Tracie

This is my little Tracie girl.  She came to our family at 23 months old.  This one right here was my buddy from the get-go.  She was glued to me and would cry if I even tried to go to the bathroom or to cook dinner.  She didn't want me to very far from her at all for a very long time.  We adopted her when she was 3 1/2 years old.  She has made SO much progress.

She loves to bake and is addicted to cooking shows.  She has a dream to one day own her own bakery or restaurant.  I asked her one day if her bakery was going to be "Tracie's Cakes" and she loved it.  She goes around telling everyone now that she is going to have a bakery called "Tracie's Cakes" one day.  So be on the look-out one day...she just may have her own shop serving the best of "Tracie's Cakes."  She is precious!  She's a bit of a perfectionist and strives to do her best.  This Momma is not a perfectionist so it's a little aggravating sometimes when she's in melt-down mode over something not being perfect, but I guess it will serve her well one day and that's why God has made her that way.

Own Your Life Chapter 3

Sorry for the small delay in getting back into Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson, but I have been SO groggy from anesthesia that my thoughts haven't been all that clear and I was falling asleep at the drop of a hat.  So, let's jump back in together and read Chapter 3.  I may try to do another chapter later on today...we'll see how I feel.  Anyway, go grab some coffee and let's get into Chapter 3 together on Listening to New Voices and owning your true identity

I love that she met a friend that truly seemed to understand her.  I love it when God gives me people in my life like that.  I am an introvert myself so I struggle with making friends sometimes, but I love those people that I feel immediately comfortable with and there's trust there and I just seem to open up and bubble out.  I'm not that way with many people, so I liked Sally's description of how God gave her that lady to sit and talk with and that they were alike in certain ways.  My heart broke for her friend though when she said that her Mom had such a negative view of her and how she still carries that around and sees herself that way.

"I never tried to be a dreamer-idealist, that's just how I came out of the womb.  I loved embarking on adventures, meeting people, taking risks, and challenging the "accepted paths of life.  Yet my dancing, singing, laughing soul seemed to irritate my family.  I was left feeling as if I was "too much" or somehow wrong, for most people."  That quote by Sally really spoke to my heart.  I will admit that I get that way sometimes with members of my own family at times as things get really LOUD in here at times and my soul just can't handle it at times.  But, it makes me see that I need to handle it with love and grace so that I'm not leaving anyone hurt or feeling this way.

She also really spoke to me when she said that "internal critics may point fingers of accusation at our hearts and paralyze us from moving through life with freedom and emotional health."  Oh yes, how that has held true in my own life.  I won't discuss it right now, but I will say that it may have taken me 30 years to process some things that have happened in my life and I gave more than one chance and I finally had to allow myself the grace of telling myself if it happened one more time, it was okay to put a "boundary" there.  Needless to say, it happened again, and I had to give myself permission to close the door for awhile.  I pray for them, but I had to decide that I am worth it to try to move forward in this life and that I knew my heart where the other people didn't and they were trying to keep throwing me backwards in their own grief and they were too busy trying to tell me how I should be living.  So thankful to God and His guidance in those moments and He really spoke to my heart there.  If I think about it too much, I tend to still get emotional about it, but for the most part, I'm just trying to move forward the best way that I can and pray that one day they will see that I had no ill intentions and that I was just trying to make the best of things that I have been dealt.  I truly have just put it in God's hands...but that quote by Sally just really jumped out at me and spoke to my heart.

"Only God offers deep-down inner acceptance and approval.  Only His unconditional love and acceptance will satisfy our longings.  On His ways bring vibrant health."  I need to write that on all the bathroom mirrors in thsi house.  We all need to see this quote on a daily basis!

"Trying to live up to all the voices around you in this world will always leave you feeling inadequate."  I am trying to do better with this one as a people-pleaser.  I've had to really listen to my husband who is always telling me that it does not matter what others think as long as "we" are happy with how and what we are doing and that we are obeying with God calls us to do.  I am so fortunate that he truly understands and sees things and that he can speak that truth to me.  I am slowly improving, although sometimes I really do let others get the best of me.  I am enough in Christ and I need to give myself grace where I fall short.  I need Jesus every day and am so thankful that He died for me.  I am enough.  I don't need to feel guilty for not pleasing everyone at all times in every situation.

I absolutely loved this quote too "From God's point of view, you, too, are a princess.  After all, He is a king, and if you've chosen to follow Him, He has adoopted you as His daughter.  Your past is wiped away, and your future is defined by His adoption of you."  That's pretty awesome, isn't it?  Another quote I need to put on bathroom mirrors or bedroom doors.  How beautiful and a powerful reminder!

"Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!  2 Corinthians 5:17

Dear God, please help us tune out the negative voices in our heads and that come from others and help us really learn to look to Your Word to speak truth into our lives and to show us how You truly see us.  We are redeemed by Jesus, forgiven, and cherished.

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Emma

This is my Emma.  She came to us just after turning 3 years old.  She is spunky and immediately bonded to my husband.  Not so much with me at first.  I'll admit that was hard, but I was happy to see that she at least bonded to my husband.  She loves her Daddy!  She was pretty defiant with me off and on, but would listen to him more.  Nevertheless, I didn't give up.  We adopted her just before she turned 5 and that is when everything started to turn around with her and I.  Her Pre-K teacher said it best..."I think she just needed to know that everything that you had been telling her was the truth."  She was happy to finally have her forever family and she started letting me in more and more.  She doesn't trust easily and takes a while to warm up, but once she does she is very loyal.  It's been hard sometimes to watch her struggle with learning and she has some social struggles.  Her teachers are concerned that she doesn't maintain friendships all that easily.  She has 2 friends in our neighborhood and she maintains those.

She is my little helper around the house, she loves to help clean, she likes to help cook, she likes to look after her little sister...although we are still working on "I'm the sister, not the momma."  She struggles a lot with learning challenges and also has ADHD, so we are constantly advocating for her and how is best to help her.  Overall she tries really hard.  She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice.  She was in choir last year and loved it!  Maybe I can get her to sing for me on camera tomorrow and I can upload a video of her tomorrow for Veteran's Day.  Love you my Emmy girl!

I took her out to eat at IHOP here in this picture.  She was doing her school work, chores, reading, and homework, and helping aorund the house all without having to asked or reminded, so I thought she deserved a breakfast out with just Mom.  We both enjoyed it and then went off to the bookstore to find some new books to read.  So happy that she is finally starting to enjoy reading!

I will get to Chapter 3 of Own Your Life tomorrow...I must go nap again.  I apologize!

Praying the attributes of God over our children

This is something that I wanted to start doing on Mondays and praying over our children together.  Since I missed yesterday due to my surgery, I'm going to do this weeks today.  Next week, we can see how God answered this week's prayers.

God, we praise You for all that You are.  We praise You that You are able to do all things and that nothing is impossible with You.

This week we are going to focus on the attribute of able.   The definition of able is one who has sufficient ability and resources.

2 Corinthians 9:8 says  And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Epeshians 3:20-21 says  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Hebrews 7:25 says 25 Therefore he is able to save completely[a] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Isn't that beautiful how God is able to bless us abdunantly so that we will have all that we need to abound in every good work and that He can do more than what we dare to ask or imagine and that He is able to save us because He intercedes for us.  How beautiful!  Love that God is so good to us!

Let's take a moment to silently confess our sins....
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (NASB)

Let's take a moment to thank God for what He has done....
n everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NASB)

I thank God for my children and that He has answered my prayers and given me 5 beautiful children and that I can see His hand working in their lives and in my own and in my husbands.  He has blessed us indeed and He has seen us through lots of ups and down.

Now, I'd like to come to God in intercession for others.  You can post in the comments for your prayer requests and I'll just ask that each one of us picks 1 child to share about each week for us to pray over together.  We are going to take the Corinthians passage and pray scripture for our child.

May __________ know that You are able to make all grace abound to him/her, so that in all things at all times, having all that __________ needs, he/she will abound in every good work.

I am going to choose my daughter, Deidra, since it is her birthday tomorrow.  May Deidra know that You are able to make all grace abound to her, so that in all things at all times, having all that Deidra needs, she will abound in every good work.  Amen.

Go ahead and share your child's name in the comments and we can pray for your child too together.

Prayer requests for 1 of your children can go into the comments as well so that we can pray over our children together.  I will add my prayer request here.  I pray for Deidra since it is her birthday tomorrow.  I pray that she will really begin to seek God more and more in her life and see that material things truly do not matter and that God is truly able to meet all of her needs.  Amen.

Prayer requests for your children's teachers or school staff can also go in the comments.
May Deidra's journalism teacher know that You are able to make all grace abound to her, so that in all things at all times, having all that she needs, she will abound in every good work.

Specific school/teacher concerns: I pray for Deidra's journalism teacher and that she will let all children express their views and not be so quick to push what she only believes in the class.

