Not Rotten Vegetables

Yesterday, as I stood in line at the Manna 4u food bank, I noticed the box of rotten vegetables just under the first table. It was mostly sweet potatoes and a few severely wrinkled oranges. Basically, someone had sorted through the produce a head of time and picked out everything that was too far gone.

As I got closer and started looking through the produce myself, picking a few things for my family, I noticed an egg plant in the corner. I thought to myself...'that will be down there with the sweet potatoes soon.' Then I thought, 'if someone would have seen the potential of that egg plant two days ago, it wouldn't have gone to waste. Now, it will sit on the table getting a few seconds older with every person that walks by, until it get tossed into the rotten vegetable box.'

That was all the more thought I gave the vegetables at that point. But later on in the day, God spoke to me saying, "Children are not rotten vegetables."

What a shock to suddenly hear this from the Lord in the middle of my day. God has already told Quentin and I that we will adopt someday in the future. As we began to pray about adoption, we heard two things. The first was...older children. We think we will adopt older children (teenagers) from the United States. We have also heard from the Lord that Oliver will alway be our oldest child. Since Oliver is currently 4, that means it will be several years before we adopt. That makes a lot of sense considering we are 25 years old, we currently have a 4 year old and twin 2 year olds and, like I mentioned before...I'm doing my grocery shopping at the local food bank. But this is a season, and God is going to bring us into a new season soon. One where we can give more and eventually one where we have room for more children.

I spent some time looking through the pictures and profiles of American children awaiting adoption today on this site and this one. ( just let me clarify that I don't really know anything about these sites, so if you're looking to adopt, I don't necessarily recommend these agencies. You'll have to check them out for yourself) Go ahead, take a look at these children. Imagine what their lives are like...then imagine what they could be like if they got the one thing the wanted most...a family.

I have heard people say things like, 'I'd rather adopt a baby, that way he/she isn't messed up when we get them' or 'What if we get an older child and they are a bad influence on my other children' or 'I'd rather not have to deal with all the baggage that comes with a teenager, so we'll adopt a little one.'

Human beings are Not Rotten Vegetables. We do not have expiration dates. None of these children...even the 17 and 18 year olds...are too far gone. They are made in the image of God and are His choice possession. And yet, so many children are being passed by, getting one day older and less likely to ever be adopted. Its time to step it up, Church! We can not let these children get tossed into the garbage.

I am not saying that everyone should adopt...or that everyone who adopts should adopt an older child. Many woman are on their way to an abortion clinic, who would turn back and decide to put their baby up for adoption, if they knew a loving family who would care for her and later the baby.

There are many reasons not to adopt. I have some myself right now. But there is one very good reason to adopt. God says to! James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of {our} God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, {and} to keep oneself unstained by the world.

That word visit means 1) to look after, have care for, provide for: of God that sounds like adoption to me.

What My Husband Does

I want to dedicate this post to my dear, wonderful husband. Quentin and I have been married over 5 years. I love being married to this man. He still makes me laugh. He still makes my heart flutter. And best of all, he is still running hard after Jesus. In fact, probably more so than ever. So, I wanted to give you all the low down on what my husband does.

Quentin spends his mornings in the GPR (Global Prayer Room) of the IHOP (International House of Prayer) Missions base. This the biggest part of why we are in Kansas City - the Prayer Room. For those of you who don't know, the prayer room has 24/7 worship and intercession. That means its a room where people gather to pray...for each other, for the nations, for the church...all the time...It doesn't matter if its 4 am or lunch time, or Christmas morning....some one is in the prayer room crying out to the Lord. Its a beautiful atmosphere to live in. Quentin spends 4-6 hours in the Prayer room most days. That's a lot. Intercession is hard...its battle in the spirit realm and let me tell you...If you were to get before the Lord right now and engage with the Holy Spirit in interceission for even one hour, you would end your time tired and hungry! I do want to clarify, no one spends every second of their time in the prayer room engaged in battle. Sometimes he goes to the bathroom, sometimes he catches up on homework, he spends lots of time reading the Word and meditating on it, and of course, occasionally he falls asleep...don't tell. ;)

At noon, Quentin leaves the prayer room to come home for lunch. We love it when the clock hits 12:15 and we hear the garage door open! Most of the time the boys and I are still in bed when he leaves so this is usually the first time during the day that we get to see Daddy. He passes out kisses, eats lunch, and helps me put the twins down for nap. Sometimes he even makes me tea and we sit and talk for a few minutes...if I don't lay down for a nap myself.

By 2:45, Quentin passes out more kisses and leaves again for class. Besides being an intercessory missionary, Quentin is also a student at the Forerunner School of Ministry (FSM). Don't be fooled by the fact that this school in unaccredited...its intense. The best part about it is that Quentin's professors, fellow students and syllabus are so very centered on Jesus. The Excilencies of Christ, Christology I and II, the Life of Jesus, are a few of the classes he has taken so far. Also, he has studied Escatology, the Acts of the Church,...many many more.

Two days a week Quentin doesn't come home from class, but stays for the Awakening Services. These evening services started in November when an unusual, but totally awesome move of the Holy Spirit broke out. Quentin does ministry, praying for people and getting prayed for as well. They are wonderful, refeshing times with the Lord. He gets done at 10pm, then leaves for work.

He cleans commercial buildings. It only takes about 2 hours to clean the building, but its usually after 2pm before gets home and in bed. On the nights he doesn't go to the Awakening, he helps me get the boys ready for bed until he has to leave at 7:45...and returns around 10:30. These are the days I stay up late so we can have some time together. I so enjoy quiet evenings with my husband.

