We're expecting!

We will be growing our family through adoption! And we are so excited!  

This is something that has been on our hearts since before we were married, something that we’ve always known was God’s plan for our family, but something that we just didn’t know the timeline for. When we first got married, we said we’d wait five years to have kids. Well, after year one, we said five years still sounded good. J So five years from the latest conversation was the plan…then came Moses! After four years of marriage, God blessed us with the most amazing baby boy in His perfect timing. And now that Moses is getting older, we’re ready to add in some more!

We recently finished seven weeks of training with an agency named Boys Town. They have been wonderful in preparing us for this adventure! We’ve learned about how to best care for these kids who have been neglected, abused, and so much more. We’ve learned CPR and First Aid. We’ve learned how to deal with the difficult situations that will arise (as confidently as the best training can prepare you for…) And we’re learning how God can grow your heart so big to love children who don’t yet share your last name.

Soon (within a month or so) we will become licensed foster/adopt parents, meaning that we’ll receive foster placements with the intention of adopting them. Yes, that was plural! In short, the way that it works is that you provide your agency with some parameters and they call you when they receive children that fit within those (or close enough). We’re open to two boys, brothers, around the ages of 5-9. We wholeheartedly believe that God has already chosen our babies and they are waiting for us. Waiting for us to have our health and safety inspections, waiting for us to complete our home study and interviews, and waiting for us to prepare a place for them. 

Just as we prepared a place for Moses, we are preparing our home for these young boys. Our third bedroom has become “the boys’ room”. But instead of a crib and changing table, we’ve set out for beds, desks, and dressers, along with all the other essentials that our older boys will need. We’re also fulfilling checklists for our inspections and purchasing things like medicine lock boxes and a fire extinguisher. And when we get a call from Boys Town offering us a placement, we may have only a few hours or a few days to gather the rest of the age-appropriate items – clothing, shoes, school supplies, and toys.

With this exciting announcement comes a plea… we ask that you would join us on this journey with great joy and expectancy just as you would as if there was a little one growing on the inside. Just as you did when we were there around two years ago with Moses. J We also ask for your prayers. Prayers that God would continue to grow us – as a couple and as parents. Prayers for the ones that God has chosen to be part of our family – that their hearts would be ready for love and healing. Prayers of protection over all of our hearts and our home. We trust and know that God’s hand will be over every detail of our journey. (If you’d like to know more specifics on how to pray for us through this process, let us know and we’d be glad to share!)

We are so excited to be growing our family and can’t wait for the day that we get to see their faces! Thank you for your love and prayers!

Happy Forth of July!

Happy Independence Day!  Hope you enjoy your day with family and friends!  

Sunny Saturday

What a fun day we had today!

Frankie went to a training for the THRUproject.  It's an organization that pairs up advisers with youth that have aged out of the foster program.  Advisers commit to a year with the program and the youth that is placed with them and keep in contact with the youth for support and accountability.  It is a pretty cool idea and the only organization doing it in the state.

After that we all headed down to get some free fish!  Woot Woot!!  

And just for fun we decided to do some shopping and found a new rug for our laundry room, and candle, and a sign that Taylor thought was awesome!

Nap time for Mose while we drove up to the mall for some more exploring of shops...

We found a candy store... Lolly and Pop

Checked out the new H&M... Moses found something he liked!

and then took some time for a dance break :)

Quick stop at a resale kids shop for some serious discounts, but left because Dad got a little overwhelmed.  He came home and took it out on our very overgrown backyard.  

So like I said, we had a fun day!  And we blogged about it!  Maybe this will be the start of something great... baby steps first.   

Lots going on!  We will keep you posted.   

Dedication and Service

A few Sundays ago we got to stand up in front of our church and dedicate our sweet Baby Mo with all three Grandmas, both Grandpas, two uncles, both aunts, and a lot of friends.  :)

Dedication!

Before we went insinde to share our Moses with the church we spent some time in the parking lot sharing our time for the city.  Children's Hunger Fund and Oak Hills Church partnered up for pack 10,000 Food Paks!  Each of the campuses of OHC received truck loads of food and boxes and packed and packed and packed.  By the end of the weekend we has 10,101 Food Paks ready to service the city of San Antonio.  It was a great time to serve with the church, friends, and family!

