The Royal Wedding here on earth….

Besides the kiss… I was totally in awe of the Royal Wedding yesterday! I really enjoyed watching all the festivities and of course watching the bride walk down the aisle. I’ve been praying for William and Kate for about a week now because I realized how much of an impact they will make on England, Europe, and the world during their lifetime. Princess Diana really paved the way for helping the less fortunate and broken hearted and I pray Kate and William will do the same!

I wanted to share some interesting thoughts the Lord has laid on my heart these past couple days. It’s so beautiful to think about the Bride and Groom from a spiritual stand point! As humans, we all have the choice to make the long walk down the aisle to our groom (The Lord). As a follower of Chirst I want to be gorgeous in His sight on the day I reach the alter! The symbol of the church as the Bride and God as the Groom is so powerful when you think of it the way our society sees weddings. We put a lot of time and effort into our special day, we make ourselves look better than ever, and we plan our lives together as a new couple.

So, let me paint a picture….. In regards to our relationship with the Lord, it’s interesting to think about when we approach those doors (Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”) to the church and entered into a relationship with God that we sure don’t look very pretty. We’re beat up, by the world and the decisions we’ve made, but as we enter the building and chose to walk with Christ we are washed, cleansed, and made radiant….And in some ways our walk down that long; beautiful aisle is our journey, with Christ, on this earth.

That walk to the Father is amazing because we are now His bride, and that will never change, but what’s so important is thinking about what and who we’re going to see on the journey to the alter. Thousands of people will watch you make that pilgrimage so how are you going to reflect the Lord to those around you. And, like in Westminster Abbey, we may see trees along the path but will they be empty or full of fruit? (“This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.” Colossians 1:6)

I’ve been encourage to think of my life as a journey to the Father and to be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control (The Fruits the Holy Spirit gives us [Galatians 5:22-23]) to the world around me. I want my walk down the aisle to be more beautiful then anything else in this world and pray it will bring other people to His throne as well!

So, in honor of this spectaular event I had a small group of college girls over to watch the Royal Wedding yesterday. Here are some pics!

Ellie was wearing her crown for the special event too!!

My living room center piece!

One of the white feather wreaths for decoration on the food table and front door!

He is Risen!

This past Saturday we went to watch our friend Carlee play OU Volleyball and this was Ellie’s start to the adorable outfits for the weekend….it was cold and rainy so she had to wear jeans but she got to show off this cute top!

After the Volleyball game we went Easter Egg Hunting….but it wouldn’t have been right to start without some sugar to get us energized….

Yummy!!!

Ellie enjoyed playing with her eggs…she even found the “gold egg” which won her a chocolate bunny!!

On Easter Sunday this was Ellie’s dress from Nonna!!

And these were my Easter gift from our new garden….What a beautiful symbol of Jesus death and resurrection! These roses came from a vine that is unbelievably thorny. It literally hurts to pick and cut these flowers off the vine, but it’s so worth the amazing smell and enjoyment they bring.

This year these roses symbolize the pain Jesus endured for me that would bring me such a beautiful life!

Happy Good Friday!!

In light of what this weekend means to our lives, I wanted to show some wonderful things we’ve been doing, and seeing God do, in our family this Easter season.

My mom, Nonna, sent us an Easter package with lots of adorable goodies!! Included in our box was an Easter craft and plastic eggs of course….

So, Ellie and I put stickers all over the Cross as well as ourselves….

But, as you can tell from the picture, Ellie learned who Jesus was!

Another beautiful thing that happened this week was….. “Our First Fruits Arrived”!!

Two days ago our strawberries in the garden were growing and green……

And today, Good Friday, they’ve turned red! They’re ready to be used for their purpose….Also today, we celebrate the fact that Jesus saw His time had come and He knew His purpose was to give His life for us! Thank you Jesus for our undeserving gift but great sacrifice for each one of us!

And just for some fun….Here are some cute pics of Ellie with ‘live’ Easter Bunnies! She loved these little guys!!

LOVE………..

Our call to be the Rebekah’s of the world!!

Over the past week God has revealed some amazing insights into my current place in life and I’d like to share them with you all! My mentor shared a scripture about Rebekah last week and it got me thinking about God’s call for us to really love and parent the world around us!

In Genesis 24 we hear the story of Rebekah as she prepares to marry Isaac. Rebekah’s great uncle was Abraham and we all know what God promised him…’that He would multiply Abraham’s seed and that his descendants would be a blessing to the entire earth’. As Rebekah left to be married her family and friends blessed her as a reflection of their faith in Abraham’s God and His covenant with a proclamation too closely paralleled to God’s covenant promise to Abraham to be coincidental!

