Serve Day

We went out on Saturday with our Community Group and BBQ'd with the homeless. We had a really great time! We are trying to stretch ourselves more and live more like Jesus. So often we just get stuck in our "comfort zones" and we don't step outside and love all others like He calls us to. One verse that has really convicted Brodie and I and caused us to make sure that we are really trying to love others with His love is
Luke 6:31-36:


³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you. ³² If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

We are so guilty of this! This has been a beautiful season of asking the Lord to search our hearts and show us the ways in which we need to grow in Him and surrender fully to Him. We don't want to hold on to our ways and miss His. This means stepping outside of our comfort zones and doing what He wants us to do rather than what is easy and comfortable. Brodie is so much better at this than I am...I am so glad that he is so action-oriented. For me right now, I am just obeying and asking God to fill me as I do  :)  And of course every time He does!!! I confess, I was a bit unsure about bringing the kids...I didn't know what neighborhood we'd be in, etc. But they were fine...they just jumped right in with serving plates up, picking up trash 

and of course eating all the great food!

Waiting on The Lord

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him;
those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land." Psalm 37: 7,9


The other night we were saying our bedtime prayers and we always pray for Kaylee. Kolson had such a heartfelt prayer asking God to "bring Kaylee soon because it feels like we are not even going to get a baby anymore". I so understand his prayer. Our hearts long to have her home with us, to know who she is and have a date set to go and get her. But as adults, Brodie and I can understand and even appreciate that the process and journey are so important to having her here with us. We know that God has stripped so much from us and He has so much more to strip...we have grown so much in Him these last 9 months. And He continues to remind us that 9 months ago adoption was not even on our radar...so who are we to try and rush Him now. We trust in His timing and even more than I want to know who she is and have her home right away, I want HIS Will, HIS timing, HIS Way. But for a 7 year old that is so hard to understand.


Dear Jesus, I pray that You will strengthen all of our hearts as we wait. Please continue to make us more like You and less like ourselves. I ask that You will put Your love in our hearts, Your patience, Your desires. Lord, Your Word says that we are to lay down our lives in order to find true life in You. O, how I can see that we have lived life so much for ourselves and only You can work in us to live life all for You and those that You put in front of us. I confess we need You to do this in us! So as we wait, will You please help us to consider everything a loss compared to knowing You! 
Help us to love others with Your love!!!






I came across this devotional today from CBN.com

Waiting on God Patiently

By Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray (1828-1917), was born in Cape Town, South Africa and became a revered missionary leader in the late 1800s and early 1900s, promoting and establishing missions in South Africa. His devotional writings are considered classics of the Christian faith. This devotional is taken from Murray's series of writings titled, Waiting on God.


If we truly set ourselves to wait upon God, we shall find that it is with Him we are impatient, because He does not at once, or as soon as we could wish, do our bidding. It is in waiting upon God that our eyes are opened to believe in His wise and sovereign will, and to see that the sooner and the more completely we yield absolutely to it, the more surely His blessing can come to us. 


The waiting is to teach us our absolute dependence upon God’s mighty working, and to make us in perfect patience place ourselves at His disposal. They that wait on the Lord shall inherit the land; the promised land and its blessing. The heirs must wait; they can afford to wait.It is resting in the Lord, in His will, His promise, His faithfulness, and His love, that makes patience easy. 


And the resting in Him is nothing but being silent unto Him, still before Him. Having our thoughts and wishes, our fears and hopes, hushed into calm and quiet in that great peace of God which passeth all understanding.That peace keeps the heart and mind when we are anxious for anything, because we have made our request known to Him. The rest, the silence, the stillness, and the patient waiting, all find their strength and joy in God Himself.


“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.”

Yes, for HIM. Seek not only the help, the gift, thou needest seek: HIMSELF; wait for HIM. Give God His glory by resting in Him, by trusting him fully, by waiting patiently for Him. This patience honours Him greatly; it leaves Him, as God on the throne, to do His work; it yields self wholly into His hands. It lets God be God.

