Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Quiverfull Through Adoption

God does not grow every family in the same way.
Nor does everyone have the same convictions about children.
This is our story. This is our conviction.

When we were first married (6/95) we had wonderful Godly examples around us of how large homeschooling families worked. We didn't know why these families were continuing to have children and we never asked, we just knew we liked what we saw. Late in the same year we felt pulled to relinquish control to the Lord and stopped using birth control. At this point we had never heard of the quiverfull mindset, so we actually came about our quiverfull conviction before we even knew what that meant. We knew that the Lord is "the giver of life" (1 Timothy 6:13) and that "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full" (Psalm 127:1-5), but we didn't understand the strength of those promises. Also, at this point our conviction was primarily on how many children the Lord would bless us with, not on medical intervention, etc. People would ask us how many children we wanted to have and we would respond with, "As many as the Lord wants to give us, ten maybe?" On a side note, before we were married we both felt a strong urge to adopt. It is amazing to look back at the convictions and desires that He instilled in us before we had any concept of how those would come to fruition. We waited and waited and waited. To this day I have never conceived through God-given natural conception.

Several years into our shaping journey I was diagnosed with stage four endometriosis and we took steps to resolve it. The doctors gave us a choice: have a hysterectomy or have a baby (at which point we had been trying for several years). Our steps led us to in-vitro (not a quiverfull mindset). Only God can make a baby and He did. He made two. I miscarried in my first trimester. But the Lord heard my cry! He reminded us of our first conviction to adopt. He said to us, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." (Romans 8:14-16)

God continued to shape us as we sought which direction to go to adopt. We took every required adoption class for every possible direction (infant domestic, international, domestic, older child). He brought us to a place of understanding that His intention was to fill our quiver with what our desires had been at each stage of our lives together. We became approved for foster care and adoption. He had blessed us with years of being "us" and then brought to us our precious baby boy. Five months later we had a girl and 2 years after that we had a boy and a girl. Today they are 10, 7, 4 and 3.

God continues to grow our family as we seek His face. We rely on His promise that a quiverfull is a blessing that He desires for us and then we pray that the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) would reign in us as we teach, love, encourage and discipline our children unto godliness (1 Timothy 4:7-8). People ask us how many we are going to adopt and we still say, "As many as the Lord wants to give us, ten maybe?" Our family verse is 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." Whether by adoption or by birth, our children are the blessings that God intended for us and we will not stand in His way as He continues to pour them out on us. We don't want to limit God and what He intends for us. We trust Him knowing that His plans are for good (Jeremiah 29:11).



*Please click here to watch the Dave Thomas Foundation video on the fost-adopt system.

*There were 114,000 adoptable children in the foster care system as of November 2007.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Your Spiritual House

Matthew 7:24-27
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
Our pastor mentioned this scripture this morning in reference to a larger sermon on being living stones (1 Pet. 2:5) as well as an active member of the body by fulfilling our God-given role (Eph. 4:11-16). Something that really spoke to me about his sermon was when he mentioned Jesus words in red above. I have read them before and know this story well. But scripture hits you differently at different stages of life as well as in different circumstances. Do you notice that the storms blew on both houses? In both cases, the storm was severe. The rain was pouring down, the streams were rising and the winds were beating against the houses. Which house stood? The house which was built on the solid rock. The house which was built on sinking sand was washed away. Where is your spiritual house built? When the storms come, where do you go? Do you blame God? The scripture tells us that as believers we will still have severe storms in our lives. These two houses, one built on Christ, the other on nothing, had the same storm try to destroy them. If we are not built on Christ then we have chosen to allow the storms to wash us away. We will have storms! If our spiritual house is built on Christ, then He will be with us, helping us to weather them, helping us to stand solidly on Him during them and even enabling us to praise Him while the rain in falling and the wind is blowing. When storms have passed, and they will pass, we will have stood victoriously on the firm foundation of Christ.



Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Kids Quote of the Day

Today's kid quote is brought to you by Abi!

