Thursday, November 24, 2011

Blue Bay-Riviera Maya

We’re back!
Jared and I had an amazing getaway from November 11-21 at a resort close to Cancun Mexico.  We went with our parents and sisters, and bro-in-laws on the Reimer side.
It was the perfect mix of relaxation and fun!  We shed our winter layers quite quickly after landing in temperatures around 28C.  The resort (Blue Bay) was large enough that they used golf cart style vehicles to cart us and our luggage to our building (Coba) where we stayed on the second floor.  The only door between outside and inside was the door to our individual room.  That was how the racoon got up the stairs to our hallway.  He was a friendly racoon who came when Jared called him!
Though I’m not much of a swimmer, Jared is the polar opposite.  He was constantly in the water.  We both enjoyed walking along the beach.  As with all inclusive resorts, fancy drinks were readily available at any time and any place on the resort grounds.  On one of our beach walks we discovered a swing bar!  No bar stools, just swings hung around the bar!  Very cool!
This resort also employed professional photographers who would go around taking pictures of people which you could later purchase prints of at the store.  Along with taking pictures of people tanning and swimming, animal trainers came around with different animals that you could have your picture taken with.  In this way we were able to hold a small monkey and a toucan.  We also had a number of pictures taken on the beach.  As they were professional pictures I do not have the rights to post them.
One of the highlights for Jared was jet skiing in the ocean!  All three brothers (in-law) went out together and zipped around together.  Jared also went out with my dad and R.W. (bro-in-law) on an explore tour.  There they enjoyed sailing along zip lines, driving amphibious vehicles, underground rafts , and swimming in a stalactite river (underground river system).  http://www.xplor.travel/
As a family we went on a tour of the Mayan ruins.  The highlight of that tour was climbing the pyramid.  Jared made it to the top and got some great pictures.  I on the other hand was over heating and quite nervous around the halfway point.  After the pyramid, our tour guide took us to a glorified hole in the ground to swim!  Lol!  I believe the correct term is cenote;  A deep natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath (definition courtesy of Wikipedia).  Descending a spiral staircase for some time brought us to a beautiful underground cavern with crystal clear water perfect for swimming.  It was great!
Jared and I went on an ATV tour just the 2 of us.  It was fun cruising through the jungle along narrow paths.  The tour led us to another cenote to swim as well as another underground cave that the Mayan people, we were told, believe to be the entrance to hell.  There we saw some bats and small catfish in the cave lit with a flashlight.
We also enjoyed a few shopping trips to various flea markets.  The last one we visited we found a baby lion to take pictures with!
On our last full day we enjoyed our resort’s spa pools!  It was WONDERFUL!  It was laid out a lot like a lazy river but with different jet stations.  Jets for your neck, for your back, a powerful jet for swimming against the current… every kind of massaging jet you can imagine!  It was great.
Thanks to Mom and Dad Blatz and B.K. for bringing us to and from the airport!














Monday, September 26, 2011

I Did It

Well I finally did it.  I removed myself from the great distraction of facebook.  I hadn’t realized how much time I actually spent on facebook until now.  It’s almost a relief to not have it anymore.  It did make me a bit nervous how in deactivating my account they said people could still invite me to events and I could log back in at any time.  Hmmm...
So I had a really amazing devotional time this morning.  I’m doing our church’s ‘Foundations’ devotional and it was talking about reading the Bible ‘for real’.  Not just reading the words but seeking God in it.  I’ve been reading a Chronological Bible and I’ve found it very helpful to read the events in the order that they occurred.   So today before I started the Bible reading portion of my devotional time I asked God to speak to me though what I would be reading and these are the passages that stuck out to me:
2 Samuel 23:10
‘He killed Philistines until his hand was too tired to lift his sword, and the Lord gave him a great victory that day.  The rest of the army did not return until it was time to collect the plunder.’
2 Samuel 23:12
‘But Shammah held his ground in the middle of the field and beat back the Philistines.  So the Lord brought about a great victory.
Both verses are talking about David’s strongest warriors.  Jashobeam (verse 10) and Shammah stood their ground in difficult circumstances.  Even when the rest of the army deserted him Jashobeam kept fighting for the goal of victory.  He used all his strength and concentration until he could not even lift his own sword, ‘and the Lord gave him a great victory.’  The rest of the army ran away from this difficult task of winning a battle.  They only returned to reap the benefits of victory.
Now these guys weren’t perfect and neither am I; but what an amazing picture of faith!  Standing firm no matter what others around them were doing and God gave them great victory!  I’m going to ponder about that one today!
Thanks God!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Jesus in Everything!

