Hi Everyone
Just wanted to let you know my latest post on Molly Green is up.  This month I'm talking about Indonesia and a wonderful homeschool missionary family - The Wilds!

CHECK IT OUT HERE!!!

April Special

April is here and with it comes a fun special to all my blogging friends!  I'm offering a free quick reference guide and a bottle of lime for every new sign up this month!  Purchase a premium starter kit and receive these great freebies from me - plus be in my downline so I can give you support as you start your essential oil journey!!!

Lime is delicious and along with the great things it does for your body it is super yummy in sparkling water and of course in homemade guacamole!

The quick reference guide will answer a lot of your questions about the oils in your starter kit and give you the tools and information you need to confidently use your oils!

SIGN UP TODAY!!!

Places I Write

Hi Friends,
Just wanted to make sure you were all "in know" on what is new in the writing world for me.  I currently blog here, but I also blog for a great magazine, website, company called Molly Green.  If you've never heard of them - you need to!  Molly Green has a lot of amazing writers who contribute to one great website.  It's packed with resources on everything from recipes, gardening, homestead life, and homeschooling too!  Check them out - mollygreen.com

I write for Molly Green on a few different topics:

• Homeschooling Around the World: These are articles with some fun ideas on how to introduce a new country to your kids each month.  I try to give you ministries your family can follow, crafts, recipes, and a bunch of other fun ideas too!  My most recent article was on India - check it out - Homeschooling Around the World - India
• Heartbeat of Home: This is an article written for the Molly Green Magazine.  In this series I simply give you some ideas on making your dinner time more impactful, full of memories, laughter and heritage for years to come.  Check it out - Heartbeat of Home
• And every once in a while I write a random post.  Here is one of my random posts: Pancake Mix

If you keep up to date on my Vintage Burlap Barn blog you'll notice that several of my posts recently have been about our adoption.  There are a couple of fun new adoption writing journeys the Lord is taking me on and I'll keep you posted with details on those as soon as I am allowed to talk about them!  

Thanks for following my blogs, reading and giving me a place to dump my thoughts!

In His Love,

Jenny

Beautiful Feet

Well, it finally happened - the question I had known would be coming from my adopted daughter.  Tonight I was rubbing Kallie down with cream before bed, this is one of our favorite things to do together.  I spend the entire time praying for her asking God to heal old wounds that I was not there to see.  I talk about how I love her beautiful feet, I pause at the awful round scars on her legs that I will never know why she has, I tickle her tummy and her neck, and I thank Jesus that I get the honor of calling Kallie my daughter.  

As I was rubbing Kallie tonight she asked “Mom, why is my skin black and your skin white?”

Now of course I knew eventually this question would come, but truthfully I hadn’t prepped and planned out something to say.  I threw up one of those quick “Lord let my words be Your heart” prayers and proceeded to share.  I explained that if we all had white skin and brown eyes and brown hair there wouldn’t be anything special about any of us - we would all be boring.  But because we are all created different there is something special about each of us.  I explained that she is the ONLY Kallie in the entire world and she is beautiful and special just the way God created her. She started talking about how Dad has blue eyes and I have brown, how my hair is dark and Haylie’s hair is light and in her small little world she saw all of our differences our uniquenesses as beautiful and special.  

My pastor has this great quote - “In Christ we should have unity not uniformity”  I love this quote and as I sat rubbing down the last of Kallie’s little back and shoulders his quote ran through my mind.  God has never been interested in uniformity.  His uniqueness in what He creates is clear from the dawn of creation, from those He chose to play major roles in His history, to the disciples He chose who came from diverse backgrounds.  The Lord is not interested in us all looking the same, acting the same, and behaving the same.  He’s given us each unique gifts, passions, and callings in life - but there is one common thread in each of us - the love of Christ.  

He knew me, knit me together.  Just as I have my favorite spots on Kallie memorized, He knows me too.  He knows my feet are not beautiful like Kallie’s, He giggles with me at the silly scar on my shin from the fall I took in the parking lot at the grocery store not too long ago, and He sees each of these stinking grey hairs that continue to grow in no matter how many times I color them!!!  He knows me and loves me for my uniquenesses - after all He’s the one that gave these uniquenesses to me.  

As I finished rubbing Kallie and our conversation wrapped up I told her how glad I was that NO ONE else looks like she does that she is unique and special and I am so blessed to get to be Mommy to the one and only Kallie in the entire world.   At which point she looked up at me - gave me the biggest smile ever - wrapped her little arms around me and said “Yep, I’m your only princess Kallie!”

Friends, I hope this story encourages you.  I hope you remember tonight that you are the only YOU and you are a child of our King, beautifully made, loved and adored - and yes friends you are royalty too!

In His Love,

Jenny

Valentine's Countdown

Hi Friends,
I'm so excited today is February 1st.  This is without a doubt one of my favorite times of year!  I love Valentine's Day.  There is NO GREATER love story than that of our Savior sacrificing His life for us because of His great love for us.  Because of Jesus love I feel like we as Christians should really celebrate this holiday too- forget cupid, and candy, and all that love struck stuff.  We celebrate Valentine's because we have been loved with an indescribable, uncontainable love!

