God's Economy!

Today I wanted to share the delight of helping some friends raise money for their 2nd Ethiopian adoption. They worked hard at setting up a one day garage sale in hopes to cover the finger print and filing fee....and they made over $800.00 YEAH!

They put out this story board of their last adoption and a jug to collect funds for anyone who wanted to donate. People were generous and supportive. We baked brownies and homemade bread to sell and split the cost with this family. The kids sold the food items and had a smile and a story to share as people asked them questions about the new adoption. It is a GIFT to see the whole family involved and making an impact on the community with their testimony.

A few posts back...I posted about "Pickles For Dinner".....well here is our Johnny man putting the money in the jar that his friend from Ghana (Moses) and Moses' brother Joshua gave to our family for our adoption. The JOY of JOYS as John put it ALL in and ALL out several times!

Really...the process of trusting in faith that God will and is bringing the funds all together at just the right time is and has been an amazing process for our whole family.

Yesterday as I was walking down the isle at the store I popped a bag of candy corns into the basket and one of my kids said, "hey, if we don't get that bag of candy, you could put that money in the pickle jar for G"

Oh my heart!

So, in the economy of God, nothing is impossible!

I have heard and have said this myself..."God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills" in relation to adoption and or situations where someone is in need.

Well, I was set back on my heels this week as I re-read that section of scripture and realized that God was not talking about how much He owns and what He can do for us...but rather the whole section was about "sacrifces and offerings" and what kind of sacrifices He is longing for from us.

Ohhhh, was I humbled!

"I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. .......for the world is mine all that is in it...Sacrifce thank offerings to God, fufill your vows to the Most High." Psalm 50:9-12, 14

As I wrap up this post I want to offer up "Thank Offerings" to the Lord for who He is and for His perfect love and plan for our lives.

Lord, you do not need to sell any of those 1,000 cows for me.....you have already given it ALL!

Thank you that you know the plans you have for me and you are working them out for my good. (even the money :O)

Glory of God!

I know I said I would blog each Sunday...but really the last post was wordy and I know when I am blog surfing it is so wonderful to see the "life" in the pictures people post. So, here ya go...I titled this "Glory of God!" because ONLY God could do what this picture represent...His Glory shouting for all to see! Once in a while God brings someone into my life that "fits" into the plan He has for my life, and it is a GOD size connection in friendship, amazement and thankfulness....Romana is one of those people. Having her in our home this summer and getting to have day after day face time with her was a GIFT!

The WA Beacon House reunion was a week long adventure of seeing God's Glory SHINE in obedient parents who have answered the call on their lives to adopt, Directors and BH volunteer staff seeing the connection of children who knew each other in Africa, then Beacon House, now in WASHINGTON...how can that be?
To see and hear them playing at the park, skipping and holdling hands along the beach, dancing, eating and GIGGLING so loudly as they recall memories, FILLS my heart to a place that does not have words!
(there are 100's of pics...but not having talked to each family represented, I am not putting the big group picture here)
...but close your eyes, picture the beach on a sunny summer day, 19 children all sitting close, older ones with younger ones on their laps, Directors standing behind them and SMILES upon SMILES on the faces of these once orphans, NOW FOREVER FAMILY adopted children! )
Like I said:
GLORY of GOD!!!

"Seasons"

For me, some of life's seasons change like our natural seasons...meaning gradual small things begin to happen. Examples like the temperature drops just a bit, the shade of the leaves begin to turn on the edges, the sun is down just a little bit earlier.

Then it happens, we wake up one day and there is frost on the ground, the furnace in our home kicks on and we are into a new season. It did not happen over night, and there really was not one big event that brought it all to come into play...but a change of season happened.

