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12:40 p.m. Daddy's day off.

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Adoption is Wonderful

Yesterday at lunch, while eating leftovers from my first attempt at Ethiopian cooking, my son Jude told us stories of orphanage life. How the nannies washed all their clothes and shoes by hand and the water flowed like a rushing river over the orphanage ground. How the girls showered first in the mornings while the  boys watched TV--but not on school days, mind you. How he loved to play soccer and tag with his friends. How at night, after the nannies had put them to bed and closed the doors, he and the other boys would get up and play, only to rush back to their beds when they heard the nannies coming. How he ate lots of macaroni and spaghetti.

This morning I cuddled with Sophie after she woke up and discovered that her feet are very ticklish. This little girl is full of life and joy, so different from how quiet and clingy she was in the orphanage and our first few weeks at home. Sophie charges into a room with a yell and has absolutely no concept of "inside voice." I instruct her a lot about using an "inside voice," but recently it got lost in translation. I told her I would give her a drink once we got "inside" and she thought I meant to ask for the drink in an "inside voice" and so repeated her request in a whisper. Oh well.

Right now as I type, the four kids are running around like crazy downstairs because it is Daddy's day off. As my husband recently wondered: how is it that twice as many children make more than twice as much noise? Already, it is hard to imagine what our family was like without these two precious children. I am so grateful to all of you for your prayers and encouragement along the way.

That's all I have to say. Just, thanks. And that adoption really is wonderful. 

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5:38 p.m. Teething Victim

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How’s Your Time Trending?

"One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove that prayerlessness is not from lack of time." ~John Piper

When was the last time you told a friend, by way of confession: "I'm ashamed to admit it, but I have been too busy to post status updates on Facebook lately." or "I know I really should do better, but I just can't seem to find the time for Pinterest." or "I am so tired that I can't possibly wake up early enough to read the news online or follow what's trending on Twitter."

If you've said anything like this recently, then this new series of posts is not for you. You can stop reading now, because you clearly have better things to do.

But if you, like me, ever experience nagging guilt over missed quiet times or avoided conversations or unfinished housework or schoolwork, and yet still find time to tweet and pin, then lets talk.

I know it's easy to knock Twitter or Pinterest. Low hanging fruit. But it is much harder to steward these technological blessings appropriately. And in many ways, that is what the Internet and social media are--evidences of God's kindness and common grace to mankind.

Through Facebook I can re-connect with au-pair friends from Europe and keep up on the latest progress in my friend's adoption. I can pin recipes on Pinterest instead of typing them out, printing them up, sliding them into sheet protectors, and storing them in a huge notebook. I can go online to get advice for cleaning my ceramic tile kitchen floor or to upload videos of the kids for far away family to see. And if I discover that I am out of sour cream right in the middle of making Sour Cream Fudge Cake, I can google for substitutes and avoid disaster (and I did!).

But it is precisely because the Internet can be so useful, so beneficial, so enjoyable, that it can also be so dangerous. For it is often the good things that distract us from the best things. And never before have so many good things been so easy to access, just a click away.  

So we're going to start a new girltalk conversation today--about pinning and prayer, hashtags and our homes, blogs and biblical womanhood. Join us, won't you?

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May 13, 3:09 p.m. "Real" Mother's Day

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New @52home Store: It Is Well

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

~Horatio Spafford

Now available at 52home@home

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7:13 p.m.

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A Mother’s Aim

"You fulfill yourself by denying yourself, preparing the people you can’t live without to live without you"

~Andrew Ferguson

HT: Kevin DeYoung

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11:03 a.m.

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Constantly Before Their Eyes

"Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her." Proverbs 31:28

“The virtuous woman is obviously subserving her own interest. For what greater earthly happiness could she know, than her children's reverence and her husband's blessing?  We may picture to ourselves her condition—crowned with years; her children grown up; perhaps themselves surrounded with families, and endeavoring to train them, as themselves had been trained.  Their mother is constantly before their eyes.  Her tender guidance, her wise counsels, her loving discipline, her holy example, are vividly kept in remembrance. They cease not to call her blessed, and to bless the Lord for her, as his invaluable gift.  No less warmly does her husband praise her. His attachment to her was grounded, not on the deceitful and vain charms of beauty, but on the fear of the Lord. She is therefore in his eyes to the end, the stay of his declining years, the soother of his cares, the counselor of his perplexities, the comforter of his sorrows, the sunshine of his earthly joys.” 

~Charles Bridges as quoted in Proverbs, Geneva Commentary Series

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5:43 p.m. From my pocket.

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Always On Call

“Mothers are always on call, expected to have all the answers and limitless energies. They’re supposed to do everything; it’s taken for granted. How can you be and do everything expected of you? What you need is a habitual sense of the presence of God. Think that Almighty God, who created the stars and keeps the seasons revolving in perfect rhythm, is there in your kitchen, in your bathroom, in the laundry room, in the grocery store. Mothers, be prepared for an arduous struggle. Your calling is impossible without prayer, the comfort and instruction of the Scriptures and fellowship in your church.”

~Elisabeth Elliot

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8:29 a.m.

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Who Can Measure Motherhood?

"Who can measure the long-term effects of nurturing helpless infants, supervising wandering toddlers, discipling self-willed children, and counseling self-absorbed adolescents? Of family outings planned, traditions built, memories made, books read, songs sung, Scripture taught? That’s why motherhood belongs under the heading, 'Engage the World'; no one shapes generations or fashions cultures more than mothers."

~ Jeff Purswell, Worldliness, (edited by C.J. Mahaney, p. 159).

This Momentary Marriage

Take a few minutes to watch this powerful video from Desiring God: