IN AWE OF GOD’S GRACE

 

 

From the last few weeks I am much more in awe of God’s grace.  We had our first court hearing for our foster baby, and while I can not go into detail about what happened I can tell you that I am so thankful that God is in control.  He is growing our daily dependence on Him.

 

We have been trying to get the baby’s visits with his mom changed because he has been having very bad experiences.  We have also been trying to get it so that I (Stephanie) can sit in on his visits with him so he won’t be so upset.  We had thought that God had closed that door and were trying to work with his case worker to come up with another solution.  On Thursday God revealed to me that he indeed had not closed that door.  When I took the baby to his visit I passed him over to his mom and once again he began to cry.  I waited in the lobby for the parent educator to get there.  When he arrived he heard the baby crying and he asked me if I would be willing to stay.  I said yes. 

 

I am so thankful that God allowed me to do this.  I was able to see the needs of his mom and help her to best take care of the baby.  I will also be sitting in on future visits and am excited about being able to grow my relationship with his mom.  I ask that you would pray for this time that I am interacting with her.  Please pray that God would be glorified through my actions and my speech.  Pray for opportunities for me to share the gospel with her.  Please also pray that she would see Jesus in me. 

 

Being in daily dependence, not knowing what God’s plan is is the greatest place to be as we let God take care of the details.  It gives us a feeling of being completely free.  Though I don’t always feel this way, I wish I always would.  To live in complete dependence, just as God said we should, we are faced with our weakness.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

 

I will boast all the more in my weakness to the glory of God!

Snow Shoeing

We bought the girls snow shoes for Christmas,  and what a perfect time to do so with all the snow we have.  We got all bundled up and tested them out.  It was a blast.  We just walked around the neighborhood, but with all the snow berms the kids climbed up and fell down and just had a lot of fun.  We are excited to make new memories this year and this will be one way to start.

Merry Christmas!

Winter has come

The week of the 7th we heard there was going to be a snow storm and we got about an inch.  Whoop-dee-doo.  So when they said a storm was coming Wednesday my expectations were low.  I got home from my night shift Wednesday morning thinking we might get another skiff, but when I woke up around 5 p.m. I was pleasently surprised.  I finally decided to clear the driveway at about 8 p.m. since it did not look like it was going to let up, and before I left for work a couple hours later it looked like I had not touched the driveway.  During the night at work I kept looking outside to see if it ever stopped.  It didn’t.  When it was time to go home in the morning my van was covered in about a foot of new snow, and it took about 20-25 minutes just to dig myself free.  I was glad that I had the foresight to put the tire chains on before I left the night before.  Now the snow is practically to the kids’ waists and in untouched areas it is well above my knee.  When I first shoveled last week we had two feet on our deck, and since I cleared that off we have accumulated another foot. 

The good news is that there is another foot on the way over the Christmas holiday.  I was going to get on my roof to try to clear that off, but when I first tried to get up there I could not get a foothold, so hopefully it will not cave in:)  It makes the Christmas lights on the house look nice too!

Foster Update

Well, our time with our foster boy has been a continual joy.  He will be 5 months old on Christmas, and we will have had him with us for 3 months.  He is growing like a weed, sleeping like a baby (waking up every 3-5 hours still) and smiling at us and “cooing” at us as much as anyone could want.

His social worker told us that his placement with us is beginning to look more and more permanent due to circumstances with his mom.  Can’t give any details of course, but please pray for our continual trust and peace with the Lord’s will in whatever the final outcome will be.  We would love to be able to adopt him, but nothing is final until the judge’s ink is dry on the page, which could be a year away still.

Tea Party with Nana

Saturday was the annual tea party event at Nana’s.  Their cousin Oliva flew in with her mom Dena for a pre-Christmas visit, so she was able to join the girls for the momentous occasion.  Each year for the past few years the girls, and Nana too, dress in their Sunday best, or maybe Tea Party best, find some strange hats, and sit down to tea and cookies.  They usually talk about anything excet the local gossip and anything political.  Topics usually center on grade school events, the latest greatest chapter books, and favorite animals.  I just made the last stuff up since I do not choose to hang out for this event, but it sounds good.  I took a nap, so the actual details are amiss to me. 

Ice Skating

The kids had a field trip to Ice Palace on Friday with thier home-school group.  They had never been ice skating before.  The only skating experience they had was roller skating, which though similar enough, in my humble opinion is still different.  They were a bit anxious about their new endeavour, but I assured them that it would be easy and fun.  In my own experience I had a better time on the ice than on a hardwood floor with wheels.  

When they got on the ice, they were a bit leary, but quickly caught on to a comfortable level.  In Samantha’s words, she started off as the slowest kid on the ice, and by the end of the day she was “fine.”  Lizzie was fearless from the get go.  She was about as comfortable on the ice as she is in her sneakers from the start.

Needless to say they had a great time and cannot wait to go back again.  Hopefully we can make a trip sometime again before the ice melts for the season.

Thanksgiving prep

Since the girls are getting older, we thought it wise, (and very exciting for them), to show them how to cook some things for Thanksgiving.  Stephanie took the task to train as they helped prepare the turkey by cleaning it out, which according to them was “gross.”  They also helped make pies.  They made apple, lemon merengue(sp?), chocolate cream, and pumpkin cheese cake.  They were all very good.  They were also able to make dinner rolls all on their own, and they turned out very good. 

I think I know who is establishing a career as my future cook ;)

Pretty, the pies are too!

Potluck

This past Sunday we had our small group over for a small potluck, and since this small (growth) group is new it made a good opportunity for us to get to know each other a little better.  Glen made his “famous” chili, of which everyone wanted to know if the meat was from squirrel or not because of his squirrel catching stories.  We also had a delicious potato soup from Brooke.  The rest was snack and desert type food.  We had the karaoke set up on the TV, (which I tested well before anyone showed up), so the kids spent much of the time singing songs while the grown-ups spent much of the time in conversation.  After a bit, we played Guitar Hero III courtesy of Matt, only to find out that we do not have a future in the video game band business.  I am better at listening to music than playing it, even if I am just pushing buttons.  We wrapped up the night with an activity that Roland made for the kids about being thankful, and most especially for Jesus’ death on the cross.  Amen to that.  Then he led us in some worship songs, and that made a great close for the night.  I am certainly going to enjoy getting to know this group this year.  We had a great time in fellowship and fun activities.

Birthday party

Elizabeth had her 8th birthday party this weekend.  She was looking forward to it for a couple of weeks, and it was fun to see her get excited about turning 8.  She had quite the turnout for a small party.  We just had her invite a couple of friends, and of course the grandparents were there, but even with those few it was a packed house, which resulted in a spoiled 8 year old yet again.