We are the Body of Christ

Called to be Jesus

In every Neighborhood

In our City and Beyond!

Service!

We think it's pretty fitting that the day Moses was born we got to share with him about how he was able to help so many with clean water.  And now on the day he was dedicated we can share in what a blessing CHF is to the spiritually and physically hungry in our city and around the world.  :)

Water Project Update: It is finished! - Dziwanidziwani, Malawi

Dear Friends,

We are overjoyed to share with you this exciting news!  After many, many, (many!) months of waiting, we are finally so glad to share with you that the hard work has paid off! The report is in and the details of our collaborative water project have been revealed! Together we have changed the lives of 432 precious people in Dziwanidziwani, Malawi!  Amazing! It is because of your generous hearts and selfless efforts- fundraising, gift-forgoing, donating; and by the abundant blessings of our Father that this was possible! So many readers, friends, family, and strangers came together to make sure that we could make an impact in helping end the water crisis around the world.  This letter is for each of YOU, because you are a part of something big!

"That change has now been realized, and thanks to you, the people of Dziwanidziwani no longer have to drink water that makes them sick."  These are words that we have been waiting to hear and that this beautiful woman has dreamed about!  This photo encompasses the end of sickness, thirst, disease, and the beginning of hope for this community.  

Thanks again to each and every one of you for all your wonderful help!  This mission is truly complete thanks to you.  Thank you Father for allowing us all to be a part of your beatiful, redemptive work in Africa. And thank you charity:water for making it real, for proving every dollar so that the impact is made visible! 432 people will thrive and grow in a way that was not possible before.  Visit the site of the well and take a look at the village by using the GPS Coordinates -16.13883, 34.88326.   

This project may be over, but in the month it was completed, our son Moses was born and finished his fundraising for his very own water project.  We are excited to celebrate his life with the promise of clean water for others.  As a new feature charity:water, takes projects that do not complete a full project amount and merges them into one project in order to share the information once completed.  We are excited that he will be able to see what others did for him in love when he recieves GPS coordinates of the project he was a part of.

Glory to God. What a blessing to see others be blessed!

To see some of the ways we raised the funds for this well visit "Water Jar" on the left side topics bar of our blog.  

Baby Rodriguez's First Water Project

Hello readers! We know it's been awhile, and much needs updating, but for now we have baby news! We have been in love with our little noodle since we found out we were expecting in March!

And since we found out whether this little goober is a boy or a girl we've been raising money for him/her to fund clean water projects from the very beginning of his/her existence! (Don'tcha wanna know?!) Family and friends have been so supportive with their donations and its been super sneaky to keep it a secret, but oh so fun!

So the original plan was to fund a well by baby's due date. Now we know that this is a big goal but our God has proven his mightiness to help us realize our big goals in his name. However, with few further plans for projects to raise money and baby's arrival quickly approaching, we decided it would be best to put little cootie's donations to use rather than let them sit for now.

We've decided to launch a mycharity:water campaign. These campaigns last three months - exactly the amount of time from today (8/11) that baby is expected to be here (11/11)! To start it off, all of the donations collected so far will go straight in as well as our garage sale fundriaser efforts from July! And here's your chance to join in! Our goal is $1,111 which will help bring clean drinking water to 11 families in need! Baby R you are already making a difference in this world!

Look out for ways to participate over the next three months as we work to meet our goal! Or if you still want to find out the big boy/girl question, just make a donation and let us know you wanna know on the blog, on Facebook, or through email! Visit baby's campaign page at http://mycharitywater.org/baby-rodriguez!

Here we go third trimester! We are so excited for November! :)

Happy Fourth!

Today we are hanging out at Mom and Dad's.  

Brady and Sloane drove down from Austin.  

Friends showed  up, neighbors are on the way.  

Hot dogs, ribs, and fireworks are on the agenda! 

(Notice anything different about Taylor?)

Happy Independence Day Friends!

Greetings from Africa!

Check out our new feature via the stamp on the left sidebar! The rhino is a portal to a cool place where we share all the fun letters, pictures, and stories that we get in the mail from our sponsor child via World Vision! Click the rhino again to come back to our home blog. :)

Living Simply To Love Others

“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows.

