Thankfulness

"Thankfulness for what God has blessed us with is not enough; knowledge of the blessing is granted us that we might extend the blessings to others.  This Thanksgiving, thank God for ALL He has blessed you with.  But be aware of spiritual pitfalls in the blessings He has given.  Do not let them mask your deeper needs."
Taken from my devotional "At His Feet," by Chris Tiegreen.

http://www.worldorphans.org/

The stirring in my soul, our soul (my husband's included) continues... we pray and we wait... we praise and we thank... and we will obey!  Less of us and more of Him is much of what I meditate on... He has big plans... I can not wait!

Happy Weekend.
Dawn

And the Lord Provides...

I am just blown away.  As I got ready to write this blog, another friend just came by and bought 3 pins.  God has now provided over $900 through the sales of my fabric pins and the beautiful scarves my friend Donna GAVE me to sell.  He has surpassed the $800 that kept whispering in my heart... His blessings are abundant.

So this is a "THANK YOU" for one.  So many of our friends have come up along side us with so much encouragment, love, support, and friendship!  I am blown away.  I feel so much love for Brenda through all of you and she isn't even here yet!  Oh, how I pray God can transfer that love right across the ocean and deposit it into her heart!

In addition to the above, other friends have contributed over $900 in funds and so we are just a few hundred away from what is needed!  I am confident that God will provide that and even feel there may be some extra we can share with other families! :0)

It is strange... the quiet and calm excitement I am feeling for this child... for this precious little girl who likes to draw and to cook... who wants a pink room and loves dogs.  I am feeling little strings attaching me to her... across the miles... like I can almost feel her if I am real still.  I LOVE it.  And I LOVE and ADORE my FATHER in heaven who has given my husband and I a heart for children... to share the same desire to serve Him!  I can not WAIT to see what HE has in store!  

Do you know what is EVEN COOLER!!!!!?????  Three of our friends are thinking about and praying about hosting a child in the summer program!  How totally cool is that!  God is just contagious!

I had taken pictures after the craft show of 8 scarves and about 10 pins to post online... but they are all sold except for these.  The pins are $12 each and include postage.   The scarves are $17 and include postage.

Here is my pin that I wear on my jacket every day.  I put it on my pillow so you could see how cute it is!

I'll try and take some more pics of the ones that are left and get

them up in case any of my blogger girls want in on the fun!

THANK YOU AGAIN!

The excitement you share with us is such a gift.  Your questions about the program give us such encouragment.  http://www.newhorizonsforchildren.org/  Your support fills us with love.  And to know that God is cheering us on, loving us, and providing for us through each of you is just simply beautiful.  I am blown away. 

 Love and hugs to you...

Dawn

A Heavenly Escort

"For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.  In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone."  Psalm 91:12, 13

What a beautiful gift, blessing, privilege, honor, treat, divine touch... divine protection.  Makes me smile today and simply sigh in peace.

"For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands."  Psalm
92: 5

Happy Monday.

Hello dear ones.  I miss blogging and I don't.  Does that make sense?  It is freeing but I also love communicating with you all.

The craft show on Saturday was amazing and God was so generous... I sold over $550!  So many of my friends came out to support me and our funds for Brenda... that was a gift in itself.  Each time I saw a familiar face, my heart just warmed and smiled so big!  After I pay for the beautiful scarves I have placed safely in my room... we'll have raised $600!  A missionary with Operation Mobilization came by and sang a song to me... that she wrote... about the Lord... and it spoke to me RIGHT where I am... and she said to me, "This is a word of the Lord to you."  IT remains in my soul and was the greatest blessing of the day... of the week!

It was just a gift to share with each person the story behind the scarves they were buying.  When I told people how a friend of mine, Donna, made them as she healed from an injury and then how she gave them to me to sell for Brenda... you could just see a change come over their eyes... it was beautiful... as is Donna and her precious and very generous gift.  Thank you Donna.  It moves me to see so many people come together to love on a child who is not even here yet... moves me deeply... in the deepest corners of my spirit.  And to know that God is behind that love... moves me deeper still! 

God is doing mighty things.  He is ALL OVER ME and it is becoming addicting!  It makes me feel so full!  I am so thankful for it and am clinging to it with both hands.  I feel something big is coming and I am so excited I can't hardly stand it!

I have to clean and do laundry today.  My home is very neglected after a week of sewing.  But here is this week's scripture.  Love and hugs...


"Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your strength and with ALL your mind."  Luke 10:27~

"Most Christians walk a fuzzy line between devotion to God and devotion to other things.  We believe in our hearts, of course, that we should be wholly committed to God and love Him fully, and we desire to do so.  But at war against our undivided love for him are other distractions..." "God specifically asks for wholehearted, undying, all-out, passionate love for the Creator.  Every corner of our hearts, every ounce of our strength, every impulse of our minds, every breath of our souls.  He wants it all.  EVERYTHING."
taken from the BEST daily devotional, "At His Feet," by Chris Tiegreen

Back and Gone Again
Hello.  I am way out of blog mode.  I am BUSY making wonderful things for the craft show this weekend to make money for Brenda to come from Latvia and get loved on!  We have already been so blessed by precious and generous contributions to pay for her hosting.  My "thank you" can not come from any deeper in my heart!

I have also been very "busy" in God's presence.  He is working all around me in wonderful ways and I am just SOAKING Him in and loving every moment of it!  I PRAISE the God of Heaven for His goodness and majesty!

