More on the Women of Faith Conference, getting personal

There were so many great speakers at the WOF Conference. Many of us laughed and cried together.
I never even heard of some of these people, but boy am I a fan now. I really enjoyed Patsy Clairmont. She is so funny. And I grew up watching Lisa Whelchel on The Facts of Life so it was really great to hear her speak.
All of these women spoke from their heart, but Lisa really spoke TO my heart. She spoke about her childhood, "growing up" on TFOL, and her adulthood. She spoke about feeling disconnected from her family. She also spoke about all women needing to find that special friend that we can share everything with. That friend who supports you through everything you are going through in life. That friend who listens to you, encourages you, laughs with you , cries with you, gives you a safe place to go when life is getting you down. You get the point. Right? And of course you do the same for her.
Well as she was speaking about all of this I was thinking about my life. I definitely didn't have the challenges in my life that Lisa did. But I did have things happen to me that shaped who I am today.

Warning--this might be more than you care to know about me. LOL

My parents divorced when I was in 2nd grade. My mom's family and my dad's family all lived very close to each other. But my dad moved three hours away to another state. My sister and I were to spend every other weekend with my dad, but because of his work schedule and the distance he would have to drive we spent this time with my dad's parents instead. I became very close to my grandparents.
My dad's side of the family (with the exception of my dad) were Christians and would go to church every Sunday. My mom's side of the family were not religious at all and never went to church. When I would go to church with my grandparents I felt very uncomfortable and did not like it much. I always viewed my mom's side of the family as being "fun".
Since I had two very different sides of the family and I wanted love and acceptance from both I felt like I needed to be what each side wanted me to be. I felt like two different people (actually three if you count the person I had to be when I went to visit my dad and step mom). With my mom's family I could be more of the me I thought I wanted to be. I didn't feel like I had to try as hard because they lived like we did. But when I went to my grandparents house I felt like that me wasn't good enough. I had to be better and because I wanted their love I felt myself behaving differently when I was with them. This would make me very tense, always trying so hard to please everyone. I remember times when I would go home after a weekend with my grandparents and just explode on my mom. I felt like I had to be perfect all weekend and once I got home I had to let loose. My poor mother. I spent so much time worrying about what others thought of me. I was afraid to do anything wrong for fear that they wouldn't love me anymore. I can't really recall ever being "carefree" as a child.
Now after hearing all of this you would think that my safe haven was my home. That at home I could be the "real me" whatever that is. But that really isn't the case either. My mom remarried when I was in 4th grade and the man she chose just happened to be an alcoholic. When he was drunk he was not a nice man. He would verbally and at times physically abuse my mother. She stayed with him because she felt like she could not raise two children on her own. (She finally divorced him when I was in 11th grade.) So you see my home was not the safe haven it should have been. I remember having a handful of friends growing up that I enjoyed spending time with, but it was always at their houses. None of my friends wanted to come to my house to play because of my step dad.
Because of all of this (and some things having to do with my sister that I won't get into today) I have become what some people call a "people pleaser". I hate conflict. I just want everyone to get along. I hate to see someone hurting. If someone is hurting I want to go to them and let them know that I am there for them. But I find myself holding back at times. Still worrying about what other people would think about me.
Kurt and I became Christians in 1998. The funny thing is now I am so much closer to my dad's family. I get it now. I understand why I felt like I needed to be better when I was with them. Because when you are living for Christ you make different choices. You want your life to glorify God. You want to be better.

I planned this post to be all about that special friend Lisa was talking about. But I feel a little drained from sharing so much so I will make another post about that tomorrow.
Blessings!

Steven Curtis Chapman at Women of Faith

I am in love with Steven Curtis Chapman, don't tell my husband. LOL
Just kidding!!! What I do love about SCC is his faith in God, his love for his family, his honesty, his heart for orphans and, of course, his talent. I originally signed up to attend the WOF Conference because SCC was scheduled to be there.
Steven sang his song "Heaven is The Face". Oh, how beautifully sad this song is. His honesty about how he longs for little Maria is inspiring. He can glorify our God and give Him praise even in his grief. Of course most of the women in the coliseum were in tears as he sang about his precious Maria. He also sang "When Love Takes You In" and "Cinderella". Honestly I don't think there was a dry eye in the place. He changed the last line of Cinderella. I don't remember the exact line but it was something like "and I know the dance will go on".

The first time I saw SCC in concert was the spring of 2005. What he did for Kurt and I at that concert he will probably never know. He gave us hope. Hope that we might grow our family through adoption one day. You see, we always stopped at the "thinking about it stage" because of our finances. We didn't think that we would ever be able to afford it, so we never did anything about it. Living on Kurt's military pay, because my entire paycheck went back to the private christian school our three children were attending, did not provide for a large savings account. When we found out about Show Hope (then Shohanna's Hope) we had hope that if we put our trust in our Lord Father and watched our spending, saved where we could, and applied for every grant we qualified for that we might be able to grow our family through international adoption.
The funny thing is we applied for about 8-10 different grants. At that point in time we felt like we just couldn't complete our adoption without some financial help. But God proved that He is bigger than we are and if we stay faithful and do our part He will bless us. We didn't receive any of the grants, that's right, NO grant money. But through saving when we could, income tax refunds, a candle fundraiser, some donations from family members and donations from an awesome church family we had everything that we needed when we needed it. We did have to put our international flight expenses on a credit card, but that has long since been paid off.
Our life has been forever changed because we went to a SCC concert back in 2005 and allowed God to open our hearts to international adoption.

