ABC's and ACTS

Sometimes, in my life, I have a hard time starting my prayers.  I pray short prayers for people throughout the day as I think of them or if I read on FB that they are going through something, but when it comes to my quiet time with God I don't always know where to start.

These two things have helped me a lot.  I am posting them in hopes that they will be helpful to somebody else as well.

1)  When we were in Japan, I heard a sermon on the ACTS of prayer.  It is modeled after the Lord's prayer:

A - Adoration - showing God the glory and honor He is due "Holy is your name"
C - Confession - confessing our sins, forgiving others as He forgives you, asking for help in the areas you feel tempted
T - Thanks - giving thanks for your daily bread and your many blessings
S - Supplication - asking your desires, seeking Him for the needs in your life

Since then, I have also heard people add intercession - where you lift up other's needs/requests.

2)  At the beginning of the school year, I found this site with verses from God's Word for every letter of the alphabet.  It is for kids but both Lilly and I have learned the verses and memorized them.  We haven't made it to the end of the alphabet, but I find myself praying through them when I can't think of what to pray.  They are awesome verses that help remind me of God's promises and how Holy He is.  Examples:

A - Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.
B - Be kind to one another.
C - Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you.
D - Do not be anxious about anything
E - Every good and perfect gift is from above.
F - For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith

Praying through God's Word, really helps me focus on talking to Him but also lets me "hear" Him as well.

Change in Plans

Our original plan was to do straight adoption, they told us it would be more difficult to get the age child we wanted that way, but not impossible.  Then, we got a phone call that changed things.  The lady said we could not move forward unless we were willing to do foster to adopt in emergency situations.  She said she totally understood if we did not feel comfortable with that and wanted to close our account, but that we needed to think about it and let her know.  We were shocked and taken back!

We prayed, got others to pray and then we decided that God was not telling us to close our account so forward we would move. 

Now, we are going to foster to adopt with the intent to adopt.  The primary reason we didn't want to go that route to begin with is because of Lilly.  When I had mentioned it to her before, she said it made her very sad.  Since this change of events, I have had a chance to talk with her more in depth about it and it still makes her sad that they might have to leave, she seems to like the idea of being a big sister to a child who needs a safe home.

Next step, a few more pieces of paperwork (I'm sure it is more than a few) and then a week of classes for my husband and I. 

Houston Day Trips

I read an article recently about a family who made it a goal to visit all 50 states before their children graduated from high school.  As I was reading, I was thinking that is pretty neat, we should do that.  Then, I got to thinking that I don't know that I want to visit every state.  Plus, with my husband's job he travels so much while he is working that once he comes home, he is in no mood to go anywhere (usually). 

So, I brought this idea up to my sister and she suggested that I just focus on cities in Texas.  I thought, "What a great idea!"  I mentioned that idea to a friend who suggested a book about day trips from Houston - even better! 

I have been researching some ideas and so far these are what I have come up with:

George Observatory
Shangri-La Gardens
Houston Museum of Natural Science - Sugarland
Brenham - Blue Bell Factory (we have already seen this but it is still on my list of things to do this year)
One Room Schoolhouse League City
Rusk Palestine Railroad - this looks like so much fun!
Matt Family Orchard
Kemah Boardwalk


Do you have any other ideas you would suggest?

Oh, the Unknown!

We mailed off our adoption package a little over a week ago.  Now, we are waiting.  Waiting for them to call us and schedule our classes.  Waiting to find out what we need to do next.

In many ways, I think it is very similar to when I found out I was pregnant with Lilly.  After going to the doctor, I wanted to know what I was supposed to do next.  Everything was unknown. 

I didn't know if I would have a healthy child in the end...
I didn't know if the child would be a boy or girl...
I didn't know how the child would look...
I didn't know how the child would act...
I didn't know when the child would come...
I didn't know how we would provide for the child...


All the unknowns make me nervous but KNOWING that my God is in control gives me peace.  I know they will call at the perfect time and that I need to "cast all my cares on the Lord" and "do not be anxious about anything"

A Reminder from My Girl

We mailed the adoption application in last week!  We are so excited and nervous!

Since we started filling out the application, I have been praying for the "potential" child (or children) that will join our family.  Asking God to watch over the child and keep him or her out of harms way. 

Well, today I was praying for our future child and Lilly stopped me afterward.  She said, "You know, Mom, there are lots of children out there without a mom or a dad.  You shouldn't just be praying for the one coming to our family, but all the rest of them too."

Ouch!

As my husband said, "Out of the mouths of babes.."

So, as a reminder from my sweet girl, I will be praying for all the orphans out there tonight. 

Need A New Schedule

Maybe it is because we just came home from vacation or maybe it is because I just don't know how to say no, but since I have been back it has been nonstop go, go, go!

Because it has been so busy...

We haven't had time to do schoolwork - I am not stressing too much about this because I know she is in preschool and she is learning no matter where we are; however, if I am going to make home schooling work for us I am going to have to get into a routine of setting aside certain times of the day for that purpose.  I know, I know that one of the benefits of home schooling is that you can do it whenever and wherever, but I am a schedule type girl and I need structure or it won't get done.

I haven't been able to fully implement her sticker chart for chores and rewards - Lilly has a chart that we use to reward her for doing her chores and to use as a reward in other areas also.  Currently, two areas we are working on are doing her chores with a cheerful attitude and going to quiet time without complaining or crying.  It is hard to have time for her to do her chores when we are always away from home and it is hard to have time for quiet time as well. 

We haven't had quiet time - She doesn't take naps anymore but we both still need some quiet time to just rest and be by ourselves.  Lilly doesn't quite see that she needs this time, she just thinks I want her to be lonely for an hour.  Each of the days that we have had quiet time, she has eventually had a great time playing with her toys and things.  When I tell her quiet time is over and she can come downstairs, she doesn't want to because she is having too much fun playing.

My cleaning time is out of whack - when I am not home, it is hard to clean the house.

So, because of these things (along with a few others), I have realized that I need to be home.  My family and my home are my ministry at this stage in my life.  I need to take care of it to the best of my ability. 

Baby Steps

Once my husband and I realized we were on the same page with pursuing adoption, then we both kind of looked at each other and said, "Now what?"  What is the first step?  We talked about what kind of child we felt would fit best in our family and whether we wanted to adopt internationally or domestically.  Our conclusion was that we would like to adopt domestically and that we would like for Lilly to be the oldest child or at least the oldest girl (a big brother could be pretty cool).  We know full well that God could change all of our "ideas" and bring somebody totally different into our family, but for now, this is what we have "decided."

Second step, find an agency or group to work with to help us through this process.  We attended an orientation for a group that works with helping to get homes for children who are already in child protective services - either through adoption or fostering.  There was some information that was a little eye opening for me - not being able to home school the child until the adoption was finalized was one and that you we were not allowed to physically discipline our own child while an adopted child was in our home or we could be in danger of losing all of the children, even our own?! 

We took the application home with us after the orientation and it sat on the desk for a couple of weeks. We prayed.  Then, finally, I was moved to pick it up and start working on it.  I was stumped by a lot of the questions and I almost immediately put it back down thinking, "how am I going to answer these questions?"  How do I put the way my family shows anger into words?  How do I explain the chore distribution in our house in a way that makes sense?  What would we do if a child was afraid of our dog?  How do we deal with nudity in our home?  Lots of questions to think about. 

Then, the documentation - health forms, references, diplomas, background checks, etc.  As of now, January 2013, we are just about finished with the first round of paperwork. It is exciting and scary.  I know that God is every much in control of this as He is in us having a baby naturally - either way it is up to Him whether we will have any more children or not.  So, when we send in the application with all the documentation it will go with prayers as well.  Prayers for God's will!