The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.”

Audrey Hepburn

Happy New Year friends!

2012 is an exciting year for us because we have an idea that we hope to explore all year long. We really wanted to do something different, something that we could throw ourselves into, research, learn, share, and grow from. So we thought of using a theme that has been the subject of a lot of conversations in our marriage- Living Simply to Love Others, and devoting the year to discovering what it really means to live this mantra.

Some of the ways we want to engage in this concept is to read more books and share them with you, interview people that we have met and hope to meet that have changed there job/life to serve people instead of just serving themselves, and find new ways to use our talents to help us in our goal of "Living Simply to Love Others".

Hopefully at the end of the year we will be able to look back at all of these methods, experiences, and knowledge and see how we can better serve the callings and passions of our hearts and continue a life that is devoted to service and love for others. So, as always, we invite you to join us by reading, commenting, reflecting, and sharing in our new adventure of Living Simply to Love Others.

Christmas Fun!

Merry Christmas to all of you!!! Hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends in honor of our King! :)

We had a really great Christmas! Complete with an awesome story to go along with our Toy Closet again this year. So here it is! The story of our second annual Toy Closet Adventure. Ooooo boy, get ready!

As we did last year, we started shopping early, hitting up sales and using our shopping secrets. Although we moved and don't have an actual closet this year, we still managed to stash all our goodies until we were ready to give them away. And if you don't know what I am talking about go here to learn about last year's Toy Closet Adventure that began it all! (Side note- it is my favorite post that I have ever written!)

First, we had to figure out what to do with the toys when the time came... We do donate to toy drives but we also enjoy taking out toys and actually giving them to children. There is something that's missing when you just drop off a toy rather then deliver it to someone. Plus, the look on their faces is just awesome.

So when we were thinking about a place to go we remembered our cousin Kaitlyn when she stayed in the hospital. We happened to visit her on Halloween and they were having a party when we showed up and took all the kids trick-or-treating around to different parts of the hospital. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it! We thought that they may do a similar thing for Christmas and wondered if we could assist in providing toys for the kiddos. We thought it would be a great way to give back to the people that helped take care of our family and bring some cheer to families spending their holidays in the hospital. So after a couple calls, we got in touch with Meg, the nurse in charge of organizing the Halloween event. We told her our idea and what we had and asked if there was any opportunity for us to come and give these toys to the kids. She was so excited and said that the best time to do this would be when Santa comes, but that they hadn't been able to find a Santa yet... Taylor so wished she knew a Santa when she hung up the phone... but then remembered.... not only do we know a Santa, we know the best Santa in San Antonio and he goes to our church! After talking to Mrs. Claus and figuring out a date that would work for everyone, we had a Santa booked for them! (Check out his awesomeness here!)

Every little detail was falling into place... any problem that came up quickly worked itself out before we had time to worry about it... it was amazing and obviously carefully coordinated by someone other than ourselves. Funny how God's got your back when you are doing what He made you to do. ;)

When the day finally came (we had to wait all the way til the 23rd!) we all showed up and shared in the excitement of watching the kids (and lots of nurses!) light up with joy as they saw Santa coming down the hall and to their rooms. We delivered gifts and candy canes and lots of giggles to patients in their rooms and then headed to the play room for story time with Mrs. Claus and more kids visiting with Santa. We even went down to the ER to share some smiles! It was so wonderful hearing the kids excitedly thank Santa for the gifts and it really did warm our hearts. Toy Closet - you did it again! What a great way to spend time together sharing God's love! It was a beautiful day and we were all so blessed to be a part of it!

 

Giveaway Winner!

Congrats to Kara Starr for winning our "Start Something That Matters" giveaway! She is following her passions and hopes to make a difference! Be looking for your book in the mail soon!

Also, we are so busy this week! Printing last minute LOVE:water shirts to be sent out tomorrow, as well as working on the kid's shirts. Also this week we are delivering our toys from our toy closet! We haven't shared that with you yet but be looking for that post in the next few days. :)

Official TaylorFrankie Christmas List - Part 2!

