A Christmas Poem

The Swaddled Gift

The Gift that came in winter’s night was the gift that changed my life. A baby birthed in pale moonlight from a virgin womb that night. Angels proclaiming hallelujah all around the King of Kings from heaven came down. He lay there swaddled in a cloth, born in a manger, the stench so great, a place for animals our King was laid. 

Our ransom was born that night our souls He came to buy. He purchased us with His blood as His body was nailed to wood. In anguish and in pain upon the cross He would hang. The babe in the mire and stench God would send to earth, our souls He came to save. His blood has now ransomed us in, into a kingdom to call His own the babe came down and left His throne. 

So as you hang your light’s this year please remember this gift so dear. He came from heaven swaddled tight the greatest gift to change your life. 

 Merry Christmas

With Much Love,

Kimberly 

Afraid to Pray......Afraid to Bond....

It has been 8 long months since we placed these green shoes on our princess. We have been told from the beginning that the adoption process in Haiti is an arduous one. We've been told not to get impatient and to expect it to take up to 2 years. Since receiving this news I have been extremely patient, almost too patient. You see when we adopted Eli I knew, I knew he was coming home soon and I told everyone. I posted it on my blog www.babyeli.yolasite.com. I BELIEVED! I expected from the Lord. This time it has been different, I haven't expected anything. So, I have put Rebekah in the back of my mind in order to cope with the long wait. 

But something has happened this week.....something great! I started believing in miracles again! I went back to scripture and it was confirmed in my heart. And what I knew in my head was confirmed again this morning when a sweet adoption friend posted to our private site on prayer. It really doesn't matter what timelines say, governments do, or we think, our God is a BIG God. A God that is concerned with ALL of our ways. "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses  but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need." Hebrews 4:15-16

If I have no unconfessed sin in my heart I may approach the very throne room of God. WOW! He also says in His word, if I ask believing I will receive. This is the part that is tricky for most believers. This doesn't mean if I ask for a Mercedes Benz the Lord will give it to me. The Bible says if I ask according to His will. So I must search the scripture to determine His will. 

His will is for Rebekah to be home with her family! Psalm 68:5-6 "A father of the fatherless. God sets the lonely in families."

He has already promised her a hope and a future. So when I approach His throne believing she will come home soon and praying in that manner He will hear me! So I have a request of you!

See this candle? Every morning the children and I are lighting this candle for Rebekah. We are getting in the floor on our face before God and we are asking that He move mountains and bring her home soon. Not for my sake, but for hers. She is in a wonderful place, being cared for, her daily needs met, but she needs us. She needs to be tucked in every-night by her mommy, kissed by her daddy, and snuggled up with her sister. God has written her story out, it is done, now I must believe. Will you believe with me? Light a candle for Rebekah and pray with me? Pray until she comes home? Let's believe together, united in one accord, incline the ear of our Father, and trust that He will GIVE according to what He has promised! 

The Gift Of Giving Instilled In Our Children...

How do we teach this to our children in a materialistic world? Jesus can't really compete with the toys, Santa, the light's, the glitz, the glamour of Christmas. The kids and I read portion's of the Christmas story each day and still when I ask what their favorite part is they always say, "the toys." How do we instill the joy of giving in our children's hearts? We give! We live our lives out in front of them and set an example of the gospel for them to see. 

I came home last night from work and this note was on the mailbox. I sat in the driveway and wept. My daughter wants to help the poor in Haiti. I wish so bad just one person would have stopped. I even thought about leaving money in the mailbox to increase her faith. What if we stopped in our busy day for an 8 year old little girl with a BIG heart. Her prices were very reasonable after-all. 

Today we were invited to a cookie party at a friend's house. We baked cookies and made up bags for them to give away. 

Then the best part! Instead of buying a $5 gift for them to exchange each child put their $5 into this jar. I'll share at the end what was done with the money. 

We had cookies galore. 

Homemade potato soup....yummy.

Then we opened our ears, inclined our hearts, and listened. The money that was in the jar was matched by an anonymous donor and the total came to $175.00. The kids got to go through various books and choose how the money was spent, their gift to Jesus. 

They purchased a goat, two chicken's, and helped buy a well. AMAZING! Our children were able to live out the gospel today. Jesus says when we do these things for others we are doing them for Him.  

Jesus came and He laid down His life for us. He gave the greatest gift ever given. Could we be like Him? Choose to joy in giving. He laid in a manger on a cold winter's night for you and for me. Give this Christmas! Teach your children to love and serve those around them. Let's take back Christmas from the world. Take back Christmas and serve the One that gave it to us in the first place. 

God Comforts His People

I boarded a plane last month with twelve beautiful women. We embarked on a trip that would change each of us in a way we could never imagine. I had been to Haiti in April, I had seen the devastation left from the great quake, the poverty had been etched in my mind, but this trip I SAW. I really saw what God sees. I saw a people, His people, the ones He loves....the poor. He loves the poor. He speaks of them throughout His word. He gives us the command to care for them. I came home, I left part of me in Haiti, I came home saddened of our state of complacency. I wrote a blog that was deleted (I'm not sure how) about our forgetfulness. When God opens our eyes we see, but when it's not in front of us anymore we began to forget. We forget the faces, the tragedy, the naked babies, and the mommies that can't feed them. We go back to our apathy, our entertainment, our life, with our families. He says remember them....remember the poor. I left so much in Haiti, it changed me, it hurt me, it wounded me forever. 

This Friday another event that would change me. 28 precious souls taken by the evil one. My heart aches. I laid between my babies on Saturday night. Lily's hot breath on my back, Sam's sweet back in my face, their smell, their soft skin. I cried all night, I couldn't stop thinking about the pain. I know their pain all too well. I know how it feels to know you've lost someone to something evil. I remember the pain, the fear that would come at night when I would replay the night in my mind. The fateful night my sister was taken in the same way. Led down steps in a tee shirt that belonged to me her big sister, her boyfriend bleeding, dying, stepping over her dead roommate, the blood, the fear, the stench. It was the horror of how she died that plagued me. Was she afraid? Did she think of us? Did she cry out to God? Those babies that were taken from their parent's, this too has changed me. I have been in pain these last few months, aching for Jesus, aching for you, for you to SEE. 

I have cried and He has answered. The scripture He gave me today to comfort me and give me hope. I pray it does the same for you.

1“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”

Says your God.

2“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,

That her warfare is ended,

That her iniquity is pardoned;

For she has received from the Lord’s hand

Double for all her sins.”

3The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

“Prepare the way of the Lord;

Make straight in the desert

A highway for our God.

He sent Jesus for us, to pardon us, to relinquish the debt of our sin. Can you imagine the stench? A manger with the smell of pigs. I traveled to a pig farm recently, the stench is unbearable, it stayed in my hair until I showered. The smell, the poverty that surrounded the King of Kings. He came for YOU.

4Every valley shall be exalted

And every mountain and hill brought low;

The crooked places shall be made straight

And the rough places smooth;

5The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

And all flesh shall see it together;

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

6The voice said, “Cry out!”

And he said, “What shall I cry?”

“All flesh is grass,

And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

7The grass withers, the flower fades,

Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;

Surely the people are grass.

8The grass withers, the flower fades,

But the word of our God stands forever.”

We will parish, we are perishing even now, but His word stands forever. He has promised and He will fulfill His promises to us. 

9O Zion,

You who bring good tidings,

Get up into the high mountain;

O Jerusalem,

You who bring good tidings,

Lift up your voice with strength,

Lift it up, be not afraid;

Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

10Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand,

And His arm shall rule for Him;

Behold, His reward is with Him,

And His work before Him.

11He will feed His flock like a shepherd;

He will gather the lambs with His arm,

And carry them in His bosom,

And gently lead those who are with young.

He carries us like a shepherd. He gathers us with His arm and carries in His bosom. Will you rest in His bosom? Trust that He loves you and will lead you? 

12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,

Measured heaven with a span

And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?

Weighed the mountains in scales

And the hills in a balance?

13Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,

Or as His counselor has taught Him?

14With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,

And taught Him in the path of justice?

Who taught Him knowledge,

And showed Him the way of understanding?

15Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket,

And are counted as the small dust on the scales;

Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.

16And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,

Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.

17All nations before Him are as nothing,

And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.

18To whom then will you liken God?

Or what likeness will you compare to Him?

19The workman molds an image,

The goldsmith overspreads it with gold,

And the silversmith casts silver chains.

20Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution

Chooses a tree that will not rot;

He seeks for himself a skillful workman

To prepare a carved image that will not totter.

21Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,

And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

23He brings the princes to nothing;

He makes the judges of the earth useless.

24Scarcely shall they be planted,

Scarcely shall they be sown,

Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth,

When He will also blow on them,

And they will wither,

And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.

25“To whom then will you liken Me,

Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.

26Lift up your eyes on high,

And see who has created these things,

Who brings out their host by number;

He calls them all by name,

By the greatness of His might

And the strength of His power;

Not one is missing.

27Why do you say, O Jacob,

And speak, O Israel:

“My way is hidden from the Lord,

And my just claim is passed over by my God”?

28Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord,

The Creator of the ends of the earth,

Neither faints nor is weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

29He gives power to the weak,

And to those who have no might He increases strength.

30Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall,

31But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.

Our God is in control, His word is powerful, His love is consuming. REST in HIM!