Her Father's Daughter

"Only Daddy," she says to me, as I lean over the side of the crib, to tuck her in.  "Only Daddy.  He special."

This baby was her Daddy's girl before she was even born, and I remember the words he spoke in the sonographer's room, as we watched the squirming baby on the screen.  When we were told this baby was a daughter, my husband - all man... strong, rational, logical, unwavering - said, "I'm ruined."

And so it has been.

These two loves of mine have standing Starbucks dates on weekend mornings.  They shoe shop at L.L. Bean. She has even gotten him to sing the theme song to Veggie Tales (and he is a self-proclaimed "non-singer," you must know).   I laugh as I ask her for a kiss, and she often says, "Only Daddy."


Sitting back, I watch them.  I see the tenderness they have with one another. And I see the places this love will be carried in the years to come.  These things I know because I am a Daddy's girl myself.

One day, she will have her own family, and if she lives very far from her dad at all, she will have to look out the window for a few minutes as her husband drives them away.  So the tears don't spill over her lashes.  So she can keep looking at her father until she can no longer see him standing there, waving goodbye.

(in)spired to Encourage

 This week I helped my daughter say her first big goodbye to a good friend who'd become more like a sister than anything.  Her family lived at the end of our street, and they moved yesterday.  Her friend's mom has become a good friend of mine, and over the course of the girls' friendship, she's welcomed my whole family into her home for dinners and parties and impromptu back yard gatherings. Our husbands have become friends. She has shown up in my driveway at 7:30 in the morning every school morning for months to take my oldest to school, so my toddler can sleep in. Friends like this don't come along every day.  She knows how to encourage.

I've been given the opportunity to review a product for Dayspring, and I'm so excited to know their theme during the month of June is encouragement.  As a woman, my sister-friends who fill up all the little spaces in my heart with their encouragement and laughter are a gift to me every day.  I'm really looking forward to sharing my Sassy & Sophisticated cards.  Some of the words make me laugh out loud while some are so tender.

My friends are amazing.  They are real.  They let me into their lives, and I know I can let them into mine - into my three-kids-tearing-around the house evenings, my yes-it's-almost-lunch-and-I'm-still-in-my-jammies door answering mornings, my I'll-step-out-of-the-minivan-so-I-can-hear-you-over-the-Veggie Tales DVD-and-kids-talking chats on the cell phone mid-afternoon.  The real places.  The places where our lives intersect.  The shopping trips with toddlers in tow, wondering what Stacy and Clinton would say about the "trousers." The whispered prayer requests from broken hearts letting go of adoption dreams again and again.  The steady encouragement to keep praying about whatever it is in life we're discussing.  The Word shared over coffee and the noise of preschoolers tearing the house apart, but we don't care because we love our mama-time.  The laughing till we think we're going to pee our pants.  It's all that real stuff. It's the core of friendship, and it's like a breath for our souls as women.

So this month, I'm going to be intentional about showing some friends my appreciation for them.  Thank you, Dayspring, for all the many ways you give us ways to celebrate our friendships and our faith!

"A sweet friendship refreshes the soul." Proverbs 27:9

(The opinions expressed are my own, and I have not received payment for the product review.)

Summer Days

How quickly the days of warmth and sand and carefree, crazy summer fly past.  What treasures we have in the captured moments.  The images frozen mid-air in our memories or in a photograph.  Some pictures reveal the same location and the same people, year after year, but oh, how we are changing.  The days of small hands in mine are replaced with my stumbling over shoes way larger than my own, worn by kids whose little bodies are turning into grownups before my eyes, and whose hearts are even more beautiful than their sweet faces.  The only way I'm learning how to keep the moments from slipping away from me too quickly is to try to be there, present, in the moment.  Sometimes I do well at this, and sometimes I realize I have so much to learn about stillness and focus.  I don't want to miss a single grace-filled moment.

Looking back at some memories from last summer, I'm eagerly anticipating what will become the memories of this one just unfolding...  What are your best summer memories?  What are you hoping to do this summer?

Let's thank God in advance for the good plans He has in store for each of our families this season.  Some days are hard.  Some days are sun-filled.  The Lord is with us in each and by His grace alone, we will always have cause for joy.

Praying for you, my friends, to have a blessed summer! I'm glad to have you all in my life, to share the wild ride that is chasing after a radical faith in Christ.

