Wednesday, March 23, 2011

just a quickish blog before off to bed with me... :-)

So today was my "official" first day at volunteering at Care Net of Puget Sound.
I am planning on serving there every tuesday from 9am to 1pm so if you happen to think of me then i would covet prayer for my time there.  Right now I will still have 7 more weeks of in clinic training before becoming an "official" volunteer there.

A couple of things I would love to have people praying for is that on Tuesdays planned parenthood has abortion day and the clinic i serve at is just two doors down from planned parenthood.
So prayer that the couples/women going there would come into Care Net instead...or would go through with those abortions.
Also that there would be more women coming into the clinic and finding Jesus!

Today was a blast from the past for me, I watched a DVD series called "sharing Jesus without fear" put on my Bill Fay. I heard him teach back in highschool at First B the church we were attending at the time. It is very good stuff, very simple and a great refresher for me. There have been things he taught that have stuck with me since i first heard them about sharing your faith and I am excited to grow in this area of my life...witnessing, sharing Jesus with people I meet...

We had some friends over for dinner tonight and it was great fun...(we had been trying to get together with them for the past two months so it was great to finally be able to make it work for both of us!)

 And tomorrow we are going to trek around town...let Josiah go biking, probably to up to Mountlake Terrace for church, enjoy Judah's day of spring break...his only one that we don't really have any obligations lined up for this week.

That's all for now :-)

Monday, March 21, 2011

Commitment

One day there was a hard thing to be done, and one of us didn't want to do it.
"I can't, " she said; but she added honestly, "at least, I don't like to!"
Now she was very fond of a certain hymn. " onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war," and her friend (Amma, of course!), who did not at all intend to give up doing this little difficult thing, began to sing it softly - only putting it rather differently:

Onward, Christian soldiers,
Sitting on the mats!
Nice and warm and cozy
Like little pussycats.
Onward, Christian soldiers,
Oh how brave are we!
Don't we do our fighting
Very comfortably?

She laughed at first; but soon she almost cried, for she saw not only the absurdity of it but the wrong of singing one thing and doing another.
So she and her friend knelt down together and asked God to make them true to their hymns and true to their prayers.
And then they sang this chorus:

From all fear of what men think or say,
Victory for me! Victory for me!
From ever fearing to speak, sing or pray,
Victory for me! Victory for me!
Lord, in Thy love and Thy power make me strong,
That all may know that to Thee I belong,
And when I'm tempted let this be my song,
Victory for me! Victory for me!

Amy Carmichael, "Fragments that Remain" ( Ch. 8 The Cross and The Commitment)

Oh Lord, Let me be true to my prayers and my words!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Writer

Today during our Women's bible study, one of the ladies spoke for St. Patrick's Day Bunch and her topic was writing your testimony. Now she is a writer/editor and although her content was good you could tell that speaking was not something she was totally comfortable with and who is right?? It was good stuff though and got me thinking about this blog and what the Lord is doing in my life lately... there has been no huge life changing thing but lots of little things that i am sure if I were a little more consistent with recording those things as they happen might prove to be something that ends up being a bigger thing he is doing with me!
So, I am committing (to myself mainly) to really make an effort at this writing because although I am not a "writer" I do enjoy writing when i do it and I want to be able to "recall, the works of his hands"

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Enoch Daniel

It's 2:30am and i should go to bed (and I will be shortly) but officially Enoch is 4 today hard to believe it's here already! Enoch we've lived in four different places for each of his birthdays, first in Saint Paul were he was born at Saint Joseph's, then when He was one we were in Saint Cloud, living at Dom and Danielle's. Next, for his second birthday we had moved to WA and were living in Kent (and my mom was there for his birthday) and then for his birthday last year and now this year we have lived here in Seattle! This year he wanted a "blue, woody birthday!" (woody, from toy story) normally i don't decorate the house aside from balloons but this week spur of the moment i got some decorations and also very spur of the moment invited a friend and her two year old and baby over to enjoy birthday cake with us!! (I think it was my mood from changed plans but I felt the need to make it super special for him)
Another phenomenon which has probably occurred because we/I knew his birthday was coming is that in the past two months he seems to have almost completely turned into a little boy not just "my baby" any more. He's speaking more clearly, he's playing with more intricate toys...and i think in general we are expecting more of him and he is rising to the occasion! Anyhow we are going to enjoy the day tomorrow! Happy Birthday my sweet Enoch!