Yesterday was another amazing day in Children's Ministry!  I took a picture of my amazing marker face paint which was part of our activities.  I also had the privilege of speaking the lesson part of the evening.  I’ve taught lessons for kids ministry before and so often I find that during my preparation time that God teaches me something through the lesson before I teach it to the kids.  This week’s lesson was fairly straight forward.  We want Jesus in everything!  Well maybe not that straight forward.  These were the verses I based my lesson off of:
Proverbs 3:6
“Seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
“Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

This morning when I logged on to Facebook , I was overwhelmed with baby info and I had to face my biggest foe: envy.  It is just so hard to hear about ‘feeling the baby move’, ‘our precious gift has arrived’, and so many other real heartfelt posts and to be sitting here in a quiet house alone.  Just waiting.  I talk to God about this every day and today was no exception. I was reminded of my lesson from last night and how we want Jesus in everything, every situation, wherever we are, no matter how we’re feeling. 

“God I trust you.  I know you have a plan for me.  You’re holding my future baby in your arms right now.  But right now I’m having a hard time.  Give me strength God.  Give me strength and patience.  You know what you’re doing” 

Then this song came to mind and my Facebook friends helped me recall the title so I can share it with you.
http://youtu.be/CHdSgQVIb5c

FFH- One Of These Days
One of these days I'm gonna fly
Over the mountain
One of these days I'm gonna ride
On the silver lining
One of these days I'm gonna witness
All I've been missing
One of these days


One of these days I'm gonna do
All the things that I've never done
I'm gonna finish all the races
That I've run but I've never won
And I'm gonna see a million faces
And recognize everyone
One of these days


Chorus:
One of these days
Gonna see the hand that took the nails for me
One of these days
Gonna hold the key to the mansion built for me
One of these days
Gonna walk the streets of gold that were paved for me
One of these days
I'm gonna see my Savior face to face
One of these days


One of these days I'm gonna see
Just what became of me
On the day that I believed
When you took myself from me
And I believe I will see
What I would have been
If You didn't save me
One of these days


And one of these days I'm gonna talk
With all the saints that have gone before
And in their sandals I will walk
And we will sit along the shore
And I will learn all the things
That I never knew before
All this and more


One of these days I'll finally be
In a place where there's no more need
No more pain and no more grief
No more foolish disbelief
And all the joy there will be
When at last we finally see
One of these days


 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Wake Up Call

http://mediasuite.316networks.com/player.php?p=i0yi846u
http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/

It almost feels some days like I should blog every day just to keep up with all the cool things going on around me.
Yesterday I went to church to watch a simulcast called ‘Wake-Up Call’ by Anne Graham.  It was really good!  I would REALLY encourage you to watch it.  At the end of the message Anne was talking about how she took some time to just listen to God and have her soul wiped clean.  A lot of us look at pastors and teachers and just assume that they have less trouble with sin than the rest of us.  That is definitely not the case.   They are human too. She said how God just kept revealing to her things that she needed to confess and repent of.  She challenged others to also take some quiet time and just listen and let God speak to you.  I tried it this morning before the kids got here for daycare.  It was AMAZING!  For me I concentrate best if I write down my prayers.  During this time of listening I just kept getting pages and pages of things to pray for!  It was AWESOME!
A couple days ago I was just thinking about the wonders of God and looked out the window to see an amazing sky.
Another thing to mention is that it was my 25th birthday this last week.  For whatever reason it appeared to be a cup cake birthday!  I made cupcakes with one of my daycare kids on Thursday, and then Friday I got cupcakes from my mom and from my sister.  Jared also surprised me with ice cream cake!  It was a fun birthday!



