Tonight, my husband made me cry... Tonight, he presented me with a card filled with beautiful words of love, and appreciation. He gave me this card, along with a mini version of the book Chicken Soup for the Christian Woman's Soul, just because he loves me. February 19th is not a holiday, nor is it a date that displays any meaning of importance to our family... It's just another day that he loves me, and decided to show me that love in his own way. And, I do feel very loved by him. Why do little gestures such as a card touch us so deeply? Why can a card with simple words bring tears to my eyes? It's because I read the words with a soft heart, and know, honestly know, that the words are truthful...
I apologize for my lack of posts these past two weeks. The Lord's work comes first, so I have been spending my time and energy on other things. A lot has happened since my last post... I've been growing my hair out for three years with the intention of donating it to Locks of Love. And, I finally accomplished doing so last Saturday. The GLA donations still have not been sent out because I still have two pick ups. All of the recent snow showers delayed my pick ups, so I missed the Feb. 15 deadline. Which, I was upset about, but figured that God had a purpose for it. Anyway, they will ship out again to Haiti in the (hopefully) near future, and when GLA does so they will have four big boxes from the loving people around my community... Let's see...I'm trying to remember everything that has happened over the last two weeks. I do so many noteworthy things every day that it's hard to remember it all... I've basically been following every little path that God turns me to. He holds my hand, and shines the light when it's dark. This has made it very easy to guide people to Him. It's easy guiding people His way when He's telling me what to say. I have something pretty amazing planned for Sunday that involves a very dear friend of mine. The Lord is a guiding light in that and all of my relationships, and I just can not praise the Lord enough for the things He's been doing in my life! I'm always so happy! My children are amazing, and SO smart! I've been home schooling Rene, and I don't think anyone would believe how high her comprehension level is! She's capable of first grade work, and she's only three. A friend of mine contributes it to me staying home with her and the one-on-one she gets with me, and I'd have to agree that it may have something to do with it. However, I contribute her brilliance to the Lord. Other than my children, my husband loves me, I'm building great friendships, and I'm making a difference in the world, one person, one organization at a time... If that's not living life to the fullest, then what is? I had an awesome Valentine's day! My husband set up a little party for the girls and I complete with streamers and balloons, and the girls and I had fun enjoying our party... What else could one ask for? Do I live a great life, or what? And, it's all because of the Lord! I lived a blessed life because of His love. He loves me, and He loves you. I hope all who read this truly know that they are loved! You may wonder how you can be loved without feeling loved... If you want to experience true love, just ask for it! Ask the Lord to come into your heart, and live the blessed life! You know, my husband didn't always write me cards that made me cry... Mark wasn't always the man that he is today... He's become, and is becoming a great man because he walks with Christ... If you are lonely, sad, feel unloved, or unlovable, then please, right here, right now... Say this simple prayer...
Dear Lord,
I want to feel your love. I want to know the Lord that I've heard so much about. I want to know you. I want to give you my heart. Lord, I know I have sinned. I am a sinner. Please forgive me, and bless me with your love, with a relationship with you. Thank you Lord.
Amen
Say that prayer, or make up your own.. Speak from your heart, and talk to the God that created you in His image. Pray to the God that LOVES you and wants you to love Him. The way I see it is if you are lonely, or sad, or have any trouble in your life that you have not been able to overcome yourself, then you have nothing to loose by going to the Lord. You have nothing to loose, but everything to gain. Let the Lord ease your worries and fears. Let Him comfort you... With Him you will thirst no more!... Be His. Hear His truthful, honest words... Let Him soften your heart...
I hope this has touched someone's heart. If you are that person, then feel free to leave me a comment, or a e-mail. Feel free to ask me any questions that you may have about salvation, or the Lord's love.
