Help bring Baby Sienna home from China

During my senior year of high school when I decided to get serious about the Lord, I quickly realized that in order to grow, I needed those slightly ahead of me to help guide me into a deeper relationship with Christ. I needed mentors that would show me the way and teach me, through their life, what it looked like to live a God-centered life.

Because of that realization, since my freshman year of college, I have thrown myself under those spiritually more mature than me. If you were willing to take me under your wing, I was happy to latch on and go for a ride. Of course, in a healthy, non-creepy kind of way.

The Lord has been really sweet in every season of life to place a handful of people just like this in my life. To say I’m thankful for them would be the biggest understatement of the year. It is so biblical (according to Titus 2) to not only take someone under your own wing, but to also learn from someone a few steps ahead of you. The Lord hasn’t left us hanging. Not only has He given us His Word, but He’s also designed us for relationships.

When I graduated from college and moved back home, I was delighted when three months later I learned that my old youth pastor was also moving back to now become the missions pastor at our church. We were both in different seasons of life and I knew it would be fun to get to work and serve together. On top of that, I adored his wife Allison and wanted to be her friend.

Three years later, they have been those people to me. Allison is most definitely one of my favorite people on this earth and I don’t just say that about everybody. I have thrown myself under their leadership and tried to learn everything I can about ministry. I really don’t think they know how much I adore, love and appreciate them. They are such dear friends to me.

Allison has taught me a lot of things, but I think the thing that stands out to me the most is the prayer warrior that she is. I don’t ever leave her house (let alone her sight) without her praying for me right on the spot. Sometimes we’ve even prayed more than once. Gasp! Y’all, I don’t know why we as believers tend to shy away from prayer, and if we admitted it, we don’t pray near enough. What Greg has always preached rings loud and true in their home; Prayer is the work! I want to be like Allison in that way. In fact, I have started doing that myself and y’all, it is revolutionary. I don’t let a girl leave my sight without me praying for her. It has been the sweetest thing.

So, why do I tell you all of this? Because I love my friends and desire to serve them as well.

They have a house full of four wonderful children that I love dearly, and there’s one on the way…from CHINA! Yes, they are adopting a little girl and she is so close to being home with her family. I am so excited for them and can’t wait to meet little Sienna. She doesn’t know how blessed she’s about to be.

As a single girl I’m limited in the ways I can help, besides prayer and the giving of my time, but I can tell you that they’re selling t-shirts to raise money to bring her home and I’d love it if you bought one as well. I know you don’t know them personally, but I can’t express to you enough how much you would love this family if you knew them too. Plus, the shirts are pretty cute.

So, if you’re interested in blessing them here’s what you can do:

1. First, you can visit their blog to learn all about their family. That is if you don’t trust me. But either way, it’s great. You can read their story here.

2. If you don’t want a t-shirt, Lifesong for Orphans, where financial gifts are tax deductible, is also an option. Simply go to Lifesong For Orphans. Click on the DONATE button and type- DESPRES 2133 in the purpose line.

3. Lastly, if you do want a shirt and are a lady (sorry to the two guys that read this blog), you can visit the Wild Olive Trees website. I had never heard of them before they told me about this, but it’s pretty neat. Click and type Despres0805 for their adoption fund. I know we don’t need anything in return, but it’s fun to receive a shirt. It’s also a reminder to pray for those families that are adopting when you wear it.

You, my sweet blog friends, are the best. Let’s help get sweet Sienna home in time to spend Christmas with her new family. I know it would mean the world to the Depres family. I love y’all!

The Despres family. Love them!


Sweet Sienna.

The ABC MeMe

I saw this floating around and it looked fun. Especially since I am having bloggers block. Forgive the random, yet fun post. And please, play along if you feel led. : )

A. Age: 26

B. Bed size: A queen. I’ve always had a queen or a full because of my long legs. They tend to hang off if I have anything smaller.

