when you’re the odd man out…

This story began to unfold 4 years ago. There was….a rub. Eric had graduated Bible College several years prior and we were serving as full time staff at our second church. We were young, naive, and on fire for the Lord. But, we had a fierce hunger for relationship & outreach that could not be satiated. Our heart, was for our community. We invited neighbors over for cookouts, backyard play dates, and became heavily involved at the local crisis pregnancy center. Soon after, we took a deeper dive into community immersion, by opening our home as a foster family. Eric’s full time position at the church was the assimilation, missions & outreach, and group life pastor. Perfect right?

Fast forward to 2016. We were reading all the current the Barna Research & had read “Meet Generation Z; Understanding and Reaching the New Post-Christian World.” Our missions & outreach team gathered around our enormous dining room table to brain storm how to get the church outside of its four walls, in order to reach the community with the gospel and engage in relationships in lieu of our traditional Easter service. We were dreaming BIG dreams. Then came the hammer, of the reality of where our church leadership stood. As we shared our hearts and ideas for relational evangelism, and the hope to be able to reach those who were either hostile to the gospel or had experienced church hurt in the past, we were told, “those are not the people we’re trying to reach.” I tried to plead my case. My family fell into that category and there is nothing I resonated with more, than someone in their community loving on them with the Gospel love of Jesus. What I realized that day was, the church wanted people who would file into their building, assimilate, follow the lead of the pastor, tithe, and help run programs. But that left us feeling like the odd man out. Our family could not get behind that sort of mindset, because in doing so, we were writing off the eternity of so many. By the end of the year, we knew it was time to move on and follow the Lord into uncharted territory.

The first book we read right out of the gate was “Organic Church” by Neil Cole. We desperately wanted to experience authentic, biblical community. Later on we read “Letters to the Church” by Francis Chan, “Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola & George Barna, and “The Gospel Comes with a House Key” by Rosaria Butterfield. Those books were transformational for us and gave us the encouragement that we needed to know that we were not alone in feeling the rub of the modern day church. We knew God was calling us to some sort of unconventional church planting mission.

Last fall we officially exited the institutional church & support staff role to plant a church in our living room. During this time, our goal has been to learn & grow as leaders in order to equip the small flock the Lord has entrusted to us. Our first step has been encouraging each other to read God’s word everyday. We committed to read through the Old Testament together in a year and attempt to have regular, ongoing conversation about what we’re learning and how we’re growing. Our next step is to help equip ourselves and our church to open our homes regularly to ordinary hospitality, gathering people around our tables, swimming pools, and fire pits, and meeting people where they’re at in our community. We want to encourage our friends and family with the authority they have in Jesus, to go and do the thing, even though they’ve never been to Bible college or seminary. We have the Holy Spirit in us just like the members of the early church did. They were just regular, everyday people, following the Great Commission, and were able to be a part of the greatest movement of the church in church history. How cool is that? Lord use us to reach our community for your kingdom.

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March Narrative

-Breakfast

-Sleep in a tiny bit

-Cook a big breakfast

-Boys excitedly begin to retell/narrate the portion of “The Blue Fairy Book” they listened to on Audible last night in bed during breakfast conversation.

-Bible reading – “Peter Denies Christ”

• My youngest son (7 yrs old) draws a quick picture/comic strip narration while I read. He uses that to give an oral narration when we’re finished reading. The bigger kids usually jot down a few notes about what stands out to them while I’m reading. They orally narrate fill in the gaps and add details after the youngest is finished narrating.

-Family Read Aloud- “God’s Troubadour, The story of Saint Francis of Assisi” by Sophie Jewett

• I read a few paragraphs at a time, pause for a short oral narration, and continue to read. We usually do narrations oldest to youngest, or split into pairs and narrate to a sibling.
• The reading & narrating spurs an impromptu conversation time and story telling of imaginary wars which would not be complete without a description of valiant knights brandishing their swords.

