Saltiness is Good!

I know I've kinda of gotten away from my regular blog posting since we've started the adoption journey.  But I think sometimes I just don't feel like I have much ado to blog about ;0) unless I think it's something deep and witty to relay to you all.

 

But this morning at church, one of the scripture passages kind of got to me, and I felt like I had something to say about it.

 

This blog post is of course intended for all my readers (thanks Mom and Heather), but more specifically for my friends with/or who live with CF on a daily basis. 

 

I would consider myself a pretty upbeat person.  I don't tend to let my CF get me down too often. 

 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I have my days. 

 

We all do.

 

When I cough for 4 hours straight and can't seem to get the bronchospasms to stop no matter what I do... 

 

3 percussion sessions in a row with the vest at night and 2 cough drops later, and I'm finally able to go back to sleep, just to have my alarm clock go off in 30 minutes to do my morning treatments...you can't blame me for letting my frustrations with it get to me.

 

I usually spend that ENTIRE time praying to God, just asking him to take the bronchospasms away and let me sleep. 

 

He does, though it may not be in the timing I want him to, He does answer.

 

Sometimes it makes me question why I had to be one of the 30,000 children and young adults in America that are living with this disease. 

 

Trust me, I was diagnosed at 5 days old, have lived with CF my whole life, I know what living with CF is. 

 

And as much as I hate the ups and downs of CF, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

 

To be perfectly honest, as much as I hate the ups and downs of CF, I would gladly take on all the CF in the world if it meant no one else had to deal with it ever again.

 

I have NO concept of what my life would be like without CF in it.

 

So while I've accepted what I was handed when I was born, and most days I roll with the punches, and on those off days I know that it's just one bad day in a sea of more good days right now...sometimes I still question, "Why me?" Or for that matter, "Why me and all the other great people in my life affected by CF?"

 

And then Crosspoint happens...and out of nowhere (or so it would seem to me) just what I need to hear is said from the stage.

 

So...for me and all the other people living with CF (whether personally, or dealing with it via a family member, friend, spouse, whatever)...I hope this passage helps you, like it helped me today.

 

 

There are some groups of people that believe the reason a person is born with some type of affliction, disease, whatever, is because of past sins in their lives.

 

Some believe that if you have a disease or some "blemish" you can't do certain things, or hold certain status, or have certain jobs.

 

I've never believed any of that.  To be honest I think that's just more of Satan's lies meant to push us down. 

 

So when I saw this passage on the screen this morning, and I sat back and read it, I thought, "This just gives me further proof, in a way, that God created me just as I am.  He gave me purpose, even within my disease, and gosh darn it, he thinks I'm pretty special."

 

Matthew 5:13

The Message (MSG)

Salt and Light

¹³ “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

Now, I don't believe this passage is about people with CF specifically.  I don't think if there's a cure for CF that we're goign to "end up in the garbage."

But I can't help but think that it's interesting that people with CF are a little extra salty...

And God says we are here to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.

There are plenty of other people who can bring out the saltiness for God, CF or not.

But I guess when I read a passage that talks about saltiness, and I'm a salty girl, and I've had a few days of extra coughing, and trying to figure out what the purpose of me dealing with this disease is, it kind of feels like it's been written just for me.

"Hey Holly, Let me tell you why you are here.  You're here to be the salt-seasoning (literally, tee hee) that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.  If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?"

CF makes me salty, and I'm here to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. 

And maybe God gave me CF because through it I can show others his love, his faithfulness, his grace, his blessings.  Because in spite of my CF, I can see all of those things that God is.

Maybe the salt crystals on my forehead when I sweat are supposed to be a physical reminder to me that I am here for a bigger reason. 

Maybe God recognized that while I live and breathe with a little more difficulty than everyone else,  I could show Him to others in a way that maybe someone who isn't quite so salty (in the same way as I am) couldn't.

So as a reminder to me, and to all my CF peeps...

God made us this way on purpose.

We are meant to be salty.

We are meant to show our saltiness to others.

And we are meant to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth.

We're getting closer...

Many of you know we've been in kind of a holding pattern with our Adoption process.

Holding pattern may not be the right word...we've purposely been holding off on signing off on our Homestudy. It was approved and once we sign off on it and pay our next fee we will be active.

We were holding off not because we didn't want to go active...we were waiting to raise some more money so we don't fully deplete all of our savings (we're very financially conscious in our house...which sounds sort of silly if you know how expensive adoption is).

This past weekend we had a garage sale and raised $700 more for our adoption fund.

Woo Hoo *hands waving in the air (clapping in sign language)

 

So...Where does this put us in the process?

Chris and I both feel we should wait until after our next pay day before we sign the next check.

You have no idea how hard it can be to write that huge of a check and hand it over... we are SO excited for where it's taking us, but like any big amount of money that leaves your bank account (no matter what it's for) it can kind of make you nauseous when you first hand it over.

We have been faithful in following the path that we feel God has asked us to take, and of course HE is always faithful and blesses us abundantly. We've definitely seen this in this past weekend. 

So, I can safely say that we will be active this month..and I will for sure let you all know the day our faces show up on the website ;0) * We'll be looking for them as soon as that check makes it to the agency.

Thank you for supporting us. Whether it's been financially or by prayer. We are without a doubt so thankful and blessed to have every single one of you supporting us along this crazy journey.

You can continue to support us by:

1. Praying for us and our adoption journey. Once we go active we can begin applying for grants and funding. We're also looking into some other fundraising opportunities (school starting has slowed down my pursuance of these opportunities, but now that I've gotten back into the school routine I can begin this process again). We'll keep you updated on all of this information as we know more.

2. Praying for our Birth Mom. We still don't know her yet, but odds are she could be pregnant now, and may be debating between keeping the baby or not (and I don't necessarily mean parenting vs. adoption here). We know God will bring us the perfect child for us, and it will be in his timing...we want that birth mom to be bathed in love and prayers from us and our family and friends. Please join Chris and I in praying for a woman that we don't even know yet, a woman who is facing some tough decisions, and the future of a baby who is already loved by so many.

3. Pray that we don't go crazy waiting to find out if we've been picked after we go active. Chris said to me not too long ago, "I'm not gonna lie, if we don't get picked soon after we go active, I'm gonna be kind of upset. Because we're pretty awesome!" I don't disagree with him. Again, we know things will happen in His timing, but that doesn't make it any easier when we have wants/expectations for our timing.

4. Check in with us periodically. Once we go active, it could be days, weeks, or months before we get picked...and so I may not have updates to post very often. Checking in with us, not only reminds us that we still have that support from our friends and family, but it helps us to remember to check in with the agency every once in a while too.