Does God "Show Up"??

How do you feel about that phrasing??  God “showing up”?  I’m sure you’ve heard it plenty of times.  “Boy, God really showed up today!”  or “Get ready cuz I have a feeling God’s going to show up here tonight!” 

I haven’t thought much about that phrase until today.  But is it God that shows up?  Or is it us?  Don’t you think that we feel that God “shows up” when we seek Him??  Or when we just open our eyes to his goodness??  God  is always here.  He’s not the one coming and going.  He doesn’t change.  We do. 

“I the Lord do not change…”  ~Malachi 3:6 NCV

Let me explain why I started thinking about all of this earlier….

The past several weeks have been fairly chaotic for us.  Among the chaos, adopting our child/children has felt almost like an intangible, unrealistic dream in a way.  Not to mention that it can feel overwhelming and just down right draining repeatedly answering the question, “How long will you have to wait?”  ...  Our answer is always, “It could be 2 months, 2 years, or longer.  There is no guaranteed wait time.”  (Sigh….)

So, anyway, we’ve been so busy with everything else going on (work, family, Zoe, P90X, etc.), that we haven’t been talking about adoption very much.  We’ll still pray about it….  But we’re just not quick to talk about it in a lot of detail on a daily basis anymore.  We feel that we’ve been ready to be parents for some time now…. And it still hurts a ton that I’m not a mommy yet.  It’s almost like we don’t want to face the reality of maybe having to wait even longer than we want.  L  So maybe if we don’t talk about it, it will help us not think about it. (That philosophy doesn't work, by the way). 

Anyway, Erik and I have been talking about starting this daily devotional book that we’ve had for YEARS.  We figure that no matter what, we can surely make time to sit down with each other for several minutes every day for a devotional!  You know, a time to chill, to reconnect with each other and with God. 

Well…. we finally started it today! 

We decided to start on today’s date in the book…… and guess what April 29^th’s topic was?!  Adoption!!!!  J  In summary- - it was about practicing the compassion of Jesus and taking care of orphans.  AWESOME!!!!  We couldn’t believe it.  We kept laughing and flipping through the book to see what some of the other topics were…..  It was NOT a coincidence that today was about adoption.  J

Some may say that God “showed up” today in our house.  But really, He’s been here all along.  God revealed to us today that He is still here, that He cares about us, that we’re on the path that He’s set out for us, that He is working on us and molding us to be the parents that He wants us to be.  Here we were avoiding discussing adoption and God gently said- - I want you to talk about it.

Let’s not let our busy schedules drown out the beautiful voice of our Father.  Let’s not wait for that magical moment when God “shows up”.  Remember- - He’s ALWAYS here.  We just have to “open our eyes” to see Him.  J 

    

“Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

Open the eyes of my heart.

I want to see You.

I want to see You.

To see You high and lifted up

Shining in the light of your glory

Pour out Your power and love

As we sing holy, holy, holy…”   

(Open The Eyes Of My Heart by Michael W. Smith)

"When you search for me with all your heart, you will find me!"  ~Jeremiah 29:13 NCV   

     

     

Family and Waiting

We were really busy this past weekend with family.  We spent most of the day Saturday with Erik’s family, his nephew spent the night with us and we had lunch at my parents’ house after church on Sunday.  (The lunch was in celebration of my dad’s birthday which was earlier this month).  My parents had a full house!....  16 of us, to be exact.  J

I really enjoy family time.  I love how close we are, the laughs, the food, the memories, the music, etc.  I especially love my nieces and nephews running around.  On Sunday, my 12 year old niece said, “Hey- I heard you had to take your baby to the emergency room!!?”  Then my 10 year old niece quickly ran over with the most excited expression I’ve ever seen and said, “YOU GOT A BABY?!?!?!”

Bless it.  My 12 year old niece was actually referring to Zoe, our dog.  (see previous post about her injury… by the way- she’s on the road to recovery!)  Oh, and my 12 year old niece made Zoe a Get Well Card.  So precious.

Waiting on our baby is always on my mind.  Of course it’s nice to know that it’s on our family’s mind as well….  But in another way it’s painful.  In this situation for instance, having to tell my little niece that, “No, honey, we haven’t gotten a baby yet” and to watch disappointment completely wash over her…. makes me ache.  It’s sweet.  But it’s sad.

(Sigh)…..

It also makes me sad when I think about how my sister and I used to talk about how one day we’d be taking vacations together with our husbands and small children.  I know we can still take vacations together but her children are already 12, 10 and 5.  To put a positive spin on it, I guess her children could be babysitting ours on our vacations.

(Sigh)…..  Okay, moving on….    

April 20 marked “1 Month Waiting”.  (You know, “officially” waiting).  This month really flew by!  We’re still super busy with “controlling the wait”.  We’re kind of on track with P90X. J  We stayed on track pretty well even through our minor injuries but I got sick last week (a cold and sore throat).  I skipped 2 days of workouts so I’m doubling up this week.  WOWZER!!  Tonight’s workout was a DOOZY!!

