A keeper!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Ok, so I am just going to get to the point.  Some traditions just don’t work!! Adam and I thought we had it all down and we were both so excited and proud of ourselves that we had our own traditions… But when we tried to put it all into action, it did not look as glorious as we had hoped.

ok, so lastnights hot chocolate and stocking worked out just great, we had so much fun and it just build up the excitement for today – definitely a keeper…

So as we went to be lastnight we decided we were not going to do scones but crepes… Adam makes great crepes…. so this morning when our alarm did not go off, we woke up in a rush… Adam went down stairs and started making the crepes; soon to find out we did not have a non stick pan to make them in… So they all burned pretty bad. PLAN B, I stared making scones…. (I am not sure how my mom does it, but boy is it hard) by the time the scones came out everyone ate them because they were starving but they turned out to be rock hard little balls… – definitely not a keeper

We finally went into the living room and Adam read the birth of Jesus story.. (while Jennifer slept …  – definitely a keeper

We then all opened gifts, it was great fun and much enjoyment and excitement was all over the room…  – Keeper

After that (around noon) we started making lunch.  Adam had marinated a piece of pork loin for about a day, and was now going to barbeque it… Oh it was so good, I can still taste it now.. the only thing we learnt from that is to start it a little earlier in the day… – keeper…

The day went on and on with many different people coming in and out. We ended our day with some South African “roly poly” – keeper.. and a Christmas movie (white Christmas), great movie – keeper….

So over all the day was a keeper.. some changes here and there and we will be all set to go for next year…  

New Traditions

This is the season to be jolly! Praise the Lord, no matter how much going to any store two days before Christmas might take all the joy from you… there is coming back home and seeing your family faces and the ones you love looking at you with such excitement because in the back of there minds they have bought you the perfect gift..This is Adam for you… he loves Christmas and gets even more excited giving you the perfect give than getting the perfect gift.. He is amazing.. and besides all that all he wants is to remember the Lord in all of what we do.  I am excited this year to start some of our own new traditions as a family, we decided to take some of his family traditions some of mine mix them in a bottle and get the new McArthur family traditions…So some of our new traditions are…

• open stockings Christmas eve while drinking a cup of hot chocolate or
  Milo (south African chocolate drink)
• mom (me) wakes up early and makes some South African scones with butter, jelly and whipped cream on them…
• While eating the scones we will start with a bible verse which dad (Adam) will read and pick out every year.
• We will then let Adam give out one gift a time and spend the rest of the morning enjoying each other and watching the joy of giving surround us with much laughter…

So I am real excited to see what happens and how we enjoy and become and build our family together… MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

7 years later…

Ok, so have you ever waited for something for so long, that when you finally got it you did not quite know what to do or how to react.  Well this is what happened to me a few days ago when i went for my final interview with the INS (not IRS) to see if they would let me stay in the USA forever…

Let me back up a few years – 7 to be exact.  When i came to America 7 years ago, i knew that God had done a great work in my heart for this nation and had started making it my own.  It was real hard at first, because the more He gave me a heart, the more i had to let go of my own country (sounds weird but this is the process that had to take place).At this point the Lord started stirring my heart to begin the “greencard process” little did i know that He would require a test of finances, emotions, heart and soul and much time and faith to be put in it.  Somehow i thought it would be an in and out process, but as usual my timing is so different to Gods timing (i wish i would learn this – it would make life so much easier)

In the mean time over the years the Lord had it all set up for me to fall more in love with this nation, He allowed me to minister all over the nation, to live in many different states and then to top it all off He planted my steps up in Washington DC, so that i could stand in the gap for this nation first hand… Oh the plans of God!!So all this to say, that last week after 6 years of ups and downs and yes and no from the INS the Lord allowed us to have great favor with Him and man and i got stamped and approved!! YIPEEI can’t explain what a release and joy this has brought me, i feel privileged to be a part of this nation.  I love what the Lord has done in my love – Thank you Lord!!

Less than 3 hours sleep in 48 hours…

So I have been up with Enoch over the past 2 nights, as he has a cold and is learning how to work his whole digestive system while eating solid foods.  So this combination has left me with a whopping total of 3 hours of sleep in a 48 hours time frame.So my question is what happens to you when you become a mom.  Before I was a mom, I vowed I could not live with out at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night, now I have had months of sleepless nights and I just go on like normal (well nothing is normal any more, but you know…)

For instance, today you would think I would have crashed at about 9pm.  It is now midnight and I just got my son to bed and put clean sheets on my bed and did a couple of things for Adam and now I am writing my blog… what has happened, what is it that allows moms to beable to do this, there is no class for it, no preparation no nothing, it happens at about 9 months of pregnancy and hopefully stays forever… will it?? what happens if it just suddenly leaves me again?? Oh Man!

