I have a new website!

Hi everybody! I am very happy to announce that my son Michael has just launched me a brand new website! From now on, I will no longer be posting new blog posts here. To visit my new website, and to read upcoming posts, go to Fashionedforhim.com! 

Hope to see you there!

I smile as I snuggly settle the warm throw covers about me to the sound of God's chirpy winged creatures coming through the open windows. I feel delight seeping through my inner heart. 

My early-morning so far has been what is sometimes a nearly typical morning. I sip hot coffee, reheat my now cooling cup of comfort. Resettle a sweet little one back in their warm fuzzy covers and whisper sweetly to them to go back to sleep. I begin to read a heartwarming piece that inspires my soul to live life beautifully. 

I find myself reheating my cooling yet again, cup of coffee...and settle another early waker with loving and nurturing care back in their cozy bed. 

For a change of scenery I found myself to the family room facing the mountains, where through the open windows I am not so bombarded with traffic sounds but can actually hear nature. 

These are beautiful years… Caring for my sweet little ones.

It's not that I don't ever dream about Mike and I as empty nesters scaling the world on great adventures for the Lord, or on a cruise for two mind you. ;) 

But seriously, we think of child years as investing in and nurturing and raising and growing our kiddos. And we do. But the truth of the matter is, these years are probably the most important years for growing me as their mama. Preparing me and furthering my life in Jesus to be able to give, to serve, even when our warmly created nest becomes empty. 

There's nothing quite like motherhood that inspires my soul to selfless living to sacrificial giving. There's nothing quite like mommy-hood to press me deeply into my prayer closet… Or to take my bewildered mind and heart to God's Word for answers, for direction. And nothing quite like mommy-hood to pull me away from the noise, from the busyness of life, to a quiet spot to hear my Lord. 

Yes these are growing years for all of us and the comforting and assuring thing to me is, we are growing together. 

There is more than a bloodline that knits a family together. It's pursuing noble purposes together. It's taking our differences, our sameness, our giftings and our talents and mixing them into something even more beautiful together.

For us parents it's teaching… And faithfully teaching some more… and even when it feels like all the teaching we're doing is somehow sifting away.

And when chasing noble dreams feels like we're chasing a mirage.

And then we turn our questioning gaze to our Savior, wondering if it was ever from Him after all... 

We feel our inadequacy's strongly and our own inconsistencies stare starkly up at us. 

Then our Savior leaves another love note hint upon our soul that we are indeed still on the right path toward the hidden treasure. He then bids us to look around us. We do. We see pearls strewn lusciously about us...they're hidden in our children's laughter, their trusting gaze filled with love for us, the respect that their actions speak, the letters they write to us and the prayers we hear uttered from deep within their heart of hearts, that eternal living part a.k.a their soul. We gaze in awe upon their child-faith which is strong and pure and unflinching. It does not waver. 

We are spellbound. Awestruck.. Till tears of gratitude flow from us as the purifying gentle rain it was meant to be. 

As we gaze up at our Saviour to thank Him, we look into the eyes of yet another one of our children as they are speaking to us. We smile. We speak kindly. Then we smile again, but this time to ourself as we realize that our children's eyes were His. We breath in thankfulness for His gentle reminder that in loving and serving our littles, we are indeed loving and serving Him!

It's now dinner time. More beautiful noise. More dishes to wash.. and we are strengthened. We are not chasing a dream-filled mirage. We are living, truly living, purposefully. 

We smile. The treasure is up ahead on the pearl strewn, rock infested pathway. We will not give up. 

We gather our sweet babes about us.. We put our heads and hearts together once more as family, mixing a beautiful portion of our unique differences, our sameness, our gifts, and our talents and we continue on.

