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Showing posts from 2014

The I don't know what to post, post

It seems that I have this form of writer's block where I write very witty, remarkable posts...all in my head. Oh, yes ones that you would love to read, and comment about. They just never seem to leave my head and journey down that long, weary road to my fingers. Then I actually find this speck, yes speck of time to write (ok that's not entirely true, I do have time...I just don't use it to write here all the time.) I do have a life people. Ok that's not entirely true either, at least not in the connotation I was using it in.  So then, when I do sit down to write in that speck of time...it's gone. All. Of. It. Just gone...gone...gone...gone...gone (which BTW is a song by the group 33Miles that was my oldest son's favorite song for about 5 years...he loved it so much that I can't say the word with out trying to break out into the chorus...seriously....PTL we've moved on from that). Anywhoo, I don't really know what to write. I want to say that I'

Today I lived in an Alternate Universe

This is going to sound like I'm bragging. I assure you that I am not. I do have a point, promise. Just keep reading or don't and go make a smoothie (yum!) for yourself and paroose something more interesting.Otherwise here goes...and stay with me ok? This morning I woke up at 5:30. This. NEVER. Happens. Ask my husband. He's usually up by at least 6:30. But this morning his phone alarm that rings every morning at (God help us all) 5 am, woke me up as well as my college aged neighbors (I'm certain of it) because the tone was shrieking at me loud and hard. Did I say 5 am? Ok I'm moving on...  Now usually, I don't even hear that dreaded melody, and if I do I lovingly (ok maybe not so lovingly all the time) wonder if he is going to get up and turn it off. 9 times out of 10 he does b/c well, I'm not sure that most of me is actually alive. Today it was my turn. Plus I can't figure out how to set my heater so it doesn't feel like Hawaii inside my room at

Looking Back

We walk to school back in June to grab the kids from school. She walking next to me, lanky, not even a foot shorter any more. Thick hair down her back and I see it then: who she is becoming. I see who the Lord is molding her into and what a hard, wild ride the last year has been. Really, how many years have been for us. A struggle. And how I praise the Lord for what He has done in her. I asked her if she remembered the day that she told me that she was going to run away and I asked if I could help her pack her bags. I asked her to look back and remember who she was and what a year with Jesus can do for the soul. She smiles big. There is sadness there for what used to be in us both as well as a love that was worth growing in both of our hearts that we would never want to be taken away. A mother's heart will always be for what is hers, for what came from her, for what has been given and I feared and worried that we were some how stealing something from our biological children b

An Adoption Story

"You know you don't have to do this. You are not obligated. God has given you five children of your own to raise." These are the words that many loved ones spoke when we quietly announced that we would be adding the three children we have been fostering the past year, to our forever family. The words may sound harsh, but really they are true. And we knew it. That is exactly what made the decision hard. But really, this adoption story does not start here. This adoption story, like all adoption stories is a part of all of our stories who call ourselves children of God. It is our story. It is His story. Christ did not have to come to earth. He did not have to love us. He did not need our relationship or help or love. He just didn't have to. When Adam and Eve sinned, forever seperating us from God, the Father, He could very well just have started over somewhere else. But he didn't. He chose to come. He lived a sinless life. He chose to die a bloody death. For

Miss Naomi Rae Pope

Girls with the last name Pope, usually come by it because they married a Pope boy. And so for 9 months I tell people I think I'm having a boy b/c "we have that recipe down really well." We were so convinced that we call the baby a he for 9 months also. So convinced, so surprised that even when little Miss Naomi arrives, my Love, calls her a he for the first few days. And we smile big. And he asks, "are you just as excited with this one and you were for the others?' Because when you have 4 already, maybe life coming into the world isn't as exciting. But you know what? It is. It really, truly is. And that, friends, is a little surprising to us both too. A name for her she did not have for awhile. Girl names are a little harder for us to agree on. But when he looks up and excitedly says, after reading through the book of Ruth, "Naomi. How about Naomi?" I knew that was the one, though he couldn't remember what it meant. I check later. Naomi mea

