Amazing Love

Thank you, North Point Ministries for your latest series: Amazing Stories. You continue to bless our family and we are thankful.

Clay Scroggins:

Part 1: From Board to Boat

Rodney Anderson:

Part 2: Fighting Fear

Justin Grunewald:

Part 3: Moving Past the Past

And the today's sermon with Andy Stanley:

Part 4: No Explanation Required

Lord, You continue to humble our hearts. It hurts at times, but it's so freeing. Thank you for loving us so much. Thank you for Brett, and thank you for entrusting us with Briley Reese and Avery Kate in this lifetime. Thank you for your constant guidance, for molding our hearts, for drawing us near. Continue to stir our hearts with your desires. Continue giving us the courage to take each new step into what you're calling us to do ... courage to obey no matter how big or little. Help us not ask the what's or why's, but instead may we have faith to step out into the unknown and simply obey with pure hearts, wholeheartedly. May we not have moments of regret, only relief ... and your amazing love and joy. You alone are all we need. You amaze us, and with thankful hearts we sing of your praises. May all we say, all we do, bring you sweet, beautiful glory. We love you. In Him we sincerely pray ...

Hillsong United

"Hosanna"

I see the king of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes
The whole earth shakes

I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing
The people sing

Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees
We're on our knees

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to
Eternity

Hosanna in the highest

Summer Fun in the Sun

A little bit of water, a little bit of sun and a whole lot of fun!

 She was very excited about this set up above! (Heehee!)

 Dancin' to some tunes ... love, love

 Yuuummy!

 Silly sisters!

Silly goose!

A Gimpse of God's Beauty

Briley LOVES picking flowers for me and others. She would pick them from everyone's yard and business, if she could. This was our first time cutting bouquets from our lily garden this year ... Our sweet girl was excited to say the least :)

And, yes, they smell as pretty as they look :)

Heartbroken

Ask and you shall receive ... I've prayed so many times that God would open my heart, my eyes, my mind, my soul to what He wants. For the past few weeks He has opened all of the above to the country of Haiti. Two of our friends returned from there about two weeks ago on separate mission trips. Most of the stories they shared made my tummy turn and brought me to tears ... spoke to my heart in ways I didn't see coming. My cousin is there right now and our friends/ neighbors (a couple in our small group, in fact) will be leaving for their very first mission trip on July 8 to, you guessed it ... Haiti. I'm looking forward to being educated even more as they return and share their own stories with us, as well. The conditions of and stories about the Haitian people ... the Haitian children are unbelievable. So much brokenness. It's heart wrenching and I'm sincerely heartbroken for them.

Where there is an endless amount of need, there is a lot of good being done, also. Because of our friends, we now know about the following organizations:

http://www.3seams.com/ 

http://apparentproject.org/index.html 

http://www.newlife4kids.org/about_world_harvest_missions.php

http://www.newlife4kids.com/index.html 

and

http://www.unitedchristiansinternational.org/

Praying for God to prepare us, lead us and give us clarity as to what He wants us to do with all He has revealed.

Rainbow Cupcakes

My hope was to make these cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day, but, uh, that didn't happen. :) Instead, we put our own girlie twist on them and used the neon gel food coloring that I already had ... bright purple, green, orange and pink. Fun, fun! Briley loves to help in the kitchen, so, she had a blast. Avery even had her turn in placing the cupcake liners into the pans ... and taste testing, of course.

Ta-da! :)

Breakfast with The Girls

A couple of weeks ago, Avery started showing interest in eating at the big girl table. Guess she's not a baby anymore. *tear* ;)

Waiting

I think we all go through seasons where God calls us to wait. I've learned how wise it is to wait instead of getting ahead of God's beautiful, perfect timing. I've learned the hard way several times. Last month, these verses were part of my quiet time: "I am still confident of this:  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalms 27:13-14 The study notes for these verses were as follows:

Waiting

PS 27:13-14

"When David is not talking directly to God in his psalms, he is usually talking to himself--speaking out affirmations of his faith so that his heart and soul can embrace the truths he's hidden away in his mind. When our circumstances appear bleak, when God answers our prayers with "wait," we can follow David's example. He knows from his own past experience that God will bring about his own perfect will in his own perfect time; reminding himself of this when times are tough gives him confidence and joy. When we are feeling uncertain or impatient about God's activity in our lives or in the life of someone we love, we can repeat David's affirmation and gain strength. If we meditate on the words of this psalm, we can give thanks to God. When we place our hope in him, we will never be disappointed."

Our desire to adopt, whether a son or a daughter, has grown stronger and deeper since I last blogged about it. But to be honest, there was a time when we sort of pushed it away in a sense. I won't say we dropped the topic, because it was brought up during our small group discussions throughout the Fall, Winter and Spring, but again, we did, kind of ignore it for a bit. I think it was due to a few frustrations, and at times, a lack of obedience, a lack of confidence. Or did we ignore it? We never stopped praying. Maybe it was part of what we were called to do ... wait. Something did happen though. As soon as we humbly opened our hearts back up, wholeheartedly, and stopped ignoring, but started acknowledging the never-ending and undeniable whispers that God has been and continues sending us, He started blessing us with even more of His peace, His truth and an endless amount of encouragement as we continue to wait. 

Now, we still go through moments where one of us, or both, start asking the questions - How?, When?, How?, How? Oh, and the What If's? not to mention the Can Not's ... They're slowing down though and becoming few and far between. Each time these moments hit us, this fear hits us, He reminds us through scripture, encouragement from friends and/ or strangers, even through our pediatrician at one point, sermons, books, music, or through each other that He has it all taken care of. Where this might be bigger than us, this isn't too big for Him. All we have to do is continue seeking Him, trusting Him and resting in His arms knowing that He's right by our side. He's not going anywhere. One day at a time, walking with Him as He leads our family through this journey that was written as a part of His plan. It's too beautiful, way too big, to be our own.

