Caleb-isms X

Today was a bit of a rough day for Caleb. It wasn't the worst on record by a country mile, but it was rough. Rough enough that HE noticed! This was the conversation we had after I sent him to his room for rest time. When I sent him, he argued and I told him his consequence.

I walked in and found him face down, hugging his "blue doggy" and crying silently.
Mommy: "What's wrong, baby?"
Caleb: "I'm just having a really bad day"
Mommy: "Why is it so bad?"
Caleb: "I want to obey you, but I can't stop arguing."
Mommy: "I'm sorry you're having such a hard time today."
Caleb: "Every time you tell me something, I want to obey and my heart says 'I want to obey my mommy' but then an ugly weed sprouts up and I argue and disobey. It's like that game we played at that place when you hit the shark but another one pops up so you hit that one, too. (BTW - my 4 year old is referring to a variation of "Whack-A-Mole"!) When I punch down one weed another one sprouts up before the good seed can crack open and sprout up.
(Bear in my - HE IS 4 YEARS OLD!! I was a little dumbfounded...)
Mommy: "I'm sorry you're struggling with those weeds today. I'll pray for you during rest time that God will give you the grace and strength to obey without arguing, and you can ask Him to do that, too. He won't MAKE you obey, but He will remind you to obey and give you the ability to do it."

YIKES!! He's gonna pass me up any day now :)

Lord, keep me at least one step ahead!
Amen

NEWS!!

Hello, all!

We are SO excited to tell everyone that Hanna's legal paper work came to our agency today. This means that our I800 can be sent to the National Benefits Center for processing. In English this means that we are yet another step closer to bringing home baby girl!!!

We are told that "average" time for the next step, Visa application (aka I800) approval, is about 1 month, then we wait for her medical appointment, visa appointment, and for her picture to be compared with known terrorists (no. I'm not kidding.) and then we can go get our girl!

Thanks for praying and keep it up! We may get to spend her birthday with her yet.

Getting ready...

Ever since we got matched with our beautiful sweet daughter, we've been in this strange transition where there are only two speeds, slow motion and hyper-warp-speed.

Last night we watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". In it there is a part where Flint, the main character, makes a giant jello mold that you can go inside and it's like a mansion. Watching this part made me think how this part of the wait feels. At one moment, he and his friend are bouncing all over the place like pinballs, the next second, his friend does a canon ball into the jello pool and just stops, frozen in place in the jello. That's what this part is like, a pinball ricocheting off of every "next step" placed before us, or frozen, unable to get traction to move forward for lack of a solid surface anywhere around.

There is so much to do, to plan for, and it's confusing at times trying to figure out what she'll need since we're kind of jumping in right in the middle of the "baby stage". With Caleb, we got infant stuff and then got the things we needed as we went along, but for her, we have to start with older baby, or early toddler stuff and it's hard to remember or figure out what all we'll need.

It's really fun too, though! Planning, thinking about her and what she'll want, need, etc.

Today, Steven and Caleb are painting her room. It's going to be lavender and girlie and adorable, but what's adorable right now is my men getting our girl's room ready.

Take a look:

REFERRAL!!!!!

We are joyous to announce that we have been matched with a beautiful 20 month old little girl!

She was the most wonderful Christmas gift we have ever received. We got the call from our agency on December 21st and received photos of her on the 22nd.

Currently, we are waiting for her immigration paperwork to be processed so that we can get permission to travel and bring her home.

Please pray for straight paths and FAST processing. Our deep hope, now, is to bring her home before her birthday in early April.

We will post more when we get it ~ Love, The Reutters

PS - We are not legally allowed to post photos of her on the blog or anywhere online...SORRY!

Advent...Do YOU live it out?

Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:32 "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door." Many people scoff at those of us with a certainty that the Lord is moving among people and kingdoms preparing the world we know for His imminent return. There are so many headlines as well as buried stories that support this belief, but what if there were not?

Many say that it has been said for generations that the Lord is "coming back in our generation". So why would we believe it now? Every previous generation has been wrong.

What if I am wrong?

What would be the result?

I wonder... did Paul meet Jesus in heaven and say, "Wait a minute! You were supposed to come back BEFORE I died!" Did he think his life wasted that he was "wrong" about the timing?

I think our predisposition to thinking He will not return in our lifetime is the open gateway that we walk through toward a life of lazy Christianity, a sloppy walk, licentiousness. Will my life be wasted if I spend it believing that He could return before I die? Or will my down-to-the-core belief that He could return in my lifetime, or my children's lifetime, change the way I live, the way I act, the way I love and follow Him? Will it give me the courage and the hope to model my life after Jesus the Revolutionary? After Paul the Unapologetic Evangelist?

