There's a Risk to Choosing to Love...

Choosing to love another soul is RISKY! Watch out! So we have options...
1. don't love and don't care.
2. kinda love, but still selfishly hold on to your heart.
3. Love with EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!!!!!

Love is a choice, and picking #3 is scary sometimes. What if, what if, what if????
I used to struggle with living IN the "what if's", which pretty much made me useless. It all comes from fear, and fear is NOT from the Lord. So living in the "what if's" to the point where it consumes you...well that is sin.  There I said it.  The S word.
Living in the "what if's" separated me from God.  That's what sin is.
So I confided in a mentor.  I shared with her that I struggled with being consumed with the "what if's".  And she shared with me that she had been there herself and then she was challenged with this...

Philippians 4:8 "Finally brothers, Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think on these things."

So here's the deal.  I started that day asking myself "is it true?"  "is it pure?" NO??  Well then Amber WHY are you thinking about it? WHY is it consuming your thoughts?
So I gave over my thoughts to the Lord! I learned how to LOVE with out worry! So now it's SUPER EASY!!!
Uhhhh NOPE.  Not super easy at all!
So I'll ask one more "what if" question. "what if it WAS super easy to love?"
Well then that would change a whole lot of stuff!
If true unselfish love was easy, then why would we need God?
Then Jesus's perfect unselfish act of love wouldn't have much value. It would have been easy for Him.

WE CAN'T TRULY LOVE WITHOUT CHRIST!

So right now I'm choosing something that is risky...I might get my heart broken...I might get attached to her.  I might be disappointed in how this whole adoption thing plays out. What if, what if, what if??? ( here I go again with the what if's, darn it!)
I've had dreams about adopting a daughter from Asia for as long as I can remember.
When you've dreamed about something for so long, and now it's REAL.  It's kinda freaking me out!
And there's where the "what if's" start sneaking in.

You might have heard how head over heals we have fallen in love chosen to love this precious one, or maybe I've trapped you and shoved pics of her in your face from my phone, or texted them to you at random times (sorry 'bout that).  I'm gonna be honest here and tell you ( just you, not everybody) that when I see pics of her, and even hear her name, I get shaky inside! I pretty much fight(or give in to) tears every stinkn' time! I will be kind and not share with you that Nate might just have the same responses.  Might.

So it was TOUGH to hear from our agency that having her placed with us will be a flat out miracle. It just is not looking like it's possible. Did I say tough?  How about a punch in the gut. How about the feeling of your heart falling out of your chest.  Yep, that's more like it.

And then there is Nate.
The eternal optimist...he always has been.  Not one person that knows him would argue that.
I love that about him. He is continuously challenging me to let it go and let God have it.
But with her, I hear him call her *ours*.  I see him tear up over her pictures.
I hear him pray for her.  But he always closes his prayers with "your will Lord, not ours"
In everything thing we have heard, she won't be *ours*.

But let's go back to "whatever is true". 
What I know is TRUE is that she is His. And we are His.  And if HE wants us to be her forever family, the HE WILL and CAN make that happen!
So we continue to choose to love her with risk that she may never be in our arms.
And so there was the night after we heard it's just not looking like that will ever happen.  Well, we had a rough night, lots of tears, lots of praying for peace.

And the next morning I woke up to my verse of the day which JUST SO HAPPENED to be...
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable...think on these things." Phil 4:8
I smiled when I saw that was my verse of the day, I texted it to Nate. "Amen"

When I got home from work that day, I got on fb to see if her foster home had posted any pics of the precious kids that day.
I pulled up their page.
And this was the pic that was posted. And yes, that's HER (sorry, not showing full pics of her face)

Enough said.

~Amber
http://adopttogether.org/therohrers

Chinese New Year ~ Celebrate!

What a special day!  A day that for the past 30 some years of my life (ahemm) went on like any other day.  How many of us celebrate the Chinese New Year? It was a first of us. And it will now be a day we will celebrate for the rest of our lives.  I love that!
We want her to know her heritage, the traditions, the culture.  It will all become a part of our family, because SHE will!

I remember as a little girl my favorite day of the month was when my Dad's National Geographic magazine would come in the mail.

I would get out a blanket and a pillow and spread it out on the floor in the living room of our military base housing home.  I would read it cover to cover, over and over.  I loved learning about other lands, other people.  I wanted to go there! I wanted to try their food, celebrate their holidays.  I've had a fascination with other cultures for as long as I can remember! I love the world God created! He's so creative! I'm thankful my parents encouraged us to learn about our world outside of our little one we lived in.  We always supported missionaries, invited them into our home, and prayed for their field.

