Parenting – Page 2

Miscellaneous Monday

08.16.2010 by juliegumm@yahoo.com //

I know Monday is almost over but I’ve been gathering little tidbits here and there and thought I would share some recent great blog posts I’ve read.

I bookmarked this great post from Jamie on Guarding Our Kids from Evil – take time to read all the comments too. Great ideas in there.
Some great photography tips on My Crazy Adoption.
Adorable valance made from cloth napkins from Owlhaven.
Reluctant Husband Syndrome- Part 1 over at Building the Blocks
A lot of women find themselves on the adoption bandwagon LONG before their husbands. Amy’s post has some great insight – stuff I never thought about but I bet really rings true for a lot of people.
the least complicated – LOVE this idea Jennifer talks about of having kids use a limited number of tickets to ask their questions. Sometimes I think my head will explode from all the questions.
Two great posts on Bushel & A Peck for calming kids – the “smell the flower/blow the candle” and “blowing up the balloon” techniques

The Happy Pill Debate

07.27.2010 by juliegumm@yahoo.com //

For those of you who have been around here for awhile, you’ve walked through some interesting times with me – the last of which was post-adoption depression that I wrote about here and here.

(If you’ve been around a REALLY long time you got to hear about my first episode of depression.)

Well, mostly because of my laziness in scheduling doctor’s appointments, I went off my anti-depressants about 3 months ago.

It’s this incredibly weird game I play called “Do I still need the pills? Maybe I’ll be fine without them.”

The problem is that the game sometimes takes a REALLY long time to play.

Because the signs are subtle, especially at first. Really it might seem like a really long case of PMS.

I’m irritable, I snap at the kids, I’m moody. Nothing sounds good to eat. And I lose all motivation to do ANYTHING.

But then it starts to effect my concentration and my creativity which in turn effects my job.

Then I get the whole “I don’t feel like me” thing going on.

And yet I still waffle back and forth. Is it bad enough to go back on the meds (and no, I don’t know what “bad enough” is – my definition might be entirely different than my husbands 🙂

I’m fortunate that I don’t have any side effects from the Wellbutrin but still, no one wants to put medicine in their body if it’s not needed.

But alas, it is needed and so I gave up the game.

And am back on what I lovingly refer to as “my happy pills”.

Sanity restored.

Raising Children to Change the World

05.27.2010 by juliegumm@yahoo.com //

The international adoption journey changes you. It changes your family. And not just because you suddenly have new family members. Or because you have ties to another country that now feels partly like home.

But somehow, along the way, it is impossible to not look beyond the children whose faces stare at you from the photo on the refrigerator. And you begin to see the other faces; 143,000,000 orphans, countless single moms struggling to make ends meet, fathers desperate to provide for their families.

For Mark and I, our adoption journey changed the entire course of our lives. The things we learned and the things we saw contributed to a major shift in our lives that caused us to forge new careers and put our family onto an entirely new path.

But next comes the task of influencing that same sort of heart change in our children. How do you make your kids care more about widows than the wii?

That question has been weighing on us even since we had the chance to visit Wears Valley Ranch in March and see their Biblical Family Care model. We realized our kids were capable of so much more than we had been asking.

It was just a couple weeks later that I received an email from Julie Ferwerda asking if I’d like to participate in the blog tour of her new book “One Million Arrows: Raising Children to Change the World.”

Um, YEAH!

One Million Arrows is call to raise our kids to impact their culture, community, and world for Christ – for them to be sharpened with education, faith and a heart for the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and then be launched into the world to save lives.

If we want our kids to discover their purpose, if we want them to live with passion for the Kingdom, then WE as parents need to be intentional in our parenting. It is not the churches job to do this, it’s not the job of the Christian school we send our kids to. It’s our job!

Julie’s book includes a whole chapter with the stories of other families, including the Tebows and the McDowell’s, and the intentional choices they made along their parenting journey.

Is it overwhelming? Definitely! Are the outcomes guaranteed? No. But all God calls us to is OUR part just King David encouraged the temple builders.

“Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged by the size of the task, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. He will see to it that all the work related to the Temple of the Lord is finished correctly.” I Chronicles 28:20

There’s way more than one post worth of highlights so I hope to post more as I have time to delve into them even further. I highly recommend this book for any parent who wants to raise their children to make an impact on the world far outside themselves.

Links:

Download Chapter 1 of the Book
Buy the Book (All the proceeds have been designated for international orphan ministry.)
Check out the great resources on the OMA web site!
Spread the word!

P.S. Check out that World Orphans mention on page 101 🙂

About the Author

Julie Ferwerda is recognized for making the Bible exciting and relevant to everyday life through her writing and speaking. Her articles are featured in many Christian magazines and websites for both adults and teens, and she frequently volunteers her time and talents to international orphan ministry. Learn more at OneMillionArrows.com.