-As we wrap up to get dressed and begin the day, the kid’s begin to tell me about the project they worked on outside. Digging a trench and stacking a rock wall to help divert water run off in the front of our house and toward the field. This is a huge deal for two reason, they LOVE to dig random holes, trenches, etc but usually get in trouble for it, and they stack rocks in random places over the property which is great for ingenuity, but awful for mowing.

-Next, we get dressed, do our self care, and begin our indoor chores & animal/outdoor chores for the day. Altogether this usually takes around an hour or so.

-While the big kids are outside working, I’m usually inside wrapping up anything I need to do. Usually that looks like helping my littler kids unload the dishwasher or tidy up, rotating a load of laundry, tackling the styling of my two little girls hair, and watering porch plants or tending the fire depending on the season.

-After chores are done we begin individual work. Today morning chores ran over and I’m just getting the chance to start little girl hair.

• The little girls watch a few letter “X” books being read aloud & a counting to 10 video on YouTube while they get their hair done.

-Hair is done! Hallelujah! My 5 year old practices writing numbers 1-20 and completes a set of 1-10 number sequencing cards.

-I send my little girls to play and go to help the bigger kids with math.

-Check math and look over any work that’s already been finished.

-I begin reading & sight word practice with my 7 year old son.

-As we’re reading, I hear my 11 yr old struggling a bit on some simple multiplication and make a mental note to have him practice his math facts & skip counting.

-Lunch time

-Everyone heads outside to play.

-I need to run a few errands, so the kids come in for a rest time & watch a movie.

-We go for a UTV ride to get out of the house.

-We visit a little with our neighbors.

-I make dinner for my small army.

• My oldest daughter tinkers with a new sewing project while I’m cooking.

-We set the table and surprise the kids with a few special treats at dinner.

-Kids teamwork to clean up dinner and the kitchen, and prep the evening laundry load.

-We all head to the backporch to play with the kitten and enjoy the cool evening.

-Head backside to begin bedtime routine.

-The oldest tinkers a bit more with her sewing project while I watch a homeschool help video by A Gentle Feast to help me prepare for the following year.

**Want to know more about A Gentle Feast? Check out my affiliate link at https://agentlefeast.com/?ref=AmandaGinther

Leaving a Legacy-A Tribute to my Mamaw

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, and oh how this picture encapsulates that very statement. Above are two photos. One of my Mamaw during her morning quiet time with the Lord, and below is a picture I snapped during my morning quiet time several weeks ago. We lived exactly 1,011 miles apart, but despite the miles between us, we’ve shared countless memories together. From summers on the farm, to trips to the farmers market and Walmart. I will be forever thankful for our moments together this side of heaven, and look forward to eventually spending eternity with her in the presence of our Lord and Savior.

In the midst of her passing, the thing I am most grateful for is the tremendous legacy both her and my Papaw have left behind. Merriam-Webster defines a legacy as : something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past. Hers is a legacy carefully curated over 80 years of living intentional life. Through hours of prayer, service, and Bible study. In living out the dreams and desires that were woven into the fabric of her very being, and through the presence they both had in their local community. My grandparents left a legacy that transcends earthly riches. It’s something that no amount of money could ever buy. They poured themselves out into many people always pointing back to God’s glorious grace and the gospel. This my friends, is a legacy worth preserving repeating.

Daring Greatly & Curriculum Roll-Out 2018-2019

I feel like this daring greatly quote captures the essence of what we do as homeschool families. We enter the arena of life, strive valiantly, experience remarkable triumph, but occasionally err and fall short. We face the harsh critics, those who point out our shortcomings or how we’ve stumbled, but most of whom have never even entered the arena. With this on our shoulders we begin to plan. Nothing is more exciting or for that matter, as stressful as planning for the following school year. We dream, stalk Instagram, join Facebook groups, and attend information meetings. Hours of Google searches, endless blog reading, and many conversations later we finally feel like we’re ready to pull the trigger. In spite of our endless research, we doubt ourselves, our expertise, our hours of prayer, and decision making process. As caring and committed parents we want to purchase exactly the right curriculum for each one of our little loves. To make sure each child is leveled perfectly; to find exactly the right balance of challenge and fun. The fate of their future lies solely in our hands right??? I am beyond guilty of this craziness and I know I cannot be alone.

