Musical Mondays: Where I Belong

I've struggled a lot lately with feeling as though I am doing what I am supposed to be with my life. Almost every area of my day feels under attack. I struggle with feeling like a unworthy wife, employee and mother on almost a daily basis. It's during these times of my life that I desperately want God to part the heavens and just come back. It will all be worth it when we are with our King and honestly, I yearn for such a time more and more often these days. 

I use to think that this made me odd. But a few years ago, I ran across this song by Building 429, which was the sweetest reminder of Psalms 143:6 "I stretch out my hands to You; My soul longs for You; as a parched land." 

So for all of you who need to be reminded as well this week, THIS world is not where we belong. With this reassurance, have an amazing week. 

You Guys Did It Again

LoPa Art was a project started by three adoption-orphan care-justice crazed women who were looking for a way to serve the least, the last and the lost of Ethiopia. The three of us were broken at different times, but all in the same way-we desired to use our talents to see restoration and grace permeate the people and the hearts of people we had grown to call family.




The basis for our business was simple. Buy fair-trade, handcrafted art work and leather goods, sell them to you beautiful people and fund a non-profit education and feeding center on a trash dump in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The three of us receive no salary, no percentage of the profits. We wanted transparency to be a clear as our passion.
Three years ago, we had over 100 kids in our program. We partnered with Children's HopeChest to find individual sponsors for our kids so that LoPa could focus more on funding projects to make this community sustainable.




This year we had over 210 kids accepted into our program and LoPa was able to re-focus on not sustaining the kids daily needs, but praying and funding their futures. Together with HopeChest we derived an amazing plan and a really lofty goal: Raise $60,000 to put our older aging-out boys to work in the construction business. We called it the Korah Brick Making projects.
HopeChest did the logistics of a website and we three LoPa girls hit the streets. And the boutiques. And the craft fair venues. And then we hit our knees.




We blogged, facebooked, tweeted, and held shows all over the country. We networked our social circles and brought you all beautiful jewelry and art work from our favorite artists and artisans.




And YOU all responded. By leaps and bounds you all have helped us spread our mission of love and justice for yet another year. We couldn't be more grateful. And today we are humbled and honored to announce that the LoPa Brick Project is 100% fully funded! We are over the moon and over joyed that God has used three women's lives to bring His glory and His justice. We simply cannot thank you enough.




We are in full swing preparing our 2013 calendar and praying over our next project. Please join us in praying His will over our mission and asking how you can further be involved. If you are interested in hosting a home show, please hurry and email us so that we can make arrangements. Our calendar is almost full. You can reach us at lopa3moms at gmail dot com





- Hugs n Love,

Lindsey

Near Miss

I wrote this a few weeks back and wrestled with whether or not to post it because really, I cannot think about this event without checking my pulse.

I've believed in Jesus since I was seven years old. As our relationship has deepened throughout my life, I have had several moments where I had a physical awareness that I was not alone. Moments that made no logical, scientific sense. Where I knew that He, the Lord of Angel Armies was present and I felt him.
I had another one today.
With The Dinosaur and The Angel being out of school, they've traveled back and forth to the office with me a lot this Christmas break. I know that it has been really boring because while most people are able to take vacation time around this time of year, being a family lawyer means that the holidays are a consistent hotbed for litigation. I can almost never gather more than a few hours away from the office during this season.
It really isn't too rough on them. I represent a lot of kids in my practice and one whole office is a dedicated play room. But for my two, they are definitely the outdoorsy type. Being in an office all day tests all of our creativity and ability to expend energy. Especially for The Dinosaur. He lives for our walks outside or running to the car for lunch. His quick little legs can bolt at just the crack of a door.
Today was no different. There were several other kids in the office today and he was dying for some fresh air. I knew it was going to be an early lunch. He needed to get outside. I rounded The Angel and the coats and my purse and all the "mom garbage" I think that I need. I had wrangled The Angel to put her shoes on, her coat and we were headed out the door. I told her just to meet me at the car when she got her stuff together. The Dinosaur was three paces in front of me, holding the door knob to his freedom, begging me to hurry up. I really was trying. I let him open the door and just as I have every day for almost three years each time he heads out, I shouted "Do not cross the parking lot!" My office does not sit in a busy area. There are not many cars during any part of the day. But I remind him at least three times a day regardless.
The air in his face and the pavement under his feet must have overloaded his senses because he never heard me. I was less than ten paces behind him when the whole world slowed. I remember the following details with specificity and horror. It must have happened in three seconds, but time suspended and I recall it all.
Black mustang.
Speeding.
The back of The Dinosaur's head heading toward our car.
His perfect stride of one foot pounding in front of the other.
Never stopping.
My voice screaming his name.
Me dropping every thing in my hands and running.
Him turning and taking one step back toward my voice.
The driver missing him by inches.
We were both hysterical when I reached him.
He jumped in my arms and screamed and cried and I screamed and cried.
The Angel missed the whole thing. Thank you Jesus!
I did not need a near death encounter as a reminder to hug my children today, but I'll tell you I haven't let either one of them too far out of my reach today either.
- Hugs n Love,
Lindsey

