Rejoice!

My heart is singing this morning with my dear friend, Amy!

Together, and with the angels, we are singing, "Hallelujah! God is good!"

Remember a week ago, when I posted this about my friend who was longing for her baby, who was waiting on the other side of the world?

Today, I can report to you with great joy that Amy has received her referral approval and is now the official (though not yet legal) mother of this sweet Chinese girl, Elisabeth.


For those of you who wonder, yes, this is Amy of the pie crust, Amy of the granola inspiration, Amy of the sweet comments.

She has waited 105 long days for this great news, which finally arrived this morning. Lord willing, she'll have her baby girl in arms before Christmas.

Congratulations to your precious family, Amy. Our prayers have been answered and your sweet daughter will be home before you know it. I can't wait to see her dancing with Abby in pink princess dresses!

"God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing." -Psalm 68:6

So glad Elisabeth will be with her family soon and that the prison doors of this long wait are swinging wide open at last!

I can't stop smiling!

Going Under

It's funny how my "season of life" impacts my perspective on so many things, including my relationship with the Lord.

A few of you commented along the lines of how it takes purposeful work to go deep. To stay below the surface requires a concerted effort to swim down.

When I picture going deep and escaping the turmoil of the surface for the depths of His peace,
I picture... sinking. It's a complete, surrendered, letting go. I give up my will to survive and to keep myself afloat and then I find myself
sinking...
sinking...
sinking...
down into the quiet, dark, calm, peaceful places.

I remember the seasons of my life when I would work hard to go deep. When I would dive and kick and swim purposefully toward the depths.

For now, I am content to surrender to gravity.

Surely, my season for vigorous swimming will come around again, in due time.

"He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young." Isaiah 40:11

Peace

A quick devotional this morning reminded me of this beautiful illustration.

At the surface of the ocean, there are waves, and wind, and glaring sun, and the noisy voices of gulls and the pull of the tide. But as you go deeper, down far below the surface, the noise and the turbulence and the heat fade away. Down deep, there is peace, and calm, and quiet.

My heart's desire is to live below the surface. To delve deep into Christ and abide in Him in such a way that I am sheltered from the noise and the heat and the turbulence of circumstances, fully engulfed in His peace.

"...the peace which passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Peace.

Lord of the Details

God is SO GOOD.

Throughout this crazy process of turning our lives upside down, He has been so very kind and so very faithful and so very gentle. Each insurmountable obstacle is simply cleared away, making way for us to follow Him.

Today, it was the cats. My sweet friend, whom I've known since high school, texted me today to say that the kitties are welcome at her house.

I know, it seems like a small thing. But it's not.

All the shelters are full. All the animal rescues are full. No one wants to "freecycle" them.

"What," we wondered, "will we do with these precious pets?"

And, making the stakes so much higher, we have certain children who are attached to certain cats. Letting the kitties go into some uncertain circumstance was a painful thought for them.

Now, we can know that the cats reside with friends. And we can come and visit them when we are in town.

When I told the kids tonight, they all heaved sighs of relief and a burden was lifted from all of our shoulders.

God is SO GOOD. He is so very kind.

If He is for us, who can be against us?

Long Distance Relationship

I have a friend.
She is loving and kind.
And a faithful blog reader. =)
Right now, her sweet baby girl is on the other side of the planet.
This is not the way it should be.
She has been so very patient
for so very long.

Will you please pray with me for her?

I'm praying that God grants her
the peace that passes understanding,
that He would keep her far-away little one
in the palm of His hand,
that He would fill her house
with peace and joy while she waits.

And, most of all,
that her little one would be
in her arms VERY SOON.

He is so good!

(It would be great if you would leave my friend a word of encouragement in the comments...
Thanks!)

Jubilee!

God calling our family to move to Southeast Washington, completely unexpectedly, has been such an amazing experience. I want to chronicle some of it here, but my brain is so very overloaded right now with keeping my daily life running and preparing to move. The balance between the important and the urgent has never been more challenging.

Here's a quick tid-bit on a busy Awana-Wednesday.

When the "executive search organization" first contacted Roger and sent a profile of the ministry and the job description, included in the many pages was this statement of the vision of Jubilee Youth Ranch. It touched my heart. Enjoy.

The biblical vision of Jubilee focuses on the outsider - the weak, the defenseless, the marginalized and the outcast. It was a social ideal designed to prevent the creation of a permanent class of poor people. The ones on the outside were given the opportunity and tools for a comeback.

A society ultimately is judged by its attention to its weakest members, those with their unused potential on the outside of the common life. The goal of Jubilee is to bring the excluded inside, building a holistic supporting community in which the poor person can grow and gradually move from dependency to relative stability as contributing members of the families and communities in which they live.

The Jubilee vision desires to nurture the spirit of the residents of Jubilee Youth Ranch. Jubilee is an investment restoring wholeness to young boys with broken lives, broken relationships with God, self, and others. The program addresses broad areas that affect the quality of life. Our programs focus on housing, social, personal, spiritual and vocational development, with the goal of living a life of meaning and purpose as followers of Jesus Christ.

A Little Sad

I just went to post a listing on freecycle for our cats. I had thought that I was totally fine with giving them up in the move. In fact, don't tell the kids, but I was kind of happy to be free of the cat-care burden,
small as it is.

However, just now, when I was writing about our sweet kitties, who need a new home...
I felt a little sad.


Ack! I love my cats!

Darn it.


We can't take them to Washington, as we'll be living in a really nice house, provided by the Ranch and wouldn't want to have pets inside. AND, they can't live outside, as cats are frequently eaten by coyotes at the Ranch. So, clearly, they need a new, safe, loving home.

I just didn't expect to miss them.

Anyhoo...

Anyone need a couple of beautiful kitties??

From the S OR Coast

So... We have BIG NEWS here at the House of Coast...

We're MOVING. Yes, it's strange, but true. Once again, we made plans.. and God LAUGHED.

It's a long and wonder-filled story, but I don't have time to write it all down right now. I just wanted to get the word out and to post a few pictures. We'll be moving to Jubilee Youth Ranch in Southeast Washington (near Walla Walla and Pasco/Kennewick/Richland) at the end of November. Roger will start work there on December first as the new Executive Director. Jubilee is a ministry that seeks to give a fresh start to disadvantaged boys.

Truly, this is a dream come true. Roger and I met when we were both working in these kind of ministries and always believed that God would lead us back into this work. We just didn't expect it to be now, when we're comfortably settled here. We've always looked for this opportunity whenever it was time to do something new. This time, the opportunity came looking for us.

Rejoice with us as we move back into full time ministry and make a new home in the corner of Washington.

I guess I'll have to come up with a new name for the blog...

These are pictures I lifted off the internet to give you a peek at where we'll be:


The Ranch is an oasis in a valley among the rolling hills of sage brush and wheat.


The founders planted lots of trees which will be great for shade as they grow larger and lend a picturesque quality to the place.

The buildings in this picture are administration/school and one of the dorms and some staff housing in the background.

This is a better shot of the admin building. In the distance, you can see the apple orchards that back up to the ranch. We'll be nestled among the largest apple orchard in the world (6000 acres.) I can hardly wait for the blossoms in the spring!

This is the house which the ranch has genrously provided for the Executive Director's family. We'll be moving in here and living on campus. All that green grass in the front yard... a driving range! I guess we'll all be brushing up on our golf swing.

I'd better stop putting off the start of this Monday. There is so much to do and the process and the future seem a little overwhelming some times. Surely, God will give us the grace to do what He has called us to do.

"We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Corinthians 4:7