It occurred to me the other day when I was looking at our newest family photos that we never really have officially introduced our family to all of you. It’s been a bit of a difficult decision to post pictures of the kids online (outside of FB with privacy settings). As we all know you can never be too careful with information you put out on the internet, but at the same time we want you to feel a part of our family. We are writing this blog to share our journey with you hoping you can get encouragement out of it and our kids are obviously a huge part of that journey. So, what we have decided is to share them with you in a way that will let you “in” to more of our lives, while still watching out for the safety of the kids. That being said, we’ll be using nicknames for them on the blog. I may speak in generalities about their school, or people in their life, but trust me…all of the stories (no matter how crazy they may seem sometimes LOL) are true ;).
Some of you may know us in person, but those who don’t we would like you to meet our family :).
So here we are just a few weeks ago with an amazing friend Jenn as our photographer.
Becky – I am in the orange of course holding our little one “J.R.”. Dan and I have been married for almost 7 years (just wait until you hear how we met…maybe a post for February…) and we have 2 wonderful boys! What am I thinking right there? How blessed I am to have such a wonderful husband who is a wonderful father to our two amazing boys. I don’t know how I ever lived without any of them!
Dan – My husband of course, in the blue polo next to me. He is holding our oldest “M.J.” Dan is an amazing husband and father. He loves us, cares for us, protects us, encourages us, and is the wonderful spiritual leader in our home!
M.J. – He is on the right in blue. He is our oldest, will be 4 years old in December. Boy did we have to work for him (blog on that soon around his birthday!). This picture shows their personalities quite well actually. M.J. is silly, happy, smart beyond his years, sensitive, timid, and shy. He loves cars, reading, music and soaking in all he can about the world around him.
J.R. – He is on the left in orange. He is our youngest boy, about 19 months in this pic. As you can see he is outgoing, adventurous, tough, never slows down and very happy. Right now he likes anything his brother does, and wants to be just like him. I would have to say though that J.R.’s favorite things are animals, bananas, and tormenting his older brother (Yes!! He is a little bully! LOL)
So that’s us. Our family of four. We do everything we can to (as they say) “Live Well, Laugh Often, and Love Much”. Although unplanned, the time we have had home together the last three years have been priceless. The journey God is bringing us through has built our family and the way we live to what it is today and we wouldn’t change it for the world!
We look forward to continuing to share our journey of Living Hope with you.
P.S. It was always my dream to have family photos done professionally outdoors and Jenn was referred to us by a mutual friend last year. She has done our family photos for 2 years now and she is amazing! She is so easy going, great with kids, flexible, and so talented. She has great rates too. If you are in the west valley in AZ you need to check her out here!
I was in the process of writing a different post for today, but there is something else I need to share with you first.
One of the reasons Dan and I knew God put us together was because we both have such a huge heart for people and for the Lord’s work. You see, individually we both felt the Lord tugging on our hearts but didn’t know how to pursue it. There was something confusing and yet scary about following God’s lead into the “unknown”. But something about Dan and I being together was the one “thing” that made it seem so easy…so exciting. It is like God gave us to each other knowing we could support, encourage, and feed off of each other’s enthusiasm for His work. I will never forget our conversation in the kitchen only a couple months after we were married when I encouraged Dan to follow through on his dream of going to seminary. Or the time we got a phone call from a friend of mine to help start a church in Glendale. There was never a doubt in our mind that God wanted us to do those things, and we knew He gave us each other to go through them together.
Dan and I understood that God was calling us to a bigger purpose than ourselves, and we have tried to take every opportunity we can to impact others for God. One thing that we have had the pleasure of experiencing through our journey is all different levels of relationships. Friendships, mentor relationships, leadership relationships, teachers, confidants, encouragers, and everything in between. It hasn’t always been easy. Sometimes we took leaps of faith that we knew if God didn’t catch us we were going to fall flat on our face. And sometimes we have had to make the choice to just follow His leading not knowing what would happen and trusting that He would use our gifts how He needed. God has helped us grow and blessed us tremendously through these experiences. Our prayer has always been that no matter what we endure or how much or how little we have to offer that it can be a blessing to all around us.