Awesome weekend at Women of Faith!!

I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Women of Faith Conference in Greensboro Friday and Saturday. Our church took a group of 16 women of faith and we had a great time. It just flew by too quickly.
The only negative of the whole weekend was the traffic at the coliseum. They were having three events there on the same day!! CRAZY TRAFFIC!!
To be completely honest. . . I only went because Steven Curtis Chapman was singing. I mean, come on, how could I pass up an opportunity to see Steven Curtis Chapman?!? But what I discovered was that I had a great time and completely enjoyed everything about the conference!!!
The speakers that we were blessed to hear were: Steve Arterburn, Patsy Clairmont (love her!!), Marilyn Meberg, Luci Swindoll, Sheila Walsh, and Lisa Whelchel. Steven Curtis Chapman and Mandisa both sang and they had a great worship team.
I will be posting a couple of other posts (and a couple pics) about my experience at the conference so check back for more.

Pics from Amilynn's Birthday Party

Family Pictures

We recently had family pictures taken. I am so happy with how they turned out. Hope you enjoy looking at them.

Amilynn is 6 years old!!!

My baby is 6 today. I can't believe it. Where does the time go?
The first two pictures at the top are photos we received when we adopted Amilynn. We did not know her then, but the Lord knew her and He knew that we would one day be her family. I try not to think about those years that she spent waiting for us in China. I trust that our Lord God was watching over her, keeping her safe.
The third photo (the one with the ball) was taken in China, June of 2007 just a day or two after we became a family. She has been such a joy and blessing to our family. I just love watching her grow.
Thank you God for allowing me to be her mommy.

We will be having a party for her next week. We have a Church function to go to today, so I will post pics of her party then.

Follow Up on "Are You Her Mommy?"

I spoke with Amilynn's teacher this afternoon about the subject of adoption. I asked her if she had any books on the subject that she could share with the class. She said that she has several books and that she could read them to the class on Friday. That gives me time to talk to Amilynn and make sure that she is comfortable with it. Please pray that all goes well and the children are not unkind to Amilynn for any reason.

Are You Her Mommy?

Today I walked with Amilynn to her class. I was helping explain her morning work when one of the students at her table started a conversation with me. Keep in mind, Amilynn is only in Kindergarten. It went like this. . .
Little boy--"Are you her mommy?"
Me--"Yes, I am."
Little boy--"OH! But you look white."
Me--"Yes, I am."
Little boy--"Wow!! That is freaky."

Little boy referring to Amilynn--"We like each other."
Me--"Amilynn is only allowed to have friends, she is too young for a boyfriend."
Little boy--"How about when she is 15?"
Me--"Nope, she will still be too young for a boyfriend."
Little boy--"How about 18?"
Me--"I am not sure."
Little boy--"What about 19?"
Me--"Probably when she is 19."
Little boy--"YES!!"

Funny

1. Yesterday I took the girls out school clothes shopping. Let me just say I hate shopping. So when we were just about finished Amilynn says to me, "Mommy, are we done yet. This is very tiring."
LOL Is there any question that she is my daughter?


2. The boys were doing their chores this morning. John was carrying the duster and Craig was behind him with the vacuum. They were leaving the living room as Amilynn was coming in and Craig said to Amilynn, "Get out of the way, real men coming through." That's right. . . real men do do housework!!!

A Special Day

16 years ago today I married the man I was meant to spend the rest of my life with. He is my other half and truly completes me. Over the years we have had our ups and downs, but our love remained and got us through the tough times. I love this man. I know that God brought us together and intended for us to be together forever.
I love you, Kurt!!

40 Days Until My Blogoversary Giveaway!!

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A Week I Will Always Remember

This past week will be a week that I will never forget. My dad came to visit.
Now many of you may wonder why this event would mean so much to me. Well that is something that takes a little explaining.
My parents divorced when I was in 2nd grade. I was lucky to have maintained a great relationship with my dad through the years even though he was living 3 hours away from my mom while I was growing up. I would go and visit him during holiday breaks and during the summer. But because my parents were divorced my dad didn't come to my house to visit so that was always something that I longed for growing up. Then I went and married a military man and moved all over through the years which made it difficult for him to come and visit.
Other things made it difficult, his work schedule, his health, family activities, my step-mom's work schedule, the things that we all deal with when trying to figure out if we can make a trip or not.
Well, my dad turned 60 years old on Monday and for his birthday Kurt and I flew him down from Ohio for a visit. He flew in on Tuesday and stayed until Friday. We didn't do a whole lot, mostly stayed in and enjoyed each others company.
I hope that this is just the first of many visits.

Our trip to South Dakota

We traveled to South Dakota on July 30th. The main reason for this trip was to take my husbands younger brother back there to live near the rest of the family. It was such a long drive and such a short visit, but it was a really good visit. All went well getting Daniel moved into his new home and the children got to spend time with their cousins. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Katie's Birthday Photos

I am really late in getting these posted, but here they are.

Blogoversary Giveaway!!!

My homeschool blog is almost a year old and I am having a giveaway. Click here to check it out!!