If thy waiting be for some special request, wait patiently. If thy waiting be more the exercise of the spiritual life seeking to know and have more of God, wait patiently.

Whether it be in the shorter specific periods of waiting, or as the continuous habit of the souls. Rest in the Lord, be still before the Lord, and wait patiently. “They that wait on the Lord shall inherit the land."


Thank You, Jesus, for seasons of waiting. We PRAISE YOU for we know that You are at work even when we can't see You! It is when we can't see You that our faith is put into action. We trust You to bring us our Kaylee Grace in Your perfect timing. And we trust You to work so deeply in us in this process...that we will grow stronger in You, You will grow us to "consider our lives worth nothing if only we may finish the race and complete the task that You, Jesus, have given us - the task of testifying to the Gospel of Your Grace!"(Acts 20:24) I know that at the beginning of this journey when we first felt You call us I felt You say that through this process You would bring freedom and faith through it and I trust You for that. Thank You, Jesus..."for You who call us are FAITHFUL and You will do it"!!!!! (1Thes 5:24)

St. Patrick's Day (Celebrating Early)

The following is an exerpt from  Christianpost.com

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here is a little backstory on Saint Patrick himself.

At the age of 16, Saint Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland where he became a slave to the chieftain of Ulster. One night, after six years of slavery, Saint Patrick heard a voice, "Behold, thy ship is ready." He traveled two hundred miles on foot to a place where he knew no one and had never been. He wrote in his autobiographical account, "After this I took flight, and left the man with whom I had been six years; and I came in the strength of the Lord, who directed my way for good; and I feared nothing till I arrived at the ship. And on that same day on which I arrived, the ship moved out of its place."

Patrick made his way back to Britain, found his family, and could have lived out the rest of his life in relative comfort in the land of freedom. But in 432 AD, he had another vision.

Saint Patrick went back to Ireland as a missionary. No outside religion had penetrated Ireland in a thousand years. Saint Patrick founded more than 300 churches and baptized more than 120,000 people. His ministry was so influential that he came to be known as the one who "found Ireland all heathen and left it all Christian."

Wow! I learned this about St. Patrick a few weeks ago...I never knew all of this about him (I think because in America we make this day of honor about something entirely different).We had our yearly Irish dinner of Corned Beef and Cabbage and read this as a family! We celebrated a little early this year :)

Kolson helped decorate by making a Happy St. Patrick's Day sign!

R.O.C.K Youth Night ~ Reaching Out to Christ for Kids

We started something new as a family...once a month we are going to have a "Youth Night" where kids can come and grow in their FAITH! We had a blast and we were SO blessed to have our great friend, Jon Shabaglian,  come and lead worship for us and do the message! The kids loved him and totally related to his message...which was on Romans 8:38, 39...that NOTHING can separate us from the 

LOVE of God that is in Christ Jesus our LORD!!!

Truthfully, we know where we would be without Jesus in our lives and we just want these precious kids to have the opportunity to learn about God's love and just how great it is - that He sent His One and Only Son into the world to take our sin upon Himself so that "whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life"!!!

We had a full garage of kids 

that came to learn about JESUS and how much He loves us all!

Girls and boys...

All ages!

I am SO inspired to SKIP!!!

I was sent these videos today through email...
so simple yet makes all the difference to those in need!
Skip something, feed a child!!!


Skip1 PSA "Restaurant" [Francis & Lisa Chan Version] from Skip1 on Vimeo.


Francis Chan "Saving for the Future" from Skip1 on Vimeo.


Francis Chan "Happy" from Skip1 on Vimeo.

