Our Anniversary Weekend

Paul got me a stackable ring from James Avery for my gift! It is our anniversary "birth"stone. I will have to get a special ring made for our kids to go with it however... the rings at James Avery only allow for 3 stacks... we are definitely going to have more than 2 kids!!!
Off to dinner...
At dinner... they gave us crayons, (Macaroni Grill), so Paul said we should share the Gospel..
Our hotel... many little areas, each named for a tree...


The hotel was way more than just a place to lay our heads... we will DEFINITELY be returning! You should go too!!! It was secluded in nature , and yet two minutes from the Woodlands mall!!!

We got to meet Christian Comedian, Bob Smiley!!! He put on a great show, and he was so kind to talk with us and take this pic... (ug of me.. but what I am gonna do... it is the only one with Bob) lol


Check back tomorrow to see what trouble Jersey managed to get himself in... lets just say that I have been thanking God for protecting him so...

The 12 Days of...

OUR ANNIVERSARY!!!


12 days before our anniversary we went to Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner to celebrate, (my fav)! Please excuse my bad hair day... I will never let anyone other than Visible Changes cut my hair again...
Today, Paul and I are leaving to stay at the Woodlands Resort and Conference Center.
I chose this place because it had many fun things, (more than just a place to lay our heads)... look at the pools...
AND outdoor trails... we will be running these for sure... what a scenic route!

Why the Woodlands you ask? Well, we have been trying to decide what to do for our anniversary, and I found out the our favorite Christian comedian, Bob Smiley, was in town Saturday night! So we decided to get a room in the Woodlands, and spend all day Friday and Saturday there, and then Saturday night see Bob! We are very excited! Tuesday is our actual anniversary... 2 years! ♥



Oh, dumb pic, but wanted to show you that I redid my haircolor... MUCH BETTER! Wanted to look nice for our anniversary! ;)

Growing Pains, The E True Hollywood Story

So for those of you who do not know, "E True Hollywood Story," was a show that did the story behind the story. So, in sticking with that protocol:

First let me say that all I have shared is to be an encouragement to you. For example, just because we feel called to not have kids, that does not mean that we feel you shouldn't either. This is just where God is leading us. God calls some to be pastors, some to be single for life, some to be missionaries, etc. BUT, if you have felt God tugging on you to give/take up something like I have shared, then you need to be obedient! :) That is all I was saying. That and showing how God works in our lives is one way we can glorify Him. :)

Secondly, the reason I am able to be obedient is because I know Him.

I know that you who are reading this may not know Christ like this. You may find it weird that I love God so much, that I would live my life only to serve Him, and I put Him before my husband, and before myself! Well, it is the most amazing thing in the world to know Christ, and I only know true love and happiness because He loves me. You too can know Christ if you accept Him into your heart! Afterwards, repent of your sin and follow Him all the days of your life.

Seriously, it is that easy. However if you choose not to accept Christ, you are in BIG TROUBLE. If you accept Christ you will go to Heaven, if you don't you will go to HELL! PERIOD! It doesn't matter how "good of a person you are." If you do not know Christ, then God will not know you!

If I have struck a nerve, or if you want to know more, feel free to ask! I want you to! I want everyone to go to Heaven. I do not want any of you to go to Hell!

Thank you all for reading this series and my blog. I appreciate everyone of you. I hope you know that I do not talk about Hell because I feel I am better than you. I am not! I deserve Hell as much, if not more, than you do! The only difference is, is that Jesus paid my debt, and now I can go to Heaven.

I love you all, and even if you believe differently than me, I will not judge you- ever! I only share all this because I love you! :)

Growing Pains Part 8

http://www.1031sermonjams.com/vol5.html

Click on Kempton Turner's sermon titled, "May we joyfully obey." It is short, but mighty powerful, and you will see why I endure the growing pains, and why you should too! :)

Tomorrow... the final installment of Growing Pains.

Growing Pains Part 7

Last Wednesday, God called me to something that is really hard! Really hard. Ok, really hard for me!

You see, He gave me a vision for a painting, (maybe two). What is so hard about that, you ask? I COULDN'T DRAW/PAINT TO SAVE MY LIFE!!! Honestly, I'm pathetic!

I talked to Paul, and he said I should enroll in an art class. As soon as I started looking into it, I felt satan start attacking me. He does NOT want this painting done.

Why would satan attack me over a painting? Why would God care so much about/waste His time on something so menial as a painting?

1. This will be one of the most humbling experiences for me. School was pretty easy for me. I didn't mind going to class because when you are good at something, well you are good at it. Even math class that wasn't my best... I could still answer a few questions here and there and manage to still make myself look good. Not in art! It is kinda hard to fake that. Why would I intentionally put myself through something that is so humbling for me? To glorify God... yeah, satan doesn't like that too much.

2. When the painting is completed...
a. God will be glorified because I am so paint/drawing challenged, it will be obvious that God had His hand in it!
b. The vision that God gave me to paint is glory to Him in it of itself!

What is something that God has called you to give up, (or to pick up), in order to follow Him, (and ultimately for His glory)?

Growing Pains Part 6

As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, "Basically, in order to fully follow Christ, we may have to leave behind possessions, earthly treasures, family, occupation, or the group (clique). Of course this is not always easy." I have shown you how God has grown me and had me change in these areas:

1. I gave up my love of dating, and dressing, among other things (Part 2)
2. I gave up how the world deals with death, and dealt with it as God intended (Part 2)
3. I gave up people pleasing for God pleasing (Part 3)
4. I gave up my hatred for forgiveness (Part 4)
5. I gave up my engagement ring and my womb (Part 5)

There are many other ways that God changed me, and many other things He led me to give up, (work for example), but I am only highlighting these, and a few more...

