I got some exciting news today!

Congratulations on your engagement!!!

This is my friend Berglind Ólöf and her husband to be, Jón Ómar. I'm sure they are thrilled that I'm putting it on my blog ;oP I'm just really happy for them and had to share this with everyone, hahaha! Everywhere I look people are getting engaged or married! It's almost kinda crazy, but a lot of fun and really awesome!

I like these quotes!

God can heal a broken heart, but He has to have all the pieces. ~Author Unknown

I sometimes have a tendency to hold on to a piece of my heart because I don't want to let go of what or who broke my heart, - stupid I know.

Giving up doesn't always mean you are weak; sometimes it means that you are strong enough to let go. ~Author Unknown

Mmmm, yea like I said, I'm not very good at letting go... but I'm learnig. I'm learning to let go and let God ;)

Boy, do I see myself in this one:

Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off of it over and over again. ~Rosa Parks

Yea, I know... stupid again. But hey, I'm learning to let the wound heal too :) Hopefully I am making some progress.

This is an encouraging one:

When love is lost, do not bow your head in sadness; instead keep your head up high and gaze into heaven for that is where your broken heart has been sent to heal. ~Author Unknown

My heart...

"My heart belongs to You, Lord! What I desire is to honor You in everything I do... Please help me with that."

That is my prayer, not only today, but every day! I'm not saying that I'm perfect and that I can do it, but I know that when God gets to work in my life and mold me after His will the unbelievable can happen :) and He will pick me up when I mess up and help me learn from my mistakes and move on to become a better person.

"Lord, I Give You My Heart"

This is my desire, to honour You
Lord with all my heart I worship You
all I have within me
I give You praise
all that I adore is in You

Lord I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for You alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord have Your way in me

Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas! Can you believe it?! I hope you are having a great Christmas!

Today a thought that popped into my head just blew me away!

On Christmas day my family and I go to two BIG family parties, first we see my mom's side of the family at my grandparents' house and then we see my dad's side of the family at my other grandmother's house (grandfather passed away many years ago). When I say big, I mean BIG. Both my parents have 5 siblings and they all have families ;) Get the picture? Anyways! All this to say... as I was sitting there enjoying my Christmas cookies and watching my extended family having fun together it just struck me... WOW! God has blessed me with all these people. I am a part of a huge family, we are close and always have fun when we get together. I know there are a lot of people out there that have broken families, broken homes. Christmas must be a tough time for some people just because it's considered a family celebration... I realised that I have taken, not just my family, but my awesome and big extended family for granted!!! They truly are a shower of blessings from God. I love them all and thank God for the way He's put all these people together into a big extended family around me :) I am privileged!

Just to give you an idea of how big my family is... Here are the grandkids on my mother's side of the family (and there should be 2 more! They are just in Ethiopia.):

On my dad's side of the family we are just as many grandkids and then just add 5 great-grand kids!!! ;)

As you enjoy this Christmas season I hope you open up your eyes to the many blessings in YOUR life! Maybe you'll see something that just blows you away ;)

Another Christmas song :)

This one has a story line... most of you have probably not heard it... or that's my guess at least, so click the link and listen to it. It's beautiful!

The Christmas Shoes (by Newsong)

It was foretold... in so much detail!

Stop for a moment. Have you ever thought about it? The birth of Jesus Christ wasn't just foretold, it was foretold in so much detail! Hundreds of years before it happened prophecies were told, and they were fulfilled! Just look at this:

Mary, who was a virgin, became pregnant through the Holy Spirit:
Isaiah 7:14 -- Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The birth of Jesus:
Isaiah 9:6 -- For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Jesus was a descendant of Jesse, David's father:
Isaiah 11:1 -- And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

When Jesus was around 2 years old Herod ordered that all children up to 2 years old were to be killed:
Jeremiah 31:15 -- Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to comforted for her children, because they were not.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem:
Micah 5:2 -- But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

These are just prophecies around his birth... they are not nearly as many as prophecies about his adult life, his ministry, crucifiction and resurrection. But that's something I'll touch upon later... maybe around easter ;) hehe.

It really works now

Sorry, I made a tiny mistake on the second slide show ("Who am I?")... but I've fixed it and it REALLY works now so check it out and listen to the music!!! Sorry again!

Fixed some stuff!

Alright! I fixed the slide shows with the songs so now the song is on the ppt :) So all you have to do is click the link and the music will play in the background! YAY! You won't have to try to start the song and the slideshow at the same time like before :) And if you had trouble when I posted my slideshows - now you should be able to enjoy the music and the show without a problem! Click on the links below, sit back and relax as you listen to the words and watch the slides :)

Everything to Me (by Avalon)

Who am I? (by Point of Grace)

Feeling Christmasy at all?

If not, let me try to help :) I made this thing for myself and for you to watch and listen to... Check it out, it's a Christmas song I really like ;) And this time you only have to clikc one link! Enjoy!

Click here!

ZzZzzZz

I'm tired.... sooooo tired.... what to do? zZzzzZZzZzzzzZzzzzz...

Try to imagine...

This advent I'm trying to take it easy and not get sucked into the stress that seems to have captured people wherever I look. I want to make this advent a special advent and really ponder what happened around 2000 years ago. So I'd like to invite you on a journey with me and maybe we will discover something "new" that we never noticed before.

Two Sundays ago I was talking to the kids at Sunday School about the angel visiting Mary. And it struck me that this story has become so familiar to all of us... like it's just a fairy tale we tell every Christmas. We are not amazed by what happened but rather think about it as a cute and beautiful story, - but it is SO much more than that!

Let's walk through that day with 15 year old Mary (she may have been younger than that).

As usual Mary goes about her daily routine. She gets water, cooks and cleans. She is a devouted young Jewish girl who is soon to be married to a young man named Joseph. As she is working around the house she sings a little tune having no clue that moments later her life will be completely changed. Suddenly a man appears in the room. Mary drops what she's holding. Her face is pale with fear. Where did he come from? The man looks straight at her and speaks gently but with great authority: "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary is stiff with fear and can't move... what kind of greeting is that? What does it mean? She is shivering. "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God," the man says, "You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." Mary calms down, but she is puzzled. "But I am a virgin, how can this be?" The angel answers, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." Mary begins to understand and she replies, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said."

That day the prophecies about the Messiah were fulfilled. What the Israelites had been waiting for for hundreds of years finally took place! And God chose this 15 year old girl for the important task of being the mother of His Son. Just think about it for a moment... This significant moment in history happened within the privacy of a home. God's Son was to be born! The Redeemer was on His way... That is big! Yet God chose to reveal it only to a few humble servants of His. Do you understand how extraordinary that day was?

Already Planned

(by Barry S. Maltese)

Yes, my God, some days I do pray
for things to get easier for me
And I have requested, so many times
for all of my pains to go free

Sometimes I hope that you might help
for me to get All I might ask
Not thinking of the things that might occur
if you had completed my task

So, when you'd send me a different gift
one I'd claim I never would need
I complained, and also questioned you
until I saw that my pains were all freed

It was only right then that I realized
that although I'd cry, or demand
What was really, and honestly, best for me
was exactly what you already had planned