When we shared with our friends who recently adopted their son from China, that we were ready to move forward with our adoption of our daughter, we were invited to celebrate the Chinese New Year with them and other friends who are also adopting.  How exciting!!

I've done a bit of reading about the CNY celebrations and preparations.  It's fascinating!  I've also been reading in the Old Testament about what the Lord required of His people to prepare for the Passover.  I've thought alot about that.  The cleaning, the color red, banners over doorways...
So thankful that to come before our Lord, we no longer have to go through an extensive ceremony.  He is completely and totally WITH us! We have access to Him at all times.  Thank you to His Son for removing the complicated space between us and our Father. 

The CNY for us was pretty emotional, all good though :)
I brought dessert. And there is a little problem with that.  The Asian culture is not nutso on desserts, pretty much a complete contrast to our Western culture.  We are obsessed with sweets!
So I tried my best and came up with this masterpiece...

Let me explain the method to this madness...

Red.  It's *good luck*

So I made Red Velvet Brownies.

Rice Pudding.

So I made Chocolate Rice Pudding with Dark Chocolate & Red Chocolate Chips, blended with whipped cream

Fortune Cookies.

So I crushed them (after paper fortune was removed)

Layered it all up, and there ya go!







Now...I so very proudly shared my slightly crazy recipe with a sweet friend who lives in Asia. And she very graciously said "nice try".  I had the red part right, and the rice.  And that was it.  Everything else is NOT Asian.  oops.  :)

We enjoyed music and the little ones danced. 

 

Her house was blessed with decor that was brought back from their trip to bring home their son.

And we had TONS of super yummy food!

The little girls and the big girls got their precious time together

 

My friend MADE her own fortune cookies!!! And seriously they tasted amazing! But the best part about the cookies was what was inside.  She placed simple words for the children to learn in the Chinese language.  Mostly numbers and short words.  I did hear one of the boys though say that they would like a new fortune cookie.  He was not pleased with the word he had in his ..."LOVE"...ewwww!

The adult's table had our own special fortune cookies.  She shared with us and the other two couples that are adopting that she prayed over each one of these "prayers for us"

And so then the tears came.

Each one SO special for each one of us.

 

See the necklace...more tears as she gave each Momma one.  And that's what is says in the Chinese characters at the bottom corner of the necklace "Mother"

LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!!!!

We talked about how NEXT Chinese New Year will be sooooo different for us and two other couples who weren't able to come today.  FIVE more little ones will be with us next year!! Praying for more families we know that are being prompted to move forward!

This little guy will have some new friends soon!

 

This picture will look soooo different next year!! We are praying for each one of our journeys and the the Lord will bless the precious little angels waiting patiently to join their forever families!

 

 

~Amber

http://adopttogether.org/therohrers

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is He doing??

Want a simple answer? He is wrecking it. He is turning our hearts inside out. And the peace that comes with actually wanting and allowing Him to do this is like nothing we have felt before.
Are you ready to see what He's doing? Cuz we are pretty stinkn' excited to share it with you!!!

Rewind to the Fall of 2011, we had joined up with two other couples in our church that had the same heart for the need of an organized orphan ministry.  We took it slow, took months of praying and reading The Word.  We stood up in front of our church family that Orphan Sunday and shared how simple the call and how great the need to DO what God asks of his adopted children...pretty much pay it forward.  It's not a suggestion, it's not an "if it works for you", it's "defend the fatherless" (Isaiah 1:17).  Need more scripture? God talks about the orphan quite often through out the Old and New Testament...there's a theme going on...go find it!

Last Fall, we moved forward to defend the fatherless and started our process to become a foster family and in March of 2012 we became a licenced foster family as well as received our approval to adopt in our state.  We were anticipating a placement call right away.  But months and months went by.  Finally over six months later we started getting calls.  But every single time we had to say no.  It was nothing short of heartbreaking.  I took peace in knowing that even though I hung up the phone after just saying no.  The call went out to the next family, and with in hours, those precious ones were in a loving home.  9 more phone calls, several more months. Yet still trusting His plan. 
Finally in December we got a call to do some temporary care for another foster family.  Two little curly haired brothers joined our home for 2 weeks over Christmas break and we LOVED having them! We learned so much about pain and loving till it hurts.  We don't know what He has planned for them in the future, but we still pray for them and trust He will always have them in His care.