IN Him

Just a few favorites over the past few months....in no particular order. 40 weeks 1 day I love pictures. But they only tell part of the story don't they? Remember that whilst on social media outlets. They don't usually show the fit, the yelling momma, all the hard parts of life. Our lives were never meant to look perfect though we strive. Perfection is found alone in Christ. IN Him perfection is attained. Not in photos... houses... cars... lawns... relationships... kids... what we do or don't do... We are only perfectly complete IN Him. The God-Man who bore the bloody cross of our sin and shame. Our utter lostness. That we may be found in HIM.

Mothering

I'm late. Again. This time, for my mother's day post. My excuse? Mothering. How is that for ironic? 7 kiddos in the house and one on the way and I am late. Again. I'm certain there are women out there with 10 kids who are always on time and their kid's shoes always match their clothes, but her name isn't Kari Jo Pope. Nope. Finally, finally 4 more kids later and I can just breathe. Because being late doesn't mean you're a bad mom. Let me say it again, being late doesn't mean you're a bad mom, or friend, or wife, or husband or heaven forbid...Christian. Oh I hear it. That voice in your head saying, "yeah, but, Kari isn't being perpetually late a sign of disrespect for others?" Well, yes maybe in some cases. But maybe it just means that there is a foot of snow on the ground still. It is April, and you have to get 7 children and one husband layered and out of the door for Easter Sunday breakfast at 9. And remember your Bible too. And tho

Thrive

Let me just tell you about this thing called the Cross. It just up and wrecks a person's life. Your expectations. Your plans. Your agenda. What you think is right or wrong. And whatever you think your life should look like. Or even, what others think your life should look like.  And let me just tell you, that is a scary thing because in this beautiful land of freedom we call America, much of our time is spent figuring out what to do about our lives because most of the time we actually have the freedom to try to figure it out. This planning, trying to make wise decisions is a gift. Yes, it is. And there is this pressure to do what is "right." The problem is when many times our worldview of what is "right" is just a laundry list of things that may be wise as many of us, in our culture see it, but not altogether Biblical. There is this pressure to have it all planned out as if you are some sort of failure that after all of that planning, your life looks not a

What We All Need.

A certain dear Christmas-loving, English teaching, Mexico living, sister-in-Christ friend, Melody tells me it's time for another post. And since I have some of the best, most wonderful family-friends in the world who took our children for the weekend I have some "extra" time to plunk around here. And dear ones, you must know that that handsome man I call love is snoozing on the couch and so it is sort of a sacrifice to be typing here and not cuddled right up next to him. Nap or type? It was a hard call, but the computer won...just this once. You can thank me later...or not, depending on how much of your time you wasted, er, I mean spent reading in this place. Ok, enough rambling. The thoughts in my brain have been a bit scrambled lately. I find myself repeating myself a lot. And not just to people shorter than myself (AKA children.)  Pregnancy brain, I could blame it on, I guess. So that is just what I will do!  But there has been this one constant flow of thought

Happy New Year News

There she goes. Saying it again, better than I would ever dare. Yup, Ann says about this 2014 New Year: "She preached the Gospel to herself: Sure Mount Everest might loom in front of you, that mountain you have to climb in the next 364 days. But the deal is: Every mountain that every Christin ever faces, the Lord levels with sufficient grace: The Lord Will Provide . You don't have to climb mountains named I Will Perform. You don't have to climb mountains named I Will Produce. Jesus flattens that mountain before you with His Grace: The Lord will Provide. With enough strength. With enough wisdom. With More Than Enough of Himself . More important than you trying to muster up sufficient grit and determination for the new year -- is that you simply accept His sufficient grace and liberation every day ." ~Ann Voscamp (writing at A Holy Experience . Posted 1/1/2014) So when a dear friend asks, "HOW in the WORLD do you do that??!! How WILL you do that??