On a lighter note...

My last post was a favorite of mine, as I absolutely adore that poem...but on a lighter side of things, I have come to an important conclusion I thought I would share with you all.
I bought a tanning package a few weeks ago in preparation for our trip to Hawaii. I normally would never do such a thing, but I am soooooo fair skinned and I didn't want to burn my first day there and then be miserable the rest of our trip (I have high hopes for LOTS of sunshine while we are there!!)

Why am I bringing this up you ask?


Because I have since become all too aware that tan cellulite looks so much better than pale cellulite.

The Wait Poem

I stumbled across this poem months ago, and oh how it spoke right to my heart! I got to thinking about it again today, and thought I would share it here. May it bless you - wherever you are, whatever you are waiting for - as much as it blessed me.

The Wait Poem
by Russell Kelfer
Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate...
and the Master so gently said,"Wait."

"Wait? you say wait?" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!"
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word.


My future and all to which I relate
hangs in the balance and you tell me to Wait?"
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign.
Or even a 'no,' to which I'll resign.
You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply.


Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
as my Master replied again, "Wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
and grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting...for what?"
He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine...
and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.


I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.
You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
you'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
when darkness and silence are all you can see.


You'd never experience the fullness of love
when the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.
The glow of My comfort late into the night,
the faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.


You'd never know should your pain quickly flee,
what it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
but oh, the loss if I lost what I'm doing in you.
So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
that the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still "WAIT".

Weekend Update

On Saturday morning I got up early. Why would I do such a thing you ask? What would get me out of bed early on a Saturday??? Few things, my friends, very few things.
This particular time it was because I was heading to the Woodburn Outlet Malls to meet my bloggy friend Julie in person! So fun!! I met Julie through this blog. When I saw Julie's comment on Kelly's original post about setting up the prayer blog - where she wrote about herself and her journey, I seriously thought to myself "did I just write that?!". We are the same age, live in the same state, been married the same length of time, and have a very similar fertility journey thus far. I was so shocked by the similarities that I clicked on her blog and wrote her a comment. She emailed me back, and our friendship officially began! =-).

We had been emailing back and forth for a bit when she mentioned she was going to be in Woodburn on Saturday the 6th, and I just happened to be passing through Woodburn on the 6th...
Coincidence? I think not.
God-incidence? I think so!!
When we saw each other we hugged like old friends and then spent the next 2+ hours talking like crazy. Lucky for me, she still likes me even though when I am excited I tend to talk really really fast and interrupt a lot...and I was excited to be meeting her =-). It was so great to meet in person and I look forward to getting together again soon!

After breakfast with Julie, I headed down to Salem to hang out with my littlest sister Emily. We had sooo much fun. We started the day with some Starbucks Carmel Apple Spice (which we have decided is just so heavenly that Jesus meets you there...hahaha!) and then went to get pedicures. That may sound silly as it is December, but Emily had never had one before, and I am heading to the beach in 4 (FOUR!!!) days and girlfriend was in serious need of some help when it came to the feet.
Here is Emily learning the joys of the pedicure:And me... always enjoy a good pampering =-)Then we went to Target to aimlessly wander the aisles. Come on, you know you do it too. Let's face it, next to Disneyland, Target is the happiest place on earth!
While we were there, we played a little dress up...






... and then took a time machine to the set of Mary Poppins...






... and to 1987...




That is seriously a jacket -size large- currently residing in the junior's section at Target. Really?!?

After dropping Emily off, I headed over to Monmouth to hang out with my buddy Amy . This girl has been an angel in my life. She and David went to high school together, and we all met/reconnected at a wedding 4 years ago. Since then, she has become so important in my life! Amy and her husband struggled with infertility, and now have 3 amazing, beautiful children. Before entering bloggerland, Amy was one of the few people in my life who had ever struggled and waited to be a mommy. She has talked countless hours with me, hugged me, cried with me, and most of all - she has hoped and prayed for me. I am SO grateful God brought her into my life!! I love her to pizzas! (That will only be funny to her =-) ).
I always love visiting Amy, and this time was especially fun because we got to have one of our jamana parties. (Amy's sweet little daughter dubbed her pajamas, jamanas, and so began our tradition of jamana parties.) Jamana parties usually entail hot chocolate, late nights, and lots and lots of yummy treats.

Yes we have matching jamana pants.
Yes we are in are late 20's.
Try not to judge us.

Hope you all had as great a weekend as I did!!