Just a month before the boys arrived, along with our dear friends, we had launched by God's grace, our Hope 1:17 ministry at our church. It was a glorious Orphan Sunday!!! The Spirit was moving! He still is!  Family after family shared what adoption looks like.  We heard teaching that Sunday on what adoption looks like as a child of God.
He pursued us!  It was active. It was purposeful. It was risky.

Last year, I visited with my Aunt Deb, she is actively caring for orphans around the world, and I love hearing the passion that she and my cousins have for orphan care.  She introduced me to a beautiful foster home in Asia.  I started following them on fb and reading their blog.  Their ministry to the special need orphan is miraculous.  He is clearly working there, He is actively caring for the fatherless there and the testimony after testimony is evident of His passion.

In late Fall, I read the story of a precious little baby girl that stole my heart.  Her health concerns were lethal, and then He stepped in and directed a path of miraculous healing for her.  He has a plan for her life! He has healed her! We enjoyed seeing updates on her growth and kept praying for her as a family.  We sent a special Christmas package to her, and prayed that she would be out of the hospital a 2nd time in time to be back in the care of the angels at her foster home before Christmas.  She was!!!

As weeks went by, we kept her in our prayers. Our hearts would melt when we would see pics posted of her getting bigger and stronger.  She's so stinkn' precious!!  In the middle of all this heart-melting, our small group Bible study recently started reading together the book "The Forgotten God- Reversing our Tragic Neglect of The Holy Spirit" by Francis Chan.  Nate and I listen to it on CD...
Let me put it this way. It's rocking our world.
Who is The Holy Spirit?
Jesus said, I have to go, but what I am leaving here with you is BETTER.
Do we live like that?
He is with us ALL THE TIME.
What grieves Him?
Do we trust Him?
What are we afraid of???????   And that's the big one.  Are we afraid to trust Him?
Well He is asking us to do something that many consider scary, risky.
And so a few weeks ago, Nate shared with me what The Spirit is making quite clear to him.  We've got to GO get HER.  With many tears, and much prayer, we jumped in.  We MOVED.
So we are adopting.  It's an active pursuit. It's risky.
BUT we TRUST HIM.
So here we go................. let's see what He has in store for our family.  Let's see WHO he has for our family.  We totally trust Him with EVERY detail.  And we can't wait to share with you what He does!

Upcycle all those mens t-shirts

I have a drawer full of T's that I NEVER wear! And the weird thing is that I only keep ones that mean something to me. So why don't I wear them you might be wondering...
Ok, so I have little things that drive me crazy. Here's a few
* stepping out of the shower onto a carpeted floor.ughhhh. gross.
* leftovers ( I try to save them, I know it's *smart*, but I just can't eat them!)
* wearing a watch...gives me the willies!
* polo shirts on women ( that's a man's shirt, there are too many cute options to settle for a polo)
* crew neck t-shirts on ME.
SO that last one leads me to having shirts that have meaning to them to sit alone month after month in my drawer. I know they cry out to me. I do feel bad about this neglect. So after seeing this tutorial, I had a little glimmer of hope for all of these...

I love that I get a free T when I donate blood. Unfortunately many of these turn into *shirts I wear when I color my hair*. This one I got this weekend is a great navy color and I like the pop of yellow and nautical theme-ish look. It's a keeper to upcycle!
The other four are SUPER SUPER special to me! Each one represents a mission trip to Trinidad & Tobago with our church. The logos are even designed by one of our team members, I love each one of them. But my first confession today is that I don't wear them other than on our trip. I just don't wear crew neck t's and most of my t-shirts are men's style, boxy.
My dear friend in TandT just ordred a new sewing machine and shipped to me so I could test it out for her and bring it down to her in a few weeks. What a great craft to try on her new machine!
Thankfully all is wonderfully well with it because as soon as our boys found a big cardboard box in the house, they had a free for all! Thank you Auntie A for buying a new sewing machine!

So here's what I did to my first shirt...

I cut off the crew neck. And let me tell you how good that feels!! With this shirt I kept the rounded scoop neck shape. I folded the shirt in half to find the center. You can also look at the label to find the center. Basically you sew ( backstitching at both ends) a line down the middle from the top down to wherever you want it to stop. Your call. And I suppose it would depend on where your shirt logo starts.

You can make as many as you want across the front, going back and forth from the center one. Odd numbers look best, so 5-11 looks best. Then I turned under the raw edges and it cleaned it up a bit.

The great thing is, I didn't use one pin. Just turned it under a bit as I went along. I also cut off the bulky sleeves and added pin tucks there as well. Same thing, found the center of the sleeve by finding the shoulder and folding it there. You can make them here as short or as long as you want.

