Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Alyssa's Heart on Orphan Ministry
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Big step in a Big journey
Friday night was amazing!! We had a fundraising dinner for our adventure to Guatemala. I can not believe all of the love and support we are receiving from friends and family! It was so great to see so many people there and hear their words of encouragement.
As we are getting rid of everything we own, closing chapters of our life that we have been living for years, it is really easy to second guess our decision. God provides confirmation along the way and it is always right when we need it. Friday night was one of those times.
To see so many people we care so much about, give up their Friday night to come and show their support for us was awesome! To have good friends like Mark and Kari validate us and what we are doing was awesome!
To hear my husband share what all of this means to him, awesome!
To see our beautiful girls (and our beautiful friend Izzy) dance for the Lord and share what this is all about for them, awesome!
This night was a BIG step in a BIG journey and God is using all of our friends and family to help us along the way!
As we are getting rid of everything we own, closing chapters of our life that we have been living for years, it is really easy to second guess our decision. God provides confirmation along the way and it is always right when we need it. Friday night was one of those times.
To see so many people we care so much about, give up their Friday night to come and show their support for us was awesome! To have good friends like Mark and Kari validate us and what we are doing was awesome!
To hear my husband share what all of this means to him, awesome!
To see our beautiful girls (and our beautiful friend Izzy) dance for the Lord and share what this is all about for them, awesome!
This night was a BIG step in a BIG journey and God is using all of our friends and family to help us along the way!
Friday, March 23, 2012
I am ready!
We finally bought our tickets. It is official! We leave June 24th for the beginning of a new journey. If you would have told me 10 years ago I was going to move my family to Guatemala to do orphan ministry, I would have laughed so hard and insisted that you don't know me very well and I would never do that!
I am the girl that could not spend the night at a friends house because I would get homesick. I couldn't stay with my grandparents for any length of time, as much as I wanted to. I had a hard time moving out of my parents house when I got married!! I would have never even thought about moving further then 15 minutes from my family let alone to another country! I needed to feel safe and for me safety was with my family.
Something happened....... God happened! Over time, I started to realize everything I learned in church as a child was real! We really did have a God that loved us so much and would never leave us! It was through all of the hard things I went through in my life, that I really saw and felt this. When I needed Him most, He was always there. He even used those hard times to shape me and help me grow. This is all stuff I had heard but needed to experience.
I decided that I wanted to be in His will, everyday and in everything I do. This was a decision that would forever change the way I was going to live my life. Besides, there is no safer place to be then in the will of God! For someone who needs to feel safe, this is very important. God has brought me a long way.
I am ready for this! I am ready to move to Guatemala and to wake up every single day and ask God to put me where He wants me that day. I am ready for God to use me in a way that He can be glorified. I am ready for us to experience the hard times together as a family and to grow from them together with God! I am ready!!
I am the girl that could not spend the night at a friends house because I would get homesick. I couldn't stay with my grandparents for any length of time, as much as I wanted to. I had a hard time moving out of my parents house when I got married!! I would have never even thought about moving further then 15 minutes from my family let alone to another country! I needed to feel safe and for me safety was with my family.
Something happened....... God happened! Over time, I started to realize everything I learned in church as a child was real! We really did have a God that loved us so much and would never leave us! It was through all of the hard things I went through in my life, that I really saw and felt this. When I needed Him most, He was always there. He even used those hard times to shape me and help me grow. This is all stuff I had heard but needed to experience.
I decided that I wanted to be in His will, everyday and in everything I do. This was a decision that would forever change the way I was going to live my life. Besides, there is no safer place to be then in the will of God! For someone who needs to feel safe, this is very important. God has brought me a long way.
I am ready for this! I am ready to move to Guatemala and to wake up every single day and ask God to put me where He wants me that day. I am ready for God to use me in a way that He can be glorified. I am ready for us to experience the hard times together as a family and to grow from them together with God! I am ready!!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
The journey continues
I can not believe I haven't updated this blog since July of 2009 yet the title remains "Complete Through Christ, The Journey to Guatemala!" The journey started 5 years ago when God blessed us with our amazing daughter! This was the beginning of a life style God had planned for us....
Shortly after bringing Aubryella home, I began to question things..... what if we wouldn't have adopted her? where would she be? Who would comfort our baby girl at nights when she cried? Who would sing her songs and make sure she ate when she was hungry? Who would tell her about our AMAZING Savior Jesus Christ, that loves us more than we can even imagine? Would anyone have done all of this for?
