In my cookie jar

The title of this post is stolen from my dear friend and teacher Natalie Wilson.  While I don't normally post anything but pictures of our sweet girl Paula Grace, I am feeling led to share this amazing story.  I am not really sure what is happening in my heart and in my walk with the Lord, but he's totally gotten in my cookie jar lately.

Yesterday Gwen Oatsvall came and spoke to my women's study at LifePoint Church.  Wow!  She is a stay at home mom and her husband is a school teacher.  They have two boys and have adopted two girls from China, one of which is a special needs child who was burned as an infant.  They got her from China when she was 2 1/2 years old and had  a large chunk of her skull missing.  To take in children from China is one thing, but take in a child who is altogether an "undesirable" child in the eyes of the world.  (But isn't that exactly how we feel sometimes?  Undesireable?)  She is an adoption advocate and she should be a motivational speaker!  So incredible!  She began by saying "Something is wrong if your life makes sense to unbelievers."  Seriously, in my cookie jar.  And she also spoke of being available to say YES to the Lord.  Which then made me think to myself "am I even able to hear  him through the clutter??"

She is also involved with a girl from Brentwood, TN who, after she graduated high school, moved to Uganda for what was supposed to be 1 year, to then return to go to college.  Of course, that isn't what His plan for her was.  Katie Davis has lived there for 2 years (roughly) and has taken in 13 children as her own and is a stay at home mom, as she describes.

If you are interested in sitting at your computer and learning about these amazing women and what God is doing in the world through them, I highly suggest their blogs. (Be prepared to cry).  They will amaze, uplift and convict and everything in between. (I put their link on each of their names).  Also, Katie wrote one post that I just ran across that explained a lot about her "faith doctrine". Here it is.