HERE IN YOUR PRESENCE

If you are reading this through your e-mail inbox you will have to click onto the blog site to see the above video (I think)?

I am working on a couple posts about my testimony but in the mean time I have some very cool news! We were finally licensed for foster parenting last Wednesday. We were warned that we may just get a call the same day but instead we got a call the next day.

It was just for respite care. The definition of respite care is basically extended babysitting. Something a foster parent can ask for this in order to go out of town or if they just need a breather, yet have their foster child still maintain visits with biological relatives and continue school attendance. Our first visitors that came into our home was a 4 year old boy who shared Ben's birthday and a 12 month old little girl. Your heart would melt if I could show you a picture of how precious they are. They visited with us for 4 days. Ben and the boy celebrated their birthdays together on October 30th which was very sweet. The boy was quite well adjusted but the little girl was very clingy to me. Praise God she would also be fine if one of the girls kept her company as well.

When we arrived at church on Sunday this was one of the worship songs that was sung. Knowing how much this little girls had clung to me over the days that we had her, I couldn't help but realize she had a fear of people leaving her. She shead a lot of tears when that fear would come to surface. I couldn't help but tear up when the lyrics of this song were brought to a fresh perspective.

"Found in your hands fullness of joy every tear suddenly wiped away, here in your presence"

We are entering a world where there is a lot of fear, tears and pain. We are taking on this pain in no other way but because Jesus calls us to enter in to suffering of the weak.... to carry their burden with a self-less love. (Rom 15:1-6)

It is interesting the responses I get from people who see our extra brood. Many of whom tell me "I don't know how you do it. I could never do that!" Although we are still in the honeymoon stage of this, it is easy to respond...... Our faith in Christ calls us to die so that we might have an abundant life. We simply can not expect to live an exponential life of faith when we decide to keep fear in our back pocket. Fear of heart-break, fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of the unknown, fear of the loss of control. Fear keeps us from making too big a risk, relinquishes life abundant in trade for the shackles of complacency. It is when we yield unto death to self and possibly enter into pain, that the boldness of Christ diminishes fear that once held us captive.

The most awesome thing the Lord reminded me of lately was from the OT when the leader of the Isrealites would loose the ability to carry the burden alone, God told them to gather up support for themselves, to encourage them to keep going. In Numbers 11:16-18 and Deuteronomy 1:11-13 he tells us that there is wisdom and great strength in numbers. Surrounding ourselves with people who will share our burden for these kids is exactly where we have been blessed in our church family! No shortage of showering these kids with the love of Christ and offering to help us if we say the word! We also look forward to Grandma & Grandpa moving in down the street from us come January as well.

Our first visitors went back to their foster parent today but now there is another little one visiting with us for about a week. A precious little girl who is a tad bit medically fragile but thriving in spite of her humble beginnings. The kids all seem to be enjoying someone to dote on. We continue to covet your prayers as we continue this process. Babysitting (respite) is the easy part. It is when there becomes a permanent placement that we will need to cling to Jesus's promises rather than let the fear of "what if" haunt us.

PS. For those of you who are interested in the adoption process through foster care I may need to move this to a blog that will be marked private. I do this so I have the ability to share things that normally may not be able to be as public. This blog can be viewed by anyone where as the foster care blog would only be open to invited readers. I will keep you up to date on that when I have the time to invest in another pondering place!

Trust and Obey......

Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “ For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

