Conqured by Love

And the greatest of these is love....

We we're so grateful to be welcomed with open arms by the Razvi family with Conquered by Love Ministries.  After being given a strong recommendation by a friend of ours, we called them and had an immediate invitation to come to their home that very night.

After some connecting by phone, email and texts about our family and situation ...we were given some very real things to put in place for our family immediately---which we did.  Meanwhile, we worked in getting some time off of work for Darrell and traveled to their home several hours away over the next weekend,

We were welcomed with open arms, introduced to everyone, and shown around the home to make everyone comfortable.  Their children immediately came around ours and offered support, companionship and accountability. Tammi and Imran talked to us, observed us with our kids, gave us some much needed recoop time as well as positive feedback and suggestions to make things different.  For the first time ever...there were no bandaids....

They showed us how to help our kids heal, our family heal, and how to get started right away.

It was refreshing, encouraging and most of all...emblazoned us with immense hope for our entire family.

Kiara even said, "if Michaela and Jessica were here, this would be my perfect place.  She was the last one to leave the house and didn't want to go but I gently reminded her that we both wanted the same thing. She agreed too.

Darrell and I spent our 8+ hours riding home in the car with our sweet children with great hope in our heart for our children.  We planned what our next few months would look like and what changes we needed to make to keep our family on track.

We have devoured their books, philosophy and have seen it working already in our home.  Our children were inspired by what they saw...they have made great efforts to accept the changes and be encouraging to everyone.

We've come back...and the work has begun...so many things have changed, even the older girls have seen a difference already.  It has been a blessing to our family and we are grateful for this families heart to help other adoptive family's....thank you Razvi  family.

Check out their ministry page at Conquredbylove.org

Happy Mother's Day

They know me in a way no one ever has.

They open me to things I never knew existed.

They drive me to insanity and push me to the depths.

They are the best of my heart, the pulse of my veins, and the energy of my soul.

They are my kids.

Looking for Answers

On our way to Fredrick,Maryland on a journey of our hearts.  Found a family who is opening their arms outstretched to us with answers for our children...

Excited to be overcomers! Given such good guidance and love by the whole family!  Grateful for support, information, technique and help!

Kiara said, "Mom, if Michaela and Jessica were here, this would be my perfect place...a beautiful testimony to what we gained!

Sharing stories, building friendships, looking ahead--thank you Lord for such wonderful answers to our prayers ...now the work begins!

That Low Place

There are times in our lives when each moment is difficult...we look to The Lord during these times for our strength to make it through the moments.  We dig down deep to find the joy in the deep places of ourselves-down past the hardships, the sadness for what we have lost and still it comes...the perfect peace, the ability to pick each other up in the mire and challenge and cheer each other to go on.  Questioning why we are here and wondering if we choose to go on...charging through hard, making tough decisions, walking the balancing act, asking for help...hard...it can be hard.

Sometimes, we rush into change and sometimes we don't understand why we have to drastically alter our course but we do it anyway with great fear asking for God to chart our future... The one who sees our future where these things will be past, we will be refined by His fire,and God will be glorified for holding us up and wrapping his loving arms around us.

Humbled

and

crying out to The Lord

for answers to difficult questions....

What seemed for so long ---deafening silence to our pleas...the flood gates of answered prayers.  A place to start the healing...a safe place....

Are we strong enough? Ann Voscap says you've got to look for the glory and hunt for the grace and seize the beauty in ugly and laugh brave and defiant in the dark and you can lose everything but nothing can steal Jesus and He is enough and you have to live....you have to live...live with an outstretched hand reaching towards the Savior and live the life He has put before you.

He says he has already equipped us for what we are walking through...again digging deep to find it in ourselves.  God meeting us where we are...on our knees before His throne.  Our strength giving us the courage to go on...the courage to take the next step despite the not knowing....the courage and trusting and surrender of self...knowing we will find healing for our children, ourselves and our family.

Lord, we are yours....trusting you, walking with you, loving you...every step if the way.

Happy Easter!

Church this morning at Raymond Baptist...awesome service and music! Off to spend lunch together at Cracker Barrel.  Then heading home for an egg hunt and company coming.

He is Alive!

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Yesterday we celebrated Jess's 21st birthday! We all traveled to Bucca de Beppos to celebrate!

A Good Day

It's been a long couple of months with a lot of littles struggling. It's been a long time since we had a good day ...a really good day. But...today was just what we needed...a gift...a sweet treasure to restore our souls.

It included hard work- hauling rocks and backfill by hand to build rock walls in our hill for our garden. Everyone pitched in a bit and the work was good. We spent lots of silly moments with our horses too!  We even had a bit of energy to work them when we were done. Thank you Lord for hard work and sweet family time!