Wordless Wednesday: Finding the Sunlight

Five Minute Friday: Five

This week I'm again participating in Five Minute Fridays at Kate Motaung's blog, (after another long hiatus) encouraging bloggers to write on a prompt unedited for five minutes.  This week's prompt: FIVE

GO

Five years ago this week was my last day at a job I enjoyed for more than seven years.  Final edits to documentation, cleaning out my desk and good-byes to coworkers.  Then my husband and I finished packing and made our way with the last load to our home on our gravelly road.

Five years ago next week I walked into a local church on a Tuesday to a room full of women I didn't know and began my journey with MOPS.  Prayed, learned and celebrated with ladies that have become friends I treasure, my community and a ministry where we serve together.

A bit more than Five years ago we began our adoption journey.  A journey God had planned though we had no idea of the path He had before us, of the waiting in front of us, and the tears, joy and blessing along the way.

And now there are Five.  Five plates at the table.  Five piles of laundry waiting to be put away. Five lives knit together in a way only God could have planned.  Our family of five here on the gravelly road.

Amazing how much meaning a single number can have in a single Five Minute Friday post!

END

A bit of other news, the FMF community has created a book of FMF posts from a whole host of contributors.  I'm honored that one of my posts was included in the book!  The book goes on sale next week and all profits go are divided equally between two ministries in South Africa: The Vine School in Cape Town, and The Ten Dollar Tribe.  Its exciting stuff and I can't wait for a copy to make to my hands on our gravelly road.

Book Review: Discipline that Connects with Your Child's Heart

Its been a while since I had the chance to post a book review on the blog.  I'm very excited about this book as it has the potential to impact so many families.

Discipline that Connects with Your Child's Heart by Jim and Lynne Jackson is a book that contains grace-filled parenting wisdom focused on discipline with connection.  It culminates from the author's experience as parents, careers as professionals helping children of all types and the work of their ministry Connect Families that has touched so many families. 


Connected Families is a parenting ministry that has been impacting our family for a while now.  I first became aware of Connected Families a year or two ago when they had a table at a large MOPS training event.  I ended up bringing home a magnet with the ministry's framework of core parenting messages (that are explained in the book) similar to the graphic below.  I was drawn to how well the messages tied to what I hoped for my children and that it so succinctly addressed some of the parenting challenges of parenting children by birth and adoption at the same time.

source: ConnectedFamilies.org

The magnet lived on my fridge where I could see it while I cooked and helped with homework during the crazy hour or two before supper (maybe its just here on the gravelly road, but so much parenting, conflict and crazy happens while I'm trying to cook supper).  I found myself taking a deep breath and glancing at the magnet before I "ventured into the fray" of whatever conflict was suddenly becoming so loud.

I soon began following Connected Families on Facebook and by email, regularly being encouraged by their articles and blog posts.  So when I heard Jim and Lynne's book was being released, I quickly signed up to be part of release team and was so honored to be sent an advance copy to review,

When it came in the mail, I immediately noticed the subtitle of this book: "Building Faith, Wisdom & Character in the Messes of Daily Life".  Isn't that what all parents want?  Its just hard to know how to get there.  This book makes a big difference by providing a framework based on Biblical principles to planfully approach conflict and teaching moments from a perspective inline with faith-based and grace-based parenting goals, while also helping you connect to your child's heart instead of just quickly resolving the surface issue of the behavior or conflict.

As I mentioned the book dives in the core parenting messages of "You are Safe with me", "You are LOVED no matter what", "You are Called and Capable", and "You are Responsible for your actions".  There is a section covering each message with biblical wisdom, common parenting actions that can undermine the message, practical advice to put the message into action, and real life examples. Sections end with introspective questions to help you identify wisdom and advice you can begin to apply to your parenting.

The book also includes a section at the end with wisdom for more specific challenges including sibling conflict, lying, daily routines, defiance, encouraging responsibility in kids and many more topics.  I love the idea of the "kid connection" prompts with scripture, discussion and activities that were included throughout the book which could be used during a family meeting or after supper devotions to provide additional consistent teaching opportunities.

I greatly appreciated the transparency and honesty the authors used by discussing the parenting challenges and issues that occurred in their own home.  I found that their advice and wisdom came from a place of humility acknowledging that parenting is a journey with no quick fixes, helping the reader give themselves grace for past mistakes and encouraging them to try a different approach to make positive and lasting changes in their family.

This is a book impacting our family here on the gravelly road that I hope can help many others as well.

** I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased feedback. All opinions are my own. **

Right now this book is on sale at Amazon for a great price if you'd like to check it out!

Wordless Wednesday: Flower

One year

One year ago today was our adoption finalization.  It is an anniversary worth celebrating.

 

We're spending the Labor Day weekend camping with family but want to be intentional to mark the day.  We bought our family a new board came, brought temporary tattoos, glow bracelets and ice cream cones to share with the cousins (like we had at our family celebration a year ago).

We brought out the picture book we made last year after finalization with the story of how Zman and Peaches joined our family and looked through pictures from adoption day.

And we spent the day as a family.  It was a good day.