Standing in the One Who Never Changes

We're actually here in Colombia and also as a whole family! Jesus is always faithful and He does truely delight to do good things for His children. We need never doubt His love over us or wonder if He's actually plugged in to what's going on in our lives. It has been thought of about myself that I must not have any problems in life and that my life looks easy. I bubble over with the joy of the Lord, but that is only an outflow of the grace that He's poured richly upon me in all those difficult "unknown to others" moments that He has allowed me to walk through. He is a good Papa and that means He lets me learn to crawl, toddle about on legs that at first seem rubbery. Then what if when I was ready to try running and He would get on one knee and look me in the eye and say, "Honey, I love you too much to let you learn to run, because Sweety, in learning to run you will have to learn how to get back up when you fall. And you see, honey, I don't want you to fall. You might hurt yourself." 

 Now what if instead my loving Papa bends on one knee and gathers me in His strong Papa arms and looks me lovingly in the eyes, and says, "Honey, I am so excited for you to learn to run! I am excited at all the marathons you will run and conquer in this life!" And then a soberness enters His loving sweet eyes as He adds, "Now, honey, a good runner must first learn how to get up after a fall. And trust Me as your Papa to show you how. Will you trust Me? I promise you will never fall and not be able to get up and I promise that with every lesson, You will be stronger than before!"

 Which is the better daddy?

 Someone once said, "Miriam just rolls with the punches." 

Really? That was a discredit to the absolute faithfulness of my heavenly Papa. If I "roll with the punches" than its still only because He taught me how. ;) 

But seriously every marathon winner has to train in their abilities, their agility, their endurance. It does not come without a price and without sweat, to be sure. 

 Those inner moments when life threw me a curve ball you can be sure that my sweat training of endurance were those tearstreaked ones in my prayer closet. 

And the testing of my endurance aren't just those times in the past...I still get tested, always will get tested. 

Just recently the devil tried to wreak havoc on our life and it did cause some confusion till we embraced fully and confidently our position in Christ and the devil had to leave and our joy was completely restored. But the amazing thing is, satan actually did us a great favor, we stood so completely steadfast in our Jesus that we were actually empowered by deeper growth as we allowed the cracks in our armor to be filled even more with Jesus!! 

So Satan was again reminded of his defeat, and we are stronger than ever!!

Here we stand on the brink of many changes and this morning Mike reminded me how David when he went after Goliath reckoned his victory before it even happened..as did Nemiah in Nehemiah 2:11-20, specifically verse 20. Where Nehemiah reckoned the success will be theirs. (referring to the rebuilding of the wall.)

Adoption is Jesus heart and the brink of change we stand upon, is also of Jesus. He has promised His faithfulness to many generations. And even though both the "Christian" world and the secular keeps changing, Jesus never changes. We rest in a God who never changes!!

The song link below is from a sweet friend of mine. It is very precious. Please take the time to listen to it and be blessed! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4IIW4IwEBU

Today after 2 years and 5 months, we get to be reunited with M and M!!! Thank You, Jesus!!

Today faith meets sight!!!!!

On the Brink

We stand on the brink of change yet again. Life is a mystery for sure..

This huge puzzle we find ourself daily caught up in as one beautiful piece at a time fills it's space. 

There's been soooo many times, too many that I haven't kept count of in fact, that I couldn't understand a specific puzzle piece. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't the shade I would have chosen.. It looked messed up... It appeared to fit in that space, but it didn't fit for what my heart was asking for. I glanced up in questioning gaze upon the One whom my soul loves. He smiled and assured me that indeed, yes, He was fully aware. And at the same time He knows I'm fully unaware of my complete ignorance to see the whole picture. He assures me that He loves me as no other possibly could. And He reminds me in words that I understand that He actually delights as a parent to give "good things" to His children.

Change, yes..But the changes over my relatively short lifetime have been good. Through every single change I've been drawn more to this One. And with every change that brought tensil strengthening pressures, and I yielded to His larger picture, my life has reflected Him just a tiny bit more. 

Even if it's a tiny thing as my eyes twinkling just a little. bit. more. at all His goodness. Or even those moments that my life was like a "after a rain wet world and the sun is out" and the delightful tug of a smile at the corners of my mouth, because He is so extravagantly good, and I scarce can contain it!!!

