Scared

This book has been over on my sidebar for awhile now.  I finished reading it a long time ago, but I was afraid if I took it off I'd forget to tell you about it, and I didn't want to do that!

Scared - A Novel on the Edge of the World from Children's HopeChest on Vimeo.

The video speaks for it on it's own.  It is a great book.  Not great because you'll feel all warm and fuzzy and entertained, but great because it will shake you up.  Great because it will challenge you.  Great because it will stir your heart to do more for others who have less, so much less.

Here is the author's blog where there is much information about loving the unlovely and needy, as well as information on several other books he has authored.  He has another novel coming out in June that I can't wait to get my hands on!

Here is an interview he did in Canada about Scared.

is the ministry of which the author is the CEO.  And here you can meet him.

Read it.  Share it.

God's mercy to an irresponsible steward

In the middle of our house craziness (finishing up old house, moving and fixing up new house) our budget got lost in the shuffle.  We didn't go hog wild, but suffice it to say we weren't watching things as carefully as we should have been.  Much of this was expected as we knew there were things we wanted to do on this house that would cost us.  Some of it was unexpected (some medical stuff) and some was just careless.


About a month ago I started getting really nervous and feeling really guilty.  Because I'm the one who "manages" the money here, and the carelessness and convenience spending was starting to get the best of us.


So we had a reckoning day and have tightened up our belt as much as possible and are already seeing the fruits of it.  I feel less guilty, more relieved and more obedient.  


One morning this week I was asking the Lord to mercifully help us pay off the small amount of debt that we have accrued.  I'm wanting to send money to Haiti, sponsor a Compassion child (or ten!) and several more things, but I feel like every dollar we sign up to spend is really money we don't have.  And I want to be free to give and to go!  So I asked Him to help us be diligent to pay this off quickly.


He graciously delivered!  Just that afternoon I looked at our banking stuff and saw that Robert's company had paid him bonus they'd owed him for a couple of months!  


I've also been really nervous about doing our taxes for all of the above reasons.  Because of Mattie's adoption, we have a carryforward credit left over, so we don't have any income tax withheld b/c we know we have that to use up.  But I really couldn't remember how much we had leftover, so for several months I've been afraid it was gone and we'd get hit really hard come April 15.  So tonight I sat down with all of our paperwork and nervously got started.  Much to my surprise, we're getting a pretty major refund!  Praise the Lord!  And we still have enough adoption carryforward credit for the future!!

I feel soooo relieved and am enjoying an unreserved exhale!  I'm so thankful for the Lord's mercy and faithful provision for us, even when I am not a good steward!

Wordless Wednesday

I love my Sunday School class

We had a neat "first" today in class.

This month we're learning that God made us (and all men).  Our Bible verse for this month is the first part of Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you."  First we talked about what "formed" and "womb" meant.  Then we personalized it and replaced YOU with each of the students names to help them see God knew them as well, not just some random "you."  At this point I had my students, plus several visiting fifth graders.  I showed them what to do, then they said the verse with their names in it.

Before I formed Jessie in the womb, I knew Jessie.

Before I formed Jordan in the womb, I knew Jordan.

Before I formed Emily in the womb, I knew Emily.

Before I formed Chris in the womb, I knew Chris.

At first they looked at me funny, but by the end they were all smiling sheepishly as they said it with their name in it.  It was sweet to realize that they were letting that sink in a little.  I have to say, I think the fifth graders enjoyed it even more than my kids!  And I've enjoyed remembering it today too.

Just in case

Just in case you use blogger too and are having trouble, I thought I'd share my experience.

A few months ago blogger put out this new, fantastic editor!  Oh!  How great it was to be!

HA!  I hATeD it!

It gave me tons of trouble.  Made posting pretty close to a nightmare when I was dealing with pictures, which I almost always am.  But I was always using it in Firefox.  I did try Explorer a few times to no avail.  Then I just changed my settings and switched back to the old Editor.  But it messed up all of my formatting in my old posts and that really annoyed me!

Because of a problem I was having commenting on other people's blogs hosted by blogger, I heard about Google Chrome.  I've been using it for a week or two for my browser and loving it.  But today was the first time I posted photos on my blog and it's WORKING!!!  Simple, easy, user-friendly and obedient it was for me.  Yippee!!  I have to say, I think google does this on purpose... for me, blogger editor, picasa, youtube, and google chrome are my favorite combo of internet tools- and google owns all of them.  While google doesn't own safe eyes, it is also working best on it.

Maybe I can save some of you the trouble (read: hair pulling, anxiety, frustration, bad thoughts, avoidance, etc.) I had on internet life.