a little bit of update and some words freely borrowed form others

"This day, all His mercies are new. This day, every promise is true..Let my life be a preview of coming attractions! " What a great promise and what a challenge!! Its not an original from me...I borrowed it from someone who had borrowed it too.........

I love how God stirs hearts!!! Several people, when they heard that the group of nine siblings was now listed as a group of only seven, had been sure that the children had already been adopted. Obviously not so. How thankful I am that I got an email from RAINBOWKIDS.COM telling about these children and that I passed the info along!! A friend who is a seasoned mom of a growing family and who is still awaiting her newest son to to come home, and who is is a newlywed, told me that she and her husband felt that incredible tug at their hearts to say YES and to inquire about the children!!! There is a "possibility" that the older two who are 14 and 17 may be "too old" to be adopted with their yougner sibs. HOW SAD IS THAT!!? Please pray that these children would be allowed to be kept intact as a family, even in adoption...ESPECIALLY in adoption? We were put in a situation with our own sibling group of three where we were very close to "forced" to separate our children and leave our son behind forever. BUT GOD!!! Friends told me after Isaiah came home that they were drawing straws over who was going to tell me that THIS time I had gone too far in my prayers and THIS TIME God just could not answer my prayer with a "yes". BUT GOD!! And just now I received an email from AAI about a beautiful older three sib group in Ethiopia. PLEASE LORD, move on even more hearts..........so many children wait............stir in hearts a willing response to orphans that resonates "YES LORD YES LORD YES YES LORD YES LORD YES LORD YES YES LORD AMEN" and place even more of the solitary into families! (Psalm 68:6)

My dear freind's Father in Law was somewhat more comfortable last night, for which we are VERY thankful. AS we look at the new photo added to our living room collection, we are contstantly reminded to bring them before the Lord . Jill's children call their Grampa "PopPop" which is what we called my dad when he was still alive. We have decided to "Adopt" Pop Pop S as our Pop Pop. He has our photos in his hospital room too..............Here's lookin'at you Pop Pop. Please know that we are loving you and praying for you...each one of those faces you see smiling at you!!

Athen there's the Proverbs 31 onlne ministry. I absolutely love their devotionals and frequently share them with friends and family. Today's message " IS ignorance bliss?" is very powerful on a number of levels. I encourage you to really read it through and see if God has somethng to reveal to you. He did me!!!!!
Is Ignorance Bliss?
15 Jan 2010Leslie Nease, She Speaks! Graduate"Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused." Romans 1:21-22 (NLT)A wave of regret swept over me as I looked up the nutrition information on the pumpkin muffin I'd just consumed. It had a whopping 530 calories, 20 fat grams and 80 carbohydrates! Stunned, I wondered why I would ever want to know this information? Why did I look this up? Now I wouldn't be able to eat my pumpkin muffin in good conscience!Ignorance is bliss. Or is it?If I didn't know this nutritional information I would eat the muffin thinking that because it contains vegetable, it must be good for me! I mean, honestly - have you tasted one of these? But the truth is, eating a pumpkin muffin every day for the rest of my life might lead to some serious consequences. Heart disease, obesity, lack of energy and diabetes could be in my future. Now that I'm in the know, I can't deny the potential negative affects this could have. I have a responsibility and a decision to make, whether I like it or not.Similarly, it used to be easier for me to pretend God wasn't real--hell was made up and evil was something I could elude. But when faced with the reality that there is a God who I am accountable to, there is a hell, and evil is present; I knew I had some decisions to make. Instead of living in denial, I accepted that ignorance is not bliss and it was not doing me any favors. So I started to search for truth about God in the pages of His Word.Scripture is the one place where we can be sure we will find all we need to know about God. However, many folks try to figure out God without the Bible; they want a god on their terms. This reminds me of diets that promise extreme weight loss while eating whatever you want without exercising. We would be in denial if we believed those promises. To lose weight, you have to know the nutritional value of food, work out regularly, and not eat pumpkin muffins every day! It's a conscious decision to daily invest in our health and there are no short cuts.Denying God's existence is not going to change the fact that He is there either. Ignorance is not bliss - it is ignorance.God makes Himself known to us through His Word. He says, "I Am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5, NIV). We must make a conscious decision daily to invest in our spiritual health through learning about God through time in the Bible. We must connect and remain with Him. With God's Word lighting our path, we are armed with truth, so we can make informed decisions that will help us grow, not lead us into deception.Dear Lord, I pray our minds and hearts will be opened and softened to the truth of Your Word. Help us embrace it and learn, grow and walk in the freedom of knowing that You are real and You desire a relationship with us. I pray we will take Your hand as we walk through this life. Instead of living in ignorance, may we walk forward, realizing that Your Truth is what sets us free. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Related Resources:Do You Know Him?Pierced By the Word by John Piper
Perplexing Proverbs by Susanne Scheppmann
For more encouragement check out
Hold It Up to the Light