Trying to Figure It All Out

I just finished the book, Crazy Love, last night. It was very good and I'm looking forward to ordering and reading the new David Platt book, Radical. Both deal with the idea of true Christianity and "the American dream." I have personally struggled with this since my trips to Africa! When you see hungry children that have NOTHING, it changes the way you view things. I really struggled with building our current house; on one hand, it was too big and too nice, on the other hand, we would never pass a home-study to adopt again without more room (oh, and I might have lost my mind with everyone piled on top of each other one more winter!) My compromise was big, but not fancy; we got a lot of room with a finished basement, etc, that didn't have as big of price tag. I don't agree that being poor is more "spiritual" but I have a keen awareness that one day we will answer for what we are given. Scripture is clear that to whom much is given, much is required. In the worldwide arena, we have been given MUCH!

With that in mind, I am always scouting for children that need a home (after all, I have room....) but I really know that I am not supposed to search too hard until next year. I never like waiting once I have an idea of what I'm supposed to do. That's another tough thing to understand - why God calls us to wait when we think we should contribute at the moment. Although at any time, I am completely capable of convincing myself that I can't possibly adopt again - all those people are right, I do have my hands quite full and I have a hard time balancing it all now! I know, however, that the reality is that we are called to adopt again, at least one more time and we are willing.

So, for now, I focus on what I'm supposed to do and July is full. We are heading out of town for a few days tomorrow, then I have family coming from out of town, then we have VBS, then it's August and time for my big back-to-school clean, organize and plan!

The summer is flying by, but we have made good family memories. Yesterday was great fun as well. After church we had friends over for a cook-out. The kids played and swam and we adults talked (and ate!) Last night, Aunt Deb headed to the fire-works with us, although for the first time, my two big kids did something with their friends instead of coming with us. There are lots of occasions lately that there are "only" seven kids instead of nine! Here's Alyssa in the van on the way to fire-works. She started reading the Left Behind book series and they are rather challenging to put down; good thing I bought her that book light.

Here we are in our festive red, white and blue watching the fire-works. Aunt Deb was taking a picture with her phone, not texting her friends! Elijah yelled the colors of each one; I've never had an under two year old know his colors before.

I hope you had a happy July 4th; we are so blessed to live in this great country!