1. Hand Drawn Dots Ash - What wish list would be complete without TOMS shoes? These would be a great addition to my collection. Aren't they fun?! TOMS Shoes

2. Classic 301 - New to the TOMS family, these stylish sunglasses look good and do good, too! Each purchase helps give life saving sight to a person in need. So cool!! TOMS Eyewear

3. Jute Pencil Case - This nifty little zipper case is great for any little doo-dads. It's awesome and it provides work for vulnerable women in Cambodia. Love it!! Trade As One

4. The Ultimate Stocking Stuffer - Mints, gum, coffee, and a shirt that all give back to a variety of causes! Plus they look cool and taste yummy! Yes, please!! Project 7

5. Paracord Bracelet for Honduras - A blogger friend's daughter has decided to make these to support Touch a Life Center in Honduras after being moved by their work while on a missions trip. They are super neat and you can order them in a variety of colors! Awesome!! Wherever He Leads Us

6. Kiva Cards - These unique gift cards let the recipient choose a project to loan the money to. From helping Caleb run a green grocery store in Kenya to providing a group of women funds to purchase threads and fabric for their dressmaking shop. Give away!! Kiva

7. Toys - I love toys! And apparently so do kids. :) Children's Hunger Fund wraps and distributes thousands to children in the US and around the world to bring smiles at Christmastime! Anyone can help support this project and others through their gift catalogue. Fun, fun!! Children's Hunger Fund

8. "Kisses from Katie" - This is a story of Christ's grace as Katie serves him with her life in Uganda. Her blog is heart breaking, inspiring, and a beautiful portrait of Christ's love. So moving. Amazima Ministries

9. Feed 10 Bag with Pouch - Fun and flexible, this bag works for all kinds of fun things! With its purchase, 10 meals are provided to school children through United Nations World Food Programme's School Feeding program. Feed me! FEED

10. Faith Shirts - Super excited about this one! Brogan came up with this design (inspired by our LOVE shirts) to benefit Children's Hunger Fund! Each shirt features Faith with an apple symbolizing the good it does for kids and families in need! So proud of him! Faith, Hope, and Love Shirts

Week 4 - Love All

Love All from Living Water International on Vimeo.

God’s love has no boundaries. Ours does.

That’s why it’s important that we practice love intentionally. Our love starts to look more like God’s when we stretch its boundaries—to the lonely, the imprisoned, the homeless, the hungry, and the thirsty.

We hope this Advent season has prepared you to Love All: your family, the hard-to-love, and the overlooked in your community. We also hope you will join us in demonstrating God’s boundless love by loving people who desperately need safe drinking water, and with it living water, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for sharing a bit of your Advent season with us. We hope it has been one filled with all the hope, joy and love that God placed in a manger more than 2,000 years ago.

Wishing you a joyful, peaceful Christmas,
Your Living Water Family

This is our favorite part of Advent Conspiracy and Christmas! We love to love! It's fun and fulfilling. It's what we were made to do. You and me, us, all of us. We were made to love - God and our neighbors. So what better time to remember and celebrate that purpose than for our Savior's birthday?!

And if you believe that the love shouldn't stop when the presents are unwrapped, join us on a journey of love. Next year we have come up with a theme that will take us through the steps of "Living Simply to Love Others". One theme, 12 months, and a whole lot of LOVE!

Remember that this isn't just a Christmas thing... Advent Conspiracy doesn't have to end with the season. There are so many ways to worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all, year round!

Official TaylorFrankie Christmas List 2011 - Part 1!

Each year we search the internet for some of the coolest gifts that give back. I know we are a little late with the TaylorFrankie lists but there is still time and who wouldn't want these gifts all year round? Some of these products make the list every year but some of them are new and a few are being revealed here on our list for the first time ever! So check out my list and be on the look out for Taylor's coming soon!