God bless you, and have an extraordinary night!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Days 21-25: Snowed In
Mark had an interview with a new company that offered more advancement opportunities, and a bigger pay check, scheduled for Wednesday. However, on Tuesday night he decided to "not chase money" as his family did. I was surprised that Mark had decided to not work for the company. Deep down I didn't want him to work for them, but I figured it wasn't up for me to decide. So, I left it in God's hands and I prayed that Mark would let God guide him in making the decision. After Mark had made his decision to not go to Virginia, we talked for a little while. While talking we both agreed that we love the area in which we currently reside, and that this is where we want to raise our children. The company that was interested in him is based in Virginia, and they wanted him to work in Columbia Maryland. It would have been a big move for us, and I'm happy to not be making it.
It began to snow on Friday around 1:00, and didn't let up until about an hour ago, Saturday at around 4:00pm. We had a TON of snow where we live! My husband made the comment that if we dropped one of our daughters into the snow that we would never be able to find them again. Mark is originally from Idaho, and he said that he has never seen this much snow from one storm in his life. So, we've been snowed in all day. Our neighbor called to tell us about a news story she heard that advised people to keep their heaters free of snow due to the threats of carbon monoxide poisoning. So, he has been out several times today to clear our heater of snow. Other than that it has been a pretty lazy day. Mark and I have done a lot of reading. In fact the reason I haven't written a post in a while is because I've been stuck on a book written by Debbe Magnusen titled "Don't Abandon Your Baby." Anyone that knows me (and probably even those that do not) knows that I love to get involved with causes that I support. One such cause is the Pro-Life movement. Debbe Magnusen is the founder of an organization called Project Cuddles. (Early Sat. Look at how high the snow is on Mark's leg)
The past few days have been busy, yet relaxing at the same time. As always, life's great and extraordinary, no matter what storm (natural or other wise) is thrown my way. With God, nothing is as it seems... With God, would be tragedies are blessings. With God, we are able to see clearly and not let money fog our view. With God we are able to live an extraordinary life!
I've been extremely tired the past few days. So, having Mark off from work on Tuesday, and Wednesday because of the interview, was nice. He helped out A LOT around the house, and he folded a lot of clothes! In fact on Wednesday I got to spend some one on one time with Rene. She and I made cards for Sinny and Ardjan, and took a trip to the post office, and into town. It was so relaxing, and laid back! She and I stopped at McDonald's to pick up hot fudge sundaes to bring back home and enjoy with Stephie and Daddy. We also stopped by a RedBox and picked up "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs."
The hot fudge sundaes we ordered turned out to be caramel sundaes. It was the first time I ate a caramel sundae (I'm a chocolate lover, so I've always passed on the caramel sundaes) but I loved it! We enjoyed the sundaes while watching the movie. It was a nice night, until it was time for Rene to go to bed. Apparently the animated movie that showed various foods falling from the sky scarred her, so she couldn't go to sleep. She eventually nodded off while cuddling with daddy on the couch with Disney's The Aristocats softly playing in the background.
Thursday is a bit of a blur to me. Mark worked somewhere around ten or eleven hours that day. So, it was just the children and I all day. Mark and I were both very tired by the end of the night. The only thing I really remember doing is cooking psari plaki (an awesome baked fish dish) for the first time, for dinner that night. I am big into Greek foods and cooking. I prefer Greek food to most American food. And, I've been experimenting with the recipes in a Greek cook book that my mom gave me. I will write the recipe for Thursday night's dinner at the bottom of this post.
Mark had to be at work at 5:30am on Friday. So, the girls and I did not take him to work that morning. It would have been way too early for them. Instead Mark went off to work and came home at 9:30am to pick us up for grocery shopping. The girls and I dropped Mark back off at work, and then grabbed a bite to eat. After our lunch, we went grocery shopping. The grocery store was out of a lot of the things that we buy due to frantic customers stocking up for the impending snow storm, but we made due. On our way back home after grocery shopping we stopped at McDonald's. I do not like McDonald's, actually I do not like fast food. However, we always stop at a fast food restaurant on grocery day because of time and convenience. Anyway, the McDonald's was insanely busy. I ended up cutting off a car in fear that I would be stuck in the parking lot for all eternity, unable to neither get out of it or order food. So, I cut off what ended up to be a elderly couple in order to get in the backed up line of vehicles waiting to place their orders. I felt so bad about this that when I paid for my order I told the McDonald's cashier that I was going to take care of the bill for the car directly behind us. As I pulled up to the second drive thru window, the people behind me tried to pay for their food at the first window. Through my rear view mirror I saw the cashier point to my vehicle. So, I waved to the people in the red car behind me, and the elderly man waved back. They seemed to be appreciative. And, I felt better about cutting them off. A while ago, someone had done this for me at a Starbuck's drive- thru. I was so appreciative that a stranger had paid for my order that I wanted to do the same for someone. Friday, I was given the perfect opportunity, and I felt GREAT afterwards!