Genesis 24:60, “And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

Our sister, may you increase
to thousands upon thousands;
may your offspring possess
the cities of their enemies.”

My mentor Becky is obviously, literally and Rebekah, and as she shared this scripture I thought about what Adam and I have been going through in regards to adoption and having more children. And now that I’ve read through that verse, and more of Genesis, I realized that we’re ALL called to love, speak to, and ultimately parent hundreds and thousands of younger individuals in our lives….that’s how we win the world to Christ!

Then, last night I was reading “Sun Stand Still” by Steven Furtick and this sentence hit me!! “I’m not raising my kids to survive the world; I’m raising them to change the world”. WOW, how powerful! God has obviously led us to have a multitude of children but the reason WHY couldn’t be better summed up than in this sentence!!

I’ve been thinking the past few days about how I could end up parenting anywhere between 4-6 children in my immediate home, but for generations to come those children, our college/high school students, and all we come in contact with will be under some kind of influence by us…..and more notable the Spirit that lives inside us!

Eeeks, that’s kinda scary…I mean we love kids, Adam and I met at a Christian sports camp for children, but having possibly 6 kids of our own and knowing the impact they will have on their children and their children’s children is overwhelming. Every word and action we share with all our children, students and friends affects the Kingdom on earth for eternity.

Anyway, I know all of this is just preparing me for a bigger future than I could have ever expected, but that’s God for you, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to parent even one of God’s beautiful creations…in Ellie! So, I’m praying over all of you that you too could have the vision of being a Rebekah, that leaves this world better than it was before, and that hopefully you all would be praying for Adam and I as we continue the journey of multiplying and raising all our children to passionately love and follow Christ!

NEW MEMORIES…..

Upon request, I’m posting pictures of our new home!! We feel beyond blessed to have an amazing new house with more space, indoors and out, and most importantly and new home to make memories in. It was hard leaving our last home because we picked out everything and Adam’s dad was actually the builder so….it had everything we wanted but we knew someday we’d desire a larger yard for kids to run in and a more spacious living room for hosting and playing!!

Needless to say, we love the new digs and look forward to making even better memories as we add to the family, expand our fellowshipping ability, and garden (real herbs, fruits, and veggies)!!! Come over for a visit anytime….we’d love to have you!! And pictures just don’t did it justice but I tried….

This is the entry way from our front door!

Formal dining room…


Our guest room which has a ‘jack and jill’ bathroom attached to Ellie’s room

Ellie’s room…still adorable just not so pink…

Adam and I’s room!

Our play room/hangout room/pull out coach bed for even more guest!!

And our kitchen table spot that will eventually have a new table once we find one!!

Two is better than one….Right??

So, we’ve officially moved from Moore, OK to Norman, OK! We’re back in the town Adam and I first lived in together and where he grew up. Now that Adam’s the college pastor and the church offices have moved to Main Street in Norman we thought this would be the perfect time to head back down to the city we love so much!! However, this was part of the burden I had on my heart when I wrote my last blog because obviously moving into a new home is a huge financial leep and I really didn’t put it all together that we had so many wonderful things on our hearts that would cost so much…

Anyway, since my last post I know many of you, including Adam and I, have been praying about what the Lord is leading us to do and we feel confident that He’s saying, “Two is better than one!” So, after Adam and I’s trip to Haiti in May we’ll see where the Lord’s timing falls for us having another child of our own. We’ve been blessed with two amazing opportunities for financial support towards making the steps to have more children of our own as well as adoption!!! God is so good and we’re beyond blessed to have so many people who love us and want to see God’s calling on our lives fulfilled.

We also have two opportunities to use ‘connections’ in Haiti and Africa for adoption and we’re hoping to get some information and make some sort of plan over the next two months towards starting one of those processes. Utilizing these relationship will be financially better for us rather than going through an agency so we appreicate all the prayers as we work through all the details of which country, what gender, and what age….We know God has and will ‘knit our children together in the womb’ (Psamls 139:13), wether mine or another women’s, and he has and will specifially placed them in our lives to do great things for His kindgom someday!

I wanted to give you a short update, since some of you have been asking, and also leave you with this funny photo of Ellie and I on her first pair of roller skates!!! The smallest size they had was exactly her size, toddler 6, and she loved…..skating!!! And my next blog will be of pictures of the new home since that’s been a request as well!!

DEEPER STILL…

So, I started this Journey, of blogging, about two years ago. I wanted to keep all of our friends and family in the loop on my pregnancy and life in general since we live far away from so many of our loved ones. And now that Ellie is not a baby anymore…I think it’s time to take this blog to another level!! I’m wanting to go deeper!! I’m hoping to share more about our lives, as the Barnett’s, and also talk about God’s goodness to us on a daily basis.

