A bit of gratitude

This week has been heavy so far so I'm thinking that it would be good for my soul to ponder the goodness of the The Father in my life. Just a bit of gratitude...

Thank you, good Father for...

-A delicious breakfast with yummy golden yellow eggs yolks. Thankful that God lets me have taste buds to delight in flavours.
- Godly grief that leads to repentance. It's messy and painful. And it makes me oh so thankful for Jesus dieing on the cross in my place. Thank you Jesus.
- Phone chats of home, cooking, and Jesus with my Grandma who lives in Oregon. What a gift from the Father to have a friendship with my grandma. What a gift from the Father to have a grandma who loves Jesus.

His timing is perfect.

We are still here... waiting for word about our baby girl. The waiting is getting old now... there is angst that comes with this sort of waiting. I think about baby girl so often. But...

"I will hope continually and will praise You yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge." Psalm 71: 14-15

and...

"I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!" Psalm 27:13-14


The verses above have been balm for my soul when I get weary in the waiting.

Praising Jesus that His timing is perfect. Praising Him that He is always working things out for my good AND His glory- at the same time! Those two things do not work against each other. Its always my good and His glory, because of that I can hope! Thats where I have to ground my thoughts, otherwise I'd go crazy thinking that God was a cosmic kill-joy, instead of the loving gracious Father that He is.

I praise God for this waiting period! I praise Him for the love that He has been stirring up in my heart for Ruby. I praise Him for the longing He has put in my heart to embrace my daughter and just... be. I praise Him that He loves her more than I do, and is taking care of her as I type this. Glory be to God!

The above photo is a glimpse of some of the things we have been putting together for Rubys room. Its so fun getting her room ready. Sometimes I sit in the rocking chair in her room, having precious moments with Jesus... I just dream about Ruby and pray for her. I so look forward all the precious moments that I will have rocking her in the chair once she is finally home!


My dear friend and Neighbor had her baby roughly a month ago and below is a photo that I took of her and her daughter. Makes me cry everytime I see it.

 I was so honored to be able to take belly photographs of her every month during her pregnancy and also come visit her baby in the NICU once she was born. For a few months before my friend got pregnant, we began praying that God would make that happen. Obviously God answered our prayers, and now their daughter is here! She is answered prayer right before our eyes! Glory be to God! Our God is faithful and full of goodness. His timing is perfect. Always.

Yard sale for adoption numero dos!

Hello folks! 

We had another yard sale to help us raise money to bring Ruby home! It was another success- praise God!  During the two days of our sale, God provided $4300.00! Between both yard sales that we've had the total money we made was around $10,000.00! We are so amazed at how generous people are, and so thankful for God's goodness and provision. 

We feel so blessed and humbled by all of our friends/family that came out and helped/supported us. Thanks so much!

In other news, we have been working on Ruby's nursery. Above is just a glimpse of a few details. We ordered her crib the other day and it will be delivered in July. I can't wait! I'll post more pics once it has all come together! 

Hope you all are enjoying your summer! Hopefully I'll be checking in soon with good news about Ruby! :-)

love,

jess

Update: Adoption Yard Sale

So... remember how the last time I wrote, Dave and I were getting ready for our HUGE adoption yard sale? Well, it went fabulous and I wanted to just take a moment and give ya'll an update!

A few weeks ago we began collecting items to sell at the sale. Dave and I put a few of our own things in, but I would say that 99% of stuff was donated to us. Within a few weeks our entire garage was totally full of stuff. In fact, there was just a little pathway down the center of the garage. We were still accepting donations despite the garage being maxed out, so we started bringing stuff into the house. Our sunroom became full very quickly. Thursday (the day before the sale) we got even more donations and we had to put it in the living room! Our house was overflowing with yard sale items! It was awesome!!!

Heres Pips and I (along with Dave and Josh) making Yard Sale signs.

I forgot to mention that we also had a bake sale at the yard sale. Again, about 99% of the items were donated to us. And in this photo, this is only about half of all the baked goods that were donated. People were just SO generous to us!

This is a photo of the first morning (Friday) of the sale.

This is the money that God provided to help us bring Ruby home... don't worry, we haven't carried it around with us. In fact it got put in the bank immediately! The total from both days was $6100.00!!! We were just blown away at God's provision! How often do people make more than a couple hundred at a yard sale... not too often! Only the Lord could make $6100 happen! 

This whole yard sale experience was such a blessing to us. We were so amazed at how generous people were to us. What was even more amazing to me is how we as Christians are apart of this HUGE family. We were so thankful to be apart of the church family at Redeemer Church, but it wasn't just people from our church that helped us. There were Christians from other churches that heard about our adoption of Ruby and wanted to help us. Some people that donated were friends of friends, and didn't really know us but wanted to help. Im so thankful that God reminded me that when He adopts us into His family, that we aren't just apart of His family that is at the church we attend... we are apart of this bigger family of Christians that is all around the world!

 These are just a few ways that people blessed us during the process..

