*UPDATED with WINNERS* Y’all, even if you didn’t win, you need to own this book! Here are the random winners: Heather E., Tricia Moore  (readers, no blog) and Kelly. Congratulations, y’all!

I picked up this little book.

Tucked it away to read

when I had a chance.

A few pages in, I knew

we should read it together,

as a family.

And that’s what we’ve been doing-

one page at a time, after dinner each night.

I can tell you–the effect– has been

moving. Inspiring!

I have wiped tears on my dinner napkin,

listened to my son talk about pressure,

my daughter share defeat,

my hubby lead us.

ENGAGE with my family….

But most of all, from the youngest to the oldest,

we are learning a very clear and profound message–

life isn’t about what we want,

it’s not about making our own dreams come true,

We are learning that we were made

to make a difference

locally

globally

in the lives of others.

—————

Read this, please? Find out what my hero has been up to this week….

————–

This book makes The Perfect Family Devotional for tweens and teens! And for moms and dads….

I’m giving away 3 copies today. Please leave a comment if you’d like to win one.

Have a happy weekend!

————–

We aren’t experts. We are actually quite amateur. No two devotion times are the same and the best ones are also the worst ones.

But we try.

We have our family devotion time at the dinner table, after we’ve finished eating because that’s what works best for us. It’s usually only about 15 minutes and it goes like this:

• pray over our meal
• eat
• spill
• complain about the “new dish”
• ask for dessert seven times
• clear the table
• practice our weekly verse
• insert laughter and crazy motions and a arguments over who goes first
• open our Bibles, take turns reading a chapter OR a story from the Jesus Bible Story Book
• read a chapter from a “devotion” book. I use that term loosely because it’s not always a formal devotional book. Right now we are reading and LOVING a book I will tell you about tomorrow (giving 3 away, too!)
• Q&A time: We ask our kids questions about their day, feelings, things that are going on at school, etc
• finish in a quick prayer, sometimes taking turns, each of us praying for our Compassion kids.

Bottom line: it’s messy, but it’s ours.

And it’s my favorite time of the day.

How to really have a family devotion:

1. Be flexible-it will not always happen. Sometimes our youngest cries through the whole thing and we hurry through the process or just choose two of the four on the list above. And sometimes (last night) we eat on the floor and have a special family movie night!
2. Forget perfection-it’s just not ever going to go exactly like you want.
3. Choose a time that works best for your family…it doesn’t have to look like someone else’s to be right.
4. Don’t give up- your kids will learn to love this time, even through the rough spots. Don’t give up!

Do you have a family devotion time?

She bathed the dog, washed the car, pulled weeds, and traded me the balance on a leftover Target birthday gift card.

She wrote out her budget.

She read and researched.

She was finally ready to buy two Betta fish and a Deluxe Kit w/ Organic Food (even!) Meet two of the newest members of our family:

Little Debbie and Hostess

(I may have had some influence on the naming of my favorite snack cakes, I mean, fish).

And then there’s Darla…..

I mean, my youngest:

She did a few odd jobs, but mainly begged and dug quarters out of every nook and cranny. My hubby reminded me that all the four year olds in our house had a first fish (sucker for her big brown eyes).

Meet Shina.

[I asked my 4 year old what her name meant: (rolling her eyes) Ya know, like stars in the sky shine.]

I forgot how fun (sarcasm) it is to remind a 4 year old over and over that we mustn’t carry the small fish tank (sloshing pee water as my son points out) into every room.

Let’s just say Shina could use some prayer.

A man decided that he would change the world.

But, he wasn’t successful.

So he decided to change the country.

But, he wasn’t successful.

So he decided to change his community.

But, he wasn’t successful.

So he decided to change his street.

But, he wasn’t successful.

So he decided to change his family.

But, he wasn’t successful.

So he decided to change himself.

AND HE WAS SUCCESSFUL.

AND HIS FAMILY CHANGED AND THEY AFFECTED THEIR STREET.

AND THE PEOPLE ON THE STREET AFFECTED
 THEIR COMMUNITY.

AND THE PEOPLE OF THE COMMUNITY AFFECTED THEIR COUNTRY.

AND THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY AFFECTED THE WORLD.

[fable credit]

—————

After returning from the Idea Camp last month and it’s focus on how to help with the global orphan crisis, I was inspired, but felt overwhelmed at the size of the problem. It’s easy to feel like we can’t really make a difference, like it’s too big and we’re too small. And we’re right. We are too small to change the world, it’s an impossible job for us. But that’s not really what we’re called to do.

I can’t change the world, but I can change me.

Which might be changing the world, after all.

—me

————–

Special thanks to Give Every Day for coming to help us sort Mercy House donations a few weeks ago! This family of four is taking a year of their life to travel the United States to give every day! I love world changers!

————————-

I’m attending Christian Alliance Orphan Summit in KENTUCKY in May (representing Mercy House and speaking on a panel)… wanna come?

The Christian Alliance for Orphans’ annual Summit has become a national hub for Christians committed to adoption, foster care and global orphan initiatives rooted in the local church.

{Updated: Keep counting!! Jenn from Reflections will be getting the beautiful book/DayBrightner set from Dayspring}

I met her in a quiet space on the Internet-one I returned to often, for years.

I would read and reread–words lodged deeply, burrowed into my spirit.

Visiting was a Holy Experience.

When I met Ann in person last year, we were both broken. Ruined by trips to third world countries where we left our hearts. We found a corner in a crowded room and whispered healing words over the roar of the crowd.

Another holy experience.

And her book? One Thousand Gifts, a New York Times and Amazon Best Seller, is a riveting, thought-provoking book that is being used by God to change the world of readers everywhere.