Has God ever brought people into your lives at just the right time? Or maybe they have been in your life for a long time, and God suddenly uses them at just the right time? I love it when you can see God at work.
This morning we were at church and we were sitting next to some friends. We have known these particular friends for a while and I personally have grown close to her quickly and easily (more on why later). It was towards the beginning of service when my friend leaned over handed me a slip of paper and said it was “for you”. I looked at her puzzled and she just said, “this is for you and we don’t want it to go anywhere else.” And she blew me a kiss. My husband looked at me confused and he could tell by the look in my eyes without even knowing what exactly it was that her (their) gesture had just made a huge impact on me (us). I had an indication of what it could be by something she said but without even looking I slipped the paper into my purse and we were invited to stand for our last worship song. I didn’t look at the paper, I didn’t have to look. The gesture itself was enough to send me into a tailspin of emotion. I couldn’t even sing. I just stood up and cried and thanked the Lord for His blessings and for this couple allowing God to work through them.
Still not even looking at the slip of paper I gave her a hug after service and thanked them for their gesture. She said that they had felt lead for quite some time to do something for someone but they weren’t quite sure of the Lord’s leading until this week God revealed to them to bless us. It didn’t surprise me that they have such amazing hearts and a willingness to show God’s love to others however they can. I said before Dan and I have been blessed with many different relationships. One thing about that is everyone is on a different point in their journey or walk with God. This couple….I don’t know how else to put it except…..they GET IT!!!! They get that Jesus love is for anyone and everyone. They get that we are put on this earth to glorify Him in EVERYTHING we do. They get that if God leads them to do something, no matter how big or small they may feel it is, that God wants them to follow through so He can use it for His glory. They GET IT! And that is why I love being around her. She challenges me to be a better person, a more loving person, a more faithful person, a more godly person…simply by being who she is IN CHRIST!
The gesture itself was enough to bless us (before we even opened it). We felt cared for, we felt loved, we felt important. Something we try so hard to help others feel. We got to the car and as we were driving home I took the slip of paper out and began to open it…though part of me was nervous and partially in disbelief (am I really worthy of any blessing Lord?). Dan and I knew this was God using our friends without a doubt. Have you ever had that feeling when you KNOW that God is right there with you and you are nervous, and wondering what He is doing? What was in the slip of paper confirmed our suspicion (although it was way beyond what we would have ever thought we would be worthy of). This may sound weird to some but bear with me….It was like God reached down and embodied her and said “here….I haven’t forgotten you. You are important to me. And I will take care of you.”……
We are so tremendously grateful to have these friends in our life who get it…they get us…they get our hearts…and they get the Lord’s leadings in their life!! Our friends didn’t have to do what they did. They didn’t have to follow that little tug in their hearts where God was telling them to do this. But they did, and they trusted that God would use it how He needed to bless the ones that needed to be blessed …through them.
My reason for sharing this? God uses people! God can use you! Remember no matter how big or small a gesture you may think, if you feel God leading you follow through and trust that He will use that gesture! You don’t always know what someone is going through, you don’t always know what is in their hearts, but if God is leading you to make a gesture TRUST in that. God will take care of the rest!
Let your life be an offering to Him, and you will be blessed in it as well.
Ephesians 5:2 (NIV)
2and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
I have been meeting a lot of new friends lately, which has been such a blessing. Naturally what comes up in a conversation when you are getting to know someone is the simple stuff, you know the small talk. Do you have any kids? Are you from around here? What do you do for a living? … That last one is hard. How do you tell someone you have only know for a few days (maybe even a few minutes) that you don’t know exactly what you do/will do? Sure, I could take the easy route and say I am a stay at home mom, going to school, or the like….those things are true but that wouldn’t be completely authentic. Then the question comes up “What does your husband do?”….Well…… None of this is an easy answer for us right now. Neither of those questions have been an easy answer for quite some time.
The truth is I don’t know what I am going to do, what I want to do, or what God will lead me to do. I can tell you what my/our current “plan” is for the moment, but I can tell you that Dan and I have learned (the hard way) to never count on “our” plan always being His plan.
