Marshmallows and Orphans

What a lovely afternoon. The house is quiet......it's just me, the dogs, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, a pounding of snow about to come out of their heavenly storehouses,  and loads of ingredients waiting to be magically whipped up in the kitchen! My once a year cooking extravaganza. Every kind of sweet for my sweets. Don't you just love this time of year? When I think about the fact that my kids are growing faster than I can grasp, I just want to push the slow motion button on my life and hang on to right now. Heavy sigh..... I asked Zach the other day what his favorite things/memories are about Christmas. And without a blink of hesitation he said breakfast! Isn't that funny? I make an awesome french toast bundt cake... only on Christmas. And he loves it, apparently! Or, maybe it's that I never make breakfast except on Christmas! Hmmm.... I need to mull that one over.

Christmas Marshmallows!

I've had some fun conversations with some friends back in Ghana, Africa (gotta love FB for that!). It's fun to learn what they do to celebrate the birth of Jesus. And the ministries we worked with while there sent their yearend bulletins. So fun to read about what's happening on that side of the world. I really miss Africa. Really bad. I still feel like half of my heart is there. Someone called me a reverse Oreo today. I had to think about that one... Yes, I guess I am! One thing that God has sweetly revealed to me over the past few months is that when He brought adoption into our hearts a while back it wasn't without reason. We were so sure adoption was in our future. And then I chose to stop the process. I carried a lot of guilt over that because I felt I had let God and J down. But I knew I was incapable of continuing at the time. I just couldn't. I was trying to make it through the day. Then when I was in Africa it was so clear to me that my heart was connected to these orphans. That orphans were placed on my heart by God and it wasn't in vain.  And we could care for them, just maybe not in the way we had first imagined. I love those orphans. I will do anything, or give up anything to love them.

I wanted to share this entry from Jesus Calling with you. I hope it blesses you as much as it does me. Merry Christmas friends. 

As you wait attentively in My Presence, the light of the knowledge of My Glory shines upon you. This radiant knowledge transcends all understanding. It transforms every fiber of your being; renewing your mind, cleansing your heart, invigorating your body. Open yourself fully to My Presence; be awed by My glorious Being.

Try to imagine what I gave up when I came down to earth as a baby. I set aside My Glory, so that I could identify with mankind. I accepted the limitations of infancy under the most appalling conditions- a filthy stable. That was a dark night for Me, even though angels lit up the sky proclaiming "Glory" to awestruck shepherds.

When you sit quietly with Me, the process I went through is reversed in your experience. As you identify with Me, heaven's vistas open up before you- granting you glimpses of My Glory. I became poor so that you might become rich. Sing Hallelujahs to My Holy Name!