Following Jesus: Part 1

*This is a long and rambling kind of post, just to forewarn you. So to be nice, I will split it up into two posts so I don't overwhelm you all at once with all that is going on in my head ;)

So I have been thinking a lot lately about what is really means to follow Jesus. Joel and I have been throwing some ideas around the past few weeks that seemed a little crazy at first, but maybe they are not so crazy after all. Just read the Gospels, a lot of what Jesus said was crazy and following him was not for the faint of heart.

Why do so called "Christians" today look so different than they did in the New Testament?
Why do we so easily write off the commands of Jesus or say they are just for those Christians who are "called to that?"

Let's face it, Jesus did say some pretty radical things. But why are we not obeying what he taught? Why are we not taking his words seriously? Jesus said "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46)

I'm sure most of you know the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20). But I think we sometimes forget the second part of that commission. Jesus tells us not only to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit BUT also to "teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you." I don't know about you, but that sounds like a pretty big deal to me! I think too many times we overlook the second part where we are told to teach people to obey the commands of Jesus!

Okay, so we are supposed to be obeying what Jesus has commanded. So what did Jesus really say?

Just to name a few, Jesus tells us to love those who hate us, to turn the other cheek, give to the one who asks, not to store up treasures on earth but rather in heaven, not to worry about our lives, follow Him and let the dead bury their own dead, not to love our father or mother or children more than Him or we are not worthy of Him, sell our possessions and give to the poor, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, love the Lord our God with all our heart and love our neighbor like ourselves, whatever we do for the least of these we do for Him.

Wow, that's some pretty tough stuff!

I was listening to a podcast a little while ago and I was struck by something the speaker said. He said a student wants to know what the teacher knows, but a disciple wants to do what the teacher does; he wants to be like the teacher! I know I don't want to just read about Jesus and know what he said, I want to KNOW Jesus and DO what he said!

I want to be like Jesus, so this means really studying his life and obeying what He has commanded. Maybe life is not all about being comfortable, secure, safe and never taking risks.
Maybe, just maybe, following Jesus is not supposed to be easy, in fact, maybe it will be one of the hardest things we do. But it will also be the most exciting, amazing, fulfilling thing we ever do! We were never promised that this life would be easy, but we are promised of eternity in Heaven with Him.

And I know I want to live this short time I am here on this earth completely for Jesus. He wants my whole life, my whole heart, not just pieces of it. He wants complete surrender . . .

Part 2 to come!

We are approved!!! (And a random update)

We received our 1-171H! For those of you who don't know the adoption lingo, it is like our golden ticket! It is approval from US Citizenship and Immigration to bring a foreign-born orphan into the US. So, yeah, it's a pretty big deal :) We're so excited that we have officially been approved, it just brings us one step closer to our baby!!

So what has been up with us lately? Well, I'm so glad you asked :)

Well, for the past 3 days I have not left the house. It's been way too cold and windy. Okay, it hasn't even been below freezing, but the wind makes being outside unbearable. I feel kind of wimpy that I just admitted that, especially since I'm from PA. I think I lost my ability to tolerate the cold since we moved here. This weather would be considered warm back in PA. Anyway, the kids are getting antsy to be outside, so I think we will brave the elements and venture outside tomorrow, no matter how many looks of disapproval I get from Turks. Seriously, I can't just hibernate all winter!

Moving right along . . . our weekend was fun. Friday night we had our neighbors and Adam and Mel over for dinner. It was fun, but crazy! Our neighbors also have two small children, so there were 7 kids under 5. It made for a good time!

There's so much I am learning about living in Turkey and I really am loving this culture and it's traditions. For example, when you come to someone's home you ALWAYS take your shoes off outside the door and then are offered slippers when you enter. And you usually greet one another with a kiss on both cheeks, the men too. When you are greeting someone much older than you, a sign of respect is to kiss their hand and then put it to your forehead. When I met my neighbor's mother for the first time, I was so proud of myself that I actually remembered!

January has been the month of Asure (which is also called Noah's pudding). Here it is believed that when Noah's ark landed on Mt Ararat (located in Turkey) they wanted to have a celebration, but the food supply was next to nothing, so they mixed all their remaining ingredients together - and voila - Asure! So basically everyone in Turkey makes a huge pot of Asure and then gives it out to all their neighbors - we have received 6 bowls so far! This is what it contains -

dried white beans
chickpeas
rice
dried apricots
dried figs
raisins
oranges
sugar
rose water
walnuts
and pomegranates

Sounds like an interesting combination, huh? Joel loves the stuff. Me? Not so much. We received so much that we just couldn't eat it all, and I'm sorry to say that I just emptied a moldy container of Asure into the trash today :(




And just for fun, here's Colson and Vienna having some fun in the laundry basket the other day.

