Happy Birthday Madison Akins!

So 17 years ago, a rockstar was born. (On October 29th!)
And her name was Madison.
Please join me in honoring my best and favorite little sister ever.
The world is a much more beautiful place because of her.
Madison Akins, I LOVE YOU.
And simply can't wait to see you.
But for now, here is a little message that i hope you will enjoy.

Much love! :)

A glimpse into my little Rachel.

So what can be learned from rachel.....
Rachel will teach you to let your inner sassiness shine.
Rachel will teach you to continue to find joy and to let joy drive you.
Rachel will teach you strength. She is a clear picture of what it means to overcome and to move forward in love.
Rachel will teach you how to laugh until your stomach hurts.
Rachel will teach you how to just be yourself.
Rachel will teach you how to keep going and to never give up.
Rachel will teach you to look at a fall as another opportunity to just get back up.
Rachel will teach you how to say prayers with sincerity and faith...believing every word that she prays.
Rachel will teach you how to stake your claim and boss a house of boys around! :) (thats my girl)
Yeah, Rachel is about seven.
But Rachel is a teacher to me.
She is such an instrument of JOY.
This girl was handpicked by God to be here at Ekisa.
After her hard life at such a young age, God led her to us.
He led her into love.
And by that, she teaches US so much about love.
My life was designed to be intertwined with Rachel's little life.
I think we keep teaching each other a lot.
She teaches me more though i am sure, because I am teaching her how to say words and play games.
She teaches me more without even saying much.
Kids are something else, I sure do admire them.
And Rachel has a big chunk of my heart, that is for sure!
And am just. so. thankful. for this little piece of sass i get to hang out with everyday.

I introduce to you, ladies and gents.....
Rachel.

Much love :)

Jane and Jamil.

Thought i'd share with you these two cuties, Jane and Jamil.
They are quite the dynamic duo here at the house.
And a cute one that is :)

lately...

Lately i have been reminded of my own imperfection.
And learning to be okay with that.
To acknowledge that me and myself won't get things right a lot of times.
But that His grace is enough.

Lately I've been learning how to let His grace shine brighter and brighter.
Where we are weak, He. Is. So. Strong.
And grace has nothing to do with our ability -- and everything to do with our inability.

Lately I have been blown away by the people around me, Seeking to glorify Jesus.
And how Jesus can rock our worlds for His glory when we give Him total control.
And boy do I have a lot to learn from these people that I am surrounded by......
    

      The two Emily's at Ekisa, who spend their lives advocating for these disabled or special needs         children who were abandoned and deemed as nothing by the world. They serve with their whole hearts and long for nothing more than for Jesus to be glorified in their work.

      My incredible friend, Amy, who selflessly loves the little cuties that God graced her with. And the way that she wholeheartedly follows Jesus -- regardless of the cost. She loves passionately and serves wildly after Jesus and completely shines the grace and redemption of Christ. I am just blown away by it all.

And also by my mom. Who loves, right where she is at. Regardless of what the day brings, she chooses love. Many people's lives have been changed because of her. And boy there is just a lot to learn from this lovely lady i get to call mom :)

And also by my wonderful Dad. Who teaches me more about caring for people than most people have been able to exemplify. His heart is huge, his love is so big, and i just thank God for that every day....that i have such a wonderful example to look up to as my dad. So. incredibly. blessed.

And i'm thankful for my crazy wacky sisters. It's so cool how family is specifically planned out. And oh goodness, how special my family is to me! These two chicks are my support system and i love them so deeply. They teach me more about life each day and constantly remind me of the beauty in daily things. As different as we are, i couldn't think of a better mix of three girls in a house than the one we have going all of the time. 

Sharing my moments of gratitude today. And the people that are on my heart that have blessed me beyond belief. 

Overwhelmed with grace, so evident in lives all around me.

And so thankful that grace has absolutely NOTHING to do with our own ability, and everything to do with us surrendering our inability to the creator of our very hearts.

And so i encourage you to let you light shine.

You have no idea what a difference it is making in the lives of the people watching you.

All of these people mentioned on here have changed my life.

And i'm just so thankful.

Thankful that we serve a God, a Master, who has a plan.

A Master who intricately intertwines peoples paths together for a purpose.

And it all goes back to 

Love.

Oh goodness, how He loves us.

Paul. or as i like to say, Pauley.

Meet Paul.
He's pretty brilliant.
Pretty beautiful.
Pretty funny.
And yeah, he's just so polite and incredibly joyful. I so wish each one of you could personally meet this kid.
However, i'm just asking you to pray for him with me.
He weighs only 14 kilos at 8 years old.
So once we get him gaining weight he should be running around and full of energy.
Continue to pray that he would take the food he needs and not have to get an NG tube.
And pray that the transition to our home would continue to go smoothly and that he would feel so incredibly loved and respond to the love well.
Oh and I think he's a super genius because when he was playing on my phone the other day he typed in the word "Alkaline." Seriously? I don't even know how to properly spell that word.
Blame it on T9 texting if you will, but i'm convinced that my Pauley is a super genius.
We love you Paul!

Cool story. Zeke and Paul came from the same place....