As we near the “finish line” for the year (I say this in quotes because we homeschool year round), I begin to assess our current school year and our previous years of experience. After assessing where we are and where we’ve been, I begin to pray, dream up, and set new goals for our family. This year I prayed for heavenly wisdom & guidance, for community & friends that’ll edify, encourage, exalt, and equip, and for divine direction for our family. You see, I desperately need Jesus to fill in the gaps where I’m ill equipped and have a serious lack of expertise. This necessitates the need for healthy community life and friendships. We seek to to do life alongside others; spurring one another along, lifting up one another, speaking life and encouragement, and helping one another fill the gaps. Family bonding, healing, retraining the brain, and healthy connections were also at the top of our priority list since we’ve doubled our family size through foster care & adoption. These are just a few the things that drove our curriculum search this year.

So without further ado, here’s a rough layout of our 2018-2019 school year and a small explanation of what we love about each piece of curriculum.

The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts

http://www.jennyphillips.com/course/language-arts-literature/

By using this I can pretty much open and go. TGTB pulls from several different educational philosophies, but mainly pulls from the Charlotte Mason style of learning which we LOVE.  We will be using the following levels:

• Pre-K
  • number recognition
  • letter recongnition
  • phonethics
  • fine motor skills
  • colors
  • shapes
  • counting
  • sorting
  • order of events
  • and much, much more
• Level K
  • Subjects Covered
    • Phonics and Reading
    • Spelling
    • Grammar and Punctuation
    • Literature
    • Art
• Level 2
  • Subjects Covered
    • Phonics
    • Reading
    • Spelling
    • Grammar and Punctuation
    • Literature
    • Art Appreciation
    • Writing
    • Geography
• Level 4
  • Subjects Covered
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Spelling
    • Grammar and Punctuation
    • Literature
    • Art
    • Geography
• Level 5
  • Subjects Covered
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Spelling
    • Grammar and Punctuation
    • Literature
    • Art
    • Vocabulary
    • Geography

The Playful Pioneers

https://www.thepeacefulpreschool.com/the-playful-pioneers/

The Playful Pioneers is the avenue we’re using to help build relationships, make memories, and help facilitate meaningful experiences together that we’ll cherish forever. TPP is a literature and project based curriculum which will take us on a beautiful journey through early American history using “The Little House on the Prairie” book collection as the spine of our learning. Jen Pepito has done an amazing job of making this an easy to follow plan for your year, breaking lessons down by week & day, and even provides you with a co-op grid if you want to do it alongside your tribe of friends.

SUBJECTS OF STUDY

• Bible
• Reading
• Narration
• Poetry
• Copy Work
• Science
• History
• Art
• Practical Skills
• (Please purchase a grade specific math and phonics curriculum separately)

Math-U-See

https://store.demmelearning.com/math-u-see/

We have used this for 6 years now and cannot stop singing MUS’s praises!! We love Steve Demme and his ability to breakdown math with ease and understanding. I love the fact that this mastery based approach builds an outstandingly firm foundation in math that’ll last for a lifetime. (For more on this educational approach check out this blog post: https://demmelearning.com/learning-blog/teaching-for-mastery/)

We have now used or are currently using everything from Primer to Zeta!

Our family cannot wait to begin the school year! My kiddos have begged and pleaded persistently to go ahead and start it all now. What a great problem to have! Over the years we’ve learned to take each year as it comes, give each other lots of grace, love unconditionally, and to always dare greatly when it comes to our family & our homeschool.

 

 

The Blessing Hour (A fresh outlook on chores & habit training.)

Several months ago I read an intriguing article about something called “The Blessing Hour.” As I began to think through our daily life, family rhythm, and our dreaded chore lists I knew we needed a fresh perspective. (The struggle is real when it comes to this area of our life.) I began my pursuit by looking up the definitions of a chore and a blessing.

chore

CHôr/

noun

a routine task, especially a household one

synonyms:

task, job, duty, errand; More

an unpleasant but necessary task.

