We were out of town for two weeks over the holidays; we did not return until late yesterday afternoon. We had our mail held while we were away, and when it was delivered today, we were so surprised. We sent out 500 Christmas Cards this year, making sure we thanked everyone who donated to the "Darya Project". It was a pleasure to write out each and every envelope, because as I did, I was thanking the Father for all of you in my heart. Your generosity still overwhelms our family.
When retrieving the mail today, I quickly realized almost all of you sent a card right back to us. WOW!!! I brought the huge stack of mail inside and gathered the children around the table. Together, we opened each one. We loved seeing your pictures, and reading your family stories. Thank you for honoring our family in this way. To see your faces, and your children's faces, means more to our family than I can describe with mere words. Truly, we are blown away by your lovingkindness. Again, thank you!
As a special "thank you" treat, I want to give away a Poppy Dip dress to the person who can guess how long Chappy and I dated before getting married on the blog tomorrow.....in addition, each comment should include something you want to give to God this year! To view the Poppy Dip dress choices, please click the button on my sidebar. In your comment, please remember to include your email address so I can contact you for size and pattern choice. ALSO, on the Poppy Dip blog: http://itspoppydipblog.blogspot.com/ , you'll find Sallee is giving away a free Poppy Dip dress too (so enter again there!!!) Hopey wears her Poppy Dips all of the time and I get more comments on them. Best Wishes and another big thank you to all!!!
Philippians 1:3
"I thank my God every time I remember you."
OH Wow!! POPPY DIP keeps POPPING up everywhere!! thank you Melanie!!
ReplyDelete~s
I am going to guess you dated for 2 1/2 years before getting married. I want to give God total control of my life this year. As a family, we are working on this and are getting closer and closer, but there are always areas where it is hard to give up control.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I can say is that if we win the dress, we will auction it off on our blog for our own adoption :) I've enjoyed following your journey so far, and look forward to sharing in the rest of your journey to EE.
How fun! The Hollis' card is still sitting on counter to go out with all my very late Christmas/New Year/maybe Valentine's day cards! :-) We had a hard drive crash and with it went our address book. I'm slowly slogging through getting that fixed and mailing our greetings! We so loved your picture and note. My 13 year old who donated some of her own money was THRILLED to receive your card as well!
ReplyDeleteI think you dated for 7 1/2 months! :-)
I want to give God myself to minister to orphan's firsthand. I've begun to look into mission trips and ways to serve hands-on. I'm praying and have begun a little "blessing others" fund for this purpose! I'm excited!
My guess: 3 months of dating before getting engaged!
ReplyDeleteAs for what I am giving to God this year: My dreams! I am giving Him my dreams so that I can fully embrace the dreams that He has in store for me and my family. I cannot wait to see what He has in store for us!
Hi! I want to guess you dated for 6months!
ReplyDeleteWhat I am giving God this year: I am giving him my undivided attention and letting him know that I know that I am here on earth to be a messenger for him!
Kristin
inspiredbygrace@yahoo.com
My guess is that you dated 14 mos. I am giving God my complete trust this New Year.
ReplyDeleteLorene
thadlo@yahoo.com
Since you are a "numbers" gal...I am thinking you dated longer...almost 2 years. ;)
ReplyDeleteWe dated for 3 years...it was too long.
Kristine
krisandjp@cox.net
16 mos. My Trust is what I am giving Him this year. I have been working on giving Him all of me, but its taken time for me to totally "let go" and not take back things in my life. It all boils down to Trusting Him- allowing God to be God. Winning a dress for our sweet "little G" would give me hope that she will be home with us one day soon. We are praying in earnest that the Council is honest in the hold up and we will be able to discern if we need to withdraw our dossier to re-do and adopt her through another agency. This would mean starting over financially and I trust Him to be able to work it out. We just need discernement. Under His wings,Anna Pansi2@aol.com
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea of Lyndi about the dress! I will do the same thing if I win! :)
ReplyDeleteMy guess is you dated 13 months before getting engaged.
I am giving God my "rights..." I have been convicted over and over that we cling to the "rights" we think we have....rights to have a dinner tonight, rights to the kids being respectful, rights of someone responding to you in a polite way, rights of being able to switch lanes while driving!! Some of those sound silly, but we get upset when we don't get what we think is right. We have no rights, really. In Christ, we have such a gift of grace, love, and acceptance. He laid down every RIGHT he had of being God to become human. To save US.
Sorry...long answer!!!
Thank you for your encouraging blog!!
Welcome Home! Hope you all had a fabulous time on your vacation! I have no clue how long you and Chappy dated, but I would guess 9 months.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am giving God this year: my complaints or hopefully the lack thereof. I am hoping to see the world (and people) as God sees it - full of possibilities and amazing opportunities! I truly diminish Him, the Creator of it all, when I complain! I know it will be a challenge with a Russian Dossier to complete. :0)
Love you guys!
PS - Evan will look awfully cute in a Poppy Dip dress!!
I bought my first Poppy Dips when the money was going to help your little girl come home. The dresses look darling on my little Liberian! God bless you and I'd love to "talk" to you about the whole housing market thing. I printed it out for my husband and he read it this morning; we are "caught" in the huge VA housing deprecitaion problem and haven't been able to convert our building loan to a permenant loan because of how much it depreciated during the building process. We are stuck in a ARM building loan and very nervous about the market. We would never, never have taken out an ARM, it just converted to that when we couldn't close. Anyway.........
ReplyDeleteThis year I'm giving God more attention and my guess is that you dated 3 months - wild guess.
God bless,
Jenny
www.ourplansmultiplied.blogspot.com
jenandkids@verizon.net
Girl, I would "guess", but I am pretty sure you told me a few weeks ago so that would actually not be guessing, but "cheating"! :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, just want to know where to register my complaint that due to all the 500 card chaos, I didn't get my coveted Hollis family card this year. Now is that really fair, considering I took the picture? :)
Hi Melanie. I am going to guess 8 months on the dating.
ReplyDeleteThis year I am surrendering my selfish nature to God. I am making an earnest effort to stop myself in the middle of situations and ask myself if I am being selfish here?
I'm going to go ahead and guess 17 months - a random number, but perhaps the right one!
ReplyDeleteI've been following your blog for a bit of time and am in love with it!
This year, I'm going to give God my everything. I've not really done that before, only bits and pieces, but never everything. It's time to turn it all over!
April (a.d.0856@gmail.com)
I totally wanted to send a card back to you. How thoughtful to send a card to us. But alas I counted poorly this year and was very short on cards!
ReplyDelete