Daniel Fast Called March 1-April 9

A casual approach to fasting will often lead to casualties of war. From 1984-to present day, only 4% of people call themselves born again Bible believing Christians.

From 1924-1964, 35% called themselves Christians. This percentage is now in leadership in our country, educational systems, government. What have they produced in our country? Pornagraphy, legalized abortion on demand, homosexual marriages, sex trafficking, and more. What will 4% produce? We are in desperate need of a move of God.

There is 16 million college students in this nation. Only 4% are Bible believing Christians. Terrifying. So we are entering in to a 40 day season of a Daniel Fast as a believing community for college students.

In the Boston area, there are more colleges per square mile than any other city in the nation! So Lou Engle and his staff and all of our 3rd and 4th year IHOPU students will be ministering in the New England states throughout the fast and it will end on April 9th with a huge conference for college students in America.

Revelations 7:10 - Salvation now belongs to our God!

We are engaging for a great awakening that leads to a great commissioning!

Matthew 9:38

Olympics at the Scott House

Emma loves the figure skating...

In Her Daddy's Socks

Here is Emma Carleigh in her daddy's socks. My prayer is that one day she will follow in her Father's shoes. But for now, I'm so content to have her wear her earthly father's socks. I just read this quote this morning on my friend Kellye's blog. She quoted her friend Lisa Jo (just want to cite this quote right because it's so good).

"What I want to grasp between desperate fingers is as elusive as hour glass quick sand.

I cannot hold them always. I cannot protect them completely. I cannot fulfill them thoroughly.

Security lies only in surrender to the One who can."

In Jesus name I pray.

What day is this?

So I just want to blog this and get it out of the way. I have been living this whole week a day behind! And I'm not talking about that feeling that it's one but in your mind you know what day it actually is you just don't want to admit it.

No really, a WHOLE day behind. I have missed appointments, been in argument after argument with my husband, been frustrated when tv shows aren't on and everything!

Pray for me. I will recover.

Another Victory!

We have not gotten very far on this adoption journey and already God's Hand has been moving in our midst. We have already gotten 2 calls about babies and have felt that the timing is not quite right. Josh and I feel like we need to get all of our paperwork in and our taxes filed before we even consider any calls. I think this is wise although my heart immediately screams "YES!" each time. Thank you Jesus for a husband who can bring reason to an emotion time. HA!

Anyway back to the story...Pastor David would be telling me to "land the plane" about now. So we have to get our fingerprints done for a FBI background check. I was told that to get our fingerprints done it was going to cost a little money and we need an appointment. Ok. No problem. I called the place to make an appointment and was told that the prints would cost $52 each! What! Holy Moly. Where are we going to come up with $104 plus we have to get new driver's license before the fingerprints can happen which is $30 each so add it up...We need $134 before Thursday. Then we needed to make another $100 payment to our social worker. So yep, you can count, we needed $234 this week. And where it was going to come from, seriously, only God knew.

I have been reading The Autobiography of George Mueller. He never told anyone about his need unless prompted by the Lord. He simply prayed and believed that God would provide for these orphans which He loved. Well I have decided to take a little lesson from Mr. Mueller. I decided to not tell the needs unless prompted by the Lord, but simply pray and believe that God will provide for this child, this orphan which He loves. So I made the appointments despite the current situation of our bank account.

But if you notice I have been writing in all PAST tense. Oh yeah! Because on Tuesday, I got a letter with a very simple note in it: "We wanted to help with your adoption! Praying for you and Josh, the birthmom, and grace and favor. Can't wait to meet your baby! Love ..." (I'm keeping the names of the friends hidden because I haven't asked if they would like to remain anonymous or not) And inside the letter was $250. Did you hear me?! $250!!! Oh come on Jesus! Not to mention they said they are praying for the birthmom which is our heartbeat for this adoption. We want Jesus to touch this birthmom.

So there you have documentation number 2. We are saving the card the check came in and putting it in the baby's book. I want that baby to know that we kept record of their pregnancy on our part from conception to birthday. I want this baby to know that God provided for him/her because He loves them so very much and nothing, no hindrance stood in the way of getting this child into our arms.

Thank you Jesus for meeting EVERY need. I am comforted that Jesus knows.

"Mommy, you open birt-day presents?"

Yesterday was my 29th birthday! It was good day full of events. First I hosted my Mom's Group, which is an IHOP small group that meets once a week. It was a playdate for mom's and their toddlers. However, we had another big snowstorm move in and the roads were covered as usual. So only 3 moms showed up instead of the regular 10. But it was kind of nice because the moms actually got to talk and get to know each other. That was a good time.

Then Josh left at noon to travel to St. Louis to see Switchfoot. It was sad to see him go but it was also totally fine because I was having a girls pajama party that night. So after he left my mom took me to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch and then I got a gift card to Payless for my birthday from my mom so we went to buy me some new shoes. I have always been a show lover. I have bought so many shoes and at one point owned well over 75 pairs of shoes! But over my married life and mommy life, my shoes have dwindled down or cute heels have been replaced with flat tennis shoes. HA! So I was lacking a black pair of shows. That was my mission.

After shoe shopping we went to Wal-Mart to pick up food and supplies for the party and headed home. I had a professional cake made for my birthday so it was exciting to get that delivered. It showed up and then the party started! Because of the weather I ended up with only 5 girls at the party but what a great 5 girls! They were so funny and it was awesome to get to know them better. We had pizza and cake and ice cream and played Dreamphone! HA! Finally I got my computer and saw that almost a 100 people had wished me a Happy Birthday on Facebook.

The night ended and I crawled into bed thanking God that I am surrounded with so many people who love me. I am thankful for you all and would not be the person I am without you in my life. I leave you with a video of Emma on Valentine's Day talking about Mommy's birthday. I love it!

Waaaaahhhhoooooo! It's Valentine's Day which means it's one more day until my birthday!

I love birthdays. I don't get the whole, "oh don't remind me how old I am..." thing. I love turning another year older. I love celebrating life and parties and cake! HA!

I am having a pajama party this year for me and my girlfriends. I will spend the day with the family and then have a girls party that night. It should be quite fun. I have also had a professional cake made this year. Don't worry, I will post pictures. I have always wanted a professional cake and since that is pretty much my birthday present, yay! I got it!

And as for today, well it's time to spread the love. First Josh and my mom and I (and yes Emma too) are going to church. Then Josh and I are going to spend the day together eating sushi and watching a movie. Then we will come back to the house to spend Valentine's night with Emma and my mom. We bought HUGE steaks from Costco and will probably grill out. Now that sounds like a plan.

Happy Valentine's day everyone!