2020

Today we celebrate the birthday of 4 of my nieces. Happy 7th to Tessa, Kaylee, Tysen, and Kenzi! Where did the time go??? As we celebrate these 4 little miracles, I can't help but think of the 27 miracles that Randy and I were lucky enough to spend time with last week at the orphanage in San Felipe, Mexico. To cook for and love on, to play with and pray with. Lupita, Mia, Jesus, Brian, Lorenzo, Amber, Alexa, Carime, Juliet, Christian, Isaac, Natalie, Rene... they too are miracles. Little miracles who love to chase each other around the playground, sing and dance, cook in their play kitchen and color, just like my nieces. Only without the security of a mother and father. These kids are lucky to have been placed in this particular orphanage , the best in San Felipe, perhaps in all of Mexico. It is a place full of love and care, comfort and cleanliness, nutrition and nurture. But is that enough? One of the regular volunteers, Julie (who invited us on this trip...

One thing I've realized this week is that there is a huge difference between " intention " and " intentional ." Intention means "an aim or plan." But intentional means "to do on purpose." In other words, good intentions will only get you so far, if you aren't intentional about carrying them out. For example, my intention is to read a book a week this year. But I have to intentionally set aside time, approximately an hour a day, if I'm actually going to read those books. My intention is to go to Bible study each week for the next 6 weeks. But I have to intentionally get in my car and drive to church for this to happen. Laying on the couch watching Grey's Anatomy is not going to get me to Bible study! I have great intentions of being a happy, peaceful person who always sees the good in every situation. But when the toilet backs up into the shower like it did last night I have to be intentional about my thoughts and reac...

I remember the day like it was yesterday. The sun was shining. We were walking through the countryside on gravel roads. Our backpacks were heavy, yet not burdensome. Randy and I had been walking the Camino de Santiago, slowly making our way from east to west across the country of Spain, for a while now. Long enough to be easy with our conversation. Not shying away from hard questions. I don't know exactly what the question was; if it was him who asked it or if I had asked him first. But the gist of it was: what is something BIG you've always wanted to do? As if walking across Spain wasn't BIG enough? Right?! Yet, I find that each time I do something BIG, it just opens the door of my heart to keep doing big things. The same is true for my year of living intentionally . I find that the more intentional I am about doing the things I know I am made to do, I just want to do more and more. Without thinking (you know it comes straight from the heart when the answ...

Last month Randy and I received our January DateBox , which was a scavenger hunt. It included 3 decks of cards that listed the scavenger hunt items and 3 selfie sticks. We were to challenge two other couples to "compete" against us and see who could get the most items listed on their cards. The items included things like "go down a slide together," "pose in a store window," "take a photo with an out-of-state license plate," etc.  We were initially excited about this, but then our attention turned to worry. What if the other couples thought this was dumb? Worse, what if they didn't have any fun?  After a couple days of worrying, Randy finally said, "As long as we have fun together, that's all that matters."  He reminded me of this simple truth: we can't control how other people feel, we can only control ourselves.  I think this reminder will be important in this year of living intentionally . My atte...