Guaranteed Outcome

I wanted to write something profound for election night, but I'm not the profound type of writer. This has been circulating around the net and I thought it very appropriate.

Top 10 Predictions No Matter Who Wins the Election…

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.

2. Prayer will still work.

3. The Holy Spirit will still move.

4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.

5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.

6. There will still be singing of praise and worship to God.

7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.

8. There will still be room at the cross.

9. Jesus will still love you.

10. Jesus will still save the lost when they come to Him.

Isn’t it great to know the ONE who is really in control?

My Head Hurts

I've been researching and researching a new digital camera and about now, my head hurts!

This is the camera I have now. For the most part I have liked it quite well. It takes good pictures of the kids and our everyday shots. I can usually get relatively good results with my macro setting for flowers and insects. What is lacking is a decent zoom. I like to take pictures of birds and other wildlife and the zoom on the Canon just isn't enough.

I'm beginning to think I am asking too much of a point and shoot...good speed for kid shots, a great macro and a relatively high zoom. Before everyone jumps in about a DSLR, I am not ready to go that route. I need a good everyday camera and I don't want to be changing lenses or lugging around all that camera.

This is the camera I keep coming up with, but I'm still not sure. One thing that is holding me up is that I have gotten very used to the flip view screen. This is so handy when taking pictures down very low or at strange angles. Also, I am not sure about the size. It isn't as large as a DSLR, but still quite a bit bigger than I am used to and it certainly won't fit in my pocket!

Anyway, hubby spilled some coffee on my Canon and now the flash won't work, so I think I need to make up my mind soon. The camera is still under warranty, but I cannot be without my camera, as I am sure I will need to send it away to be repaired! So...the race is on to find the perfect (well, as close as I can get) camera.

So, anyone have a camera they just love that will fit my needs? I'd love to hear about it.

Providence

I am using a book called For the Love of God, Volume I by D.A. Carson to read the Bible in a year. It is a reading program, but also has daily thoughts by Mr. Carson on the passages. It isn't a commentary, but a short writing that draws the passages being read together in a common theme (at least two of the passages).

I am behind, last night I read the scriptures for January 26th. I am so glad I was behind. The passages of scripture and reading by Mr. Carson were a balm to my aching head and heart during this week of Super Tuesday Primaries and a political landscape that seems riddled with landmines.

The passages were Genesis 27; Matthew 26; Esther 3 and Acts 26

Genesis 27 finds Esau and Jacob vying for Isaac's blessing, Jacob swindling the blessing from Esau and Rebekah being disloyal to her husband by playing favorites with her children. In Mr. Carson's words "Genesis 27 is in many ways a pathetic, grubby account."

Matthew 26 finds Jesus celebrating Passover with his disciplies, agonizing in the Garden and being betrayed.

The book of Esther finds us in a world where a genecide is being planned for an entire people.

In Acts 26 we find Paul pleading his case in a Roman court.

If you read these passages in the entirety of the books, you can see God working out his plan, but the people in each case are inbroiled in political and social upheaval and conflict. Does this all sound familiar to our day?

The final paragraph of Mr. Carson's reading sums it up so much better than I can.

"Providence is mysterious. It must never be used to justify wrong actions or to mitigate sin: Isaac and his family are more than a little sleazy, Judas is a deceitful wretch, Haman is vile, and the Roman court trying Paul is more than a little corrupt. Yet God sovereignly rules, behind the scenes, bringing glory out of gore and honor out of shame."

Aren't you glad God is in control? No matter how dismal things may seem, God has a plan, His plan and he is working it all out for His glory.

Our Family

In today’s society, any family where there is a dad, a mom and children is nothing short of a miracle. And I realize that the miracle of birth is something truly amazing and such a gift from God.

What I have been thinking about is our family and what an incredible miracle forming it is been. The logistics of international adoption is mind boggling.

Here are some of the stats on our family.

• Eight parents (including Brian and me) from three different countries
• Three national governments and all their respective agencies and the many differences on how they handle things
• Many local and state government agencies
• Two town clerks
• Sheriffs department and State police
• One adoption agency
• Two social workers
• One orphanage and all the staff involved
• Two foster families
• Doctors, nurses and other medical staff in all three countries
• Two lawyers and their legal staff
• Three judges
• One psychologist
• Two pastors
• Nine friends

This is by no means an exhaustive list. I know there are 10s, more likely 100s of people that had a hand in bringing our children home to us. One shouldn’t wonder at how long it takes to adopt a child but that an adoption takes place at all, especially an international adoption. It staggers my mind to think how many people might have been involved, how many pairs of hands the paperwork passed through.

As we struggle through our days of teaching, nurturing, disciplining and loving, it is a good thing to sit back and wonder at the miracle of our family. The precious blessing it is from our Heavenly Father who saw fit to work it all out that we should be together. It is a good thing to ponder these things.

Blogging, Scrapbooking and Memories

I've been mulling over the idea of blogging, scrapbooking and our memories and the best way to preserve them.

I used to scrapbook a lot; I still like the idea of scrapbooking, but have not done any since the Littles have come home. So, my dilemma, what good is scrapbooking if you don’t actually do it?

So, my next thought, how about just putting the pictures into albums, forget the fancy stuff and just get them in books. I like this idea, but again, have not implemented it. I haven’t even gotten most of my pictures made into prints yet. I have several SD cards full of pictures. So, should I go ahead and get the albums and then hope this will inspire me to get my pictures done up? Or, should I get my pictures printed and then hope this gives me the incentive to buy the albums? Hmmm.

Add to this the whole idea of blogging. I enjoy keeping my blog. I’m not really sure why. I don’t think very many people read my blog. I know Bri enjoys reading it and there are several people on the SHS list and my stitching list that read it and I think Sally does, maybe Sue, but that is about it. So, is that enough people to warrant the time and effort it takes to do it? Is it okay to do it whether anyone reads it, just for myself? Is this a good enough means of keeping our memories? I don't really think so.

This week, Blogger started posting the amount of space you have used for photo storage. I knew that there had to be a limit, but all of a sudden, I feel the need to conserve space…why? I’m not sure what will happen after I run out. I think you can pay for more storage space. I don’t use a terribly large amount because I resize my photos for the web, so it would take a while to use all my storage up, but this has gotten me to thinking about scrapbooking again. Can you see the cycle this is taking?

My thoughts and problems…as coherently as I can make them are…
-I do want to preserve our photos and memories somehow.
-I don’t have time for fancy scrapbooking very often, but do enjoy it.
-I’d like to be able to look at our photos even if I don’t have time to scrapbook them.
-I want to keep blogging.

So…some solutions to these problems
-Print up the photos.
-Buy some albums with photo inserts and put photos in them.
-Work on scrapbook pages as time allows, maybe doing major events, birthdays, Christmas, vacation, etc, then fill in with everyday pages.
-Keep blogging and not worry about storage space, cull out old posts that are not that important, cross-stitch blocks, maybe recipes, that sort of thing.
-Keep a copy of the text from the blog, put it in a journal type Word document to keep the "memory" part of the blog even if I lose the picture part.

One of my brothers had a interesting point on all this and I have thought of it so many times. He said, don't lose the moment by trying to capture the moment. Do I spend too much time taking pictures of other people living and not doing enough of it myself?