This is good...

Holes in the jeans... Holes in the Bible...

Andrew has been in need of jeans for quite sometime. I've sent him to school over and over in the same hole filled pairs of jeans. I've tried to buy him some here or there but they don't fit right so I've had to take them back. I decided to go to the Children's Place b/c they were having a great denim sale AND I had a coupon;) While giving the $1.99 rack a good looking, I couldn't help but observe other moms around me. They were off browsing the Easter section. Some of the little girl clothes were SO cute but you could easily spend $30-$40 on a little dress that may fit a month or two. It didn't seem to bother these moms because their arms were FULL. As I waited in line to pay, I thought of the reality of who "we" are and I couldn't help but beg HIM to help me not fit in with the "we". Americans are SOOOO concerned about appearances and no I don't just mean hair, make up, etc... so much deeper than that. It's like we define ourselves by what we drive, how many sq ft our house has, diamonds, perfectly dressed children, granite counter tops and the list goes on and on and on!! Where is the SUBSTANCE I want to SCREAM??!!
It reminds me of a passage from the book I'm reading A Hole in Our Gospel (you MUST get this book.. it's 1/2 off right now at the CBO and it is life changing). Here's the passage:
... he and some classmates did a little experiment. They went through all 66 books of the Bible and underlined every passage and verse that dealt with poverty, wealth, justice and oppression. Then one of his fellow students took a pair of scissors and physically cut every one of those verses out of the Bible. The result was a volume in tatters that barely held together. When Jim would speak on these issues, he would hold his ragged book in the air and proclaim "Brothers and sisters, this is our American Bible; it is full of holes. Each one of us might as well take our Bibles, a pair of scissors, and begin cutting out all the scriptures we pay no attention to, all the biblical texts that we just ignore." The gospel Jesus describes in Luke 4 is indeed something solid. If there is a hole in our gospel, in our understanding of the nature of God's call upon us, His followers, it is NOT because Scripture is unclear about these issues. Rather, it is because we have CHOSEN, as Jim Wallis suggests, to pay little attention to God's unmistakeable message to bring the WHOLE gospel to the WHOLE world.

It leaves me asking WHY are we spending/wasting money on such frivolous things when there are almost 150 million.. MILLION... orphans. Read that again! It's not just a number... PLEASE don't read that as a number. Put the faces of your babies there. God did not give you everything you have to live in comfort. He gave it to you to GIVE to those without. The kingdom of which Christ spoke was one in which the poor, the sick, the grieving, cripples, slaves, women, children, widows, orphans, lepers, and aliens - the least of these (Matt. 25:40) - were to be lifted UP and embraced by GOD. It was a world order in which justice was to become a reality, first in the hearts and minds of Jesus' followers (that is US... people that is US) and then to the wider society through OUR influence.
In his book Stearn talks about how more and more our view of the gospel has been narrowed down to saving as many souls from hell as possible - for the NEXT life. We minimize any concern for those same people in THIS life. We aren't as concerned with whether they are poor, hungry, persecuted, or perhaps rich, greedy and arrogant. We just have to get them to pray the sinners prayer and then move on to the next potential convert. Focusing almost exclusively on the afterlife reduces the importance of what HE expects of us in THIS life.... we are to meet THEIR needs with what we've been GIVEN... NOT earned... it's a gift!
Sweet Jesus, Savior of my soul... PLEASE prick my heart ALWAYS for the needs of others and burden me to give it all. It's not mine anyway! Constantly ignite the passion within me for the salvation of others BUT please never let me forget they are your children and have great needs that you want ME to meet while they are on this earth. Let my life show YOUR love for them!

Can I also just add that my husband GETS it?? He told me yesterday he ordered me some flowers at a local florist and felt guilty all day about the cost. Later in the day he called and canceled them and picked me up some flowers at Kroger for $12. I LOVE them:) especially b/c of the pure heart they came from!

Happy Valentines Day!!

For the past 12 days we've been counting down Valentine's Day with our fortune blessings:) Aren't they cute? A fellow blogger made them to sell to raise money for Haiti! The kids have LOVED opening them every night at dinner.
Today was Andrew's Valentine party. He had a Mad Scientist Valentine Box:)

Winter Wonderland

We had a beautiful snow last week. The boys played in it for hours 3 days in a row. The kids and daddy;) had tons of fun having snowball fights and everyone enjoyed making Frosty!

a little too much passion, maybe..

