Foster2Forever

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New Year’s Resolutions/Goals for 2010

Resolutions seem to go away the first week, but here are some goals I’d like to accomplish in 2010. Wish me luck & lots of prayer!

Spiritual
*Read the Old Testament – all of it – in chronological order. I found this really great One Year Chronological Bible at Mardel’s for $15. It is organized chronologically, which is really helping me with putting all the great Bible stories together how they happened. It’s like reading a great novel!

Family
*Provide a safe, loving Christian home to all my sons. My stepson graduates in May. Stinkpot, my very strong-willed toddler is a disciplinary challenge. We hope to adopt our foster baby boy sometime in 2010. (If you’d like information on fostering or adopting children in Texas – attend an informational meeting in your area.)

Homelife
*Get organized (somehow!) with cleaning, cooking & raising preschoolers while working full-time. I’m going to have to try this FlyLady thing again. To help with meal planning, I purchased this computer program –Dinner is Ready: 30 Meals in One Day – that I like alot. It puts together your menus & shopping lists by clicking on the recipes you like – you can even add your own recipes. Now to find the time to do the grocery shopping & cooking…(p.s. so far I have only been able to get this program to work on our PC with Microsoft xp, but not with Vista)

Personal
*Run the 5k in the Komen Central Texas Race for the Cure on April 24th. I have already begun training on the treadmill at work, but yesterday, I threw out my back…ug! Have any of you participated before?

Community
*Fight cancer in Central Texas by raising $15,000 for the Community Cancer Association at our first Quarters for Cancer event on Saturday, March 27th at Richland Mall. Anyone want to help or volunteer?

What are your goals/resolutions for 2010? Am I being too ambitious?

Hugs to you all!

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Christmas Lights

Christmas is always a hectic time of year. Add on top of that an active 2-year-old boy & a crazy work schedule & sadly, decorating our home for the holidays becomes more of a chore than joy. We (actually just my husband, as Bubba & I were too tired) finally put up the Christmas tree late last week. We have yet to even start decorating the outside (& we have a new nativity). This is truly sad as Stinkpot is so excited to see Christmas lights on the neighbors’ homes. Hopefully, we will have decent weather this weekend to finally put out the Christmas lights.

When we do finally decorate our home we won’t decorate our home like this person. Read their decorating story below:



“Good news is that I truly outdid myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people coming up to my house than ever.”

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Cherokee Legend

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth’s rite of Passage?

His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him an leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone.

Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.
He cannot tell the other boys of this experience,
because each lad must come into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises.
Wild beasts must surely be all around him . Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.

It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him.
He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone.
Even when we don’t know it, God is watching over us,
Sitting on the stump beside us.
When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.

Moral of the story:
Just because you can’t see God,
Doesn’t mean He is not there.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight” ~2 Corinthians 5:7

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” ~2 Corinthians 5:10

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Every Day

“Everyday I will praise you.”
-Psalm 145:2

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin.

God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you.

He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff– including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.

Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

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Helping Others

“Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
-Galatians 6:2

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Our Fallen Hero

This morning started VERY early!

I had to leave the house at 5 a.m. to get to a 7 a.m. meeting out of town. On the way back, in the small town of Hico, people were lined up along the highway along with many American flags. Hico was welcoming their fallen hero home.

U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Shawn Hefner gave his life in Operation Enduring Freedom on Friday, November 13, 2009 in Afghanistan when he stepped on a mine. He was only 22 years old.

I am blessed to have men overseas protecting my freedom!

Please pray for the Hefner family & the town of Hico!

 

http://www.iheartfaces.com/

GIVEAWAY

Foster2Forever is giving away an autographed copy of Spoken from the Heart signed by Laura Bush, the former First Lady herself! (I had to stand in line for over an hour for this!) Go to this GIVEAWAY link and register by July 31, 2010.

 

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Going Through the Motions…

I don’t want to go though the motions,
I don’t want to go one more day,
Without His all-consuming passion
Inside of me.

I don’t want to spend my whole life asking
What if I’d given everything

Instead of going through the motions!

~Matthew West

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Faithful Sunday

A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to

Leave the examination room and said,

‘Doctor, I am afraid to die.

Tell me what lies on the other side.’


Very quietly, the doctor said, ‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know? You’re, a Christian man,

and don’t know what’s on the other side?’


The doctor was holding the handle of the door;

On the other side came a sound of scratching and whining,

And as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room

And leaped on him with an eager show of gladness.


Turning to the patient, the doctor said,

‘Did you notice my dog?

He’s never been in this room before.

He didn’t know what was inside.

He knew nothing except that his master was here,

And when the door opened, he sprang in without fear.

I know little of what is on the other side of death,

But I do know one thing…


I know my Master is there and that is enough.’

I’m Clever

Sway