Archive for category Life’s A Sweet Fruit

Happy Glue Day!

Posted by KK on Friday, 28 January, 2011

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Oh yea. I bet you had no idea this holiday even existed. Well, it doesn’t. I just created it. This morning my JJ brought me a toy that he broke. He always brings broken toys to me. I guess that’s a good thing. Nonetheless, I returned the favor with a large sigh. More broken toys. Usually I just throw them in a pile. That hasn’t been working well for me. I’ve been a mother for 10 years and have maybe taken the time on three separate occasions to fix broken things. My poor kids will place broken things on my desk where they will pile up and they will ask me repeatedly when am I ever going to glue their things. Well, today I did. At least a lot of it. I recently gave what I think to be good advice to my favorite sister-in-law, Aston, who is a new mom….”Fix it AS it gets broken! Don’t do what I have always done and pile it up somewhere until you have so much that you actually have to label a box full of items ‘Broken – Needs-a-Fixin’ because it only grows and grows and grows.”

So I recently bought super glue (that’s always been my excuse…not having glue) and this morning when my JJ brought me his broken wooden pot and it’s handle without thinking to much about it (thus talking myself out of it) I grabbed the super glue and got to work. We all know that whenever you try to seal up a tube of super glue it never seals well enough to keep it from drying out so I kept gluing. And gluing. Next thing I knew I was in the basement looking for my little box labeled ‘Broken – Needs-a-Fixin’ and took it upstairs and it was like Christmas all over again.

forklift bulldozer When my JJ wakes up from his nap he’ll have brand new to him toys he’s never played with!! (Sadly, the forklift & bulldozer have been in a box since my River was a baby) The cars have new wheels! The forklift couldn’t lift and the bulldozer couldn’t doze (hehe)….now they can!

cars


cup

I have another favorite coffee cup with a freshly secured handle!


whale-n-camel

We can play that game with the little animals now that our whale has his tail and our camel has his ear!!


ornament

I can hang that sweet ornament on my Christmas tree again next year!


turtle-doorstop

I can actually stop open my bedroom door with my turtle door stop!


green-guy

My River’s lego guy, Twitch, can hear and smell again with his antennae!


pot

JJ can cook me up some stone soup in his pot!


And there’s more but I used up my brand new tube of glue so I am back to being out of glue. Good excuse to pile up some more. ;)

Martin Luther King, Jr…

Posted by KK on Tuesday, 18 January, 2011

….what a man! This holiday is probably one of my favorite holidays as it causes us to stop and reflect on not only the many great changes that have happened as a result of this man’s persistence but also at how many more changes need to take place. Yesterday, while my sweet boys and I spent the day in reflection approximately 5,000 children of God died from malaria in Africa and thousands more were infected with HIV. This will repeat itself today. And tomorrow. While there is much less hate in our country toward African-Americans than there was in the 60′s, our world isn’t free of prejudice. Equality has yet to be truly grasped and practiced until we see others as Jesus does. We are His hands and His feet while we’re on this earth. I’mma get busy, y’all.

“Now is the time to make

justice a reality

for all of God’s children.”

~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Click HERE to see my post from MLK Day 2009. (I skipped 2010 because, well, I was mothering 6 boys under the age of 9 at that time and wasn’t in a ‘crafty’ mood most days) ;)

He gets it.

Posted by KK on Sunday, 16 January, 2011

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A celebrity, someone who does not even associate his greater good with the “church” but merely as a fellow human being, gets it. He gets what we as Christians should all get…that where a person lives should not decide whether they are allowed to live.

Over the holidays my family and I were in town running some errands and ended up at a gas station in Knoxville filling up our tank. I noticed a man squatting beside the gas station smoking a cigarette and it was very evident that this man was homeless. My heart ached for this man. It was so cold outside and everyone coming and going through this store were just in a hurry to grab a drink or a snack and fill up their tank so they could get on with their holiday shopping. I reached into my pocket and grabbed all the cash I had (which was only about nine dollars, I think) and turned around to Lake and asked him if he would like to go and bless the man with the money. He hesitated which is unusual for him. Then he said, “One time, XXXX said that they once gave some money to a homeless person and then watched that person walk into a beer store and he bought beer with the money so I don’t think we should give him this money because what if he just buys bad stuff with it?” Oh my. What a perfect opportunity for a lesson. I was SO happy!

