Repentance

Today I am thinking alot about repentance. I did a little mini-study on fasting in the Old Testament. It was interesting. So often the people were fasting and mourning because they realized they were so far from God and what He wants from them. I feel that way and want more of God. I want true repentance from my sins- turn from them and to Christ to experience His forgiveness but also to be changed -from one degree of glory to another.

So many people think they deserve to be the way they are, that it is the way they are made. The truth is it is the way we are, we are sinners. We need grace to be changed and to want to be changed. Sin might bringing fleeting happiness but it leaves people empty always yearning for more to fill them up. It reminds me of when Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” Lord that more people would long for you.

“Oh that there were more crying persons, when there are so many crying sins.” Ralph Venning

Look at these Big Brown Eyes!

This is my friend Renaih’s son, Tariq. Isn’t he a little cutie? I just got to see him today and he is a sweetie. They call his nickname Tarouqa. I really like how they do nicknames in Arabic. Soon I will post a really good recipe that Renaih taught me how to make, in sha Allah (God willing -for my non Arabic readers)!

Adoption Update

Dustin and I had our first appointment with our social worker last Friday. It went really well and she seems like a great gal. We have now decided to do a domestic adoption. This is mainly because we just didn’t feel peace with everything that is going on in Guatemala right now. Also many other countries required too much travel for us or we didn’t meet their financial requirements.

We are very excited. I am particularly excited because, God willing, this means we will be able to get a newborn. Please pray for us as we continue the home study process. Please pray for our baby and the birth mother.

A Day at the Zoo

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Oh wait this picture is from the sandbox but it still felt like we were at the zoo! Today we got to spend part of our day with RyRy and Nate (2 of Lucy’s cousins). Lucy loved it- she loves them so much and she really misses Payton not being there. She talks about Brad a lot too so in general she just loves the Conrad family. Even Cooper (their dog), the other day out of the blue she said, “I want to pet Cooper.”

Although I have to say I felt pretty good today at one point. Ryan accidentally called me Mama. I said I’m not your Mama I’m your auntie. Nate said your pretty close though. I’m so glad they think of me that way and hope they always do

Dustin’s New Job

Dustin has just started an interim part-time pastor job at a local church. We are still in the transition time of adjusting to the new schedule but I think once we get into the groove of everything it will be a real blessing to us.

Not only is it an opportunity for us to meet more people who love the Lord Jesus but it is an opportunity for Dustin to use one of his primary gifts. In case none of you have noticed- he loves to preach! And I must say that I think God uses him powerfully, I am not biased or anything!

Quotes

Okay, so I stole this idea from my friend, Doug Wolter’s blog, but I thought I would occasionally post a quote too! I have a little book that I write down quotes in, most of them are about suffering for some reason.

It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there. John Bunyan

Arabic

Right now I am feeling so frustrated with my knowledge of the arabic language! I am feeling this way because I just met with a Saudi woman who wants help with her English. Well in the process we speak quite a bit of Arabic. The frustrating thing is that I have such a hard time understanding her and being understood by her in Arabic!

Even though most of the Middle East speaks Arabic there are different dialects. So now I have friends from Jordan, Saudia Arabia, Lebanon and of course Syria. All of which are different dialects so I always sort of feel like I am starting over. Syria and Lebanon are the closest so that is nice. It has been so long since I have been immersed in the language that I have really forgotten alot.

Transcultural Adoption Seminar

I think I told everyone that Dustin and I had gone to this seminar but I never really shared about it. It was so helpful! So far we are very impressed with the adoption agency (Bethany Christian Services). They are very professional and communicate well and often. I say all that about the agency because some adoption agencies don’t provide as much educational stuff to prepare you for adoption but Bethany seems to place a high value on this aspect.

The seminar was very challenging and thought provoking. One exercise they had us do was take diffrent colored beeds, which represented different races, and then she would ask you a question and you would drop it in your cup. The questions went something like this: your race, your husband, your co-workers, your haircutter, the authors of the books you read, your pastor, your mayor, etc. etc. The very last question was the race of the child you hope to adopt. Talk about thought provoking! Our cup was mostly white with a few middle easterners represented, a few African-Americans and a couple asians. Our little “latino” beed stood out.

The point is to help you see what your world really looks like and what steps can you take to diversify it so that your future child will not feel like he/she is always standing out. We really enjoyed it and hope that we can take some steps so “our world” in more welcoming and comforting for our child.

My Cool Kid

Dryer Update

I thought I should let everyone know (at Dustin’s urging!) that Dustin did get the dryer fixed!