So why am I telling you my husbands schedule. I guess because I want to acknowledge how much he does and how hard he works. He does ministry, he prepares for future ministry, he works to provide for us. He doesn't get a lot of sleep, nor do we have an abundance of finances right now. We are praying for more financial supporters to raise up around us, but until then he will work his tail off in the evenings and get up early in the mornings.

Quentin, I love you, and I think you're awesome! I'm so glad to be apart of what the Lord is doing now and going to do in the future through you.

My Twins Are Two!

I can hardly believe it. Gideon and Silas' 2nd Birthday was March 19th. Time flies when you're having fun! We got the boys toys for the sand box. They love the sand box. They can keep themselves busy for quite awhile with just one garden shovel and some sticks, so we got them some actual sand toys and they loved them! They also got back packs, sunglasses, and DVDs from Mamaw and Papaw! Thank you!!

We had a little party for them Saturday. It was a good time and I'm so glad everyone came even though it was way gross outside. We had carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting...Yummo! I really wish I could continue on the blog post, but I am soooo behind on EVERYTHING! So...talk to you all soon. Blessings!

My Boys' Treasure

As I mentioned previously, Quentin took the boys tromping through the woods today. They had a blast! They came back with the skull of a small animal and Quentin and Olive spent the afternoon online trying to figure out what kind of animal. They think its a muskrat. I thought you might want to see it. I thought it was pretty cool!

You can see the one remaining tooth in this first picture!

What A Glorious Day!

This has been a glorious day! It started when my awesome husband got up with the kids. I slept a good hour after they were all up and when Quentin did come in and wake me, it was to tell me that the coffee was ready. I emerged from the bedroom to find 3 changed, dressed, fed and happy little boys! We put a movie on for the boys so we could sit and have some time together while I had my coffee and a bowl of my favorite cereal.

After the movie, Quentin read to the boys for awhile and I did the dishes. By the way, I almost enjoy doing the dishes when I don't have small one hanging off of me.

Later, when it was time for me to start making lunch, Quentin went outside to throw out the compost. Since Oliver can walk down the steps just as fast as Quentin can, and put his own shoes on, he followed Quentin out. Gideon, on the other hand, tried to keep up, but when his daddy and big brother came back in, he was still sitting on the bottom step trying to get his snow boot on and sobbing his little heart out because he had been left behind. It was the most heart breaking thing you've ever heard! Of course, Quentin felt horrible, so he got all three of the boys' coats, hats and shoes on and took them outside.

After about an hour, they returned. Quentin had to stick his head in the door and ask me to help him drag our children in from the rain. They could have cared less about the considerable amount of rain coming down. But I was able to coax them in with promises of hot soup and warm bread for lunch! After all, they were tired, wet and hungry from their little field trip with Daddy!

Oliver was quick to show me the treasure they had found. A skull. Yes, they had gone tromping through the woods and found the skull of a small animal. Quite fascinating to me, and a dream come true for my boys! After lunch, which they gobbled up, we put the twins down for a nap(which was a lot easier than normal) then Quentin and Oliver sat down at the computer to figure out what kind of animal's skull they had found (homeschool science lesson...check) while I went grocery shopping all by myself! Yeah!!

On Friday nights, we always have a Shabbat meal to celebrate our precious Sabbath Rest, Jesus! Talia joined us, like usual, and helped me finish getting dinner ready. We had Spaghetti, steamed broccoli, braided challah bread(Jewish egg bread), grape juice, and for dessert...peach mango milkshakes! Yum!

Quentin and Talia do commercial cleaning 6 nights a week, so they left right after dinner to work. But it wasn't long before my hubby came back and now its time to snuggle with him, and a hot cup of mint tea before bed. Good night, all....it has been a glorious day!

Violent

There are so many things on my heart tonight, I just don't know where to start. I learned more than one disturbing and sad piece of information today and I'm still processing things.

Luckily, I also had my Mom's Small group at Lydia's house...She's a gem. All the ladies that attend my group are! Thanks girls, I don't know what I'd do with out you! We are reading Hind's Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard for our group discussion. This is a must read! I love it!

God has been teaching me many things through this book. Most recently, it has helped me come to realize how badly I need to recognize the attacks of my enemies! So many times, the lies come flying at me, or worse, conversations start to take place in my head and I forget that there is an enemy to be fought.

In the book, Hinds feet on High Places, the main character is Much-Afraid...yeah, that's her name. She is on a journey to the High Places. She is being led there by the Good Shepard. And her enemies are trying to get her to turn back. There names are Pride, Self-pity, Resentment, and Craven Fear. There are many more, but these show up the most often...that's funny, they show up the most often in my story too.

I'll admit, sometimes I just plain give into Resentment by agreeing with and repeating his lies. Its a terrible sight when I start to spew his toxic waste out on my family. But some days I am able to hold my tongue. That's when Self-pity steps into to take over. He is soon followed by Shame.

Shame is probably the sneakiest. I know its not right to agree with Resentment and Self-pity, so Shame creeps in to tell me how horrible I am for believing them. By doing this, he gets me to wallow in the mud with him instead of standing up to fight. My favorite part of this book so far is when the main character gets sick of hearing her enemies...she can't really do anything to drown them out so she gets violent. The usually mild Much-Afraid, takes her stand and starts to stone her enemies, she is helped by her two companions given to her by the Good Shepard and her enemies quickly run away.

So, I've decided that tomorrow, I'm going to walk around with my Sword of the Spirit and when I hear the lies of my enemies...I'm going to get violent.