-they donated garage sale items

-they donated baked goods

-the came over and helped us sort through items as well as price them.

-they donated money

-they came early in the morning and stayed late at the sale

- they stopped by the sale to say hi and encourage us

-they bought stuff at the sale

-they brought gifts for Ruby

These were some of the gifts that people gave us for Ruby. See the quilt at the top of the pic? My Aunt made it for Ruby! It will be so special when I get to wrap Ruby up in the beautiful quilt and tell her that her Great Aunt lovingly and prayerfully made it for her.

Dave and I really just want to say thank you to each of you. Thank you for your love, support and especially your prayers as we continue this wonderful crazy journey of adoption. 

Love to each of you.

God's provision through strangers

Hello friends and family! I wanted to share with you a VERY cool thing that happened yesterday. Each time a repeat this story, I'm so overwhelmed by God's grace and love towards us. I hope you will praise God with me as you read about what happened...

Yesterday after lunch Dave and I decided to go for a walk in our neighborhood. The weather yesterday was beautiful and sunny, so we just couldn't resist! We decided that while we were talking we would place garage sale flyers on peoples doorsteps as a way to spread the word for the sale next weekend. We finished our walk and came home. Then, I had to teach piano for a few hours. Dave got called into work for a few hours, and so after I was done teaching piano I was home alone. The door bell rang. I answered the door to find a woman on my porch about the age of 40. I said "hello" to her and then she began to tell me "My name is "Sally" and I live around the corner from you. Did you place this flyer on my doorstep?" She then presents to me the flyer that we had indeed handed out. "Yes" I said. Sally then tells me that she was born in Uganda and grew up in the town called Jinja (which is close to where David and I will be when we go to Uganda to bring home our Ruby). Sally then handed me a plastic bag that was holding a huge box of butter... she explained that she had been to Costco to buy butter and accidently she bought the wrong kind. She noticed on our flyer that we were having a bake sale and didn't want the butter to go to waste so she thought that we might be able to use the butter in our baking. I just thought that this was the sweetest thing. I told her "thank you" and then began telling her a little bit about the adoption process. The conversation was rather quick because she seemed in a hurry. But before she walked away she handed me something and said "I can't be there for the garage sale, but I wanted to give you this to add to your funds." I opened my hand and unfolded a $100.00 bill! My heart welled up, and my immediate reflex was to give Sally a hug- and so I did! Sally responded by saying something to the extent of "You are so welcome! But, please if you see my husband and I outside sometime please do not tell him that I gave you any money. I don't think he'd be happy." And with that... she left. I came back inside just staring at the $100.00 and praising God for His providing for us through a complete stranger.

It has been so neat to see God use the body of Christ and also unbelievers to bless us in our adoption journey! We feel so loved by Jesus, and by each of you!

Thanks for being excited and praising God with us!

All is grace,
jess

Adoption Garage Sale

adoption update

Hey Everyone!

A little bit of an update for ya.... we are almost done with the hardest part of the paperwork. We still have to go get physicals done, but then after that things should really get going. We have 2 adoption classes left to take, and also at some point they will assign us a social worker. I just really want things to get going so we can bring our baby girl home quickly! :-)

Dave and I will be putting on a garage sale  (early Feb... probably the 3 &4) to help raise funds to bring home our daughter from Uganda. We could use your help… If any of you have stuff that you’d like to donate to help us, please send me an email or comment on this post. If you have heavier items that you’d like to donate but you do not have a truck, please let me know and we can come and pick it up. We will also be doing a bake sale at the garage sale, so if any of you do not have stuff that you could donate to the garage sale, but you enjoy baking we'd love you to donate baked goods for us to sell! 

We really covet your prayers. Please be praying that:

-the process would go smoothly and quickly

-that God would provide the funds needed

-that we would have LOTS of opportunities to advocate for adoption, and with that be able to share the gospel and how God has adopted us. 

lotsa love,

jess

And so it begins...

Exciting News!!!

captivated by the crisp

This morning is the first morning that it has actually felt like Fall. There is a crispness to the morning air that is quite lovely... its a snuggle up with a large cup of tea and stay in all day sort of crispness.

God is a good God. All He gives is good gifts- always. I love that about my Jesus. I deserve death and He gives me nothing but mercy and His goodness. Some days His goodness doesn't look good to me... sometimes it feels painful and hard... sometimes His goodness feels like He is giving me a stone instead of bread. Oh Lord, let me not believe the lie that you give your children stones... open my eyes to see that the bread just looks/feels like a stone. Most days, His goodness feels good to me. When Jesus opens my eyes to see His glory around me... to see the good gifts (even the ones that don't feel like gifts) that he lavishes upon me... I don't just see the gifts anymore, I now see the giver- Jesus.

Crisp, fall morning air and crunchy fallen leaves are such gifts from God. The WHOLE earth is filled with His glory! Praise His name!

