Goodbyes and new adventures!

"Goodbyes" are never easy. I'm so thankful for the beautiful friendships I have made through each Bible study I have been blessed to lead these last several years. God has done an incredible work in my heart through each one and our times together in the Word have been rich! 

I will dearly miss those sweet "Jesus" girls I have had the honor of leading week after week and I'm so grateful at how He knit our hearts together through the love of His Word! God is so faithful and I know He has great things in store in the days ahead as I continue to trust in Him!

Trust His Heart!

The God we praise on the mountaintops is the same God who walks us through the valleys. 

What are you facing this day?

God is with you! 

Be brave, walk courageously, have faith, trust His heart!

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)

Happy Presidents' Day

In honor of Presidents’ Day, I thought I would share some great quotes from many of our Nation’s leaders. May “we the people” be praying boldly as we prepare to vote on a new leader later this year. I pray our next leader will love God and lead courageously and unapologetically by the Word of God!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”  

~ George Washington

“We recognize no sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!”  

~ John Adams

“Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our Republic unto the present day, that He will so overrule all my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens that we may be preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a united and happy people.” 

 ~ Andrew Jackson

“Inside the Bible’s pages lie the answers to all the problems that mankind has ever known. I hope Americans will read and study the Bible.”

~ Ronald Reagan

“We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”  

~ Theodore Roosevelt

“We are commanded by God and called by our conscience to love others as we want to be loved ourselves.”

~ George W. Bush

“If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

~ Ronald Reagan

“Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.”  

~ James Monroe

“Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first, the most basic, expression of Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God’s help, it will continue to be.”

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

“The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.”

~ Calvin Coolidge

“The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”

~ John F. Kennedy

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”

~ George Washington

“The Bible is the first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention.”

~ John Quincy Adam

“The study of the Bible is a post-graduate course in the richest library of human experience.”

~ Hebert Hoover

“Of the many influences that have shaped the United States into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible.” 

~ Ronald Reagan

“The spirit of our people is the source of America's strength. And we go forward with trust in that spirit, confidence in our purpose, and faith in a loving God who made us to be free.”

~ George W. Bush

“The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.”  

~ Thomas Jefferson

 For more on the history of Presidents' Day check out: http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/presidents-day

Celebrating All Things...LOVE!

I slept in until 6:30 this morning! Well, I choose the word “slept” loosely because it was actually more…I stayed in bed until 6:30. I was wide awake at 5:30. Lol! But anyway, it was nice not to have to jump out of bed on this freezing cold morning. I love waking up and looking beside me to see my everyday “Valentine” sleeping so peacefully. Just the sight of him there and knowing how much he loves me makes this day even brighter! Then I come downstairs to my cozy chair, warm fleece blanket, silence throughout the house, a hot cup of coffee and open my Bible to read this beautiful love letter by my Heavenly Father. On this Valentine’s weekend is there any greater love we could fathom than that of what this passage says right here?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16 KJV

Oh…TRUE LOVE! He did this for ME…for YOU! No greater love!

So, I imagine this weekend will be all things “Valentine” for most. I don’t know if that is in a positive light for you or a negative but we sure do see lots of big puffy red hearts and cupids lurking around every store corner. It’s a weekend to celebrate love and all that goes along with it. Because Valentine’s falls on the weekend after our anniversary where we usually get away together, we have always spent Valentine’s Day celebrating the love of our family with our kids. I love it and I am ready to celebrate!

It’s been an emotional week for me! We’ve had the joy of anniversary and birthday celebrations. Then there’s been the sadness of doors beginning to close and also the excitement of new doors cracking open. Yes, an emotional roller coaster of a week but one thing that has been constant is the immense joy of seeing God’s faithfulness revealed in every turn! His overpowering love on this child astounds me most days! God’s love is absolutely AMAZING! So I am ready to bask in His love this weekend and spend some time with my wonderful family and the love we have for each other.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend celebrating those you love so much! I am going to take my hubby breakfast in bed, wake up my sleepy kiddos and then get ready for Matt’s birthday party tonight! He is worth celebrating! The love of my life!

Happy Valentine’s weekend to ALL! May you celebrate God’s unconditional love for YOU!

“We love him, because he first loved us.”

