Our Christmas Blessings

In late 2010, God began really working in my heart and life concerning how we did Christmas.  It was a long and difficult journey for me and if I was honest, I would say that it still is.  Although it led to my amazing assignment with Apparent Project, there has still been some difficult struggles. After being exposed to Haiti and extreme poverty, I'm just so much more conscious of how and what we spend at Christmas time - and throughout the year for that matter.  But, it is still so difficult.  Needs vs. wants - it's a constant battle in our consumer driven culture.

I think it's worse at Christmas time because of expectations.  Like most people, we live on a tight budget.  We came into fall with a fair amount in savings and a car repair took ALL of it.  So thankful that we had it in savings, but it took away all freedom as we came into Christmas.  As the holiday approached, I once again, found myself angry and frustrated.  So many things that I wanted to do for people and no funds to do it with.  I wound up being on a big emotional roller coaster, just wanting to skip Christmas all together.

In the beginning of this journey, in 2010, I read this in a blog written by a facebbook friend who lives in Haiti:  "I find great inspiration in the simple, dingy, gritty, humble celebrations of those who struggle and toil without access to our unstained images of Christmas. I long for their stripped down total dependence on God. I pray for spiritual wealth like that of the materially poor. I want their depth. I want their undying hope. I want a Christmas less like Oprah’s and more like theirs."   That's hard stuff!

This was re-posted again this year (You can read the entire post here) and I was reminded about how it had affected me three years ago.  I remember praying about that.  Longing for their "stripped down total dependence on God."  Praying for "spiritual wealth like that of the materially poor."   But did I really know what that meant?  Was I really willing to go through what it would take to get me there?

We experienced this when we were on staff with Crusade.  We depended on God for EVERY penny.  Now that regular paychecks come in every other week, it's easy to become more relaxed in the financial area. So I've come to realize that He still keeps us financially dependent in some areas.  And it always seems to happen to us at Christmas time. 

EVERY YEAR!!!  

I'm starting to see a pattern.  Seriously!!!!  

No matter what we save, how we plan - it gets stripped away every year and we are left wondering how we are going to pull Christmas off.  We've cut back tremendously.  Russ and I haven't purchased for each other in years.  Instead of things - we focus anything extra into getting away as a family.  Relationships and memories are more important to us than "stuff."  But, we still want to get a few things for the kids and recognize other friends and family members with a little something as well.  And every year, I wind up angry and frustrated because it doesn't seem like we can even do that.

So when I put all this together, I realized that I was angry with God for trying to answer my prayers from three years ago.  I prayed to be dependent on Him - to gain that spiritual wealth.  But each year when He attempts to draw me in -  to rely on Him and Him alone, I get really angry.  And grumpy.  And downright Scrooge like.  It's NOT pretty!  Ask my husband - and my closest friends who get to hear me complain.

But - EVERY year - in His grace - He provides anyway.  He lets me gripe and complain and whine and cry and be a big old baby about the whole thing and He still steps in and takes care of my desires. Especially when my desires/worries don't even compare to the concerns of the majority of the rest of the world. You would think that I would learn by now.  His provision always blindsides me.  Oh - to just blindly trust with no other thoughts or cares.  To not get caught up in the expectations of others. 

"For He is able to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY above ALL that we ask or imagine..." Eph. 3:20

This year, of course, was no exception.  We wound up with an extra paycheck this month (I was so stressed out, I didn't put that one together!  Gee - I'm a mess)  But things were still going to be tight. We were not even going to get to go away like we usually do.  Everyone was bummed about that.  So the extra paycheck was going to help with the food and gifts - but we would have to be careful.

One of the things that we wanted to do was replace Jarod's basketball goal.  It had been stolen in the Spring and we had not been able to replace it.  I had been praying that the Lord would somehow make it happen.  Jarod had his eye on a nice, new one from Academy but it just was not going to fit into our budget at all.  I got on Craig's list and emailed a few different people - several times.  No one would respond to my inquiries.  I thought that was really weird.  

I finally put a shameless plug out on Facebook - I explained that his had been stolen, we were looking to replace it and asked if there was anyone out there willing to sell theirs or if they knew of someone who was.   Almost instantly I had a private message from a friend, willing to sell theirs.  I was so excited!  I drove by their house that afternoon to look at it.  It was in good shape - but it wasn't like the one Jarod had his eye on.  I called Russ and we chatted about it.  Russ suggested we wait and see if anyone else responded to the post.  If not, we would purchase it the next day.  Sounds like a plan.

Then about 6:30 that night I received a private message from another friend, wondering if we had found one yet.  Our conversation went like this - 

Friend - Hey Cami - did you ever find a hoop for Jarod? We have been blessed with some extra money this season, and we'd like to contribute to replacing his hoop. How much would a new one run down there?

Wow - how do you respond to that????

Me -  Wow! A little speechless here. The one he wants is about $$$ new. I did find a used one today (a smaller sized backboard than he wants) for $$.

I mean - when someone says they want to "contribute" you don't know exactly what that means so you give them options.......