 

I'm sure that you've passed a scene like this in your city.
Perhaps you even passed by one today.

A person holding a sign,

stating they have a need.

I am the one who is always digging for cash.

Or bottles of water if I have planned ahead.

Or the kids' snacks if I can find them.

But whether it's out of convenience or a lack of planning,

I always feel like I am just giving money.

Offering a "God bless you"

and sometimes with a smile.
If I can remember it.
But I always try to give something.

I just cannot ignore the thought of passing by some one
who may have a need and I perhaps have the ability to provide even a small part.
It aches my heart to see some one, especially in my home town,
who isn't being properly provided for.
Whether it be by their own choices or
my lack of civic involvement,
but I cannot just push through the light and drive on.

When The Hero and I first started dating,

he use to roll his eyes when I would dig through his wallet,

force him to change 3 lanes of traffic,

and he would tutor me on how giving money wasn't really going to change some one's situation.

He use to say that the result would only result in perpetuating a cycle,

support substance abuse,

or dissuade some one from getting a real job.

But honestly, even if everything he said was true, I can still resonate with this:

If my life had been relegated to
having no home,

having no one I felt I could turn to,
sleeping in alley ways,

wondering where my next meal would come from

or being disconnected from my thoughts

and forgetting that I am fearfully and wonderfully made

by a Creator who loves me more than anything else on earth,

I can understand that my choices may not always be the best.

 

 

The Hero has stopped hounding me about my stop light activities.
He now just hands me his wallet without ever being asked.
 I love that about him.

We gave a man a few dollars a few weeks back and
I told The Hero that I wanted a homeless friend.
He just stared blankly back at me.
I tried to explain that I didn't just want to pass by people on the street.
I wanted to engage them.
Enough to where I would know one of them by name.

He asked if any if any of the people we knew were homeless
would they still consider us friends.
I told him I didn't know.
But Jesus had several friends on this earth and he was still homeless.

I told him I just wanted to begin to put myself in situations where
I wasn't offering a piece of my wallet,
I was finally offering a piece of myself.
Maybe that's all Jesus really wants from any of us after all.
Offer yourself to some one else fully,
not to change their situation but to simply be their friend.

 

A New Prescription

A few weekends ago was Mommy's mandated "Clean Out the Garage Day". While the Hero and I purged our garage of a winter's worth of junk, The Angel and The Dinosaur played in the front yard. They drug out toys and trinkets that they had spent a winter forgetting existed. As the Hero and I feverishly worked to move things around, we pulled an old box that had once housed the Dinosaur's car seat from the garage. The Angel wanted to know what we were going to do with it and I told her that it was not useful for anything and we'd be throwing it away. I sat it towards the side of the garage and went on digging through Christmas ornaments. A few minutes later I noticed the Angel and the Dinosaur were playing in the box. They played there ALL day. Even after Daddy and I finished cleaning, the box remained a consistent plaything. It was a fort, a house, a raceway for cars and a host of other afternoon adventures for a two and six year old. As the Hero and I cleaned up and I watched my babies play, I suddenly got really emotional. I didn't want to forget this moment; watching a sheet of cardboard have a million new adventures. I ran inside and got the camera. I wondered how many children's lives would be different if I and millions like me would take off their "adult glasses" and start seeing things through the eyes of a child. I wondered how many more afternoon romps could take place on our pristine manicured lawns and be made perfect by a child's laughter?

I wonder if we stopped seeing what the world sees and see what Christ sees. I wonder how much more of this world would only love to be loved in return.

I wonder how many children are discarded because we think we are too busy to sit one more place at the table or do one more load of laundry.

I very much believe that the Hero and I were headed down an extremely lonely path only a few short years ago. I know that only Christ changed our perspective on life, but I believe our children were His eyeglasses for us to change how we see the world.

Do you need a new prescription to see?