1. TOMS - These TOMS are awesome! TOMS gives a pair of shoes for every pair that you buy and start at $45.00 for the classics- that is not a bad deal. TOMS

2. Hello Somebody - This one is new to our blog. We have been keeping it a secret from you for a bit. We heard about them from our friends at Bless Your Heart. For just $25 you get this sweet watch offered in a variety of colors plus kids receive food and education. Hello Somebody

3. Starburst Basket - Hand crafted by women in Uganda, this bowl is stunning! Even more beautiful is that this bowl gives work to a family in Uganda that can now support themselves. "Gifts that bridge worlds and rebuild lives". Women's Peace Collection

4. Bibles - CHF's menu has always made its way on to my list. This year why not give bibles in the name of someone you love? Children's Hunger Fund

5. Hope Shirt - This shirt was designed and is being sold by Taylor's 6 year old sister. She has always had a heart for Haiti and knows the importance of food and shelter for everyone.

6. Project 7 Gum - Did you know for less than $18 you can buy 12 packs of this gum and at the same time 10 fruit trees magically appear on our planet? Project 7

7. TOMS Eye Wear - The newest TOMS product! For each pair of glasses you buy you give sight to someone else. TOMS

8. Feed Bags - There are so many Feed Bags to chose from. Most feed people around the world but with the purchase of this bag, another identical bag is sent to Africa with medical supplies inside! Feed

9. World Vision Bike - You do not receive an actual bike but instead you help a girl continue to go to school safely by giving her transportation. World Vision

10. Holga Camera - $36 goes to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, New York Chapter. And this is just one of many gifts on this site that gives to tons of different causes when you buy products from them. Gifts that Give


For more gift ideas check out last year's TaylorFrankie list.

"Start Something That Matters" Book Review and Give Away!

We are so thankful to Blake and Spiegel & Grau for sharing this book with us! We both really enjoyed reading it and recommend it for anyone! Even though we are not bookworms we couldn’t put this one down!

Before we tell you about the story we want to tell you how awesome the book itself is. It's already inspiring tons of bloggers across the country who received it for free so we can tell you about it! And 50% of the proceeds from the sales are put into a Start Something That Matters fund to help inspired readers carry out their amazing ideas! How cool right? Now for the stories...

If you’re not familiar with Blake Mycoskie and TOMS (which how could you not be if you follow are blog? ;) then allow us to introduce you… Blake first experienced the need for shoes when he was traveling Argentina. He jotted down his thoughts along with a picture of the popular local shoe that he had been wearing while there. With this exciting new idea and his new Argentinian shoe-making friend, he left for the US with 100 pair of TOMS to see what he could do. This was the beginning of what we now know as the great, the amazing TOMS shoes! The start of something that matters as an idea, a movement, and a new way to do business.

Each chapter reveals a little more of the TOMS story and how the company grew to be the image that they are today. Blake also shares some nifty tricks from life before TOMS and lots of stories of other companies that have started with big ideas.

Another thing that we love about this book is that Blake backs up his strategies of starting something that matters with real life stories of challenges that every business faces when they start out. Like people saying that Wal-Mart would never make it and like Method seeing what’s wrong and doing what’s right. This book will motivate and inspire you to take your ideas, face your fears, and truly start something that matters.

(Check out more book deets and other reviews on the Amazon page!)

-----

Wanna read it? Wanna turn your passions into a movement for others?
Wanna share it? Know someone who has the passion to Start Something That Matters?
Answer these questions from page 36 and you could be the new recipient or giver of Start Something That Matters! :)

If you did not have to worry about money, what would you do with your time?
What kind of work would you want to do?
What cause would you serve?

Answer in a word or two, three sentences, or a paragraph! Just leave us a comment by Sunday and we will choose a winner in time for Christmas! Can't wait to hear what kinds of passions you all have!

Week 3 - Give More

Give More from Living Water International on Vimeo.

This week's theme [Give More] is coming at just the right time. Realizing that we are almost a week away from Christmas and we had not bought any gifts we went out shopping... walking around the store looking for something that would show our love to ones receiving them. Not the way I like to shop by the way... I like to know what I am getting for someone before we leave the house and not rush into buying something that could be meaningless and thoughtless. In fact my favorite type of shopping is shopping for things that I can use to make gifts with.
I remember one Christmas when Taylor and I were dating but living in different states we made a plan that for that year we would get each other 10 gifts, but the catch was that we had to make most of them and then the rest couldn't be more then a few dollars. I remember making a door hanger and buying socks and I remember receiving a box of rice crispy treats. The gifts didn't really matter, it was the love that we gave with them and truly the thought that was counted. Taylor knew I loved rice crispy treats and I knew she loved frogs so most of the gifts I got her had frogs on them. Plus seeing each other for the holiday was also nice.
 I guess what I am trying to say is that the real special gifts are the ones that connect us and those are not always the kind that fit under the tree. Spending time on something can be so much more valuable then spending money. So this year give more and by taking time to find the things that make the holiday really special.