• “he sees interviews as a chore”

bless·ing

ˈblesiNG/

noun

noun: blessing; plural noun: blessings

a beneficial thing for which one is grateful; something that brings well-being.

“great intelligence can be a curse as well as a blessing”

synonyms:

godsend, boon, advantage, benefit, help, bonus, plus; More

Did you catch that? A blessing is described as a “beneficial thing for which one is grateful; something that brings well being.” When considering the atmosphere of our home, I’d rather culminate an atmosphere of gratefulness and well being, than another job, duty, or task. We desire to teach our children the beauty of servant leadership, stewardship, orderliness, neatness, organization, and honor. Equipping them with self disciple, time management, and responsibility transcends far beyond any menial household chore.

 

What does the blessing hour look like in our family and how is it a blessing?

• We make a quick plan, divvy up chores, and set the timer for 60 minutes.
• • It blesses our family by teaching stewardship and honoring what God’s given us.
• Most of the time we split up into teams.
• • This teaches us the importance of working collectively as a team to accomplish an assigned task in an allotted time.
• We do this about 5 days out of the week.
• • A few days of work yields a considerable result. Doing a little each day prevents procrastination, and helps us feel less overwhelmed with daily tasks. It also helps teach self discipline by taking care of what needs to be done, when we’d rather be doing something else.
• We try to complete our tasks before dad arrives home from work, or as early in the afternoon as possible.
• • After dinner we have the entire evening to enjoy each other, ride bikes, go for family walks, play at the park, go swimming, have crazy dance parties, play games, watch movies, and read together.

Some days our blessing hour takes an entire hour, but others only take about 30 mins. Our laundry is now less mountainous, our sink of dishes rarely overflows, and we no longer spend hours of our weekend cleaning up after the week. After several months of the blessing hour, I can honestly say it has become a tremendous blessing to our home. It especially blesses me as mama, because I seldom feel overwhelmed or anxious about completing all the housework on my own.

Encouragement for the homeschool mama….

As our 2017-2018 school year comes to a close, I have learned and grown so incredibly much! This year we’ve transitioned to a family of 8, moved across the lone star state, and renovated yet another home. Its been the first time for me to homeschool with a tiny baby, tackle developmental delays, and simultaneously school 5 different age ranges and abilities from varying backgrounds. Lots of firsts for us this year. We also finished our first year following Charlotte Mason’s slow feast. Delighting in great literature, family read alouds, habit training, and awe-inspiring hours spent outdoors. We dove head first into the beauty and creativity of nature journaling, artist study, poetry, hymn study, and classical music. Our family found new a new heart beat in our weekly Tuesday Tea Time and Sunday Night Snack Dinner.  Such blessedness in slowing down to enjoy one another despite the busy, fast paced world whirling around us. These things have become a liturgy of our home.

Despite our year of firsts, it was our 6th year as a homeschool family. We have numerous experiences to draw from, many friends, shelves of great books, entirely too much curriculum, and many ideals of what we think our homeschool should look like. But God continues to challenge me in my parenting, my surrender to His plan for our family, and dying to myself and my educational idols. This year we are sticking to the CM method of education, but have made a few small changes for the sanity sake of this mama. Over the past year I pieced together (sometimes quite painfully) the multifaceted pieces of a complex puzzle. While we experienced tremendous growth, I knew this piecing together of information would not be sustainable for me long term. Not in this season of life. The beauty of homeschooling is the ability to make necessary changes from year to year on an as needed basis. Being a homeschool mom can be difficult (even going into our 7th year.) The weight of parenting, being the educational decision maker, trying to make all the right choices, worrying about new laws and legislation, to co-op or not to co-op, where to invest your time and money, and dealing with the weight of many skeptics and dare I say “homeschool haters” can be crippling. As time goes on these things get easier so rest assured new homeschool mama, you can do this, and this too shall pass.

