Learning Lessons

This past week I feel like I've learned so much not only about my self but about my faith and my trust in God. As a christian I've always struggled with surrendering my life over. I've got this control thing about my personality that on many occasions can get the best of me. This week God showed me through his word that my focus was all wrong. "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." -Psalm 118:8 At that moment everything came in perspective. Why should I try and live me life in the way I think best. He's got a plan for me and I need to surrender my life to him so that I may have the opportunity to be the Wife, Mother, Friend, Aunt and Christian that HE wants me to be. Not who I think I should be. Easier said than done, every moment in everyday is a constant reminder what the power of self has over me. The "flesh" in me is what I call it. No justification allowed I say. Self is this monster in me that in a split moment can change my whole day. MY feelings towards people. places and everything in between. Blessings get swept under the table and hurt and pain take over. Then the reminder of Gods love for me trickles in and the warmth of the promises that he makes slowly creep into my heart and mind. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- Ephesians 2:8 Now to just keep reminding myself each and every day, to ask him in prayer to open my eyes to the beauty of his love and grace. There is no better feeling than to know that you have God by your side and to know his unconditional love for you. To feel and see the blessings that he puts in our lives even when our "flesh" may get in the way. So that's my lesson of the week past and I continue to ask him to teach me and show me something new everyday. Change is always a good thing even when we can't see it at that exact moment.

Kids, Birthdays and everything else

After my last post I began to get a little fearful of this blog business. I couldn't quite figure out what I was going to write next. It seems as though my life never has a dull moment. Then what house does with this many kids in it......

Well the summer feels like it's flying by so fast. Our not so little Ava had her 2ND birthday and she's growing up so fast in front of my eyes. We have never really been a family to have big birthday parties. Usually just family and the odd family friends having dinner and doing a little swimming out at the condo. It's actually been kind of a tradition that hopefully we continue. On the other had we also just celebrated our oldest daughters 7Th birthday, yup I have a seven year old. Now that makes you feel just a little bit older than you want to feel. Her birthday again was the same, family and friends. This year I struggled about having a birthday party but unfortunately most of her friends we gone to camp meeting along with her grandparents. Good thing my parents are around for a visit at the moment. Low and behold she went to the spa, yup she's a little version of me through and through, Had herself a pedi and mani. I've also learned that our family tradition of having ice cream cake may have to be something of the past. We have yet to have a cake that has not been either melting away or been put in the freezer on it's side and well just looks like a disaster.With everyone growing up so fast I've taken a moment to look back at some of our early family pics and have realised that I'm always the one behind the camera. My kids are going to think that I was never around. ha ha ha. I'm also trying to write down the funny Little sayings that they come up with here and there and believe me leave it to Ava to be the laugh of a party. Lately she's always asking where Derek is??? it's hilarious, she feels no need to say daddy at all it's just "where's Derek" Cute yes, but after the 20Th time I just want to say that he ran away. God has really blessed me with such wonderful children they really know how to make moments lighter or how to make you laugh your hardest. The can also drive you bonkers or at least mine do.

Our family has also had the joy of having my niece move in with us. Her name is Darrelyn and she's 14. Now I always said that the only teenager I would have would be my own but some how she fits in like she's always been here. It's amazing how God places people in your life at just the right time not only for ourselves but also for the other person. I notice myself looking around at people in the community in a totally different light. We are all gods children and are loved then same. We need to show compassion towards one another and be that support to eachother. I've been blessed with friends that are like family to me. The kind that you know you can talk to on a rainy day and they can lift your spirits and always help point you in the direction of our savior.

SO to all those Friends and you know who you are , Thank you for just being you.....

Our Families journey with God leading the way.

So I first will begin a few years back when my oldest daughter Madison asked me if we could foster kids like the Dubynas do. My first response as a human was no not right now. My second response as a christian was to tell Maddy to pray about it. As a 5 year old she seemed satisfied with that answer but I wasn't so sure about how I felt. So in the new year of 2009 we began to pray as a family during worship that God would give our family a way to outreach. Well about 10 months later Derek and I are sitting in sabbath school listening to one of our dear friends talk about her journey that god was leading her and Her family on. She mentioned that the Splatsin band here in Enderby was in need of Native homes to place children in, so for an instant you say mmmmm well I'm native and my kids are all native, we have a loving home filled with god so why not. Not to jump of track here but I've learned that the "little" voice in my head that I at times ignore is God speaking to me. SO i left it at that and never mentioned anything to my husband. Later that night he brought the story that Karla was telling up in conversation and before either one of us could grasp the fact we both said the exact same thing. Why Not??!! For that brief moment we new in our hearts that God was leading us right into Foster care. So of course you have your " i don't know about this " feeling, so we decided to go through the approval process and just leave it up to him. Well low and behold nothing, really nothing not a call for a kid for almost 2 months. Except the talk of this baby that was going to be born in February. So they asked us and we just kind of left it at we will see when February comes. I decide one day to stop into the Band office to say hey and that was it. God hit us right over the head when the social worker said "we need a decision by tomorrow at noon". Well that was a hard thing to swallow, here we are willing to do gods work and he puts it right in our faces and yet we second guess everything. I decided to sit down with Maddy once again and ask her how she felt about it, her first response was that she wasn't very interested because her younger sister was already annoying her. After a brief explanation as to why the mother could not take care of the baby which yes did include explaining addiction. She looked at me in the eye and said "mommy we have to take this baby and love it and teach it about Jesus' love". Well that was it right there, how could I ignore what God wanted our family to do and what a blessing that was. Here is my 6 year old reminding what faith is all about. It was truly one of those moments that you just could barely hold back the fountain of tears that we coming. So that is it, we have had the pleasure since the she was born to have miss Kimmy in our lives. She fits in this family like she's always been here and god has truly blessed us with her constant smiles and now giggles ever since. I just hope and pray that through my journey of getting to know god better that my family continues to be aware of his purpose for us........

Entering the blog world

I never thought that I would ever have a blog, don't get me wrong I enjoy reading them. Until this past week I noticed that I forget just about everything. Blame it on the "pregnancy brain" I guess... So I've decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea to write things down once in awhile, so here I am. I sure hope that family and friends enjoy the reading and take a moment to laugh and or cry at my gentle reminders......