This post is part of Steady Mom’s 30 Minute Challenge– click for more info!

I was recently priviledged to speak at my friend’s MOMS group on Raising Green Kids. I wanted to share some pretty profound information with you that God revealed to me as I prepared.

For those of us aiming for a life lived Biblically, we can actually look to God’s word for some truth on environmentalism.  I love the term “Creation Care” in reference to environmentalism, because it reminds me that I’m striving to take care of that which God created.

Looking back to the origin of our earth, we can find a right perspective and reason for living a sustainable life. Genesis 1:9 paints a beautiful picture of the first “green living” proponent, God the Creator: “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden.”

In Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in commune with God and with nature. Chapters 1 and 2 tell us how God gave Adam the responsibility to have dominion over nature and even gave him the privilege of naming all the animals. Opponents of environmentalism might find it interesting that in Genesis 2:15 God commands man, in his very first occupation, to take care of the earth, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Genesis 1:31 says, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

Creation also has value because it points us as humans to God. Christian Buckley, who serves on the board of directors for Christian Surfers, said,

“It is not hard to explain creative energy to a surfer when he has glided across the face of a perfect six foot wave. It is not hard to explain divine power when he has seen the force of a 25-foot wave breaking on a reef. It is not hard to discuss beauty when he has enjoyed a view of the sunset from the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean.”

Romans 1:19-20 addresses this: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” The Psalms are also full of descriptions of creation which “declare the glory of God,” as 19:1 says.

The simple fact is that “the environment has value because God has created it and called it ‘good’.” (Creation Care)

It’s also important to look at the big picture. Living a sustainable lifestyle goes beyond good things like recycling and composting. A Bible study called Creation Care published by an organization called Plant with Purpose makes a couple of bold statements on the subject. First, the author says,

“For Christians, who have been charged with caring for the poor, a response to poverty must include responding to the environmental issues in which poverty is rooted.”

Take mudslides, for example, which drive victims further into poverty, that could have prevented by better farming techniques. Oftentimes, we fight poverty by taking up environmental causes.
As Christians who believe that our God created the whole world, we should be taking some responsibility to care for that creation.

Let’s not get caught up in arguing over global warming or organic farming, and instead find little ways for our own families to care for creation. I’m going to be sharing more and more tips and ways to that here as we continue to Go Green together.

Check out the Gidget Goes Green page for a helpful index that I will be constantly updating!

**post time- 27 minutes*

I hope you had a fun halloween!

If you’ve still got some pumpkins laying around, check out my examiner article for some great linked recipes and even how to compost your pumpkin!

We had a long, fun day today!

Starting with a delicious breakfast (I even baked my first real pumpkin!) …

Preparing for the festivities, a la Martha…

Party #1 (a birthday party)…

Party #2 (a halloween party)…

Whew, thank goodness we get an extra hour of sleep tonight! We need it after all that fun.

I’ve been trying to find time to craft amidst the stuff of life. Here are a few recent projects I’ve finished…

A dress for our dear neighbor friend, modeled by Chiquita {pattern drafted by my mom}…

A bath mat {pattern from SouleMama’s Handmade Home}…

And a mini Mei-Tai for Chiquita’s “Molly the Dolly” at her request {will be perfect when mommy is wearing a new baby around all the time someday in the near future– sorry for multiple shots of this, but they were all too cute not to post}…

My sewing to-do list is still long and I’ve been desperately wanting to really learn to knit lately. I have a couple of prospective teachers so hopefully I can get going soon!

My great Genesis study at CBS is teaching me much more than I expected. Last week we studied chapters 12 and 13 and our lecture was about the rough roads we sometimes travel on. Sometimes they are unexpected detours, but sometimes God ordains a rough road for us. I loved what our teaching director said,

Sometimes the rough road is the only way to get to our destination. When we get there we will “forget” the roughness of the road and praise God for the amazing destination we arrived at.

Despite our seemingly long and rocky road to adoption, God knew all along that we would arrive here in His timing.  We’re not even at our final destination (i.e. BABY!)  yet, but I’m already praising God. I wanted to update you all that we have officially finished our “first trimester” of the paper pregnancy! That’s right, we finally made it through the stack of paperwork that was so intimidating. We should be hearing from our social worker soon to start our home study. !!!

In other Gidget news, I’ve got a couple of big things on the horizon {prayers welcomed!}. For one, I’m going to be speaking at my dear friend’s MOMS group up in Long Beach on Thursday about Raising Green Kids. I’m super excited about what I’m going to speak about but I’m a little nervous. In addition, I’m going to be starting to lead worship for the women at my CBS group as well. I love leading worship for women, but this will be the biggest group I’ve ever played for {again with the nerves}. I’m confident in the Lord’s strength in my weakness though and excited to see Him work through both of these opportunities.

As always, thanks for reading!
Love, Nicole/Gidget

Click for more information on our adoption journey.

