Oh the Bliss!

I believe Elijah went to Heaven in a whirlwind. I believe David killed a giant with a rock. I believe lepers were healed, blind could see, and water turned to wine. And, I have no doubt that Jesus is the Son of God, died, and rose again. BUT... I have always, always had hard time wrapping my brain around the whole Noah's Ark thing. Don't judge. Maybe it's because as a child my perception of the ark was this: And therefore I spent a good portion of my childhood trying to fit all the animals in there, like this: But then I saw this: If only YouTube would post a video all about how God existed before anything else existed, then I'd be golden. (Faith like a child, friends, faith like a child.)

Adoption talk is everywhere these days... Almost everyone knows people who have adopted, are adopting, are thinking about adopting. Celebrities are doing it. It's kinda "in", and it's a little tempting to think, "Geez, enough with adoption, it's SOOOOOOO trendy." Blah blah blah... I get that. But if the church (people, not building) want to hop on a bandwagon then finding a more necessary one is hard to come by. Every now and then I post a way that we can all help out, but when my beloved friend Karen made a list on her blog of ways we can support adopting families I really wanted to post it here. karen is a mother of three, her youngest bean was adopted from Ethiopia, so she knows the realities of adopting. As one of my nearest and dearest friends goes through this process I find myself reading this list and seeing how I can help my lovely Coulombe family . (In fact, Tay, maybe you shouldn't read this as it will give all my upcoming moves away.) :...

Sweet husband was telling me about a young man he knows who is facing a handful of challenging situations; his girlfriend being pregnant is one of them, and she's considering getting an abortion. "DID YOU TELL HIM WE'LL ADOPT HIS BABY???" I interrupted him mid-sentence. In true, Mark -matter-of-fact- fashion,"Yes of course. I already told him." Without a moment's hesitation. I love him.

Every now and then I like to go visit my friend's churches. I think this is a good practice to keep. I know that people loooooove thier churches, and loooooooove their pastors, and that's great. But I think it can be quite the blessing to see other places and hear other pastors. Gain perspective. Be encouraged. Be encouraging. I'm pretty sure it's biblical too. For one thing, my closest friends don't go to the same church I do. So it's great for me to go with them, to hear what they're hearing, be moved, be spurred on, built up in the same way they are. I love to hear their pastors fired up about something so I get a better understanding of about what, and why, my friend is fired up. It's unifying. It's also a good reminder to me that God works through A LOT of pastors, not just my pastor. The truth of the Bible is being preached in A LOT of churches, not just my church. Great things are happening in the body of Christ all over the world, not just t...

And wants to ride aaaaaaaaaaaaaaall day long. Sometimes I forget that he's two.

She is one. ONE! This year has flown by, I really, truly, cannot believe it has been a year since she was born. Kinda hurts my heart. Mia is nothing less than pure JOY. Her entire birth day is marked with God's sweet grace to me. I had a list, desires if you will, of things I hoped would happen and for no reason other than loving to give good gifts to His children, God granted all of them. Everything about her reminds me of God's provision, faithfulness and love for me and our family. At a time in our lives when having a baby sounded just mean, God used her as a light, as joy. Instead of adding craziness she added peace. Instead of burden she brought ease. Instead of hardship, joy. My favorite thing about Mia is her giggle. There are multiple times a day when I look over and she's just laughing at something. I've tried to get it on video, but no such luck. It's something I hope I remember for the rest of my life. I am so excited because my favorite age of baby-hoo...

I like tattoos, or rather - I like the thought of tattoos. I had a couple picked out when I was younger that I thought I'd like to get, but chickened out. At one point I wanted to get the bible verse (reference only) of Micah 6:8 tattooed on my foot. I actually went with a friend, who had a friend who did tattoos, to have it done but when he mentioned that the foot is one of the most painful places to get a tattoo I was out of there. Since having kids I've often thought about waiting until they learn how to write their name then having that traced/tattooed on me, in their writing and everything. Wouldn't that be cute? I will never have it done though, mainly because I see no need for unnecessary pain, and also because I think my husband would laser it off of me in my sleep, but today when Addie drew this my very first thought was how I would totally get it tattooed on me. I think it's awesome. Who wouldn't want Addie's giant happy face and a friendly eagle inke...

I am so buried here at the Fitz house. I have phone calls, texts, emails and FB posts just sitting there waiting for reply. But I got nothing. There is so much to write about... Our week with sweet (new) friends staying at our house. My experience with 6 kids, six and under. ADDISON'S FOURTH BIRTHDAY! and more... As I said to dear Wendy today, every day feels like a huge battle and at the end of the day, when the kids are finally asleep, I can't read or write or even talk, I can just sit. And lately I've been just sitting and waiting for the next time I have to get up again. That leads perfectly into restless nights because I've trained myself to "half sleep" so I can be (at least) "half awake" the moment I'm needed, which has been multiple times every night. Maybe all moms are like this? It's kinda awful. BUT, I feel prayed for. I feel covered. A wise friend said, "Maybe God's answer isn't health for your family, but your attitu...