Joy

Kelly posted this the other day that reminded me of an article I read during my media fast. It was in Today's Christian Woman, a magazine I had picked up at the Christian Supply Store. This issue had several entries about Joy and Hope, both things I was wanting to have more of in my life, so I bought it and read all the articles. One in particular stood out to me, as it really seemed to speak to my heart.
It was titled "Slower than Christmas, waiting for promises to become realities"
Here is a portion of it that I just loved:

Magnifying God's Promises
Waiting is a key component of faith. Virtually every divine covenant in Scripture has time built into it, and believers must wait for God's promises to be fulfilled. Waiting effectively, continuing to anticipate future joy throughout years or even whole lifetimes or generations of often joyless struggle, might be seen as synonymous with great faith. As such, Mary's joyful, confident response to her part in God's plan has much to teach us about what Jesus said was the "work of God"-that is, "to believe in the one he has sent" (John 6:29)
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior," Mary sang, in intense anticipation of what this birth would mean for her and her people (Luke 1:46). Later, when the child was born, Luke used the same word, magnify, to describe the joyful reaction of Mary's relatives and neighbors: The Lord, they rejoiced, had "magnified" his mercy through her.
Mary's song is traditionally called "the Magnificat", after the first word in Jerome's Latin translation:magnify. It's a rare word in Scripture and perfectly captures the essence of Mary's faith. Rather than focus on her current situation or encroaching difficulties, she peered deeply into the past and into the equally distant future to see God's promised joy up close. Despite centuries of waiting; despite the hunger, hate, and disenfranchisement experienced by God's people; despite Mary's own fears and worries, she didn't give up in despair. Rather, she magnified God's promises -she enlarged and intensified and amplified them in her mind- and then stepped ecstatically into hope.
Hope - the magnification of Scriptural promises into believable realities - is the instrument that connects longing with joy and makes waiting bearable. It is also, according to Hebrews 11:1, the crux of faith. Like faith, though, hope takes effort, especially when we face difficulty. We operate in the present moment and are likely to be distracted by current problems and concerns. Through hope, though, we look behind and before us, focusing our attention not only on the old promises but on the trustworthiness of the Promiser and on the evidence - so easily overlooked-that what one hopes for might actually be coming to pass.
*****
Mary waited purposefully. She not only submitted to God's will, but examined her situation, as through a magnifying glass, in search of God's ancient promises. Faced with difficulty and confusion, she peered closer, looking for joy- and she found it.

That was written by Patty Kirk.


Isn't it inspiring????
Happy Friday all.

Riddle me this

Why on earth would someone (me) who is already afraid to fly (me again) and who is getting on a plane next Thursday (me still), choose to almost make herself late to work this morning because she could not stop watching The Today's Show series of "How to survive a plane crash". It was filled with images like this:
Issues, people. I have issues.

Did you know...

That Skinny Cow ice cream...

And Lean Cuisine's...

Have Weight Watchers point values RIGHT ON THEIR BOXES!?!
I did not know that.
A stranger (but sister in the world of point-calculating) pointed this out to me the other day while I was grocery shopping and trying to compare fat grams/fiber/calories between a Smart Ones and a Lean Cuisine. She must have noticed me and recognized what I was trying to do, because all of a sudden she says "You know that those have point values on them already?" She flipped the box over and sure enough there it was! Hooray! I thanked her, and we shared a smile and a nod of WW solidarity and went our separate ways.
Weight Watchers does offer a pretty good variety of meals and deserts, but I was ready to expand my arsenal a little and try some other options. FYI, those Peanut butter and chocolate Skinny Cow ice cream cookie sandwiches pictured above are heavenly. Seriously. I don't even let David talk to me while I am eating one. The moment must be revered with complete silence.
So on behalf of point calculators everywhere, I would like to extend a BIG Thank You to the makers Skinny Cow and Lean Cuisine, for making our lives just that much easier.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's officially time to deck our halls!!
Our new Nativity scene from Walmart. I got it for $18!! I love it! Each piece as a bible verse written on it.Ok so this may look silly to some of you, but David and I have a tradition. Instead of killing a perfectly good tree, just to have on display in our home for a few weeks, every year since we have been married we decorate this house tree.
Yes I do realize that when we have children we will need to get a real Christmas tree, not just because they will like it, but because I want to do my best to decrease the number of reasons the Hoffman children will be made fun of because of their parents =-).
I came downstairs Sunday morning before church and saw David had put the lights and ornaments on the tree, and hung our stockings, to surprise me!! It made my day!!!
I wrapped a few presents too. I love wrapping gifts. I know that Christmas is so not all about presents, but I do genuinely enjoy picking out gifts for people I love, and then wrapping them up all pretty!!
So that's all we have done so far...what about you guys? Anyone else started decorating yet???