Tuesday, September 13, 2011

What God Can Do

Wow!  I just love getting back into the groove of things!  We had our last weekend holiday of the summer season as well as the last marathon.  Both went well!  But now we’re getting down to business.
Philippians 1:9 – ‘I pray that your love will overflow more and more and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding”
It’s really true that to grow in your faith you need to fellowship with other believers.  We’ve had our first few meetings now already with our children’s ministry groups and it was SO great to reconnect with them!  I am SO excited to get to know my new groups of children.  I have already met my Wednesday night group and we are going to have a great year together!  I can tell already.  I feel so much better prepared this year as opposed to previous years when I was still getting a feel for things.  God has just kept showing himself to me this summer and over the last 2 years or so.  Want an example?
One Sunday I was sitting in the main service close to the front with my parents.  This is abnormal for us as we usually sit in the simulcast (overflow area sort of).  Anyway, I was just settling in to my seat when I noticed the girl sitting in the row in front of us.  She looked very familiar, but the person I thought it looked like was not someone I thought would be in church.  At the end of the service she turned to get her things and I could see her whole face.  It was AWESOME!  I went to school with S.R. from K-9 but hadn’t seen her in for sure 5/6 years.  And there she was sitting in front of me! 
From that day we’ve kept in contact.  Though S.R. has not been on the ‘church scene’ as long as I have, I have learnt a lot from her over the summer.  She’s asked me questions, shared her own ‘God moment’ stories and it’s just incredible how she’s growing in her faith!  Her growth inspires me to dig deeper, read more, do more and be better!
Want one more example?
I do childcare at home and so often I feel like I’m not doing enough to teach these children about Jesus.  I often tell myself that they are young and just don’t understand quite yet.  But today we were doing our daily bible story and it was where Jesus says ‘Let the little children come to me and do not stop them.’  One of the girls that I’ve been watching for a while starting talking about the things she knew about Jesus and Heaven.  I explained to her about what we need to do to be able to get to Heaven and see Jesus and hug him and ask him all the questions she wanted to ask (‘How did God make eyes?’...).  I asked her if she wanted to do that, and she said yes!  WOOO!  So I prayed with her saying sorry to Jesus for how we do bad things sometimes, that we really want to be more like him and be able to be with him in Heaven...  It was AWESOME.  Then we read a book about Heaven which got her even more excited!  Now I’m excited too!
I could go on and on about all these amazing things God has been doing in my life butI really need to go to bed.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Jumping back in

Well summer break is quickly coming to a close and we’re jumping back into our regular children’s ministry for the coming school year.  We had a meeting on Tuesday to hear the scoop on how things will run this year.  I am starting ‘from scratch’ you might say with a new group of grade 2 kids.  I am very excited to meet them and see what ‘Going Deeper With God’ will be like with them this year!

Jared and I try to do devotions together every night and last night’s devotional was very interesting.  It was talking about how ‘love ads margin”.  The first line of the devotional states:
“You can’t do everything.  And love understands the wisdom of living inside this reality.”
Obvious yet profound I thought.  I try so hard to be a good wife some days.  Get the dishes done, write out a meal plan and shopping list, wash the floor...  But some days it just doesn’t happen and that doesn’t make me a poor wife.  Jared is still going to love me if there are a few crumbs on the floor, or dishes on the counter.  I am so very blessed to have an amazing husband whose love adds margin.  And on top of being amazing, he sure is cute!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Never Once

This song expalins itself.  So amazing, so powerful, so true.

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=KDPGGLNX

Never Once By Matt Redman

Verse 1
Standing on this mountaintop 
Looking just how far we've come 
Knowing that for every step 
You were with us 

Verse 2
Kneeling on this battle ground 
Seeing just how much You've done 
Knowing every victory 
Is Your power in us 

Pre-Chorus
Scars and struggles on the way 
But with joy our hearts can say 
Yes, our hearts can say 

Chorus 1
Never once did we ever walk alone 
Never once did You leave us on our own 
You are faithful, God, You are faithful 

Repeat Verse 2
Repeat Pre-Chorus

Chorus 2
Never once did we ever walk alone 
Never once did You leave us on our own 
You are faithful, God, You are faithful 
You are faithful, God, You are faithful 

Bridge
Scars and struggles on the way 
But with joy our hearts can say 
Never once did we ever walk alone 
Carried by Your constant grace 
Held within Your perfect peace 
Never once, no, we never walk alone 

Ending Chorus
Never once did we ever walk alone 
Never once did You leave us on our own 
You are faithful, God, You are faithful 