God has filled me with passion! I knew it from a young age. It's SO hard for me to sit idle while injustices are occurring. SOOO hard!! Honestly in many instances, it's not made me very popular. It's funny b/c the last 2 nights I've had the hardest time sleeping b/c I am so wired about how much I love LIFE! I LOVE what God has done, is doing and will continue to do. I'm literally giddy over HIM. I've played a gazillion of my FAV christian music to Cam while he's trying to sleep and I'm like... "DON'T you just LOVE those lyrics?????" He thinks I'm a nut but he's always known that about me. I'm SO grateful that God has opened my eyes to who He is. He's opened my eyes to the reality that I have nothing without Him and everything I have is HIS. My heart is literally bursting with gratitude of the things He's entrusted to us. My husband. Andrew. Parker. Piper. Joleigh. Oh, He has been SO good!

My prayer is that I will never be scared to follow Him. Lord, let me always stand up and say YES to anything called of me. I would really encourage you to read Katie's blog. Her obedience to Him is awe inspiring.

What is He asking you to do? Where is He wanting you to move? Is He calling you to downsize financially so you can use HIS money to serve those in need? I pray the words of our heart will echo the song... "Wherever He leads, I'll go. I'll follow my Christ who loves me so. Wherever He leads I'll go"

This too shall pass..

Boy, it's been a week! It started with an interview with a local journalist who was interviewing us for an article in the local paper about our adoption. She is a nice lady, I've worked with her in the past on some stories she covered over our fund raising for the Invisible Children of Uganda. Although she is a sweet lady and we are thankful for her help getting the story out, the interview was a little discouraging. She really didn't understand our desire to adopt from Ethiopia and stacked a million excuses/reasons on why it's not a great idea. At first I was a little upset with her questioning but soon remembered that "most" people feel the way she does, she was just honest. I finally told her all the excuses she had given were the cons on my list of pros/cons of adoption and they were ALL practical things, none of them were eternal. When I looked through Christ eyes at our decision to adopt, there were NO excuses. We have a loving home, we have food, shelter, we've been given MUCH!! So when answering the question "Why are we adopting?" my response is usually "Why not?"
Another area where I feel satan is trying to discourage me is that we don't really have any type of adoption ministry set up at our church. Cameron and I see this as a wonderful opportunity to share our hearts with others but at times it can feel overwhelming and kinda lonely. We really have a desire to start a ministry/grant program to help others take care of HIS children. Our desire is to be debt free so we're able to help people significantly when they are in the process of adopting.
Then the last shoe fell yesterday... my principal had to call me in b/c our technology director was upset b/c I had sent two emails (in the past two months) to the faculty about the can collecting/coffee. My principal was wonderful and is VERY supportive. She hated to tell me not to send "personal emails" but she had to. It literally broke my heart! I felt like the place I've had the most support was at school and now satan is trying to limit that. At first it just made me angry b/c I/we send personal emails all the time. We are a family at work but soon I realized it was just satan trying to discourage me. I really don't have ill feelings towards any of these circumstances or people personally but am SO exhausted with how satan is constantly trying to discourage this adoption. Satan does NOT want this child to have the opportunities that will come from living here. He does NOT want this baby to know Jesus. I am SO thankful that he is NOT in control. Although it's been a gloomy few days, God has been SO good to grow us through this experience. We are SO thankful that He is enough!! When it feels as though there's no one standing with us, HE is carrying us through.
We are also SO thankful for those of you who have given us support.

Okay, let me try this again...

I NEED you to help me with this coffee business.. Yes, YOU! (we're selling Ethiopian yummy coffee to raise $ for our Ethiopian adotion, see post below for details) Would you please consider putting a post on your blog about our coffee store? My dear friend Lorrie shared our post and had a lady buy 2 bags. She told Lorrie she LOVED that coffee and was having a hard time finding it:) YAY! So far we've sold $40 worth. We get $5.00 a bag! We really would appreciate you guys helping us out by posting the link to the store on your blog.. you never know who might be looking for some great coffee:).
Thank you in advance for those who do! Thank you also for those of you who are helping with the can collection! You really have no idea how much it's appreciated. Sometimes I have a hard time not being discouraged by the lack of interest of the "christian" community when it comes to the orphan... HIS children!
Here's the link to the store:
http://www.justlovecoffee.com/thewallaces
Update..
Okay, as I was doing some blog reading I noticed my former boss and dear friend:) blogged about our coffee over here.. Thank you Rochelle! God allowed me to find her again this year after being out of contact for several years and she has been a true blessing to me... just wished we lived closer. Love you Rochelle!