My mess

I love a tidy, organized house.  My husband, who although appreciates an organized house, is definitely the creative of the family and doesn't mind a little mess if his creative outlets are flowing. It wasn't until God gave us our little shop, https://www.etsy.com/shop/sonofwhale?ref=pr_shop_more  that Mark has taken over the garage. And I mean taken over. It is one, big woodworking shop out there. No room for cars anymore. I promise, there is an inch of saw dust everywhere. I can't stand the mess. I just like to shut the door and pretend it's not there.  But, for my husband, that is where he creates and invents all sorts of things that ultimately is bringing our daughter home. We've had people ask to see the "shop".  I tell them, "you don't want to see it".  And it's really me who doesn't want people to see it because I think it's too messy. It wasn't until a very wise friend told us one day (love you Amber), "you know, you better be taking pictures of all this." I told her she was crazy because I didn't want to remember this mess! But then, she said the most profound thing, "when your daughter gets older, you can show her the hours upon hours, the sweat and tears, the prayers, care and LOVE that went into making each letter, table, cross, etc. all to bring her home." WOW. She was right. This mess that I have swept up, cleaned up, tried to hide, is how God is bringing our sweet girl home. I now embrace that mess. I photograph it. I want our sweet girl to know all the time we spent waiting and working to bring her home. 

It made me think, so many times, I say I am a mess too!  I think I'm not good enough for God. And that is when God quietly and tenderly, like He can only do, says, "Melissa, I want you and all your mess." He wants all of me. All the junk that I want to try and "fix" before going to Him, when all he wants is me. And all He wants is YOU. Not perfect. Just willing. Just You. 

So now, I embrace my mess. Ya'll I can be a mess. That mess is my life. And my life for GOD'S glory. He took my mess and He made it good. I see God's hand making my mess something He adores and sings about. 

Zephaniah 3:17 

The Lord your God is with you,

    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Oh and here is a picture. Told you I am embracing it. Since this picture, it has gotten a lot more organized. For father's day, Mark got organization stuff for the garage... 

Still a mess, but organized. :)

PS.. For those of you wondering, we are #12 on the list. Just waiting for that phone call for our referral. :)

Our yes on the table...

It was three years ago this month.

Three years ago, Mark and I said yes to adoption.  Our sweet Genevieve was two months old when we made the first phone call to our agency, Faith International Adoptions. I still remember sitting at the kitchen table and being in shock that I was making that phone call. I remember telling Mark all about it and us praying, saying ok God, if this is your will, open the door. We are putting our Yes on the table. And although it was slow going, we knew that day that this is the road God was taking us down. We have done the paperwork. We have had our homestudy.  Now, we sit and wait for that phone call. And we are so ready...

It's also so neat to see how God provides. We didn't really know how we were and are paying for the adoption costs but slowly we are collecting it. One night, Mark was on a walk praying about how he could pay for the adoption and he came home and said he's going use his hobby of woodworking. If you don't know, I am married to one of the MOST creative people on the planet. Really. His mind never quits. He's always thinking of creative ways of sharing God's love, sharing people's stories, creating anything. He hardly sleeps. He is always on the go thinking, creating and using his imagination. He is also the hardest worker I know too. He loves hard, works hard and plays hard. Can't believe how the Lord has blessed me with him. He makes us laugh constantly too. :)

Here he is making letters with mini-me, I mean, Eli Hampton...

After that walk, we started up a shop on etsy. We didn't know how God was going to bless that. We opened it up and put the two things Mark had made me for Christmas. People seem to like them. :)
You can look here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/sonofwhale?ref=search_shop_redirect

Here is the story of why our shop is called son of whale. All after Mark's dad. This is Mark's personal blog...
http://sonofwhale.wordpress.com/about/

It started with this "W"

And now we have lots of letters...

And other things Mark creates...

So, why we wait and pray (we are #14 on the list), we make letter by letter to get to our little one.  They say it should be this summer (fingers crossed).. It is so cool to watch God provide some of the adoption costs through a little imagination, some wood and glue... Although we are raising a good amount through our etsy shop, there is still a GREAT more we need to raise.

We were incredibly blessed to receive a matching grant from Lifesong!! When someone gives to Lifesong in our name, they will match it dollar for dollar! The only condition is, it can't come from us. It has to come from friends and family.. just someone who wants to bless our adoption.  So, if God is laying on your heart to give, we would be so thankful.  It is through your support, yes, YOU, that we are moving closer to a little Japanese girl joining the hustle and bustle of our family.  Our hope would be that through our story, it would be echoed in your home and that we might be an encouragement to reach for the dream God has put on your life.  From our heart to your home, our entire family is thankful for your support.   Thank you for helping us with our family’s adoption.

 Here are the directions to give, just put our family number : #3604.

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