Each year with my kids I do a countdown to Valentine's Day starting on February 1st!  This morning my children woke up to our kitchen table decorated for Valentine's Day, yummy breakfast, and a large envelope attached to each chair.

Of course the coffee mugs have to match!

These are felt envelopes I found at Target in the $1 section!!!

Really isn't anything to fancy - it's a plastic table cloth and some cute paper goods to kick of our February 1st right.  I spent a total of $12 on this table and made some super fun memories for the kids this morning!

The felt envelopes I found at Target in the dollar section, but you could put notes in regular envelopes on the wall, decorate some paper bags, or just leave a note at each persons spot at the table each morning.  Inside our envelopes each day my kids will find a small printed card that has a Scripture verse that speaks on the topic of love and on the back I write a quick little note to each of the kids.  My notes range from things I love about them, ways I pray they love Christ, or my love of fun or comical memories I have of them.  Every once in a while I'll slip a candy in the envelope too.

The best part is that with the envelopes set up on the back of chairs - EVERYONE gets in the card making mood and before you know it our envelopes are bursting with cards, crafts, and coloring pages that the children have made for each other. It is the sweetest thing ever and hands down one of my favorite holiday traditions!

And because I love you all - I'm going to share the 14 day printable cards with you so you can simply print and write notes for your own kids too!!!

Click here for the 14 day Valentine's Printable

Do you have any special Valentine's Day traditions?  I'd love to hear what they are!

In His Love,
Jenny

People of Hope

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but today this picture needs some words with it.  Words of praise and adoration to my King who saw my path well before I did and brought me to this picture today.  

Christmas 2013 - I was decorating the house for Christmas and hanging my stockings.  My family had been in the adoption process for over a year.  At this time we were adopting from The Congo.  I don't know if you've ever had this happen, but there have been moments in my life where I have "heard from God" - now maybe I didn't hear an audible voice this day, but I felt such a clear impression on my heart, a whisper as I hung my families stockings.  I knew with everything in me that the Lord whispered enjoy this Christmas with 5 stockings because I would never have so few stockings on my mantel again.  These stockings hanging throughout the Christmas season were a sweet reminder of God's promise for our adoption.  I told my husband and 2 friends of God's promise from that day.  I told them in part because I felt crazy and in part because I was anxiously waiting to see this promise fulfilled and wanted to be able to rejoice with them when His words became reality.  

And then we heard the news - Congo had shut down their adoption process, no exit visas were being given and the adoption agency we were adopting with was shutting down.  The next few days were a blur of mourning and pouring our hearts out to the Lord, moments of deep grief and moments of anger.  I remember crying out to Him saying "Lord, you told me I would have more stockings by next Christmas and there is NO WAY we can start another adoption process and have them home by next Christmas" . . . little did I know.

Hope was hard, tiny, and quivering daily.   I clung to His word in these days!

Psalm 31: 24

Be of good courage, 

and he shall strengthen your heart, 

all you who hope in the Lord

Psalm 71: 14 - 16

But I will hope continually, 

and will praise You yet more and more.  

My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and your salvation all the day, 

for I do not know their limits.  

I will go in the strength of the Lord God; 

I will make mention of Your righteousness, 

of Yours only.

Psalm 119:  49 - 50

Remember the word to your servant, 

upon which You have caused me to hope.  

This is my comfort in my affliction, 

for Your word has given me life.  

I could list hundreds more verses, especially from the Psalm.  I poured my soul in them constantly and He quickly brought me comfort.  After a few weeks of seeking the Lord, my husband and I still felt like the Lord was calling us to trust Him and push forward with the adoption process.  I won't go into all the details of the adoption right now (I could write a book on that!) but I will say that the Lord gave us very clear direction that He had our children already hand picked for us in another country.  

We started the adoption process in Guyana and I clung to the fact that the Lord had told me my home would be filled with more children by Christmas.  In truth I felt crazy, overseas adoptions never happen in less than a year.  I knew by human standards this was impossible, but still I continued to hope.  It was small pathetic hope many days, questions of "God, did I hear you right?" were prayed more times than I would like to admit.  

Isn't this the essence of hope?  Hope by definition is the expectation of something to happen.  Ann Voskamp says it best "Sometimes believing in a miracle feels a little like living in a mirage.  You can feel like a fool, walking around with your pitcher" My hope felt crazy, unseen children in an unknown country and my home filled with these children by Christmas.  Still I clung to this hope, somedays it is all that pulled me through as I army crawled through the day - just one more paper to fill out, one more signature to be notarized, one more check to be mailed all with waiting expectation.