This is the place I find myself at this time. In a new "season."
When did it change and what did it change from? Can not really put my finger on it, but I do know who put it all the small changes together to accomplish this change. "GOD"

Anyone who has been in our home, seen my email address or read anything I have had the chance to write, has seen the phrase "SIMPLIFY"
My season has been one of God gracefully setting me FREE based on His wonderful word in Ephesians 2:10 "For you Carrie are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that you Carrie should walk in them"

In this season God called me to simplify my life so that I could HEAR his voice...Homemaking, baking, freezer dinners, homeschooling, taking care of our 4 acres, co-ops, and mentoring women were all things God had for me to invest my time.

I loved and enjoyed all the details of creating a HAVEN in our home, for creating simplicity for my heart and others to live in.
Little did I know that the leaves in my life were starting to change color about this time last year.
We saw God move in many many ways as we put our 1928 home on the market in a down economy, only to have it sell in 20 days, and got to buy a home in town that has to many wonderful things about it to list. Hummmmm, CHANGE was upon us.

Dave and I both knew that having a newer home would set free some of our time we had been spending on our old home with land to up keep. Little did we know how MUCH time.
It will be one year in Novemeber that we have lived in our new home with our new time arrangement. Kid time, family time, office/ministry time and friend time has all opened up.

The realization of the "frost" showing up one morning, and the change being upon me was the realization that baking, homemaking, freezer dinner making, home-schooling etc had all become like a faint call in my heart.
Changes had been happening and were subtle.

Where did it go? Why did I not miss it? Where was the pull and the urge to do all these things?
Now, don't get me wrong, my family is not being fed fish sticks and tater tots in a crazy messy house (okay some days it is just like that) but for the most part the desire and pull to do all of those "HAVEN" things has faded....and guess what, it is OKAY and I am OKAY and the family is OKAY. I am a planner at heart, but God is moving me into a "fly by the seat of my pants" place that quite frankly is FREEing.

I have spent about one year of no dinners in the freezer (family still eating),
Kids in public school (yep...all still loving the Lord and growing, shining the light inside them),
buying Walmart $.79 a loaf bread, (baking bread only a few times), letting the house GO, (knowing that there is always a tomorrow and the chores will still be there) putting the chore charts aways (letting the kids pick what they can and want to do and stuff still getting done) working in our home office 20-30 hours a week for the cause of the orphan (took a computer certificated class to keep office time most effective...yet still keep a window open at all times to my Face Book account...the biggest time sucker of all :O)

Whew...BOY does my life LOOK different!
YEAH GOD for change I did not even see coming.
I could not of organized or planned these changes or even picked these changes...but BOY am I glad He is in control and directing and re-directing.

I guess this weeks post is a glance of what was, what is and a some what question of what is to come.
What I do know for sure is this:
We are all God's workmanship and the things He created for us to do even before we were born are being worked out, day by day, small change by small change, creating NEW and WONDERFUL and sometimes difficult seasons for us to walk in!

Happy WALKING!
Enjoy the Season you are in and know that He is in the loving business of transformation and change!

Pickles For Dinner

There is a place in my mind that writes blog entries and stores them for later use...but the place never seems to re-surface :O)
To my friends and family who have been looking at the blog this last year only to see the last entry of "smells" to still be sitting there...I apologize. Really.
I came to bed last week and Dave had the computer out and said "look hun, I started up the blog again" I froze....oh the pressure.

The journey we are on is BIG, the size of God's heart is BIGGER...so I will take a moment each Sunday night to update the journey so others can see the GOD size picture too.

PICKLES FOR DINNER!
Dave had pulled up a blog a few weeks back about a family who really blessed our hearts as we read about how their family had a HUGE family size heart to have the whole family engaged in the awareness of the plight of the orphan. They had really great ideas on how to change things within their family to give God room to fund raise.

They gave us the idea to put out a pickle jar and collect change as we could find it, also as a visual for everyone coming into the house to see it and call it to mind that we are praying for our new son.

All we had was a full pickle jar...so for dinner the kids GLADLY each ate ALOT of pickles to empty the jar. (notice I said kids...ohhh yuck!)