Our journey the last three years has been incredibly difficult in many ways. Do you have any idea what it is like to not be able to provide for your family? I am not talking about financially unorganized, lack of budget, can’t get my kid the top of the line (fill in the blank). I am talking doing everything you can in your power to do what is right: pray, apply for jobs, pray, interview, pray, go to school, pray, try to start a business just to get by, pray, apply for more jobs, pray, interview again, pray, rely on God, follow His lead…and yet….nothing. No job. No income. No one who (truly) understands. “Uh…NOT our plan Lord!”
This has been our life the last three years…and counting. We are very responsible people who have had a horrible sequence of circumstances happen to us. How did we get to this place? You can read the beginning of it in my post here. We will be the first ones to tell you there have been millions of ways that we have been blessed and God has provided for us through this long journey of unemployment. We see the blessings and are so very grateful for where God has provided for us. But we are also human. There are everyday hardships, frustrations, let downs, disappointments, confusion, guilt, and fear. It wears on you. We do our best to manage our emotions and rely on God.
Matthew 6:31-33 (NIV)
31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
We still have moments. Lately I have had a lot of “those moments”. When you allow yourself to put some hope in an interview or a job application that you know you are perfect for (you have to put hope in it because you want to have faith God is in this and you want to claim it right?) then you get your third rejection in a week…it wears on you. When it is time to pay the bills and you see your savings account getting to scary levels…it wears on you. When your 3 ½ year old child asks you if you have the “checks” (WIC) to get groceries…it wears on you. When you can’t participate in activities and fellowship because it requires a fee…it wears on you. When you can’t financially support the ministries and organizations like you want to…it wears on you. When you see or hear people’s comments about the unemployed “taking advantage” of the system or “being irresponsible”…it wears on you. And when you are trying to build new relationships and you see that loving and compassionate (but speechless) look in the person’s eyes when you tell them you and your husband are unemployed…it wears on you.
The low moments can feel like a very shameful, lonely place. Yes..I have my moments where I just want to crawl into a corner and cry out to the Lord (and I do)…”Why God?”…”Why this?”…”Why now?”…”Why so long Lord?”. Then Dan and I will actually sit down together and talk about God and His promises. We think about the current happenings in our life and look for God in them.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
It doesn’t take long before we see that God is right here in all of it. Whether we understand it right now, we figure it out later, or maybe we never understand it…it is God’s plan for our lives. Our job is to do everything in our power to seek Him, praise Him, and glorify Him through all of our circumstances no matter how hard it may seem.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
16Rejoice always, 17pray continually,18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
We have family members who have been very close with us through our journey. They pray for us daily, they listen to our frustrations and concerns, and they are just amazing godly people. I love them dearly and look up to them for their courage in what they have gone through in their lives for the Lord, and yet what they say to us just amazes me.
Just the past couple of months, when it seems our journey has gotten to what sometimes feels like unbearable levels is when they say they see something in us that amazes and inspires them: Our faith. Through everything they know we have been through (and they are family they know more than anyone ever will) they have said we are an amazing inspiration to them because never once has our faith wavered, and we have allowed all of these circumstances to actually strengthen our faith and connection with the Lord….Just when you are at your peak of sadness and frustration God sends encouragement. When you hear someone tell you that you inspire them because of your faith in the Lord in spite of difficult circumstances and you are glorifying Him for others to see….THAT is when you know you are in God’s will!!!
We don’t know when this chapter will end, we don’t know where the road leads, we aren’t sure how much more heartache we will have to endure. What we do know is that God prunes areas of our life like a gardener to the vine, so that we may grow, become stronger, and produce more fruit for Him. If we are not connected to Him, and seeking His will in our lives, then we cease to show love, peace, faithfulness, joy, goodness, gentleness, patience, self-control, and kindness (the fruits of the spirit); and we cannot glorify Him.
"Dear Lord, this journey has not been easy for us. Our joy, patience, faith, and peace have been tested. There are good days and bad, and we know you are with us in all of those times. We want nothing more than to seek you, praise you, and glorify you Lord. If this journey of pruning is what it takes to make us more like your image so that we may win others to you, then prune away Lord! For nothing that we could ever go through can match the sacrifice of your son dying on the cross for our sins. We will joyfully endure the hard times you allow into our lives so that it can be used to bring others to know You! In Jesus name, Amen."
John 15:1-5 (NKJV)
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