Okay, I am off to bed, since it is just about 1am here and I am up entirely too late!

My Newfound Love

Pomegranate. I love living in a part of the world where pomegranates are in abundance. I had my first taste of the fruit this winter and fell in love. When we lived in the states I didn't even know what a pomegranate looked like, let alone how you ate one! So for those of you who are naive like I was, here's a pomegranate for you . . .





This is what is on the inside . . . lots of little red seeds. Opening a pomegranate and removing all the seeds from the inside is a tedious job. It usually takes me about 20 minutes just to get all the seeds out, but let me tell you, people, it is SO worth it. This is officially my new favorite fruit! Colson loves them too. Mmmm, nothing beats a big ol' bowl full of pomegranate!

Your Daily Dose of Cuteness

Colson names the countries from Joel Hildebrand on Vimeo.

Anniversary!!

This post is a little late, but better late than never. On January 11th we celebrated our one year anniversary of moving to Turkey. It's so hard to believe that we've been living here for a year already. It has gone so fast! God has taught us so much in the past year and has stretched our faith and challenged us in so many ways.

Let's have a look at this past year, shall we? Don't worry, I'll keep it brief :)

Our family back in January 09 right before we left for Turkey.

Our two families arrived in Turkey on January 11, 2009 (also Adam & Mel's 6th anniversary) with 23 bags, 5 tired, jet-lagged children and 4 adults full of faith to see what God would do. God miraculously provided an apartment for us and we were moved in by the next weekend.

Here's our apartment building, we live on the 4th floor. Adam and Melanie live a 10 minute walk away.

a view from our balcony

Vienna was only 3 months old!

Colson was only 22 months old!




February - we prayed for friends and God sent some right to us, we are blessed to have some amazing friendships in our lives.

Even Colson has friends his age

March - Joel and Adam started taking an online Turkish course through the local University and they also had an opportunity to practice Turkish with a friend's students. And Colson turned 2!

April - God provided a van (affectionately called Big Blue) for our two families and I celebrated my 23rd birthday.

May - Joel celebrated his 24th b-day

June - God led us to start renting an office space and begin taking the necessary steps to begin a business here.

July - spent lots of time at the beach with our friends, Joel and I celebrated our 4th anniversary and we sent in our application to AAI to adopt our next child from Ethiopia!

August - It was HOT! And that's enough to make anybody a little cranky ;)

September - traveled to Ankara to be fingerprinted for our 1600A and completed our homestudy! YAHOO!

October - Vienna turned one!

November - officially on the wait list for an infant boy/girl from Ethiopia! We were so excited we jumped up and down for joy!

December - my parents came to visit for two weeks!

And there you have it folks :)

Pray for Haiti!

I'm sure you have heard about the devasting earthquake that happened yesterday in Haiti. This has been Haiti's worst earthquake in two centuries! A massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit south of the capital Port-au-Prince.

My heart is breaking for the people of this country that are suffering so much. So many people have died, so many people are missing, people are stuck under collapsed buildings, homes are destroyed, children are without parents, parents are without children.

I can't even begin to comprehend how horrific this must be! The only thing I can do right now is pray, pray, pray! And of course, GIVE! Please consider making a donation to World Vision. World Vision is distributing emergency survival kits — including food, water, blankets and tents — to provide immediate aid to affected children and families. They are also providing emergency health services to the injured. Please give now!


Joel and I in Haiti in 2005, the kids stole our hearts!

Adoption Update

(This picture is completely unrelated to this post, I just think it's cute and thought I'd share)

I haven't posted an update on our adoption lately since there's really not much to update you all on right now. We will hopefully be getting our 1600A approval soon (I'm so glad our agency doesn't make you wait until you have USCIS approval before you can be on the wait list). About a month ago I was told by USCIS Athens that Joel's fingerprints were cleared, but mine were not. They told me they were sending in a second set (they took 3 sets for each of us) and they would notify me in a few weeks. Well, I got a little impatient and emailed them last week and I heard back from them the next day that my fingerprints were cleared and we should get our approval soon! Praise God! I was really praying that I wouldn't have to fly back to Ankara to be re-printed.

So we're coming up on 2 months of waiting for a referral. We most likely have another 4-7 months to go yet. Somehow it doesn't seem real yet. I still can't believe that sometime (maybe in 2010) I will be holding my baby in my arms and he will be mine! WOW! When will it seem real? All you adoptive moms out there - when does the reality set in? Is it when you see your child's picture for the first time? When you pass court and your child is legally yours? When you first hold him in your arms? This whole experience seems so surreal.

