Update from Carters and Thanksgiving Baking

Hi family and friends,
God has been faithful to complete what he started and we are so thankful this holiday season to be home with ALL of our kiddos!
Whew what a few months it has been! I cannot believe we have been home now for 2 months! What a whirlwind of activity.
For the most part, the kids have adjusted well. Of course, there has been the expected culture shock, the over stimulation of everything American and the getting used to living in a family structure. For those of us already living in this house, it has been the adjustment of adding three very active kids (can we say Whirlwinds) to our semi-quiet lifestyle. Personalities learning to live with each other, always having little ones rummage through your things if you leave a door open or things out, and the extra work of adding three new people to this family can wear and tear on you.
We all have had our days where we just break down and cry or feel overwhelmed.
I explained to the older kids, "This is a time of big adjustments for all of us, some days we handle with ease and some we don't but it is ok. It is like we are one big orchestra and at the moment we are all tuning our instruments and seeing how we work together and it doesn't at all sound pleasant but one day soon, we will find our song and we will all blend in harmony and it will be beautiful for the world to hear."
We know God has knitted this family together with all of our different skin tones and personalities and he makes no mistakes. He is faithful to sustain us and empower us if we keep our focus on him. Every one of our kids have been through so much hurt and trauma but God is faithful to continue heal their hearts and souls and draw them closer to himself.
Life has been so busy that I have not had time to blog much but have tried recently to work on some of the story from Africa and what's been going on in our life after Africa.
I decided to continue our African journey blog on http://oneeggshortofadozen.blogspot.com
and start a new blog AFTER Africa at http://oneeggshortofadozen2.blogspot.com
I will be working on these blogs simultaneously so check both of them.

I am working on updating my website at http://melissacartercreations.com where you can purchase prints, notecards, handmade jewelry, homemade bath salts, my homemade seasoning packets for dips and cooking, homemade pecan caramels and butter toffee and Melissa's Holiday Recipes on CD for Christmas presents and stocking stuffers.

I will also be offering three or four of my paintings as Christmas cards where you can send a unique Christmas card and raise awareness about orphans as well as benefit an orphan. So keep checking my website http://melissacartercreations.com for info.

Also you can go to http://cafepress.com/melissaart and order Adoption Christmas ornaments for your tree this year. There are many different designs to choose from. I will also be offering a limited number of signed ornaments from my website this year at http://melissacartercreations.com

As November is National Adoption Month, the kids and I will be baking for the Thanksgiving holidays and a portion of the proceeds will go towards helping orphans or a family that is adopting. As most of you know I used to own my own bakery and catering business so baking is one of my favorite things to do.
We will be offering the following items for pickup on Tuesday the 24th and Wednesday 25th: Please call me at 256 757-6078 or 256 710-2781 or email me at kdcarter@mac.com with your order.
1. Italian Cream Cake - $18
2. Triple Strawberry Cake -$18
3. Chocolate Truffle Cake - $20
4. Pecan Pie Cake - $20
5 Gourmet Pumpkin Pie -$12
6. Pecan Pie - $15
7. Chocolate Pecan Pie- $15
Pecan pie Cake
Italian Cream Cake
Chocolate Truffle Cake


All Pies are 9 inch deep dish
All Cakes are 8 inch 3 layer
Cakes will be decorated similar as in photos but not exactly

Blessings to all of you as you begin this Holiday Season

I have another blog that covers the past two years......

I have another blog that covers the past two years and our adoption process of our three kids from Uganda.  Please refer to it to read that story by clicking here. http://oneeggshortofadozen.blogspot.com
I have decided to continue Life After getting the kids home blogging here to make it easier as I am not finished blogging the trip to Africa. 
Melissa

Abundant Life

We had a discussion the other night in our small group about the topic of Abundant Life. I wrote this note below after I got home and had thought about it some. I thought I would share it here on facebook to see what others thought.:

"I had some thoughts about our small group discussion this past Wednesday on abundant life. Though I didn't say anything in particular that night, I was listening and thinking and pondering what was said. Sometimes it is hard for me to verbalize what I am feeling/thinking until I have mulled over it some.

This is probably a given but I think that the abundant life Jesus talks about and that we deeply want has nothing to do with intellect, success, stuff, status, circumstances, what friends we have, earthly possessions or earthly happiness. It only has to do with knowing Jesus on a very personal level. When Jesus offered abundant life to people, he offered himself. Nothing else. The woman at the well- himself= living water. The demon possessed man- himself = sanity. The leper- himself = healing. The woman who poured the perfume on his feet- himself = wholeness. i could go on and on. Jesus IS the abundant life and when we have him, we therefore have abundant life.