At the same time God called me to give up my ring and womb, He also had me give up something else... T.V. I spent way too much time watching T.V., and not to mention, all the trash that is on it these days. So if you come to our house, we have a television for watching movies, but if you try to change the channel, the screen will go to the ants.

Then about bout 2 weeks ago, God was loud and clear again. And, once again, He got loud because I had been ignoring Him. He called us to something radical, but it was a very painful thing to do. What was this radical/painful thing to do? Give up my movies. Huh? Really, that's it? Ok, let me explain...

After becoming a Christian I knew certain movies were unacceptable to God, so I got them out of my life. Easy. Then I heard God again prompting me, but I (once again), didn't like what I was hearing. If you study the word, "ungodly," you will find that it is not a synonym for wicked; no it is an antonym for godly... meaning simply, void of God. So in other words, a rated R movie with sex and cussing is wicked, while a Disney movie is only ungodly. Starting to make sense? Every time I would hear a sermon on ungodliness, (yes, the nudges from God go as far back as Kempton, Caryn), or read it in God's Word, I would see Disney, but I would shake it off. There is nothing evil about Disney, and I didn't own any rated R movies, so what is the big deal God?

The big deal? When I sat in front a t.v. show or movie for like 2 hours... well, that was 2 hours I could have spent with God. God created us to glorify Him, to love Him, to fellowship with Him. How is watching Beauty and the Beast fellowshipping with God? It is not. I may have a little free time now, but when kids come it will dwindle to nothing, I am aware. How should I spend my free time... with Cinderella? Or with God? Um, yeah, GOD!!!

God called us to give up all our secular movies, and only keep the movies that are godly. This way, if we watch a movie in our free time, we are still spending time with God!

What was so hard about that? Well:

1. I spent a good chunk of change on all of this
2. Since I was getting rid of the secular movies, I also got rid of secular books, meaning...
3. The "library" I had been collecting for my kids for years has shrunk dramatically
4. Since I don't have tv, and now I barely have any movies, what am I going to watch, (you can
only watch the same thing so many times).
5. I LOVE DISNEY! It is not wicked, so why do I have to get rid of it???

God loving said, "Because I said so." Now when your mom says that it is irritating, but when the Creator of the Universe says it, it is comforting and empowering.

All my movies and books, (I gave a good amount of the books to my sister, (future school teacher) ;)
The top 4 were particularly hard to get rid of... I LOVE princess stories, and these were four of my all time favorite!!! Serioulsy, getting rid of all of these made me feel like I did when I broke up with a boyfriend in middle school... I knew I needed/ wanted to, but it was still losing a companion... these companions are better than m.s. boyfriends... they are always there!!! Ok, drama queen! GOD IS ALWAYS THERE!!!

Growing Pains Part 5

I always knew I wanted to adopt. Always. But I was disobedient to God's leading on that in my life. He wanted total surrender, but that was too hard for me. So, I would surrender a little, "Ok, I'll have all the birth children I want, then I will adopt however many you want to give me... No? Ok, I will have 2 or 3 birth children and adopt the rest.... No? Ok, I will have only one child, then adopt the rest."

See, I never totally submitted to Christ's Call. I did what I felt comfortable with. You see, when it got down to "I'll have only one and adopt the rest," I was really praying, "God, please please please let me have one! I have to have one! How terrible would that be to never have a birth child!" I knew what God really wanted, but it wasn't easy to swallow. Then in July 2008, I went to Church camp with the youth, and God spoke to me loud and clear.... so much so that I couldn't pretend to be obedient any longer, total surrender was expected! David Nasser was the speaker, and he said, "there are 200,000,000 orphans in the world, and if only 7% of THE CHURCH would adopt, there would be no need for orphanages!" At that moment I realized my disobedience, and understood why God had called us to this life of adoption. 7% of a people is not much, and it isn't even 7% of the world! No, it is 7% of the believers in the world! Wow! That means it won't take that many to wipe out the orphanages! Recently I found a new blog friend, and she is someone I greatly look up to as a woman, wife, mother, and home schooler. ;) She had a quote awhile back that was heartbreaking. "1.1% of the population has adopted." WOW! Isn't that terrible, especially in light of the statistic from David Nasser? If you feel God tugging on your heart to adopt- don't ignore it!

Now, I have had many objections in my obedience from many people. That's ok. It is a radical thing God called us to, and I wasn't to keen on it at first either. Will we ever have birth children? Sure, if that is God's will. It will never be our will, so it will never be on our terms. We will never try to get pregnant, and if God decides to bless us then we will rejoice. But do you know what? I am 100billion% ok with not having a birth child. NEVER in my life did I would think I could come to that. But, I find my joy In Christ, not in getting pregnant. I am happy to be a mommy, period. Who says being a mommy= pregnancy? There are many women out there that had birth children, but they are terrible mothers. Think of all the children that are beaten across the world. No, blood doesn't mean anything! It is a heart matter! Let me leave you with this, (on this subject): as Christians, we are Brothers and Sisters in Christ. That means that if you have an unbelieving family member, then you are more family to me than you are to them. It is the truth, people. So, in reality, when I said blood doesn't matter, I wasn't entirely correct. Our family blood does not matter... the blood of Christ does!

I know the children God created for me will only be mine for awhile, then they will grow up and have families of their own. I only have about 18 years to raise them to know Jesus and to teach them to live their lives in glory of Him. We are ready Lord; ready when you are!

Click here for my whole recount of summer camp, and read about the other thing God have me leave behind that week, my engagement ring.

Check back for part 6 of this installment soon! :)