First of all, Adam and I had similar upbringings since we attended the same Christian sports camp, had loving parents and siblings, and found our way back to the Lord at almost the exact same time. Being a pastor’s wife now…people always think we’ve had, and do have, a perfect life! And wow, that couldn’t be further from the truth but we do have a perfect God that allows us to lean on him through all circumstances and challenges as well as lead and guide us daily!

Adam and I both grew up knowing the Lord but temporarily walked in the way of the world towards the end of high school and beginning of college. The summer we met at Kanakuk was the same summer the Lord revealed himself to us in a new and powerful way. We both decided to “re-dedicate” our lives fully to Christ because we knew ‘our way’ of living in the world…just wasn’t working and truly wasn’t satisfying our deepest needs. Praise God that we both had amazing parents and grandparents praying for our renewed salvation because God sure did hear their prayers!

Two weeks into camp…Adam and I started to notice one another and the rest is history! But I say all this to say…God is good!! No one who knew me throughout my younger years of life would have ever pegged me as a ‘future pastor’s wife’. I was just the, potty mouth; spaz, that played sports and always did and said what I pleased! I think Adam was pretty similar in regards to being outspoken and athletic but he was ‘Prom King’ senior year which obviously showed that people sure loved him.

Since our marriage in 2004 time has literally flown by. We’ve been blessed with three nephews, on Adam’s side, a sister-in-law, on my side and of course our miracle from above, Ellie! Not to mention the hundreds of high school and college students we’ve ministered to, led on mission trips, and have loved doing life with. We’ve truly learned to love the Church for all it’s worth! Our church family at Journey and around the world (Haiti, Africa, India, Nicaragua, the Philippines….) have shown us what the body of Christ is truly about.

Life is so sweet with Jesus! It just doesn’t get any better. People think living life as a Christian is boring, lame, strict, and just flat out fake…but I’m here to say, “Following Christ is the only way to live”! Why, because everything else in life will fail you…but God, our creator, He will never fail you! I’ve been through some crappy things in the past few years but the only thing that gets me through it is knowing Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Including ourselves…It’s hard to understand God’s ways but I’ve never been more secure in His plan, even when things suck!

So, what sparked this ‘realness’ in me that I wanted to start sharing deeper thoughts…well life has so many twists and turns. Adam and I are so blessed, as I’ve mentioned, but we have a big decision to make in our family right now. We’ve always known we would adopt a child or children because we’ve seen the orphans of this world and it hurts our heart to the core, but when, where, and how would God unfold this chapter in our lives?? We don’t know, but we know we are called like it says in James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

For us, having a child of our own or adopting is a huge financial decision and now that we’re in the place of feeling that desire to “be fruitful and multiple” again we are praying about what the next step is. There are some many details involved with both decisions and directions we could take this but what is God’s plan for us now….I think He’d be please with both but I’d ask you to join us in prayer for this major life decision as well as challenging yourself! Where are you being fruitful? Are you looking after the orphans and widows?

With all my heart I only desire to life a live that means something at the end of it!! So, I need to challenge myself to be loving at ALL times, give away what God has blessed me with, be peace in the midst of a storm, and have compassion to those who are hurting. I need to be more like Jesus!

The Famous “Barnholt” Lederhosen

My family has a famous pair of Lederhosen that my brothers and I all took pictures in….I think it’s because my dad’s German but I’m not really sure so I’ll have to get the full story and share it in my next blog!! Anyway, I’ve always hated the picture of me in the lederhosen because I look so fat and you can literally see the rolls on my thighs….But my mom loved it so much she framed it and hung it on the wall in her room!!!

So, a few weeks ago my mother gave me the lederhosen and asked me to get a picture of Ellie in them. 10 years ago I would have said, “There’s no way my kid will take a picture like that…” but now that I have a daughter I guess I have a whole new appreciation for fat rolls and weird outfits!?!

Here is my picture from 1985 (age 2) and Ellie in 2011 (age 18 months). I couldn’t get Ellie to give me a smile sitting down and the outfits aren’t identical but the lederhosen are the originals of course!!

Basketball, Slides and Horses….

We’ve truly enjoyed watching lots of OU Men’s and Women’s Basketball this season!! And Ellie has, of course, looked adorable at each game she’s attended with us!!!

Ellie climbed a slide all by herself this past week and I captured it all in sequence….

We also took Ellie on her first horse ride as well as meeting a mini horse! Super cute pics of all this fun, Enjoy!!