This year I challenge families, homeschool moms & dads, to pray through what God’s goals are for your family. Be attentive to what He lays on your hearts. Be aware of who He’s placed around you. Your tribe of people. Pray through the business of life, the things that suck away time, rob our joy, and even drain our bank accounts. Acknowledge that no two homeschool families are the same, so your schooling can and will look different than other families. Remember that Instagram and Facebook although awesome and inspiring, will at times make you feel like a failure. Life outside of the picture frame is messy and real. Be encouraged homeschool family. You are doing a great job. In a sea of great curriculum options and the anxiety of picking out just the right ones, let connection with your kids be the driving force. Curriculum will come and go, but meaningful connection, love, and encouragement lasts a life time. Rest assured that things won’t be perfect, tea time will end up on paper plates, but there is incredible beauty in what you’re culminating in your home. I feel like this is what I would tell my younger self as I anxiously began our journey several years ago, and I pray that it will be an encouragement to you too.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7

The day we picked up some kids in a gas station parking lot.

July 2016 was a BIG, BIG month for our family. We finished up the major renovations on our home, passed our homestudy, and were officially licensed as a foster family. Victory dance!!

Now, prior to our license actually getting approved we received “the phone call” from Arrow Child and Family Ministries. As I sat at my husband’s desk one afternoon, my phone rang. “Mrs. Ginther, we have a sibling set of two, African American children ages 2 & 4. We know they’re out of your age range, but would you be willing to take the placement?” Without hesitation Eric and I said yes. Of course! Then, less than five minutes later the phone rang again. “Mrs. Ginther, we just talked to CPS and there’s actually 3 children. The children have a 7 year old brother, and we want to know if you would take him as well. We don’t want to split the siblings up.” *A school age child was not in our game plan whatsoever.* We wanted a toddler and a baby. We had a 9 year old daughter bio daughter and weren’t sure what this would realistically look like. Eric and I asked for a few minutes to pray, discuss it as a family, and promised to call them back. What would we do? Would it be wise to say yes? As we prayed and discussed the opportunity to take in the children, we reasoned that, its foster care. That means the kids would stay with us for a few months, and then be reunified with Mom, or placed with a family member. So, we said yes.

One week later we met our Arrow worker in a local gas station parking lot to pick up 2 of our 3 new placements. (We only received two at first, because our kiddos were part of an emergency placement, and had to be split up in order for everyone to be placed.) Our family had anticipated this day for so long. We had been praying for these children. We dreamed of what the kids would be like, look like, sound like. And now it was all happening. The moment our AFS pulled up with two of our sweet babies my heart swelled with love. She pulled two tiny, adorable, rigidly terrified children out of the car. They were emotionless, stoic, and not nearly as thrilled to see us, as we were to see them. The kids wanted nothing to do with us, however, they did take quickly to our bio kids. As soon as a Ninja Turtle backpack was spotted in the car, we had words!! Glorious words! (Words that haven’t stopped since. Lol!) Considering our sweet babes came to us with nothing, a trip to Walmart, and a pit stop for lunch was a must. We bought clothing, sippy cups, pajamas, undies, backpacks, bath products, toothbrushes. We bought all the things.

What came next? Many sleepless nights, SO. MUCH. PRAYER, and dealing with the manifestation of years of trauma. There is nothing glamorous about foster care. It’s messy, hard, and absolutely can’t be done in your own strength. It can only-only be done through the strength of Christ, and in community with others. People who help meet physical needs by dropping off beds, mattresses, car seats, strollers, groceries, meals, toys, and clothes. Friends who call or text to make sure everything is okay, and offer a word of encouragement when you need it most. People who’ll listen as you pour out your heart in utter exhaustion because you’ve taken on tremendous task of bearing the burden of others grief and hurt.

I want to end with one of my favorite worship songs and a few scriptures.

Psalm 68:5-6

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,

is God in his holy dwelling.

