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Got my new hickory rocker covers today – perfect!! We stopped in at Miller’s Dry Goods in Charm, OH on our camping adventure to get two matching. Since they didn’t have two alike, (and it took us all day to track down the lady who makes these, so were got to the store just as they were getting ready to close), I simply wrote out the colors we had in mind & gave them our address. They sent me some samples & I wrote back which ones I wanted, waited a few weeks, and here they are! If you have hickory rockers & need covers, I highly recommend Miller’s. Save yourself the trip & just call them. The main street quilt stores in Holmes County were quoting me twice as much to do the same job.
They turned out looking an awful lot like the ones Grandma used to have. That wasn’t what I was going for, but makes me happy, just the same when I look at them.
Here’s a few close ups of the fabric…
LOVE ‘EM!!!!
That song keeps going through my head tonight:
“Rockin’ chairs, rockin’ babies, rock-a-bye, Rock of Ages.
Side by side we’ll be together always…
Together, through our rockin’ years.”
Randy Alcorn blogged this story the other day. It is one of those stories like the five missionary martyrs in Equador so many years ago; one every Christian should hear. It so clearly illustrates how God’s ways are beyond our finding out. He has a plan & is working even when we don’t see it! Even when it looks like failure. Even when you are weak. To God be the glory, great things He hath done!
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In 1921, missionaries David and Svea Flood went to the Belgian Congo. They and another young couple, the Ericksons, felt led by God to take the gospel to a remote area called N’dolera.
Because the chief would not let them enter, their only contact was the young boy who sold them food. Svea led the boy to Jesus.
Malaria struck and the Ericksons returned to the central mission station. The Floods remained near N’dolera alone.
Svea died within days of giving birth to a little girl.
David dug a crude grave, buried his young wife, gave baby Aina to the Ericksons and returned to Sweden, saying God ruined his life.
Within eight months, both the Ericksons died. American missionaries adjusted “Aina” to “Aggie” and brought her to the United States.
Years passed.
One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in Aggie’s mailbox, unexpected. A photo inside shocked her—a grave with a white cross marked “SVEA FLOOD.”
A college faculty member translated the article for Aggie: Missionaries came to N’dolera long ago…a white baby was born… the young mother died… one little African boy was led to Christ…and the boy grew up and built a school in the village. Gradually he won his students to Christ…the children led their parents to Christ…even the chief became a Christian.
After years of bitterness, the old and ill David got a visit from Aggie. She recounted the article. She said, “Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life…”
David’s heart softened, and he returned to God. Weeks later, he met Him in eternity.
Aggie eventually met that African boy. He was superintendent of the national church in Zaire (former Belgian Congo), representing 110,000 baptized believers.
All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood. A sacrifice that at the time appeared to have been cruel and pointless.
You can read a longer version of the story, taken from Aggie Hurst’s book, Aggie: The Inspiring Story of a Girl without a Country, at the EPM website.
If you think about it, please be in prayer for me Saturday (tomorrow) from noon to four-ish. A teen girl, I’ll call her Tricia, is coming over to learn how to care for a baby. She’s three months along & thinks she wants to keep her baby, but has begun to consider adoption. Thankfully, abortion doesn’t seem to be a consideration! Tricia has no family or home. The family she’s been staying with (who go to our church) are praying we get to share Keith’s adoption story with her. Tricia needs to hear some good adoption stories – she was adopted by her grandparents with the same family baggage & thus she thinks adoption is a bad thing to do to your child. Her boyfriend is out of the picture, her parents have not only not parented her but kicked her out, etc. Tricia desperately needs to hear that God can take a broken mess & make something incredibly beautiful out of it.
She has heard the Gospel, but she doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus. Please pray with me that Tricia would first of all find real peace, love, & joy in Jesus Christ as her personal Savior. Then please pray that this teaching/practice session goes “well” – that could include Jack having the biggest blowout diaper of his life, or an hour and a half of fussiness, I don’t even know what I’m asking for there! Part of me thinks spending time with my little Jackie Pooh Pooh would cause ANY heart to want one of their own 24/7 so thinks this might not be such a great idea. But another part of me knows she will “keep the baby” even if she doesn’t spend some time here. So, if she ends up keeping it, she needs to know how to hold, bathe, feed, etc. a youngster. AND, by her spending time with us, we have the added bonus of hopefully being able to share with her Keith’s story, and the beautiful picture adoption is of what God did for us. If I can, I’d like to plug Liberty Godparent Home, too. We’ll see how things go. She’ll need to have a few visits to realistically get a feel for what it is to tend a baby, so hopefully we’ll have several sessions in the upcoming months. Pray God gives me wisdom to know what & when to share.
I wrote Keith’s story out today – it’s one of those memorial stone posts, so takes a lot of thought, but one I’ve really wanted to tell. Read the story in the post below.
Keith was adopted by the grace of God when he was three weeks old. I was four weeks from birth myself. He always teases how much older & wiser he is because he’d been in like three different homes through the adoption services before I was even born. I’ll tell the story from two sides: his birth mother, & then his parents’ side.