I used to wonder how to know God. I would see people and think, wow they act like they really know God and Jesus personally. How do they get there? Can I get there? I want what they have. A relationship. Yes, I say I love God, but my words seem empty without feeling. I want to love Him but it is weird loving something I don't see or feel or experience. Maybe this relationship is only set aside for those in the ministry. I thought for me , that it was unattainable. But my heart was so intense on wanting to know if I could have it that I kept seeking. I simply asked God and told God. Can I know you really like that? His answer was yes!
I kept asking God to let me know him more. Let me know Jesus more and after a long Journey I realized one day that I was sensing God as real and that I truly deeply felt his love over me and I was truly and deeply feeling and giving that love back.

So I said all of that to say this, that to live the abundant life, there must be a personal relationship with the one who is abundant life. Jesus. Because if you are living arm in arm with Jesus then you are intertwined and locked into The Abundant Life. You hear his voice. You feel his touch, you see what he sees.

Which leads me into the question that Todd asked a few times, "so how do we minister to people who are going through stuff? How do we know what to say or do when we have never been in their shoes? " We do not have to have been in anyone's shoes to be able to minister to them because Jesus has already been in their shoes and suffered with them. If we are relationally linked to Jesus, then he will minister to them and we will only be the pathway that he used.
I think we as the church or christians have stressed over this too much. What can WE say or do to help this person? WE try to brainstorm or problem solve too much when the answer is pretty simple. WE can do nothing. Not one thing to help them. We can say words and give hugs but they are really earthly if they do not have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in them. The hugs and touch are only temporarily comforting instead of life changing if they do not have abundant life in them.

Sure, sometimes God takes those who have been through things and have came out victorious and uses them mightily in His kingdom to help others in the same area, but he can also use a "raised in church gal" to help bring a drug addict to healing. But only if that "gal" has one vision, one goal, one mindset. One relationship. Jesus. If she is in Jesus and Jesus in her they are one and He is the source of THE LIFE. If that is the case, then they have to do nothing but be a vessel. They don't even have to speak. Jesus will speak volumes. His Presence will "ooze" out and spill out to be living water to that person, to be sanity to that person, to bring healing to that person, and to have that person become whole.
So no striving, or fretting is necessary. Jesus will take care of it. If we seek The Trinity only, we gain abundant Life and abundant life becomes the norm to us no matter where we are or who we are with or what our circumstances are. If we live Jesus and hear his voice, we live abundantly. We need to be the ones, that wherever we show up, an open heaven is there, Jesus is there and Abundant Life is there. Will we be willing to be the ones?"
Melissa

My latest painting- Oct. 2009

Oct. 2009

This is my latest painting. The photo is not professional with the colors not exact and the photo cut off at the bottom but I just had to share.
The original is already sold but giclee prints will be available.



"Born in His Heart & Wrapped in His Arms"
As I was praying and asking God to give me a painting that would portray His heart about adoption and orphans, I started to see this painting come together in my mind. The more I pondered upon it the more I couldn't wait to get it sketched out and my brush into paint.
The painting is full of symbolism. The colors in the painting's background are bright and cheerful and cover the spectrum of the rainbow therefore illustrating the promises of God to the "least of these". If you look closely enough, you can see a map of the world in the background.
I added the adoptive parents in here because they are being the physical hands of God in this world by offering God's love to the child. The children represent various ethnic groups as well as babies, toddlers, older children and sibling groups. There are 14 children in here for a purpose. Fourteen in biblical interpretations symbolizes recreation, and spiritual perfection. Adoption recreates a family by other means than through birth. Spiritual perfection is demostrated on earth through adoption and gives us a picture of God's adoption of us all when the perfect gift was given to allow it. Everyone, including the adoptive parents, is engulfed in the heart of God. The dove implies that God is well pleased with those who look after His little children. The feather hidden in the heart, upper left is a reminder that we are in the shadow of His wings.
You could interpret that the arms wrapped around everyone are representative of the adoptive parents but in my mind they are not. They are in fact, the arms of God. The character traits of God as Father, Protector, Defender and Provider are represented by the masculine arm of God and the character traits of God as Mother, Caregiver, Nurturer and Healer are represented by the Feminine arm of God. They are entertwined, representing His complete perfection to be all these things.
-Melissa Carter