Somehow, I keep getting found by children’s musicians and getting given great music to try out. The Flannery Brothers are no different. I love their fun CD, Love Songs For Silly Things and so does Chiquita.  The brothers just won a Silver Honor Parent’s Choice Award, and I can understand why. The songs are fun, silly and on very interesting topics, I might add (not very often you hear a song about a pillow or a rutabaga!). My favorite song is Farmer’s Market, which might not surprise most of you, but the whole CD is the perfect accompaniment to your dancing, classroom or playtime!

The Flannery Brothers, Dan {who loves rutabagas} and Mike {who prefers snap peas off the vine}, have been generous enough to let me post a song for you to download, and also to offer a CD which one lucky reader will win!

Click below to download the song:

02 Best Pillow In The World

How to enter the giveaway {ends Monday, 10/26, midnight PST}:

1. *mandatory* Visit Flannery Brothers’ website and leave a comment telling me what you think of their music (click “music” to sample it).

2. Tweet about the giveaway and leave a comment here.

That’s it this time, pretty basic. Good luck and happy dancing!

A mellow, sleepy-sick day for my little one makes for a perfect day to…

*lay on the couch all morning watching elmo and curious george*
*try making homemade applesauce with the apples lingering in the fridge*
*bake homemade bread*

The applesauce is unbelievable. Just a little sugar, cinnamon, and a potato masher, and much easier than I thought thanks to SouleMama’s inspiration. I’m not sure I’ll ever buy it in the store again during apple season.

If you’re having a mellow day, here’s a great recipe for a bread that makes amazing toast and great sandwiches as well. When I’m on the ball we like to have a loaf in the fridge and one in the freezer for later.

Wilma’s Honey Whole Wheat Bread*
makes 2 loaves

5 C. whole wheat flour
1 T. salt
2 T. yeast
3 C. milk
1/2 C. honey
2 T. oil
2 – 3 1/2 C. white flour

Microwave milk for a couple of minutes to take the chill out; pour it in mixer (I use a kitchen aid mixer with bread hook attachment) and add yeast, salt, honey and oil.

Gradually add wheat flour. Mix. Add white while mixer is on, gradually, until dough starts to collect and doesn’t stick to bowl/hands. You really have to feel this part out.

Cover with towel and let rise for about 30 minutes.

Punch down, roll/flatten out (I don’t use a rolling pin). Make 2 flat rectangles, then jelly roll each one up into a cylinder that you can set in the greased pan, seam side down.

Cover with towel and let rise again in pans for about 20 minutes.

Bake for about 30 minutes at 350*. When done, brush the tops with butter while still in pans.

*This recipe comes from my friend and pastor’s wife, Wilma, an amazing godly woman and mother of five!

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I’ve been getting some great books to review lately, and this latest one is no different! As a avid fan of ALIAS and anything spy-related, I got very excited about this book as soon as I heard about it. I enjoy stories set in WWII as well, and this book is a great example of authors doing their research and crafting an exciting tale as well. As soon as I started the book I was hooked.

About the Book:

It is August 1944 and the Gestapo is mercilessly rounding up suspected enemies of the Third Reich. When Joseph Engel, a German physicist working on the atomic bomb, finds that he is actually a Jew, adopted by Christian parents, he must flee for his life to neutral Switzerland. Gabi Mueller is a young Swiss-American woman working for the newly formed American Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner to the CIA) close to Nazi Germany. When she is asked to risk her life to safely “courier” Engel out of Germany, the fate of the world rests in her hands. If she can lead him to safety, she can keep the Germans from developing nuclear capabilities. But in a time of traitors and uncertainty, whom can she trust along the way? This fast-paced, suspenseful novel takes readers along treacherous twists and turns during a fascinating–and deadly–time in history.

About the Authors:

Tricia Goyer is the author of several books, including Night Song and Dawn of a Thousand Nights, both past winners of the ACFW’s Book of the Year Award for Long Historical Romance. Goyer lives with her family in Montana. To find out more visit her website: www.triciagoyer.com {I’m really beginning to love Tricia Goyer, I’m encouraged by her daily on twitter and facebook as a godly woman and writer.}

Mike Yorkey is the author or coauthor of dozens of books, including the bestselling Every Man’s Battle series. Married to a Swiss native, Yorkey lived in Switzerland for 18 months. He and his family currently reside in California.To find out more visit his website: www.MikeYorkey.com

Twitter Contest (includes CHOCOLATE!)

There’s a fun giveaway going on along with this book’s release. Help Spread the word about #SwissCourier on Twitter and enter to win a signed copy & Swiss Chocolate!
Just tweet this: The Swiss Courier by @triciagoyer fast paced and suspenseful! Don’t miss out!  http://tr.im/Ahjs RT #swisscourier and we’ll enter you into a drawing for 1 of 5 SIGNED copies of The Swiss Courier!