Every step we are breathing in Your grace 
Evermore we'll be breathing out Your praise 
You are faithful, God, You are faithful 
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Praise

What a fun exciting weekend!  Wow!  Where to begin...
Well, I’d planned a fun day with some of my young friends from church for Saturday and we had a lot of laid back fun.  We went to a nearby park with some sidewalk chalk and spent over an hour writing and drawing pictures on the walk way.  Here’s a picture of just some of their amazing artwork!  We had some snacks at the park and headed back to my place to do some pedicures. 
Our fun day together was just coming to a close when I get a call from one of the leaders at church.  It wasn’t my weekend to teach or even day (I usually teach Sundays only, not Saturdays), so I was instantly curious what he could want so close to service time (20 minutes).  In a very unique way it came about that they were without a praise team in Kidzland and my name had come up as a last minute alternative.  A number of the kids with me were attending the service anyway, so I asked them if they wanted to help.  They all agreed and we quickly picked 3 songs that we all knew.  It also just happened that during our pedicures I’d had music going and the songs we chose were on that playlist.  So we went through the songs once before heading over to church!
I should mention here that I have not sung on a stage in years, and have been exceptionally self conscious of my singing voice when in public.  In the few minutes I had to mentally prep, I prayed over and over: “God this is for the kids, please don’t let my voice crack!”  They had gotten another girl to come sing as well who happened to be an old friend of my sister.  So I was a lot more comfortable just having her there leading with me!
All can say is wow!  I was still a bit nervous, but I had a lot of fun up there!  I ended up helping out at all 4 services!  It was such a fun and new opportunity to minister to kids! It may not sound like much of an accomplishment to some, but to me it was huge!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

I Refuse

Do you ever get up in the morning, alarm clock radio blaring, and the songs playing are just perfect for starting your day?  That happened to me this morning.  This is the first one that I heard that inspired me to do more with my day than get through it:
I Refuse
Songwriters: Benjamin Glover;Joshua David Wilson
Sometimes I
I just want to close my eyes
And act like everyone's alright
When I know they're not

This world needs God
But it's easier to stand and watch
I could say a prayer and just move on
Like nothing's wrong

But I refuse
'Cause I don't want to live like I don't care
I don't want to say another empty prayer
Oh, I refuse

To sit around and wait for someone else
To do what God has called me to do myself
Oh, I could choose
Not to move but I refuse

I can hear the least of these
Crying out so desperately
And I know we are the hands and feet
Of You, oh God

So, if You say move
It's time for me to follow through
And do what I was made to do
Show them who You are

'Cause I don't want to live like I don't care
I don't want to say another empty prayer
Oh, I refuse

To sit around and wait for someone else
To do what God has called me to do myself
Oh, I could choose
Not to move but I refuse

To stand and watch the weary and lost
Cry out for help
I refuse to turn my back
And try and act like all is well

I refuse to stay unchanged
To wait another day, to die to myself
I refuse to make one more excuse

'Cause I don't want to live like I don't care
I don't want to say another empty prayer
Oh, I refuse

To sit around and wait for someone else
To do what God has called me to do myself
Oh, I could choose
Not to move but I refuse

I refuse
I refuse

I was thinking about how selfishness so easily sneaks up on me.  I think about the issues in my life that are challenging for me, but that’s not what life is all about.  Life isn’t just about me and how I feel.  Life is about others; about making a difference in their lives for the better.  If I start my day in prayer asking God what I can do today to serve Him, my day and my time will be much better spent.  So that is my prayer today!  ‘I refuse to stay unchanged, to wait another day, to die to myself, I refuse to make one more excuse...’

In my devotions this morning, it asked: 'Who has left a lasting positive impression on your life?'.  A number of people came to mind like parents, family and friends, reminding me how blessed I am to have so many Christian influences in  my life.  But the friend I felt that I needed to pray for this morning has the initals MD.  I didn't ask her if I could put her name on this blog or a picture.  But MD, you are very special to me and you have made a lasting positive impression on my life.  I am so glad that God crossed our paths and made us friends!  May God bless you especially today!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Patience