Change...those "in faith step" moments in the midst of an unknown.. And then around the very next bend...my joy unbounded flowing at the mercies of a God who would care to do great "without measure" delights for us!! 

I recently saw a quote that our faith can't grow in our comfort zone. How true is that?! I have discovered that God loves mystery! 

He is as a sweetheart lover who leads his bride (whose eyes are closed) to the edge of a sandy beach and upon opening her eyes, she gasps at the expanse of beauty of the endless mass of water and he lovingly gazes upon her and assures her that his love is as unmeasurable as the ocean. That their life together is uncharted before them as a great blue sea. "But will you risk loving forever and trusting me?"

That's my Jesus right there! And yes I trust Him. When it's feasible and when it's not. When it's mature to do so and childish as well! He is the lover of my little family's soul and He invites us as that closed eyed-bride to the waters edge, and proclaims not just a mere undying love. But a love, although He died, it did not waver. A love so strong He would fight all death and the enemy of darkness just to pursue us! A love with sweat on His brow, blood sweat that is, to rescue us because His love is so pure. Not even once tarnished. Who could not possiblely love Him in return?!

The measure of a love who can know?! Jesus, HE IS LOVE!!!

His beautiful "in love" nail-scared handprints, are all over our adoption. Change? Yes. Love enough? Yes. 

When the Father of all love looks on and smiles His propelling us forward approval, it's enough. When the ground is but a sliver to stand on, and the only thing we find ourselves standing on is Jesus, it's enough.

We are excited to finally leave in two days to go to our children and bring them to their home. 

We've prayed for these preciousness for years! Before we knew them, we prayed, because He already knew them and smuggled in our hearts that longing and urgency to pray for our little children who became alone in a world who stopped caring. Perfect Love aka Jesus, was also perfectly faithful. Faithful in preparing for our M and M's needs. He was faithful to prompt our hearts to adopt someday. We always thought it would be really little ones, and in reality when He laid it on our hearts, they were.  But the years went on and what we failed to realize was those little ones were growing up. Still waiting still possibly crying for some place to belong.  Perfect Love has been perfectly weaving our lives with these two preciousness! 

Remember those messy puzzle pieces, that I wrote about earlier…?  It was those moments through the years, that has pressed us closer to our Jesus...to seek Him. To learn from Him. To find him becoming my everything . Could it possibly be that those messy puzzle piece moments were preparing us for such a time as this? 

Because through those moments we were girded up in faith, and we needed to be prepared for this beautiful faith filled moment. 

We invite you to pray for us. 

Our God is faithful. 

And please take the time to be blessed by listening to this song. 

Our God is greater, our God is stronger. God You are higher than any other. Our God is Healer, awesome in power. Our God!!

https://youtu.be/O5d_gm9zrnY

God is our Refuge and Strength. He is our Help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear. Psalm 46:1-2

Jesus said, I will always be with you. Matthew 28:20

Do not be afraid or worried because I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will hold you with my victorious right hand! Isaiah 41:10

I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans for good and not for harm, to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Our family has been so blessed by our Church family that has come around us, blessing, serving, as we prepare to leave.

Thank you to all! :)

 Even the beautiful verses above, our sweet family friend, Mrs. Sue, so lovingly looked these verses up and poured their precious truth into the hearts of our littles as she did crafts with them yesterday. :) Thank you.

Thank you so much to all our friends and family for your love on our adoption! :)

We love you all! 

And as we tell our kiddos, "Always remember that Jesus loves you more!!" ;) 

Seasons

Wow, I think this was the longest gap between my blogs! So much life...so many directions for my attention to be..

Yet when it all boils down to one simple truth is that I must let God keep me "all in" for my mothering even amidst having to temporary set aside other "important" pursuits. 

My most important pursuits are my nurturing relationship in Jesus Christ. Being sensitive to His growing me, stretching me, and pressing me in Him. 