It began to snow on Friday around 1:00, and didn't let up until about an hour ago, Saturday at around 4:00pm. We had a TON of snow where we live! My husband made the comment that if we dropped one of our daughters into the snow that we would never be able to find them again. Mark is originally from Idaho, and he said that he has never seen this much snow from one storm in his life. So, we've been snowed in all day. Our neighbor called to tell us about a news story she heard that advised people to keep their heaters free of snow due to the threats of carbon monoxide poisoning. So, he has been out several times today to clear our heater of snow. Other than that it has been a pretty lazy day. Mark and I have done a lot of reading. In fact the reason I haven't written a post in a while is because I've been stuck on a book written by Debbe Magnusen titled "Don't Abandon Your Baby." Anyone that knows me (and probably even those that do not) knows that I love to get involved with causes that I support. One such cause is the Pro-Life movement. Debbe Magnusen is the founder of an organization called Project Cuddles. (Early Sat. Look at how high the snow is on Mark's leg)Project cuddles in a organization that helps prevent babies from being abandoned from all over the nation. Basically Debbe and the Project Cuddles volunteers help out scared or confused woman in their time of crisis. To find out more about Project Cuddles please go to www.projectcuddle.org . Anyway, so through their website I came across her book. I am almost done reading the book. It has been a great light into the hearts of the would-be baby abandoning mothers. I never quite understood why a mother would abandon her baby until reading this book. Now, I understand that motherhood isn't for everyone. Some people are not meant to have children, and just because a baby grows in a woman's body, doesn't mean that, that baby truly belongs to her. Because while that baby is growing in a woman's body that does not want it, it is growing in the heart of a different woman that does want it. A lot of times getting pregnant, and giving a baby up for adoption enriches the birth mother's life... God works in mysterious ways. And, I would like to get involved with Project Cuddles and help turn would be tragedies into hope, and blessings.
The past few days have been busy, yet relaxing at the same time. As always, life's great and extraordinary, no matter what storm (natural or other wise) is thrown my way. With God, nothing is as it seems... With God, would be tragedies are blessings. With God, we are able to see clearly and not let money fog our view. With God we are able to live an extraordinary life!
Sunday morning. All the snow swallowed our car! Mid Sat. The girls' castle climber in the snow.
Psari Plaki
1 lb fish fillets (I used flounder)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley (I used oregano for more flavor!)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I squeezed 1/4 of a lemon)
3/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
3 tablespoons olive oil (I never go by the directions, and used much more)
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced1 large tomato, thinly sliced
lemon wedges (the book says 3, I used more)
2 tablespoons white wine
The book says to arrange the fish in an 8 or 9 in square baking dish. However, I found this to be WAY too small and I put the fish in a 12 x 8 in dish. (Yes, I actually have a 12 x 8, it's not a 9 x 13) Sprinkle with parsley (oregano), lemon juice, and salt.
Heat the oil in a small skillet and fry the onion and garlic until limp.
Top the fish with the onion mixture, including the oil from the skillet.
Arrange the tomatoes on top of the onion mixture, then place the lemon slices between the tomato slices. Pour the wine over all and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until the fish flakes with a fork.