C. Chore that you hate: Hanging up clothes. Not washing or ironing, but hanging them up. I loathe it. I have been known to have neat piles of folded clothes around my room because I hate doing that so much.

D. Dogs: Oh, the puppies. I’ve only “owned” those that my roommates have had. Which have been Macy, we had a special bond, Cohen and Cupcake. Three of the most different dogs you’ll ever meet. Growing up I only had a turtle that unfortunately ran away.

E. Essential start to your day: Waking up. That is essential. Seriously, though? I cannot get ready without listening to worship music. Ask my roommates.

F. Favorite color: It’s constantly changing, but is currently yellow. Or coral. And maybe navy. See, I’m very fickle with my colors.

G. Gold or Silver: Both. I used to think Gold looked terrible on my skin tone, but currently gold is the “in thing” so I own a lot of gold costume jewelry which I wear often. However, silver is my go-to choice.

H. Height: 6’0. Though my license says 5’11. I’m confused.

I. Instruments you play: Since my mom has been a piano teacher my entire life, I play the piano. Not quite like her, though. She’s the best of the best. : )

J. Job title: Media Assistant and Youth Specialist. If you’re going to friend the youth, you must know the media. ; )

K. Kids: Nada. Though I'd claim many as my own.

L. Live: Texas! I’m a proud Texan through and through. First family member born and raised here.

M. Mother’s name: Kristy Kay. Love her!

N. Nicknames: The most obvious one is Lindsee Lou. (Lou is not my middle name contrary to popular belief!) Lou. Loupers. Leddy. Lindslepie. (Thank you, Grandma, for that last one.)

O. Overnight hospital stays: Besides when I was born, to date this hasn’t happened.

P. Pet peeves: When people drive crazy. It drive me nutty.

Q. Quote from a movie: “Hence the boat!” from The Proposal. For some reason, I get tickled every time I hear it. If you’ve not seen it, well, you should. It's funny. Of course, I also love me some Madea lines. “Heller? How u durnin?”, “Um, ner.” ,“Halleu-yer.” So funny.

R. Right or left handed: Right hand all the way!

S. Siblings: Two brothers. One older and one younger. I’m smack dan in the middle and the only girl. It’s not the worst gig in the world.

U. Ultimate Vacation: Currently, that would have to be the Seychelles. Oh, to dream.

V. Vegetable you hate: Peas. Gross.

W. What makes you run late: The fact that I am really slow at everything I do makes me late. I enjoy taking my time and hate to be rushed. Therefore, I seem to never give myself enough time. Other than that, probably applying my mascara. It takes a sweet forever.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Do my teeth count? Oh, and I think in the third grade I had my ankle x-rayed because I hurt it in P.E. That was unfortunate since I'm not sure I actually DID anything in P.E.

Y. Yummy food that you make: I really don’t make much yummy food. My roommates could testify to that. However, I can make a mean Taco Ring. And I also have mastered the are of Nutella Rice Krispie Treats.

Z. Zoo animal: I’m gonna have to go with anything “baby” here. That might be cheating, but that’s okay.

With Nothing in Sight

For the longest time, I was the girl whose testimony lent itself to never having gone on a date with a boy. I am sure people got tired of hearing my story, but it was mine to tell and I had no power of changing it on my own.

What always stood out to me as I told my story were the responses I received from people. The best response was when girls would ask if I ever liked anybody, to which I always replied, and probably not so gently, “Um, duh!” Or in the words of Madea, “Um, der!” Of course I’ve liked guys! I’m a girl with feelings after all. And I’ve not just liked them. I’ve had major crushes. When I fall, I fall hard. Yes, I may or may not have had a few obsessions. What you need to know about me, though, is that I’m not very fickle. When I like a guy, I tend to like him for a long time. Like, really long. I could easily have one crush for two years. I wish I were lying.

Over time, though, I have learned a lot about crushes. Allow me to share one take-away: they waste so much of your time.

