Help bring 2 boys home!

Hi guys! Please go to http://mattmandi.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post.html and read this awesome story about how God is using one family to give a home to not 1 but 2 little boys in China. PLEASE go visit them and if you can also drop by http://www.bringingdrewhome.blogspot.com/ that is their fundraiser website. They are adopting one younger child and one young man who is about to "age out" of the system. This means there would be no other chance for him to be adopted and he could end up living on the street. They need our help!

Thanks!

In Christ Alone,

Sherri

Memorial Box Monday: LOOSED TO LIVE

Click on the picture above to go read all about what Memorial Box Monday is. This is my first Memorial Box Monday post...God has been so good to me I am sure there will be lots more of them.


Several years ago on a Sunday morning I fell as I was coming down the stairs into our garage. My heel got caught on my dress and I fell about 3 1/2 feet and landed on concrete. My husband came to my rescue and helped me up and took me straight to the ER. I didn't break anything but I was in pain. I lived in pain for over a year. My back hurt my legs hurt; I couldn't get comfortable no matter what I did. I finally went to see a doctor and they ran an MRI and I had 2 ruptured disks and 2 bulging disks. I tried several things and after almost another year of Epidurals and meds I decided to go ahead and have the surgery.

I had the surgery and lived the next 2 and a half years with NO pain! Praise God for that! Well last year for no reason whatsoever that I can think of I had a little back pain one day...and a little more the next, and by days 3 and 4 I was calling into work because I could barley walk and I yelled at really inappropriate times because the sharp pains were so bad. I would lay in bed; lay on the couch, walk and cry. I lived like this for a couple of weeks. I was so miserable. I knew I could not have a second surgery. I had no insurance and I knew that it would be quite awhile before I would be getting any. The doctor who did my first surgery told me that this would not be a permanent fix but he said I should get at least 5 years out of it. After only half that time I was in just as much pain as before and I was heartbroken at the idea of living in that pain for any length of time at all!

So Sunday morning rolled around and I woke up in pain, I had to get my husband to help me out of bed so I could go to the bathroom. I was tired. I laid back down and began to cry. I just could not even fathom the idea of having to live like that for much longer. I laid there and I begin praying and I realized that God's will was for me to LIVE my life not LAY my life away. I knew that I could not fully live my life with the chains of this pain on me.

I began thinking of all the healing Jesus did, of how people just touched the hem of His garment and were made whole; I thought of how he broke the chains of people possessed by demons and restored sight to the blind. I believed that God could do the same kind of miracle in me. I looked at my husband and said "When I get to church today I am going to have Dad (Who is also our Bishop or Senior Pastor) and our church pray for me and I am going to believe for my healing." Mitchell said something like "Well God can sure do it" and I thought for a minute and realized he was right GOD could do it! A light went on in my head and it was like, oh wow Jesus said "Your faith has made you WHOLE" so all it takes is MY FAITH and HIS HEALING TOUCH...NOTHING ELSE!!!! So I started to pray...not a little prayer like...dear father if you decided to maybe do this thing for me....I mean I felt a GODLY BOLDNESS come over me and I stormed the throne room of heaven and asked my HEAVENLY FATHER to please touch and heal my body. Well after I got done praying I laid there completely still for a minute and I realized I wasn't hurting. So I moved a little...no pain...so I SAT UP (I hadn't been able to do that without help and then it was still a process) NO PAIN. Well I just have to be honest here and say that after that I really don't remember exactly what I did according to my family I ran, skipped, shouted, jumped and just had myself a little fit all with NO PAIN! I praised the Lord all over my house I praised the Lord in the shower and I praised the Lord all the way to church and I told everyone I came into contact with about my Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving God (stole that from Linny can't help it I love that description of Him!!)

I am keeping my eye out for a Memorial Box for our home and when I find one I will put a little doll house bed in it to remind me of the time that He LOOSED me to LIVE and not LAY!!!

Blog Parade!

This is the first time I have ever joined a "Blog Parade" but I am looking forward to it!

So here goes:

1. What's your favorite time of the day, and why?

My favorite time of day is when I walk in my door after work or dropping the kids off at school (on days I am off) I love being home! (This is NOT my door but I think it is pretty and I don't have a pic of mine!)

2. If health wasn't an issue, what food could you live off of?

Chicken Cassarole...It's my favorite!

3. If you could have one wish granted (besides wishing for more wishes), what would it be?

I would love to have a house full of babies from all over the world...I want my kitchen table to look like a NATO conference...only with more smiles and less drama!

4. What's one thing that you get teased about a lot?

I didn't do this but I very well could have...I am a BAD driver...which isn't good since I commute almost an hour to work!

5. If you could choose one movie, book, or TV show to spend your life in, which would you pick? What type of character would you be?