A dear sweet girl from my mom to mom group called me this morning.  She has been touched by a photo of a waiting child in the Philippines.  This precious little girl is two and has had a very very hard life.  Her medical file is a mile long and is not pretty to say the least.  This made my friend love her more.  But my friend and her husband are struggling with the reality of what bringing a child like this into their home "could" be like.  And they are struggling because God has given them this heart and they want to be in His will... whatever that might be.

I had the privilege of sharing part of my Abby story with her.  I told her how the "expert" in Washington looked at Abby's medical AND her video and said, "It doesn't get any better than this!"  I then told her how the bottom fell out just a few months after being home with her and how at that point we knew she had been seizing in the orphanage too and guessed that is why her birth mother left her in the cafe.  I also told her that the following two years were the darkest years of my life.  How I contemplated turning my back on God because I no longer believed He was good and actually thought He was very bad.

Then I told her how the Holy Spirit washed me with knowledge and changed my life.  I was sobbing "why" in the bathtub... wishing I would just sink and never surface again.  And then... in a moment... the answer came... "I am here.  I am holding you.  I am loving you.  I will never leave you.  I will walk you through this.  This is not about you. I am not doing this "to" you... I am doing this "for her".  I knew what her life was going to be like.  I knew she was sick.  And I WANTED TO LOVE HER AND FOR HER TO KNOW ME AND KNOW MY LOVE and I am doing that THROUGH YOU."

I have never been the same since that moment.  Instead of dwelling on my despair, I started dwelling on making each day of her life as best as it could be.  My goal was to make her smile... and to be God's love to her.

Then I got to tell me friend how lucky we are to live in a reality where God's beauty is before our eyes every day in her ability to laugh, walk, swim, ride a scooter, go to school, and tell me she loves me.  Where his power is seen in the very fact that she is alive and well... and she is well.  Even though she had a seizure last Wednesday and yesterday... she is well... so well.  And my God is so very good.

I also confessed to her that if Abby's medical had read what was really true, I probably would not have thought I could handle it and would have missed out on one of the most beautiful love stories of my life... and the privilege of loving this precious child for my Savior and being loved by her in return.  And I would have missed out on my Savior saving me and drawing me so close to His side.  I can't do this, any of it, but He can and He does... for me.

Now don't misunderstand, I only shared my story... and prayed with her.  Several people had told her to call me and I know God wanted me to share my story with her.  I told her it was a very personal decision and that she and her husband needed to be on their knees before the author of life right now.  God will show them what to do because they are truly seeking Him.

And then she thanked me.  She has many friends and even family who are focused on her comfort... and that was not what she wanted to hear.  I was able to give her a perspective that noone else has been able to give her.  And THAT is yet another GIFT that has come from Abby's illness.  THAT is why I am sharing this.   THAT is how our heavenly father works.  THAT is how God is glorified even in the midst of Abby's mitochondrial disease!  I love it when He uses this painful part of our life to help and encourage others!  PRAISE HIM!  What a beautiful privilege!

I don't know what God is doing in your life right now.  I don't know who is reading this and needs to be encouraged.  But know that God is good and sovereign.  And know that life is not all about comfort and safety.  To walk on water... you have to have faith to step out of the boat.  Don't miss a miracle because you forget how big God really is!

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3: 20, 21~

And now I am back off blog land to return to my sewing corner!  I love you.  Hugs.
 

Happy Birthday Sweet Jen!

This is Jen... Jennifer.  She is my husband's daughter... that makes her my daughter too!  Today is her birthday. She is loving.  She is kind.  She is tender.  She is thoughtful.  She is forgiving.  She is precious.  She is funny.  She is God loving.  She is a great friend.  She is a wonderful mother.  She is an amazing wife.  She is a gift to me.  She has always embraced me, accepted me, liked me, and now she loves me.  And I love her... so very much! 

Happy Birthday precious Jen.  You make me smile.  You make your daddy proud.  You make your Father in heaven proud.  You are an amazing woman and I send you a HUGE birthday hug today (along with a LATE gift in the mail!).  I love you...

For Local Readers!

Hello sweet friends.  I have an account at Red Door Consignment Store and will be using the money towards Brenda's hosting this Christmas!  Here is a neat way you can be a part of bringing her here. 

You can take winter clothes, in top condition, and household items to Red Door and have them register it under my account!  Then at the end of the month, we'll use the money towards our fundraising.  Then, what's sold after the end of the month, we'll use to buy her clothes once she is here and some gift items!  It's really a cool way to declutter for a GREAT cause!  So just tell them to put the items under Dawn Sullivan's account and that's that!  Thank you so much!  We turned in our paperwork today and are really starting to get excited to meet her and share our Christmas with this Latvian orphan! 

Here are so ideas of things you can donate... and oh... you can also bring them by to me and I can take them for you as well. 

sweaters

turtlenecks

jeans

cords

shoes/boots

coats

scarves

jewelry

purses

dishes

framed pictures

mirrors

knick knacks

children's winter items

childrens toys

dvd's

fictional books

bedding (bed spreads/quilts/bed skirts)

FURNITURE

Halloween has come and gone.

"Boo" to the rain that really put a wet damper on the night's festivities!  Speaking of "Boo", I got this "boo" at Jo-Ann Fabrics on the 80% sale they had THREE WEEKS BEFORE Halloween for 99 cents and I was thrilled with how it spiffed up my fall wreath.  It will be hard to take down, I really like it!

Marc was a cheetah.  If you asked Abby, he was going to be a cheetoh!  It was hillarious...maybe next year!

Now on to burning leaves, roasting marshmellows, sweaters, and nesting!  I have been nesting.  Yeah!