There was a nice Christian couple I know that lived here in Oklahoma. They had tried hard to have a baby. Married 14 years give or take. They had several miscarriages and the wife's doctor was very sympathetic but knew with all the scarring & internal problems, there was nothing to be done. They would not have children. The couple filed applications with adoption agencies, took care of other people's children, nieces, nephews, & neighborhood children. Children loved being around them & they filled the void. I can't imagine waiting like that. Wanting a baby so badly & not having one when everyone around you has children.
So when the man got a job opportunity to move to Missouri they really thought long & hard. It would cancel their applications they had in at the adoption agencies & it would mean moving far away from family & what they were really used to. But the husband really thought they needed to take the job offer & see what God was offering there in Missouri. Maybe He was opening a door. After much prayerful consideration they made the move.
After one week of living in Missouri, it was close to Christmas & they got a phone call. The wife's doctor back in Oklahoma. He had just delivered a baby girl from a woman who said she didn't want the baby girl. She wanted to give her away to be adopted. There was one condition the woman wanted, the couple must live out of state. One week ago the couple had moved. Or they wouldn't have been eligible for this opportunity!! THAT was their Christmas miracle!
At five days old the baby girl could leave the hospital. The wife's family being in Oklahoma with the baby, came to get her & take her home with them. The wife's niece worked for an attorney in town & typed up the papers for the adoption. As soon as the husband got off work they made the trip back to Oklahoma. Christmas had come & gone and their miracle was there December 27th. With no place to sleep & no one expecting a baby in the family, they used a dresser drawer & blankets. Who would have known moving to Missouri would bring them a baby? They showed faith & God rewarded them.
They've done great so far. For people that waited years to parent, they did it well. God's a good matchmaker. And you know what? That story just doesn't get old.
Happy birthday to me...happy birthday to me...
Friday, December 22, 2006
Monday, December 04, 2006
Martha or Mary
As I sit here literally on my hands & knees scrubbing my bathroom floor I had a few momentous thoughts. One is, "I don't do this often enough if it takes this long." And two is, "I really loose this much hair and I'm not bald??"
It took a lot of Comet, bleach, grease disolvant (don't ask) to clean EVERY inch of my toilet & floor around it. But it's done! No one goes in there but me really & the occasional #1 son before bed. And there was plenty of HIS evidence left piddled around to prove he sneaks in there more than I thought too! It's sort of unspoken as MY room. I guess partly because I'm the only girl & also because there's so much girly stuff out, you might get a jolt of estrogen by osmosis if you stay too long in there.
I'm a pretty neat person. I don't let my house get too messy during the week. Now the weekends, that's a different story. You might see my husband doing some whites Sunday evening in a rush to get them dry before work the next day, but mostly I don't clean on the weekends. That's my time with my family. Since a mother's job is never done & there are no 9-5 hours included, I made my own. So the house takes a beating on the weekends & now that there's a new rugrat to throw toys around, I'll admit it looks like a tornado hit it by Monday morning. It doesn't bother me. Sometimes I can't believe it, but it doesn't. You'll even see my kick a pile aside to get by rather than stop & pick it all up & put it away.
Of course I used to clean a lot more & I used to have a lot less to keep clean. Now I find I like to cram it into one weekday with the kids gone to school. Then at night I pick it up before bed so I wake up peacefully & not so cranky with a sink full of dirty dishes greeting me. My main thought while scrubbing & bleaching down "my" room was, "When was the last time I REALLY cleaned in here & why has it been so long?" I think I had sort of a lightbulb moment in my bathroom.
I haven't done it because it's MY room & I don't care, for one. But the main reason being, it doesn't cause me stress or loss of sleep that it was dirty. Whoa! That's sort of wild for me the clean freak. Now I admit kids have mellowed me & I was & still am a person who'd rather do something FUN than clean. (I'm not THAT warped) But I learned in college it's easier for me to concentrate or enjoy stuff if I get the cleaning/work out of the way first. I still do that with cleaning the house & trying (there ARE three kids living here as well) to do ALL laundry on Mondays. Then Tues-Fri I get to enjoy my time while the kids are at school playing with the baby, knitting, chatting with my husband or sister-in-law online or scrapbooking.
