Love in Action Journey

Hubby and I are back home to our precious little girls after quite an emotional Cape Town visit. It was very significant for us to be back there over the 7 month anniversary of Zac's birth. We cried many tears as we re-negotiated what we went through in Cape Town just 7 months ago. Those tears were good tears. Tears that allowed us to work through another layer of healing with our precious Jesus. As I worked through a myriad of emotions this weekend, the Lord once again allowed me to see how gracious and patient He is with our hearts. He takes His time with us in working through grief. There is no rush or pushing from His side to "move on" quickly. He is more concerned about us working through our grief honestly with Him. He tackles our highs and lows with infinite love, steadfastness and tenderness. He places precious people around us to pray and love us through the journey. Such love our Saviors has for us. This weekend I discovered once again that God draws near ...

Today was a hard day for me. We drove back to Cape Town. The last time we made this beautiful drive I was pregnant and full of hope for a miracle. The closer we got here today, the more painful my heart began to feel. So many memories. Precious memories of so much love, but also memories that bare the scars of my deepest pain. This is the place where I last got to hold my son. It is also the place where we scattered his ashes. For me, although we are in a totally different area of Cape Town and for a different reason, wherever I look I am reminded of my joy and pain. Today I ache so deeply and grieve such a deep loss. Wherever I look there are precious babies. Their cries pierce such a tender place of longing in my heart for a certain little boy that i got the priviledge to birth. I miss my son and wrestle the hurt of dissapointment! It has been a while since the pain has been as intense as it is today, but i remind myself to be honest and take my pain, hurt and dissapointment to the O...

There is a certain somebody in my life who has a way of capturing my heart like nobody else can. He wakes me up to whatever my flavour of the moment is: either normal tea, rooibos tea, decaf tea, earl grey tea, mixed tea, chamomile tea, milo, horlicks, hot chocolate, decaf coffee, "special" coffee or simply hot water. The fact that it HAS to be a surprise and I HAVE to love it makes it all the more amazing that he almost always chooses the right one for me almost every single day ;0) For a person who doesn't like surprises, he is willing to keep creating little ways of surprising his surprise-adoring wife. 10 points for the long stemmed roses in a bucket next to my bed this morning ;) (No I didn't find the surprise you hid from me yesterday even though I may just have hunted around a tiny bit investigating the possibilities :) hee hee) I love that he was the first and only man to receive my kisses and that he had the long-suffering patience to wait until the da...

Coming through our first Easter with Zac in Heaven and us on earth was such a tender time for my heart. I just miss him so much and have come to learn over these last 6 months that every special and ordinary day without our boy in our every day lives will always be a tender ache in my heart. I miss him so much and I love him so much. God's grace has tangibly carried us through and I cannot do without that grace for even a moment, because the pain for this mommy of not having her baby boy in her arms is too painful without the tender love and grace of my Jesus to hold me through the healing process. It's not so much the big things, but rather the little things that trigger the pain. It's the pain of not hearing his name spoken out. It's the fact that I can't brag about his new developmental stages, or have to excuse myself to feed him and put him down for his naps. It's really just the everyday ordinary things that I should be doing with him that I'm not. T...

No Greater Joy Mom: upping the ante : Oh wow friends! Go and take a look at Adeye's latest link to see what the body of Christ has done within 30 hours! The finances to bring Faith home has been met in FULL!!! And now the fund raiser continues to raise grants for the other children in Faith's orphanage to help other forever families adopt these precious children. This is such a mighty ongoing miracle. I think that Pleven (the orphanage where Faith is) is about to see a whole bunch of ongoing miracles!!! This is just the best "thankful Thursday" post ever! Thank you Jesus for your love that is so alive in the Church today. It just goes to show that we can ALL do our part in sowing love to the millions of orphans who are desperately waiting to be found. Every prayer prayed, every cent or gift given and every family that is wiling to go is part of God's miracle to change these precious children's lives!  Thankful, thankful, THANKFUL!!! All my love xxx Janine

No Greater Joy Mom: because this life matters! Precious friends, this is SUCH AN URGENT message. The above post is from one of my dearest friends, who I have known for almost 15 years. Precious Adeye. She and Anthony have been given the privilege of being called to adopt the bravest little girl I know, a little girl called Faith. The link above is Faith's story. PLEASE, please, please read it. The photo's you see were taken of Faith last month. This little girl is 14 years old and weighs only 6kgs! Yes, you read that right, even though nobody could possibly ever put those two figures together in their heads and understand it! It just is that crazy and that is why I am asking you to read her story and open your hearts to be part of the mighty miracle to bring her home to finally be loved and nurtured by a family who so deeply love her already. She has waited long enough!!! I have watched Adeye journey into motherhood as she gave birth to her 3 precious son...