Julie Gumm - Author

Hope-Filled Day

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Today has been one of those amazing, fill-your-heart, walking-on-clouds, amazed-at-God’s-goodness kind of days that is hard to put into words.

It began a couple weeks ago when I heard, via Twitter, that Tom Davis (president of Children’s Hopechest) was headed to Ethiopia and was looking for other orphanages that he could visit and explore a partnership with while he was there. Um, YES!!!

I quickly sent him a tweet back (ha, if you don’t Twitter you’re probably lost right now…hang in there) and sent him a link to our wonderful friends at Hope for the Hopeless. There was a flurry of emails back and forth and I will confess to not getting much work done that day (sorry Greg, I’ll make it up). But I knew what an amazing opportunity this was for Hope.

We kept it kind of close to the chest because we did not know what would come of it. We were elated when we saw the visit scheduled on Tom’s itinerary. I emailed out our little network of friends/fellow Hope supporters. Except I messed up. I told them Tom was visiting on Wed the 21st. We made all these great plans to fast and pray from Tuesday afternoon – Wed morning (Ethiopia is 10 hours ahead). Except Tuesday is the 21st, not Wed.

This afternoon I got a message from hubby that Tom had posted pictures to his Facebook page. Sure enough, there were our beautiful kids! I was hit with the fact that God so didn’t need me to carry out his plans.

I sat at my desk and wept. Mostly with joy, but also with an incredible longing to be there and see those kids again. We saw beautiful, familiar faces and it brought our time with them rushing back.

So then I left and got my hair done, picked up kids, fixed dinner, got kids to bed…all the while just giddy from head to toe, sneaking peeks at my computer.

After getting the kids to bed I checked my computer again (refresh, refresh) and there was Tom’s blog post about his day.

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve been overwhelmed with so many things at once – love received from the kids, stories that broke my heart, joy that filled my soul as we danced and sang together.

…When we left each of them hugged us again, this time a little longer, and with the words I love you in our ears. Some community of folks gets to sponsor this orphanage. I’m telling you, it’s one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been.”

So I cried some more…and now I’m crying again. I am so excited to see what God brings about out of this visit. Please join me in praying for Tom and his team as they visit even more orphanages in Ethiopia. If you want to help launch the sponsorship of Hope for the Hopeless with Children’s Hopechest you can donate here. Just mention “Hope for the Hopeless” in the notes section.

Tom’s promised to blog about Mary, one of the girls at Hope, whose story will humble and amaze you. And I promise that I will follow it up with my own story about Mary and how she changed this woman forever.

If you want to read some of my posts from our time at Hope for the Hopeless in Dec you can go here and here and here.

Oh, but God didn’t stop there – this afternoon Mark called and played me a message from our answering machine. It was the school principal (Uh, Oh – must involve fists and blood). But no, sweet Beza and her friend Lizzie and gone into Mr. Starts office because they wanted to pray and ask Jesus into their hearts. That made me cry too – I’ve cried a lot today.

Breathing Easier

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So I feel like we are finally breathing a little easier around here after our accident, lice and surgery week. We have amazing friends and family who were praying for us and helping in any way they could.

I will admit to having a total breakdown on the phone w/ Stacey on Thursday night of that week as I drove to the hospital to see my mom. I totally vented to her for about 30 min on my way to the hospital. I felt much better after. Days later I discovered she had actually been in Bible Study that night and walked outside to take my call. Never once did she indicate to me that she was busy or needed to go. Now that is a true friend.

The insurance company did total out the van which was a bummer and left us in a bit of a bind. Thankfully however they extended our rental coverage for a week to allow us time to look for a van. Of course that’s not very much time when you are looking for an older used van, with low miles, that you can buy for $4700 🙂

Last Sunday our dear friends Dustin and Jen (w/ whom we shared our Ethiopia journey) stepped in and offered us the use of their old van, which they had been using at their company, for as long as we need while we’re looking for a replacement vehicle. Praise the Lord! It is such a tremendous blessing to relieve the pressure to find a van fast and later feel like we made a bad decision. It was just the encouragement that I needed – to know that God really did have a plan and would provided.

