Merry Christmas

Oh come let us adore him,
Oh come let us adore him,
Oh come let us adore him,
Christ, the Lord.

What should I do?

Over the past couple of months, it has come to my attention that some stores that I frequent are either directly or indirectly supporting Planned Parenthood.  I was very disappointed to hear about this, since I like one of the stores so much I actually have their store credit card.  But knowing what I know, I could not knowingly support a store that is contributing to the holocaust of our children.  In the past, I was involved in the big Target boycott, which lasted a decade.  It eventually ended in Target removing their support for Planned Parenthood.  So I have seen how a boycott can change the course of a company's decisions.  Therefore, my husband and I have decided to join the boycott of these stores until they change their policy.

Someone recently told me about a pet store chain that had been getting their animals from places that were not humane.  I guess this fact made the news and within something like a week that pet store was out of business because people were so indignant that the pet store would support such an atrocity.  One week!  It took us ten years to get Target to change their policy, but a pet store was put out of business in one week!  Where are our priorities?  Why is it that a child is seen as less important than a dog?  And what are we going to do about it?  Let's wake up!  You might not be able to change everything, or address every injustice.  But do something.  Ask God what he wants you to do and then obey him.

Inspired

For some reason I'm inspired to write a blog post tonight - at 11:30 when I should be in bed.  But I thought I'd better grab the inspiration when it comes.  (Maybe I should drink black tea with lunch more often...)

I have not told the story of Sarina's birth yet, so I'll give that a quick summary.  We were supposed to be induced on June 9th.  But we really didn't feel peace about it.  After praying about it, we decided to go with my doctor's recommendation and proceed with the inducement.  However, we were praying that God would close the doors if it was not his will.  The 9th came and there were no closed doors, so off we went to the hospital.  We checked in, got our room, I got dressed in the gown, IV, everything.  The bag of pitocin was ready to go and the midwife walked in.  First things she asks is how I feel about having the baby today.  So I was upfront with her and told her that I wasn't feeling so sure about it.  After much discussion and some tests on the baby to make sure she wasn't under stress, I walked out of the hospital still pregnant!  I never would have thought that I would be happy to leave the hospital one week past my due date and pregnant.  But I felt so much peace that it didn't matter that I was physically uncomfortable.  I glorify the Lord that he was able to close the doors for us so late in the game.  He sent us just the right person to enable us to follow his plan.

We went back to the hospital the following Friday, the 11th.  I can't tell you how differently I felt driving there.  On Wednesday I had been feeling dread, fear, worry, but this day I felt excitement and anticipation - all of the things I should feel when I'm about to meet my baby.  The inducement on Friday went off without a hitch.  Pitocin started at 7am.  Although the contractions were progressing, it was nothing big until my water broke at 9:20.  Then everything took off like a rocket.  Sarina was born at 9:55 am.  So that was almost three hours from start to finish.  Not bad.

Now she's four months old, rolling all over the place, smiling, laughing and delighting us all.

Our school year is going great!  Every year seems to bring new improvements over the last one and this year is no exception.  I am learning better time management skills, as well as learning to accept that even if I don't get everything done in a day that I would like to, God knows what I need to do and everything else can wait.  The older two kids are learning how to manage their time better, too.  And we're all learning how to work together to keep our home a nice, clean place to live.

One more bit of news before I go.  We just found out that there is another home school family living in our neighborhood with a large family like us.  I actually had met them before, because they own a used curriculum book store that I shop at.  But last Monday, Rebecca came rushing in exclaiming that the people who own the book store lived just down the street.  So we literally dropped everything, piled the babies in the stroller and went to introduce ourselves.  We all had a blast and the kids went back over today to play again.  Matthew and I had just been talking last week about how our kids don't have other kids in our neighborhood to play with.  I remember at the time of that conversation submitting my heart to the Lord's plan for our children and reminding myself that he knows what they need.  So the timing of meeting this family was so sweet to me because the Lord was answering the cry of my heart.

God is so good.  He fills my life with so much joy.  I love living for him.

Final Decision About School

I just found out today that the John Adams Academy will not be able to receive all the funding they need to start up this year until October.  So they have decided to wait until next year when they can get the funds earlier and use them for their start-up costs.  That means we get another year to home school!  I have been having a hard time with the thought of not having the kids home.  I would miss them so much during the day.  I know that I would adjust.  And if it's what God has for them, he has a different plan for me, too.  But I'm really happy to know that I get to keep them home for another year.

Treasure in Heaven

Tonight our oldest daughter was baptized.  It was a very special event that I was greatly looking forward to.  She has been ready to make a public commitment to the Lord for some time now.  But what made this event even more special was the fact that Matthew got to baptize her.  I didn't find out that he was going to do it until right before the baptism.  So I pretty much cried non-stop from the moment I found out until after she was baptized.  Our kids are such a blessing to us.  And our greatest desire for each of them is that they would have a personal relationship with the Lord and follow him with their whole hearts all of their lives.  They really are the treasures we are storing up in heaven.