6 God sets the lonely in families,[a]

he leads out the prisoners with singing;

Jeremiah 29:11

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Romans 8:28

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

It is Well by Bethel Worship

https://youtu.be/YNqo4Un2uZI

Let’s get transparent…the ugly confession of throwing in the towel too early.

trans·par·ent

transˈperənt/

adjective

adjective: transparent

• easy to perceive or detect.

  synonyms:

  obvious, evident, self-evident, undisguised, unconcealed, conspicuous, patent, clear, crystal clear, plain, (as) plain as the nose on your face, apparent, unmistakable, easily discerned, manifest, palpable, indisputable, unambiguous, unequivocal “a transparent attempt to win favor”

  antonyms:

  ambiguous, obscure

• having thoughts, feelings, or motives that are easily perceived.

 Let’s roll the clock back to March 2017. In that lovely month you’d find a weary, worn down mama and wife. In doing good, I’d grown weary and had reached the point of burnout. The behaviors that were being exhibited seemed insurmountable, and the developmental delays far too great. And me, I was DONE with it. Tapping out, packing the bags, done. I wrestled with the Lord, because I had heard Him so clearly just a few months prior regarding us adopting. I desperately pleaded with him for a release. I reasoned, maybe he just wanted us to say yes to test our faithfulness, and would then provide another way (a relative, a friend, anyone.)  But NOTHING….. So I took matters into my own hands, and we put in our 30 day notice to have one of the children removed from our home. I called CPS and our agency all. the. time. Please take this child from me I would plead, but still NOTHING. Then early one morning in ugly, bitter, anger, I went at with the Lord. WHY? WHAT? I CAN’T!!! HELP! We had far surpassed our 30 days, and my patience was gone. And the Lord answered, “Shame on you. You took matters into your own hands. I will shut every door, because your family is my plan A, you are my only plan. You can fight me or submit.” You know that pit you get in your stomach? Yep, it was there. I knew it was true. Shame on me. Next came much repentance, the revoking of our 30 day notice, and unfathomable peace.  After we completely gave everything over to the Lord, we saw significant behavioral changes and finally found resources, specialists, and therapists who offered help and hope in very specific areas. It hasn’t been perfect or pretty by any means, but it has been substantially easier. We have so much hope for our future. When we can’t see the changes or the mountains we’ve climbed, someone reaches out and reminds us of where we started, and how far we’ve all come. Praise be to God for those timely reminders!! Thank you to those who reach out and speak life into us. You are the truly mouthpiece of God, and we are so very thankful for you!

Well, there you have it folks. God is constantly at work in me. An imperfect, mess of a mom attempting to run the race He has set before me. Occasionally stumbling, veering off course, and sometimes needing to be picked up and carried to the next point.

I want to leave you with the scripture that actually convicted me to write this blog post today.

Matthew 14:22-33 (NLT)

Jesus Walks on Water

²² Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. ²³ After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.

²⁴ Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. ²⁵ About three o’clock in the morning^[a] Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!”

²⁷ But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!^[b]”

²⁸ Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”

²⁹ “Yes, come,” Jesus said.

So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the strong^[c] wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.

³¹ Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”

³² When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. ³³ Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.

Until next time my friends…..

Nearing Adoption, Big Moves, and God’s Perfect Provision

Wow!! Where do I even begin? This past year has been one of the hardest years we’ve faced as a family. My husband recently blogged and compared it to the Rocky story. (You can catch his blog post here.) You know….lots of getting beat up in the beginning, but finally triumphing at the end. Blow after blow, we were left wondering how much longer we could stay in the fight. But God, in His perfect provision, has walked with us every step of the way. Constantly nudging us to go just one step farther. Just one more step. One foot in front of the other, no matter how hard or impossible things seemed.

So what has God’s provision looked like for our family in 2017? I’m so glad you asked! Where do I even begin?!?! Let’s go back to the spring. In the spring, the Lord began giving Eric and I a heart and a vision for a different type of ministry & church planting. As this was happening, we also felt like he was releasing us from the full-time ministry position at the church we were currently at, and we knew He had BIG plans for us on the horizon. But just as quickly as we said yes to plant and were ready to jump in with both feet, the Lord slowly closed the local opportunities over the following months and said not yet. Two words we love to hear right???? NOT YET…

Insert June. The month of June was a paramount month for our family. It was the month we went to trial for our 3 kiddos. Leading up to trial I processed sooooo many feelings. Extreme grief, anxiety, fear, just to name a few. This lead to hours of crying out to the Lord, and seeking His promises. The day before we went to trial, God gave me this scripture:

Psalm 5

O Lord, hear me as I pray;
    pay attention to my groaning.
² Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God,
    for I pray to no one but you.
³ Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord.
    Each morning I bring mdy requests to you and wait expectantly.

