It’s Sanctity of Human Life week. I had no idea when I started writing this post. How appropriate!

When we lived in Ohio, I supported a Pregnancy Crisis Center that was in the next little town. I had donated all of our old baby furniture to them and would send a check now and then to help out. I’ve remained on their email list and I receive an email each week.

Oh, the heartbreak.

First, let me start by saying…. I’ve never had an unplanned pregnancy, so I cannot relate to these women on those exact terms. But I have had utter confusion and heartbreak and uncertainty, so on those core emotions, I can empathize with them.

But my troubles did not involve whether a baby should live or die. A baby who did nothing wrong. A baby who didn’t choose if this was a convenient time to be created. A baby who has as much right to live as you. Or me.

And I just have to say—how many of these woman would not find themselves in this situation if they followed the commands of God. Commands like “No premarital sex.” Or “No sex outside of marriage.” Seriously, look how many of them talk about “boyfriend” or “partner” or “teenager.”

And notice the ones who say they don’t believe in abortion, but are considering it. Really? So it’s ok to have a conviction against something, but when it affects you, then it’s ok?

God will forgive them if they repent and turn toward him. There will be no condemnation from Jesus as there should not be from us as we are called to be like Christ.

Anyway, the list. Please pray for these women. And for their unborn babies. Pray these children are given a chance to live. A chance to be with a family that will love them. And pray that these women will refrain from getting in these situations again. Pray that their hearts will be turned back to God and away from the empty promise that sex with a man (other than their husband) offers.

Please pray for these considering abortion:

*woman 8 wks; doesn’t believe in abortion but is confused; already has child; boyfriend doesn’t want a child; thinking about adoption also

*mother called for her daughter; wants abortion; just found out about pregnancy

*woman has 9 month old child; had ultrasound; has conflicting emotions about abortion but is leaning toward it.

*woman 4 wks; single mom with 2 children; one is very young and the other has severe disabilities; concerned about risks of abortion; has abortion clinic appointment at end of month

*22 yr old; 5 wks; has 3 children; unsure; pressured to have an
abortion

*older woman; her youngest child is 17 yrs old; wanting abortion

*woman working on her Masters; both she and her partner are in school
and working; doesn’t believe in abortion but is thinking about it

*woman 25 yrs old; has 4 and 6 yr old; is 5 wks; going back to school

*13 yr old; 16 wks; has no support; her mother has passed away

*25 yr old; has 3 children; pregnant by someone other than her
husband; has ultrasound appt

Please pray for this other request:

*woman 12 wks; has 4 children; is divorced; considering adoption; had
previous abortion

PRAISES!:

*teen mother gave birth to a baby girl

*had a Spanish interpreter for woman; could do ultrasound right away; she chose life after she saw her baby

I’m not condemning these women. Believe me, I’ve had my fair share of sins that I needed God’s grace for. There isn’t a day that goes by where I’m not doing some stupid thing that puts a wedge between me and God. But there also isn’t a day that goes by where God doesn’t remind me that his son Jesus died and rose again so that wedge can be taken out. Again and again.

And I know, for a fact that every single one of these situations can be turned around for God’s glory! He’s fully aware of what’s going on. None of these pregnancies surprises him. And he’s waiting there with open arms to embrace these women who feel lost and confused.

If you’re interested in helping fund a place like this, you can donate here.

(for simplicity, I’m going to write from a wife’s POV, but should you be here and you are a husband, just flip the terms to be relevant)

What if your husband….

….needed to check his email on your computer but it was already logged in to your email account?

…..asked to look at your Facebook/MySpace/Twitter private messages?

….looked at your text messaging history?

….looked at your cell phone records?

….checked your browser’s history?

….came home early from a business trip?

….saw how you interacted with the trainer at the gym?

Would any of these things make you a bit nervous?

Do you have email accounts, or Instant Message accounts, or social network accounts that your husband doesn’t know exist?

Have you consciously set your internet browser to clear your history when you exit the page?

Would you give your husband your usernames and passwords to every single account?