Serve with Braised Potatoes (see my post titled Greek Food, Drinking, and Dancing)
Thursday night I served this with fresh green beans, and orzo mixed with fresh tomatoes, oregano, and olive oil.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Day 20 & 21: God's Littlest Angels
The news of the January 12th earthquake in Haiti made my heart cry... While praying that night, on the evening of Haiti's most catastrophic natural disaster to date, Christ called upon me to not just cry for Haiti, but to get involved in their recovery. I had no idea what to do, or what this meant. All I kept hearing was "go." I felt the Lord telling me to "go" to Haiti. I asked the Lord, "What is this suppose to mean?" and "How am I suppose to do this?" My answer? "The children." So, the first thing I did (the first thing I always do) I logged onto the internet and went straight to Google. If you type "haiti children go" into the search engine at http://www.google.com/ you will come across a link for God's Littlest Angels. The direct URL is http://www.glahaiti.org/ . This link jumped right off of the google search result page and into the center of my heart. So, I clicked on the link, and as I read various articles from the site I became overwhelmingly involved with it's contents...
God's Littlest Angels is a Haitian orphanage located in the mountains above Petion-Ville, which is close to the village of Femathe. GLA is a non-profitable, non-denominational Christian organization. It was founded on December 25 1994 when a one pound fifteen ounce baby was born in a mission hospital in Haiti. This is from their website "With the parents' permission, Dixie took the baby home. John put his skills to work making an incubator out of a cardboard box and a heating pad. At the time, Dixie didn't have access to IV supplies, so she kept the baby alive by feeding her with an eye dropper every 2 hours. Within 4 days, she was drinking from a doll bottle. Angel Noël survived and went home to her parents in April of 1995. She is now in grade school and is very bright and outgoing.
God continued to send babies in need of medical support. In November 1995, John and Dixie followed God's call to leave the mission they were working with and moved into the community to work with Haitian families and their infants.
Haiti's health care is underdeveloped and has few facilities to care for premature infants. Haiti has the highest infant mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere. Out of all the infants who die in their first year, 60 percent die in their first month of life. There is no other program in Haiti that focuses on these newborn babies."
Today God's Littlest Angels is much more than just a facility for premature babies. They are now a fully functional orphanage, and home to children of all ages... I contacted GLA via e-mail and a woman by the name of Jean Bell from the orphanage replied to me. Through e-mails I found out that there's many items that not only the orphanage, but the surrounding community needs... So, that brings me to the adventures of days twenty and twenty one of my journey... (Photo from the GLA site)
I decided to send a few donations to GLA. These donations must be sent to their Colorado office. They hope to send a shipment off to Haiti on the fifteenth of February. Therefore, I don't have that much time to collect and ship out the donations. I started my collection of donations at my Church. I asked the Pastor to ask the congregation for their help which he did last Wednesday. On the day of our Baptism I was caught off guard when a woman said that she "had a few things" for me. I then realized that the things were for GLA. I was thrilled to be accepting the first donations to go off to GLA. However, I was also worried that I may not receive that many donations by Feb.9. So, with the advice of a kind woman I spoke with at church that day, I e-mail another woman who does a mail forwarding to the church members... This however is only the tip of the iceberg!
On Monday I spent the entire day on the phone calling local dentist offices. I told them what I was doing and asked them if they had any extra tooth brushes, or tooth paste that they would like to donate. I had many misses with several offices saying that they had just donated tooth brushes to Iraq. But, to my delight I got two hits. Also, on Tuesday I did an online course for the Red Cross, and registered for various classes.
Today Mark was off from work, so we picked up a HUGE box from one of the dentist offices in town. We also stopped at Dunkin Doughnuts where we picked up a few doughnut holes, coffee, milk, and a bagel. We then drove down to the water and attempted to feed the ducks the bagel. The ducks didn't eat that much of the bagel because of the seagulls aggressiveness. Mark, the children, and I also took a few photos that we are going to send to our sponsor children. It was COLD by the water, so we didn't stay long. After our little outing we went to Wal-Mart where we bought Stephie her first "big kid" potty and pull-ups. She was THRILLED to have her very own potty! The girls and I also picked out a small gift for Sinny while Mark picked out a hot wheels car for Ardjan.