A Walk In the Clouds..I think this movie is full of beautiful moments. I love the female lead she is strong but soft all at the same time!

6. If you could have one talent that you don't already have, what would it be?

I would love to be able to sing...like Norah Jones!

7.If money were no object, where would you go on vacation?

I would rent a beach house and lay in the hammock for a few years.

8. If you were an awesome singer, which genre would you sing?

Christian Music that sounds like Norah Jones

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, what would it be?

I love, love, love that store!

10. If you could live in any point in time, when would it be?

I was born in 1980 and I fit right in!

11. If every outfit in your wardrobe had to be one color, what would it be?

PINK of course!!!

12. If you were one of the seven dwarves, which one would you be?

(Doc, Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Bashful, Happy, or Dopey)

Simply because I don't like any of the other options!

 

13. What's the last album you listened to?

She rocks!

14. What's something we'd be surprised to know about you?

I have a tattoo on my left shoulder...I love it and I would really like another one on my foot. It doesn't fit in with ANY of the rest of my life but I love art and I like being different.

Sunday Snapshot: Sweet Sarah

In December of 1999 I became a mother for the first time. I will never forget the ride home from the hospital, it was less then 10 miles away from my house but I remember Mitchell going so slow and my heart jumping every time we hit a bump. I just didn't want anything to happen to her. She was so perfect and precious and my biggest fear was that something would hurt her. Now here we are over ten years later and I have learned so much from her.

Her smile lights up our home. She is such a loving girl. She is a straight A student, she loves the Lord and she is always waiting with a hug or a smooch on the cheek just when I need it.

She is stubborn. OH SO STUBBORN! (I have no clue where she gets that :-) She is an individual, when most girls are playing with their Barbie Dolls she is sorting her Bouncy Ball Collection.

She loves to read and she loves music...both traits that she inherited from me. But she also loves to be outside, throw ball, and ride her bike, just like her Dad.

As I look at her now I feel the same way I did sitting in the back seat of that car a decade ago, I know some bumps are coming...there is no stopping it. She is such a beautiful girl and in the last year she has stopped thinking boys were "gross" (well except for her brother) and she has a "boyfriend" now. I guess my fear is still the same; I don't want anyone or anything to hurt her. I know that hurt happens to us all and disappointments come. Just this month she competed in two Speech Contests, she won the first one and lost the second. She tried to act as if it didn't bother her but I looked into her big brown eyes and I knew just what she was feeling. I could almost see her thinking about what she should have done differently but I just wanted to hug her and make it go away. I don't want her to ever try to change who she is to please others.

On that cold December day a decade ago, I placed her in the car seat and her Dad buckled her in tightly. I tucked blankets in around her and made sure her head was supported. That was all we could do, we prepared her for the bumps and then we had to trust God to get us to our destination safely. That is exactly what we have done at this point in her life. We placed her in a home full of love and safety, we have tucked her into a church family that loves her and she buckled herself to Jesus by asking him to be her savior. Over the last few years I have tried to support her by teaching her what the Word of God says about how she should live her life. Now I have to sit back and prayerfully trust God to get us through the next decade safely. If I have learned anything as a parent it is that God loves her so much more than I can and His plan for her is perfect. Even more perfect than she was when I placed her in the car seat on a cold December day. My Sweet, Sweet Sarah.

Frustration!!!!!

Withering grass, that is what Peter called it.

My withering flesh stinks!!!!!!

1 Peter 1: 24 for
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,

It is so predictable. It is so selfish.

I am in a very hard place right now. I wish I could put it into words. I wish I could put my finger on what it is I guess it is that I am "grieved by various trials" (1 Peter 1:6). Nothing seems easy. Nothing seems to just "fall into place". I am frustrated, stressed, and just in a poor mood overall! This is so out of character for me. I am such a positive person.

I have felt this way for awhile but until the last week I have been able to keep things in check. On Tuesday I think I pretty much just stopped trying to pretend everything is ok.

I fail. I miserably fail at serving my sweet Jesus. I am just tired of failing but I know that no matter what I do I am flesh and I can't be perfect. I am frustrated by my failure. I understand that the frustration is a tool of the enemy to try and keep me feeling as if I can never do anything for God. I just don't know how to get off the spin cycle I am on. I need Jesus. I need the Holy Spirit. I need to be covered under the wings of the Almighty. I know it is me that keeps pushing Him away.

I feel abandoned. I know I am not. But I am frustrated that I am not full time at my job yet. I am frustrated that we have not sent in any more of our paperwork for our adoption. We have been redoing some things around the house and everything is a mess that is adding to my stress level as well. I keep telling myself I have a great life, I am not hungry, I am not sick, I am not abused, I am not under persecution, over all I have a great life. That just makes me frustrated at myself for being frustrated. I know the answer is MORE JESUS less sherri...I am just having a hard time getting there. Please pray for me bloggy friends. Pray that my frustration will not get the best of me. Pray that the God of all peace will minister to me during this HARD time of various trials. I would appreciate it and return the favor when you are feeling a bit frustrated.



