4th of July

As I celebrate our Nations birthday from the other side of the world today, I have a few thoughts to share..The 4th of July is always a very special time of the year for me.  I have the privilege of being a part of family who really loves America.  My mom was born in Holland and it was not until I was older that she became an American citizen.  This meant that I was able to really understand what it meant  when she received her citizenship.  My dad's side of the family was from Romania.  So I am first generation, born in America on my mom's side and second generation on my dad's side.

The men on my dad's side of the family have all served our great country in some branch of the military.  My dad was a Marine in Vietnam and my older brother was with the Navy and served alongside of the Marines in Desert Storm.

I was raised with much pride in my country, with much to be thankful for.  My grandparents all worked very hard to get their families to America.  It was a dream for them.  They taught their children to be proud to be American, to speak English, to say the Pledge of Allegiance, to stand up for what is right and to understand the value of a good hard work ethic.

When the 4th rolls around each year, I get a little emotional.  I love my country.  I am proud to be an American.  This year, I am also a little sad honestly, because of the state of my country and the hearts of my fellow citizens.

So many have turned their backs on what makes us a great nation....being ONE nation under GOD. We don't want to be ONE, we want to be divided it seems, and so many certainly do not want God anywhere in the US.  This breaks my heart.  We act as though it was man who made us great, but it was not man who made us great, it was God.  And as we push Him away, our greatness fades, our unity fades, our love and sense of right, justice and even freedom fades.

I pray for my country today, that hearts would be changed, lives would be changed, our nation and faith would be restored.  That Christians would take some time today to get on their knees and intercede for our country.  For the complaining and condemning to stop and for prayers to rise.  That Christians would repent of their sins, turn from their ways, and live lives that are worthy to be called "Christian".  May we shine as lights on hill in our country, may God's love shine through us in the darkness.  My prayer is that we step it up, that we stand for TRUTH, and that we will never be afraid or ashamed to be Under God.

I always love to post the words to this song...We all know the first verse, but do you know the rest of the song?

May you all be blessed this 4th of July...and may God bless America.

America the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

June Romania Update!

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 Summer is in the air! I cannot believe that the end of June is right around the corner and we have made it officially to the summertime! Other than a week of being sick, this month has been incredible with some pretty special highlights I am very excited to share. It is so interesting seeing how the Lord uses gifts and skills we have learned along the way in our lives in the future.  Since I was a child I worked on projects with my parents and learned how to use tools and paint.  Then in high school I took drafting and construction and learned how to use all kinds of power tools.  Well the Lord put all those skills to use!  I had so much fun this month working on building a Pallet Wall for my friend Steffi’s son.  He wanted to have a bit more privacy and since we had a lot of pallets laying around we decided to build him a wall!  I have to say, that I am amazed at how it turned out.  Truly I cannot take all the credit for it, it totally was a God thing, with only a picture from Pinterest as inspiration, I worked with the kids to build the wall. Some of my favorite memories from childhood involve working on things like this and so I really enjoyed being able to work with Steffi’s 3 kids on the wall.  Beca and Roxy helped me paint and we learned all about using a roller to paint with and a brush.  Then Costel helped with the power tools of course.  He learned how to use a drill for drilling and for screwing things in.  I think he was pretty excited to use real power tools!  In order to give him the privacy he wanted, we found an old duvet cover, cut it in 2 and put it in between the slats, then with 2 pillow shams we made curtains above his bed so he could look out if wanted to.  I put a string to hold his flashlight, then we cut up milk jugs and screwed them to the wall so he would have a place for his stuff (we are still collecting more!) and on the front of the wall we hung a string for his art work!  Honestly I had so much fun working with these kids and the finished product came out great! This month means, I’ve hit the 8 month mark and can officially say that I have finished the school year off with my kids in my After School Program (ASP).  June saw a few of our kids from the program in the children’s hospital for various reasons.  I am at the hospital each Friday so I was able to visit 2 of my kids who were there. The ASP has had an incredible year.  It is the first full school year the program has run and it has been amazing.  It has had its highs and lows, it difficulties and it joys.  We have learned a lot and will continue to improve the program and implement all that we have learned this year for the next year.  What an amazing journey this has been for me and I am so blessed that Sarah and FFR asked me to be a part of this adventure. Seeing my kids, who I have had since the beginning grow so much makes me feel like a proud parent.  Kids who could did not know the alphabet at the beginning of the school year are READING! Truly unbelievable.  This has been one of the most humbly experiences I have ever been a part of.  Knowing that each of these children in our program has heard the Word of God taught to them, they have memorized a new Bible verse each week, they have sung songs and grew in their education is amazing.  This is truly life changing for them.   But most importantly they have learned about Jesus and how much He loves them and cares for them and has a future and a hope for their little lives. We had a graduation for all our kids.  It went wonderful, the kids sang songs and the 8th graders and High Schoolers received certificates.  Firm Foundations Romania Leadership got each of the full time staff and long term volunteers a rose to thank us.  It was a proud moment for the children and for those of us who have worked with them all year.  It was actually much more emotional than I thought it would be as I had my kids run up to me telling what grade they would be in next year, there were lots of hugs and happy faces.  We will have some time off during the summer, but will also have an English Camp, and a couple of Vacation Bible Schools with teams from the States. A little video with pics from our Kids Club and the After School Program Graduation! You hear a lot about two of my girls in my first grade class, sisters, Vasilica (age 9) and Raluca (age 10).  Well I am proud to say that not only have these two beautiful young ladies graduated from the first grade and will be going to the second grade next year, they both earned scholarships due to their good grades!  They write beautiful and they are reading and doing math!  One of Vasi’s favorite things to do is to play an addition came we have. Our kids know they are loved and it has allowed them to grow so beautifully! I am truly humbled, thankful, and blessed to have worked with the staff and volunteers of the After School Program this year.  I know the success we have had is because of the hard work and love each of us has invested in these children.  The Lord has blessed the work of our hands and the fruit of it is evident in each life that has been touched. Thank you for your prayer and support this past school year.  I look forward to this summer, the teams we will be working with and the time I will have to get ready for my interns who will be arriving at the beginning of August.  The work that the Lord has for me has grown and I so look forward to all the good things He has in store. Grace and Peace, Rachel