Keith’s birth mother had never married. This was her second son & she was alone. She knew she couldn’t care for another child, so in an act of great selflessness, put him up for adoption. When Keith was in college, she contacted him for the first time. They’ve met & talked a few times over the years. She said she would have called him Brad. His last name would’ve been Morgan. It’s really strange to think about how different his life could’ve been. When I came into Keith’s life, we invited her to the wedding. She came with her boyfriend (they married soon after us) from Minnesota all the way to Ohio! She stayed in the background; just wanted to be there. Now, anyone could tell she was Keith’s mother – they look exactly alike! They even smile sideways the same way. Since first contact, she’s continued to call Keith’s mom every once in a while & we’ve exchanged Christmas cards a few times, but that’s about it. I do want to share about Keith’s half brother, though. To me, it sheds a floodlight on God’s grace in Keith’s life.
Rob, Keith’s biological half brother, struggled though out life. He got into drugs & the party scene. We never got to meet him because, at age seventeen he killed himself by letting the car run in the garage with the door shut. He audio taped himself as he sat in the car his last minutes. Keith & I listened. He sounds so much like Keith it’s eerie!! He looked like Keith, too, except with dark hair (long in the back in the 80’s fashion) & he was really pasty looking – his eyes looked so empty & sad. He was so utterly lost. My heart breaks even writing it out. I say all this to compare & contrast his story to my husband’s…
Keith’s parents had been married a few years when they started the paperwork to adopt a baby & spent nine months praying for God to give them a child. They got the call & had Keith in their arms within a day. He grew up going to church every Sunday with both sets of grandparents in the pew beside him, along with two generations of aunts, uncles & cousins. At age nine, he gave his heart to Jesus & was baptized. He went on to go to Liberty University (his parents & grandparents had long supported Liberty ministries) where we met. Our lives would both be completely different if Keith had not been adopted.
Every March 10th in our home we celebrate Adoption Day – a practice Keith’s folks started the day they officially adopted him. For me, it’s a day of reflecting again on God’s incredible love for us. To be able to see directly how much it changed Keith’s life to be adopted into a God fearing home vs. Rob who was raised in a single parent home without God, is stunning.
I am so thankful for adoption. It’s a beautiful picture of what God has done for us. We were born into sin. We had a miserable life of pain & foolish pointlessness to look forward to, until Jesus came to bring us hope! Because of Him, we can become sons of GOD!! “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1) That is incredible! We are, when we receive Jesus as Savior & Lord, adopted into God’s family. He is our Father! What a wonderful Father we have in Him. Everything about our lives are changed. Thank God He chose us, for without Him, we are utterly hopeless.
Grandma came from MN to visit this last week, giving us lots of opportunities for pictures. See a few of the results to the left. There are more when you open Flickr.
Here’s one of my favorites…
This post goes along with the jello post a few months ago. There are some things you do because that’s how it’s always been done & you don’t bother thinking about a better way. Here are two more entries to the list…
1) Rather than cut up that rock hard acorn squash before cooking, toss it in the microwave as is (poke it a few times first like a potato so it doesn’t explode on you) for 15 minutes & it cooks up superbly!! Let it cool a while, then cut it up & scoop it out ready to eat. How easy is that!!? Callie, Anders, & I love squash, so this is a huge “ah-ha!” moment for me there. Perfect timing! We will be stocking up on acorn squash this winter.
2) Teach your children to tie their shoelaces the easy way. I never knew there was more than one way until I stumbled upon this website. The other day I spent literally five minutes teaching Anders how to tie his shoes! Jack will look like a genius among his peers as he ties his tiny laces with this new method. 
Here’s a shot of my kindergarten cutie on his big day…
Mom sent me these & some were too funny. I had to share.
A few words to live by…
Believe in yourself.
Remain calm, even when it seems hopeless.
Work together as a team.
Watch your step.
It will get better.
Live up to your name.
Seize the moment.
Here are a couple election day recipes for that party tonight…
Donkey Droppings
1 can sweetened condensed milk*
2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs (a 16 oz. boz is 4 1/2 cups)
1 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon of rum (or milk)
2 Tablespoons of cocoa
Mix all the ingredients together. Roll into balls the size of buckeyes (1″) & then roll in coconut. You’ll need about 3 1/2 cups of coconut total. Freeze them, then take them out about ten minutes before serving. This recipe makes about 40 droppings, depending on how big you roll them.
If you don’t have any sweetened condensed milk on hand, Keith’s neighbor growing up passed this on to me years ago…
*Microwave Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 cup water, warmed
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons dry skim milk
3/4 cup sugar
Gradually stir in milk, mixing well into warm water. Microwave until hot. Stir in sugar mixing until dissolved. Refrigerate 1 hour to thicken.
Elephant Ears
I’ve never tried to make elephant ears for election, but one of these years I just might. Here’s an easy & fun one that looks easy enough…
1 (10 can) refrigerated biscuits
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1. Open can of biscuits. Press 2 together and roll out between 2 sheets of wax paper until thin as possible.
2. Heat vegetable oil (enough to cover bottom) in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry elephant ear one or two at a time until golden brown on one side, then turn and fry other side. Drain on paper towel and sprinkle with mixture of the sugar and cinnamon. Serve warm. Makes 5 large elephant ears.
