Praying the scriptures for your children, husband, work…..

My mentor recommended I read the book “Praying the scriptures for your Children” by Jodie Berndt and it’s been a true blessing. This book has really made me think…what else can and should I be praying the scriptures over? My husband, parents, friends, siblings, job, church, and community…

So, I wanted to share with you all some insights I’ve gained in the first few chapters of this book that I think apply to everyone! One of the most amazing stories thus far in the book is about Hudson Taylor. He was the first Christian missionary to take the gospel to China. Jodie talks about his mother and the sacrifice she made by watching her son board a ship to Asia. Hudson’s mother didn’t know if she’d ever see him again and she wrote about the joy and heartache in her own book years later. An amazing quote Jodie shares from Amelia’s (Hudson’s mother) book is this: “I could not put the ointment on His blessed feet, as Mary did, but I gave him my boy.”

Wow, what an amazing perspective…because little did she know her son would spent 51 years in China in Jesus’ name. The society that he began was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country who began 125 schools and directly resulted in 18,000 Christian conversions, as well as the establishment of more than 300 stations of work with more than 500 local helpers in all eighteen provinces.

This chapter on ‘Praying for your children to promote God’s Kingdom’ really rocked my world because I know the Lord is going to use all my children, Ellie, and all those to come to be His servants and I must be willing to pray for them no matter the cost to me! Jodie says, “When you pray for your children to promote God’s kingdom, you must be prepared to let them respond to their call – even if it means incurring risk or making great sacrifices.”

I know Adam and I’s parents have done this for us. When we began traveling overseas for mission trips in 2005 they were very weary to let us go, but 15 or so trips later, we know God has given them the strength to trust God’s will for us!

After reading this chapter I was encouraged by the Holy Spirit to not just let this book push me to pray for Ellie but to pray for our children to come as well as many other important things in my life. When I was a Junior in high school one of my summer camp leaders challenged me to start praying for my husband…even though I had never met him before. Little did I know I would meet the man of my dreams at that same camp two years later!!

In Jodie’s book each chapter ends with at least 10 prayers I can read that come straight from a scripture in the Bible. It’s wonderful!

So, who are you intentionally praying for? Be encouraged and never stop praying!

Adoption and Babies!!!

So, it’s been way to long since I’ve last blogged, but oh well, I’m back at it! Now that we’re back from Haiti and vacations with family….Adam and I are really starting to pray and think through the process of having more children. We were ‘highly recommended” not to get pregnant before our trip to Haiti so we’re hoping the Lord will bless us soon with another child of our own…but we’ll see what the Lords timing is on that! In the mean time I’ve made a large step in our adoption process!

I’ve spoken to a few overseas adoption agencies and they basically told me that Adam and I don’t qualify until at least 35 years old for an adoption in Haiti. Discouraged, I called an organization in Texas called Share Adoptions, where we have a friend that works, and they told me about another side to the ‘process’ we could do. We can do a private adoption, without an agency, where we can get a Presidential waiver to adopt. This means I book us for a homestudy(the first step in adoption) with a local organization and then call Share Adoptions back for help with the rest. Because we don’t live in Texas “Share” can’t do our whole adoption but the Director has offered to help us! After the homestudy we need to pick an orphange in Haiti which, we belive will be “His Home”, and then we’ll start all the rest of the paperwork….

A fun twist to this story is that we’re also very open to private adoption in Oklahoma. As many of you know…doctors and hospitals have mothers who walk in to give birth with no plans to keep the baby. I would love and be honored to adopt and child from Oklahoma as a newborn!! So, this homestudy would allow us to start that process too. The exciting thing about adopting a newborn would be: being able to nurse again. I love having that special bond with my baby and would be blessed to do that with an adopted child.

Anyway, I’ll keep you all posted on this and start a tab for our adoption so you can see dates, details, and steps to come!! Love you all and we appeciate your support!!

HAITI 2011

I’ve been putting this blog off for two weeks now because I was going to wait until we got more pictures of our trip but I can’t wait any longer….This year was my second trip to Haiti and Adam’s third. Our team was made up of OU athletes, coaches, staff, alumni, family, and Journey Church staff. Last year we had the whole OU Women’s Basketball team and this year 9 of the Men’s Football team asked to join so we ended up with 40 people on our team!