Watering Cans and Living Water

 These days, we are doing so much growing.  Watching the beauty of seeds planted in past seasons developing into incredible new life.  Days of sun beating down and wandering through the garden with my two-year old, watering cans in hand, admiring what our God does in our very own yard.  We see the daily transformation of strawberry plants as they flower and now as the berries are growing plump.  We gently lift small new plants from their little containers and carefully tuck them into the fresh potting soil in our old, rusty pots.  Her litte chubby hands leave a trail of soil along the driveway as she grabs fistfuls to pat around the roots.  

 I watch her trot through the yard, carrying her purple watering can, so proud of how she is learning to care for the life that is entrusted to her.  "This guy need a drink?" she asks me each time, before dousing the plants and the pavement and the porch steps with water.  She wants to water everything. 


Something about the way she is joyful in the working makes me hope that when my Father looks at me as I'm tending the lives in my care, He sees the same passion.

And like my little girl with her watering can filled to overflowing, so is my life, my spirit.  I hope that I am someone who "waters" like my toddler does... taking the abundance and the very life-giving Truth that has been given to me and pouring it out, recklessly, enthusiastically, continually.

There is so much of God's grace and goodness springing up in our lives.  Intricate, beautiful, exciting opportunities to make much of God and to glorify Him in our lives are continually unfolding.  Our lives are being poured into by others and by the Lord even as we are endeavoring to be ones who are continually being emptied of ourselves so that we can be filled fully with Him.

"But we have these treasures in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Corinthians 4:7


"Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'" John 4:13 & 14

Beautiful Eyes, Searching for a Mama and Daddy

Look at this face.  This sweet girl is Melodie. I wonder what is going on behind those big, brown eyes.  I have photos of my little ones, pulled up to stand, proud in front of the camera while Mommy takes a picture to post on Facebook or email to proud grandparents.  Melodie's photo here is taken in an orphanage.  She doesn't have a mom or dad.  Her photo is not being posted for grandparent.  It's in a waiting children's list on Project HOPEFUL's website.

Melodie was born around Christmastime in 2009.  I don't know how she spent that first Christmas.  My baby was born right before Christmas the year before, and she spent the holiday in front of a tree overflowing with gifts she was too little to open, wearing a red dress with furry trim, surrounded by family who wanted to hold her non-stop, older siblings flinging gift wrap in the air in a flurry of excitement.

Melodie has spent two Christmases without a mom and dad so far.  She's a toddler, living in Eastern Europe in an orphanage.  She also has HIV.  She really needs a mom and dad.  She needs a home where she can have the medicine so available to us in the States.  Medicines that have caused HIV to be considered a "chronic illness," not a death sentence.  (I didn't even know this a few months ago.  I'm ashamed by my ignorance.)  Besides this medical diagnosis, she is a healthy little girl.

Would you please pray with me that Melodie would be found by the mom and dad the Lord knows by name even now?  Will you pray that God will move hearts and move mountains and clear the way for this little one to find her family?  Please pray with me that she will know the feeling of being a Daddy's girl, that she will one day wear matching aprons with her mommy and "help" in the kitchen, that she will pester an older sibling, or perhaps one day be an older sibling.  Please lift up this little one in prayer with me today, that our God who is the Defender of the fatherless and who "sets the lonely in families," according to His Word, will show up and show off in mighty and beautiful ways in the life of little Melodie.

Please share this post, if you feel led to do so.  If you have any questions about Melodie, or any of the children on the Waiting Kids list at Project HOPEFUL, please check out their website for contact information. This is a wonderful organization, committed to educating families about the truth of living with HIV and to helping children find HOPE and family.  Many of the little ones on the website will be resigned to spending the rest of their lives in mental institutions if they are not adopted by a certain age.  (Have you seen the documentaries Ann Curry did??? God forbid it...)  Please pray.  God has filled His Word with promises for the orphan, and He is true and faithful to His Word!

Signed, "Your Sasha"

June already feels like it's flying by.  I can't believe that in just a handful of weeks, we'll be boarding a plane and heading to Kiev, Ukraine!  Neither Selden nor I love flying, so please be praying that I won't hyperventilate while flying over the ocean.  

This morning, I want to express my thanks.  When I have needed help, friends have shown up, unexpectedly, to lighten my load.  When we've shared our story of Sasha coming into our lives (and I've tried not to cry while talking about seeing him finally get to have that highly anticipated fishing day with my husband - even if it's halfway around the world), I've seen smiles spread across faces, and I know that the Lord's moving hearts for this boy and his friends at Sunshine. I remember daily that this is the Lord's work, not mine, and He will do this.