Represent

“There is a glorified Man on the right hand of the Majesty in heaven faithfully representing us there.  We are left for a season among men; let us faithfully represent Him here.”    

AW Tozer - The Knowledge of the Holy

#adoption

I'm challenging you all again....won't you PRAY about adopting or fostering a child? Or maybe you don't want to pray because you are afraid the Lord might ask you to take a step of faith and open up your home to a child. Do you worry about finances, or time or whether or not you can love a child not born to you as much as you love your own children? Do you believe that if God leads you down this path He won't give you the grace you need to love a child, and that He won't continue to fulfill His promise to provide for your needs? We have been adopted into the family of God...won't you pray about passing on this blessing of family to a child or teen?

Our hearts have gotten bigger': Congressman reflects on decision to adopt twins

Lisa Flam

TODAY

Markwayne Mullin had just been elected to Congress when the father of three began another, even more important journey that would change his life. He met the twin toddlers, distant cousins, who would one day join his family as his daughters.

Courtesy Markwayne Mullin / Mallory Hall Photography

The Mullin family at their farm in Oklahoma.

It was the fall of 2012, and he and his wife were already parents to three young kids. Their hectic life, filled with work and family, was about to get a whole lot busier with his new job in Washington.
When the twins paid a visit to the Mullin home, on a 1,000-acre horse and cattle farm in Westville, Oklahoma, to celebrate their second birthday a few weeks after the election, Markwayne was struck by the way his wife, Christie, and their kids took to the little ones.
And he sensed what was coming: Christie would suggest they adopt the girls, born to her distant teenage cousin.
"It wasn't a good situation," Markwayne said. The girls were separated as infants and being raised lovingly but apart, tended by Christie's aging great aunts.

Courtesy Markwayne Mullin / Mallory Hall Photography

Ivy (left), Larra (middle), and Lynette (right) celebrate the twins’ 4th birthday at a Frozen-themed birthday party.

