Kenya, Uganda, adoption AND a guest post.

Today's post is a bit different from my usual post.  Today's post is a guest post from Shay over at Busy Budget Mom  Shay (whether she knows it or not) is dear to my heart! Why? Because she allows God to work in and through her. She is obedient to His calling for her life even when it takes extremely hard work. She doesn't mind rolling up her sleeves and working hard for the calling God has placed on her heart and she doesn't question it! I'm telling you she is ALL IN in her relationship with Christ!
Recently, I was chatting with Shay about a mission trip Stephen and I are planning on taking to Kenya with our church next year. She shared her heart for adoption with me. We shared our hearts about foreign missions..about Kenya, Uganda, she shared about the possibility of India and that was just the beginning. Here is where God has brought her and her family since!

I always had a thing for adoption. Ever since I was little, I remember dreaming about adopting a little girl from China after first learning about their one child policy and about how many girls need a home there. But, my dreams stayed just that, a thought. A wish, and my life went on.

A few years ago a new family joined our church, and we were blessed to get to know them very well. They were also in the beginning steps of adopting a little boy from Ethiopia. I have to laugh- because I did not have a clue where Ethiopia even was! But, my eyes were about to be opened.

I began hunting in scripture and doing my own research on adoption and orphans. I was surprised to find many, many verses telling us that we are to care for them. That pure religion is to care for the orphans, and how God adopted us as his children. I ran into videos from families picking up their children, videos of the children...the hundreds and hundreds of orphaned children in just one orphanage. I read the stories. I would stay up all hours of the night reading, weeping and praying. My eyes were opened to the need, to the plight of the orphan. God tells us that he knows when our eyes have been opened...and he holds us responsible to do something about it.

"Once our eyes are opened, we cannot pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and knows our souls, knows that we know, and holds up responsible to act.." Proverbs 24:12

In the next three years, after much prayer we became foster parents and fostered a sweet three year old little girl. After she was reunited with her family- my husband and I felt the call to do something more permanent about the orphan crisis and adopt. Might I say it again---it took three long years of praying! But, God's plans are never late and here we are, just a month in- adopting a child from Uganda!

I often look at our current four small children and laugh, because this is totally crazy! We are ready for what's ahead and excited to see how God is going to work in this and provide for us. We have learned, even over the past three weeks, that God funds what he favors. We don't have the money to adopt, but we are praying and believing that God is going to provide every single penny- and he will! He is already showing off, as we have raised $1825 in three short weeks for one of our fees! We have a bunch of fundraisers going on, and we'll pretty much sell you anything that does not have a birth certificate!

One our popular fundraisers right now is Ugandan magazine bead necklaces, from Uganda. For just $20, you can help us bring home our child and provide a home for one less orphan.

They are colorful, beautiful, and handmade! To order, contact Jennifer! Please pray for us as well! This is a long, hard road we're walking and will need all of the prayer we can! Huge thank you to sweet Jennifer for letting me blow up her blog, will you help us get our child home?

Sweet Home. . . .

"Oh. My. God. It's like the movie Sweet Home Alabama in here." My best friend uttered as she opened the closet door's in my childhood bedroom.
This past weekend was the Yemassee Shrimp Festival and like any two best friends- Suryia and I were getting ready together and freshening up before we headed out to the street dance. (I don't care how old you get, getting ready with your very best friend never gets old. The fashion advice, the laughs and the chit chat are always in order.)
We have been best friends since my freshman year of college but she has never seen my secret stash of trophies. Yes, pageant, softball, and 5-K trophies are stashed at the top of my closet....I thought I'd gotten away with hiding them all these years!
Embarrassing, but so typical of a small town girl. It's soooo 'Sweet Home Alabama',  and for those who know me well, it's sooo fitting, right? ;-)
I love my best friend so much! Like a true best friend, she makes me think and so i'm inspired to write this blog on my hometown, Yemassee- The place I grew up. The place where my roots go deep. My 'Sweet Home Alabama'.
I absolutely love going "home"!
I love the good, honest, hardworking people. Their friendly smile's. Catching up with those I haven't seen in a while. I love the older men who tell stories about getting off the train to catch the bus to Parris Island for boot camp and how their first stop was my Great Grandmother's restaurant for some good home cooking. I especially love hearing my Granddad tell the story of meeting my grandmother(who's mother owned that restaurant. See my roots don't just touch the surface..The go really deep!)

This was her restaurant. It was right across the street from the train depot.

The highlight of the year for my hometown is the Shrimp Festival. Every year my Mom busts her chops with the help of a few others to put this on..There are people riding their golf carts around everywhere as means of transportation for the weekend.
The festival is full of cook off's, beauty pageants, street dance's...

parade's...

Kids playing in the town circle....

 and my favorite- The Yemassee mud run!

I can remember going our there at a young age and watching trucks fly through the mud pit and sling mud into the crowd!
Go ahead and back your truck up to the guard rail and tail gait with us while it's raining mud! Then take your shoes off and race through the mud.

Just like this:

 It might have been a bit much but when in Rome, right?

Seriously though...there's absolutely  no better way to end a good old southern festival than being knee deep in the mud!
And with that said,
I love my Sweet Home, Yemassee!

Greater Faith

The past few months I've spent a lot of time studying the life of Noah.

I'm inspired by his courage, faithfulness, and obedience.
I'm encouraged by the fact that Noah stood against things he knew were not from God. He stood against the influence of those around him. He didn't stop because the odds were against him. He spoke boldly in God's name and the Lord blessed him for it.

Two verses stood out to me as I studied Genesis and the life of this righteous man.
Genesis 6:22 says that after God gave him specific instructions for building the ark, "Noah did everything just as God commanded him."
Genesis 7:5 is what stood out to me the most- It says, "Noah did all that the Lord commanded him."

Notice this- Not only did Noah do everything the way God told him, he did it ALL.
He didn't do his own thing his own way to get the end result. He went with God's plan.
He acted on and followed through with every detail, "just as the LORD commanded."
Noah was faithful to every detail of God's instruction, all the way to the very end.
I firmly believe that if Noah would not have been a man of Action; he would not have been a man of faith. PERIOD. There is no way to have a strong faith in the Lord unless we act upon the commands that require great faith.

Noah's godly fear is what I love most about his life. He had such reverence for the Lord that he would not do anything that wasn't pleasing to Him. It's what made him so obedient to God.
What if Noah had not been obedient to the Lord? He could have lost his entire family.
If he had not followed God's instruction in building the Ark, it could have sank.

If we apply this to our own lives it's a scary thought, right?

There is so much I'm still learning about the life of Noah but I know that the characteristics of Noah are one's  I  want to possess. I want to have the same courage, obedience and faithfulness to the Lord in all that I strive to accomplish for Him and in all that He asks me to do.