I know that sounds funny because they probably don’t even realize you exist, or have the slightest clue you’re interested, but they do, they really do.

Shall I list why?

Daydreams. Oh, the daydreams. In one day I could have gone on our first date. Gone on a second date. Decided we were going to be official. Kissed him. Dated for approximately 12 months. Gotten engaged and gotten married. All in one day. It was exhausting.

Stalking. Oh, the stalking. These days stalking means “friending” them on facebook or “following” them on twitter. Let’s just admit it, we’ve all done it, and maybe we’re currently doing it. And I’m not talking about just checking their facebook once a day; I’m talking once an hour. Or every 30 minutes depending on how smitten you are.

Shall I even get started on trying to take our thoughts captive? Attempting to do that while daydreaming and stalking is nearly impossible. I can’t intentionally go stalk a guy on facebook and then try to take thoughts towards him captive. I think we’re all aware that what we really need is a major dose of self-control to not even go there. To fill our minds with the Truth of God’s word as opposed to a silly little status update telling us where He just ate lunch.

The most humbling thing, however, I’ve learned about crushes that the Lord has had to knock out of me is my feelings of control over the situation. Do you know what I mean?

My thought process went something like this: If I liked a guy and stalked him enough, then eventually he would realize my love for him and chase after me and we’d live happily ever after. In other words, I was in complete control of the entire situation. Except I wasn’t in control at all.

In hindsight, I see how completely ridiculous and insane that sounds, but that’s how I was living and that was certainly the lie I believed. On top of that, what I always failed to realize was that although I thought I had complete control over the entire situation, it really had so much more control over me.

I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it took a toll on my heart and my emotions. When you let a feeling have that much control over you, it is hard to focus, let alone get much sleep and rest.

Towards the beginning of February I was seriously so fed up with myself. I started to realize that I was being flat out stupid and at that time, I had a come to Jesus meeting. It was really good.

One night in particular I had been journaling and I just heard the Lord ask me, Lindsee, do you trust me with zero prospects?

In other words, if the Lord took every eligible young single guy out of the picture could I trust Him enough to provide a husband in His time without my help? Without my obsessing? Without my stalking?

For the first time in a long time I was legitimately able to answer with a simple yes.

All my worrying, all my stressing, all my desires to be in control were disobedience because essentially, I wasn’t trusting the Lord to provide that particular desire of my heart. I honestly remember that night sleeping really well and woke up feeling like I hadn’t just run a marathon.

I don’t want you to get the impression that I am boy crazy, because if you asked any of my friends or family, I don’t think they would tell you I was, but I just needed to trust the Lord to provide for me in His own way and His own time.

In the midst of all of this was when the Lord really started stirring in my heart about what was next for me. I had no idea what was ahead but I sought Him constantly until May when He started opening up doors for a job change. And more so, a life change. (I wasn’t just changing jobs; I was changing churches as well. What you may not know is that my church was my job.)

I can honestly say that these months have been the sweetest months of my relationship with the Lord yet. I stepped out on a limb not knowing what the Lord had in store, and He blew me away. My faith deepened.

You know what else happened? I forgot all about boys. I forgot all about the fact that I was single. Maybe forgot isn’t the most appropriate term, but I was so content where the Lord had me in my singleness. It was so refreshing and really, really good for me to not be caught up in some type of crush that would eventually go nowhere.

Today, I am no longer the girl that has never been on a date. In July I went on my very first, and wonderful, I might add, date. I felt so special and will remember it always. Don’t get any ideas thinking that I’m engaged and getting married tomorrow, but to have been noticed and treated like a girl should be treated on a date was the best thing I could have ever experienced.

This summer was proof to me that there are Godly men out there searching for Godly wives. There are guys out there doing it right. This I know for sure, the bar has been raised.

I can’t tell you how thankful I am the Lord allowed me to experience what it’s like to be pursued. And what did I do to be pursued? Absolutely nothing. Nada. I just responded.