"My wife was loving on the girls. My kids were loving on them," the now-second term Republican congressman recalled. "I was sitting there thinking, 'There's no way.' Our life just got turned upside down by me being elected to Congress."
"I literally put it out of my mind, but I could just tell," he added. "My wife is the most loving person that you can ever imagine."
Through prayer and the support of their children and their parents, Markwayne, 37, and Christie, 36, did adopt the twins, Lynette and Ivy, in August 2013. With those energetic little girls, now 4, plus the couple's big kids, Jim, now 11; Andrew, 9; and Larra, 6, the Mullins became the parents of five.
Although it hasn't always been easy since the brood grew, with two additional voices jockeying for attention and more logistics to consider when flying five kids to Washington, the twins immediately became part of the family.

Courtesy Markwayne Mullin / Mallory Hall Photography

Markwayne and Larra together in Hawaii on the family’s vacation in 2014.

"We were Mommy and Daddy from Day One," Markwayne said. "And those daughters were our daughters from Day One."
"There was an instant bond," said Christie, the same sort of bond that would have been there had she brought them home from the hospital as newborns.
The big kids were excited to welcome them, too, sometimes lavishing a little too much attention on the little ones. And the girls, social and friendly, easily found their place in the family's political life, Christie said, able to handle meeting lots of people who often want to hold them.
"They have done a great job fitting into our crazy congressional world," Christie said.
The couple, who celebrated their 18th anniversary on Sunday, didn't reach the decision to adopt hastily.

Courtesy Markwayne Mullin / Mallory Hall Photography

Markwayne gives Ivy (front) and Lynette (back) a “big push.”

At first, Markwayne was reluctant, and felt scared and nervous at the thought of upsetting the balance of their life, already full with sports practices and homework, several family businesses and the farm.
"I was being real selfish," he said. "I was trying to protect what we had."
Markwayne and Christie talked about helping the girls financially, and discussed the adoption option for several months.
"She would talk about maybe we should think about adopting the girls, and I'd make up an excuse and make up an excuse, and she was very patient with me," he recalled.

Courtesy Markwayne Mullin / Mallory Hall Photography

Markwayne rests with son Jim in the hospital after he is treated for a wrist injury.

He worried about how the pair would affect their three kids, and whether he would be capable of loving the twins as he did his own children.
Christie shared with him that her great aunts, both around 70 at the time and living alone on fixed incomes, were worried they might not be able to meet the girls' needs as they grew older.
"They just prayed they would live long enough to see them graduate school," Christie said, adding that the women did a great job with the twins. "Markwayne and I felt like we were the ones who needed to step up."
The question was: When? Christie felt that if something happened to girls' caretakers, she and Markwayne would have taken the girls at any point. But why wait for them to experience grief or to be older, when integrating them into their family would be harder, she said.

Courtesy Markwayne Mullin / Mallory Hall Photography

Larra and Jim help Markwayne at his weekly radio show.

Their Christian faith plays an important role in their lives, and Markwayne said his wife pulled "the ultimate trump card." She asked him to pray about the decision.
After he came around, the next step was to win the blessing of their own children.
"When we sat down and talked to them, they just instantly said, 'Mommy, they need a daddy and a mommy just like we do,'" Markwayne said. "They were so insistent on us bringing the kids in. It was just overwhelming."
The couple recalled crying together afterward in private. "I was so proud of them," Christie said of the big kids. "They were so mature and selfless."
The adoption process moved quickly. And in the two years since those blond little girls moved in, the couple has been blown away by the togetherness.

Courtesy Markwayne Mullin / Mallory Hall Photography

Ivy (left), Lynette (middle), and Larra (right) enjoy the beach on a family vacation to Hawaii in 2014.

"For about the first six months we had the girls, all the kids slept together in that one bedroom," with bunk beds," Markwayne said. "They did it all themselves."
Now, he calls the twins a more of blessing on the family rather than the other way around.
"All of us have grown from it," he added. "All of our hearts have gotten bigger. All of us understand it's not about us. You live this life being selfish, you're not going to enjoy it like you will when you open your heart and your home up."

Return..

 "Return, O wanderer, now return,

And see thy Father's face;

Those new desires which in thee burn

Were kindled by His grace.

Return, O wanderer, now return,

And wipe the falling tear;

Thy Father calls, - no longer mourn;

'Tis love invites thee near."

William Benco Collyer