Life Unexpected

Last Thursday I had one of those "mommy moments," and when I say "mommy moments," I'm not talking about when your child pees on the potty for the first time, brings you a bouquet of flowers he's picked in the yard, or eats everything on his plate.  I'm talking about one of those moments that leaves you in the parking lot of Target, bawling your eyes out, with a kid screaming at the top of his lungs, as you pray that no one "notices" the unbelievable scene that is being played out for all to see.  Thursday was not a good night. A couple of weeks ago Nate's mom had come to visit and this past Thursday he had decided to take her to a Southern Gospel Concert.  I was actually excited, because it opened up this awesome opportunity for a Mommy/Son date night.  I had it all planned out.  Biruk and I would go to see some of our teens play in their lacrosse game, we'd head to Coldstone for ice-cream (thank you gift cards), and drop by the s...

This morning, my sisters and I had the time of our life taking part in a Mother's Day Photo shoot with our kiddos.  As I held Biruk on my lap, I couldn't help but think about the journey that we have taken to get to this place in our life.  This weekend marked 5 years since we signed our very first paper work to begin the adoption process for a little boy who at the time wasn't even born.  We had no idea what the years to follow would look like, but we knew deep down in our hearts, life was going to change in so many ways. We knew late night waffle house runs would no longer exist unless Grammy or Nan were around for the night.  We knew our living room would probably look like a toy box exploded in the center of it and the likelihood of us not stepping on a matchbox car at least once a day was probably slim to none.  We knew we were going to love family get togethers even more than we already did and that adding an additional child to the "Long" shenanigans wo...

Several months back, my 8 year old niece Emma was asked to answer a prompt for a writing piece at school.  The prompt stated, "The World Would Be A Better Place If..."  When I was 8 years old I am pretty sure that my response would have included something along the lines of, "The world would be a better place if it was covered in cotton candy, or if every kid could ride their bike all day long, or if we could all have pet monkeys in our house."  Emma's response was far more thoughtful than anything I couldn't have come up with at 8.   In fact, her response was so thoughtful, it won an award for excellence at her school and in the county and eventually made it to the state level.  While I am beyond proud that Emma was chosen to represent her school for her writing, I am even more proud that I have a niece who is developing a compassionate heart for Jesus and a love for orphans and can't wait to see how God will continue to use her to make a difference i...

Last Monday night, I found myself wondering what happens when we don't inspire the young people in our life to "dare to discover what God has dreamed up for them."  As a young girl, I had no idea what plans God had for my life.  I was full of energy, had a love for people, loved being around the church, loved being a Pastor's kid, developed a deep love for Jesus, and spunky seemed to be my middle name.  While I had a few plans and dreams for the future as a child, none of them included being a Youth Pastor. I had a lot of amazing people pour into me as a child.  My Mom was always a huge source of encouragement.  She taught me (and continues to teach me) the value in making people feel "valuable."  My Grandpa showed me what it means to really love people, regardless of where they come from.  I had a Sunday School teacher in the third grade who not only put up with my spunkiness, but instilled a deep love for Jesus at an early age.  My best fri...

It's pretty amazing how much knowledge a child can stuff in that little brain of theirs.  Seriously, they are like a little sponge that soaks up everything you throw their way.  I realized just how scary this is when Biruk began to repeat over and over the other day,"Dang it...dang it...dang it," which coincidentally happened about two days after I slammed my head on the refrigerator door.   They soak up EVERYTHING. Yesterday, we were walking the dog in the neighborhood when a 20 year old flew by on his skateboard.  When we rounded the corner, he was in the parking lot, listening to his music.  As soon as Biruk saw him he yelled out, "Hey little man!  Whatcha doing???"  The 20 year old gave me a puzzled look, took off his Beats, and Biruk repeated it again.  "Hey little man!  Whatcha doing?"  A phrase often used by the teens in our youth group had now become one of Biruk's new phrases. Kids soak up everything. They soak up song l...

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to attend the "Together Called Retreat" put on by the Sparrow Fund.  We had heard about this retreat at an adoption summit we had attended and knew that it came highly recommended.  In fact, the girl who told us about it said, "You have to register right when it opens, because it fills up that fast."  We took her advice, registered early, got in, and even talked some of our friends into attending with us. Nate and I have been married for almost 14 years and have never been on a marriage retreat, let alone a marriage retreat for adoptive parents (honestly, all the retreats we attend usually have between 30-50 teenagers present, include getting about an average of 4 hours of sleep a night, and usually require you to live off of insane amounts of caffeine and junk food to survive!).  So honestly...we had no idea what to expect.  When we arrived, we were totally blown away.  For starters, it was held at this incredi...

When I was 14 I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  The summer before my sophomore year, while at Teen Camp, I felt God call me to be a Pastor.  At the time I had no idea what saying "yes" to God would look like, but I also knew I couldn't shake what I felt inside of my heart.  Twenty one years later, I couldn't imagine doing anything else with my life.  Despite my fears, my inabilities, my insecurities and my "lack of's," God has shown me that this was what he created me to do. I believe that we were all created to do something in this world.  We aren't here by chance.  In fact, I believe with all of my heart that we hand crafted by our Creator to do something specific here.  No two people are alike.  Nobody is excluded.  Everyone has a role to play in this amazing story God is writing.  Even Doris. The first time I saw Doris, I knew she was someone I wouldn't forget.  She looked like she could have been a brand new 7th grader...