A Woman of God

Please take a moment and listen to this incredible message from an incredible women of God.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU3lGB6-dMs

We serve an AWESOME God!

My God is so BIG so STRONG and so MIGHTY, there's nothing my God can not do!!!!!

A Time for Everything

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says;
1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,

"A time to be born"
Today was a happy day for us as we celebrated Meghan's ___th birthday. I praise God for giving her life, for her parents having her and most of all for God sharing Meghan with me and blessing us with three beautiful children. Meghan is a wonderful mother, wife and friend. I can't say enough about here. Thank you to everyone who called and emailed Meghan today and made this day special for her. And I can't tell you how many times Cooper sang "Happy Birthday to you" to Meghan today.

"A time to die"
Today was also a sad day for us. Many of you who read this blog know my cousin Lydia. If you don't know her personally, but have followed this blog, you at least know that I was able to visit Lydia and her husband Vol while I was in AZ this past October. Last evening I received a phone call from my mom that Vol had a heart attack and had passed away. I was pretty shocked to receive the call, even though I knew it was coming as Vol has been in bad health for awhile. While I was in AZ, Lydia and I talked about the fact that Vol probably would not make it through another year. One thing I really admire about Lydia and Vol's marriage is that from the beginning they have lived their life as if it were their last day together. I admire them for that!
I ask that you keep Lydia and the family in your prayers as this will be a rough time.
I leave you with a song that I just think fits today perfectly!

Blessed Be Your Name
by Matt Redman
- - -
Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

God is soooooooooo good!

Our God is so good isn't He!? I was just thinking about what someone recently said to us in regards to buying a house and adopting etc. "You must have won the lottery!" I couldn't help but grin with that comment because I thought, "you know, back in 1991 when I really got the Jesus thing and I fully committed my life to God, I did hit the lottery! And likewise, when Scott became a follower of Christ. The God that we serve is the God of the Universe, the Creator and sustainer of all living things!! Everything is His! He's got more financial resources than Bill Gates and Donald Trump combined because He's the source of all that in the first place!! Our whole income was given to us by Him. Although we only give Him 10%, it's all really His and He wants us to use the 90% wisely so we can do good things with it. (We think that one of those good things that we're supposed to do is to become foster parents and then adopt but we're unsure about when this will all happen because right now DSS says we don't have room for two more kids. We agree. Ha Ha! Anyway, God gave us that desire or calling and He equips those he calls so we'll wait on Him for the bigger house!) I can't imagine living this life without a personal knowledge of Jesus as Savior and redeemer, provider and sustainer and all those other things He is to us!! "Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh we needless grief we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer." This song relates somewhat, though not completely, to what I was saying. It's just such a relief because I do sometimes get overwhelmed with this `ole' house and the projects but then I'm reminded what Matthew 6:30 says "If that is how God clothes the grass of the field . . . will he not much more clothe you." Enough said! Thanks for reading and may God richly bless you in every way possible!

Cooper

O.K. as you can probably tell by my writings, I'm still trying to figure out Cooper. What does he like and what motivates him. It's easy to say, he likes Tradd and whatever Tradd likes but that's not really the whole truth. So, I've been paying closer attention to who he really is. Everybody that has seen his pic says "he always looks like he's up to something." Well, I think there's a lot of truth to that. But what I've been observing is that he's learning to enjoy ruining things that Tradd is doing or likes. Some conversation was flying around yesterday about what they wanted for their birthdays which are coming up quickly. Cooper said he wanted a "rat shooter." Well, that's only funny if you knew how much Tradd is in love with rats right now. We have four of these ugly, fake creatures around this house right now and Tradd takes every opportunity to draw them, color them or otherwise make play dough rats. So Cooper, loving the reaction he gets from Tradd when he "messes up his game," has decided he wants a rat shooter for his birthday. That pretty much sums up this little man. Constantly antagonizing Tradd. I guess it would be really funny if it didn't come close to driving me insane. Actually, I laugh at it quite a bit and the rest of the time I try to ignore it.
We changed the boys' bedroom around the other day. They have this really bad, ready to fall out or in, window in their room. We moved this huge book shelf in front of the window and moved their beds away from it. This really improved their night coughing by the way. Very glad we did it although blocking a window goes against my decorating tastes. Of course, duct tape and plastic on a broken window also goes against my tastes for interior design. Anyway, Cooper sleeps on a trundle that pulls out from under Tradd's bed. Because their bed is close to the door now, we put Cooper's away when they're done sleeping. Last night he was ready for bed and he sweetly said, "I can't find my bed. Where did it go?" Oh, how precious!! This window problem is only one of the problems with this house that we have loved but quickly outgrown. This past week we looked at tons of houses online and then decided we should just build because that would be cheaper. Well, we got a little ahead of ourselves because although it's a buyer's market and we could buy/build for pretty reasonable, we'd have to sell ours which is not in very good shape, and it's January which is not a good month, and the market has really slowed since about mid summer '07. So, we continue to wait on the Lord. This has gotten increasingly more difficult as we look around at all our projects. As much as that is frustrating, I'm quickly reminded that we have more than probably 95% or 98% of the worlds population!! Pretty humbling thought!