Dad: I am called European because I am white.
You are called African American because you are black and live in America.

Abi: I am brown.

Dad: Yes, you are brown, but people say black.
What would you be called if you lived in Europe?

Abi: White?

Sunday, February 17, 2008

MOMYS

Blogging has been so much fun and I am amazed at how many long-lost Navy-wife friends I have found through the process. One friend has 8 children with one on the way. If you want to see what they are up to you can visit: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/petersonclan She told me about a site called MOMYS. It is an acronym for Mothers of Many Young Siblings. Sushifam you qualify to register.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Kid quote of the day















Todays quote comes from Daniel, our 3 year old.

Mom: Go to sleep Daniel. I love you.

Daniel: Mom, you have gum?

Mom: No Buddy, I just brushed my teeth.

Daniel (practically smelling inside my mouth): MOM! You brushed your teeth with GUM?!




Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Sugar-less household (again)

We are getting the sugar out of the house (again). Every holiday season in creeps back in and we devour it as if our lives depended on it. I have a confession to make. My husband was on a trip two night ago and I fed my children leftover Japanese food, leftover birthday cake and nerds Valentine candy for dinner. Isn't that awful!? I have to confess this because it is out of character for me and I feel so guilty about it (okay, not that guilty because boy was it easy!).

So how does it sneak back in to our lives?

Well, first comes a September birthday (see how early my holiday season begins?) and we have cake and we decide that a pinata is a good idea. Not veggie filled mind you, but overflowing with the best fully hydrogenated, dyed, sugary, corn syrupy stuff we can find. Definitely not Feingold Diet material. (Note: If you have not checked out the Feingold Diet I highly recommend it. Feingold links many of today's learning disabilities and behaviors to food dyes. It is a part of how we usually like to eat!) Then we have an October birthday as well as "harvest time" and we do it all over again. Next, it's my birthday in November and I want chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, chocolate-chocolate-chocolate. My birthday is close to and sometimes even on Thanksgiving. Need I say more about that one? Next, it's Jesus birthday and we make him a cake! We have two birthdays in February. After that it's time to clean out the sugar until our May birthday comes around and we decide to only have cake without all the other goodies. I try to make birthday treat bags with everything except candy. I try to be successful. While these birthdays are rolling around I am still making bread, purchasing organic veggies and fruits, making my own granola and it's all good as long as I can have a few chocolate chips to keep me company!

Why did I post about this tonight? Our house has been full of goodies for Valentines Day. We have two different homeschool events in which we are to have the children trade Valentines. We are responsible to bring a snack (cookies) to one of the events. I spent part of the day making 80 hand knotted cookies (using organic flour & turbinado sugar) only to just receive the call that all is cancelled due to the freezing rain coming down.
Tonight and tomorrows events were to be the last sugar events until May. So now we have 80 cookies and all that candy that we were supposed to hand out tonight. Any idea what we are having for dinner?

Monday, February 11, 2008

We vote tomorrow...

We vote tomorrow.

I have spent a lot of this past week reading, talking, listening and rarely debating. I am finding that everything I have read is leading me to support Huckabee. If you haven't checked out the www.afa.net voters guide, I highly recommend it. It's a great overview that shows where each candidate stands on the issues that matter. I encourage you to not vote based on who you think will win. Pray about your decision and follow God's leading.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Happy Birthday Ashley!


Our Sweet Ashley is 10 today!

We stand amazed at God's goodness in
allowing us to be her parents.
She has grown into such a wonderful girl.
She is patient.
She is kind.
She is loving.
She loves the Lord.
She continues to grow in His grace and mercy.
She is a student of His Word.
We are blessed.
We love you Ashley!



Sunday, February 3, 2008

We are home!





We are home from our big trip. We had a blessed time with dear friends. God was in every detail and we stand amazed at His continued provision. We are getting back into the swing of things. Peter is back at work. The kids and I are back to the school routine. But all of us are living on memories of FL! It really was that great.