Here is a little song to finish this thought out... take it away guys!

Week 2 - Spend Less

Just watched this video and was so excited to see Pastor Chris Seay at Ecclesia! Man, we miss our Houston church. Check out the video and read below as we continue to conspire together and spend less.

Spend Less from Living Water International on Vimeo.

Shopping is filled with a sense of promise. We’re promised comfort, status, better looks, happiness and joy, but do those promises really deliver? And what do they have to do with the promises of Scripture? If you’ve ever felt like we might have lost the point when we turned the birth of Christ into a season of frantic shopping, you will appreciate the second pillar of the Advent Conspiracy: Spend Less.

Spend Less isn’t about being a Scrooge. It’s about being free to celebrate Jesus. We hope you will reflect on the birth of Christ with us, and celebrate the fact that because some believers Spend Less, hundreds of thousands of people around the world are being blessed with safe drinking water, offered in Jesus’ name.

Like they said, you don't have to be a Scrooge to spend less. Try just giving one less gift. Try spending a bit less than last year. Try and make that list a little shorter. As we all conspire together it adds up.

We are forgoing extended family gift exchanges this year for starters. At about $20 per trade x the two of us x three families... that saves about $120! From gifts that aren't really needed to gifts that can mean hope and life for some one in real need. We will spend time with our grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and spend the money where it really counts. How are you conspiring to spend less this week?

CHF Toy Wrap 2011

This morning I got to be with the rest of the 300 people wrapping bears in San Antonio, Texas! Check out the video! We had a lot of fun and if you look really close you can see my sister's head when they pan through the SA warehouse.

LOVE:water + $10 Gift Card

Update: Gift Card to Living Water International have ended for the year.

Now when you order one of these in the month of December....

...you also get one of these!!!

A $10 gift card to Living Water International!

Now you or the gift recipient can decide exactly where your money goes! When you receive the gift card you can go here and pick a project. "Ugandan school kids" or "Unreached people in Peru" are just two causes you can support in addition to a list of 25 countries you can choose from! Each project tracks how much it has raised so you can instantly see what you are a part of!
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So visit our shop, choose a shirt, and get a free $10 gift card! [Give More]

Week 1 - Worship Fully

Advent starts today! We are so excited to be in this season again as we continue to figure out how to get back to the basics of Christmas. How to celebrate in a way that honors our King, our Immanuel and not stuff. Week 1 with Advent Conspiracy focuses on worship- "Worship fully." But also being conscious of what you are worshipping... are you worshipping the baby Jesus born unto us a Savior? or are you worshipping shopping? checklists? business?

We hope you share your thoughts as we go through this journey of Advent 2011 together! How will you choose to worship fully this week?

Here's a quick vid and devo from [AC] to get your worship juices flowin.

Worship Fully from Living Water International on Vimeo.

Christmas begins with a baby born in a manger. He changed the course of the stars and turned fathers’ hearts to their children. The heavens sang his praise as angels sang glory to God in the highest and on earth his peace. Shepherds praised God and traveled to Bethlehem to see him. Magi journeyed from the East to worship him. His mother treasured these things in her heart. They called him “Immanuel”—“God with us.” He proclaimed his presence to the end of the age.

What we do unto others, we do unto him.

Again this Christmas babies will be born in ramshackle homes. Herod will not try to kill them, but their drinking water will. Again Jesus will turn our hearts to children. We who still hear angels will journey to see Christ in the least of these. Our camels traded for drill rigs, we will bear the gift of life: clean drinking water, offered in Jesus’ name. Mothers will treasure these things in their hearts. This is full worship.

Worship derives from Old-English words meaning “worth-ship.”

What we give worth to is what we worship: possessions, God, shopping, children, money, Jesus. We worship all the time. Advent is a time to consciously direct our worship towards Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. A time to worship fully.