1 John 4:19 (KJV)

Concluding our story……

Concluding our story……

So now we are about 11 years into our marriage and I was thoroughly enjoying my time as a stay-at-home mom. But when Callie was two and Ben entered school at WCA, I began work at our church preschool to help out with expenses. What a blessing that was! I fell in love with all those sweet students and my coworkers. Callie was in preschool with me and Ben was in 1^st grade. It really seemed as though things were finally falling into place. But as a couple of years went by, Matt’s company was struggling to keep the doors open and we knew he needed to find work. We put our house up for sale, Matt began searching, and within 3 weeks our house sold and Matt began a new job. Wow! Things don’t usually work that quickly for us! Lol! Matt’s new job would take him to Lakeland, FL, for about a year and then from there we didn’t know where it would lead. There again, we found ourselves at a crossroads of what God would have us to do. We made plans to stay put here in Wilmington and see Matt on the weekends but after flying down there to help him find an apartment, God made it clear to us that we should not live apart for a year. So, when God speaks, we listen and obey! I loaded up Ben and Callie and headed to Lakeland, FL, into a 650 square foot, one-bedroom apartment and began homeschooling. Wow! That was an intense but beautiful time for us as a family. Ben and Callie shared the one bedroom and Matt and I would blow up an air mattress every night, roll the couch out of the way, and sleep on the living room floor. It wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was home because we were all under one roof. Just as God intended! One of the perks of living in Lakeland, FL, was season tickets to Disney World and we got to visit quite often. We are BIG Disney fans!!

So, there we were in a one-bedroom apartment enjoying life as a family of four and then God began to move…..again….

It was during that time that God began working on our hearts about adoption. Nothing about that made sense at the time. It was expensive, we were comfortable with our two children, and we didn’t even know where we would end up after Florida.

Well, there again, when God calls you to something, He will see you through it. God had already begun putting the details together and this was a true test of our faith and trust in him.  Matt’s job moved us back to Wilmington in December of 2005 and the adoption process began. I was able to go back to work at the preschool and we were enjoying the total dependence on God through it all. God put a love in our hearts for a child we didn’t even know yet and it was clear we had to move forward to bring our child home. We took a huge leap of faith in obedience to God and He put all the details in place!

All the way around the world in a town called Guangzhou, China, we welcomed our precious Caleb into our hearts on May 9, 2007! It was absolutely beautiful and God continues to amaze us with his love and grace today through that experience! Now we are a family of five!

These last few years of our marriage, God seen us through some other challenges. But each and every hardship that has come up in our marriage, God has been faithful. Did you get that? GOD HAS BEEN FAITHFUL! There are tough times and challenges looming even now, but the blessing is that God is there every step of the way and continues to make something beautiful out of each trial!

What we have discovered is that God desires us to be holy more than happy. When we seek holiness from his perfect will, there is a joy unspeakable. Times can be difficult but peace and joy from our God can remain.

When you are down on your face and have nowhere else to look but up, you see his grace and mercy in ways that bring peace and healing. I can look back over our 24 years of marriage and, yes, I see those difficult times, but more than that now, I see the beauty that God brings from it. I see how much more Matt and I have fallen in love. I see the deep faith it has instilled in our marriage and family. I see the incredible strength God gave us and continues to give us. I see how our faith impacts our children and as they grow our desire is that they follow Jesus and live for HIM only. Most importantly, I see the love of a Father on his precious children and how that deep love changed our lives!

I have fallen in love with my husband deeper than I ever thought possible over these last 24 years. When I said, “I do”, I never thought I could love him more than at that moment but God has shown me differently. The love grew and took shape into something deeper, more meaningful, just like the love for my God. The more I know my God…truly know him, the deeper my love for him goes.

I cannot begin to explain how much I love my Jesus! When I hear his name, my heart is full! I long to spend time immersed in his Word and at his feet in prayer. He is my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, and I am so in love with him!

Throughout this week, I have shared a brief part of our married life together. This may have been more information than you cared to have heard, but there is so much more than can’t fit onto these pages. Most of these treasured moments are written on the delicate places of my heart and will remain. Our lives are rich and full of love. Our marriage is not perfect but it is OURS! We work hard at it. We show each other grace and forgiveness and we know that through every day as our relationship with God grows, so will our relationship with each other. It’s all about HIM!

That is the secret to a great marriage….God! If you do marriage any other way you will miss out on all the benefits that God makes available to you. God designed marriage and we will continue to give HIM his rightful place in ours. I pray you will do the same in yours.

Thanks for taking the journey with me! I wish I could have sat across the table from you at the coffee house and shared this story because there is just so much that God has done in my life through this blessing of marriage. But I am grateful you joined me here.

Tomorrow we will celebrate our 24 years! Hallelujah! Thanks for sharing my memories and allowing me to take up some of your day as I rambled on about my marriage. Lol! I pray, in some way, that you have been blessed! I know I have!