Some area churches have expressed interest in sharing the ministry of Sunshine and our heart for Sasha and the kids who, like him, call Sunshine their home.  Please pray for these opportunities with us.  It's exciting to see God take the seeds of a small "yes" spoken by a couple of ordinary parents in a small New England town and grow them into more ministry opportunities, more ways to spread the Gospel and the heart of Christ. We know all we have offer to our Father is small, but we have a Lord who can take a few loaves and fishes and feed thousands.  It's the willingness to give what we can that God wants to see in our lives.  Sometimes, knowing that what we have is less than what is needed to accomplish something has kept me from the "yes," but not any more.  

I'd like to take this moment to let you all know that, as you have come alongside us in prayer, in giving of time and encouragement and even sharing with us financially, this mission is already bearing fruit, and we haven't even packed our bags.  We're very excited to spend time with all the children and to do some special things to bless them in the name of Jesus while we're in Ukraine.  This is a heart mission.  A sharing God's love in tangible ways mission.  An entering-your-world-because-you-are-worth-the-effort mission.  All of these children are worth the time and effort of getting to know personally, and the staff who minister to them daily are people I am honored to have the privelage of calling friends and getting to meet!

We got a sweet letter from Sasha late last week.  He is excited for our visit.  His heart sounds hopeful and full of anticipation, and he's already coming up with a list of places in Ukraine he wants to take us, and we can't wait!  God loves this boy, this young man who puts tears in my eyes every time a new photo of him comes up in my email.  Every time I see his letters, signed "Your Sasha," my heart whispers a tearful "thank you, Jesus" to the Father of the fatherless, to the One who takes regular people like us and  helps us be family to a child we've yet to meet but recognized as "one of our kids" the first time we laid eyes on him. 

Back from Much Painting and Fund Raising

So I've been missing for the past few weeks. Well, not really missing, just painting and yard sale hosting.  We're working on a couple big dreams right now:  Getting our family into a different home (with more bedrooms,which my husband is certain I'll fill with children in need of a home in no time!) and raising the funds we need to get to Ukraine for our missions trip and to do some special things with the kids at Sunshine. 

(After!!!)

The real truth is, I fell in love with this crazy yellow sofa at an antique marketplace downtown.  It was love at first sight.  And it looked hideous in my red living room.  Hence the painting.  (Plus - bonus - we love the neutral color pallette for selling!!!!!)  I've added a couple silvery chairs from Home Goods and a wild pair of lamps to de-grannify my hundred year old sofa in my hundred year old sitting room.  Love it!

Our dining room had been navy, which I loved at one time, and of course, no one on HGTV recommends navy for a room when one is trying to sell her home, so we painted the woodwork (to flatter the new windows we put in this fall) and also lightened up the walls.  

 I LOVE my new tone-on-tone dining room!  We have tons of windows, so the softer colors really bounce the light around, and the Brazilian cherry floors really look great with the bright white woodwork (which, by the way, is so beautiful and one of my favorite features in an old home!) and cozy taupe walls.

We still have a couple more rooms to spruce up before the house goes on the market, and since our peonies are about to pop open, and the irises are about to bloom, it would be super if we can finish up this weekend and get listed!

I can't believe I didn't take any photos of the yard sale we had last weekend!  Literally, our family room, garage, entry foyer and part of our dining room were FILLED with boxes of wonderful items donated by friends and family for our fund raiser yard sale!  I can't believe I didn't get one photo....  You should have seen the driveway, COVERED with tables of fabulous clothes and other goodies.  We had friends bake amazing pastries, which sold in a snap for donations to our missions trip.  Friends showed up and stayed for hours, helping me set up and sell.  And the Lord was so good to us - we had thunderstorms forecasted, and He gave us such a bright sunny day that I'm now trying not to peel my sunburn (sorry if that's too much information....).  God gave us the money for our first plane ticket!!!! He's so faithful!  We're praying to have the money for the second ticket within the next few weeks, then we will continue to fund raise for the special things we're desiring to do with the children at Sunshine and with our Sasha.
(If you are a person with great fund raising ideas swirling through your head, PLEASE, by all means, leave a commment!)

I've missed you all, and I'm glad to be back.  Hope you enjoy peeking into our home and seeing and hearing about the good things the Lord's doing in our family.  I'm praying that your family is experiencing good days of crazy, busy, blessed moments and that God's grace is felt by you in every circumstance you are in.