First of all, XXXX is someone we are related to who claims to be a Christian. Secondly, yes…maybe he WILL go buy bad stuff with the money but this doesn’t mean we should not bless him or anyone else under the assumption that IS what they will do with it! How will anyone ever spread the love of Christ if this is the assumption they base their charity on? After several minutes of explaining to Lake that this is not what Jesus would do because he did not judge and always helped those who needed help the most, his heart was changed. I regret that family member spoke words like that to him which obviously stuck in his little mind and heart like glue but I am so thankful we had an opportunity to correct that grave misconception. Our little River (age 5) spoke up moments later and asked if he could take the money to the man. Jason watched him as he finished at the pump walk into the store and hand the money to the man. River said to him “Jesus loves you” and the man was amazed and gave River a hug and he hugged the man back. I was so proud of my little man and when he returned to the truck we all said a prayer for that man.

The following day I read this:

“Did Jesus put conditions on the help he offered? A familiar story elbowed it’s way past my hesitancy. A story of Jesus helping a woman caught in adultery. Jesus didn’t refuse to help the woman because she might sin again. He forgave her and told her to sin no more. She was worth the risk. She was worth helping.”


Thank God He has always found ME worth the risk and worth helping, too! It isn’t our place to judge anyone or ask how they ended up in the situation they are in or why they are addicted to drugs or how they were infected with HIV…does it matter? Should it change our response to their cry for help? God says it shouldn’t and mandates that we care for them no matter their circumstances.

He loves me.

Posted by KK on Wednesday, 12 January, 2011
dipper

As he watched me drizzle icing on the hot cinnamon rolls he sang to me “There is no other mommy like my mommy who makes the best cinnamon rolls in the world…” to the tune of “Orphans of God” by Avalon (one of our favorite tunes around here). They are the cheapest, easiest, store-bought cinnamon rolls you can obtain…straight out of the can. But he thinks I make them better than anyone in the world. That’s cool.

8 inches of fluff!

Posted by KK on Tuesday, 11 January, 2011

We woke up to about 8 inches of snow on Monday morning. That is HUGE for where we live and I think it’s the first time we’ve had this much snow since 1993. I knew something fabulous had to have happened early Monday morning for us to get such a treat and I was right! I got a text message from my best friend who has lived in California for the last several years that her baby boy, Silver Reed, had been born in the wee hours of the morning. He is gorgeous and healthy and a tiny little miracle! Moriah and her husband had been trying for nearly 5 years to get pregnant and went through a ton of various treatments of all kinds before finally stopping everything and just leaving it to God. Enter God. Silver was conceived completely naturally! He was even cooking SO well in Moriah’s tummy that he decided to stay in there an extra week! Our God is a God of miracles and He is SO good at it!

Here are just a few pics of my crew playing in the snow the last couple of days. Jason has actually managed to make it to work today and yesterday and so he hasn’t been able to join the fun. I didn’t take JJ out yesterday but today we suited him up and joined the other boys. I imagine I may have put a few too many layers on him because he could not even walk. If he managed to take a few steps, he fell quickly so he did a lot of sitting until I could get to him. We did bury him in the snow and he seemed to enjoy that. Hope you’re all enjoying your wintry weather wherever you are!

Get your feet wet in 2011!!!!

Posted by KK on Monday, 10 January, 2011

I’ve been working on this blog post in my head for several days (10 to be exact) and now realize that I am not going to get everything in that I want to say on this topic in just one post so I am vowing that this is the first in a series of posts on this topic so be sure to stay tuned.

On New Year’s Eve we received an email invitation from our good friends, the Harpers, to go out to the lake on New Year’s Day to plunge into the icy cold water. We are not the first people to do this, of course. If you google ‘Polar Bear Plunge” you’ll get hundreds of articles and photos of people doing this around the world although the significance of ours is likely a bit different than theirs. Check out our plunge…

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The big question is: “What is God asking of you?” Is he asking you to do something big and you are hesitating or taking a much easier way around a situation simply because whatever it is would be a bit more uncomfortable than you prefer? Do you think God wants us to have a comfortable and normal life? I just finished a book called Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds written by Tom Davis. It should be near the top of every Christian’s reading list this year. For the last 34 years I have thought that being a Christian meant that I believed in God and needed to share His love with everyone I know and try to be the best person I can be. Well I know that isn’t enough. When Jesus was on this earth he resided amongst the poor, the lepers, the sick and the hurt. He wasn’t treated like royalty only hanging out with the rich and the famous. What he wants for all of His followers is the same. If we aren’t looking for Jesus in the eyes of the poor and the hopeless every single day then we aren’t doing what He is asking of us. When I meet my Creator one day He will ask me what I did for the least of these and I am making sure I have plenty to say in response.

So back to the plunge. Why did we all jump into freezing cold water on January 1, 2011? Let me start by saying that about 5 families showed up so we are not the only crazy ones out there.

And it is no coincidence that every family that came out has adopted, is in the process of adopting or is being called to adopt in the very near future. God is calling many of His people to join Him in finding the least of these and bringing them home, including us. God doesn’t often call people to do His work out in a very safe and comfortable place where life is perfect and we have no need to trust Him and have faith. He calls us into dark, cold places where it is necessary that we rely on Him for provisions, for safety, for health. My sweet friend Andi said it best when she said this:  Many times He calls us into deep, cold water and at times it is uncomfortable and out of our “warmth” or comfort zone. As we welcome a new year and the adventure that it holds for each of our families, we thought that this experience could be a great way to embrace and acknowledge that God wants us to join Him and be his hands and feet on earth even if it gets a bit uncomfortable. Matthew 14 tells the story of Peter being given the opportunity to get out of the boat and walk to Jesus on the water. Peter, against all logic and reason, jumped out and started walking. The rest of the disciples stayed in the boat and watched.  Our role as believers while we are here on earth is not to sit in the boat and watch, but to get out of the boat even if it makes no sense at all. (running into 40 degree water for no reason!)

So as you can see in my video, we did. We “plunged” into the water fearlessly as a symbol of what we are all committing to in 2011….getting uncomfortable for Jesus. Some of us needed a wee bit of help (I won’t give up his name but he is 10 years old and shares a name with a college in Pennsylvania). I love that our big guy had some fear about the situation and when his earthly father learned of it he decided to carry him out into the water to help him out a little as well as carrying him back out. Our heavenly father carries us all too often when we should be walking on our own but I am forever grateful for Him doing so for me.

We simply cannot wait to see what He has in store for us this year! Happy New Year to you all!!

Lego freaks.

Posted by KK on Wednesday, 5 January, 2011

It seems that now we’re creating scenes with back drops complete with speech bubbles and all….oh my.

dead-legos-2


Seeing the light…

Posted by KK on Thursday, 30 December, 2010

…the one at the end of the tunnel. A mere glimpse, anyway.

We had a very big meeting at DCS this past Tuesday. It was brutal. My morning began with more nausea than I have ever felt while not being pregnant. I was forced to swallow an anxiety pill just to make it through. Brutal, I tell you. Jason got out of work for a little while to make the meeting with us. Luckily, the meeting took place during JJ’s visitation time so he spent most of it on mine or Jason’s lap instead of in his birth mother’s lap. The purpose of this meeting? Well, to merely announce for the second or third time now that TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) are in fact begin filed but this time they mean business and they in fact had the paperwork already turned in prior to the meeting. JJ’s caseworker, who has proven herself to be the worst in history who I haven’t even heard from in two months almost and who has lied to us and others repeatedly, was there but had nothing to say to anyone and wouldn’t even make eye contact with me because of the recent emails I have been sending her and copying everyone including her supervisor. She is positively the most defensive person I have ever met and would deny in a minute through screaming rants that she has ever done anything wrong. It is beyond sad and frustrating that people like her have so much control over a child’s life.