Adoption really is an incredible thing. What a blessing and a privilege to be able to parent this little child. As much as I think adoption is wonderful, on the other hand there is so much tragedy involved. How I wish there was no need for adoption in the first place and that these children would be able to grow up with their families in their birth country. There is such a mix of emotions involved in adopting. I am so excited to add another child to our family, but at the same time my heart is breaking for this baby that is losing so much; his birth family, his birth country, everything that he has ever known! My gain is someone else's loss, it's just not right. I have such joy knowing that there is a baby in Ethiopia that will be our son, but yet such sorrow at the same time. It's hard to put all this into words. How do you balance these emotions?

I'll give you 4 guesses . . .

. . . why Vienna was so upset today . . .


1



2




3



4

Now I have my blanky and all is right in the world again :)

Books, books, books!

I asked my Mom to bring me a bunch of books for Christmas so I've been busy reading lately. I love to read although there isn't always lots of time for it with two small children. The last couple of evenings I've been reading from 7:30 (when the kids go to bed) till about 12:00. I can get so caught up in a good book, which is not always a good thing. I think I will take a little break, you know, so I can actually have a conversation with my poor, neglected husband in the evening ;) Anyway, here's what I've been reading:

The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne - I absolutely loved this book! Shane lives a very unconventional life and in his book his stirs up a lot of questions about the church and the world. He emphasizes over and over again how much we need to be helping the poor, and not just by giving them money, but by really getting to know them. Shane tells stories from his life about living with the poor in India and in Philadelphia. I am going to read it through again sometime, I'm not sure I agree with everything he says, but he brings up lots of good points and it's definitely got me praying and studying the Bible more! And he's preaching a much-needed message to the world today. This is totally a book that is worth your time, plus he's really funny.

Forgotten God by Francis Chan - I really like Francis Chan, he writes so simply, but yet so powerfully. I loved his first book Crazy Love and this one was no different. The book is about the Holy Spirit and how we have forgotten Him in the world today. What Chan points out that really resonated with me is that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit our "Helper" or "Comforter." Then he asks us "Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable?" If comfort is our goal we will get it, but if loving God and loving our neighbor as our self is our goal, then lets face it, its going to be uncomfortable. I feel like God has been challenging Joel and I with this lately. Anyway, all that to say: it's a good book, go read it :)

George Mueller by Faith Coxe Bailey: I have been fascinated by George Mueller's life and wanted to learn more about him. This biography is short and easy to read and I was totally challenged with how he trusted God to provide for not only his family but for over 2,000 orphans that were in his care, all without anyone ever knowing about their needs. Incredible! I want to live of life of faith and trust in God like George Mueller did.

Houses That Change the World by Wolfgang Simpson. This book really put into words a lot of what I have been thinking about the past few years. Church is not a organization, but an organism. Church is not a meeting, but a way of life. What if we would follow the model for church given in the book of Acts? What if we would get together in small groups of people and really intimately get to know one another and be accountable to one another? What if we would stop building these mega-churches and instead meet in homes so that there would be much more money to give to the poor instead of using it to maintain our big fancy buildings? I could go on and on, this book really got me thinking, definitely worth your time. I love this line in his book "it is time to bring the Church to the people, not the people to the Church."

Some other books on my list to read:

I'm Chocolate You're Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World by Marguerite Wright

Attaching in Adoption by Deborah Gray

The Hospital by the River by Catherine Hamlin

Love in the Driest Season by Neely Tucker

So what are some of your favorite books? After I tackle this list, I'll be ready for more :)

Christmas pictures

Long time, no post! Sorry 'bout that, it was pretty crazy around here the past two weeks. We had such a great time over Christmas with my parents here. They left early Friday morning and are safe and sound back in PA trying to recover from jet-lag. So for now, here's a few pictures; I will try to post again once I get back into the swing of daily life :)



All of us taking an evening walk by the bay




Daddy & Vienna sharing a sweet smile




Andy, Adam and Pop-Pop




Melanie and Katie




Adam and Joanna




Making Christmas cookies with Mom-mom




More Christmas cookies. Colson was old enough to enjoy helping this year. He had so much fun putting sprinkles on the cookies.




my Mom and Dad in front of the tree on Christmas morning



Our family :)




Adam and Melanie, Joanna, Andy and Katie



Mom-mom and Pop-pop with the grandkids



Helping Vienna open a present




Joel and Colson flying a kite on the beach




my girl




Adam and Katie



Jo enjoying the beach



Colson could have thrown rocks into the water all day



Joanna, Andy and Colson eating some börek (a delicious pastry very common here)



I love this picture of Vienna




mmmm sand




my handsome little guy :)



Melanie, me and Mom