 

Blessing in the time of drought

I just want to declare the goodness of the Lord over the McArthur family. There has been so much transition around us, and things seem hard for a lot of people around us, and the ZHOP does not have a building (which is real hard, yet causes our hearts to search Him out in a different way).  There are so many different things happening, and both Adam and I feel like the Lord is just pouring down on us, it feels like the season is hard, but the Lord is near… He is near in His presence, and in His provision and just His grace that surrounds us is so evident.. I just thank You Lord!!We love our new mini van, we had to have new wheel  bearings put on, but we knew this when we bought it, so it is taking a couple days to fully get the full feel of driving it. The Christmas season is such a different season, you can’t compare it to any other holiday or season.  It is a season of such love and giving, yet if you any where away from the ones you love, it feels like a real longing season (I miss my family back in
South Africa!!) I always have such mixed emotions in the month of December, I think this year will be so much better because I have Adam and Enoch and I saw my mom and Schalk (dad) in June/July… and even better for the first time in 6 years I know I will be going home this next year – there is a hope!!Well blessings on you as you walk out your day; remember it is a time of love, joy and forgiveness….

A week of “fun”

Ok, I’m back! This week has been so busy I am not sure if I am Arthur or Martha (South African expression).  We had our intern “fun week” and then last night we had graduation.  I am so proud of all our interns; there lives have truly changed before the Lord.  So this week not only did we give the interns the best “fun week” and graduation, but our closest friends here in Fort Mill (the Mills) had there baby girl a week early… so on Wednesday when Heidi called and said her water had broken, could I come over and help her with the kids, I was all hands on…  And yes Faith was born a few hours later, and she is definitely a sight to see – oh how beautiful. Ok, so not only did we give the interns the best “fun week”, graduation and help our friends next door, but the Lord in His faithfulness and goodness gave us a beautiful car… it is a Dodge Caravan XL 2003… for only $47o0…. (Oh, and yes the Lord provided the money as well)…..So if you are thinking why I had not blogged for a week, these are some of my real good reasons!! So today will be our day as a family to decorate our house for Christmas, we are so excited… We go and pick our first Christmas tree as a family (and my first time picking a real tree), I mean for 28 years I have never done it… OH BOY this is exciting!!I will let you know how it went…. 

The battle has begun…

So I had a great idea for today’s blog.  Yes you guessed right, it was our family picture, but moments before I wanted to blog I look over at Adam and guess what he is blogging about, yip you guessed it, our family picture.  I told him I wanted to blog about that but he said we both could do it..

You see it is just not fair, we were just looking at each others stats, and he has 2000 more views than I do, but still he steals our family picture blog from me.  I think he should allow me to catch up on my stats. 

So the battle has begun, yes I am in a “blog competition” with my husband, yes I know this is a real sad thing, but I truly believe that if I was listed on Randy’s (the king of bloggers) blogroll I would too be getting hundreds of views a day.  So I think I am doing pretty good with my highest view been 76 ! 

Well its time for bed, I will check back with you all tomorrow… I will keep you updated on the battle!!

Please Vote!

so i am trying something new, i put a picture of Enoch and myself as my header – please vote and let me know what you think, should i keep my pictures seperate or does the picture look good there.

Lord I desire…

I desire to see the Lord move mightily upon this next generation!  I look at my interns for instance and more than making a program work or getting all the teachings sounding professional I desire to see each one of them leave this internship with a heart that are alive before the Lord. 

I want to see them with a heart that is burning and won’t stop for nothing. I look at what some of these interns have gone through in the past 6 months and realize that they are over comers before the Lord, because they said yes, and yes again to His ways even when they did not understand all He was doing. 

Isn’t this true for all of us, don’t we all want to overcome, all the hardships and the frustrations and the things that pull on the strings of heart but when they come along we get so overwhelmed by them that we loose all good intentions and just try take control.  Yes this works, but only for a short time… God is waiting for our daily yes! Oh I say YES Lord..

A gift from God- Baby showers

So today we had a baby shower for Heidi Mills.  It was great fun, everyone laughed, ate and she opened her gifts.  I realized that Baby showers are a real “God ordained thing”.  You see we all come to a baby shower, we spend anywhere from $10 – $60 on a person, they get what they need for the next 3-5 months and we save them a ton of money, by blessing them. 

I think this is like community living.  You see we think we live in community when we live close by each other, but it is way more than that it is sharing with each other, it is going out of your way for each other, it is looking out when your neighbor is in need… oh it is loving each other through of the good, bad and ugly.. There is so much more in community than just seeing each other every day….

I just think the only way it will work is if we are people of extravagant devotion to the Lord, because if we are, we will learn to love our selves the way the Lord intended, and then we will fulfill the second commandment and love others as we love our selves…. hope this makes sense..

P.S. Mari, if you read this blog, know that I love you so much and miss you with all my heart!! – keep your heart alive before the Lord, he is crazy about you!