Monday, March 7, 2011

India

India!!

I love India :-) Back in 1999 I was blessed to go on a mission trip with Teen Mission's International, when signing up to go my first choice had been to go to Haiti but didn't get on that team, instead I was put on my second choice which was India. I have no doubt that was the Lord's design and ever since that trip I have greatly desired to go back. I fell in love with the Indian people and the country, the land itself, if you can look past the slums is a beautiful country.
And now the Lord is opening the doors and working out the details to allow us (Judah and I) to go (me to go back) to India it is going to be just a short trip but we're going!!
We will be joining our friends as they move back to the country after a furlough here in North America.

As of now (subject to minor adjustments) the plan is that my parents will make a trip out here by 8/15 to"pick up" the kids and take them back to MN, while Judah and I will fly out of Seattle and then spend a few days shy of two weeks in India, returning to the states via MN on the 8/29 to "pick up" the kids from my parents, then rent a car and get back to Seattle by 9/2 for Judah to return to work and school starting back up shortly after that as well.

Also in the "tentative and Lord willing" plans are to try and get pregnant again soon timing it out again as much as possible and as the Lord wills so that by the time august rolls around I will be past the 1st trimester and but not into the 3rd yet!

So time will tell how that all will work out but either way tickets are bought so no going back now!! (or at least not without a substantial loss of funds by aborting plan)

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Back in the fall of this year I decided to look into pregnancy crisis clinics in the area for the purpose of finding one to volunteer at. About a year ago I had looked into it but didn't really find anything and also didn't really follow up on it other then an internet search. So this time around after searching again finding that the closest clinics were all at least 45 minutes away still decided to at least contact them and find out what they were all about. Sent them a request for more info and that a director from the clinic closest would contact me. Then I waited almost to the point of giving up on this clinic and starting the search anew they got back to me (it was about 2 months after the request was first sent) and set up an appointment for an interview and also just to meet and here what I was interested in doing and what they offered and what they were all about. That meeting took place then at the end of January and right away after first talking to the director (her name is Cindy) I felt really excited and that this was definitely going to be a good fit for me.
Before they let you come and start volunteering they have you go through roughly 24 hours of training spread out over 2 weeks. And the training was scheduled for the last week in Feb and first week in March....but then the "snow" came and if you didn't know this yet FYI Washington shuts down at the first sighting or even rumoring of glimmering and fluttering of flakes. Which in all fairness to Washingtonians is a good idea as no roads are a salted or plowed or sanded properly and everyone starts driving like a teenager who is driving on their own in snow and ice for the first time ever (lack of experience + potentially perilous conditions). We actually did drive in the mess of it and had a few stressful hours of driving to and from our destination. Minnesotians think spring time storm....just cold enough to slightly freeze, icy slush plus no salt or plows because in a day of two at most it will all melt away anyways.
All that to say the training got rescheduled :-)
Which for me the only difficulty in that was my planned in advance childcare (which included the 2 hour drive though icy terror to get it) for the all day training on friday was not available. But thanks to a friend who helped out at the last minute and a shortened day so i could get home in time for Judah to head off to work helped me get it covered...now all I have is tuesday evening left of training and then the rest will be completed at the center.
So once my training is complete, my commitment to the clinic will be 4 hours a week for a least a year and i am very excited to see what the Lord has in store for me through this all.
One thing that has really stuck out me in training had made me look at the whole prolife-prochoice debates is that if we would focus a little more on the women in need and not so much on the baby, as a side affect of that is the baby will be taken a care of... anyway i am sure this is very long and if you stuck with it I apologize for the disconnected thoughts and overly long sentences. I am super sleepy but wanted to get this out there before weeks pass with out anything being written. So here it is with more to come later when i am a little more conscious! Brandy

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Yeah for internet access at home, we are back online!!