Gotcha Day

June is over! Hallelujah! Don't get me wrong, I love the month of June. My birthday, Summer arrives - it has always been a favorite. However, it also contains Judson & Mike's birthdays and Father's Day, and the kids summer break beginning. It's a lot of fun, but it is a lot! So now birthdays are over, and we have finally begun to settle into a routine. The pool is up and being used in the backyard, and there are wonderful fruits in season.

I know the fruit thing seems odd, but really by this time of year I am so tired of apples and bananas and oranges, that I don't care that cherries are $5/lb. I'm buying!!! The tomatoes are finally yummy and we can't seem to keep blueberries in the house - they're demolished too fast!

This is where I would show you a bunch of pictures from the last month, but my husband recycled a laptop for me. Yeah I have a laptop that i can cart around the house and out of the house with me. It means I can go and sit at Starbucks and work, or even just sit on my bed or the sofa. However, it does not have a card reader for my camera. Apparently I have to get some kind of reader. I'm not that technically minded to just run and get it. So, the process of putting pictures up goes like this:

Upload pictures to kitchen computer.
Edit and save.
Save to jump drive.
Remove jump drive.
Put jump drive into laptop.
Upload pictures.
Upload pictures to blogger.

So, I need to find whatever reader thingy I need. Then I do several posts of pictures.

Also this past month my ladies Bible study started Beth Moore's Living Beyond Yourself. I had started with a good friend a couple of weeks ahead so that I would be prepared and not just at the last minute. The study is awesome!!! Interestingly enough, she spent the first two weeks talking about the Holy Spirit. Call it a blonde moment (hard to do since I'm not blonde), but I was surprised by my "aha" moment that the fruit of the spirit is talking about the Holy Spirit!!!! I had just never made that connection. Now I'm really not sure why I hadn't made that connection, but I hadn't.

This week, my ladies are studying "joy". I have to confess that i am no longer ahead. I desperately want to be and I'm hoping that the next week I can actually work ahead, but I got stuck. It has been one year since my sister died, and having to do a study where every other word is her name has been really hard. It's not so much that they are talking about her - although if there was a person that fit her name, it was Joy, it's really just seeing her name over and over again. I can't pick up the phone and call her and tell her what I am studying.

What is totally awesome is what true joy is. Ultimately, no matter what is going on in our lives, God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross and take the punishment that we deserve, so we don't have to. Nothing can compare. All my trials pale in comparison. When we accept that gift that God offers - the gift of His Son, we are adopted out of our sinful family into God's eternal family. WOW!

Philippians 3:8a "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."

Thirty-four years ago today, I was welcomed into the home of my earthly adopted family. We call today my "Gotcha Day." I am so thankful that God gave them to me so that I could learn about His complete love at an early age. I am even more thankful that God has His own "Gotcha Day" for me!