I’m counting gifts in a red leather journal.

1. Finding my daughter awake, so I could apologize for my harsh words

5. Rosy red lips that pucker goodnight kisses

11. the way the sun casts it’s glow in my kitchen

17. sweet tea (you knew it would be in there)

I saw an unfamiliar notebook on the counter the other day. Curious, I opened it. Immediately, my eyes watered as I realized I’d unknowingly opened my husband’s own list of gifts. (I wondered where my book had gone!) The first one undid me:

1. Diabetes

We are counting gifts at our house. We are still learning how to make our way in the world, through trials and bad days, but something is different. We are learning how to be truly thankful in all circumstances…

If you haven’t read One Thousand Gifts, you must.

You must.

Dayspring has a beautiful set: this book and God in the Moment, a coordinating DayBrightner Calendar. The calendar is 366 dated pages, wire-bound on a stand-up easel. Sample: December 20: Moments come as wrapped gifts and we simply have to trust the Giver.

If you’d love to have this set, please leave a comment as your entry, naming one of the gifts in your life that you are thankful for today.

2010

2011

It’s my annual photo of watching baby chicks hatching that signifies the coming of Spring…it’s also a reminder to enjoy my kids because they are growing up!

The Livestock Show is always a highlight for us as we eat food-on-a-stick, actually enjoy the smell of manure and gawk at all the crazy people on the upside down rides in the midway.

This year my son said loudly-”aren’t those the rides that KILL PEOPLE?”

(I don’t know where he heard that. *Ahem*)

We watched newborn piglets nurse and answered questions like “why do pigs have so many breasts? and if we eat bacon are we eating the momma? and heard things like “I hope something is born today, it’s so gross and cool…”

This is more for me than it is for you. Thanks for letting me cherish this moment.

The cure for Spring Fever? Take 7 days of Spring Break and call me in the morning!

1. Stopping to smell the flowers

2. Flying kites

3. Painting pottery

4. Playing tag

5. Children’s Museum (because smart people don’t go to the zoo on Spring Break (my realization after 1.5 hours of traffic)

6. [not pictured because I didn't have the heart] My kiddos getting travel shots for our trip to Africa this summer [sad face] But they did amazing and I’m very proud of them!

7. last day of Spring Break plans: Livestock Show- yeehaw!

When is your Spring Break and what are you planning?

I have a standing appointment every day.

From 1pm-2:30 I talk to my Kenyan daughter, Maureen over Skype.

It’s late in Africa and she’s settling down for the night, nine hours in the future. We talk, laugh a lot, and talk business. We pray, encourage, sometimes cry and once we danced on our desks with an ocean separating us because a lost package was finally found.

Maureen is a master story-teller and she has me on the edge of my seat as she unpacks the miracle of the day. And by miracle, I mean miracle. She lives a life of faith and prayer and she blindly trusts God. I want to be like her.

Mostly we chat, but on good days when our connection is perfection, we sit face-to-face. She can see into my world.

And I can see into hers.

Last week, an American brought her some Chick-Fil-A sauces. I watched her carefully dip her Kenyan chicken into the sauce and savor each bite. This is her world. One without luxuries, few extras, but thankfulness abounds.

I left the Skype call and the stark reality slapped me in the face listening to acquaintances complain about renovations on their second homes at the lake.

I have my feet in two worlds.

One breaks my heart and the other makes me sick. I’ll let you decide which is which.

Although Maureen’s been rescued from death and hell through the incredible work of Compassion International, she lives among the suffering.

She carries the burden of her family, her country.

It is painful for me. I weep with her over sick family members. I ache over the pregnant girls turned away from schools and clinics as we race to get the Mercy House up and running.

For the first time in my life, I am learning about true compassion.

Compassion literally means to suffer with.

So, when Jesus was “moved with compassion” for His people, he literally suffered with them.

And ultimately for them.

My big personal take away from the Idea Camp a couple of weekends ago was when Tom Davis talked about compassion. He said something to the effect of “We don’t need more Christians to care about the global orphan crisis, we need more Christians with compassion.”

Christians who will suffer with the majority of the world, the people outside our bubble.

The more I dip my feet into how the rest of the globe lives, the more compassion I feel.

The more I suffer with them.

And with you.

No, really.

I was superb.

My kids slept thru the night, ate all their vegetables, said please and thank you without be asked, never talked back or argued with each other, looked neat as pin, never had an evil thought, played in the mud, or disobeyed.

But then, they were born.

And they actually enjoy eating dirt, among other things.

All my perfecting parenting flew out the window.

Quickly, I discovered that uninterrupted sleep was for wimps,  vegetables were great for throwing, grunting replaced formality, my kids enjoyed the fine art of arguing, and neat as a pin was a funny, distant thought. In other words, I was in the middle of raising humans and it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

And also, there’s been a lot of blood in my house, resulting in unplanned trips to the ER with my hubby MIA (okay, he was working, but that’s no excuse).

So, tell me, what was the one thing you were unprepared for when you became a mother.

I danced in Africa.

I can close my eyes and still hear the singing of orphans and angels.

When I close my eyes, I can feel the red dirt beneath my feet, smell the stench in the slums, see the desperation, taste hope.

One year ago today,

I met the girl who would call me Mom.

She is deeply grafted into our family, my heart.

I was redeemed:  rescued from wealth, the American Dream, from my own selfish ambitions…

One year ago today.

Just a quick note to let those of you know (who linked up to WFMW when it went up) that the linky file was somehow corrupted and wouldn’t display the links. I tried everything, but the only solution was to delete it and put another linky up. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but everyone will have to relink.