LENT

Happy Ash Wednesday!   To those participating in Ash Wed.,  I hope you enjoy spending time in His house today, take an extra moment and just soak up your surroundings.  We can sense His presence anywhere anytime but there is something special to be felt when we are in His house.
So, who is participating in Lent this year?  I am actually going to participate this year FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!  God laid it on my heart this year, I thought it will be a perfect way to stay grounded.  In Matthew 4:1 we learned that Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit.  So, I encourage all of you to pray and ask Him if he is leading you somewhere.  Maybe it is leading you to participate in lent, maybe it is leading you somewhere towards life change. 
Here are some fun facts for ya

• The biggest thing to remember if you choose to participate in lent, is that you are not giving something up just so that you can say you are giving something up.  You are giving something up so that when you feel the temptation for that thing (whether it is a food, luxury, even technology- as I know some of you have done this before) you take that time to instead be with Jesus.  Whether it is through prayer, praising, worshiping via some Christian music/song, repentance, read a devotional, or just plain acknowledging your desire for that thing but recognizing you CAN do this via Philippians 4:13  Amen?  Amen!
• The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement and self-denial. (Wickipedia.com)
• Lent is described as 40 days leading to Easter in remembrance of the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert.  Remember, he was STILL tempted in the desert.  Stay strong and pray your way out of the temptation
  when it comes.....b/c -it will come, sisters!
• The number forty has many Biblical references: the forty days Moses spent on Mount Sinai with God (Exodus 24:18); the forty days and nights Elijah spent walking to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8); the forty days and nights God sent rain in the great flood of Noah (Genesis 7:4); the forty years the Hebrew people wandered in the desert while traveling to the Promised Land (Numbers 14:33); the forty days Jonah gave in his prophecy of judgment to the city of Nineveh in which to repent or be destroyed (Jonah 3:4).
  Jesus retreated into the wilderness, where He fasted for forty days, and was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1–2, Mark 1:12–13, Luke 4:1–2). He overcame all three of Satan's temptations by citing scripture to the devil, at which point the devil left Him, angels ministered to Jesus, and He began His mininistry.  BOOM! my favorite part here to remember is, to cite scripture when you face temptation.  Make an index card, carry it in your purse, pocket, car, put it on your desk, put it in the notes section of your phone.  Don't be unarmed sisters....you ALL have a LTC --license to carry!  :)   Jesus further said that His disciples should fast "when the bridegroom shall be taken from them" (Matthew 9:15), a reference to his Passion. Since, presumably, the Apostles fasted as they mourned the death of Jesus, Christians have traditionally fasted during the annual commemoration of his burial.  t is the traditional belief that Jesus lay for forty hours in the tomb^[19] which led to the forty hours of total fast that preceded the Easter celebration in the early Church^[22] (the biblical reference to 'three days in the tomb' is understood as spanning three days, from Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning, rather than three 24 hour periods of time).  (Wickipedia.com)
  
•  The three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigour during Lent are prayer (justice towards God), fasting (justice towards self), and almsgiving (justice towards neighbor). (Wickipedia.com)
• here is a pic of the desert wilderness of Judea
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  pic compliments of compliments of http://www.swordofthespirit.net/bulwark/feb08p5.htm I think I'm going to print this picture as it really captures the bareness and stillness that Jesus was surrounded by.  (even if it wasn't this exact location- desert is desert!)   FINALLY, I encourage you who are participating in lent to JOURNAL through this time.  There is so much power in capturing your thoughts.  It is one way God can speak to you.  It is also a great way to look back later and remember.
  
  
  
  

  
  

  DO YOU HAVE A LENT STORY?  DO SHARE IT WITH US!

1825 days...

For the past one thousand eight hundrded and twenty five days I've been married to this man.  He still melts my heart today like he did 8 years ago when he swept me off my feet at that good ol college Pub we both were slangin drinks at....Pub 13.

When we went to Bora Bora, Tahiti (for photos go here:  Bora Bora pics) a little over 3 years ago for just a 'swing through' vaca on the way home from Australia (I know...kinda crazy, the good old days HA) we felt in love with that place!!!  We made a pact that we would go back for our '5 year anniversary.'  Even though it was only going to be 2 years later and cost about the same as a small house in MI...we were gonna go back. ...or so we thought! LIttle did we know that same year we would get pregnant a few months upon our return. Soooo...plans changed this year, we booked a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City, MI instead!  SNAP- WHAT A CHANGE!  TC is sentimental to us as it is also the destination we speant our 1 year (or 365th day as Team Ulin) anni at as well.  You can put on your spring jacket, dip your toes in the sand and sip a nice local wine and pretend you are in some real exoctic foreign place if you want...but for us, we are quite ok with keepin it local.  TC is quite a beauty.  The norm for Team Ulin would be to taste some good eats and explore all the fun local winerys...but this trip was the 1st of its kind.  All about our full of energy and appreciation 2 year old!  Who told us over and over amongst our 3 day stay "this is her favorite ever."  Whether it was her favorite hallway (that had trees colored on the wall), or her favorite pool or favorite 'story time'...she had a lot of favorties on this trip :)

'her favorite fountain'

'our favorite' 2 year old :)

Being parents has changed our world...not in a better or worse way...just changed our worlds.  Life as we knew it changed that one Tuesday morning 2 years and 9 months ago.  Whew, glad we got some of our trips under our belts prior to then!  I say not for better or worse bc I love it all! I sometimes miss sleep and quiet dinners w/ just me, my man and the sunset...but Kaylee has brought more joy to my life Jan I could have ever dreamed! She makes my little world!