I wish there was a way to capture the crisp chill of the fall air so that I could share it with you. So, I guess the photo of crunchy fall leaves below will have to do for now :-)

love to all.

endless gifts and life

Hey Friends,

Well, it looks like it has been a while since I have posted. I am so sorry for that! To be honest, I have been busy living life instead of just blogging about it :-)

Summer has been good, slow and full of sunshine. Our days have been spent working on our house, being out in the garden, reading, eating good food, spending time with good friends and new friends, and long evening walks. One of my best and most favorite summers ever!

Physically I have been feeling great! There are still those days that my ribs flare up with pain, but those are really very few. I have been off of my Valley Fever medication since July, and I just seem to keep getting better. I have an appointment with my pulmonary Doctor in October in which he will test my blood one more time to make sure that the Valley Fever hasn't come back since stopping the medication. I really think that God has healed me completely, and so I'm trusting Him for that. Thank you so much for your prayers, my friends. It has meant so much to me know that you all are praying. I will be forever grateful.

I've recently started reading a book from Ann Voskamp called, " One Thousand Gifts". Can I just say WOW!? Like any book, there are things I disagree with in it, but there are more so things that I agree with. Ann write poetically about learning how to live in the moment and how to be always watchful for God's gifts. In her own life she started practicing this 'sleuthing of God's gifts' by listing the gifts as she noticed them... her goal being to list 1000 of God's gifts to her. This book has been such a huge challenge to me (and I haven't even finished it yet!)  I started my own 1000 Gifts List the other day and it has been so good for my soul! So let me take this moment to challenge you to grab this book, read it and then make your own list of 1000 Gifts.

Lots of love,
jess

God controls all... even the dust motes.

I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens—that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He that believes in a God must believe this truth. There is no standing-point between this and atheism. There is no half way between a mighty God that worketh all things by the sovereign counsel of his will and no God at all. A God that cannot do as he pleases—a God whose will is frustrated, is not a God, and cannot be a God. I could not believe in such a God as that. 

-C. Spurgeon

If God controls the dice and dust motes... do you think he can control fungal spores that blow in the air that make people sick with Valley Fever? I sure hope so.

I'm gonna post my testimony here in a few weeks. I'll be chatting about what the Lord has taught me over the past 10 months. I'm really looking forward to sharing with you.

Love to all,

jess

Fathers Day in Photos...

valley fever update

Hello Friends!

It is summer so my posts on here have been few. I am sorry for that, but California summers are just too beautiful to stay inside and blog. :-)

Anyway I just wanted to give you all a very quick update on my valley fever sickness. I went a few weeks ago and got another blood test to check my valley fever fungus levels as well as 2 tests to check to see how my liver is functioning while on my medication. All 3 tests came back with normal results! Praise the Lord! On the 25th of this month I have an appointment with my lung specialist to find out if I can finally be off of the valley fever medication. Once I stop taking the medication I need to watch out for any symptoms indicating that I could be relapsing. Dr. Patel told me that in about 10% of patients Valley Fever returns, and then they have to go back on medication.

Obviously I do not want to get sick again, but I'm trusting that God will do what seems best to Him... maybe it means healing, and maybe it means more sickness, but I trust Him.

There are still those moments (even as I typed the few sentences above) when I panic a little about the thought of possibly getting sick again, but in those moments He reminds me of the past 10 months and how faithful He has been to me. He reminds me of how I can trust Him and how He is always working for my good and for His glory. Jesus is better than any pleasure, wealth or even health. I just want more of Him in my life, and I want God to accomplish that however He sees fit to do so. The most loving thing that He could ever do is to give me more of Himself... at great cost to Himself and (sometimes), at great cost to me.

Christ be lifted high!

Thank you for your continuing prayers,
jess

SF trip

As you may remember, the Hubs and I were going to San Fransisco for a weekend. We spent a lot of time chatting together, saw The Civil Wars in concert (AMAZING!!!) and ate tons of good food. Here is some photos from our trip....

View from our room on the 43rd floor at The Hilton! GORGEOUS! We could see the whole bay as well as Coit Tower! 

We had dinner at this cute Italian place called 'Amarena'.

This was the venue where we saw The Civil Wars

The decor of the music hall was super tacky and over done and I loved it! I would NOT like it for my home but for the music hall it really looked awesome!

<3 him 

The Civil Wars: Joy Williams and Jon Paul White

View from our room at midnight.

handsome man.

Britex: a sewers dream.

Bread and Cocoa: This cute lil place is where we ate breakfast. I highly recommend this place! 

Dave's Cocoa Mocha

My lovely London Fog- which I must add was the best one I have ever had. Ever.

smoochy.

trying to get a pic of the both of us. hehe!

toms.

we drove Lombard street and then decided to walk it as well..

pretty house, flowers and lighting on Lombard St.

us.

handsome man... again.

Coit Tower

Cool colors

love the brick

golden gate

Fallen soldier cemetery in the Presidio

21st Amendment:  we ate lunch here. They have awesome burgers and their ginger beer is really refreshing. We bought one of their house brews for my Dad for Fathers Day and He seemed to really enjoy it!

Us.
The End.