My second oldest had her 18th birthday this last weekend February 3rd. Wow, time has gone by too quickly. I am so thankful the Lord has given me such a sweet, loving, daughter whom I am proud to call me "friend" as well. She has matured so much the last couple of years. I can trust her to manage our group of children for me and she usually still has a smile to share with me when she has been at school all day, up half the night doing homework and wakes up before the sun for prayer at school. She LOVES her school and she is on her last semester, to graduate this May. It should work out to the perfect timing, if the Lord allows it, for her to be ready to manage our home with the children we are leaving, while we head to China to bring home our 2 newest littles. We are still praying for help for her, especially someone to stay at night with them. We might have a solution but won't know just yet.
Makenna has been a little spit-fire of a personality. I don't mean that in a mean way. I mean, that while yes, she too has a stubbornness (seems most of my kids do), but even so she wants to stand up to injustice. She wants to make sure everything is just so, and she will work hard and diligently until it is, and fight if she has to make that happen on her own.
Well, the last couple years, especially this last year, she is learning to die to that flesh she has been born with. She is learning to allow Jesus to be in charge. While He requires her to work hard and fight for injustice He wants her to do it in His strength, not hers. It is a lesson, that I myself am still learning, so I am glad she is working on it as a young adult. It will save her a lot of heartache as she goes on in her life.
I am so thankful, that in spite of my inadequate parenting job over her short time in my life, that the Lord is doing great things in her heart. He is causing her to seek after Him with all she knows how to do. He is provoking her to change some ways she thinks and to worship Him freely with all that she is. God amazes me and He is so gracious to us parents. We fail, we are ignorant, we are sometimes just plain blind to what our children need from us. But, God knows exactly what they need. He will keep working and He will keep His promises.
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6
She wants to do mission work some how, some day, some where. I have to be able to come to a place in my mind and heart that I without a doubt trust God and His wisdom and surrender her to him. Just like I did Tyler, my first child when I was a new mother. But letting adult children "go" actually seems to me even more difficult sometimes. But in reality, it should be easier. They still have God and if our heart was good with following the Lord's ways, no not perfection, but seeking Him and repenting when we failed as we raised them, then He will keep His word to us like in Proverbs 22:6. Our children, while even still maturing, have a foundation. They will only get stronger as they learn to surrender to Him.
My blessing to you for your birthday my daughter is that you would continue to seek the Lord with all your strength. And when you feel that difficulty of wanting to go your "own way" in your "own strength" that He would remind you that you can do nothing without Him. You are a mighty woman after God's own heart and I see great things being done through you for God's kingdom. I will cheer you on as you follow His lead. I love you my dear daughter.
We gave Makenna a surprise party when her Daddy took her out to dinner. About 25 of her friends came to celebrate with her. I think she was very surprised!
The last nine weeks Makenna has been attending Ellerslie. This school is like no other Bible school I have ever heard of. It is one that emphasizes the importance of surrendering your full life to your God and Savior. It challenges all the students (which range for school-aged children to grandparents), to be willing to die to themselves and pursue the holiness of God, serving the needs through prayer and ministry to orphans, widows and the weak.
Originally, we thought Makenna would only attend for the summer, Basic Training, but she has decided to continue for the next school year and do the Advanced Training. She starts today and will finish sometime in June 2013.
Last night was the graduation for the summer 2012 students. There were over 80 students this summer, from all over the world (US, Canada, Indonesia, Philippines and more). These students are being awakened to the spiritual needs of our world and the battles that need to be pursued. God is equipping them to be His hands and feet. It has been an amazing summer watching Makenna and the other students have changed hearts, some of them very bitter and hard to the core, but all in the end excited and joyful, ready to be sent off for God's glory.
We have been also attending the Church at Ellerslie with Makenna and will continue during the school year likely. As a family we too have been challenged as Pastor Eric's sermons on Sunday are a continuation from the week's teachings for the students and church body.