It has been a SUPER long time since I’ve posted on here.  I guess this summer has been a little busier than I’d expected!  We’ve done some camping at Clearlake with family, and Falcon with friends.  We’ve also done a bunch of day trips to the beach or just out with friends.
It has now been a year since we first applied for adoption and we have spent the last month or so renewing everything.  At our meeting with our adoption worker (not sure what her title is) we discovered that our profile did not match with any birthmothers at all over the last year.  It was tough to hear that we paid all that money and did all that work for our profile to sit in a box for a year.  We weren’t even close to getting a child!  We were encouraged to broaden our stipulations (required in the application process) on the alcohol consumption of a birthmother during and prior to pregnancy.  We are still comfortable with our new stipulations knowing that God will not give us more than we can handle.
 I am so very blessed.  I’ve really enjoyed the love, prayers and encouragement of my close friends and family.  I went on a weekend retreat with a group from my church and we spent some time praying for each other.  It was amazing.  Some of the things they shared with me have helped me through some of the harder times this summer.  One of the verses presented to me was:
Psalm 139:10
‘Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.’
It’s encouraging to know that God has a purpose for everything that I don’t even understand.  But in those circumstances He is right there with me.  There have been a number of verses, pictures, and words that have been shared with me that have really blessed me and helped me.
Another friend received a picture for me that I’ve replayed in my mind often.  It was a picture of Jesus holding a baby in Heaven and Jesus was saying: ‘Just wait, I’ve got him right here, I’m just waiting for the right time.  But I have him with me right now.  It’s real.  It’s coming’
Just the other day on Facebook, Joyce Meyer posted this quote:
 ‘Patience is not the ability to wait, but it’s the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.’ –Joyce Meyer
Anyway, God has been doing a lot in my life this summer and teaching me a lot too.  I hope to share more of it with you in the near future!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Stronger

I was listening to the radio this morning and this song came on and I loved it immediately!  It reminded me that our 'situation' wont last forever. Even though it's tough at times and I feel like I've done my time and I just don't know what to do anymore.  God has a plan for us and it's going to be awesome!  He's using this to make us stronger and I'm ok with that!

'Stronger', By Mandissa

http://youtu.be/U3TPq8ZSvTk

Lyrics to Stronger :
Hey, heard you were up all night
Thinking about how your world ain't right
And you wonder if things will ever get better
And you're asking why is it always raining on you
When all you want is just a little good news
Instead of standing there stuck out in the weather

Oh, don't hang your head
It's gonna end
God's right there
Even if it's hard to see Him
I promise you that He still cares

When the waves are taking you under
Hold on just a little bit longer
He knows that this is gonna make you stronger, stronger
The pain ain't gonna last forever
And things can only get better
Believe me
This is gonna make you stronger
Gonna make you stronger, stronger, stronger
Believe me, this is gonna make you ...

Try and do the best you can
Hold on and let Him hold your hand
And go on and fall into the arms of Jesus
Oh, lift your head it's gonna end
God's right there
Even when you just can't feel Him
I promise you that He still cares

'Cause if He started this work in your life
He will be faithful to complete it
If only you believe it
He knows how much it hurts
And I'm sure that He's gonna help you get through this

When the waves are taking you under
Hold on just a little bit longer
He knows that this is gonna make you stronger, stronger
The pain ain't gonna last forever
In time it's gonna get better
Believe me
This is gonna make you stronger
Hey, heard you were up all night
Thinking about how your world ain't right
And you wonder if things will ever get better
And you're asking why is it always raining on you
When all you want is just a little good news
Instead of standing there stuck out in the weather

Oh, don't hang your head
It's gonna end
God's right there
Even if it's hard to see Him
I promise you that He still cares

When the waves are taking you under
Hold on just a little bit longer
He knows that this is gonna make you stronger, stronger
The pain ain't gonna last forever
And things can only get better
Believe me
This is gonna make you stronger
Gonna make you stronger, stronger, stronger
Believe me, this is gonna make you ...

Try and do the best you can
Hold on and let Him hold your hand
And go on and fall into the arms of Jesus
Oh, lift your head it's gonna end
God's right there
Even when you just can't feel Him
I promise you that He still cares

'Cause if He started this work in your life
He will be faithful to complete it
If only you believe it
He knows how much it hurts
And I'm sure that He's gonna help you get through this

When the waves are taking you under
Hold on just a little bit longer
He knows that this is gonna make you stronger, stronger
The pain ain't gonna last forever
In time it's gonna get better
Believe me
This is gonna make you stronger

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

An Update

Hello blog friends!