I also laid one of my favorite fitting shirts over top of this one to help as a guide as I brought in the sides. Not pictured, I tapered in the sides of the shirt when I turned it inside out. Just took in an inch or so and it added some shape to the sides.
In the above pic you can see that I wanted to add a little something to the back of the shirt too. I did the same here, found the center and folded it in half. Just did a few here to add more shape around the middle.

Here's the finished neckline. This is also a super special shirt that I'm really excited to actually wear! We ran in our first 5K together on Father's Day...A Run for Orphans. We had a great time with friends who share the same heart for the orphan.

Here it is...all finished! Now onto my other shirts!!!

What will you do with yours?

Bustn' out some Blankets ~ every blanket has a stroy

It will be a first for us this Summer. And we sure don't have a clue how God will work this all out. But we have a peace about it. All of us have taken Missions Trips to Trinidad with our church over the past several years. But there is one of us that hasn't gone yet. This year we are so thankful that we have a peace about L's health and he will be joining in on the Mission Trip this July! What a blessing to do this all together as a family! This year comes with it's own challenges. Scheduling has already shown itself to be a speed bump. And the bigger possible issue is *what if* we have a foster placement during this time. Well, all I can say is we know HIS plan is perfect. I'm trusting God with ALL the details.
So moving forward, we see that it's gonna be another journey of faith as we need to raise about $6000 to fund our trip. Ouch! But let me tell ya, considering a family of 6 going overseas...well this is a wonderfully affordable Missions Trip.
One of the things I LOVE to do is make Chubby Baby blankets. And I'm excited to be making these blankets to give the proceeds directly to fund our trip.

Here's my most recent blanket for my dear friend's sweet baby girl. I can't wait to hand deliver this one to her!
The Chubby Baby blankets are square and they measure approximately 35x35 inches. The back is yummy, made with minkee or cuddle fleece.
I think one of my very favorites is one that I made for my youngest son when I was pregnant with him. I wrapped him up in it as soon as I could. That is one happy baby boy!

This little guy is 6 years old now and I LOVE that even now as I'm typing he's all snuggled up in his bed with his blankie. I'm not sure when it started, but for as long as he has had a choice in the matter, his preference is to have his blankie in a ball right under his feet. So funny this one.
L had to be quite patient for his blanket. He has a specific request...ORANGE OCTOPUS. Hmmm...And after some searching, I found the perfect fabric! He was so excited. SO excited in fact, that while taking it with him on some journey it has become M.I.A for a while now. We have given up on locating it and we are trusting that someone that needed a blanket more than he did is all snuggled up with it.

L is who inspired Chubby Baby...he was NOT chubby at all when he came 9 weeks early. But he has some lofty goals for himself and in a matter of months, he was C.H.U.B.B.Y!!! I made several blankets for him while he was in the NICU. I'm pretty sure one or more of those blankets are with him while he sleeps.
I don't just make Chubby Baby blankets. I was asked by my Chiro doc if I would make one for his wife for Mother's Day. It was her first, a new momma to beautiful twin girls. I thought, what a great gift!!! I'm pretty sure he scored HUGE points with his bride as she told me over and over how much she loved it as I had made blankets for her baby girls a few months early, and this one was HERS!

She had a great idea...she said these should be called Chubby Momma Blankets (although that doesn't apply to her AT ALL). They are also backed with the same snuggly minkee or cuddle fleece and are PERFECT for wrapping up with on the couch.
Some blankets are a long time coming.
There are a few beautful Asian baby girls who I have prayed and prayed for as I made them each a blanket as their Mommas and Daddys were putting together their final travel plans to go pick up their daughters. Adoption is a BEAUTIFUL thing! What a blessing to be able to make this special blanket.

So each blanket I've made has a beautiful story behind it, each one involves a MIRACLE! I love and find it an honor to pray over each little miracle who will be wrapped up in this made with love blanket.
I'm excited to see what blanket I can make for you! Need a gift? Know of a beautiful momma with a little one on it's way? I would love to make a Chubby Baby ( or Chubby Momma) blanket for you. The proceeds with go towards our family Mission Trip( you can read more about our Mission Trips to Trinidad in older posts). It's a double or triple blessing :) Feel free to send your requests to namerohrer at yahoo dot com.
Here's a few more pics of some very special blankets...there's a precious miracle one for each one...

Bunk Beds for MORE??!!