Then it's being a loving nurturing sweetheart to my Mike and "all in" sweet mommy to all our adorable kiddos. Meeting all the unique needs while raising a precious family.  

All the other important things can flow in and out from that, but when super crowded seasons come it's my relationship with Jesus, and my little family that must continually be at the forefront~it's the most important work. 

I love blogging, I love friendships, I love sharing the Plexus health and wellness products from home, (getting to bless my little family with the added income) but that must all stay secondary as important as they are. 

So often it seems in life our human nature lets the most important callings be crowded out and it's my heart to not do that! As you've noticed through the years, I rarely get more than one blog a month up. ;) But being a full time mommy and not relying on outside help in our home, needless to say, keeps me plenty busy~and being a nurturing sweetheart and mommy, cozy homemaker and creater of cozy spaces in our home is something I don't bulk or try to shrug off, I love it!!!

My greatest joys in life are truly loving Jesus and my sweet little family well!! 

We are excited that our adoption is nearing completion and we step in faith toward the transitioning period of God making and growing us as one beautiful family. Trusting He will bond us beautifully together because it's His heart to do so!!

Another more recent pursuit is the health and wellness business I work from home. I love the all natural and pure product line. I love that the Company is integrity filled and its something I can fully support to share with others. I love it offers a second to none compensation plan and many a mommy can now work from home and get to relish the joy of having all her kiddos with her! And daddies too can work full time from home!! I love that I've been able to be a fulltime stay at home mommy even before my home business, but this business is definitely a blessing for our little family~and it's a blessing we desire to spill over and share with others, this business opportunity! All while also blessing them in their health. 

So, this was a different blog for me, but I just kind of wanted to bring you in the loop, and let you know I am still around, and I still love to blog up a delicious mommy message for you every now and then! If you follow me by email you will know as I post new blogs.  

Hope your mommyhood~filled day spills over with soooo much joy!!!!!

Many blessings~

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day means a great deal more to me than bright red hearts and pink, lavender and green sweet tarts. It's more than red roses, a box of chocolates and a dinner out. (Although I do love the celebration!! I'm quite smitten with chocolates...;) ) 

Valentine's Day is a tribute of a man's life who was willing to stand in defense of marriage. The beauty behind Valentine's Day is of a man who, even though the King mandated there would be no marriages, for the king thought he would turn out better soldiers if they were not encumbered" with the sentiments of home and a family. 

I am deeply thankful to look back on history and see a man who despite an earthly king, bowed his inner heart to a Greater King. The King, Jesus Christ. 

So after performing many "in secret" marriages for young lovers, St Valentine's 

finds himself captured and imprisoned. Valentine's kindness and nobility of character attracts the attention of the jailer's daughter. Blind, she is drawn in sweetness of spirit to this kind man who in detail describes to her in full what flowers look like. 

He fervently prays for her sight.

And the amazing and beautiful detail in this lovely whole love story is that this jailer's daughter receives her sight. BUT the most amazing thing is, I like to think how she also received spiritual sight. 

A man, who honors God, measures every standard or law by God's...it is truly an outstanding sweet and tender love story. An agape one. All built around his love for God...

Later in the story, at the time of Valentine's death ordered by this earthly king, the jailer daughter finds a sweet note by "her Valentine". 

Is that not one of the most beautiful love story's ever? Isn't a man's love for his family really an outflow of his love for God? Is this not the richest and most honorable and heroic love ever?! Does it not remind us of an even longer ago absolute most sweetest love story ever recorded..."greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". 

For God so loved our world that He really did send His only Son for us, to die in our place so that we can truly live! Our eternal life doesn't wait till we're in heaven. It starts right here, right now. I am challenged that my life, today, can be a constant living reflection of the Life of Jesus, His eternal life in me!!!

Have a blessed and tenderly sweet Valentine's with your families. 

