Saturday Randomness

Today I thought I would do a “random thoughts” post because I have LOTS of random thoughts and because it makes for a super easy post. I ain’t gonna lie... I’ve got a lot to do today, so I gotta knock this out while I drink my coffee. Normally I drink Spark, but this morning I was craving a nice, big, dark, delicious cup of French pressed coffee. 

See my favorite handmade mug? And my hotplate? 

Since this a “random thoughts” post I feel I have the freedom to now share my thoughts on French pressed coffee. I love it! It took me a while to find the magic mixture of coffee, water and time, but now that I have that down, I seriously do love my French press! I know this sounds weird, but I like how it makes the coffee “dirty”. It’s like it’s more earthy or something. Am I just a strange bird or do other people like this too? I don’t, however, enjoy cleaning my French press. That sucks.

Speaking of cleaning that sucks... The day that my boys learn to get ALL of their pee inside the toilet will be one of the happiest days of my life! I walked in the bathroom the other day while Asher was doing his thing and noticed that doing his thing meant painting the walls with urine. Want to see Mommy snap? Paint the walls with urine. *Sighs* Yeah, I hope that day comes in this decade. 

Moving on... I’ve lost almost 15 lbs in the two weeks since our “roller coaster” started. While I am all for losing 15 lbs, I don’t really recommend doing it the stress and anxiety route. Some people eat when they are stressed or depressed, but not me. I stop eating and start sleeping. Things are better, though. My anxiety level has GREATLY decreased and I’ve started eating again. Lance and I came to a decision on some things, and God has given me a lot of peace about it. I still don’t have all the answers and I know that things may change in the future, but I really am at peace (which feels soooo much better). Thank you to those of you who have been praying for us and supporting us!

This has been helpful!

I’m going to go down a spiritual rabbit trail for a moment... A while back, I read on one of the blogs I stalk about spiritual warfare during adoption. I thought it was an interesting post and something I had not thought of much before we started the adoption process. Just to give you a little background info, I am sort of a spiritual mutt. As a young child I grew up in a very charismatic non-denominational church and then we moved to an Assembly of God Church where I spent all the years leading up to me and Lance getting married. After we got married, we went with a new church plant that started out AG but is now non-denominational and pretty similar to Presbyterian. The pendulum has swung pretty wide for me. While I have seen God grow me tremendously through this shift, I am a fairly strange mix theologically because of the things I have personally experienced. 

I say all of that to say I’ve seen and experienced things in my life that will not allow me to dismiss the truth of spiritual warfare, and boys and girls, let me say this... adoption is indeed spiritual war! When I read that post months ago I just kind of tucked the warnings away in the back of my mind but over the last month I am absolutely, positively convinced that there are spiritual forces that hate adoption and we are officially in their crosshairs. I’m not going to go into all the acts of war against our adoption but whoever our children are, they are hated by the enemy and we best be putting on our armor because we are going into battle. 

Ok, I’m done with that random thought. Here’s a less serious one for you. I want to go to the beach. We didn’t go to the beach at all last year and I N-E-E-D some sand between my toes and the sound of the ocean in my ears. My side of the family is planning a week long trip to somewhere on the gulf coast in June and I cannot wait! Lance, on the other hand, can totally wait. He hates the beach. Sorry babe, but we are going to the beach! Momma needs it!

A shot I took on our last beach trip in 2011.

Since I mentioned Lance, here’s my final random thought; the Lord has blessed me with a totally awesome husband. I know I touched on this a bit in my last post, but he really is wonderful! He may not be the “tool time” guy who has all the handyman skills and can build/fix anything but he’s still got “handyman” skills if you know what I mean. He may not be the sophisticated business man type but he gets down to “business” if you know what I mean. Ok, I will stop embarrassing the poor man. He’s gonna kill me when he reads this. But seriously, I love that God handpicked this amazing man for me. He is an awesome husband and father! He is a blessing... if you know what I mean! :)

Until next time! -K

N-O-V-E-M-B-E-R

I guess I took a bit of a break from blogging. Sorry. :) I wish I was better at posting more frequently, but sometimes it just ain’t happenin. 

I hope you guys had a great October, and hopefully none of your children went into a sugar coma! That month went by crazy fast, right? It will be Christmas before we can blink an eye. 

I thought I would be ubber cheesy today and do an acronym for November. So this is a random thoughts post since I am just going to make stuff up to fit the acronym. That’s what people do right? 

N - November (I think using the acronym word in the acronym is a no-no but deal with it!) is Adoption Awareness Month. 

We don’t have much of an update on our own adoption other than we are getting closer to starting our home study. I’m really praying we can start earlier than January. 

I never had the pleasure or pain of “trying” to have a baby. Both of my boys were sweet surprises. However, the last few days I have felt what I imagine may be similar to the pain of a woman with a barren womb. I want so badly to have my girls... to love them and care for them. I see other adoptive moms who have faces to match with the love they feel in their hearts, and I feel very barren. I would never have dreamed that I would have this longing for two children who have no blood relation to me and who live on the other side of the world. I know that this process will take a long time and in God’s perfect timing I will have those faces, but oh it’s so hard for this impatient momma to wait... and we've only just begun. 