Praise God for all the obedience from the students the last semester. Praise God that He is working and will not stop until His work on this earth is complete. Praise God that He uses the lowly, weaker ones to accomplish His work, only to bring Himself glory. Praise God that Satan has not won, and while it appears he is winning today, we CAN know God's word to be fact and true and trust the Satan is NOT winning, God is allowing this all still for HIS glory. Jesus, King of all Kings, Ruler of all Nations, is sitting at the right hand of the Father, and will return and make His Victory known.
This was her Game Team. The RED team..
Makenna has been baptized once in her life, several years ago, but she felt it wasn't by her choice. So this day, she was baptized again proclaiming in front of 150 people that she was dead to herself and alive in Christ.
Congratulations!! May God's blessings be poured out over each student's life.
My oldest daughter Makenna, just got her license a few weeks ago. We are so happy to have another driver about. Although, I must admit being in the driver seat with a new driver is not my cup of tea. I am getting a little better at it compared to my oldest learning. But, I am just not there yet. It is a control issue for me and fear of trusting someone else who has little real life experience operating a motor vehicle. It is not that I don't love them, or trust them personally, or think that they might not be a safe driver. It is just hard to explain unless you are the person in that position. Then to top that off, as the parent, I am also ultimately liable for anything the new student driver does while under my care. I am hoping by the time we teach our eighth child to drive my stress level will not go up, and I will be able to have a greater faith in God's work, even in driving.
One of the things as mean, strict, er...cautious parents that we do, is not allow our children to get their permits until they are 16. In our state permits are allowed at 15. However, if you get a permit at 15 you must pay for 6 private instruction hours, which is around $500 or more. The greater benefit we see is that at 16 our children have even more knowledge and maturity. This would mean they would not get their actual license until at least their 17th birthday, as they keep the permit for a year. For both of our licensed children it was actually a few months after their 17th birthdays, mainly because getting those night hours in for the test, was a challenge for our family. Where we live there is often icy roads in winter darker months and then in the summer months it is later at night when it is dark. We are also a family that happens to be putting our little ones down for bed close to 8:30, so it made it a challenge.
Makenna is a very cautious and safe driver. And the first day she drove off on her own I didn't feel a panic like I imagined I would. She is responsible by calling us when she gets to her destination and before she comes home. Which I am very thankful for.
Here she is with her new little car, a 2000 Pontiac Grand Am that we got a good deal on. Aren't they both so cute?
Here are Makenna's Senior Photos.. Emily, my almost daughter-in-love, took these. I loved most of them, but here are a few of our favorites.
This last one, just for fun, is Makenna with her handsome Big Brother, Tyler. I remember when these 2 were little pips, were inseparable and had so much fun together. I am such a blessed mama.
Yes, we are now blessed with an amazingly adorable little boy from China. I can't say enough good things about him and the way he has fit right in. I know that sounds almost too good to be true. But really, God has been good to us all and made this so easy. However, I am exhausted...Jay is too...almost like we just had a newborn come home. HA!! But we know this too shall pass.
We also have Makenna (our almost 17 year old precious daughter) graduating from homeschooling on May 18th!! She technically should only be a Junior. But since she wasn't looking to attend a four-year University right out of high school she didn't need to pursue a very vigorous schedule. So she chose to do 2 years in one, this year. That makes her working on 10 credits currently!! She amazes me at how hard she can work and still manage to have a smile and hug for me at the end of the day. She will be graduating this May, with CHESS and have a very special ceremony and celebration to go with it.
She will also be attending Ellerslie shortly after graduation. It is a 9 week Bible Study School. She is so excited! She thinks she will start classes at our Junior College after that and pursue nursing of some degree, but is waiting to see how the Lord leads her.
The other big news is that Tyler (our oldest 20 year old son) is engaged! We have known Emily and her family for about 9 years now, through homeschooling. They are actually from a different state than us. They have set a date, the day after Makenna graduates- May 19th. Talk about busyness!!