And true to my Savior, He kept His promise to me.  My home is filled with my babies, I do not have 5 stockings hanging on my mantel this year.  Instead this beautiful Christmas I had the humble honor and privilege to hang 7 stockings on my mantel.  Tears sting my eyes daily as I look on those stockings and remember His words of last year, remember His whisper to my heart.    In typical - God's going to show His power, no human standards are going to confine or hold Him back - we were able to bring home our children not by Christmas or even Thanksgiving,  but before Halloween!!!  Can I get an AMEN!?!  

We serve a God who is the author of Hope, it is the heartbeat of our faith.  The Old Testament is filled with the Hope of the coming Jesus.  The New Testament is filled with the Hope of His return.  We are and should be defined as Hope people.  Let this be our definition our character the sum up of who we are - People of Hope!

In His Love,

Jenny

My Who's

Hi Friends,
Well, blogging hasn't happened in a while!  We've been a little busy - became a mom again for the 4th and 5th time!  We are loving life with 5 kids.  Miles and Kallie have added so much joy, laughter, noise, and fun to our family!  I've had several blogs I want to write on our adoption story but there is one I just couldn't wait to write anymore.  So if you will all bear with me as I share a few adoption stories in the coming weeks - some things are just to good to not share!

My family (husband and 3 biological children) headed to Guyana (South America) to adopt Miles and Kallie (siblings)  We stayed in a furnished apartment.  Guyana is hot/humid and there is not much to do there (like really - there is nothing to do there!)  so our days were filled with homeschooling (yep, perks of homeschooling you can do it anywhere), swimming in the pool, and in the evening we would all cuddle up and watch a movie.

One night the kids wanted to watch Horton Hears a Who - I love this book, I've loved this book for a long time.  Last summer we spent a week in Tahoe with my husband's family and visited a traveling Dr. Seuss museum that included his rare hats.  Super fun trip and we learned some really neat stuff about Dr. Seuss.  There were rare paintings he had never planned on releasing to the general public and the stories they told about his work was wonderful.  But the explanation for Horton Hears a Who I will never forget - they told us that Dr. Seuss wrote Horton Hears a Who against abortion.  I researched this and there are conflicting reports as for whether he actually wrote it for this purpose or not, but it sure made the book stand out to me in a whole new way.

For those of you who have never read Horton Hears a Who the general story is that a large elephant hears a noise on a flower that has a speck on it.  The tiny speck has the entire town of Who-ville living on it.  Horton and his enormous ears are able to hear the town and he promises to take them to a place of safety.  Horton has a great quote "a person is a person no matter how small" and he goes through all sorts of teasing and weather and perils to finally put the speck in a safe place so the town of Who-ville can survive.

Now back to my story (sorry totally derailed) . . .  my kids decide to watch Horton Hears a Who one night while in Guyana.  I'm cuddling up with Kallie on the couch watching this super funny movie and the Lord so sweetly spoke to me.  He reminded me of all the times I was back in America feeling crazy because my heart and my arms were breaking for my babies in Guyana that I couldn't get to quick enough.

Adoption is hard, it isn't like when you are pregnant with a child and everyone knows you are expecting because - well. . . it's obvious by that cute little basketball under your shirt and the jar of pickles in your hand!!!  When you are "expecting" with adoption no one knows and you want to shout it from rooftop.  Every time you buy a piece of clothing or their beds or their toothbrushes you just feel like a crazy lady and end up telling the checker at Target all about the kids you are adopting only to have them look back at you like a deer in headlights wondering why on earth I had to get in their lane.  Oh yeah friends, lived this out more humiliating times than I should have.  Yes, I have some super amazing stories where when I couldn't contain myself and started sharing with strangers about the children I didn't have and they were equally as excited with me - one in fact has become a friend because she just had to know when we were bringing our kids home and has been praying for me ever since!  But there are plenty of times I shared and people just confirmed the craziness I was feeling by the look on their face.  It's hard - adoption is so hard!

I also can't say enough thanks to those who followed up constantly on where we were in the process - why?  Because though most days I had nothing new to report it made Miles and Kallie feel real, it made me not feel so crazy, and you so constantly reminded me of the faithfulness of our Savior.  You see like Horton - we had a speck in Guyana.   2 beautiful children - "my Who's" that no one knew existed, that no one knew needed help and home and mom and dad.  Yet somehow by the grace of God, He put us in the exact right place at the right time so we heard "our Who's" tiny cries, their longing for a family, their need for safety and protection and love.

I sat on the couch that night watching Horton Hears a Who and sobbed and sobbed.  I was living the real life Horton Hears a Who!   We serve a God who also says "A person is a person no matter how small" and He heard them and brought us together.  I had "my Who's" finally safe on my lap cuddling watching a movie and it was all too much for my heart.  Too much amazement at the goodness of God, too much gratefulness that He chose me to be their mom, too much love for "my Who's" and it was simply a night I needed to share with you.

Friends, I don't know where you are at in life right now, but I do know that we serve a God who hears our cries - ALL of them.  From the smallest child to the greatest it makes no difference.  I just want you to know as you read this your Father hears you.



In His Love,
Jenny

(cuddling watching the movie in Guyana!)