I think Anne Taintor's work is funny. A lot of it is cheeky but my friend Lindsey and I found these a while back and kind of adopted her sense of humor into our friendship. I relate with it henceforth, I enjoy it. Even the cheeky stuff ;)
the idea of house-wifing is my paradise
I identify with this one for sure.
John would agree probably
It absolutely does!!
Psalm 94:19
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.
1 Thessalonians 5:16
Be joyful always;
Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father..
My friend, Kelly Finlaw from college "arted" this picture. She's the best at arting.
My little sister, Christiana, and I have felt led to do something. It's something I have always wanted to do but didn't ever feel like it was the right time. It was one of those things were God said, not now, but someday. The time has come and I am totally excited in every way! What an awesome chance to experience this with my little sister! I pray it will be a life changer for both of us!
We will be leaving in June for a week to go to Haiti. SCORE! We will be going to the Port au Prince area, to the Mission of Hope, to work at the Hope House Orphanage and to help rebuild some of the damage caused by the recent string of hurricanes. We will get to love on the kids at Hope House, go on outreaches in nearby villages and do whatever else they need done during our stay!
Our mom, Vicki went a couple of times with the singing group she was in when she was younger. One of the girls she went with ended up becoming a missionary to Haiti. It will be really neat to see what she saw, and have yet another bond unique to mother and daughter! Since that time she was in Haiti, her friend's son, Brad Johnson, has taken over the mission and it has grown into quite a complex! Here is some general information about The Mission of Hope:
The Mission of Hope complex now sits on 76
acres of land. Approximately 1,300 children are
enrolled in the School of Hope, the Hope House
Orphanage houses and takes care of over 40
children, and the Hospital of Hope will soon be
completely operational. Over 600 adults, youth
and children come from surrounding villages to
attend the Church of Hope. In addition, Mission
of Hope assists close to 200 children in four
other orphanages in nearby villages through the
FeedAChildprogram, and employs over 150
Haitians.
Christi and I have no idea what to expect but are excitedly anticipating what we will learn, how we will grow and how we will be able to minister and be ministered to during this week in Haiti.
We received our first donation of support yesterday! All together we have to raise $3,000 by the end of May. She has been saving every bit of holiday money and babysitting money she can and I am doing my best to cut back and save for this awesome cause! I know God will provide the way to get us there since he called us to go in the first place.
We both adore children and have a strong maternal instinct which we are eager to use on these sweet children at the orphanage. She someday wants to be a pediatric nurse so this will be some good training for her! It will be an amazing experience to give the love of a mother to these motherless and fatherless children. I'm pretty sure I will come back wanting to adopt every child I saw. John is hoping that I get the notion to have some of our own pretty soon :)
From what we hear, Haitians are a demonstration of true joy. In a country where 1 out of every 5 children doesn't live past age five, and where 50% of the population is malnourished and close to starving, they love God with all of their might and praise him with a true genuineness most of us have never experienced. We will get to experience this first hand and see how truly blessed we are and what it means to be joyful in any circumstance! We also hope to see others join Jesus’ family while we are there. Many of the people of Haiti practice Voodoo which is a religion seeped in rituals, superstition and spirit worship.
Basically, Christi and I are hoping to step outside of our bubble and find a deeper meaning to our faith anda renewed connection with our Jesus.
I'll keep you updated on our support progress as well as any other news that may be important about this trip.
Things to pray for:
Raising full support
The people we will encounter in Haiti
The logistics like passports, shots, etc. to go smoothly
Our safety while we travel as well as while we are there
Our hearts to be prepared for what we will experience
The recent hurricanes did a lot of damage as you can see.
This is the area we will be going to
The Mission of Hope
Some of the kids at the orphanage, Hope House!
I have been waiting to post something for a while because I was hoping that my next post would be a lovely step by step phot0 journal of my home improvement endeavors. If I wait until they are done, it may be another year before I post something. So I will be at some point posting pictures of the kitchen repaint, cabinet refinishing, trim painting, redecorating etc at some point but not within the next few days. I have people asking me over and over what my kitchen looks like now. The answer- the same just with whiter cabinets. I will wait until there is something worth showing. I have no idea what color to paint my kitchen. Suggestions?!
Also, I got tired of looking at my name and having a somewhat unoriginal blog name. I mean- some people name their blogs really silly things, some name them mysterious ilusive names. The title is from a quote that is overused and I see painted on wooden home signs at Hallmark. It's by Abe Lincoln :
"And in the end its not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
My blog has always been randomness. It's about my life, nothing too inspiring and definitely not a place for the newest and trendiest styles of this and that. Although, I am constantly amazed and inspired at how God conitnues to work in my life even when I am uncooperative. This is a place for me to vent and ramble about life, what I like, what I want, what I dislike, what makes me laugh what inspires me... And I am finding myself to have a greater appreciation lately for life and all that it contains: the good, the bad and the ugly, the new, the old and the temporary. Living life..that's the key. Living. Living well. Not just merely breathing and being alive. Which, I fear, I have considered living for too long.
Which brings me to my next and final point to this random post. There are a lot of changes going on in my life and in John's life. They aren't like super big changes but they are noticeable to us all of the same, a new depth in his and my relationship with each other (see "more and less "part 1), greater appreciation for our time together and where we are in life. He is entering his last year in school. It's been a l o n g stretch so far and for us to be able to say, "A year from now, we'll be done" is kind of weird and surreal. A year goes by oh-too-fast and a season of change will be upon us before we know it. This has deepened our prayer lives individually and together because we don't know what the heck we'll be doing and where we will go, if we will go anywhere. It's a ride for us. And we are enjoying it. We are trying to simplify around our house in a lot of ways. Sometimes simplifying is complex. It's hard for me to just not over think things. God has been leading us to a deeper understanding of one another and those around us, bringing us all the closer to Jesus and closer to those things in life which really matter. Drop the facades, go the extra mile, appreciate what you do have, live life to the extreme and know it's OK to have bad days. "Tomorrow is a brand new day with no mistakes in it" . Who said it??
I saw this picture on a blog by Katie Elliot, one of my favorites!