Friend -  We'd like to send you (full amount)  so he can get the one he wants. (We've made it our mission to bless pastor's families that we know, and this certainly qualifies!)

Do you guys have a Paypal account? If so, send me the email it's under.

Me -  Oh my goodness! What a blessing! You have no idea. It's been an emotional struggle for me this year. Trusting God to provide. I'm in tears. Thank you so much!!! My paypal address is ........

Friend -  Transfer sent. You should have the funds in your Paypal account shortly.

And stop crying!

Me -  That's just what I do. Lol   They are happy grateful tears!

So once again - God did exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or imagine this year.  He totally blew me away with His provision.  This gift freed us up to be able to surprise Jarod with something very unexpected and still be able to bless others the way we desired to.  So much worry and stress when God had it all planned out. 

Russell went and picked up the basketball goal and hid it at my brother's house.  That night, everyone came over to decorate Christmas cookies and a certain redheaded, 4 year old - who will remain anonymous, just could NOT keep the secret ANY longer! Ha Ha!  The benefit of this was that Jarod got to help Uncle Marc put it together on Christmas Eve.......

                                Soooooo thankful for Uncle Marc!  This was a heavy project!!!!

 

                                                               Finishing touches!

                                                                     Very excited!!!!

                 Of course, there was a brand new basketball under the tree Christmas morning!
Jarod knew we were tight and wasn't expecting this at all.  He was so excited and shocked at the same time.  It was so fun to sit down and tell him the story.  So he could see what God had done.

A special thank you to our friends for not just blessing Jarod with a basketball hoop - but for being obedient to what God had asked you to do.  Sometimes, our obedience has nothing to do with us - it's about someone else.  This time it was about our family - our journey (ok - maybe mostly crabby old me) MY journey in allowing God to continue to make us ME dependent on Him so that our MY faith will grow.  (Even with my kicking and screaming the entire way!)    


Funny - the things He uses to teach us with, huh?  It is so much more to us than just a basketball hoop.  It is about our faith.  It is about trusting God.  He'll do whatever it takes to draw us closer to Him.  I'm so thankful for that.  That is the best gift of all.

Maybe next year I'll have a better attitude!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we do every year, we packed up (road trip for me, AGAIN) and headed to Sasha's for Thanksgiving.  We come on Tuesday so I can help Sasha cook all day Wednesday.  We have a lot of fun in the kitchen.

This year we had an additional guest -

Uncle Jack!!

Uncle Jack is my mom's (and Sasha's) oldest brother.  He's the oldest of all eight of them.  He lives in Illinois and for me, it seems lately, I only see him for funerals.  Not cool.  It's good to have him here for Thanksgiving.

Homemade noodles are a family tradition for us.  The recipe is passed down from my Great Grandma West and is a definite favorite!

 

Anne always "helps" by playing in the flour.

Anne & Sasha

 LOVE this - this is the first time they have met.

Every year my kids bring their bathing suit and BEG to swim.  We've already had MUCH cooler weather here in Florida for this time of year.  The pool temp was 66 - their swim time lasted MAYBE 10 minutes.

COLD!!!!

Anne also helps every year with the apple pies.  She loves to help to peel and core them.

Carving the turkey

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

Post turkey coma......

So many things to be thankful for  -  not just today -  but everyday!!!  God has blessed us beyond measure.  Looking forward to 2013 - it's gonna be awesome!!!!!

Until next time......

An Awesome 4th!

In my last post I mentioned that Emily and her clan were coming in town.  I've been a bit giddy!!!!  Today was the day!  I was up early and ready before all the other pokies in my house.

We were invited to spend the day with them at Emily's parents house.  We enjoyed our 4th of July with a wonderful cookout and a day of swimming!

Russ and Bruce

Jarod and Will

Jarod and Carter

 

 

Ollie!

Because flying through the air is THE BEST!!!!

Zander's going DOWN!!!!

Cannon Ball!!!!

It was so great to spend the day with everyone and catch up!  So thankful for these special friends - we all just picked up where we left off - as if we've never been apart.  It's hard to believe that it was a year ago that Emily was finally loading up the moving truck and moving to New Hampshire.  But God is good and except for distance, nothing has changed.  Thankful to be together again even if it is for a short time.

She and I do lunch tomorrow!  Girl time!!!!  Can't wait!!!!

Summer is Officially in Full Swing

Last week, while Anne and I were chillin' at Sasha's house, Jarod and Russell were at Scout Camp.  I thought I would give you a photo documentary of the week.  They had a lot of fun!

Because they had to leave early Sunday morning, Russell's dad filled in for Russ at church.  It was a special treat for me.  Having been in the family now for almost 15 years and Russ always serving at our own church, I have only heard Carl preach a handful of times.  This man has preached over 60 years and has retired twice!  You just can't keep a preacher from preaching!  It's his love and his passion - I see where Russ gets it from.  Carl is nearly 82 and still going at it.