Have you ever confided in a man things that you wouldn’t discuss with your husband?

Have you ever done anything behind his back that you hoped he wouldn’t find out about?

Have you ever paid cash for a product or service so your husband wouldn’t be able to track the credit card transaction?

Are you living in the truth in a God-honoring marriage? You’re deceiving your husband and yourself if you aren’t. But you aren’t deceiving God. While your husband may or may not find out about these things, God knows. He knows your actions. He knows your heart. He knows your motivations. And you will be held accountable. God will ask the hard questions someday.

Do you have someone in your life now who has the courage to ask you the hard questions before it’s too late?

As I suspected, week one of Pastor Joel’s Marriage series was phenomenal!

Even though Mike and I have a 100% transparent marriage, there are definitely some areas we can work on to make it even better. More to come on that subject in another post.

*****
Final week for big savings on the Weekend to Remember….click here for information. I’ve heard from a few of you that you’re going! How awesome! Please feel free to share this link with anyone!

Ok, ok. I know all of you Ohio people are going to laugh at me for posting this, but I’m taking the risk anyway.

It’s freezing down here!

I know, you’re going to tell me that 35 degrees isn’t freezing, technically. But I will argue that this picture was taken at 11:30 am…..after it had warmed up several degrees.

It’s definitely cold enough for this….

And this…..


But it’s not cold enough to keep the construction workers away. They’re working hard to transform my backyard into a house.


Tonight it’s dipping into the mid 20’s. And wind chills will be mid-teens!

I’ll survive. I just hope the oranges do too!

I’m a fan of K-love on Facebook.

I love me some good Contemporary Christian Music! But there is so much more than just music.

For one, prayer requests…
Ever have something going through your mind, or heavy on your heart, that you just needed prayer for? Even if you aren’t one to believe in the amazing power of prayer, maybe you’re at the end of your rope and you figure you’ll try it as a last ditch effort. Maybe it’s something hugely insanely personal that you’d just about die if you asked someone you knew for help. Maybe it’s a stronghold of sin you’re trying to get away from and you just need some encouragement.

The beautiful thing is, it’s relatively anonymous! Your name is required, but theoretically you could put a different name. Although, how many people are there in the world with your first name? They can’t track you down.

And then there is the encouraging word…..
Every day another scripture sent straight to your email box. Something to think about. To mull over. To take to heart. I’ve found that oftentimes it is the exact thing I needed to hear that day. Like a personal message from God saying, “It’s all going to be ok. I’m here.”

And then there is the blog….
This is actually the main reason I started writing this post. I wanted to encourage you to check out the K-love blog. They are having a 40 day challenge. It’s the Love Dare challenge. If you’ve seen the movie Fireproof, you’ll know what this is. If not, you can still do the challenge. No need to delay until Netflix can get the movie to you.

In fact, I’m late. The challenge started a few days ago.

So here’s your catch up….
Introduction to the Love Dare Challenge
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

And while flipping through, trying to scrounge up links for you, I found this….
Nineteen things to say to your children

Wow. I have to say, I stink at these. I have been given these precious gifts from God and sometimes oftentimes I fail miserably at building my kids up in this way.

You’d think I’d have figured this out already…
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another
Ephesians 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

(sigh) I’m always learning.

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Don’t forget…2 for 1 registration is going on now!

Wow, that sounds kinda stalker-ish, doesn’t it?

Lemme ’splain….

Statcounter keeps track of visits to Forgiven and Loved. But fear not, it is the most rudimentary of statistics. It tells me how many people visited the blog on any given day and how long they were here. It shows me a general map of where people are visiting from. And it shows me how people found my blog. For example….

On December 26th, someone from Houston was on Facebook and clicked on a link to my Saturday Photo Hunt “Twelve” post. Then they left. On the 27th, they were on Facebook again and clicked the link to my “Horrible” post. Next day, another click from Facebook. And so on.

I have no idea who this is. Houston is a big place. Lots of people.

Just saying all of this to comfort you. I’m really not big brother! But I do notice this….

Why do I care?