Having said that, I’m spent.  Clean sheets are on the bed and are calling my name. J  Have a wonderful week, friends.

“…we are happy because of the hope we have of sharing God's glory.  We also have joy with our troubles, because we know that these troubles produce patience.  And patience produces character, and character produces hope.  And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts…” ~Romans 5:2-5 NCV     

P90X and Projects

Whew!  I am TIRED!!  But I felt like I should do a quick blog post since I haven’t checked in in almost 2 weeks.  J

Let me tell you- - April got off to a rough start!  Erik strained a muscle in his neck/back on Day 3 of P90X.  On Day 9, I strained my calf muscle.  On Day 12, Zoe (our DOG) had to be taken to the animal ER and she has a slipped disc in her back and torn soft tissue!  (Clearly, she’s not doing our exercise routine but the timing of her injury was wild.)  The vet said this type of injury is common in small dogs.  Any wrong twist or jump can cause damage to their spine! L She is recovering well but it’s very hard to follow the vet’s orders (keep her confined to her crate or small area for 14 days, no running, no jumping).  She’s super pitiful. 

Rascal (our cat) is so sweet and seems concerned about her.  He doesn’t leave her alone for long.  He stays close and just watches her.  Bless it. 

Erik and I on the other hand have fully recovered from our minor injuries.  J  Hopefully we’ve found the balance of “bringing it” while working out and “pacing ourselves”.  So, now we’re on Day 16 of P90X and we’re getting stronger and our endurance is increasing!  YAY!  We don’t really know how much weight we’ve lost because our scale is fluctuating.  We can weigh 3 times in a row and get 3 different readings.  Oh well.  At least we FEEL different!  J

We haven’t heard anything from our adoption agency and don’t really expect to until we get THE call!  We’re still praying that that call comes SOON!!  (YOUR prayers are appreciated too!!)….  Like I mentioned in my last post, we’re staying busy “controlling the wait”. 

*The first weekend in April we re-did our landscaping.  (oh my!! What a JOB!!!!)  It was Easter weekend and we spent some time that Sunday with family. 

*This past weekend we cleaned, I did my niece’s hair and make-up for prom, I sang with a band Saturday night (got home at 2am) and Erik and I sang on the praise team at church Sunday morning. 

Some projects that we have planned for the upcoming weekends are as follows:

*Plant flowers and a tree

*Pressure-wash the house

*Stain the deck

*Paint shutters

*Paint baby’s room

Of course among our busy schedules we have to squeeze in at least an hour a day for our P90X workout.  Oh- - not to mention we’re trying to follow their nutrition plan too.  That’s harder and can be more time consuming than the actual workouts!

Well, thanks for reading this mundane post!  Haha!  Our lives are busy but pretty normal right now.  I feel like we’re preparing ourselves and our home for a VERY special guest….. but a PERMANENT guest!!  So exciting....  I LOVE IT!!

"Dreams get you into the future and add excitement to the present." ~Robert Conklin

Have a great rest of the week, friends!

Controlling the Wait

Hi friends!!  I’ve been pretty absent from the “online world” lately.  Not intentionally- - I just go through phases like this.  J 

Unfortunately I have no new adoption news…..  We’re still WAITING!! 

As we were preparing to wait, we got told over and over by our adoption agency, “YOU control the wait.  Don’t let the wait control you.”  In other words, don’t sit around and wait….  Actively wait.

We have plenty of things in mind to keep us busy (I mean- - LIFE is busy enough, right?!).  We are saving for baby furniture, shopping for baby furniture, brain-storming about decorating ideas for the baby's room, shopping for paint colors, planning a vacation, etc.  We were planning on painting the baby’s room as soon as we got approved…… but we haven’t bought the paint yet…..  We will soon! 

You see, Erik’s birthday was March 24.  And you know what he wanted????  P90X.  Are you aware of this workout program?!  If not, you should look it up.  It is INTENSE!!!!  I decided if he was going to do this and get in better shape that I was going to join him!  It’s a DVD workout program that you do at home.  Erik was content with the idea of us doing it in our living room.  Not me.  Haha….  I wanted to transform our garage into a little gym!  J  Here’s a picture….

I also made some posters for motivation to hang in the garage/gym.  (the pic above was taken before I hung the posters)…  Here’s a few of the posters:

I made others that say- - “No excuses”, “No compromises”, “Bring It!”

We started on April 1.  And let me tell you- - it’s kicking our tails!!!!  I mean, for real.  We are literally sweating and out of breath before the WARM UP is over!!  Oh and let's not even talk about how stinkin' SORE we are!!!!  Surely we’ll be in good shape when this is all over...  It’s a 90 Day Program…We’re praying we can stick with it... surely we can!  J

Thank you for staying in touch with us!  I will keep you posted on our P90X progress and OF COURSE on any adoption news! 

I hope you all are well!  Have a great rest of the week!