It’s been a while again but we’ve sure been keeping busy.  Good things though.  Daycare, cell group and of course all our church kids whom we love! 

We got a newsletter from the adoption agency!  I didn’t cry this time, but the stats still don’t leave me feeling like our baby is around the next corner.  From January 1-February 23 2011 there were 3 placements (There was 9 total last year).  There are still 68 of us waiting to be chosen for division 2 adoptions.  So at least 3 people this year had their dream come true.  Some day mine will too....someday.

It’s so tempting sometimes to sit down here at the computer and just vent.  To say how unfair life is.  How mad I am sometimes. How my heart feels like it has a giant knife lodged in it.  Those feelings are very real.  I fight them daily.  Those evenings when the house is quiet and I can think of the thousand things I would do if we had a child of our own to entertain and care for.  I know all about tantrums, blow out diapers at the wrong times, screaming in the store, pee on the couch... all those times when kids just want to make you pull your hair out.  But those rough times aren’t all the time. 
I look forward to the day I hold my child in my arms and just know that they are mine. 
I look forward to being the one my child needs and is reaching for.
I look forward to finding the solution when my child is crying.
I look forward to having someone ask me about my child because I will be the mom
I look forward to the day my child says: “That’s my mom!”
I look forward to going into the kids section of the store and it not be for a gift
Lots to look forward to...

Unintentionally, we’ve started an ongoing list of things for “when we have our own kids”  On that list are things like a high chair with wheels, a jogging stroller, brand new toys, little clothes, a bike trailer, a bulky diaper bag... the list goes on and on.  But it’s all those little things that parents get to have and buy for their kids just because they have them.  These are the silly little things I look forward to!

Anyway, I don’t really have much else to say.   Just a few thoughts I had and decided to share.




Thursday, February 24, 2011

Debbie, Dylan, Natalie

Debbie, Dylan, Natalie
We’ve been looking forward to this past weekend for a long time!  The weekend I got to meet my Debbie’s adorable little girl Natalie!  Why is that such a big deal you might ask?  They live 1275km away, which is, approximately, a 13 hour drive!
We’d planned to leave Thursday (Feb.17).  We got to the highway and could hardly see past the hood of our car.  I was SO bummed!  All we had was a weekend!  Every minute, every mile counts!  But we couldn’t see anything so we just had to turn back just a few miles from home.  I was up and praying every 2 hours from 8:00pm-8:00am checking road reports and thinking, ‘How can we make this work?’  By 8:30am we had a plan, by 9:00am we were back on the road!  We had an ‘alternate route’ planned dogging the many closed highways and hoping for the best, but the roads we needed most opened ahead of us!  THANK YOU GOD!  WOO!
As we drove along I started a tally:
Vehicles in the ditch: xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx (15)
Vehicles stuck on the road:  x (1)
Vehicles smashed:  xx(2)
All of these were found before the Saskatchewan border. 
But we made it across the country and were warmly greeted by Spencer, the dog, who nearly jumped in the car with excitement, and of course, Dylan, Debbie and sweet little Natalie.  I think all the excitement scared the poor girl so our first meeting wasn’t all smiles on her part but over the weekend we got to know each other pretty good!
We had a lot of fun, relaxing, being silly and trying not to freeze!  Jared got acquainted with their pet snake Rusty.  I, on the other hand, was on the other side of the house very quickly when they took the lid off his... what do you call it?  Aquarium looking thing.  We visited their tiny church and found that they were preaching on a similar topic to what we’ve been discussing in church, Kidzland, and our Bible reading!  Super cool!
So yeah!  That’s basically our weekend!  It was great!  I’d also like to say a special hello to my Alberta friends reading this blog specifically Debbie’s family and ‘Edge’J!
Can any fellow bloggers help me out?  I have such a hard time posting more than one picture.  I click on the little 'picture' icon when doing a new post but it only lets me select one picture.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Valentines Weekend

