It's Happy Cupcake Day!

Three years ago, after travelling for more than 30 hours, Haus and I (along with Sweetpea) arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and met our beautiful baby girl, Cupcake!

Meeting Papa


Meeting Mama

With Almaz, the angel who handled all the details in Ethiopia
and loved on our girl until we could get there
to bring her home to her Forever Family!


Playing with Papa


and with Mama


In what has seemed like a flash, this beautiful, timid little princess

became this sassy,



personality filled



sweetheart!

We are SO thankful to God for the blessing of our precious baby girl!

The Big Four-Oh!

Last week included a milestone day for me.

It started out with a bang when I stepped out of bed,
tripped over a gift placed there to be the first thing I saw on my special day,
landed solidly on my belly with an OOOOF!,
banged my chin hard on the ground,
and knocked over 3 vases in the process!

Celebrating 40 with my own special flair!

Hey, at least I'm used to spectacular face-plants and as a bonus, it wasn't in public.

Otherwise, it was an absolutely splendid day! I had breakfast at the beach. Favorite. Spent the day at the spaaaaaaaaahhhh. Massage, facial, steam room, slices of cucumber on my eyes, the whole enchilada. Favorite. Delicious dinner at a fancy-schmancy place. Favorite. And, a bunch of my girlfriends stole me away, made me wear a sparkly tiara and we enjoyed a lovely harbor cruise and dinner. Super favorite!

Seriously, ladies, where would we be without our girlfriends? I think I'd have quit a long time ago without mine! My girls encourage and exhort me. They make me laugh, oftentimes at myself. They know my life, joys, struggles, strengths and weaknesses. They know me, see me, and still love me! They tell me when I'm off-base or flat out wrong, when I need to grow up, when I must turn my heinie around and apologize, and help me to forgive myself when I blow it. They wrap their arms through mine, cheerlead, and help me get through the hard stuff of life. And, they let me be and do that for them as well. Shoot, I love my girls!



In between laughs, they asked what I wanted this next year. What is God doing? How is my heart? Good questions.

This next year, I want to go to Ethiopia (hopefully in June) and serve. I want to finish writing a book I've been working on for a while. I want to sing more. I want to build more friendships with women, to be an encourager of my sisters in Christ. I want to be a better woman, wife, and friend. I want to be changed by God, to learn where I'm blind, to see my sins and weaknesses, and to give them to Him who has the power to transform. I want to seek out those I've wounded and repent of my wrongdoing. I don't want to reach Heaven having not made amends with those I've sinned against. I want to learn to trust God with every facet of life, to be more in love with Jesus, and to live in constant communion with Him. I want more of Jesus.

This is the verse for this year, maybe this decade:

"The LORD your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

How rad is that?



The biggest gifts of my life:

Muffin


Meatball


Pookie


Sweetpea


Cupcake

Ok, so here I go... Into a new decade...



Here's what I think. Life is rich with blessings. Friends are such a gift. God is so very, spectacularly, beyond-my-wildest-imagination good. He has been with me every single step of the way through the big, big highs, and the stinky, rotten lows. He delights in me. Sings over me. Rejoices over me as His beloved. And laughs with me when I trip and fall flat on my face with an OOOOOF! So, come what may...



Bring it on!

If Not Us, Then Who?

There he goes again.

Pat Robertson on CBN cautioned people against adoption

because

"If they have demonic influences, if they have some propractor (sic) of the dark arts in their background, you never know what's going to come out of it, and you also can't tell if they've been brain damaged as a child."

Holy moly, Pat!

OK, let's break this down.

1. "Demonic influences."

You don't have to be born in Africa or Haiti to be born into demonic influences. Christ came to deliver us from evil, to pay for our sins and our heritage of sin being sons and daughters of Adam & Eve, and to break the power of the Enemy and his stronghold over this earth. He came to bring restoration. He came to bring redemption over all manner of sin. Yours. Mine. ALL of ours. To believe that ANYone is beyond redemption because of some spooky voodoo or scary foreign witchcraft, which may or may not have been a child's biological relatives' particular sin is to not actually fully believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

2. "You don't know what's going to come out of it."

That is 100% correct. You do not. If you want a perfectly calm, safe existence, by no means should you live according to Holy Scripture. The Bible not only tells us we MAY go through trial, tribulation, and suffering, it absolutely GUARANTEES it! You are never going to know what manner of pain and trouble following The Call of God is going to cost you. Never. But, you are PROMISED that it's gonna hurt.

If you buy into

James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

the cost will be high. You are not going to know what's going to come out of it, but, GOD will be glorified!

3. "You can't tell if they've been brain damaged as a child."

I know a precious, beautiful "brain damaged" child who was born in Ethiopia and adopted into Team Alexander who has spread the Gospel like wildfire by his family's faith through the suffering of his condition and the triumph God is bring in the midst of it!

This is precious Abe and his mama, Emily, a sweet sister in Christ.

All of this was in reference to the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit VI in Minneapolis last month. Haus and I had hoped to go this year, but were unfortunately unable to make it. Oh, how I wish we had gone!

Pat Robertson is way off the mark on this point. He misses that we, as people, are ALL stained by evil and sin and need the redemption and restoration of Jesus! He misses that we, in Christ, are ALL adopted!

Let me tell you something that is going to make some people squirm and others leave me nasty remarks,

If you don't "get" adoption, you don't really "get" salvation.

Lisa Harding is absolutely right when she says, "People have said, 'oh, aren't they lucky? You rescued them from, you know... whatever. And, I think 'Are you kidding?!?' I'm the lucky one. I get to be their mom and I get to be daily rescued from my selfishness and my impatience and things that are just as disease-ridden in my soul. So, yeah, I guess I'm the lucky one."

This is my precious Cupcake and me on our Gotcha Day!

Haus and I don't know if we are going to adopt again. We've wrestled back and forth not yet coming to a solid conclusion. Would the cost be high? Yes. But, the question that comes up over and over again is

If not us, then who?