After Kaylee went to bed last night (@8pm btw) Mommy fought to stay awake also!  The shot of espresso after dinner was like water and my body was screaming for some sleep.  I fought and fought and stared back at my suitcase w/ my cute um, outfit, for our anniversary...but instead went for my oh so comfy shorts from Vicky's Secret PINK and my PINK t-shirt.  Def would have made other choices if I were laying in a bungalow in Bora Bora ;)  Phil and I curled up on the not so comfy hotel suite couch and watched a show about the Tornados of 2011.  So romantic...LOL.  This is our life, we are livin to love it and I sure do.


We certainly wouldnt have it any other way, we are so grateful and blessed and hope to make another trip to the GWL some day hopefully by then w/ another team member ;)

Happy Mothers Day MOM!

Before I became a mother, it was easy to pick out a Mother’s Day gift for my mom. I had the privilege of ignorance. But on May 28, 2009, that ignorance flew out the window at St Joe’s Hospital when a baby girl was placed in my arms. Now I know.

Having heard on my birthday or on different occasions how my own mom suffered through a few days of labor, I bounced on labor balls, drank gross teas, did silly prenatal classes that my husband hated and we both laughed so hard until naturally…I peed my pants.  Worked out up until the hour before labor started (well maybe not literally, but just about), did frequent prenatal massages hitting all the supposed right ‘buttons’, had a whole line of lavender shower gels and bubble bath for my ‘Jacuzzi suite’ at the hospital, I even hired a doula to help me through my drug free typed out birth plan labor! I now felt it.  Nature, God, would have it be so that I myself would be over due and then go through 30+ hours of labor followed by a c-section.  And HELL YES I got the drugs, I got them all!  I will pat myself on the back and say I managed 12 hours drug free w/ my doula at my side, then I told her to get the heck out of there I was walking myself to the room (w/o a tub there was no way I was sitting in a tub, I could barely sit in a chair!) and Phil was calling the DR to get me the EPI as fast as I could have one!

Having heard my mother say that you just can’t explain it, you have to experience it- I now know.   I have never loved something or someone so much in my entire 28 ½ years!

I had never loved my mother more either. Now I know. The magnitude of what my mother had done for me all my life has sunk in.

So how exactly am I supposed to say thank you to my mother now that I know?

For countless meals fixed or fetched, for hairdos perfected before school and messed up before the after school activity (I still have grueling pictures of an awful side ponytail),  for loving my friends like they were her own, for pretending and being silly, for enduring back to school shopping with me and sometimes even a friend, for carpooling, for taking us on vacations, for protecting me and Lauren from harm, for scaring away the monsters in my room, for comforting me when kids were mean, for correcting me when I was mean, for listening to kids’ music in the car, for cheering me on even when I wanted to play on the boys baseball team,  for cheering us on from the bleachers even when our team couldn’t win a game, for enduring my adolescent mood swings, for teaching us about Jesus’ love for others, and for doing all these things with love and a smile on her face (well most days! J). HOW? How do I thank my mother for raising me? And for doing it without letting on how hard it was?

Mom, truly, I thank you. Now that I know, I don’t know how you did it. But I’m grateful. And I hope I can raise your grandchildren in such a way that they remember me with a smile on my face. Even if I put all my money in my purse and spent a year doing nothing but shop for the perfect Mother’s Day gift to accurately reflect your worth to me as a mother, it would elude me. Nothing in a store could ever measure up to your value.

I want to give a gift that means something more. I want to show you your value to me by showing a little girl in Colombia how much value she has to Christ. She is living in a very dark, unsafe brothel and her own mother is a slave to many men. Her mother is unable to care for her the way she deserves because she is not free to stop working. But her mother wants freedom, protection and life for her child. Her mother is saying, “Help me by helping my daughter.”

With a financial gift made in your honor, God is providing a means of rescue for this little girl through http://www.colombiastreetkids.org/

Every day in Colombia:
800 children are orphaned by violence
2 are kidnapped
6 commit suicide

50 Become involved in Guerilla warfare
over 3000 are assaulted and children are abandoned to live on the streets

Population in Colobmia:
Total number of minors under 18 years 16,233,000, 41.5 % of the population. 6,500,000 live in situations classified as below the poverty level or 38.9%
Of these there are living in absolute poverty 17.5 % or 1137,500 boys and girls.

These statistics are alarming but there is always light!  You have been a light in my world, I will continue to be a light in the world also! 

Mom, thank you for being you!  Happy Mothers Day!

I love you,

Kristen