So for nearly two hours we got to watch JJ’s birth mother cry and cry and pour her heart out over how she would do absolutely anything for her child (although in retrospect it has been 9 months since he came into custody and she yet to do ONE item on her perm plan) (and he is her 4th child that she does not have custody of) and she was so pilled up that she couldn’t even understand simple statements others in the room were making. She brought with her yet another boyfriend that is now living with her (this one couldn’t have been around for more than a few months) who tried to dominate the entire meeting for the first 5-10 minutes before he was silenced. I tell you, it was brutal. I don’t care anymore. I will no longer sit quietly while I watch a broken system fail another child. I will give it my all (even though Jason silenced me more than once) so that when it is all said and done I will have no regrets.

So Jason and I have decided that at this time we are not taking another placement. Everyone at DCS understands my hurt and frustration right now and are begging and almost bribing me to not quit although our quitting would be completely justified considering what we have been through the last nine months with JJ. Jason and I are praying about how to move forward and considering other options for adoption that do not involve the foster care system. Perhaps we’ll be making a formal announcement soon. We’ll see. Meanwhile, we ask for your prayers in the coming weeks for the brutal road ahead in regards to our JJ. His case IS in termination. Finally. And it WILL go before and be heard by a judge soon. The judge will make the final decision. Many are on our side but that doesn’t matter in the eyes of a judge I am told. He can say whatever he wants and his decision sticks. I just pray he has all the details before him. God knows the outcome. I am so jealous.

1043rd installment of “Funnies…by Bailey boyz.”

Posted by KK on Monday, 27 December, 2010

River:

Daddy, did you marry mommy because she has beautiful teeth?

Lake: (spoken while watching us smooching in the kitchen)

Daddy always kisses mommy a lot right before she’s gonna get stressed out. It’s amazing and romantic in many ways.

a God of mystery…

Posted by KK on Thursday, 23 December, 2010

manger-cross

Have you searched for Jesus in the eyes of real people this Christmas? In the eyes of the poor, the oppressed, the orphan, the homeless, the AIDS victim – the abandoned and the forgotten? Below is an excerpt from an incredible book I am reading called Red Letters written by Tom Davis. This book is so eye-opening to what we as christians should be living. I can’t wait to read more….I’m only on page 21. I thought this message might be a great reminder for us all in the coming days as we find ourselves bustling through the hours of why we are celebrating this day and remember those who cannot celebrate.

I don’t know about you, but I (and more than a few Jews in Jesus’ time) would have expected the King of the universe to be born in a palace – someplace worthy of his status. He would have slept on no less than four-hundred-thread-count Egyptian cotton crib sheets and rested his head on a down-filled silk-wrapped pillow. The mobile above his crib would surely have been crafted of sparkling gems – white diamonds, red rubies, blue sapphires, and green emeralds. And all of the most respected people in society would visit this beautifully decorated nursery to worship him.

But that’s not how God did things. Jesus was born in a dirty, smelly, disgusting barn. He was laid not on a clean sheet but in a manger – a feeding trough filled with animal snot and drool and their leftover half-eaten food. He wasn’t welcome to the world by great leaders, by rulers and officials and other members of the Lexus-drivers club. He was met by a bunch of lowly shepherds. Yes, three kings or wise men arrived from the east months later. But nobody even knew who they were.

Are you getting the picture? Jesus didn’t come to earth and identify with the rich, the successful, and the most influential. He entered the world as a pauper. He entered the world not in the comfort of his parents’ home, nor in the company of smiling relatives or even the safety of a hospital. He arrived in the humblest of places, in the lowliest of circumstances. God hid the mystery of the kingdom in the lives of the most needy.

Is it any wonder, then, that Jesus associated himself with the “least of these”? That when we help them, we’re helping Jesus? God has tremendous love for those who are rejected, abandoned, and laughed at. This truth came clear to me when I started reading about the life of Mother Teresa. Read what she said:

The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted,
the unloved – they are Jesus in disguise….[Through the]
poor people I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day
with Jesus. Every AIDS victim is Jesus in a pitiful disguise;
Jesus is in everyone….[AIDS sufferers are] children of
God [who] have been created for greater things.

…In some crazy way, Jesus is the poor. When we find the “least of these”, we find him. If this doesn’t turn your theology upside down, I don’t know what will.

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40