News!!

We are so excited to announce that we are adopting a baby from Ethiopia!! This has been something we have been praying about for a couple years now and after God doing a big work on our hearts, we are doing it!!

We still desire to have biological children and believe that we will in God's time. But we feel confident that this is exactly where we are supposed to be right now!!

We have chosen to give this 100% over to God and we have faith that we will be provided for and protected throughout this process. The more we learn about the ins and outs of international adoption, the more we realize that this is going to be quite the journey and we aren't taking any of it lightly. We know challenges lay ahead! However, we are ready and can't wait to grow closer to God and grow stronger in our faith.

God has already started giving us wonderful signs that HE is with us in this. We know that God loves adoption and we feel so blessed that he is choosing to grow our family by blessing us with a little munchkin from afar!!

Please check my blog frequently, as I will be posting prayer request for our little one. It is an odd feeling having NO control whatsoever over this child but it leaves us with no option but to put this little life, and its prenatal development and safety completely in God's hands.

I will also be writing more later on why we are adopting, why it's Ethiopia and all that good stuff.

We are super excited to get going on this crazy journey! Keep checkin in......

RADICAL

I posted a few weeks ago about a book I read, Radical by David Platt. If you haven't read it, I strongly suggest that you go to the closest book store or hop onto amazon.com a get this book.

In a nutshell, this book talks about how our faith, the commands given to us in the bible, and just how our overall relationship with God gets very mixed up in our "American" culture. It talks about the very real and often unavoidable struggles between the things of our culture and how it affects our Christian walk and purpose here on earth. Don't worry, it's not one of those books that says all wealth is evil and that we need to sell everything we own. However, it has definitely helped me refocus on what is and what isn't important and how I should be using what I have been given for the betterment of the world and people around me. Not only because that's what we should probably do as Christians, but because it is in fact what we have been COMMANDED to do. Its crazy how easily I forget things of such high importance!

It's awesome, encouraging and a must read!!! It has really encouraged me to get into the word and really hear and do what it says!! Read it and tell me what you think! I would love to hear how other people receive this book!!

On another note, I just LOVE my fam!! The Girods are here this weekend (Betho was here all week chillin with my Mom while my dad was out of the country) and Cody got here yesterday. We had a GREAT day today! They came over this afternoon, we headed to Barnaby's (my FAV) for lunch and then came back over here and put little Maxieboo down for a nap in my room. We created the coziest little nap time environment for him, consisting of 3 fans, 4 comforters for his palate, and then 2 baby blankets to cuddle with. I mean he was living in luxury. However, he did not see it that way and after a mere 20 minutes of snoozing his cute little head popped up and he was wide awake for the rest of the afternoon. He is a little sick with his first cold (break my heart-depressing) so I think he was a bit out of sorts. But that's ok, he joined our party. We made a huge spread of hummis, cheese, grapes, turkey, chocolate and chocolate wine and all watched football! We thought chocolate wine was going to be the best thing ever and it was, in our opinion, almost un-drinakble. It was so weird and I can still taste it lingering in my mouth! Gross!!

I just love them. Can't wait until they can actually move here and we can do this kind of thing every weekend. Having a twin and then having her marry one of your husband's best friends is just the best thing ever!! Once we get our house (which is is 2 weeks!) I am going to get a pack and play and a rocking chair so Max can have slumber parties with Aunt KK & Uncle L!

Tomorrow we have church and then small group lunch/football watching. It should be a great day!! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Football season!

I think I post this same post every year, and think one of these years that it is going to get better. But unfortunantly my opinion of football has not changed over the past several years. I mean I am SO bored! No matter what I do I cannot find the joy or fun in watching a football game and I can usually find fun in anything!! I need some advice on how to embrace the fun of fall football b/c everyone else seems to love it but me!? Am I just wierd!? I just do not see the appeal in any way what so ever!

However, now that we have a house I can probably fill the hours with fun little chores and crafts!! Anyone out there who feel the same is more than welcome to come over and make cookies and decorate!! :)

Happy Monday! Glad it's about behind us! :)

Blessed regardless of my circumstances

This has been one of those weeks where I have been having a little personal pity party over some things that have been going on in my life. The good thing is that I know my self worth is not measured by my accomplishments, good traits, bad traits, life stages or anything in between. My self worth lies in the fact that I was fearfully and wonderfully made by my heavenly father and was made in His image. I was created to be a light on this earth and walk around on my two feet, day in and day out living out my life to show God's glory here on this earth. One thing I know for sure is that I was not put on this earth to be bitter and entitled. I want the life that God has predestined for me since the beginning of time. I want to stand at the gates of heaven and hear, "Well done my good and faithful servant" and what I want more than that is for as many others as possible to stand with me at that gate and hear that same thing, because I allowed God to do a work through me and brought others to him!!