So, in the mean time I read a ton of articles/blogs and watch a ton of YouTube videos about adoption, [country in Asia], adoption stories, interracial families, etc. 

Here is one I found this morning. I cried. So sweet!

O - Obama... no, totally kidding. I’m not going there. However, I read an old puritan quote by John Newton that came in my Grace Gems email. 

“The whole system of my politics is summed up in this one verse, ‘The Lord reigns! Let the nations tremble!’ Psalm 99:1”

Amen!

V - Veggies are my BEST FRIENDS for the next 10 days. I started an AdvoCare herbal cleanse today, because over the last month I have been a sugar whore and have said yes to any sweet that crossed my path... and I liked it way too much. Soooo nothing like a good cleanse to trim that waistline and feel cleaner. Wish me luck! 

Oh and “V” is for Vegas, too! I am heading to Vegas this month with a few friends to photograph a huge travel agent convention. This is my first trip to Vegas, so I’m excited. I’m not a big gambler, so no body needs to worry that I am going to gamble away all of our adoption funds. :) But how stinkin cool would it be if I played a slot one time and won $50,000! I would be the crazy girl screaming, “Oh, PRAISE JESUS!”

E - Eggheads... that’s who we have driving on the roads in Columbus, GA! During rush hour yesterday, we about died on the interstate because the people in front of us decided it made perfect sense to slam on breaks in the middle lane because people in the right lane were exiting. I'm going to move on before I sin...

M - Moving again! It seems as if we are playing musical houses! Yes, we found out that we CAN stay in the house we own, but after talking it over, we agreed that we probably needed to move back to the house that Lance’s dad owns and sell ours. It would give us double the space and double the bathrooms (we only have one here). I REALLY do not want to move, but we think it’s the best option right now. We are praying that our house will sell quickly this time around. 

B - Beards are manly and sexy... unless they are gross. I love Lance’s beard. It’s “No Shave November” and so all these normally clean-shaven men are attempting to grow beards. There is no attempting for Lance... his is good to go. I did ask him to trim it down a while back. We had been watching "Eureka" (awesome show by the way) and the character Nathan had a closely trimmed beard. I liked it... on him... not on Lance. So, he grew it back out. Much better. 

E - Every preschool class must go to the Pumpkin Patch. Asher’s class was no exception. He is so cute and sweet. I love my boys!

R - Reading is for people who have lots of free time... I am not one of those people, but I wish I were so I could finish some books. I’ve been reading the “Game of Thrones” books thanks to our friend Brandon. The first one was great and I’m enjoying the second one, but I just cannot find the time to read that dang book! I’m about halfway through. 

I also started reading a parenting book by John Rosemond called “Family of Value". I've only gotten through the first chapter, but so far I agree with it. Don’t ask me what it was about... I don’t recall now... I just know I agreed. 

Then of course I really want to read my Bible more... I need the Lord to give me discipline regarding this. I’ve been doing a Bible study on the book of James with a group of ladies at our church and that has been great... when I get to go. This was a verse that stood out to me big time in James:

Can anyone else say, “Ouch!”?

Well, y’all. This is where I have to say goodbye and go clean my house. I’ve got a sink full of dishes and about 150 crushed CoCo Puffs on the kitchen floor. I’ll stop the description there.

Until next time! - K

None Of Us Would Be Here Without Our Dads, So Thanks... A Day Late!

September 26, 2006... the day that Lance and I became parents (Well, actually it was some day back in early January 2006 but we won't discuss that here). I will never forget this day. It's crazy how you can love someone so much so instantly.

Being a parent is one of the most amazing adventures and one of the most difficult challenges in life. I think becoming parents is part of the reason we have come to believe in the Doctrine's of Grace. We have definitely witnessed the whole "total depravity" part and it is DEFINITELY God's grace that we are not alcoholics. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can go to my other blog and read about it here)

Yesterday was Father's Day. I was going to come up with some silly reason why I saved this post for today but let's just be honest, I didn't finish it yesterday. I'm okay with that. I would rather not get lost in all the Father's Day posts anyway. :)

So, this is me publicly saying that my husband is one of the best dads on the planet. Our boys love him so much. I thought it would be sweet to share the drawings the boys drew yesterday, so below is how we each see Lance...

Brayden's view

Apparently, Brayden see's his dad as a super villain. I mean, look at those eyebrows and that sly grin. Nice goatee even though Lance has a full beard. Of course Brayden is Batman. What is it they say? Always be yourself... unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.


Asher's view

Seems as though Asher has really picked up on how much weight Lance has lost recently (I'll touch on the weight loss in another post fairly soon).


Mommy's View (When she closes her eyes)

Like Brayden, I'm a fan of Batman too. ;-)


Happy Father's Day plus 1 to all the dads out there!