Those questions then turned into....... Well what about all the other orphans out there? Who will do all of this for them? I can't imagine a child without a mommy and a daddy to do all of these things.
This all started to weigh really heavy on my heart. At first I couldn't tell anyone because I though I was crazy for these overwhelming feelings I was having. So I prayed, "God please take these feelings of sadness away from me. Help me make it through today without thinking about the other orphans around the world. Help me to just focus on my three amazing girls that you have blessed me with and not to think about the millions of kids around the world that are without moms and dads. Amen"
This didn't work! This burden was growing stronger, it was keeping me up at night and distracted during the day. I had to tell Sean because we had two options, 1. we could adopt 100 more kids OR 2. we needed to start praying as a couple for God to lead us to His will or to take this burden away from me! Sean chose option 2!
After 3 1/2 years of prayer, tears, ideas that failed ( I had a lot of them), more prayer, more tears, late night talks, more prayer..... God opened a door. Not a moment too soon because I think Sean had about had it with all my crazy ideas :)
I met with my amazing friend Kari Stewart (at the time I didn't know her) for coffee. I shared with Kari what had been going on over the last few years. I cried and laughed and she understood it all. When we were done talking, she said to me that her and the new Missions Pastor had been praying for someone to lead Global Orphan ministry at Timberline and she wanted Sean and I to pray about that.
This is where the next chapter started! We prayed about it and a week later stepped into the position. After many trips to Haiti and a couple to Guatemala, we really got to see our family work together for the kingdom and thrive in an environment that was new to us.
The next adventure we are about to embark on is moving to Guatemala for a year! After much prayer and thought we feel like this is a good time in our life where we can step out in Faith. We are very excited not only to be His hands and feet but to also see how we will grow as a family!
So here we go....... the journey to Guatemala continues!!
Shortly after bringing Aubryella home, I began to question things..... what if we wouldn't have adopted her? where would she be? Who would comfort our baby girl at nights when she cried? Who would sing her songs and make sure she ate when she was hungry? Who would tell her about our AMAZING Savior Jesus Christ, that loves us more than we can even imagine? Would anyone have done all of this for?
Those questions then turned into....... Well what about all the other orphans out there? Who will do all of this for them? I can't imagine a child without a mommy and a daddy to do all of these things.
This all started to weigh really heavy on my heart. At first I couldn't tell anyone because I though I was crazy for these overwhelming feelings I was having. So I prayed, "God please take these feelings of sadness away from me. Help me make it through today without thinking about the other orphans around the world. Help me to just focus on my three amazing girls that you have blessed me with and not to think about the millions of kids around the world that are without moms and dads. Amen"
This didn't work! This burden was growing stronger, it was keeping me up at night and distracted during the day. I had to tell Sean because we had two options, 1. we could adopt 100 more kids OR 2. we needed to start praying as a couple for God to lead us to His will or to take this burden away from me! Sean chose option 2!
After 3 1/2 years of prayer, tears, ideas that failed ( I had a lot of them), more prayer, more tears, late night talks, more prayer..... God opened a door. Not a moment too soon because I think Sean had about had it with all my crazy ideas :)
I met with my amazing friend Kari Stewart (at the time I didn't know her) for coffee. I shared with Kari what had been going on over the last few years. I cried and laughed and she understood it all. When we were done talking, she said to me that her and the new Missions Pastor had been praying for someone to lead Global Orphan ministry at Timberline and she wanted Sean and I to pray about that.
This is where the next chapter started! We prayed about it and a week later stepped into the position. After many trips to Haiti and a couple to Guatemala, we really got to see our family work together for the kingdom and thrive in an environment that was new to us.
The next adventure we are about to embark on is moving to Guatemala for a year! After much prayer and thought we feel like this is a good time in our life where we can step out in Faith. We are very excited not only to be His hands and feet but to also see how we will grow as a family!
So here we go....... the journey to Guatemala continues!!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Life keeps going....
and going and going and doesn't slow down! Especially with a very busy 2 year old! Aubryella is growing so much along with her beautiful big sisters! We are so blessed to have 3 amazing girls! We are enjoying our Summer and preparing for the arrival of our Exchange student from Italy! Very excited about that. Here is an updated photo of the girls.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
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