To Stress or Not to Stress

To Stress or Not To Stress

Just a little update… many friends have asked when we will reveal our Littles to the world… Until adoption finalizes we have to respect the level of discretion that is expected, after that –

I will be a picture-posting Momma! 

Everyone is different. Different stressors, responses to stress, and different levels of stress that they consider acceptable in their life.

I have come to function at what some would consider a high level of stress. (The fact that it is 12:30am and I am journaling and watching The Notebook should give you some idea of how crazy I am =) 

Since life has become a bit like a whirl wind the past couple months I have been struggling with this idea of stress. When feelings overwhelmed with schedules, homework, runny noses, laundry, potty training, cleaning, and all that goes with loving children that are new to your home. - I step back and I realize that during these moments of frustration I am task focused – not heaven focused. 

How do I rationalize this?

Quite well!

But then I am reminded…

Luke 12:25

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?”

1 Peter 5:7

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

I do not think these are suggestions. There is nothing written that says

 – “Julia, whenever your to do list is done, don’t worry and cast your anxiety on Me – 

I will help you with your plans – just fill me in on what’s goin on”.

Francis Chan has said numerous times that when we are stressed out over things of this world we are essentially saying to God, “I don’t trust that you are in control and My plans are more important than yours!”

This is not a bash stress blog post –trust me I just wrote 5,000 words about how stress affects us at a physiological level and have come to respect stress in a new way. Stress causes motion at the smallest level of our existence. When we are in motion things happen! Stress can motivate. I do not believe that stress is a sin; yet allowing stress to distract us from the mission at hand is ignoring commands that are given 

– Do Not Worry.

God has been so faithful to us during this time of growing! Starting from scratch to set up a family of seven with the things that Americans are accustomed to (i.e. beds, pillows, clothes, food, and toys) was a stretch. To believe that we could do this while I was not working seemed financially daunting. And yet here we are. 

With everything we need… and want. 

The blessings that have been poured out on us are countless.

I am journeying to a place where I am following God’s plans and not inviting Him to join me on mine. I am sure I am not alone in my struggle to balance all these things called life. Just some food for thought. 

Next time you are stressed and overwhelmed consider this…

Luke 12:22-23

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.”

This is real to me when I step back from my "to-do's" and at the end of the day can see  progress healing a wound that one of my Littles came with... God is so good. 

Just the footnotes!

Okay here we go! Blogging is a new journey, but I pray this is a platform to share how God is working in my life. I will start this journey with a little about who I am – just the footnotes!

The best place to start would be with my parents - they have encouraged and challenged me throughout my life, directing the course that has come to be an exciting road. Though my life did not emulate Collasians 3:20 "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord", we made it! Next to God, I owe everything to them. I never thought in high school my parents would be my best friends - but they are!

Tom and Laura

My childhood is remembered fondly. I am the oldest of three and though I do not have near the stories my husband does of his childhood (because I never glued a flower bed full of petals to the side of the house or shot my brother with a bow and arrow =), I did carry the reputation 

of being a little bossy - I know big surprise!

Ellisa, Joshua, and I

My life has memories in the city of Orlando, but my home and heart are in Western Pennsylvania. I was homeschooled kindergarten through high school. This allowed me to start college my senior year, then graduating with my Associates Degree in Nursing a month after my 20^th birthday - surrounded by loving and encouraging family and friends who never left my side. 

My support system!

While in nursing school my high school sweetheart enlisted in the United States Marine Corp. He is number five of 12 kids, an avid hunter/fisherman, a man of God, and now a Marine - I was in love!

Boot camp graduation

A month after graduating nursing school I married my high school sweetheart. After a Disney World honeymoon, I followed him across the country to the border town of Yuma, Arizona. 

June 2009  

Over the next few years we felt the searing pain of loss when we experienced  miscarriage three times. The word miscarriage sounds so void in comparison to the ache my heart felt. Each pregnancy and new life was celebrated and grieved with the peace that only Christ can give. 

That journey in its entirety is for another day.    

“
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26

This a lot of footnotes!

Here is where we are today. My husband and I are foster parents. We have been blessed to have five children through foster care and hope to finalize adoption within the next couple months. My husband is a Marine, I work as a Registered Nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, I am in Grad School for my degree in Nursing Education - we are just living life the best we know how!

Here we are. Humbly before God. Thankful he included broken people like me into his great plan. My new mission in life is to care for... Our Five Little Hearts.

 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” 

James 1:27