Because some of you live around me!

And I have an invitation for you!

This Sunday, Pastor Joel is starting a series that I am so excited about. It’s a topic that I’m on fire about. Can you guess? That’s right! Marriage!!

I encourage you, if you’re one of those dots on the map, to join us this weekend to learn all about marriage from a Biblical point of view. I fully believe that inviting God back into your marriage (after all, you invited Him in when you married in the church, didn’t you?) will change things for the better!

For information on Harvest Bible Chapel, please check out their website.

10:00 Sunday morning. Windermere Prep. Come as you are.

I recently posted all about Nick*, so I am not going to rehash everything I said about him.

But I will say…. Happy Birthday, Nick! I’m so excited to have been allowed to raise you for 13 years now. God has given me a huge responsibility and it’s not one I take lightly. I delight in watching you grow closer to Him! That alone gives me a hope and peace like nothing else.

Love ya, kiddo!

*Since I just posted a bunch of pictures of Nick, I thought today’s picture should be of two things he adores on this earth. Mo and L.

I’m so excited! Today is the day you can make a difference in your life, your marriage, your family! And you can do it much cheaper!

Remember this post, when I told you about the Weekend to Remember conference? And I hinted at big savings starting January 4th? Well, it’s here!

Time to save money! $129 to be exact!

Time to love like you mean it!

Time to fall in love all over again!

Head over here for the info and promo code: Mike and Karen’s Weekend to Remember Page

Comment here or email me privately (ohiominnie@gmail.com) if you sign up so I can pray for you specifically.

This, my dear blog readers, is why locals avoid Walt Disney World at all costs during peak season.

Unless Toy Story Mania was closed and reopened, I highly doubt it was only 30 minutes at 4:41! Either that or someone thought they’d be funny and updated the ride time incorrectly!


Now, this only goes up to 2 hour waits, but I have it on pretty good authority that some of these wait times were actually over THREE hours! YIKES!!

Our plans for tonight….well, Mike works until 11. Once he gets home, we’ll grab a glass of wine and walk to the lake in our subdivision and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks count us down to 2010! No lines. No drunks. No traffic. No having to get dressed up.

Ahhhh…..

Who doesn’t love saving money? There, now that I have your attention, read on and you’ll find out how you can not only save money, but fall in love all over again! Who doesn’t want those two things?

When you’ve been married 17 years, you figure you’ll just stay married forever. I mean, you’ve made it this far, right? How much harder can the next 17, 25, 40 years be?

While I always loved the idea of attending some sort of marriage conference, my ice-breaker shy husband did not. Therefore we never went. And in the process of 17 years of marriage, we grew to be two people living under the same roof. Or so it seemed. Satan has a sneaky way of isolating people from one another and then chipping away at all they hold dear. Without a firm grasp on God and a connection with your spouse, a marriage can quickly sour.

I’m not saying that Mike and I were heading for disaster, but left unchecked, it could have gone that way. In hindsight, which is always 20/20, I see lots of ways in which our marriage was failing. Or at the very least, not the way God intended it to be.

This past May, after a series of events that changed our hearts, we found out about FamilyLife’s “Weekend to Remember” conference. It sounded wonderful. And it was right here at Walt Disney World–just walking distance from our Disney Vacation Club Villa! All we had to do was snag a sitter for the weekend, and off we went.

Wow. And Wow. And Wow. What a weekend!! It was phenomenal! The conference covered every topic vital to a marriage–communication, fighting fair, forgiveness, sexual intimacy, and many more. It opened my eyes to many ways in which I’ve failed Mike through the years and how it contributed to us isolating ourselves even in the context of marriage! Now, I’m not taking blame for everything….because the handsome guy sitting next to me heard the same message and it opened his eyes to many ways in which he’s failed me. (And yes, I am talking about Mike!)

Since the conference, I’ve fallen in love with my husband all over again. And I’m more in love with him than I’ve ever been. More so than when we were dating, more so than on our honeymoon, more so than during the best moments of our lives together. I love him so much that when we’re apart my heart just literally breaks. He and I are truly one. Genuinely happy. And looking forward to many more years together. Really together. Not just living under the same roof!