Many will call us crazy, some to our face and some behind our backs ( nahhh, really?). And most who do are Christians just like us. But to be honest, I won't argue that. Yep we ARE crazy! Does it make sense to do this? Probably not. But that's ok too. *Can* we do this all on our own? NO WAY!
But here's the thing... God asks us to obey Him in the little things and the big things. And it's hard most of the time because it goes against who we are all on our own. And there's the key. We CAN'T do this all on our own strength. We are completely and totally depending on God to give us what we need to do this every day, every moment. 'Cuz it's gonna be hard! But the cool thing is, in the middle of all this is where God builds character. It's where He grows our faith in Him. And THAT'S where I want to be, that's where I want our family to be. Right in the middle of His will.
We have just about completed the process to be licensed to foster and adopt from our county's Children's Services. It's hard to put into words how this process is. We've learned more about hurting children than most people. It's so very sad to know how much the enemy loves how these children are hurting. But then we serve a God who is bigger and in charge. So we trust that even though horrible things are happening, he still heals and retsores. We want to have a heart like His and serve.
So what do we do when we decide to obey?
We move forward.
To be ready in our home, we need beds. We need bunkbeds. So I trusted God to provide what we needed. He did.
A generous family at church didn't know *why* we needed bunkbeds, they just heard we needed some. So they contacted us and we went to pick them up.
What a precious family! What a blessing!!
So Em got to work on her room. YIKES!! But this girl is motivated! All the kids are excited to see how God will bring children into our home in need of love.
She inlisted her sweet friend and they announced to me that it was lookn' bad. Em said it was like an episode of Hoarders!

But like I said, she was motivated and a couple hours later her room was ready for the bunkbeds to be moved in.
All 4 kids were Daddy's helpers and Em took over the finishing design touches. Take a look!!!

And watch we get two BOYS placed with us! Poor things!
That night as I tucked Em in bed, I walked out of her room with a feeling I had felt before.
It's the one where you know that something big is about it happen, something good, but so overwhelming you know you will be completely dependent on God to get you through this part of your journey. Well...it's coming.
Those beds represent SO MUCH.
It's just a set of bunks...big deal. beds.
I pray that the little ones that will be tucked in a prayed with the nights that they are here with our family, that they will have never felt more safe and loved. That set of beds is where they will be prayed over! They will get read to! They will get snuggled up, tickled, hugged and kissed by 6 people that are sooooo excited to have them in our home. No matter how long or short. We will just obey and walk forward.

The expected end of the year healthy post

Doesn't everyone at this point in the year talk about eaing more fruit & veggies? Ok, maybe not this point, but next week we all will! So in that theme, I have to share my Secret Cupcake recipe! They actually turned out wayyy better than I thought they would.
When it comes to cooking and baking, I like to play it safe and keep the expectations LOW...that way I'm never disapointed. So I was surprised that these were so super yummy! They *look* yummy, but so many times I taste by beautiful creations and it would have better just to look at it.
So here's what I used...

You could try a differnt combo of fruits and veggies. I think spinach would have been a great addition! Next time.
First I juiced...and passed out the juice to any kid that would drink it! And I can always count on our youngest, he LOVES *Green Juice*!

YUMMMM...I kinda want that right now! So I get weird about it seperating so quickly, so I am all about mixing it up or even better, pull out my blender ( stink, I'm making more dirty dishes, oh well) add some ice and a spoonfull of Vanilla yogurt and make a smoothie!!! This is a great place to add a handful of frozen spinach too!
So here's the part that is PRECIOUS!!! DON'T THROW IT OUT!!!!! A juicer friend gave me a tip here...if you are wanting an easier clean up or you plan on freezing the pulp, put a gallon sized zip lock bag in the back and collect the pulp in there! EASY!!

Pulp is great for a smoothie. It depends on what kind of pulp you end up with. Some of it is just too much weird, so pick out what you think will not go over so well. But you will be surprised what WILL work in a smoothie!
But this pulp has a different fate...CUPCAKES!!!!!
Grab a cake mix of your choice...chocolate is a great one for sneaking in most fruits and veggies! And make it per box directions and add in as much pulp as you think will go over :) Blend away..

Pour the into cupcake papers and bake as directed. I wasn't sure if they would need to bake longer since they were going to be moister, I just kept checking with a toothpick at the end.
I made a cream cheese chocolate frosting ( no fruits and veggies here)

Oh my they turned out sooooo yummy! Of course the kid test is necessary and YEP, it passed big time! So funny...look closely at these cupcake papers...can you see?? My mom picked these up for me from Target after Halloween, she thought they were cute, some kind of Victorian theme. Um no, there are SKULLS on them! YIKES! Oh well, they were 75% off!!