⁴ O God, you take no pleasure in wickedness;
    you cannot tolerate the sins of the wicked.
⁵ Therefore, the proud may not stand in your presence,
    for you hate all who do evil.
⁶ You will destroy those who tell lies.
    The Lord detests murderers and deceivers.

⁷ Because of your unfailing love, I can enter your house;
    I will worship at your Temple with deepest awe.
⁸ Lead me in the right path, O Lord,
    or my enemies will conquer me.
Make your way plain for me to follow.

⁹ My enemies cannot speak a truthful word.
    Their deepest desire is to destroy others.
Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.
    Their tongues are filled with flattery.^[a]
10 O God, declare them guilty.
    Let them be caught in their own traps.
Drive them away because of their many sins,
    for they have rebelled against you.

¹¹ But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
    let them sing joyful praises forever.
Spread your protection over them,
    that all who love your name may be filled with joy.
¹² For you bless the godly, O Lord;
    you surround them with your shield of love.

This scripture could not have been more timely or perfect for our specific case. The next day, we attended trail and our children’s mom relinquished her rights. It was a bittersweet day for us. We rejoiced for God’s protection, but also mourned the loss for our children and their mom. Many tears and much celebration ensued.

Hello July! Just three weeks post trial, we got another surprise. For months we had prayed for the littlest sibling of our children.  Sweet baby number 4. She was placed with a relative earlier in the spring so the thought of her coming to live with us was not even on the radar. But as we like to say, “God’s got jokes.” Eric and I were enjoying a nice date morning feasting on french pastries, when we received a text to call our agency ASAP. After a brief phone call, we were asked to get ready for sweet baby K to join us in just a few hours! What?!?!? I had been praying very specifically over this situation, and knew this was the Lord giving us the desires of our heart.

Psalm 37:3-4

“Trust in the Lord and do good.
    Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you your heart’s desires”

How’s that for provision so far? Pretty amazing right? But wait, it gets better. God didn’t stop there. Eric and I had thought it eventually would be nice to go “home” near our families. I was struggling in keeping up with the massive amounts of therapy and specialists our lives now entailed, and longed to be able to call in an SOS to one of our moms. When I say struggling, I mean MANY, MANY tears, feelings of utter defeat, and massive guilt in being crappy mom who just can’t hack it. I prayed for this. I knew it would be hard, and we were prepared to walk that out, but geez. I just need a little extra help, and didn’t feel like I could catch a break. A few weeks post cry-fest, a web of crazy phone calls, numerous emails, and lots of waiting happened, because Eric was offered a job back “home!!” Would CPS say yes to this? We hadn’t adopted yet, and baby K is still a fresh placement. BAM!! YES THEY DID!!!! How about that? Now we needed to sell our house, and find a home that could accommodate our massive family. Y’all, we sold our house in just a few days thanks to our amazing realtor Tina Whalen! Oh, and the house big enough to house the masses in our price range? Check! We’re buying the house I grew up in!! 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms! In true Ginther style, this is a bit of a fixer upper too. We wouldn’t have it any other way. LOL!!

God’s hand of provision has been undeniable! However, we are asking you to continue to please pray. Pray over our upcoming adoption consummation. Pray for the months we still have left on Baby K’s case.  Pray for us as we renovate a home, and homeschool with 6 children. *We’ve never reno’d with this many little people depending on us.* Pray that we can pull it all together, and not go totally crazy. LOL!! Thank you in advance for your support and prayers on behalf of #gintherpartyof8 and our #gintherfamilyadventures. Stay tuned for what comes next!!