When we got home the girls each sat on their own potty where to my surprise they BOTH tinkled in the potty! I was so happy with Stephie that I must have given her a million hugs and kisses. Afterwards, they both (although Rene has been potty trained for some time I couldn't exclude her from Stephie's treat)got a treat of yogurt covered raisins for being such big girls and using the potty.
God Bless, and have a safe, extraordinary night!
God's Littlest Angels is a Haitian orphanage located in the mountains above Petion-Ville, which is close to the village of Femathe. GLA is a non-profitable, non-denominational Christian organization. It was founded on December 25 1994 when a one pound fifteen ounce baby was born in a mission hospital in Haiti. This is from their website "With the parents' permission, Dixie took the baby home. John put his skills to work making an incubator out of a cardboard box and a heating pad. At the time, Dixie didn't have access to IV supplies, so she kept the baby alive by feeding her with an eye dropper every 2 hours. Within 4 days, she was drinking from a doll bottle. Angel Noël survived and went home to her parents in April of 1995. She is now in grade school and is very bright and outgoing.
Haiti's health care is underdeveloped and has few facilities to care for premature infants. Haiti has the highest infant mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere. Out of all the infants who die in their first year, 60 percent die in their first month of life. There is no other program in Haiti that focuses on these newborn babies."
Today God's Littlest Angels is much more than just a facility for premature babies. They are now a fully functional orphanage, and home to children of all ages... I contacted GLA via e-mail and a woman by the name of Jean Bell from the orphanage replied to me. Through e-mails I found out that there's many items that not only the orphanage, but the surrounding community needs... So, that brings me to the adventures of days twenty and twenty one of my journey... (Photo from the GLA site)
I decided to send a few donations to GLA. These donations must be sent to their Colorado office. They hope to send a shipment off to Haiti on the fifteenth of February. Therefore, I don't have that much time to collect and ship out the donations. I started my collection of donations at my Church. I asked the Pastor to ask the congregation for their help which he did last Wednesday. On the day of our Baptism I was caught off guard when a woman said that she "had a few things" for me. I then realized that the things were for GLA. I was thrilled to be accepting the first donations to go off to GLA. However, I was also worried that I may not receive that many donations by Feb.9. So, with the advice of a kind woman I spoke with at church that day, I e-mail another woman who does a mail forwarding to the church members... This however is only the tip of the iceberg!
On Monday I spent the entire day on the phone calling local dentist offices. I told them what I was doing and asked them if they had any extra tooth brushes, or tooth paste that they would like to donate. I had many misses with several offices saying that they had just donated tooth brushes to Iraq. But, to my delight I got two hits. Also, on Tuesday I did an online course for the Red Cross, and registered for various classes.
Today Mark was off from work, so we picked up a HUGE box from one of the dentist offices in town. We also stopped at Dunkin Doughnuts where we picked up a few doughnut holes, coffee, milk, and a bagel. We then drove down to the water and attempted to feed the ducks the bagel. The ducks didn't eat that much of the bagel because of the seagulls aggressiveness. Mark, the children, and I also took a few photos that we are going to send to our sponsor children. It was COLD by the water, so we didn't stay long. After our little outing we went to Wal-Mart where we bought Stephie her first "big kid" potty and pull-ups. She was THRILLED to have her very own potty! The girls and I also picked out a small gift for Sinny while Mark picked out a hot wheels car for Ardjan.
When we got home the girls each sat on their own potty where to my surprise they BOTH tinkled in the potty! I was so happy with Stephie that I must have given her a million hugs and kisses. Afterwards, they both (although Rene has been potty trained for some time I couldn't exclude her from Stephie's treat)got a treat of yogurt covered raisins for being such big girls and using the potty. The past couple of days have been awesome, and so easy! When you leave your life in God's hands it all just flows together so smoothly! There is nothing that I can't do with God! With him I find myself doing incredible things! I love who I am and I love my life! I love who my children are becoming! I love the way my family works together! I have a sign hanging in my living room that says "When God is in your heart... Love is in your home." And, I feel that is why I'm so happy with things in my life... Because I have an extraordinary love in my heart and home that only He can provide!
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