A Picture of Grace....

We've been blogging for well over a year and a half now and never explained to anyone where the name of my blog came from. Normally, it's probably not very interesting to most, but it's a good segway into the theme of this post: Grace.

Our Sunday School lessons this summer have been on Grace and more recently, "Gracism:" the focus on race for the purpose of positive ministry and service. Gracism, defined by David Anderson, founder and senior pastor of Bridgeway Community Church, a multicultural congregation located in Columbia, Maryland, is exhibited in the following ways:

• I will lift you up



• I will cover you



• I will share with you



• I will honor you



• I will stand with you



• I will consider you



• I will celebrate with you

Before I delve into Grace more deeply, I want to elaborate on how my blog got it's name. Evangeline was my maternal grandmother's name. I love her more than life itself. She was born in the Azores of Portugual and came to the United States when she was somewhere around 11 years old! She was the light that kept me going and the savior from "Dysfunctin Junction" from my childhood. I loved her like no other. She passed away in 1991; I was in my mid-late 20s. I was devasted. As the years passed, memories of her resurfaced, especially lately. Little did I know then, but her life, the way she lived every day, was an example of Grace to me.

Grace is the name of David's aunt......Silly, but real story: he tried to climb into her casket when he was just a little boy.


Originally, before Pickles came home, I wanted to name her after my Grandmother. The day after our referral, both David and I woke up knowing we needed to keep her birth name. I never got around to changing the name of my blog.


Real life examples of how God showed up for me this week through His Amazing Grace:

I will honor you: Birth father to two of our children, whom we promised to raise in the Church, by wearing traditional Ethiopian attire at our children's dedication service last Sunday. We are so incredibly humbled by both his gift and our child's birth Mom, who still mourns the decision to give her child up.















I will stand with you: Special alone time with the child that needed me the most; God showed me Grace today through that special time....stolen time, because how I managed to find time today with this specific child could only be described as Grace.

I will celebrate with you: An almost 70 year old woman, aka Granny, getting on a bicycle for the first time in how many years, to share the joy, the freedom, of riding a bike with her grandchildren.













































I will celebrate with you: A much older brother, shares his love with his new siblings.


















I will consider you: A wife who holds her husband's hand and walks him through the little tasks that are now overwhelming to him after a brain hemorrage 5 years ago. What a perfect picture of grace. This women really inspired me today. I stopped to speak to her at the gym this morning after watching interact with her husband now for a few days. I found the courage to approach her today to let her know how much her unconditional love for her husband had inspired me to be kinder and gentler wife.

I will share with you: Grace, through an Uncle who lost his wife 1.5 years ago to cancer.....who advise on marriage is invaluable......

I will lift you up: Our church family, that continues to lift us up to the Lord in prayer, as we work through the transition of this adoption.



I really believe we are too busy looking for the "miracle," the really big, can't miss God experience. Yet we miss the little miracles of God's grace every day. I don't know about you, but I'm going to try, every day, to look for God's grace...it's there....abundantly, we've just been looking in the wrong places for it!

Some other photos from Sunday and the week!