One of the things Dave felt God saying for this adoption, this time around was to "not shuffle money around" meaning, don't pull insurance money to pay for adoption costs that we would re-place.......but to not move forward until the funds for each step were in at the time each step payment were due.
Ohhh my panic mommy heart....reality hit the wall....was I willing to hear Dave, was I willing to trust that money would come in...more than that...was I willing to set that time frame in COMPLETE control of God.
Oh the power of a sinful heart. (kinda ugly )
After a few pouts, tears, and silent stares at Dave (with him running his hands through his hair in patient waiting for my heart to line up) I let go of the grip I had on any expectation I wrongly held....and Cleaned the jar....put a verse and a picture of our son on the jar!

The jar was out, small family meeting was held. We told the kids our filing fee was going to be $910, and told them about what Daddy felt God saying about the money....in a few scurry mins the kids were dashing OFF and were BACK with their wallets and change and were dumping money into it.

Day 2...a check comes in the mail $100, also i posted homeshcool curriculum for sale and made a $95 sale in the first 30 mins it was posted, at Ashlies work, someone leaves a $100 donation on her desk, end of day two......almost $300 was in!

*****I WAS ONE ON MY FACE HUMBLED LADY*****
It was as if God was actually reaching out and LOVING me through people!
He really was just waiting for me to let go of my ideas and let Him move!

By Day 7....we had filled and emptied our jar 2 times! (went to a friends house on day 5 and she said " follow me, I have something for you" We went into her bed room and she picked up a HUGE jar of change..."here we want you to have this for your jar" WOW! When we got home, John loaded the change into the pickle jar saying over and over...."oh my brother is coming home, oh my brother is going to like that this money is here for him, oh yeah"
$79.00 was in that change jar alone! End of day 7....we had ALL $910!
HOW?

Pickles for dinner.................thats how!

The willingness of a husband to HEAR
The unwillingness of a wife....turned willing
The willingness of OTHERS to POUR into our lives for the cause of our son!
The WILLINESS of GOD to love us to obedience....He can even use PICKLES!

HERE WE GROW AGAIN!!

The Blaske's are growing AGAIN! Join us as we blog forward on a journey to bring another member into our family from Ghana. Our journey with John and Victoria and our other kids continues and now we are thrilled to have been led to GROW again and reach out and add another! We have already seen God's hand and miracles at work in our hearts and in peoples generous prayers and giving.

Stay tuned as we will endeavor to update this blog weekly as we journey toward bringing the next Blaske home to be with us!

Dave

Smells

I know...funny title...but really, there are a few things that really have an impact on us whether we choose them or not.

Like Music, and smells. For some reason those two things can flash me back to a time and place in a second.

This week I had another one of those moments. Since we moved things are being discovered that may have been hidden for a while. For example, my favorite body spray is "love spell" and I wear it all the time. To me it reminds me of grape fruit, fresh, bold and happy.

As I was fumbling around under the bathroom sink looking for something, I found the bottle of body spray I took with me to Ghana. It is called "Amber passion" (okay silly name..but so is love spell) I thought to myself, "this spray is a little bit spicy and warm smelling, maybe a good one to wear in the winter time." So I popped it up on the counter for later.

Later when I decided to take off the sweat pants I had been wearing for two days (being cozy in our SNOWY Wa weather) and pop into the shower....I opened the Amber body spray and started to spray....

I picked this spray for Ghana because of a very meaningful time I had with the Lord prior to travel when He spoke to my heart and told me to name Victoria...Victoria Amber Blaske. I am kinda "visual" when it comes to things the Lord wants me to know and remember....seems to help keep my heart focused on what He wants :O)

So, I "spray" the mist. and I am INSTANTLY taken back to a FLOOD of memories:

*Taking a bucket shower in the BH guest quarters
*smell of things burning in the early hours of the a.m.
*sounds of the goats and chickens coming into my window at all hours of the night and day.
*Sitting in the breezy upstairs patio eating with Romana
*riding in the taxi...WISHING I could smell the "amber" spray.
*wearing a pony tail every day
*wearing a skirt every day

on and on it went....How could "amber" body spray flood all this back to mind.
It was the one constant thing for 7 weeks that I used everyday.

the interesting thing was that the heat and humidity seems to make it smell less than our dry air here....but It still, obviously impacted me.

