He is Greater.....John 3:30 says He must become greater, I must become less"

We have a stack of Christmas story books.  Every year when Thanksgiving day ends, we switch gears to Christmas holiday season.  We go get our tree from the tree farm.  I haul out all the decorations and Christmas music CDs and we start making our Christmas lists.  We enter in to the season of Advent and purpose ourselves to focus on the birth of Christ more than the commercial holiday....but you guys....it's just so hard.  It is hard to not get sucked in to the buying and decorating and hoping and excessiveness.....it is hard to not want to give and spend and give and splurge and give some more....I get swept up in the wave of it all.  The Christmas books are sweet and simple and many of them remind me to focus on what really matters.  Sitting beside my beautiful tree with twinkly lights summons me to sit and feel peace......the nativity scenes I set around the house remind me that it is about Jesus.....so why do I still want to spend and compare an...

Last year at this time I was beginning to dread the end of life with Claire living at home.  We were talking about college and celebrating and grieving the last home football game, the last dance competition, etc.  Not gonna lie....it was heart-breaking.  I have figured out how to add birdies to my nest but Claire was the first one to teach me how to let them leave the nest.  Her senior year of high school was as bittersweet as it gets.  Dark chocolate mixed with Himalayan sea salt......ice cream topped with cantaloupe.....you get the picture.  good and bad, sweet and not, mixed feelings.  I cried many tears trying to wrap my brain around her not being here every day.  I didn't want her to stay forever.  I wanted her to spread her wings and fly.  I wanted to see what she could do with what we had given her.  But I really, really didn't want her....to go.  She did go.  She didn't go far but she did go.  She is mostl...

Hello internet programming.....I want to talk to you.  Today I was making dinner and listening to a show that my Josiah was watching on You tube Kids.  It was one of those vlog shows and they were having yet another extravagant Christmas party.  Everyone was dressed in matching pjs and the parents gave eachother thoughtful, tear-jerking gifts....and the kids all got about 24 different presents...and every one was happy, aunts and uncles and grandparents.....Josiah will be sadly mistaken and disappointed by our Christmas after watching episode after episode of this crap.  And yes.  It's my fault because I let him watch it so that I could cook a wholesome meal at home on a Thursday night.  I cannot keep up with how much internet/social media advice there is on which foods and chemicals and cleaning items are toxic and dangerous.  Apparently I can't eat regular salt any more.  It has to be Himalayan pink salt crystals now.....and I can't dust with...

We had a very thankful day today.  I got to wake up and have all of my people at home.  Knowing they would all wake up and stagger into the kitchen at some point for breakfast was heart-warming.  No college.  No early morning lifting or early morning conference calls......we had our church service last night and were given a chance to remember several families in our congregation who had struggles this year and had reasons to give thanks.  It was a great way to set up the holiday today.  We didn't make plans to go Black Friday shopping.  We did make our plan to go as a family to pick out our tree from the tree farm.  We also drew names for Christmas presents.  Mostly, though, we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and football, ate lots of food, relaxed in our home and took naps.  We spent time with family we don't get to see very often.  We remembered important connections.  I remembered Thanksgivings over the y...

This morning we attended a church service that we try to do every year.  It is the annual Orphan Sunday service at First Reformed Church here in town, and we go as a part of the community that is Katelyn's Fund.  If you want any more info on this ministry please let me know or just google it.  When we began our adoption journey 10 years ago we reached out to Katelyn's Fund to help with the financial burden....and we also received emotional and relational support from this group.  Our daughter Claire joined the Katelyn's Fund family independently when she went on a trip to Haiti to meet and interact with the kids and staff of One Vision Children's Home, whom KF supports.  She met Withney there.  He is a little boy that came into care.....and needed sponsorship.  We have been his sponsor for 3 years now.  Roger couldn't come with us this time because he was home with a nasty virus.  My big man-cub  boys have come to this servi...

He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.  Psalm 104:19 Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth was so thoughtful and intentional in His creation of the world,  of the universe.....He made the moon to mark the seasons.....to number our days each month, to reflect all the changes in  time, and to help us understand seasons.  My favorite moon is harvest moon.....when it dominates the dark sky and glows brightly, to let us know which season is ending and which is beginning. Seasons do that.  They end and begin.  The season of fall will give way to winter in a few weeks......and every season gets to take its turn with us for awhile.  The same is true for seasons of suffering and trials, I think.  We were never promised a hassle-free life.  We should not be surprised when it is our turn to deal with hard things.  The past 12 months have been a rather hard season for me, for multiple reasons and I ...

November is National Foster Care and Adoption Month!  If you know me even a little bit you probably know how much I love this topic.  Since I was a very young girl, I have had a heart for adoption.....and rescue.....and to set the lonely in families.  For me it is foster care and adoption months all 12 months of the year, but for the rest of the nation, we raise awareness in November.  Tonight the annual Katelyn's Fund auction took place.  We have been a part of this ministry for years and years and we love it so much.  We had planned to attend the auction dinner and stay for part of the actual auction fun, then go to the college for a home basketball game because Claire danced at half time.  We didn't have funds to donate any big ticket items or to buy any, but I decided to donate a meal a month for a year.  Of course, I first called my mom and asked if she would help me do it....because I am NOT crazy, after all.  (insert snicker....chuc...