Then Monday Mark had a really cool experience while he was out running errands. He ran into a woman from our church who we haven’t seen in about a year. To make a long story short she gave him check. I can only imagine what a sacrifice it was for her but she said she clearly felt God’s direction. Again, a huge encouragement.

That night as I was doing my Bible Study homework I finally had a chance to go back and read the rest of the notes from the video. Karin had filled in the answers for me after I left to get the kids and Mark. The study is Beth Moore’s Living Beyond Yourself which is about the freedom of a life filled with the fruit of the Spirit. The part of the video I had missed….

My purpose is beyond me.

My seasonal circumstances are often beyond me.

My unrelenting daily demands are often beyond me.

Through the infiltrating power of the Holy Spirit, I can…

  • Do things I couldn’t
  • Feel things I didn’t
  • Know things I wouldn’t

“Beyond me” pretty much sums up that week doesn’t it. Gratefully I am not alone but have Christ to get me through.

Seriously?!?

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(For you Grey’s Anatomy fans you know exactly how I am saying it. “Seriously?!?”)

This has been my day…

Woke up extra early to attend the first week of a new Beth Moore Bible Study. Despite not being a morning person I really wanted to do this study and the fact that it was before work, at the office, meant I didn’t have to take a night way from family.

But it was “Crazy Day” for school spirit week and the girls wanted me to do their hair. Which meant I got up even earlier and had to get them up a little early as well. Got that done and off I went.

About 40 minutes into the study my office mate peeks her head in and says “Julie, Mark’s on the phone.” I knew that couldn’t be a good sign. He and the kids were rear ended on the freeway on the way to school. Traffic stopped suddenly, so did he. The big work truck behind him, not so much. Seriously?!

Luckily everyone is okay – shaken up but okay. So I ran out of there was able to get to him in a round about way and get the kids (who were fine by then) to school. He was able to drive the van home (good thing since we wouldn’t all fit in his car).

It’s debatable as to whether or not the insurance company will total it out. It’s an older van but still pretty low miles. But they said because the back wind0w and the sliding door window are broken that may put it over the total limit.  Seriously?!

If you know us, you know that we don’t go into debt, especially for cars. Last time I totaled a car (2.5 yrs ago) we took the insurance money plus a couple thousand from our savings to buy the replacement.  Well the adoption pretty much emptied our savings so if they total it, what they give us is what we got. Seriously!?

Did I mention that this is the only vehicle that fits our entire family?

Did I mention that technically not even all 4 kids and a driver should be in our other car because it has an air bag in front and no “off” switch. Seriously!?

So then about 11 a.m. I get a call from the school. I was half expecting that – figured someone was sore from the accident.

Nope, it’s lice. Seriously?!

It’s been kicking around the kindergarten for a month and so far we had avoided it.

By the time I arrive 10 minutes later 2 more kids are wearing plastic bags on their heads. Seriously?!

So I cart everyone home and we begin the wonderful process of delousing our kids. Some suggested mayonnaise to kill the live bugs but then you still have to pick out the nits. I don’t like the smell of mayonnaise anymore. Seriously!

So we spent 10 hours delousing the kids, washing sheets and blankets, sofa pillows, vacuuming. Last time Mark went into the laundry room I hear him say “Did you spill something in here?”

Seriously?!

Our washer is leaking. Seriously!

Now I’m hopeful that it’s because I had a weird load of pillows in there. It kind of does that sometimes. The next load will tell. But honestly I’m too tired to try it tonight.

You thought I was done, right?

I can’t find my laptop.

Seriously?

Seriously!

So,  either I didn’t actually put it in my bag in my rush to leave work. Or one of the kids took it out of my bag sometime this afternoon and has put it someplace really strange that I can’t find.

Or someone stole it out of the car during the 10 minutes I was parked at the school to pick up the kids.

Seriously!

I will be totally honest here and confess to throwing up quite a few “Really God?”s today. There’s a lesson in  here somewhere I’m just not sure what it is right now. Of course we are ever so grateful for his protection today. That is evident. All the other stuff is really inconsequential compared to that.

So I’m calling it quits on today. Oh, as soon as I change the sheets on our bed.

I will fall asleep praying my laptop is sitting on my desk at work.