That was a fun weekend!
So Jared totally surprised me with an early valentine’s day this weekend!  We had planned to go on a date in the city.  We were already downtown before I realized I had no idea where we were going, or even why we were in the city so early if we were just going for supper!  I was just asking Jared exactly that when he pointed to a hotel and said: “Did you want to go there?” 
It was awesome!  He’s packed all my stuff (with me in the house!) and got it into the car without me noticing!  I was very impressed with how much stuff he thought of to pack for me!
So we got settled into the hotel and planned our evening.  We decided to go see a movie using one of the gift cards we received in the surprise envelope (see ‘Touched by an Angel’ post).  We went out and watched “Life as We Know it” which was actually pretty good!
After the movie we headed over to the Keg for supper (another gift card in the envelope).  We were having a hard time finding a place to park, having hit the supper rush dead on, when we saw some people getting in their van to leave.  So we waited nearby to snatch their parking spot.  As they pulled out they stopped beside our car and handed us a slip of paper.  They had paid for parking but decided not to wait the 45 minutes at the Keg.  So we received another blessing that day!  Free parking!
What an AMAZING weekend!

Monday, January 31, 2011

God's Plan

I would just like to share the poem that was in the card we received this last Thursday in hope of encouraging others who follow this blog.

God has a plan for each of us.

And I have a feeling that there is
such a wonderful plan for you!

I pray that the paths you walk
and the roads you travel will take
you to amazing places.  Places where
you see the possibilities, where you
discover what it's like when dreams
come true, and where you come
to understand the promise and the
potential of all the wonderful
qualities inside you.

I pray that God's plan for you will
gradually unfold before your eyes,
and that - like guiding lights
continually showing the way - you
will find glimmers of hope and
happiness shining every single day.

I pray that the people in your life
appreciate what it's like to be in the
presence of someone as special as
you are.  You have the kind of gifts
that are given to so few.

God has a plan for each of us...
and I think there is an especially
wonderful one...for you.

We were so blessed by this poem.  It really touched my heart.  I just hope that sharing this poem here could pass along that blessing to someone else who needed it today.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Touched By an Angel... Twice!

Have you ever heard an awesome story where you think to yourself: “That’s awesome!  I wish something like that would happen to me.”  I know I’ve felt that way sometimes when hearing about people in need who were at the end of their rope and just when all seemed lost, God took care of their needs.  Well I’m here to tell you: IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!  The trick is to give it all to God and truly trust Him to supply all your needs.
 A year or two ago, I had switched jobs and our income was much less than it had been.  Christmas was coming and we were just scraping by.  We had all these gifts we needed to buy for our families and there just was no money for it.  We really didn’t have much of a choice, we prayed and told God: “There is no way we can do this on our own.  God we need you to do something.”  And then we waited.
It was late November and we were at church checking our mail folder for our next Sunday school lesson sheet.  Usually that’s all that’s in there but with Christmas just around the corner we got a few Christmas cards and this one small pudgy envelope.  I opened it as we were headed out of church, but when I opened the card inside I froze.  It seemed like the whole world just stopped.  I grabbed Jared and whispered in his ear: “Jared.... there’s a huge wad of cash in here!”  I handed the card to Jared to have a look.  He was just as shocked as I was!  We looked around to see if anyone was watching us, looked over the envelope and card for a name... nothing.  There was a tone of smiley face stickers inside and this verse:
“Anything you did for even the least of My people here, you also did for Me”
Matthew 25:40
When we got to the car we counted the cash and it was exactly, to the dollar, how much we needed to by presents for our families!
That’s awesome, right!?  Kind of a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience thing; that’s what I thought... until this past Thursday!
We’d just gotten home from a supper party, and as we pulled in I noticed something stuck in the door.  I thought, “Invitation for something...? Canvassing...? Flyer...? Who knows?”  Inside was a card, a letter and another smaller envelope.  It was a beautiful card with a poem all about God’s plan (I will share that with you in the next post).  The letter talked about how this person (or people?) was praying for us and our adoption process.  They encouraged us and even shared a short poem.  At the end of the letter was an explanation about the additional envelope.  It said we were to use it on ourselves, to enjoy it, and make it special.  Upon opening the smaller envelope we found a number of gift cards to perfectly cover the costs of a very special date night!  It was so funny, because just a few hours earlier, Jared and I had been talking about ‘if’ and ‘what’ we would do for Valentine’s Day!
If you are reading this and you are one of the angels God sent to bless us, we are grateful beyond words!  Jared and I pray that you too would be blessed, in the perfect way, at just the right time!
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus
Philippians 4:19