God is so faithful and he continues to amaze me every day! To HIM be ALL glory!

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV)

Still continuing the story........

Still continuing the story........

Well, we did tie the knot on that cold Saturday evening in February and spent our honeymoon in Myrtle Beach. I was so happy to be Mrs. Matt Jordan and begin our lives together! A couple of days later on February 10^th, Matt's birthday, we received a call that my grandfather had passed away suddenly of a heart attack. The news hit me like a ton of bricks. We packed up early the next morning and headed home to be with our family. After the visitation in Wilmington, we traveled to Virginia for the funeral and burial in the town I was born in. In an instant we went from celebrating together as a family over a new relationship to grieving together in the loss of life.

So as you can see, Matt and I faced difficulties very early into our marriage. Four months later I received a call from the hospital at 5:30 in the morning that my husband had been in a car accident. Matt had been leaving early in the mornings traveling out of town to work and returning late at night. That particular morning it was raining heavily and his truck lost control and landed in a ditch. Praise the Lord his injuries were minor but walking into the ER seeing your new husband strapped to a backboard covered in mud and blood can do a number on your nerves.

After that incident, life did calm down a bit and we could really begin to settle into married life. I loved everything about married life! I loved being at the door when Matt would come home from work and having supper on the table. I loved waking up in the morning and rolling over to see that he was there beside me. I loved how he would open the Bible at night and share devotions with me. I loved hearing my name, Mrs. Jordan, called whenever I was out. I loved going on a date with him only to realize that I would not have to say "goodbye" to him at the end of the date. Everything about married life made me smile!

Now I know what you are thinking. Did we ever argue? Well, the answer is, "YES"! Of course we did! We were newlyweds. We were two people all the sudden living together bringing our own traditions and habits under one roof so, yes, we had arguments, or "intense moments of fellowship", as I prefer to call them. Lol!

Throughout our first five years of marriage, I believe God used the many difficulties and challenges we faced to shape and strengthen our marriage. When we were ready to begin our family but things took a bit longer than anticipated, our marriage was extremely tested. I was still living my dream, and that, in no way, included infertility. But as we all know, God has a plan and his ways are not my ways.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.“ As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV84)

Anyone that has walked the road of infertility understands the extreme sadness and difficulty that loom around every corner.  It wasn’t supposed to be that hard. Doctor visits and medication month after month and still being heartbroken all over again at the sign of another negative pregnancy test. After a couple of years of walking that road, I finally became pregnant! We were beyond excited! I believe I walked on a cloud everywhere I went. That "glow" everyone says you get with pregnancy was a neon fluorescent light around me and I couldn't wait to become a family of three. Unfortunately, that was not meant to happen as a month later I began to show signs of miscarriage and through ultrasound, discovered that our baby's heartbeat had stopped. Matt and I were heartbroken over the loss of our child and facing every day was difficult. The next several months were filled with pain and heartache. Seeing other pregnant bellies and newborn babies were like a punch in the gut and the darkness was almost more than I could bear at times.

As summer approached, Matt got news that he would be transferring to his office in Garner, NC. This news actually made me very happy. I was ready to move away, begin again, and leave all this heartache behind. That move for us, although temporary, ended up being a time of healing in our marriage and ourselves. Matt and I worked in the same office building and we were together pretty much 24 hours a day. That was an absolute blessing! We were settling into our “new normal” and getting actively involved in a new church. God was working and healing!

Right before Christmas that year, I discovered I was pregnant again!  We were shocked and excited!  Once we had moved to Garner, I kept rescheduling my doctor’s appointments with the specialist because emotionally I wasn’t quite ready to begin the fertility battleground again. But God sent us some amazing news! It was hard to get too excited as my initial blood tests weren’t as great as they hoped but with God’s divine providence and some really incredible doctors, I was able to sustain my pregnancy. In August of 1996 I give birth to the most beautiful, BIG, baby boy! Ben came into this world at a whopping 10 lbs. and 1 oz. and honestly, the world began to look wonderful again. Skies were bluer; the grass was greener, the sun shined brighter and every detail to life gained more color. God brought so much healing in my life through that difficult time and the birth of our first child. I was wife to Matt and now, mom to Ben and nothing could have made me happier. God blessed us immensely and through that time of healing, I began to draw even closer to him.

“Children are a gift from the Lord;
 they are a reward from him.”

