Well, it has been quite a spell since I have posted anything.  The summer came and went.  We have been blessed in the area of children, as God has placed an adoptable (almost finalized) child into our home who is a charming 2yo boy.  We also welcomed a newborn who is now 6 months old.  That situation is not turning out as the "agency" suggested, but we are praying it will be how GOD has planned.  He has us all smitten, with the cute dimples, brown eyes and dark complexion.  And, just 3 weeks ago, a couple of our kiddos came back.  Who knows what is in store with that situation, but we know that in all things, God works together for good...That makes 8 kiddos.  According to the state, a full house.  According to me, at this moment, a full house.  Four kids under 3 is a bit hectic but going well so far.  Sleep?  What is that?  Quiet?  Only if you want to stay up past 11pm, which, I must say, is getting harder the older I get. . . relish these moments as they will fly by.

Been trying our hands at fermented foods and traditional preparations.  No low fat, no fat here!  Our brains were starving!  So, if you know anything about sourdough bread, kraut and kefir....please share.  This new adventure for nutrition has been natural and goes well with our mind set of using as much locally grown foods and products as possible.

Time for bed...take care. Mellissa

Has the phone ever rang at your place, and ring, and ring, and ring?  With 9 people in our house, you would think one of us would get it.  But alas, the answering machine clicks on and if we are blessed, the person will leave a message, "Sorry I missed you, just wanted to chat.  Call me back soon!"

As I write this I feel Gods presence overwhelming me.  He is calling me...ring, ring, ring.  My emotions may overwhelm me, my thoughts drift and I feel completely indecisive.  It seems as though Life has sucked me up today and my mind just cannot rest.  There are so many things to do...ring, ring ring.

M Father has all wisdom, knowledge and peace.  HE is calling me to come spend a bit of time with Him, so HE can renew my mind and strength with HIS thoughts and plans.   I need to answer, be back later. ~Mellissa

Well, the success of me blogging has yet to be determined.  It certainly does not make it to my daily priorities list. (do I actually have one of those?)  My mind certainly thinks of all the things that need to be done, but they never quite make it to a list, probably why many days seem not too productive in hindsight~running around doing something, but not amounting to much.  Those projects will never get done if I don't get Gods perspective on what His priority is for my day!  Sounds easy, yet He keeps getting moved on throughout the day then my head hits the pillow, I confess how much I have allowed to get in the way..then ZZZZZZZZZ.

I have heard from God in such a profound way this last week. It was quite awesome to feel, I mean I felt in a physical way, the pressure of His Spirit upon me.  It pressed me into talking with my husband about the situation, in which God confirmed through him that we were to step out into a particular direction, OBEY what God had placed on our hearts and wait.  HE (God) gave me a specific word, which at the time I assumed was for someone else, but as I re-read it, realized HE was speaking directly to ME.  

I tapped into the word for encouragement and direction as the events of the week unfolded and the decisions were made by others based on our obedient offer.  They were not as we had hoped, but God knew the outcome before we obeyed, so we rest knowing that it was the OBEDIENCE He was after, not the resulting decision.  The hardest part is walking out the word he brought.  My flesh is so wanting its way..to set things"right", to get the facts straight, to be justified......YET the Spirit is prompting me to let it go, pray as HE instructed, release and forgive.

Day by Day, it is getting easier.  The simple fact is that God knows our hearts and He gives us opportunities to strengthen our faith in HIM...by seeking Him, pressing closer and being in His continual presence, we can find rest for  and  from  these lives we live on earth... I  pray I will continually put under the flesh and walk by the spirit~ His Spirit, His Life.

~Mellissa

You know, it is quite humbling when you realize just how much you allow your flesh to rule your decisions.  Your flesh is your mind, will and emotions.  The Spirit, that which God changed from being dead before salvation, into HIS LIFE with the Holy Spirit upon Salvation, is now alive and can rule and reign in our lives~ if we let HIM.

We have been pondering decisions, and almost all of them, have been decided by praying, by the Holy Spirit and aligning to scripture...doors opening, opportunities to discern, etc.   But, there are certain areas, in which we have experience much emotional pain and turmoil, that we have been holding back from bringing to God completely.  This area is Foster Care.