In Christ Alone,

Sunday Snapshot: A lesson taught by Colton

This weekend I had big plans...plans to celebrate belated birthdays, plans to spend my time in specific ways...they all fell through. Some snow and a very sick little boy put everything on hold.


I have to admit I was a bit agitated. I was frustrated and just wanted to pitch a fit. But last night as we rushed our very sick 7-year old to the Children's Hospital 30 minutes away on icy roads I realized that none of those little things matter.

We are home safe today. Colton has mono. We are just so thankful that God's hand of protection and provision was on us this whole weekend. He wasn't surprised by one thing that happened. He knew that my plans were not going to be kept. But He kept His hand on us during our trials.

 

Last night I took this picture of Mitchell and Colt in the hospital bed. (That face Colt is making is a face of frustration over my need to snap pictures at really bad times.) Just a few minutes before I took this picture Colton was lying by himself and he looked at me and said "Mom, you know, God is just awesome" I said "Why do you say that sweetie?" he said "Because He is Mom, He just really is!" You know if my son can choose to praise God in the hard times then by all means I will do the same.


GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME AND ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD!

The New Blog, It's Name, and Where we Stand Now.

I am so excited to be posting on my new blog...Keisha at Blogs for Babies
did a WONDERFUL job! Thanks Keisha!! I wanted a new blog because I wanted to blog about our family, adoption, and my general "soapbox" discussions all in one place. I will still keep Operation Giggle open so I can use it for all of that sort of stuff. But I will be taking down Princess with a Purpose.

The name for this blog came from a scripture Romans 12:9. My Dad who is also our Bishop (or Senior Pastor) preached a message out of Romans 12: 9-21 about the type of Christian we should be. I have to say that when my husband Mitchell and I took stock of how we have been living our lives we saw that so many times we don't meet the "par" set by Christ. Ever since that message we have been striving (and failing a lot) as a family to act like God intended for us to.

Right now we are in limbo. We KNOW we are called to adopt. We WANTED to adopt a cutie that we met through Operation Giggle, we applied for adoption through a local agency and we ask them to search for the little girl (who I will call A). After about two weeks of looking for her they said they were unable to locate her file and would not be willing to continue to look. We were all very sad. My Colton started crying in the middle of Wal-Mart and said "but I want my little sister from China". That is the way we all felt. We WANT her.

Well during the time when the local agency was looking for her I had been following another blog about a family that had adopted from Ethiopia. I had shared with Mitchell and after they said they couldn't find "A's" file he said he wanted us to look into Ethiopia. We had been approved for Ethiopia as well when we applied with our agency. Well I had to try one more time to find her and if we didn't then we would go with Ethiopia. So I called an agency out of NY that a friend had recommended. They said that they would look for her file ONLY if we agreed to take another child from China if we did not find her file.

As you see I put WANT and NEED in capital letters in this post. I did it for a reason. Sometimes the thing we WANT so badly is not what we NEED. It is not what God WANTS for us. I started feeling in my spirit that this just wasn't going to work out. I prayed and I just couldn't get peace that "A" was coming home to be our daughter. More than anything I need God to speak clearly to me through all of this and on the Sunday before I got the email from our agency telling us they couldn't find her I prayed a specific prayer. "God, I need to know your will, please either clearly OPEN or clearly SHUT the door to this child for us this week" well less than 24 hours later it closed through that email. Then even though I believed I knew His will for us was not sweet little "A" I pushed a little harder and called the NY office. When they told us we had to agree to take another sweetie from China after we had just agreed that if "A" wasn't available we would look into Ethiopian adoption I felt like this was God saying "No" again. Sometimes I still need to be told twice I guess.

So we have our "initial approval" for Ethiopia...we have yet to step all the way on to the paper trail. We have one specific prayer request that we NEED to be answered for us to move any further. God knows all about it and I know he can take care of it. Please pray that He gives us patience while we wait on Him to move. I know, I know, it's not wise to prayer for patience...well I am going to need it on this adoption road so why not get it up front?!

So now when I dream of my sweet new baby I dream of precious little Ethiopian children and I am so excited to look into their chocolate brown eyes and know that they are home, but I know that God's plan for us is big and doesn't stop with this adoption and I can't help but think that someday I will also look into a set of beautiful almond eyes and welcome another precious child to our home.

For now I will wait and I will strive everyday for the "mark" of Romans 12:9-21


9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it [9] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.


In Christ Alone,