his own poo.  One in each hand. 

That was fun to clean up.

And then there was this fine moment...

Asa was put in time out.  He didn't like it.  He decided to get us back.  I walked in to get him out of time out and saw him sitting in a pool of his own urine, running his hands through it, playing.  On the hardwood floor.  And to make it even more awesome, Nathan was playing in it too. 

Floor was mopped.  Kids given baths.  And then the crowning moment...

I was upstairs putting the kids to bed and walked into our master bathroom.  Looked down and saw that Sophie had decided to use the rug as her urinal.  Of course it bled through onto the tile, and stained the grout. 

Floor was cleaned.  Grout was scrubbed.  Rugs put in the washer.

I think I am going to sleep well tonight.  Thanks to Asa and Sophie most of the house is sparkling clean.