I couldn't help but pull out my phone and snatch this photo.  I wanted to be able to capture this moment for us and for Russell.  Funny thing was, as I was putting my phone back into my purse, I accidentally "pushed Russell's face" (his icon on my phone) - and I pocket dialed him.  They were driving to camp and he got to hear his dad preach for a little while!  Ha!!!!



So Russ and Jarod headed to Camp Thunder in west Georgia this year.  They had a great time!  Jarod worked on Merit Badges while Russ worked on some service projects and was able to relax some.

Their home for the week

Russ said it rained ALL day Sunday and Monday but then cleared up and they had a dry week.

Jarod got to launch rockets for his Space Exploration Merit Badge.

He learned swimming survival skills by jumping in fully clothed and then learning how to take them off and use them for flotation devices AND he had to swim 150 yards for his Swimming Merit Badge.

He traveled to FDR's Little White House as part of his Citizenship of the Nation Merit Badge.  He really enjoyed this.  He's such a history nut - just like his dad!

Russell hiked to Mossy Falls.  The photo on the left reminded him of the trail in the first Lord of the Rings movie.  Pretty cool!!!!

 I love this photo of the Chapel area - How cool is that?

While at camp, Jarod got to try Mountain Boarding!  He has not stopped talking about this since he returned.  He did take a nice chunk out of the side of his leg from falling on the tires while they were moving.  But I think it was worth it to him.





















The other fun "Field Trip" they took was to the Atlanta Motor Speed Way!  They all had a BLAST!!!! 

They returned on Saturday excited, exhausted and full of fun stories!  I do believe it was a successful week at camp!

On Sunday we celebrated Russell as it was Father's Day.  I am so thankful to be married to a man who is such an active father.  As a pastor, he is pulled in many different directions, but always makes time for Anne and Jarod's events.  One of the MANY things that I LOVE about him.

We celebrated him by giving him a new coffee maker - along with some of his new favorite coffee from Haiti! (Thanks to Sasha for picking this up at EPCOT!)

These were just small tokens of appreciation (and my replacing the nasty white coffee maker on my counter.  NEVER buy a white one!  I don't care how much I tried - I could not keep it clean!)

Anyway - the other gift we did this year was having this preserved and re-framed:

 When Russell's dad would preach, he would do chalk art like this.  He would take a completely blank piece of paper, mount it on an easel, under lights and begin to draw as he spoke.  He could do a picture like this in about 8 minutes.  He was known for this!  People still talk about it today.  Unfortunately for the family - he always gave each piece away to someone in the audience so they are very rare.

Russ met a lady recently and she asked him if he was Carl Franklin's son.  She went on to tell him that she had a piece of chalk art that he had done at her church years ago and she wondered if Russ would like to have it!  Of course he jumped at it and she brought it by the church a few weeks ago.    The frame is old and heavy and I took it to have it matted, preserved and re-framed to hang in his office.  It was supposed to be a Father's Day gift - but it won't be ready until next week.

Again - so thankful for this man and the leader he is in our family.  I am truly and completely blessed!  Happy Father's Day, Russell!!!!

Mother's Day

Wow - once again I sit here looking at all the photos and the catching up I have to do.  I use this blog to share all that God is doing in my life - to explore my "Aha" moments, but also to document our family.  I have it printed out in book form at the end of each year and the kids love to look through the different volumes that adorn our coffee table.  I guess it's my simple way to scrapbook in this busy life of mine so I hate when I get behind on stuff.

Bear with me today as we do some documenting.......

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is always a bit interesting to me.  Once I became a mom myself, I still had a hard time realizing that it was "my day" around here.  I guess I just got into the the habit of celebrating my own mother and I was fortunate enough to be able to do that for 31 years of my life.  My mother will have been with our Lord for 10 years this December. 

Wow - where does time go?  I am very thankful for the wonderful, Godly example that my mom was.  She helped make me the person - the mom - that I am today.  Both in her life and in her death.  There are days, like Mother's Day, that I miss her of course, but here I sit 10 years later and I am thankful for all the lessons I have learned because of her death.  I know at first that sounds harsh - but I know that I would not be the mom, the wife, the friend, the person I am today without God bringing me to that place of saying goodbye and then getting me through the last 10 years without her.  It's been an amazing journey.  One that I am incredibly thankful for.  God is so faithful.  In both the good times and the difficult ones.  And because of those difficult ones, I am able to better celebrate my own children.

Anne worked hard this year to help make my Mother's Day very special.  I was invited to a special breakfast where Anne served my food, sang me some songs (along with her classmates) and read me a story.  It was a sweet day.  She was very excited to help honor me in her own way. 

The morning was complete with a portrait of me - complete with my Apparent Project jewelry!

LOVE it!!!

We spent Mother's Day with Russell's mom.  I could not ask for a better Mother in Law.  She is such a treasure to me!

 

Three generations

 Russ and his dad - talking church. 

We spent a lovely afternoon together.  Jarod made me a wonderful breakfast on Sunday morning and I even received a special card from Meggie - 

My kids are so funny!!!!