Later that night Victoria and I were in the kitchen getting some things ready to bake.

I pulled out our bucket of whole wheat flour and popped off the lid.
She was right next to me.
With out hesitating she put her whole hand into the big bucket and said
"Ohhh Mom, That SMELLS so good!

Where did you get "Tombrown" Ohhhh mom....this is sooooo good. Our family got Tombrown when my Aunt had her last baby. The whole village got to enjoy that day!"

It hit me....."Thanks Lord for the "smell" reminder earlier in the day".......How many daily things (sights/sounds/smells) trigger things in my kids hearts and minds that take them back to things they remember.....good bad or otherwise?

God is soooooo detailed in how he loves us and lets us connect to our kids and others.

Victoria and I spent the next bit of time playing in the flour, (tombrown) with our hands, EATING it PLAIN....(yes that was what she loved and how remembers eating it...it was like watching her eat a "lick-a-maid") We put a bit of water in it because she said that is how they would fix it for visitors, neighbors.

I am thankful this Christmas for so many things....but this week it is for SMELLS and how God is using them to open doors of connection to my heart of how He is SOVEREIGN , and the door of attachment with my amazing daughter!

Can not wait to see what the next "smell" brings....good, bad, hard or wonderful....we remember for reasons we may never fully understand.

MOM

Sometimes it just hits my heart that ALOT of who I am is because of my awesome Mom!

This post is for you Mom!

We moved...
Big undertaking...

The boxes were in the house, the kids were sleeping in their new rooms, we were IN!
But were we settled?
NO
The next day my Mom drove up from Seattle ready to help us make this house our home.
She did not spend a few hours BUT a few days with us as we made our way around the boxes and became familiarized with the house.

At our old house she Vacuumed the WHOLE thing....ohhh yes, did I forget to tell you that on Wednesday before our Friday move, I hurt my knee and could not walk with my weight fully on my leg? (that is another story....goes something like the Lord saying to my heart.."Carrie you go until it is all done...but you leave a wake of people in your dust...so guess what? you get to slow down and LEAD with LOVE!"
thus the above scenario of my Mom vacuuming :O)

As we wrapped up the cleaning at the old house, we lived life while unpacking. Kids to school, lunches packed, laundry etc...all the while my mom went from closet to closet getting the kids clothes sorted, hung and put in drawers.
Also from cupboard to cupboard unpacking and reshuffling the silverware 3 times until we found the BEST spot for it. (Dave is still not sure about this decision..love you babe!)
Basically she worked while we worked, she worked while we ran around, she worked even when I had to sit and put my hurt leg up.

So Mom, THANK YOU does not seem like it carries the weight that is needed for the love and admiration I have for you...but please know that I love you.
I love you for:
Picking up pictures and not being afraid to hit a nail into the wall to hang the first pictures when I was unsure....in the end it ALL looks AMAZING!

for engaging kids to work along side of you as they told you stories that sometimes lasted 30 mins or more...and you stayed engaged

for eating cheese sticks and ham because I did not have the right kinds of food for you to eat :O( You never complain.

for buying milk and grocery's for us because Dave's check book was packed somewhere.

for sitting under blankets by the fire at the end of a long day and watching Disney movies with us.

for looking beautiful the WHOLE time you worked.....and when you played, and when you sleep...no wonder why Dad loves you. You radiate no matter what you do!

for seeing the "God Factor" in all of life and being willing to let that spill out in all your conversations with me and the kids!

for being a GODLY example of servant-hood!

Some day when I grow up..I want to be like my MOM!

Thanks MOM!
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