If those be the results of my belief, then I would die unashamed of being wrong and having lived fully for Him. Before everything I do I want to think "If Jesus returns while I'm doing this will I be ashamed? WHEN He returns will I be ashamed of how I spent my time? money? gifts?"

Thinking like this on a daily basis is hard. I don't live like this. Not all the time. But I want to, and I am praying that the Lord will change my heart in such a way that to live like this every day would be natural. And I trust that He is doing that.

Advent..."His Coming...Our Hope"

As our family has begun celebrating the traditions we practice each year during the season of Advent, really as I began to prepare for these traditions, the Lord reminded me of something I wrote this past summer (which I will post later). He began to show me that Advent for the Believer is a two-fold celebration. The first being the preparation and anticipation of celebrating the 1st Coming of our REDEEMER, Yeshua Ha'Mashiach, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The second being our on-going preparation and anticipation for His GLORIOUS RETURN and 2nd Coming. Last year as our church studied 2 Thessalonians our teaching pastors used the phrase "His Coming...Our Hope." I think this perfectly shows that Advent has a past and a future!

In my study of the book of Daniel, particularly the 3 weeks we spent in chapter 7, he showed me clearly that Jesus Himself specifically told us that we are to be constantly ready. That He will return as a "thief in the night". In Matthew 24 He says "be on the alert for you do not know which day your Lord is coming (v42)" and "you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will (v 44)".

Whatever Advent traditions your family holds, I would challenge you this season to examine your Advent preparation for the day-in-day-out, week-to-week grind of life. Do you let "life get in the way"? Let commitments take over time that should be set aside for family worship and devotions or personal time with your Savior.
I know that I do.
Regularly.
My prayer for this year is that my Advent "season" would continue throughout the entire year. That when the Christmas Advent season comes around next year that the only shift would be in the tools we are using - an Advent Wreath, the Advent Book, and an Advent story in addition to our Bible time; Christmas carols in place of or in addition to other worship songs and hymns. My prayer is that my life would become an on-going anticipation for and celebration of the 2nd Advent of my Savior, and that I would be "prepared for every good work (2 Tim 2:21)" because of it.

Advent...Family Traditions

I'll be honest, our family is relatively new to the Advent traditions part of Christmas, but it has so enriched our lives and celebration of this holy-day that I thought I'd share a little about what Advent is, what we do as a family and some links to places to get Advent "supplies".

First, Advent really just means "coming", but in association with Christmas has come to mean the traditions that we carry out as believers to prepare for the coming of the Messiah which we celebrate at Christmas. There are SO many different things you can do, with your family or by yourself, to prepare with anticipation for Christmas and the 1st coming of Christ, so I will simply share with you what we do in our family.

Each night after dinner we sit down (all in one chair for now since we are only 3, but hopefully we will need a couch for next year (; ) and we begin with our Advent Wreath.

Advent Wreaths come in all shapes and sizes, some are actually greenery, some are metal, some spell out a word, some are a simple circle. What they all have in common is that they hold four taper candles with one pillar candle standing in the middle. You light a new candle each Sunday beginning four Sundays before Christmas and the pillar in the middle, called the Christ Candle, on Christmas day. Ours, which we just got this year, is a Jesse Tree Advent Wreath. The Jesse Tree is a Biblical tracing of the story of the Messiah starting in Genesis. It actually refers to Jesse's, the Father of David, family tree, which is the family tree of Jesus.

This is the Bible reading we do each night. There is Scripture for each night of Advent leading up to Jesus birth. It is wonderful to watch the story of our Redeemer unfold throughout the entire story of Scripture. So we begin with the lighting of the candle, or candles, and read from the Word for that evening.

After our Jesse Tree reading, we read our Advent story book, this year we are using a WONDERFUL book recommended to us by dear friends. It is called "Jotham's Journey". It tells the story of a young Isaelite boy, Jotham, and his travels as he learns about the Messiah who is about to come. The story is broken up into nightly readings for the season. (I believe it is also a trilogy...)

Finally, we finish with "The Advent Book". This book is probably the most beautiful book I've ever seen. Each page is a door with a small portion of the Christmas story, from The Gospel of Luke, behind the door. You open a new door each night until Christmas day. The cool part is that by the time you get to the last door you've read the Christmas story 25 times!

After the Advent Book we finish our time together with prayer and, sometimes, a song.

So that's what WE do. What do YOU do?

Feel free to post a comment and share your Advent traditions.

If you need some additional ideas, I would HIGHLY recommend celebrationsandtraditions.com/. This is the website of the couple who wrote The Advent Book and they have some truly fabulous ideas. I would also HIGHLY recommend aholyexperience.com. This is one of my favorite blogs and is written by Ann Voskamp. She always blogs about their family Advent time and even has written her own Jesse Tree book titled "The Glorious Coming" which is wonderful. My husband and I have used it before.

So go, prepare, anticipate, and share the Good News: He has come and He is coming again!