Psalm 127:3

Over the next eight years of our marriage, lots of things were going on. God was shaping us into a family totally dependent on him. Matt and I faced some financial hardships in Garner and moved back to Wilmington soon after Ben was born. We settled back here and into our new church home and really began focusing on God’s will in the midst of all the challenges we had faced so far. Ben kept us on our toes, as he was a very active toddler. Haha! There were many days, through his toddler years, that I really thought I wouldn’t make it through, or he wouldn’t. One or the other of us. Lol! But we both grew during that time. I enjoyed my time as a stay at home mom and wife. In 2000, we were blessed with our beautiful baby girl, Callie! We praise the Lord that we didn’t have to endure the pain and suffering of infertility again and through her birth God gave us hope that not everything we encountered would be so difficult. She brought us so much joy and her big brother was quite protective of her (and still is ;). Our home was filled with a rambunctious toddler boy and lots of pink with a baby girl. We were blessed indeed! God had transitioned us from a couple to a family and that brought a whole new set of blessings and challenges.

“But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:15b

After Callie was born, we decided that we were complete in our family and we were going to enjoy life as a family of four!

Well…that was our plan. God had a different plan in mind! Lol!

Join me tomorrow as I conclude the story!

Continuing the Story...the BIG Day!

And still continuing the story…….

(Part 3)

Three weeks before our wedding, I gave up my title as WCA’s Homecoming Queen but on February 8, 1992, I received a new title….Mrs. Matt Jordan! Our “big day” arrived and I was getting married to my Prince Charming! All those childhood memories of playing “wedding” on the playground were about come to life. This time it was with my real groom and not some elementary boy I suckered into giving up his recess to play pretend groom. Haha!

We enjoyed a wonderful rehearsal and dinner! The same teacher that made such an impact on my life through my senior year was our wedding coordinator and she did a beautiful job of getting our very large wedding party ready and rehearsed.  After our dinner, Matt had me at home by 11:00 (my curfew was still in effect right up until I moved out. Haha!) I remember waking up the morning of my wedding day and was “cool as a cucumber”. I lounged around in my cozies because it was going to be a long wait to see my groom. Our wedding wasn’t until 6:00 so I took my time getting ready. We headed to the church that afternoon and the excitement was building. My “cool as a cucumber” attitude was quickly replaced by the butterflies in my stomach eating away at those cucumbers. Lol!

The time was here!!!! I could not believe I was getting ready to be Mrs. Matt Jordan!

Our wedding was beautiful! It was exactly as I had dreamed! The wedding party was huge and full of those most precious to us! My bridesmaids dressed in stunning purple dresses and the men so dasher in their tuxes. But nothing compared to standing in the back of the church as I heard the bridal march begin, the doors opened, and there he was! My prince was standing at the altar, so handsome in his tux, smiling in anticipation with tears of joy in his eyes, and at that moment nothing else mattered. My eyes were on him, saying, "I do", and beginning our lives together as one in Christ! Our family and friends surrounded us in love and it was an honor to have both of our childhood pastors unite us in marriage that day. Matt’s pastor, Rev. Wall, just recently went home to be with the Lord but he was a precious man of God. Pastor Herchenhahn was my pastor and did such a beautiful ceremony as he led us in the scripture of uniting in holy matrimony. We had my brother and sister-in-law and some dear friends sing during our ceremony and then as Pastor Herchenhahn announced us as husband and wife, my heart was full.  We sealed our vows with a kiss and then turned to face our family and friends in the presence of God as we were officially announced as Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Jordan. What an amazing time that was!

 "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him."

Genesis 2:18 (KJV)

We made a covenant together before God that day and, still today, take that covenant very seriously. We've seen marriages crumble all around us; a reminder of the fallen world we live in and that none of us are immune to sinful and selfish desires. We know that our individual focus and attention has to be on Almighty God! It is only then that two people, who have their own selfish ways, can be totally committed to the covenant of marriage. Do we argue and fall short at times? Absolutely! Do we get on each other’s nerves and act selfishly? You bet! But you see, when we focus our attention on God, we are both looking in the same direction and God can unite our hearts in a way that only HE can. He can take these two selfish people and make something incredible out of them. God's design for marriage is beautiful and holy! Through the good times and the bad times it is a blessing to behold.  

I am truly honored to be united in holy matrimony with my best friend and love of my life. Many days I feel so unworthy of this amazing blessing. I am blessed that Matt chose me! I am blessed that God crossed our paths that hot summer day in Chick-fil-A! I am continually blessed that God allows us to live this gift of marriage everyday! Our vows were precious then and are still today.

What we vowed on February 8, 1992, we will continue as we honor each other and our God....to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part!

"So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

Matthew 19:6 (NASB)

Join me tomorrow for more of the the story......