Just wanted to share a weee bit about our hunt for a new car. We had to return the rental car today that was paid for by the other drivers insurance so this means it is getting down to crunch time. Craigslist has been our best resource so far since the dealers always seemed to mark up their prices beyond our cash only buying choice. We saw 2 vans today that were nice and would serve the purpose. I am not sure about you, but for me, when buying used there is always that NEED to know if this is the one that God has for us. Circumstances and prices may indicate a good thing but this does not always equate to God's provision. As John and I were talking about each vehicle I asked him if we could take the most likely candidate to our mechanic to make sure there were no hidden repairs that will arise later on. Basically I was afraid (in spite of the fact that God would confirm which one we should buy) that we would waste all of our money on a lemon and then not have a dime left to fix it. So we continued to pray about it and ask for the Lord to speak clearly. We are still eagerly awaiting this BTW. ;o)
The Lord reminded me of what a friend recently blogged about in her life regarding obeying the Lord in all things. While I recently wrote about the blessings that come from obedience, she spoke about the times when obedience is nothing more than just plain obedience. There is no blessing, no spiritual fruit to point to, no tangible results...... There is simply the peace that comes from being obedient to God's direction. My fleshly nature protests "THATS IT, THATS what I get for obeying GOD? NOTHING?" She went on to explain that many times we obey because of the blessing, revealing our 'give to get' mentality. If God gives us a reason that seems good right or just, it may be easy to do what He says, yet it is not so easy to obey even the tiniest of things when God does not give an immediate reason or proof of WHY he wants us to do something. Our prideful heart decieves us into thinking we know better than God. Today I got another reminder that our concept of what is 'good' usually never accounts for the eternal perspective........
SO, as we were contemplating, praying and talking about the vehicle that God might have for us I assume in my rational way that if we hear from Him which vehicle to chose, execute and purchase said vehicle, He will bless our obedience with a reliable van, no severe mechanical problems, ect. RIGHT? In my happily ever after meets fleshly, selfish optimist kind of way, this is how things should be. UGH! Then I heard the Lord speak to my heart.......... "What if I tell you to buy a van that needs a lot of repairs? Your mechanic isn't saved yet, is he? It is MY money that I will provided for the repairs! Eternity is priceless." Jeremiah 17:9 “ The heart is deceitful above all things,And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
So thankful that when we lose the eternal perspective it is never far from God's heart. We are shortsighted seeing only the temporal. His heart for the lost is always seeking, ever present.
Matthew 18:11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. 12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Here is yet another one of those lessons that God makes certain in my heart that my life is NOT about my plans, my agenda, my convenience or my happily ever after. So, no matter what God tells us to buy, I can now purchase without the fear of the 'what if'. I am sure God gets bored of reminding me He is still God, He does not need my help being God and His plans are better than my BEST happily ever after.

Grateful beyong measure

Psalm 33:8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. 9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. 11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

As if just waking up with another breath was not enough to be thankful for, God has once again moved mountains to show Himself faithful in a most recent occurrence....... Long story short, John has yet to outlive his usefulness here on earth.

Now for the details. Last Friday John was in an accident. While I HATE accidents, it seems like the only ones John has been in are too close for comfort. While I have been the one to get in ALL the accidents here in FL so far (none of which were my fault, thank God) so I suppose it was John's turn to meet a few crazy Florida drivers. His car is a total loss, but these are replaceable. Here is the skinny on what happened.

He was coming home at around 4:45 in rush hour traffic. The road he was traveling on was I-82, which is a 2 lane road that is a main artery between our home and civilization. The speed limit is 60 MPH and while many other left hand turns on this road have a turn lane, where we turn there is NO turn lane.

John was at a complete stop waiting for oncoming traffic to clear so he could make a left hand turn. There was no one behind him at first when all of a sudden a white truck & trailer made a daring move. Not sure if he just wasn't paying attention of just did not want to stop. Instead of rear-ending John he just kept on going driving to the right on the shoulder of the highway which is a grassy area. He did not hit John but it was very startling. About 8 months ago, DOT put some nice barricades in that grassy area to discourage people from doing this. Due to the size of the truck and the rate of speed he was driving, he didn't mind taking out 5 of these barricades. He never did stop.

Since the truck did not slow down, the person behind him did not see John until it was too late. He did not have much time to react to the trucks maneuver, so rather than rear ending John, his 4 door compact car swerved to nick John's left bumper and went into ONCOMING TRAFFIC. Poor John was at a dead stop in between these 2 crazy drivers. Once the guy in the compact car realized that was a VERY POOR DECISION, he immediately turned back into John's car pushing them both off the road. Although the damage on both vehicles was extensive it appears that everyone walked away without extreme injury. The man who hit John had his wife and 2 kids in the car so this could have been a very traumatic event if there had been injuries.

Here is the cool God-stuff behind HIS total protection:

• Praise God he was not rear ended by that huge truck and trailer. That could have been a big blow. Could have possibly forced his car into on-coming traffic!



• John does not have AC in his little car so he drives with the windows down. Most days home from work he hangs his arm out the window to catch the breeze. If he had been doing this on that day he would have lost his arm.



• If John had not been at a complete stop during the accident, waiting for oncoming traffic to pass...... if instead he had begun his left hand turn, when the man behind him decided to turn into on-coming traffic he would have been T-boned by the compact car and possible another moving in the opposite direction. Most certainly a fatality or other life altering injuries could have changed his life in drastic ways.



• Although John has some whiplash and muscle soreness, it appears that his injuries may not be all that bad!



• This just so happened during the time my parents were here for a visit so while we went to the ER to get John checked out the kids were safe and sound with grandma & grandpa!



• John and I both got to witness to the other driver and plant some seeds.

So, while this means we are inconvenienced to purchase another car, God has a plan in everything. We are just grateful that his timing is perfect and his provision is unsurpassed so that we have the ability to continue doing what He has called us to out here!

This is a scripture that pretty much sums up our thankfulness!

Philipians 1:3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

It is amazing to see the Lord's hand in a circumstance that could have been so tragic but yet due to his plans, we get to hang out here a while longer. He is so good to us!