I did manage to see through the tears to get a few pictures.  :)

I did it!

I just managed to add a button to my blog from a source that was incorrect! But with a little research and using someone else's html code with my changes made, I fixed the problem and now I have a beautiful "Drawn from Water" button on my blog!

Drawn from Water is very near and dear to my heart. It is an orphanage in Africa that rescues "Mingi" children who are marked to die because of tribal superstition. Our church started this orphanage to rescue the children and find adoptive homes for these kids who would not have survived otherwise. The picture you see is of the first child rescued, who has now been legally adopted by a wonderful family in our church. They are heading to Africa in a few weeks to meet her and bring her home. Please take a minute to read the blog. I'm pretty sure that this is one of God's favorite ministries on earth right now. ;)

And Now About School

This should be a shorter blog. We're applying to send our kids to a charter school called "The John Adams Academy." It's a school that's being started by a previous home school family who has the vision to raise up "servant leaders" in the next generation. They use a classical approach to education with an emphasis on teaching critical thinking. We have never found an opportunity for the kids better than home schooling. But this could be one. I never planned on stopping home school. I love schooling the kids, even after the hard days. I love having them home and would miss them if they were gone for the day. But this school could offer them some learning opportunities that I can't give them here. And in addition, the morals they will be taught there are in line with the morals we are teaching them here. So the school will actually be reinforcing the character training we work on at home. At this point, they have 500 plus applicants with only 400 spots open. So they are going to be doing a lottery for the spots in the school. We'll see what happens. But this could really change the way life goes around here!

Promise of Laughter

I mentioned in a previous blog that the Lord has called the baby that is coming "laughter." You can read that here: http://thestroupsgrowingfamily.blogspot.com/2009/09/laughter.html
Since then, almost anytime I've been prayed over the last nine months that word has been repeated. The Lord is bringing laughter and joy with the birth of this baby. I'm all for that! Life is intense and hard! Raising children is hard and often not fun. I really need the joy of the Lord every day or I get pulled under the challenges of the day. I have not even come close to walking in the joy of the Lord during my day. So this promise has me excited because I know that the Lord is doing a work in me and in my family. And when it is His work (not mine) and His promise, I know it won't return void. But He is faithful to complete the work He has started.

Along that strain, I may or may not have mentioned that about a year and a half ago, the Lord challenged us to trust Him with the size of our family. So we stopped using birth control. This has been a huge challenge to me as far as trusting the Lord and surrendering control to Him. I was SURE I would be pregnant by the time Aaron was nine months old. But he was actually 14 months when I got pregnant with this baby. In addition, the way the Lord has surrounded this pregnancy with prophetic promises, including one before I ever knew I was pregnant, has helped my weak heart to trust and know that this child is just as planned as all of our other children, who we planned ourselves. God is so good to us.

Our new baby's name is Sarina Karen. Finally, another girl! Sarina means "princess who laughs." Karen is Matthew's mother's name. She died in 1995 and we have been waiting for eleven years to pass on her name! Karen means "pure." I find it very cool that our baby is "pure laughter."

Catching Up

It's been pointed out to me that I haven't blogged since October and people want to know what's happening in my life. So, I'm going to post two or three to catch people up over the next few days.

I thought I would start with our fostering/adoption situation. Joshua did go back to his first foster home last November. I heard that he adjusted really well back into the home. But I have not heard anything since then. That's kind of the way it goes with fostering. So, I just pray for him and his parents and hope that they are ok.

After Joshua left, I told Matthew that I felt like we had gotten an "F" on fostering. It was very challenging trying to teach him how to behave when he had very little discipline up to that point in his life. I was amazed at how adept he was at manipulation at such a young age. And he seemed to know exactly how to push my buttons. It took a few months after he left before I didn't feel anything except a sense of relief that he was gone. Now, as Aaron is approaching two and reminding me of Joshua all the time, I do have fond memories of him. And I wish I could go back and love him better.

Since that time, we have been looking for open and closed doors as to whether or not we're to foster. Given the fact that we're expecting - I'm due in three weeks - Koinonia put us on an unofficial break. In addition, we just found out that the state of California has passed a law that a foster home cannot have more than a total of six children in the home. This was actually a policy at Koinonia already. But they may have made an exception for us. But now that this law has passed, I think the door is closing. The law only applies to state foster homes at this point. But there are plans to expand it to private foster agencies in the future. So, at this point, we may be done with fostering.

I have wondered why God would have us go through this process just to foster one child for three months. But we can't know all of His purposes. I don't know what God's plan for us in the future is regarding fostering and adopting. But I am very sure that He will be faithful to lead us every step along the way.

Next blog...the new baby!