Moving into the mess…

Over the past two months I’ve heard several incredible messages regarding compassion and serving the least of these. In one of the messages, it was pointed out that Compassion:

1. Moves us toward the pain
2. Moves us to care; Beyond the us and they, and calls you to do something else
3. Moves us to be committed, and drives us to the place of greatest need.

So today, I not only want to pose a question to you, I want to provide you with some tangible ideas on how you can get involved in serving in orphan care. First the question….

• Who and how are you serving in your local community? Where are you getting involved in being the hands and feet of Jesus?

A few weeks ago we took in sibling number four (maxing out our home by state standards,) and our village of people poured out love on us. We were lavished with diapers, wipes, clothing, bibs, bottles, baby gear, car seats, meals…….You name it, our friends and family made sure we had it. Words cannot even begin to describe how humbled we were by your kindness & support! In an incredibly stressful time, you guys made life possible. Thank you for serving our family in our unexpected time of need.

Through this post I’d like to shed some light on what foster and adoptive parents do regularly, and how you can get involved in supporting your local orphan care community.

“No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”

What do foster parents do? Oh the burning question….. We keep daily notes for each child placed in our home, we go to parent visits (twice a month, weekly, or even twice a week), lots of doctors appointments (this week we had 7 for the kids placed in our home), dentists, eye exams, occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, behavioral therapy, psychiatrists, specialists, and play therapy (just to name a few.) And guess what? Finding a doctor who takes superior medicaid to actually see our kids, takes hours and hours of phone conversations, frustration, and sometimes tears. We stay up all night, wipe bottoms, console, pray, pray, pray, deal with behavioral stuff (like manifested trauma), love on precious kids, and then we wake up and do it all again. Every month we get to open our home to CPS workers, CASA workers, and our Arrow worker twice. Our family homeschools, so it’s always nice to be able to squeeze that one in there too. LOL! Being a foster parent is hard work, but it’s completely worth it when that’s your calling and gift. So where do YOU come into all of this? Maybe you don’t share this same call to bring a child into your home….. Rick Warren said, “ Each of us has a role to play, and every role is important. There is no small service to God; it all matters.”

So without further ado, here are a few ways to get involved in helping care for the orphan:

• Foster
• Adopt
• Get involved with local foster and adoptive groups.
  • Locally: Girls and Boys Harbor in La Porte, Arrow Family and Child Ministry, Anchor Point, Benchmark, Pathways, SHOES Ministry in Deer Park
• Get certified for Respite Care
• Get certified to Babysit.
• Become a CASA volunteer.
• Become a Safe Family for Children.
• Support an agency or even a foster/adoptive family financially.
• Provide general resources when foster families have needs arise, and take in new placements.
• Offer to pick up groceries.
• Mow a lawn.
• Pray
• Send words or texts of encouragement.
• Bring a meal

I want to end this post with a HUGE word of encouragement in that, if the Lord is asking you to serve boldly and courageously, step out in obedient faith and say YES.

“Loving on the “hard to love” is anything but easy. It’s hard and messy and doesn’t stay in the lines. There are long nights and even longer days. There is screaming and crying and emotions I didn’t even know existed. My predictable schedule and orderly life went out the door as she came in. My kitchen table is scratched. No aspect of life has escaped her influence. Let’s go ahead and label all plans as tentative. It’s just safer that way, because somebody might fall apart between now and then. And that somebody might be me.

I traded easy and comfortable and predictable for hard, painful and risky. In the beginning, I hated every minute of it. And then I did it again. And again. And now we have a fourth coming in. Something must have changed. It did. I changed.

Don’t get me wrong, she changed too. But not near as much as me. I thought I knew what I wanted, but I was wrong. I didn’t want safe and predictable. I wanted to follow Jesus, and He seldom leads down safe and predictable roads. The longer I follow Him, the more I realize He keeps me safe. But not because He puts me in safe places -I am safe because I’m with Him, and as long as I’m with Him, my circumstances don’t have to be safe and predictable.” ~Jennifer Sulfridge