Sold-Out

About a month ago, a friend and I were talking about what it may look like to be completely and wholeheartedly sold-out to Christ. She shared a quote that struck my heart, but by the following morning I couldn't remember all of the words. Later that afternoon, during my break, I began reading that week's Bible study homework for small group. We have since completed the book, but the ladies were reading "He Speaks to Me" by Priscilla Shirer. That particular week we were going to be discussing Part Five, consisting of three chapters. I turned to this section and it's title caught my attention ... "A Sold-Out Hunger. Hmmm ... That's kinda funny. We were just talking about being sold-out to Christ last night," I thought. He definitely had my attention, as did the rest of the book.

That evening, I made it a point to ask my friend for the quote again. This time, I wrote it down and decided to keep it where I can read it everyday, if I choose: "The man or woman who is wholly or joyously surrendered to Christ can't make a wrong choice. Any choice will be the right one." A.W. Tozer

"Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied." Luke 6:21

I have a hunger and He is truly satisfying that hunger each day. I'm not saying that I don't have my struggles. Oh, believe me, I do, but that's okay, because His grace is sufficient and He continues to strip me of myself. It's humbling and comforting. 

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

This has been one of my favorite scriptures for years. In fact, we incorporated it into our wedding program six and half years ago. It was part of my quiet time a week ago, but for whatever reason, this time it spoke to me in a different way. My Bible contains study notes on certain pages and this specific page had one for this verse. Here's what it says:

Delighting in God

PS 37:4

"David expresses in this psalm a deep truth that he's discovered: If he finds his life's delight in the Lord, all his desires are fulfilled. To delight in someone is to find joy in their presence, to welcome their unique qualities and to express pleasure in their company. When we make the Lord the object of our delight, spending time in his presence and reveling in his character, our deepest heart's desires gradually align themselves with his own. We discover that what we want is what he wants--and how delighted he is to honor our heart's desire by keeping us in the center of his will! As we believe in him and grow to love him more day by day, we will be "filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy," for we will be enjoying the ultimate prize of our faith, the ultimate desire of our hearts; the eternal salvation of our souls (1Pe 1:8-9)."

 

My desire is that the house I live in, the clothes I wear, the color of my hair ;), my job title, the car I drive, the music I listen to, etc. not be what defines me. I desire to have an open heart and mind for whatever, however He wants to use me to fulfill His will on a daily basis. My desire is to see through His eyes, love how He loves. My desire is for my heart to break for what breaks His, for my hands, my feet, my words, my actions to all be His. When I fall, like I do so often, I desire His arms to catch me, dust me off and set me on my way again. I desire to please Him. My desire is to be sold-out to Christ. Everything else will fall into place, because He's in control, not me. And a big HALLELUJER! for that.

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it." Isaiah 30:21

 

I can feel Him preparing us for whatever it is He's preparing our family for. My prayer is that He continues to do so as we wait. What a journey. I'm sincerely grateful.

Haiti Needs Our Help

Take a moment and read the post on the following link:

http://apparentproject.blogspot.com/2011/06/flood.html

Will you, please, consider donating to and/ or praying for the people of Haiti? Can you spare a little of what you have to give to those who have nothing? A $1, $5, $10 or more if you feel led? They need our help, they need our love.
 

http://www.apparentproject.org/contribute.html and indicate "flood Relief" on the paypal notes section. Thank you.

Hello, Old Friend ...

Yep, it's been a while. Almost nine months to be exact, and I've missed out on sharing so many special moments, so many pictures, so many high's and low's, so many wonderful, amazing "Aha" moments. That's okay though. We're doing wonderful. We're filled with peace. The girls are growing, they're beautiful, they're full of energy (more than I think I can handle at times ;), full of life. I love my husband more and more every day, and he never ceases to amaze me from the way he loves our daughters to the way he loves me. I am so honored to be his wife and so sincerely grateful that we're raising a family together ... living our life together, as one. We're living one day at a time and in awe of the things God is doing in us and all around us. We're loving, we're learning, we're counting, we're gaining, we're losing, we're waiting, we're working, we're praying, we're laughing, we're playing, we're painting, we're jumping, we're chasing, we're tickling, we're sharing, we're fussing, we're disciplining, we're obeying, we're growing, we're baking, we're giggling, we're dancing, we're singing, we're giving, we're heartbroken (in an amazing way), we're letting go and we're waiting, we're excited, we're praying, we're praying, we're praying and we're loving, we're loving, we're loving ... and we're full of joy. So much peace and joy.

I'm not going to try and play catch up from the past several months. The thought of that is exhausting ;), BUT I may have to share a few random flash backs with some pics here and there. For now, I will leave you with a slideshow that was made during the first of the year and a video from a few weeks ago. Gosh, I feel like the girls have changed so much since even the video ... they have, actually. They're changing daily, and I'm enjoying every moment, no matter how rewarding or exhausting!

Here's the slideshow: (Please scroll down and pause our playlist at the bottom of our blog so that it doesn't interfere with the music in the slideshow and the video below :)
http://saradharperphotography.com/shows/greenwayserenbe/

Ra Ra played around with her camera a couple of weeks ago and we reaped the rewards of her oh-so beautiful talent.


Greenway Family (test) from sara harper on Vimeo.

God is good.