I always saw myself as Martha in the story in the Bible. Remember how Jesus comes to see the two sisters Martha & Mary. He is teaching & talking with them & Martha is busy cleaning & preparing food, cleaning up & just doing the normal things you do with guests in the house. Mary however, stayed at Jesus feet. Hanging on his every word & soaking up his words & wisdom. Mary just stopped to enjoy what was in the moment. Jesus wouldn't be there long, the work would always be there waiting. That's what I realized today scrubbing my bathroom floor. That I'm pretty sure I'm a Mary now. I've learned to listen, to take in a moment & soak it all in. And I think if Jesus came as a guest in my home I could really SIT & just listen now. I don't know if it's part of getting older, being a parent, being a parent to MY kids or God just mellowing me out. Probably a combonation of it all. I've only really seen it in myself since my dad died though. Today was sort of that moment of noticing I've changed. My bathroom doesn't bother me, clean or dirty. I'm the only one that sees it's no longer a priority to me. I think my priorities are branching out. I'm more than just a clean house or a mommy.
As I type this I'm getting ready to leave for my first monthly book club meeting. I also have my scrapbook gals that meet once a month & it's more for the Christian fellowship than the pages we accomplish. We're FRIENDS. I think those things are helping me see outside my box. Letting my mind grow outside of kids, dishes & laundry. And now I think I really can say it out loud and with authority, that I'm not a Martha anymore.
It took a lot of Comet, bleach, grease disolvant (don't ask) to clean EVERY inch of my toilet & floor around it. But it's done! No one goes in there but me really & the occasional #1 son before bed. And there was plenty of HIS evidence left piddled around to prove he sneaks in there more than I thought too! It's sort of unspoken as MY room. I guess partly because I'm the only girl & also because there's so much girly stuff out, you might get a jolt of estrogen by osmosis if you stay too long in there.
I'm a pretty neat person. I don't let my house get too messy during the week. Now the weekends, that's a different story. You might see my husband doing some whites Sunday evening in a rush to get them dry before work the next day, but mostly I don't clean on the weekends. That's my time with my family. Since a mother's job is never done & there are no 9-5 hours included, I made my own. So the house takes a beating on the weekends & now that there's a new rugrat to throw toys around, I'll admit it looks like a tornado hit it by Monday morning. It doesn't bother me. Sometimes I can't believe it, but it doesn't. You'll even see my kick a pile aside to get by rather than stop & pick it all up & put it away.
Of course I used to clean a lot more & I used to have a lot less to keep clean. Now I find I like to cram it into one weekday with the kids gone to school. Then at night I pick it up before bed so I wake up peacefully & not so cranky with a sink full of dirty dishes greeting me. My main thought while scrubbing & bleaching down "my" room was, "When was the last time I REALLY cleaned in here & why has it been so long?" I think I had sort of a lightbulb moment in my bathroom.
I haven't done it because it's MY room & I don't care, for one. But the main reason being, it doesn't cause me stress or loss of sleep that it was dirty. Whoa! That's sort of wild for me the clean freak. Now I admit kids have mellowed me & I was & still am a person who'd rather do something FUN than clean. (I'm not THAT warped) But I learned in college it's easier for me to concentrate or enjoy stuff if I get the cleaning/work out of the way first. I still do that with cleaning the house & trying (there ARE three kids living here as well) to do ALL laundry on Mondays. Then Tues-Fri I get to enjoy my time while the kids are at school playing with the baby, knitting, chatting with my husband or sister-in-law online or scrapbooking.
I always saw myself as Martha in the story in the Bible. Remember how Jesus comes to see the two sisters Martha & Mary. He is teaching & talking with them & Martha is busy cleaning & preparing food, cleaning up & just doing the normal things you do with guests in the house. Mary however, stayed at Jesus feet. Hanging on his every word & soaking up his words & wisdom. Mary just stopped to enjoy what was in the moment. Jesus wouldn't be there long, the work would always be there waiting. That's what I realized today scrubbing my bathroom floor. That I'm pretty sure I'm a Mary now. I've learned to listen, to take in a moment & soak it all in. And I think if Jesus came as a guest in my home I could really SIT & just listen now. I don't know if it's part of getting older, being a parent, being a parent to MY kids or God just mellowing me out. Probably a combonation of it all. I've only really seen it in myself since my dad died though. Today was sort of that moment of noticing I've changed. My bathroom doesn't bother me, clean or dirty. I'm the only one that sees it's no longer a priority to me. I think my priorities are branching out. I'm more than just a clean house or a mommy.
As I type this I'm getting ready to leave for my first monthly book club meeting. I also have my scrapbook gals that meet once a month & it's more for the Christian fellowship than the pages we accomplish. We're FRIENDS. I think those things are helping me see outside my box. Letting my mind grow outside of kids, dishes & laundry. And now I think I really can say it out loud and with authority, that I'm not a Martha anymore.
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