My personal remake of Psalm 137:1-6.  It seems timely as we enter the Christmas season/extravagant spending season. :)

 Surrounded by a culture of excess, I wrap my arms around my middle and strive to think of what Heaven will really be like.

I sing my songs of praise, but at times the melody is drowned out by my pain.
My scoffers shake their heads sadly at my "ignorance" or openly ridicule my choice to live for that which I have not seen.  A culture of excess and intelligentsia has little room or need of Jesus. That's what they tell themselves as they use money as a balm over the emptiness they have grown used to ignoring, or fill it with yet another philosophical idea to debate among their elite groups.

 What keeps the song in my heart when the hurt surrounds me--both my own and every other face I encounter along the way?  The smiles are both a mask and real.

This is not my home! I do not belong here!  I will never fit in! Yet I get confused and try to be a chameleon and live in this Babylon without sticking out like a sore thumb. I forget for a moment and try to make myself comfortable in this foreign soil.

Give me a renewed sense of culture shock Lord.  Let me live in daily remembrance that you have called me apart and I walk by faith and not by sight.

Me? Pray for the President??

One of my favorite teachers has made a wise and powerful suggestion on her blog and I thought I would pass it on here for you to consider doing with me.   On the eve of our nation electing a new President, write out a prayer for him.  If you do it now, it won't be biased with your opinions or clouded by your thoughts of how the election went, but will be more pure in motive.  Can't think of what to pray?  Imagine if it were your husband or father being elected--what would you want people to be praying for him?  Then, over the coming weeks, months, and years, you will have something to pray for this man, regardless of whether he was your candidate of choice or not.  Can you imagine what a difference it would make if people spent as much time praying for their President as they did complaining about him?  Or, heaven help us, forwarding emails about how wretched he is?
 I go to sleep at peace tonight, knowing that no matter what happens tomorrow, my God is sovereign.  He is trustworthy.  Write out your prayers tonight--it's your opportunity. Go and vote tomorrow--it's your responsibility and privilege. Then, take some deep breaths and begin a journey of prayer for a new term of President for this great nation we are blessed to be a part of.

The Beauty of Adoption

 

February 2003: Playing with my babies at the Baby House in Russia--at this point we are waiting until our court date to finalize the adoption. We could only visit the kids each day--they couldn't come live with us in our hotel. We were sad about that, but we probably needed the rest--there wasn't much sleeping after they were officially ours.

 

In honor of today being Orphan Sunday, I thought I’d put a picture of my youngest two children during the time they were both legally still considered orphans. Although it’s been almost 10 years since then, it's still so clear in my mind how the act of stepping out in faith and in spite of our fears changed who we were. I trust God in a way I had never had before the adoption; my faith had not been tested so hard. I believe Him differently than I did before the adoption; He showed Himself worthy of putting my absolute belief in Him during that journey, even when it didn’t make sense. I love Him differently than I did before the adoption; once they put my children in my arms and I felt the love flow through me—the same, exact love I felt for my two biological children, I had a small idea of what God did for us when He called each one of us to be His very own—adopted heirs with His own biological Son, Jesus. Really, God? You love me like you love Jesus? How can that be? Ahhh, but I have an idea, because my love for my children is the same. The same! I’m so glad God allows us to participate with Him in His plans!