Cinnamon Swirl Love

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Blog Love

So I get this e-mail from a friend of mine....completely unrelated to the RAD world. She says is (click here) ...this... you????????????

"Yes" it is! Nice surprise.

I'm posting the 7 Things About Me...firstly because I was asked...and secondly , I think it's very good to remind ourselves and encourage others to remind themselves that life is not all about RAD all the time.

1. I am a photographer.
2. I home-educate. Teaching IEW this year among other things.
3. I do not have a belly button.
4. I love film. Went to USC Film School. Trying to produce a film as we speak.
5. I enjoy crocheting and bead work.
6. My favorite books are A Tree Grows in Brooklyn & Stepping Heavenward.
7. I love travel and the Food Network.
8. I'm not sure the Lord's finished expanding our family.

Update:
(I just realized that I posted 8 things. I have no idea why I did that????????) Exhaustion??????

Thank you, Beckyjoie for the compliment and the encouragement.

Promise Land

For many adoptive parents, the long wait during the adoption process or even just the longing to grow your family has felt like the desert wanderings of the Israelites. You have survived this torturous season. You have trusted Christ for your daily sustenance. You have hoped with joy at what lies ahead. You have followed Him to this child. To bring home your pined for child seems about to cross the Jordan. Soon you will be together forever and the time as a family will be rich and fruitful and yummy. But and a major but to possess the promise land with a RADish takes work. There will be battles. Lots of them. You will have to fight for the regulated and joy filled home. It will seem impossible. The temptation is to be grumbling like the Israelites. It was better before this all began. The wait was easier than the adoption itself. At least I was familiar with pining. It had become comfortable. What was I hoping for? God has led us all this way to now let us fumble, fear and faint with this child. But we must be like Joshua, beloved. We must see the possibilities for our child and for our family. We must be willing to enter into the wars and impossible circumstances. There is hope. We have promises. He will not leave us. He will go before us. He will give us strength for each battle and a way out of every temptation. The possibility of milk and honey so far exceeds the sand of the desert. For your child. For your family. For you. Press in.



~thoughts and reflections after reading Number 16

10 Positives

Recently I was asked to describe my kids by someone who doesn't know them. She said, "you know. what are their personalities like, what are their interests. you know." I honestly sat there dumbfounded for a good 30 seconds. I started to talk about my other kids while I was frantically multi-tasking in my brain to think of things for my RADish. Things flooding to my brain were.... well, like... she likes to manipulate people....or have total freak outs during lessons.... or fake laugh with strangers. Honestly. I know here that doesn't seem crazy but in other circles....like with this lady I don't know well, those were so far from appropriate answers. I wouldn't talk about those things with her for one but also because somehow it seemed incomplete. It had been a hard few weeks. Really hard. Like every inch of my body was feeling her emotional pain hard. I was exhausted. Her choices flooded my days and absorbed my nights. Fortunately, I could see that even having those thoughts did not reflect my desire to pursue my child's heart. I realized in that moment how focused on the behavior I had become that week. I had given the sin too much power in our home. This is a child--my child--that I am fighting for not just behaviors and a will I am trying to curb. But those were thoughts to be mulled over later. I had to give this woman an answer. I began listing a two things my lovey is naturally good at and changed the subject.

As I thought later about all of this, I sat quietly with the Lord. I repented of the ways I had not seen my child this week and for the distraction I had allowed sin to become. Then I listed 10 things that she was good at or growing in or had at one time made me smile over. It wasn't easy. The days have been hard. She seems to be in a horrible mood from the moment she wakes up til the moment she finally falls asleep. She doesn't seem to think about anything fun or happy. I need to help ID those things for her, though, and help her work towards honing those skills in her regulated times instead of her survival skills. So do it. As a part of I Thessalonians 5:18. When there are no warm fuzzy or easy days, choosing thankfulness and the child's heart and God's sovereignty refocuses our minds. 10 things you can thank God for in your child. Share in our comments if you feel led to help get other parents thinking and to delight in the child God has given you.