What I'm not saying is that the minute you stop thinking about being single is the minute the Lord brings a man into your life. I'm not too fond of that saying because I think if the Lord placed that desire on your heart, you'll always be mindful of it. What I am saying, though, is that the Lord, I believe, teaches us different things through different circumstances. For a while I think I doubted the Lord was ever going to let me experience the pursuit of a man for myself and not just vicariously. He clearly thought otherwise.

So, do I trust Him with no prospect? Do I trust Him when the single men around me aren’t outnumbering the single ladies? Yes, yes I do.

I don’t want to be known as the girl who begged and pleaded for God to bring my man and waste my singleness. I want to be known as the girl who believed God and served Him while I was waiting. After all, is it really about me? My comfort? My wants? That’s a simple no. It’s about Christ being honored and glorified in everything.

Very recently I heard someone say that God can do more in our waiting than we can do in our doing. Let’s stop doing and start waiting. Start bringing your requests and being still before the Lord. Trusting Him for His best for us. He really can do more in our waiting, expecting and anticipating Him.

I don’t know what you’re waiting for, but I promise He’s working out the details.

You can trust Him even with nothing in sight. We have hope because He is our hope.

Oh, that we would anticipate the Lord to move in our midst. He will. I know He will.

“In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” Psalm 5:3

The Village

As of today it's been a week since I've been a part of what they loving call "The Village". In other words, I've been at Living Proof Ministries for an entire week. I am certain that if I had a penny for every time I've heard the words "the village", whether referring to the LPM staff, or in the phrase "It takes a village!", I'd be one wealthy girl.

But if I've learned one thing this past week, I've learned that it certainly takes a village. And that the village is very easy to love.

I jumped into what I like to refer to as sanguine land.

I myself am quite the sanguine, but have noticed this week that I've really toned it down a bit. I have been a top notch observer, just taking everything in moment by moment. Quite honestly, the other night I sat down to journal and I couldn't think of one thing to write down. Not because I have a lack of words or thoughts, but because I didn't know where to start.

Even as I started this post, I uploaded pictures then decided I had nothing to say. Thankfully, I regained consciousness and came back to this post shortly after my loss of words and this is what you've got. What is it I've got, you ask? A list of observations from a week of working with the village.

1) This may disappoint, but my first observation? The phones never stop ringing. Ever. LPM is a hopping ministry. Praise God.

2) These ladies are hilarious.

3) They know how to pray. And they do it often.

4) A lot of laughter is heard all day long.

5) LPM knows how to eat. The workday pretty much revolves around lunch. I'm a-okay with that. I like food, too.

6) There is nothing you do alone at LPM. It really does take a village. For instance, it took four of us to connect my computer to another screen so I'd be double screening it. I don't know the technical term for that since I'm not technical, but let me tell you, it is a blessing.

7) You won't get to work or leave work without getting approximately ten hugs.

8) Personal? What is that? The village needs to know all personal matters. But at least you know they'll keep it to themselves. At least that's what I'm told.

9) Skype is a must. As is email. As is HeyTell. As is text messaging. Communication is flourishing.

10) They love Jesus. For real. I want to love Jesus more because of them.

11) With their forces combined, along with the prophetic dream Amanda had, I'm sure I'll be married in six months. Except I'm totally kidding. Maybe. ;)

12) You know your boss is legit when she sends you a picture text message of the yogurt you'd been discussing earlier. She wanted you to make sure you knew exactly what it was so you wouldn't have to go on a wild goose chase. I'm thankful.

In all seriousness, I've been there a week and I can say I sincerely love it already. I'm still slowly taking everything in, but really enjoying learning the ropes and getting to know everyone there. Yes, I'm tired and adjusting to a new job and bed time, but I feel beyond blessed to get to serve alongside these incredible ladies.

Here are some pictures from my first week.

