Sunday, February 21, 2016

Forks & Spoons

Four forks.
Three spoons.
Four knives.

Four dinner plates.
Three appetizer like plates.
Two bowls.

That about rounds out our collection of dishes for the past eleven years.

When we moved to Tulsa, I bought four more spoons for roughly $1.00.

We've used those cheap, seasonal plastic plates and bowls for the past two years.

My point in giving my kitchen inventory?

It shows how many people we have had in our home.

We have hosted Christmas a few times, but used plastic stuff.

I went to the store recently to buy more plates and bowls. I struck out but managed to get more forks and spoons. Real forks and real spoons.

All of this to say, let's open our homes, our silverware drawers to others. Let's gather and welcome complete strangers to break bread.

If it's on plastic plates, that's ok. And I can say that because we still have them. haha

Friday, February 19, 2016

The Call

"Why are you fidgeting?" Matt whispered while the guest speaker was preaching.
"Because God is calling me out and I want to pull a Jonah and bolt."

Foster Care.

The tug at my heart and been getting stronger and stronger. Also, FYI, tugs at the heart get loud, in case you were curious, if there was a noise. There is.

During that service, I knew what we had to do.

The following Monday, I sent the email. The ball is now rolling.
I look back to all the events, messages, meetings that led us here. It's like an onion of events; layer upon layer. God was building my confidence that when He did give my heart the fidgets there would be no doubt as to what He was saying.

"I think we need to start the process to foster." I hesitantly told Matt.
"Ok."

He couldn't have been more matter of fact. He said "Ok." with such ease that I thought he was being nice and agreeing to his wife. "Uhh you ok with this?"
"Yep!"

He knew my heart was hearing from God and he wasn't going to argue.

Lots of paper work.. Like a ton of paper work. Lots of hours watching online training videos. Lots of questions. Lots of vulnerability.

A handful of months later, we are approved and a week later the phone begins to ring...