The Plight of an Orphan

Shivering and cold and no place to call home... That literally is a two way statement because whether they are on the streets abandoned or find themselves in orphanages and foster homes, they are shivering and cold inside and still don't truly have a place to call home. 

Right now, our son we have been working diligently to adopt, seemingly has a home, but he really doesn't. He's another name, another number in the swarm of an international system. 

Every time someone or something grows dear to him, the stark reality is that it's not really his treasure to keep. 

He stands alone, defenseless in a world that doesn't care for him. Sadly he can't even turn to the Church in his tears. He's turned away coldly. 

Imagine a boy, I know him personally, he is begging inwardly to just be heard. For someone to care. 

He and his little sister still have each other but even then they aren't each other's treasures to keep, because this little boy ages out of the system in less than 11 months and he will be torn from his sister. Yes, she will still most likely be adoptable. 

Why cannot God's  people reach out and rescue these children? The millions of sweet ones just like them? Why cannot God's people reach out in support of a rescue mission? Or are we perhaps not Gods people anyway? 

God never lives contrary to His own nature. He rescues, He restores. He mends, heals. He loves, holds, cares. He cares deeply. He cares so much that He willingly died and gave everything to support rescue missions of abandoned children.

Satan had his own wicked plan for the Church. I will quietly slip in and start petty divisions. I will start quarrels among them. I will keep them so busy and deplete them of their energy so that they are too weak to rescue. 

I will subtly bind them in lust until it's all consuming sickness overtakes them. I will support a zeal within them to lay up their own prosperity. As satan deliberately continues his plot he whispers, "I will allow the once in awhile humanitarian within the corridors of Church to reach out in a pompous display and feel good about himself for doing it" but, and with his wicked laugh as he quotes Scripture, "he will have his reward" and he rubs his filthy hands together in glee that it won't be a heavenly one.

Sad...sad...sad...heart wrenching sad..

If we are the Body why aren't our hands reaching? Why aren't we breaking the jaws of the wolf pack and rescuing these sweet and precious lambs from their clutch? Why aren't we gathering these sweet young lambs and holding them in the security and protection of our care? Why aren't our tears falling for them?

 Tears are precious to Jesus. What if we could actually see the hidden power in tears. As they splash unbidden to the ground at our feet and there become a pathway for us to walk, that hidden trail toward rescue? Wow, it's amazing. It takes tears to wash away the scales from our eyes. Yet through the blurred vision of our tears, we actually distinctly see the children to rescue. We see their value and worth to a great big awesome God, their very own Creator. Our tears fall as that magnificent waterfall and there behind it's beautiful cascade, is true treasure~it's where the hidden heart of God is revealed. 

I choose the tears. I choose to turn these precious children's crying into glorious song. Thank you sweet Jesus. 

Many an alter call whether in my own back porch or in an indoor sanctuary, found my heart kneeling before a really big God and giving Him my little "insignificant". His eyes glistening with that unshed father tear gaze and He gave me the gift of Himself. I looked up through my tears to find His precious ones splashing on me, to find that my tears were really His own. Washing me, growing me into more of His image. 

You see, Jesus wants us to have that teary gaze that miraculously pushes out all selfishness, all what people call reality, all the wrong voices, till we see clearly only Jesus. Jesus in the widow, Jesus in the orphan, Jesus in our brother and sister, Jesus in our neighbor, Jesus in the homeless, the alcoholic, the abused, the broken. It never ceases to amaze me that it's always been the overlooked ones who catches that heavenly gaze of Jesus. They don't make it to our in-home bulletin boards and newspapers, but they are splashed all over heaven's headlines. 

Lord, I want to everyday see on the other side of the waterfall. And I need that teary   vision wherein the true nature of Your heart is revealed. 

With all this, I will hasten to say that I am honored to personally see the true bride of Christ~the Church at work, rescuing, being the hands and feet of Christ. And it gives me hope, strength, and courage as it deepens my resolve that truly Christ heartbeat is still here on this earth.