My old boss JJ and his wife Anna sent me flowers my first day of work at the office. It was so sweet and they were beautiful. Thank you so much, JJ and Anna! It meant so much to me.

I have literally taken zero pictures with my real camera, but here are some of my office that I took with my phone. I share an office with Jenn, our Tuesday Night Bible study coordinator, but she is a mama of three youngins', so you can imagine that her office hours are more flexible and different than mine. We've only shared the office for two hours! The desk on the left is hers.

This is the view looking out to the balcony. Not too shabby, eh?

Just a cute corner of the office. Don't you love those pillows? At 3:00 everyday they tempt me with a nap.

This is my side/desk of the office. So far, I love it.

This is what the double screen looks like. It has been such a tremendous help when you stare at a computer all day long!

We hosted our volunteers at the ministry office on Saturday for the simulcast. It was really fun getting to know them and also getting to be with my co-workers soaking up God's Word. We had the best time! I am so glad I went. And boy did I get a Word! Amen.

In case you were wondering, yes, I still pinch myself every morning. Thank you, Lord, for this gift.

A New Job Description

I planned on writing a post about what my new job entails, but this video pretty much sums it up. If you've not seen it yet on the Living Proof Ministries blog, please feel free to watch it here! It was so fun to record, but I've realized now more than ever that I am a proffessional head nodder. It looks as if I know exactly what I'm talking about. Be blessed, friends. And please, for my sake, feel free to laugh as well.

Meet Lindsee! from LPV on Vimeo.

You can do this! You planned a girls retreat and ran a triathlon!

Tomorrow I will embark on a new journey. At a new office. With new co-workers. At a new desk. And a new (awesome) boss.

Tomorrow I will walk into Living Proof Ministries and be welcomed by many hugs, smiles and warm hearts, I'm sure. I've never walked in there and received anything less.

I'm not anxious because of the people or the ministry, in fact, quite the opposite, but more so because everything is different and new.

September 6th has been marked on my calendar since July 28th, so this is not surprising.

But it's here. It's finally here! There were days I thought this day would never arrive. Months I hesitated jumping all in for fear I would be disappointed if it didn't happen. Months of praying and laying every plan and desire back at the Lord's feet.

I'm like a little girl on Christmas Eve. I don't know how well I'll sleep, not because my body isn't tired after spending a day at the beach, but for the sheer excitement in my heart.

However, this day hasn't come without many tears and much pondering and a lot of transition.

Just the other night I sat in my living room pouring over a scrapbook I had been given that afternoon that my old Sunday school teacher (6th grade, in fact, and for the record, she's still serving in middle school as a small group leader) made for me with the help of many members of Cypress Bible Church. It was sweet. It was thoughtful. It was an absolute treasure. I cried. I laughed. Then I prayed for every person that spoke life into my heart.

New seasons are exciting, but change can be tough and intimidating.

I have embraced every moment of change up until now and I fully intend on embracing every moment tomorrow.

I'm leaving a very familiar, comfortable life for a new, slightly uncomfortabe and slightly more challenging life. New is always uncomfortable, but good. It keeps you quick on your toes.

But like one of the middle school girls wrote to me, "Lindsee, you can do this! You planned a girls retreat and ran a triathlon!" If that's not qualification I don't know what is.

In all seriousness, the only qualifier is Jesus. He alone has opened every door and put me in this position. Without Him, my work is in vain. My, what a scary thought that is.

I have every emotion you can imagine, but pure joy and anticipation of what's ahead trump them all!

My prayer is that I would carry His name well. I will fail Him. Undoubtedly. But He will NOT fail me. He will carry me, just like He's carried me up until this very moment.

And so it begins.

September sixth, you are about to make a lot of dreams come true.

Lord, I pray I serve you well in this next journey. Thank you for doing more than I could possibly ask or imagine. You deserve all the praise. May You be lifted so very high. Let's do this!