Pray requests for us Mom's:  I pray that I can let go of my anxiety and worry.  I pray that I can truly put in in God's hands and trust in Him.  May I know that You are able to make all grace abound to me, so that in all things at all times, having all that I need, I will abound in every good work.

Don't be afraid to put your pray requests in the comment section and I will be happy to lift up your prayer concerns and pray with you.

Surgery Update

I had my knee surgery yesterday afternoon.  I had some cartilage behind my knee that had broken loose from a fall I took about 3 years ago and was still causing me pain and some issues.  So they took care of that and buffed and reshaped my knee cap.  Learned I was a lightweight with anesthesia...came out of it and really had to focus on my breathing as I wasn't holding my oxygen stats very well.  However, I eventually got with it the more and more I came out of anesthesia and they eventually let me come home.

Today, I am still fighting off the grogginess so I've only been awake for short periods of time.  Apparently, my body is telling me I just need to rest.  I'm getting around ok and my hubby has been taking wonderful care of me.  So happy that he was able to work from home this week.  He is such a blessing to me!  He's a wonderful daddy too, so he's been helping with our 5 kids and was great at getting them off to school this morning as I was still not able to do much this morning, other than sign folders and do my little one's hair.  Giving myself lots of grace today and just trying to rest.  Just wanted to update my few readers that I do have so far.  :-)

Surgery Monday

I am going to try to put up my book post on Monday morning, but am not making any promises for Monday.  I have surgery on Monday morning at 10 am.  So please be in prayer for me that all goes well.  It's been a little bit crazy as I was supposed to have had surgery already 2 weeks ago.  However, I had an abnormal EKG at my pre-op appt that prompted a visit to the cardiologist.  All came out ok and I was very much relieved.  With that being said, my new surgery date is Monday.  

Why do I need surgery?  Oh...back in 2012 I was cleaning my house and my 2 year old was helping me.  She was going around behind me with baby wipes.  Do you see where this is going?  Well, I turned around not knowing that she had left a baby wipe on the floor right behind me and my foot caught that baby wipe and I went a-skiing across my kitchen floor and had nothing to grab onto and I fell.  I felt it pop and crack and my knee moved.  I was home by myself with 4 kids as my oldest was gone at a friend's.  I had to get my Mom to come over to help me as I could not move.  My hubby and my father-in-law were an hour away at a storm spotter certification training.  I had to figure out how to get off the floor and it was not a fun process.  Finally my hubby got home to take me to the ER and they did an x-ray and said it was a sprain and that if it didn't get better in a few days to come back.  Well, I couldn't drive as it's my right knee and I required a lot of help running after my kids and on the day that I was supposed to go back to the doctor we had tornadoes in the area.  I finally determined I was just going to give it more and more time and it would eventually have to get better.   I tried to go to the doctor about 3 months later, but found out my insurance would only cover the initial visit of injury and they wanted $1500 just for an MRI that we did not have at the time.  So I gave it more and more time.  I finally got better insurance in August that will cover everything I need and  well, 3 1/2 years later...I'm finally getting it fixed....it needs surgery.  I am looking forward to getting better and not having to baby my knee anymore.  I look forward to being able to run after my kids, not having to walk so slow to avoid it hurting, and being able to get down on the floor and crawl around to clean and not have to pay for it for days afterwards.  So, I just ask for prayers that all goes well Monday.  It's a day surgery so I will be home later.  Pray that my blood pressure cooperates as well as it goes up whenever I have doc appts and have to go in the hospital.

Josiah

This is Josiah.  We got Josiah as a foster baby at the age of 13 months old.  He is our little whirlwind that never stops and he is always keeping us on our toes.  As our first foster placement, I thought he would outgrow a lot of what he did as I just thought that it was a lack of boundaries and nobody had ever told him no or taught him how to play.  This little guy could scale a room like no tomorrow.  We adopted him at age 3 and he is now 9.  He loves art and loves to draw and really has a talent there.  I was trying to find a quick picture of some of his art as he draws in minutes and it looks fantastic.  I'll have to do a post on his art by itself.  So proud of him with it....I just wish sometimes that he would choose to put all the energy that he has into something productive, like his art.

Josiah struggles from reactive attachment disorder (stems not getting his needs met when he was a baby by his birthmom) and has a lot of behavior challenges that stems from that as he does not trust adults to meet his needs.  He tends to get angry very easily and lots of stuff is broken around here, so we are in counseling a lot to work on issues.  It's been very hard at times, but we keep on keeping on and persevering.  We love him and want so very much for him.  He is very bright and I really think he could go far with his art some day.  So much talent!