It's AMAZING!!!!!

My goodness, I have so much to share!  As you can tell, I am a wordy person too!  I love to go into details and I love to give credit to whom credit is due!  Because of those things, I kind of expect this to be a very lengthy post!!  Prepare yourself!!  It is wonderfully exciting, so please hang in there with me and take the time to read!!

Last Monday night I shared with a group of One by One ladies and one in particular asked, "How does it feel to see the vision God gave you become a reality?"  My reply was, "I will let you know when we get our first girl!"  Well, little did I know that less than three days later, God would send our first girl to us!!!!!  I sent word to that lady and my answer was simply, "It's AMAZING!!!"

God's timing is perfect!  I knew it would be, but as I waited with the excitement of wondering what it would be like to actually have a girl with us, I wondered when...and perhaps, if and when at times!  Why do we ever doubt?  God's promises are so true and so absolute.  We know that we know that we know that He will do exactly what He says He will do, yet in the waiting, we sometimes entertain those thoughts of "What if...?"  Thankfully, He keeps His Word no matter what our human minds are able to grasp and believe!  HE IS AMAZING!!!

I received a text Wednesday morning (Aug. 21) from a friend who has a child at the school at which we used to teach.  She basically just asked when the Mid-South Love Home would be open.  I told her that we are ready now.  She had been contacted by a friend of hers who knew of a 19 year old who is pregnant and in a stressful living environment that she needed to get out of.  I told my friend to give her friend my number.  Long story short, the lady called me Wednesday night and I shared the mission of the Love Home with her and she said she was going to contact the girl.  Well, a little while later, the girl called me!  She was precious on the phone and I started falling in love with her immediately.  She shared her situation with me and I shared with her what we could do for her.  She decided that she did want to come and wanted me to get her that weekend.  I started kicking into "Go" mode.  I had been in "Ready.  Set." mode, but there were several things that needed to be done when we hit "Go!".  So, we began mentally and practically preparing to get her on Saturday.  Well, Thursday morning I received a call from her and she said, "I am ready NOW!!"  She helps babysit children in the home she was living in and needed to finish helping that day, so I scheduled to get her at 3:45!  I had much to do!!  I needed help moving some heavy furniture and I called my dear friends at Life Fellowship Church and within the hour, I had 5 wonderful volunteers!!  It is the most awesome feeling to experience the Body of Christ working together!!  How grateful I was for them!!!  I picked my girl up and brought her home.  She brought almost all of her things with her and, guess what?  It all fit in one small bag...not much bigger than a Wal-Mart sack!  Really?!?!  People live with that few things?!?  If you or I were to pack up all our personal belongings to move, we would have to get a pick-up truck at least...but probably a moving truck!!  So, here she comes with her little bag of clothes!

She got to experience some things these first few days that she has never experienced before!  She went to her first football game ever!  It was so fun to watch her get into it!  She even jumped up spontaneously and cheered and it was precious!  She watched Ty play and then on Friday night, she got to watch Grant play!  I was explaining the difference in how fast the game is from a junior high game to a varsity game and then to a college game!  She looks forward to going to Samford to watch Josh play too!!!  We had a busy day Friday getting some personal items she needed and running some errands.  It has just been so fun having her with us!

Well, Saturday was a BIG DAY at the Love Home!  Bellevue Loves Memphis sent a team to work on our house!  The Warriors Center was a part of that team and we had an amazing group of men and women helping with everything they could find to do!  We have a repaired and very much improved arbor for us to enjoy above the back patio!  We have flower beds that have been cleaned up...but need plants desperately!  But at least it looks neat and clean!  We have trees that have been trimmed and a yard that was mowed!  We had a precious young man here who said he is an electrician so we ran and got some much needed ceiling fans and he went to town installing those!  One of the most important things to me was that two of the women were pulling weeds over by my dryer vent and noticed it was pretty clogged so they told me to check into it.  I went and pulled out my dryer and investigated only to find everything so full of lint that it is only by the Grace of God that our house hasn't caught fire before now!!!  Brad had told me to make sure I cleaned out the lint, but sometimes you have to really break things down for me!  I just cleaned the little thing in the dryer!!  I didn't know to check the hose and all of that!  Now y'all probably think I am blonder than I naturally am...and maybe so!  My friend affectionately calls me Livy because a lot of the time I am oblivious to things!!  Hahahaha!!  So, Saturday was just a day full of blessings and my first girl at the Love Home was able to see all of these people serving and loving us even though they don't know us!  What a picture of Jesus she was able to see!  I pray it is forever burned in her heart!!!

My prayer, with being a part of what God is going to do with the Love Home, is that we will be a living testimony and picture of Jesus to the girls we are blessed with.  I will say that I was not prepared, however, for what God was going to do in ME through the girls He blesses us with!  I have learned much more about God and His heart and what He wants my heart to be through this precious young lady.  I have never been more humbled and my eyes more opened to the fact that we live with so much luxury that we take for granted.  None of that "stuff" matters.  Loving God and loving people is truly what makes a full and content and satisfied heart.  I want to be so selfless!  I want to love and love and love some more!  It has blessed my heart to watch my children embrace her.  Kendall spent time Saturday night helping her get a new outfit together for church.  The girl asked Kendall if she would fix her hair the next morning, so they set their alarms to give themselves time for both to get ready!  I came home from the grocery store yesterday and they had done their nails!  The smile on this girl's face melted my heart!  My boys have spent time with her and invested in her!  Brad has already invested so much of what he has to offer by the way God has so gifted him!!  I have a dear friend who is counseling her and another who has spent time with her just talking and listening.  They have very similar pasts and she can relate in ways that make her such a unique part of the ministry "team" to this girl!! 

I met with a friend last Wednesday shortly after I received the text about the possibility of a girl!  This dear friend has a heart for ministry and isn't just talking about helping, he IS helping!  I just now got off the phone with a heating and air guy THAT IS ON HIS WAY TO MY HOUSE!!!  If you recall, the two major needs we still have are air-conditioning upstairs and new flooring!  Well, the air-conditioning is about to get fixed!!!  PRAISE GOD FOR YOU, MY FRIEND!!!  

We still need more people!!  We have needs for the ministry as a whole and we have needs for this girl who is here right now!  If you see her smile, you will be hooked!!!  We haven't written an entire future story yet, but we do know two main goals will be to get her GED and possibly her driver's license!  She needs a part-time job.  She is wonderful with children and wants to either work in a day care or be a nurse in the future!  God's ultimate plan and word of mouth by His people brought her to us!  I know there are people out there that He will use to provide these other needs she has!  She wants a hand-up!  She is not looking for handouts!  She is a hard worker and she is not lazy! 

Please pray about ways you could possibly help!  The blessings FAR out weigh any inconvenience or time or financial commitment.  We have experienced that already in only four days!!  Pray about how you can be a part and let me know!  We still have financial needs as well, so if you have resources such as that to use to help, I know God will move you in that area!!  We found out Saturday that there is a man at the Warriors Center who specializes in vinyl siding and we have a need for that!  Much of the wood on this house has rotted and we have volunteered labor to replace the siding and cornis (spelling?).  We simply need a volunteer to donate the materials or the money to purchase the materials.  If you have connections or if this project interests you, let me know!!

Thank you for your interest in what God is doing through this ministry.  Please don't just be a spectator!  Get "in the game"!!  It is much more fun than just watching!!