I am so blessed to have the life I have. Its overwhelming at times that I have been given so much. I know that "to those who are given much, much is expected", and I pray that I will never get in the way of what God expects from me because of my own silly emotions and occasional pity parties. Plus pity parties suck and are depressing! No thanks!!!

We sang this at church this morning. God speaks to me daily through songs. He must know how my brain works and how I retain scripture. He spoke to me today through this song.

Every blessing you pour out I turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say, blessed be the name of the lord, blessed be your name Jesus. Blessed me the name of the lord, blessed be your glorious name!! He gives and takes away, He gives and takes away.
My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name!

He has given me much and has taken little. My heart will CHOOSE to say blessed be your name Jesus until I am standing you in heaven one day!! :)

Boston!

Boston is:

Chowder eating.....

Monument hiking....whew....

Statue looking.....

Pizza sharing....

Window Shopping........

Canolli eating....

new culture exploring......

Baseball watching......

scenery loving......

musket shooting learning......

knowledge gaining....

food smelling....

lots of walking.....

hot dog eating.....

American history touring.....

Italian food eating......

bed and breakfasting"ing"......

Whale watching.....

Witch hunting in Salem......

Dunkin Donut eating......

&

MUCH MORE!!

Boston is AWESOME. It is so clean and beautiful. Filled with history, great food, you can get everywhere on foot or on a subway, and it has endless things to do. We had such a wonderful time learning all about the history of the town, eating lots and lots in the "North End" which is like a little Italy, going to Chinatown, whale watching, and going to Fernway to watch Texas kill the Red Sox. We stayed in the most beautiful bed and breakfast and filled every second of our trip with fun!! I would recommend Boston to anyone who is looking for a fun, interesting, relaxing, exciting vacation!

Vacay, must read book and precious little Sophie Tate!

Lance & I leave for Boston soon and I am so excited!! A little break from the 110 degree weather, and the never ending mental and physical "work" that comes with my job will be SO nice!! We have actually never been on a trip with just the two of us before and I can't wait.

So far we have lots of fun things lined up. We will be driving to a little town outside Boston to go whale watching, going to a Rangers game at Fenway, doing the Freedom Trail, touring some of the old historic neighborhoods, and lots more fun stuff!! I have been an extreme nerd and have researched all the stuff we will be doing and then made Lance listen to me read about all of it. We wouldn't want to show up somewhere and not know the history! hehe! :) I was a little worried that Boston would be under water by now but I think we are in the clear!

I am going on an electronic hiatus and turning off my phone for the entire week! I don't want to risk seeing an email from work and then worrying about having to deal with anything, plus I just want to remember how it feels to not be connected 24/7 and just worry about hanging out with my hubby and enjoying our vacation together!!

When we get home we will be getting very close to the big move! We have a wedding or something almost every weekend in Sept. so the move is going to be here before we know it. I can't believe we will be living in Sugar Land in a few months. It still kind of makes me chuckle to myself. :)

On a different note I am reading a book called RADICAL by David Platt and it is a MUST READ!! I will post more on how that book has completely moved me and made me really re-evaluate some of the commands given to us in the Bible! It is awesome. I read some of it out loud to Lance all the way to the woodlands today b/c I just couldn't keep it to myself. On that note, we were driving to the Woodlands to meet Jamie & Jay's (Jamie is my cousin) little baby Sophie Tate Blackburn. She is adorable. So dainty and girly! I held her for hours while she cuddled on my shoulder. She is just soooo sweet!! Enjoy a pic of this little angel!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a wonderful week! :)

We got a house!

We found out yesterday that will officially be home owners on Sept. 30th!! Yipee!! Isn't it cute!? We are really excited about this new little venture. We will be doing lots of painting and a few big projects and I can't wait to get in there and get started. I walked around home depot today for an hour and realized I have no idea how to make sure your floors match your cabinets and your counter tops match your walls etc. etc. But I'm sure I will figure it out with a little help from my "decorative" friends! :) I will post inside pics when we are officially the owners!!

Wish me luck on the commute. We will be moving to Sugar Land and I work about 30 miles from the house. That part is a bit depressing but I think it will be worth the little drive!