It is such a mixed, twisted blessing to participate in the Foster Care System.  Spiritually, we are called by God to take care of  the orphans and widows (James 1:27, my paraphrase~although amplified version is great!)  We are in complete agreement with this statement.  We do believe we are ALL called upon to do this..in some way or fashion.   It may be supporting financially , meeting their needs by helping, giving a bed, sharing meals, passing along clothing, but we ALL have a part to play in it.  For us, we feel God has called us to Foster Care and Adoption.  As much as we look back and think, God didn't specifically call us to Foster Care, he called us to adoption~  The fact of the matter is that HE has been orchestrating all of it anyway.  We would say yes, a placement would fall through, we would say yes, they would come, them move in a short time (those are easier to do emotionally), we would say yes, and a year or two later, they are still here...waiting for parents to get their act together enough to actually parent them ADEQUATELY (did I say that out loud?)  Yes, much to our amazement~yet very much according to Gods way~ the system that is in place is failed.  It cannot produce fruit with CHRIST, period.  Therefore, these parents will only go so far in their rehabilitation.  Without Christ as their Lord and Savior, the best they can do is ADEQUATE and the best the system can offer is ADEQUATE.  This is one of the primary reasons we have difficulty wanting to continue doing foster care, but at the same time,  a really, really great reason to continue.  That is why we need to press in even closer to God to get HIS perspective of all this.  What does HE want from our family?  What is HIS plan for us?  Do we continue?

This decision is not to be taken lightly.  After 5.5 years and 30+ children later, we have opportunity to adopt only once.  Maybe this is part of the fruit we have experienced, because our workers are amazed that we have had that many children and only one was actually adoptable (one set did get adopted by a relative) so I guess it was two.  The rest returned to parents, a couple to relatives.  We have sowed seeds of Gods Love and faithfulness into them, some we have been blessed to lead into a life with Christ~professing their salvation and accepting Jesus as their Lord and savior.  We have seen children completely changed, did I say completely?  From being unwanted, terror children~ to a being a joy.  It is certainly not US, but Christ living through us that has allowed this to be accomplished!   We have seen autistic children thrive in our home (oh my, so much work) and go home to be completely violent and non cooperative.  Again, not us, but Christ through us~ Wisdom in many areas:  nutrition, discipline, therapies and other treatments.  HE has provided all this to us.  Has it been hard?  YES, you bet!  Hard emotionally to get attached and see them leave to less than great circumstances, Hard to pour yourselves into them and see them go...never to see the fruition of the seeds planted, Hard to separate yourselves from the pain of raising twins for 2 years, planning to adopt as the agency said, only to see the court return them home, having children with attachment issues spitting, kicking and hitting, screaming and being so afraid (not actually of you, but of life and love) that you press into more research of how to handle this.  These are a sample of the painful situations we get to be a part of .  Situations that we chose (well, kind of) by being Foster Parents and saying "yes" to those children. 

So, what is a person to do?  Lets get back to the flesh:  it wants peace in parenting, me time, time for all by hobbies, consistancy, clean houses, managability, money (I mean, I could work more if I didn't have so many children) control of the situation, control of the situation, control of the situation...I mean the illusion of control   Our four children, at this stage in our lives and experiences, are a breeze!  FLESH wants a breeze...flesh wants it easy, the road with the least resistance................sounds really tempting. 

As I sit here, my 6 and 7 yo children are discussing how much they miss our little "Manny" who we raised from 5 weeks Failure to Thrive (ie:starved in this situation) to over 1 year and just recently left to go back to his bio mother.  My 7yo says "I miss Manny."  The 6yo says "Everyone does."  This is TRUTH!

Just a day in our life...pondering thoughts, making decisions, grieving losses and expecting great things from God.

Only through Christ~ Mellissa

Lest you think we have it all together .... we don't.  There are many days that I feel so overwhelmed with the stuff I need to do, catch up on, that I don't spend time with my children.  They may get their "lessons" done, but I have to plan in non productive time in order build relationships~taking opportunities as they arise. We educate at home by our choice, prompted and led by the Lord.  He called us to this and we cannot imagine anything different for our family, at this time.  I love to make charts and things, but follow through can be difficult for me.  I can be driven into getting whatever the project might be, done.  BUT with the influx of children and changes always occuring, I have become more lax in allowing things to be left hanging.  Whether it is the mending that needs to be done for their shorts, a blanket I said I would make for my oldest, but haven't started (does washing it count?) or paperwork, invoicing for our home business, cleaning, simplifying stuff...  I am even trying to get an ebay store up an running (after a month, still not done)  The extra income will make a tremendous difference in getting out of debt!  And that is just a bit of the things "I" want to accomplish and check off my list.

