Blessed to be a Blessing

You've heard this before, right? The idea that when we are blessed in life, we should seek to be a blessing to others.

Well, I have been blessed- in so many ways!

Let me just share a few...

I graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a degree in missions, a deeper desire to serve Jesus with my life, a gorgeous fiancé and lifelong friendships.

I married the man of my dreams.

I am a pastor's wife (I didn't know how much I would love this!).

I have 3 beautiful children and another one on the way.

In each of the churches that my husband and I have served in, I have met friends who have become like sisters to me.

Although we have always lived far away from our families, we have been overwhelmed by the "family" that God has always provided for us.

Our families continue to encourage and challenge us to love Jesus and each other more. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins- they ALL have been a blessing to my kids through the way they live their lives!

I stumbled into blogging and have been amazed with the community that has grown around it.

God has given me the opportunity to serve other ministry wives and to watch as He redeems my brokenness and uses it for His glory!

This is just to name a few.

And so, I find myself in a place where I am seeking ways to be a blessing to others.

Two opportunities have crossed my path in the past couple of weeks. Both have touched my heart in deep ways. I can't seem to get them off of my mind or out of my heart- and that is exactly as it should be!

I want to share them with you today. I don't know if these opportunities will touch your heart in the same way that they have mine. But I cannot just keep them to myself!

Through my (in)Couraged Flock group (the group of ministry wives that I have the privilege of co-leading and encouraging as a ministry of (in)courage), I have met two women who are both going through the process of adopting children.

Let me introduce you first to Jessie. The first time I "met" her was through a Five Minute Friday post. I started following her blog and have been so blessed by her writing and her heart for others. When she wanted to join the (in)Couraged Flock group, I was thrilled. Jessie and her husband have 5 beautiful children and they are following the call to adopt 2 more! You can read about their story here and here.  In these posts, Jessie answers many of the questions that people have about adoption.

The second friend that I would like to introduce you to is Christie. Since meeting Christie back in October when she joined our (in)Couraged Flock, I have been blessed through her words, through the way she beautifully shares her heart- always seeking to bring glory to Jesus and through the encouragement that she gives to others in our group. We have been praying for Christie and her husband as they have struggled with infertility. And then... Christie shared the news that they were being given the opportunity to adopt a baby due in April. We had the privilege of praying for this family as they waited to see if they would be chosen out of the many possible adoptive families. And we REJOICED when God answered this prayer with a YES!

Both Jessie and Christie seek to live their lives in faithfulness to God's call. They have made decisions to serve Him in ministry and to adopt. Their lives are a beautiful testimony to how God sees US- his children! As it says in Ephesians 1:5, "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure."

This brings us to our opportunity to be a blessing. As my husband and I talked with our kids this morning about this post that I would be writing, we told them that adopting children costs a great deal of money. We are preparing for our Baby Ainsley to arrive, but we've had 6 months already to prepare. We have been given SO MUCH for our baby girl. We have insurance that covers a great deal of our medical bills.  For Jessie and her husband, they need to raise $1,800 before they can start sharing the details of the two siblings that they are praying to adopt from Ethiopia (and then a great deal more to actually finalize the adoptions!). For Christie and her husband, they need to raise the overwhelming amount of $35,000.

Both families have thought of creative ways to raise these funds. This is where you and I come in. I'm pretty sure that none of us have $35,000 in our back pockets- and even $1,800 is more than any of my readers could easily come up with. But $5? Or $10? Both of those amounts are doable. And when you combine those amounts with others who have been blessed to be a blessing and when you serve a God who is worthy of our trust, then you can see how these adoptions can become a reality.

Donating to either of these adoptions is easy! To donate to Jessie's adoptions (and to be entered for a drawing for tickets to Disneyland!!), go here.  To donate to Christie's adoption, go here.

And then, could you let me know? Because I have been praying hard for these two sisters and it would be a blessing to me to know that my friends are helping in tangible ways to answer these prayers.

I pray that each day we would seek to be a blessing to others!