One Blog at a Time

It's not hard to tell that regular blogging is not our strong suit. We like the idea. We like reading blogs. But, alas, we often forget to actually blog. Keeping up with two blogs has proved to be impossible.

So, for anyone out there in blogland that happens upon this, please redirect yourself to our adoption blog: kellyadoption.wordpress.com. Once our adoption process has finished and we have begun our new life of parenting, we will most likely switch back to attempting to blog at this address. Really, who knows?

We've Moved!!

Our last post announced that we sold our home in Idaho. Now we've officially purchased and moved into our new home here in Kansas City! Wahoo! We're still getting settled (a.k.a. there are boxes everywhere) but it's super fun to have our own place. The guest room is all set up and ready for visitors! For all of you financial supporters and people who just like sending snail mail, here's our new address:
8204 E. 103rd Terrace,
Kansas City, MO 64134

Sold!

We just returned from three weeks in the Northwest visiting family, supporters and packing up our house in Moscow, Idaho. Our Idaho house is officially sold! It was a bittersweet visit- good to see friends but sad to say goodbye to Moscow. Now we're excited for the opportunity to buy a house here in Kansas City where we can host small groups and out of town visitors! (hint hint)

It's Spring!

Spring has officially sprung in Kansas City. It's time to pack up the scarves and break out the flip flops! I love not only the warmer weather but the return of greenery, budding flowers and friendly backyard creatures (we have a ground hog living in our yard we affectionately call "fat albert") Of course, the bugs & humidity of summer are probably on their way, but at least the snow is gone!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday the IHOP community joined in Kansas City's St. Patrick's Day parade. Hundreds of "IHOPers" spent the morning talking to people along the parade route about who St. Patrick really was and his faith in Jesus. (The bottom picture is one of Jason and our friend Cory talking to a guy who was promoting a karate business in the parade.) Once the parade started we all walked and danced behind the big IHOP float. Our float (see middle picture) had a big green mountain with a guy dressed up like St. Pat giving mini sermons in an Irish accent. Behind him was one of our worship teams who would play the song "Grace Like Rain" while we all waved streamers and danced behind! It's hard to capture the feeling with words, but it was a fun celebration to dance down the street with a couple hundred people praising Jesus! To top it all off, it was the nicest day of the year so far- not a cloud in the sky and 80˚ warm! We believe there are people who came to the parade whose lives will be forever changed. For more stories on the St. Pat's day parade, keep an eye out for our newsletter in the next week or so. (If you don't get our e-newsletters and want to, email us. We'd love to add you to our list.)

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

Weak Love

I thought I'd share with y'all the lyrics of my current favorite worship song. It's by Sarah Edwards and can be found on the Forerunner music album "Constant."

I can’t understand this work of grace
How a perfect God would come and take my place

The stars they don’t move You
The waves can’t undo You
Mountains in their splendor
they cannot steal your heart

This God who is holy
Perfect in beauty
Awesome in glory
Is ravished by my heart

Though I’m poor you say I am lovely
Though I’m dark you say I am beautiful

Somehow my weak glance has overwhelmed You
And somehow my weak love it has stolen away Your heart

You can listen to the song on her myspace website:
http://www.myspace.com/sarahedwardsihop

Longing for His Return

Here at IHOP we talk a lot about preparing ourselves for Jesus' return. People get ready, Jesus is coming. You see it all over the New Testament- the writers really were living for His return and hoping He'd to come back at any moment. We sing things like "Come Lord Jesus" and "the Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come'." Every believer knows that one day Jesus is going to come back and wants to be ready to welcome Him.

The other day I was challenged by one of IHOP's speakers, Dana Candler. She asked us this question, "At the heart level do we really want Him to return?"

Or do we hope maybe He'll wait to return until after we ________(get married, have kids, get that job... fill in the blank with your own answer.) She talked about longing for His return in a way I hadn't thought of it before. She talked about it like mourning. You naturally mourn the loss of a loved one. You miss them. You want them back. In Matthew 9:15 when some people asked Jesus why his disciples didn't fast he said, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast."

Jesus himself said his followers would mourn his absence when He left. Do we long for Him in this way? What challenged me most was when Dana said, "How much we long for Him indicates how well we know Him." You don't mourn the loss of someone you don't know. And the better you know them, the more you feel their absence.

I want to get to know Him so much better, so much that I want nothing more than His full-out- with-us presence- His physical return. What could be better than to have Jesus return? He's going to make all things new, right everything that's wrong and wipe away every tear! Why would I want Him to wait... so I can have one more day without Him? Wouldn't it be better to be with Him and not have sin and selfishness keeping me from really experiencing Him as He is?

Let's keep on getting to know Jesus so we can sing with all the saints, "Come Lord Jesus" and mean it! Maranatha!

~Kara