After all~ the scripture is clear about what debt does...makes us a slave! YUCK! 

Proverbs 22:7 (New King James Version)  7 The rich rules over the poor,
      And the borrower is servant to the lender

I can do All things through HIM, Christ~  Mellissa

We have been blessed with many children!  When we, even before, we were first married~James and I discussed how many children we wanted to have -6- and that we wanted to adopt.   As the years passed by and the third child came, there was a bit of an overwhelming feeling with a 4, 1.5 and newborn.  So we decided we were done, and peace reigned (no fear of having more)  But God had other plans, and when the children were 8, 5.5 and 4 God began moving ~our hearts had been stirred by God to pursue adoption.  Our house was too "small" to adopt (2 bed, 1.5 bath) so we moved.  Long story short, we built a home for these children we thought might come.  Although the child we pursued to adopt was placed into a different family, it was the step God wanted us to take...thus our involvment with the Foster Care System.

The last 5.5 years have flown by.  Our children are now 14.5, 12, 10.5, 6.  One of these by adoption through the local foster care system.  It has been a twisted blessing following this path (I say that in the flesh).  We KNOW that GOD has directed us, even as much as it has emotionally hurt each time the long-term children have left to return to their biological parents.  God has healed those hurts, and the pain subsides.  This is only possible through HIS loving heart toward us.  HE HEALS us, HE SUSTAINS us, HE PROVIDES for us, HE DIRECTS us (if we are listening).   29 children later...yes, 29.  And, we consider ourselves parents to 32 total (including our homegrown ones and the hand picked one).    In hindsight, the trials and tribulations we have faced have made us stronger in CHRIST.  We have allowed the Holy Spirit to work through us and MANY of our foster children have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and realized how much HE loves them.  We have planted SEEDS into their lives, some have begun to SPROUT and start the process of bringing forth FRUIT.   IF WE STAY focused on THIS....we can continue to press on toward the goal and purpose for which God has set us (our family) in the place. 

We are coming to the end of our Foster Care days (at least that is OUR perception, not necessarily Gods) and are choosing the children a bit more cautiously.  BUT, that said, we did accept a placement of a 2 yo little guy.  Everyone was in agreement and here we are.  Who knows what God has in store, but we call it Temporary, emergency placement....just to help ourselves not get too attached.  We now have our 14.5, 12, 10.5, 6 and our Fosters 10, 7, 2.5.   What a Blessing!   Through Christ~ Mellissa

James and I have been married over 16 years.  He is the best husband! (you may disagree, but I do have the best one)  God orchestrated our union before I even knew Him!

Over the years, he has been self-employed, working out of the home  for many years.  Currently, in case you are not aware, Michigans economy is not the best, and he was blessed with a job outside the home.  When I say blessed, it was ALL GOD.  We had been contemplating our options, as the income was not coming in, and an opportunity arose.  The most suprising thing for my husband was that they wanted him!  He has stuggled for years about his worthiness (with my nagging, no wonder) thinking that the only thing he could do was design homes (like an architect) for construction.  This was a definite boost to his self-worth.  Obviously God thought He was worthy enough, and thankfully, the company agreed.  Those of us left at home are thankful for the regular income, but absolutely miss our husband/Daddy tremendously.  He is working hard and is thankful for this opportunity to serve the company to the best of his ability, while striving to allow Christ to work in and through him while he is there.  Didn't I say he was the best ?!!

One of the goals he has is to be a type of "farmer"  He wants to till the ground and have organic produce, raise healthy, pasture animals, a greenhouse(we even had someone give us one, just have to go pick it up)  Thankfully there is a time and a season for everything. We are confident this is the season to learn and get hands on practice.  There is a place north of us that is a working Organic Farm, so maybe he will connect with them..who knows.  I love to see the sparkle in his eye when he is thinking about this or working outside on the property.

Did I say he was the best?!  In Christ~Mellissa

This is the first entry in my new endeavor, blogging.  I have absolutely no idea how to do this and are just winging it right now.  So, if it looks rough, cut me some slack.

Just to get this far, is quite an accomplishment.  I first had to choose a "title" of my blog...ugh.  Then, after that, I had to choose a background theme...you are looking at peaches because it seemed to fit best with the "Sprouts for the Lord" theme.  My first choices had black background with white words.  As much as I like black (ask my Mom, she says I wear too much of it) it seems harder to read...so here we are. 

I can guarantee this will not be a daily blog...but as often as God prompts, I will try to share a bit about a day in the life of "us."