My head is spinning…

Geesh, and I haven’t even gotten the “call” yet.  I’ve been busy here at home spinning many plates in the air and hoping none of them come crashing down on me!  First though a quick update:  We have air in our house again!  Woohoo!  It was actually the downstairs unit that was broken, and it is finally fixed after 10 days of waiting.  The house feels so good today, especially when it’s over 100 degrees outside!  Unfortunately the air in our van is not fixed and won’t be any time soon.  The King Fish and I decided that we will just wait on that until we either have the funds to fix it, or we can find something inexpensive.  So he will drive the van when he is in town and I will take the big monster truck. 
So what am I working on here in our Fishbowl?  Well we have this huge consignment sale coming up here in our city.  I’ve been pricing clothing, and some other stuff that I want to get rid of.  I have over 100 items to sell, and it’s been all over my house.  (When the heat was out).  It was cluttered and hot and ugh, not so much fun.  I am almost done pricing, just about 20 more items and then I can get it out of my house for good.  I’m hoping to make a couple hundred dollars  to put towards our adoption expenses. 
Speaking of adoption expenses I was so excited to learn this week that we were accepted into Lifesong for Orphans fundraising program.  That is awesome because it means that every gift donated to our adoption is tax deductible for the person donating.  We have friends who utilized Lifesong’s fundraising for their domestic adoption and were really pleased with their organization.  It’s completely non-profit and all donations go toward adoption expenses.  Both the King Fish and I have been planning our fundraising for awhile, and I’ve been putting together the final touches of our letter and creating a video testimony of our Small Fry to share.  It’s pretty awesome, and we are just getting all things together for whenever we get the call. I’ll be posting more in a future post for anyone who might want to donate to our adoption fund.  Yay!  Unfortunately all that paper creates even more clutter around my house.  But the biggest clutter issue is next….
Homeschool Curriculum!  Oh yes, it’s that time of year again.  I’ll share more on my curriculum choices and areas that I want to see improvement another day. But for now, I have moved it into high gear  to begin schooling the first week in August.  I’d like to get started because I know somewhere during the school year if we add another child things are gonna get really crazy.  Sometimes I look at all I have on the plates that are spinning and I think, “Really?  Another child?  You?”  And yet I know that it will all be alright… because God is in control and even though I like to think I am… I’m not.   Thankfully that’s the way it should be.
I’ve been encouraged lately by a woman who has 4 almost grown children and she and her husband have adopted 4 children from China (3 of those older children).  I can’t even begin to tell you how this woman amazes me.  She has such a heart for older orphans and I love to read their love story unfold, especially of her newest two girls (like last week).  I think I’d like to meet this woman one day.  She inspires me.  I asked the King Fish if we could adopt again after this one (who isn’t even referred to us yet mind you) and he said “No” without blinking an eye.  He said, “Nope, we’re done with four”.  And then he thought for a second, pausing -pondering, and said this to me, “You know what Jackie, who am I to make that decision.  If God wants us to adopt more children, then I’ll be okay with that.”  I just love it when my man’s heart is in tune with the Lord.  I love his heart and his willingness to be obedient. 
I have no idea what God has in store for us down the road.  I’m sure some people think we are crazy for adopting children at an older age.  I must look younger than I am because I even had this one young doctor’s assistant tell me (without even knowing my age) that she thought people over 36 should probably not have more children or adopt.  lol!  It was a conversation we were having and she was asking about our Small Fry and then she was sharing about a family member that had a baby at 36.  I just shook my head and smiled, listening…thinking to myself, “please don’t look at my chart”  LOL!  Vanity… it won’t get you anywhere.  lol!
We have heard many things like “You’re crazy.”  “Why would you want to go back to the diaper stage?”  “You could be done in a few years and have the time to yourselves.”  “You know, you don’t have as much energy as you did when you were younger.”  “How will you put them through college?”  And those comments were with our first adoption two years ago!  I remember one time in particular I was with a girlfriend and this man we knew from church was just going on in a negatively “joking” way about how crazy we were to be adopting at our age.  When the conversation was finished and my girlfriend and I walked away, she said to me… “Jackie don’t you even listen to one word he has to say.  Don’t even receive it.  You are doing what God has called you to do, and you don’t need to listen to that garbage.”  Hmmf!  Way to go Sista!  She’s my girl who had my back when we lived close, and I have no doubt she would be here in a heartbeat if we needed her.  She’s my soft scrub.  She isn’t afraid to speak God’s truth into my life, but she does so in a completely gentle way.  Love her!
Okay, this is wordy and I am off track.  But I guess I have to say, that Satan would like nothing better than to cause doubt.  “Can you really do this, is this really meant for your family?  You’re not young, you’re not in shape, look at your energy…..  how can you take care of two little ones and still have time to school and guide your big two through the preteens?”  I have to shut those thoughts out.  Completely.  I have to kneel before the Lord and know that he hears me and remember that He has placed this call on our hearts.  This verse reminds me of God’s immense love for all his children, it reminds me that we can take everything to Him in prayer and he hears us, and that he is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.  It’s His power at work in us. 

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21