Our trip this year was unbelievable. It’s hard to explain the way God moves while you’re serving in a third world country, but our trip this year was definitely one of our top trips ever! There were some major ups and downs during our visit but I guess it’s just a beautiful reflection of the way life really is! One of the most special times of the day was at 7 am when we all met to hear God’s word on the beach.

Each morning someone different shared an encouraging word and we either ended in prayer, song, or baptism. It was truly an unforgettable sight and experience. 4 athletes gave their lives to Christ and I felt beyond blessed to have shared in that moment with them while Adam baptized them in the ocean!

Throughout the week our group served Mission of Hope by painting new homes, schools, or by ministering to children at the school or orphanage. ‘Ministering’ is a term I would use for both us and the Haitians because I know our group brought love and joy to everyone we spent time with but they ministered to our team just as powerfully!

It was amazing to watch people like my brother, or a big football guy love on little children all day every day! I know God’s heart was so pleased and honored by the way they served and gave of themselves. One particular memory I’ll cherish was watching one of the girl basketball players holding a naked toddler in her arms for an at least an hour during our children’s program. They all stepped out of their comfort zone to show the love of God and in return many of them found the love of Christ for the first time.

Having Ellie with us last year was great but it was very freeing to be able to do more this year…I enjoyed some time in the Village of Hope as well as in the 3 Cords workplace. The Village of Hope is Mission of Hope’s orphanage where 62 children live and 3 Cords is a company MOH started to employee amputees and their families after the earthquake.

Thanks for all the prayers during our trip…God moved and Haiti’s Hope is in the Lord’s hands!

Pre-Haiti

As we prepared to leave Ellie for a week to go to Haiti I had no idea a pediatric dentist would be a part of our preparation!! Two days before we left, Ellie and I went shopping at Wal-Mart for a couple last minute things…I’m not gonna lie, I’m the kind of mom that let’s my child do just about anything, if it’s safe, to keep her happy. (Eat a whole box of blueberries, run around the store, ect.) During our shopping spear she sat in the basket part of the cart (she hates the front part that you can actually strap her in) and she even played a little in the baby aisle while I looked at some baby clothes…but how she got hurt was totally not even a ‘bad mom’ kind of moment!

After we bought our items and started heading out to the car Ellie decided she wanted to help push the cart…which she does quite often. Ellie and I were pushing the cart through the parking lot when all the sudden she fell. But, not only did she fall…she fell forward right towards the bottom part of the lower level of the cart (you know, where you put your soda or toilet paper). She hit her face right on the metal part of the back of the cart! I freaked out of course but didn’t immediately think about her mouth….I was more worried about her face. As I held her in the middle of the Wal-Mart parking lot I noticed nothing wrong on the outside but soon blood started coming out of her mouth! I’ve previously learned that mouths bleed a lot! So, I was almost relieved that this was the only thing wrong. She could have broken her nose or scratched her face on the cement but a cut in her mouth wasn’t that bad….

When I check the cut I realized what had really happened! She had hit her front tooth on the bottom rung of the cart and chipped half of it off. With both of us a little bloody and a full cart of groceries I called Adam to have him tell me what to do. A friend, Amy Little, said to find the tooth and put it in milk! I turned around and looked at the parking lot and knew that wasn’t going to happen. How could I tell between rock and tiny baby tooth? Adam and her thought the whole tooth had come out but I informed them it was just chipped and she recommended a pediatric dentist in Norman. (Meanwhile a lady in the parking lot put my groceries in my car…we must have looked pathetic…)

Adam and BG were waiting to meet us when we arrived. BG had a cooler in her car for my milk…not tooth milk…just the gallons I had bought, so that was a life saver, and she got us some other snacks and toys while we waited to see the dentist. An X-ray revealed that her tooth wasn’t damaged that bad so our options were to crown it or just leave it alone until she’s 7 or 8 years old and loses it….WOW! So, now Ellie has a jacked up front tooth but at least it wasn’t a permanent tooth…

Here’s some proof!

However the day turned out to be wonderful! Ellie and I picked and ate strawberries, from the yard, and I captured this beautiful picture of Ellie and Adam praying at the dinner table! This picture most likely will inspire a whole other blog now that Ellie’s praying with us at dinner!