Back from accidental Hiatus!

Oh, hello there!

I guess 5 months is  quite a while to be away….

And what a crazy 5 months it’s been, but I wont get into all of that.

How about a few new things to get beck into the swing of it?

-Yesterday at VONS, while grabbing lunch, I overheard this announcement: “Attention all VONS shoppers, there is a small white poodle loose in the store. If this is your dog, please go get it. Thank you!”

-5 seed almond bars from Trader Joes=delicious

-I’m planning on going to Swaziland, Africa this summer! And I’ll be photographing something very special…More details to come…

-I’m hopefully also shooting a wedding in July! A friend of a friend. Anyone else looking for a photographer?

-I got a new car! Praise God! It’s a long, wonderful story.. if you want to hear it, let me know. If anyone is even reading this anymore. hmmmm.

-I lost a dear friend in december. It’s been really tough. Please pray for her husband and 3 boys. Today would have been their anniversary.

-Getting paid to learn Photoshop was great! Next up: Lightroom! Anyone use LR? Tips?

Okay, kiddos. That’s all for now!

Hopefully I’ll be better about posting!?

Deep stuff

Once a week I get together with 4 of my closest girls to talk, pray, and read our bibles. Sort of a bible study, sort of an accountability group…

Last night was a tough one. Tough because lots of things came up. Real things, things that have emotion behind them, and hurts and fears and hopes. That stuff is hard to deal with, it’s hard to see through to the other side sometimes, and it can be hard to remember that God is ultimately in control.

But it’s all about going through it together, and ultimately knowing and believing that God is loving and powerful. He already knows the outcomes, the way our lives will play out, and who He has lined up for us.

Working through and letting go of all of this anxiety, worry, stress, and tears is just the way we come to understand God’s character and the ways in which He is taking care of it all, if we would only let Him, and listen for guidance.

I’m so blessed to have these girls in my life. It was a long night for all of us, with the focus moving from person to person. But we all know that we all love each other as sisters, and we’re in it together. Even though by the end of the night I just wanted to break down and sob for, oh, 3 hours or so…I didn’t, but I wish I would have been able to, sometimes a good cry just releases all of that pent up tension from worrying so much.

I know God knows what He’s doing, and His plans are far better than anything I think I want right now.

I’m thankful for where I’ve been, where I’m at, and where I’m going. Things that seem huge today really aren’t that big of a deal in the long run.

I’m glad I have amazing friends to walk through it with me, and I’m glad I can walk with them through their struggles. I’m glad I’m not the one in control, I’d screw stuff up far too often!

And I can just picture God watching me freak out about what I can’t see, smiling and thinking to himself, “If she only knew! It’s going to be great!”

In the meantime…calm down little heart, just calm down. It’s all going to work out…

Pray is much appreciated if you feel like it.
How can I pray for you?

The Ivey’s are changing the world…and my heart

The world of blogging is amazing to me. People you’ve never met can really change your perspective, and your life.

Over the past few months I’ve been following the lives of a family I’ve never met. They share their stories, struggles and most importantly, their journey through trying to adopt 2 beautiful children from Haiti. And right now Aaron and Jamie could really really use your prayers! I beg you to join me, and many others who are lifting them up in prayer and pleading for God to move mountains that could possibly prevent them from being united with their precious children.

My heart has been opened and changed by their blogs, and specifically by their heart for adoption. It was a topic that I was always unsure of. And now, I don’t see how anyone can have a negative view of it. And it’s now something that I plan on doing when the time is right. Why WOULDN’T it be right to take in and love and give a home to a child who otherwise would be overlooked by the world.

I read a statistic that was something like, if 7(?)percent of Christians adopted a child there would be no orphans. I don’t remember where I read it, or what the exact number was, but it was a small number. And that blows my mind.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and fautless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27 NIV

I think it’s interesting that in the same breath, that passage mentions taking care of the orphans and widows, AND not letting yourself be polluted by the world. How do those go together? Because it seems that a main excuse people use (and I’m not saying that EVERYONE HAS TO adopt, just looking deeper into why we should) for not feeling called to adopt is to say that it is too hard, too scary. The world has corrupted so many things. And because the world feeds us lies about adoption leading to broken families who can’t get along and adopted children who hate their adopted parents…we have come to FEAR adoption in some ways. What if it messes up your comfortable life? What if it changes the way you and your family live. But who would try and decieve us to believe that “what God accepts as pure and faultless” is in fact impossible? I can only think of one Sneaky Little Bastard… the same one who would love for use to believe that many things are impossible, he would love for us to forget that through Christ who strengthens me, all things are possible. All things. Possible. God moves mountains. Don’t let yourself be polluted by the world.

If God sees something as pure and faultless, and if it models His love for us, why would we expect it to fail? Is it challenging and heartbreaking at times, I’m sure it is. But does that stop God from adopting us as His own and taking us in without question to love us for eternity? Nope. So why should it stop us?

Let’s join in prayer and beg for God to move what seems like us to mountains, but to Him are just little pebbles. And stop by Aaron’s blog and/or Jamie’s blog to read it for yourself, to see their hearts, and to encourage them. They’re trying to change the world through loving children as God loves. They’ve changed my life, and through that, will end up changing atleast one other child’s life in the future. And THAT, that is pure and faultless.

Let’s be The Church right now. Pray. It works wonders.

South Africa- My heart aches

14 years after the end of apartheid, South Africa finds itself consumed with racial violence yet again.

Having been there twice, I know first hand the love and beauty that lives within the country.I’ve seen both sides, the poverty ridden squatter towns with raw sewage running through the “street” and the comfy, decorated homes of those who live without the constant worry of where their next meal will come from. But even in the bleakest of situations, I have seen smiles and heard laughter and songs full of so much joy you think something might burst.

So it saddens me to read about such pain, fear and anger once again taking hold of so many people’s hearts.

I wonder when people will learn, if people will ever learn, that killing your enemies only creates more enemies and only worsens the core problems. You would think that it would be common knowledge, but judging by the state of our world, it isn’t at all. And knowing the way human minds work, and that we are all fallen, I suppose it shouldn’t shock me as much as it does.

I know that many areas of our world are suffering today. But please pray for South Africa. For peace and a final end to all of this racial conflict. There is so much joy there, I pray that THAT is what we will hear about soon.