Thanks to Litfuse Publicity for providing this book for review. Visit the rest of this blog tour by clicking here.

You can catch up on our adoption journey by reading Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Where We’re At

The last couple months we’ve been filling out paperwork and running errands like crazy. This week we are finally coming to the end of this part of the adoption process, which you could call the first trimester of the “paper pregnancy.” We are finishing up our last item on the list, and then hopefully in the next few weeks we will begin our home study. The home study consists of meeting with a social worker four times and getting our house certified. Those of you who have had a biological child would be amazed at everything we have to do to get “certified” to be parents (again). But that’s just how it goes (especially in California!).

My next project is to create a “family portfolio” which is basically a little scrapbook telling about our family. This is what will be shown to birthparents when we are in the waiting stage after our home study is through. During and after our home study is also when we can start applying for grants.

We are so excited to be finally finishing up our paperwork and getting closer to the waiting stage. The average wait time for domestic adoption according to our agency is around a year. Of course, we could get a baby after a month or it could take two years. It’s all in the Lord’s timing and we will definitely be needing prayers for patience! I’ll be putting a button in our sidebar soon that will link to everything adoption related on here.

I just found this video by way of a great blog I’ve been recently reading. It’s a sweet story and also shows the agency we are using, Bethany Christian Services. (You might need to click over if you are reading this in a reader or elsewhere).

Bethany Christian Services – A Story of Hope from Catalyst on Vimeo.

{If you’re viewing this post on facebook or in a reader, you can visit Gidget Goes Home to leave comments or read more!}

You can catch up by reading Part 1 and Part 2.

“holding” one of her favorite baby friends

So, this is the really cool part.

Despite everything, we still had hopes for a bigger family. We always had said we wanted three or four kids, and the older Chiquita grows the more we desire a sibling for her. She loves babies and other kids. I mean seriously loves them. No matter where we are, if she spots a baby, or even just a infant car seat, she has to get near and and peek in the stroller with her sweet little voice cooing, “Baby!”

All along in my journey I had struggled with contentment because I really longed to be pregnant again. I told myself I would have enjoyed my pregnancy more if I’d known it would be my only full-term experience. So I began to pray that the Lord would change my heart. That He would take that desire away if it wasn’t His will.

And He did. Miraculously.

The desire for more children obviously didn’t abate, but I started to feel the slight tug on my heart towards adoption. Never did I imagine that this would be the path that the Lord would take me down and neither did my husband. I just grew up thinking, I’ll get pregnant as many times as I want and have as a big of a family as I want.

God started to show me that Had different plans for my family. Gradually, over a short period of time, He provided several divine appointments for us pointing us toward adoption. My husband was a little slower to be on board but He couldn’t deny the way the Lord was speaking to us either.

Last spring, in short succession (and almost immediately after my fourth miscarriage) we were able to have the following “run-ins:”

• February 2009: We went to a BBQ with family friends who I rarely see I was able to seriously talk to a friend I grew up with about his adoption, for the first time asking serious questions and getting real answers. His mom also told me a little about her 2 adoption experiences.

• March 2009: David’s older sister visited California from the mid-west with her kids and we were able to talk about her family’s adoption on a deeper level (and hear about how her husband was slower to get onboard as well), and see her 2 boys (one biological, one adopted) interact together.

• March 2009: On the way back from a weekend away with our family, we stopped by to visit a family that was vacationing in Southern California. It was my husband’s high school youth pastor, his wife and their four kids (2 biological, 2 adopted). We hadn’t seen this family since he co-married us almost six years ago. We heard a little of their adoption story and made plans to visit them in Oregon soon.

• March 2009: Less than a week later, we went to David’s little sister’s wedding and we were sat next to his aunt, who we had never really talked in depth to about her 2 adoptions (1 domestic, 1 international). She shared their stories with us over dinner.

• April 2009: We headed out for a road trip north, leaving after the wedding and driving to Oregon. We visited some college friends and then spent a few days with the family we had briefly seen a week before, and got to get deep with them about their journey (again being encouraged hearing that the husband was a little slower to get on board with the idea), and hear their amazing adoption story with their 2 African sons.

• April 2009: A couple of weeks later we were camping at the beach with some friends and got to chatting with our “neighbors” across the way, only to find out their son was adopted. We were encouraged by another story and the love of another adoptive family.

Just typing these events out again blows my mind. We’ve had other little inspirations too, from reading this blog, to watching this (weird) movie, and this cute one, and more recently, getting paired up for a swap with this sweet adoptive family and getting to know another family in our church trying to adopt. There’s not a doubt in our minds now that this is the path that the Lord wants our family on, and we are thankful and excited for it.

Our adoption story is just getting started and we can’t wait to continue on this journey. We are so grateful for each one of the people mentioned above and what an encouragement they have been to us.

Thanks also to every one reading and for your prayers. Stay tuned and tomorrow I’ll give a little bit more info on where we are now in the process…

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