And because I now know what love can look like, what a marriage can look like, how Satan can sneak into a marriage and destroy what God has joined, I am on fire to help other couples. I want them to look at Mike and me and say, “Even after all the crap they went through, they are so happy and in love. I want what they have!”

You can!!

No. This conference isn’t the magic pill. It won’t instantly heal every problem, soothe every hurt, or patch up every wound. But it’s a start. It showed Mike and me there was no way for us to “fix” our marriage on our own. We had to rely on Jesus for any real heart change. We are just thrilled that this conference helped us to realize that fact. Before it was too late.

And that’s where the opportunity for you comes in. Because we are on fire for strong marriages, we have signed up to be group coordinators for the upcoming Weekend to Remember conferences!! What does that mean for you?? Well, it saves you money. Lots of it! At the very minimum, it can save you $80 per couple, but during special pricing coming up in January, it can save you 50%! That’s right. a 2 for 1 special is on the horizon!

The beautiful thing is, you don’t have to be coming to the Orlando conference. You can take advantage of this opportunity and savings at any of the Weekend to Remember conferences around the country!

Check out the information page for the conference here: Weekend to Remember

Think about this…the average wedding now costs over $26,000! TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS! Wow! Isn’t it worth a couple of hundred dollars for a tune up now and then? Your car may have costs $26,000 and I’m sure you at least get an oil change and tire rotation now and then. Isn’t your marriage so much more important than your car?

Consider it. Decide to do it!

And when you’re ready to register, make sure you do it through our page: Mike and Karen’s Weekend to Remember Group Page

But like I said, there will be special pricing during select dates in January. Pricing that will save you even more! So stay tuned here on the blog for more information on when that will be.

I’m praying for you as you read this post. As you consider the options. As you register, plan, and attend the conference. Make sure you shoot me an email if you’re going so I can pray specifically for you and your spouse.

Your car always runs better after a tune up, or some new brakes, or the right timing on the thingamabob belt, right? I’m praying that this conference will help your marriage run better too!

Yes, me….the quintessential planner. Well, I’ve learned to go with the flow. Take things as they come. And rejoice in the changes because I know there is a reason for everything.

So yesterday the family planned out the day we’d have today–my birthday.

Get up.
Head to Disney to get my free $79 Birthday Fun Card.
Head to Islands of Adventure and ride some rides and then eat at Mythos for lunch.
Come home.
Watch a Psych.
Send Mike off to work.

But instead my day today started with the evening before….

Hit the sack around 1:00am, warm and toasty with Mike in the flannel sheets.
Hear a knock on the door at 2:30. Little Nick letting us know that KT threw up.
In the bed.
Nick’s top bunk.
Where she was sleeping for the night.
Clean up puke.
Clean up KT.
Go back to bed.
Wake up at 7 to find out KT threw up every half hour the rest of the night. I told her to call me if she needed me. She figured since she hit the toilet every time, she didn’t need me.
Have Mike call in a script for Zofran (a perk of being married to a pediatrician)
Pick up script, juice, popsicles, and sprite.
Drop off a nasty comforter and pillow at the dry cleaners.
Return home and medicate KT.
Watch TV most of the morning.
Nap on and off.
Run to Disney just long enough to do two things…#1 get my free gift card. #2 find out the Magic Kingdom was so busy today they shut it down for 3 hours and were most likely going to reopen it for awhile and then shut it down again.
Thank God that we didn’t attempt to go to Islands of Adventure today!
Cat-sit for the neighbor.
Come home and watch a lot more TV.
Watch KT stop vomiting and perk up throughout the day.
Praise God for the invention of Zofran!
Send Mike off to work. (about the only thing that went as planned!)

Sure, not the birthday I planned, but a joyous one all the same. My birthday doesn’t have to be all about me. Taking care of my family brings me more joy than any gift or cake or dinner out. Being surrounded by Mike and my kiddos was special enough. So many things to be thankful for today!