And when Paul arrived at our house, him and Zeke saw each other and recognized each other immediately! Zeke is already loving and protecting Paul because they have been friends for so long. Friends re-uinited, so cool.

Zeke.

 Oh the things you teach me, Zeke.

Well let's start with the fact that he teaches me more and more what it means to smile and really mean it.

And he teaches me a lot about resilience. The Lord shines big through this boy's life. Through hardships and trials, we should all maintain a resilience about us overflowing from the joy of the Lord.

He teaches me lots of new words that he makes up himself. Yeah, he's real inventive.

He teaches me to still just. be. happy. And to have grace. Even when he does press down my French press when its not ready yet on a real sleepy morning :)

Yeah, he fills everyone around him with laughter. His curiosity will just intrigue you. His genuine love will inspire you. His cuddles will make you so happy. His joy brings glory straight up the his Creator. And his sass, well i just love me some sassiness :)

Zeke will teach you how to dance, even when you have a HUGE lack of rhythm.  He doesn't care, he just loves to dance. Dance on Zeke, dance on...

His facial expressions will just make you giggle. 

I love you, Zeke.

So 2 Corinthians has been WRECKING my heart and challenging me with so so much lately. Oh man, it is so rich and powerful. It.is.Truth.
THE truth.
So i would just highly recommend everyone to read through it and to really soak it in. Pray through it. and seek to live out the truth in it.


And just for kicks and giggles, check out crazy cute JoJo in all of his tye-dye glory :)

Much love :)

Moment of gratitude #1

"On Him we have set our hope, so that He will continue to deliver us..."

It's pretty humbling, ya know.
Being challenged to see where my hope truly is.
Because all day long I can say that my hope is not in the things of this world.
My word, thats easy to just say.
But its when the things of this world are really challenged or taken away -- that I see in my utter vulnerability, where my true hope is.
And it's like how all day long, we can sing and shout that we love God.
But then in the stillness -- in the quiet.
And when things may not seem as "attractive" as we would like,
can we still say... "No, really God. I love you. I love you with my aching heart. I love who you are in spit of what's going on in the day..good or bad. I just love You. That's it."
Because it's only when we really know who god is that we can truly see what it means to love Him.
Because, God is love.
And when we really know who He is.
And what love really is.
We see, I see.
That in this fleeting world -- I can only put my hope in him.
Because everything else WILL pass away.

And from that hope -- springs joy.
And from that spring of joy -- from our knowledge  and love of who He is can we sing that, "All my fountains ARE in You."

And that's when there becomes no dividing line between the secular/spiritual in our day.

When are fountains are truly in Him, Hope springs out.
Joy flows out.
Truth is lived out.
And Jesus is shown -- in all areas of life.

Jesus is -- "I AM"

Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus is in the flow.
In all that passes by in life, He is there.

He. just. is.
And His ever presence is such a part of His beauty.

He is the beauty in life.
He is beautiful -- life is beautiful because of Him.
He does truly outshine the darkness.

So i'm learning more and more what it looks like to just hope in the Truth.

Is it careless to claim and believe that God will deliver us always when we walk in Him?
Absolutely not.
Because that is TRUTH. (2 Corinthians 1)

He calls Himself the deliverer.
And He means it.
All arguments aside,
His word is Truth.
And everything else in life is held up to this Truth.

We've had death lately.
We've had a new life brought to the world, lately.
We've had lots of sickness around lately with no doctors to help, really.
So, lately, we have had no one to count on BUT the Deliverer.
We have had no one to answer our questions here.
We've had to claim our hope and dependance fully and completely on God and God alone.
This will wreck you.
But this why I'm leaning to claim Hope.
Hope in the One who is the same throughout the ages.
Hope in the one who was
and is
and is to come.

And with that hope brings joy.

Claim. Hope. Today.

And with hope comes victory,
glory brought to our very Maker.
May He be our Hope now and forever.

And may this stir a passion in all of us to share this hope with the people around us who don't know this unending beautiful joy.

passion. don't miss it.

"...And He will be their peace..." -Micah 5:5

We are all resting in the peace -- oh the beautiful peace.
Because the stunning thing about peace is that it isn't based upon circumstances, nothing about God is.

And so in the absolute craziness of the past week....I'm learning really what it looks like to rest in peace amidst "unpeaceful" circumstances.

So peace,
like a rushing river...may it surge into our souls.
Reminding us, Jesus, that with you and you alone...only then, are we truly whole.

And everyday in every moment, may we sing and even shout.....
It is well, it is SO well with our souls.

A baby called Grace.

Thanks, Grace.

For reminding us that God is a God of redemption and restoration.

That life is beautiful.

That healing is here.

And that grace....true grace....is alive. SO very alive :) 

A baby came into the world yesterday.

And reminded us of the beauty of life on a very heartbreaking day.

This baby is called Grace.

And that is just what he is, a reminder of the perfect limitless grace of God.

He gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

We love you so much Selina. And we know that you are loving to dance and sing in Heaven, with the Creator who made you so perfectly. We are better people for spending these last months of our lives with you. Thanks for all you taught us. And thanks, Jesus, for beckoning her home.