Another Powerful Testimony

My friend, Ann, sent me this video...just another reminder of how much Jesus loves us. We are each so precious to Him! And as we travel this road to our daughter, I am beginning to see just how special of a place each and every orphan holds in His Heart! He is the Father to the fatherless - that is so comforting to know and be reminded of as we wait. He holds her, He cares, she belongs to Him and He has chosen her for our family. We can hardly wait!!! Although, we feel so blessed to have this time together as a family to grow together as He molds our hearts to become more like His  :) At the end of the video, the husband talks about the kind of life he wants to live here on earth...that is so how Brodie and I feel!!! We want ALL that Jesus has intended for us... OUR LIVES ARE NOT OUR OWN ...and it is so great to get fresh reminders of that  :)  I heard a godly man say this today, "Lord, here is my life. I give You all of me. Spend me however You wish." And I joyfully echo that prayer!!!

Family Fun

Two weeks ago Brodie and Kennady went to the Father/Daughter Dance at school

This weekend we had Kennady's cheer competition

Kennady is the flyer on the right hand side of the screen

And some much needed football card time for the boys!

Work Day...

We had QUITE the work day around here! Brodie and I have been challenged lately to put our FAITH into ACTION! A couple of verses that we have listened to teachings on in the past few weeks have made that challenge really surface. One is Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, BUT ONLY HE WHO DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN." 
So we've been asking ourselves, "What is His Will?"  To LOVE Him above all else and to LOVE others as He loves. To help the poor and needy. Not just help them, but Scripture says to "spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed." (Isaiah 58:10). And in James we are told, "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. DO WHAT IT SAYS." (James 1:22)   We have realized how short we fall in the area of REALLY LOVING others as Jesus loves. 
We want to be ALL about His Will and His Kingdom 
but so often we just end up getting caught up in our own. 


As we have been praying about this and wrestling through our own selfishness, one of the things that has been put on our hearts is to reach out to our neighborhood kids. We are going to invite them over 1 x per month and have pizza, games and teach them about Jesus!!! We are going to open up our garage and hopefully fill it up with kids who need to hear all about Jesus, His love and the Sacrifice He made for them! This left us with a BIG project...cleaning out our entire garage!!! 
We worked as a team and got it done :)


We had one other project today. When we did our devotional time this morning, we prayed about how we can put our faith into action today. As we prayed, Kennady had my Grandpa on her heart, so we decided that we'd call him and take him to lunch (his very favorite thing to do!). Well, when we called, he was out in the backyard trimming some trees - he is 88 years old. So as a family we decided instead of taking him out for lunch, we'd drop by and help him.

He was happy to see us!

Of course, Brodie jumped right in and took over the tree trimming while the kids and I gathered up the branches and began filling the garbage cans with them (the boys did a little sword fighting, too!).  Once the trees were done, Brodie noticed another project that Grandpa could use some help with....

When the big wind storm came through a few weeks ago, his green netting that shades his patio ripped and blew into a big pile at the end of his portico. So Brodie had the great idea to lift Kennady up onto the structure and have her staple it back up. As Brodie was "stunting" her up there, Grandpa said, "You know I have a ladder." 

But Brodie has more fun doing things his own creative way! 

So he got Kennady up there and put her to work!

What a trooper she is to go along with her Daddy's crazy ideas  :)

And now we are off to dinner with Nana and Papa  :)

LOVE Month

We LOVE Valentine's month!!! When the kids were little we used to have "Jesus is LOVE" parties where they would invite their friends over and we would play games, have treats and hear a story about Jesus' love. This year we had a simple dinner at home. Kennady had softball practice and then she and Brodie went straight to cheer practice. While they were gone, the boys and I made a special dinner and decorated for our Family Valentine's dinner!

Keegan and Kolson set the table - they do a great job...they get practice most every night :) They also helped me make dinner! We had PINK salmon (all 3 of our kids' favorite), heart shaped corn bread muffins, spinach with PINK raspberry dressing, and vegetables with RED peppers...we tried to stick with PINK and RED!

Brodie and I LOVED having a special Valentine's Day at home with our kids! Here they are wearing their "early" Valentine's gifts...

Keegan and Kolson got Football jerseys of some of their favorite players and Kennady got clothes for softball and cheer practice  :)

Last weekend.....

We had a lot of FUN things that we did last weekend....
First, we got to spend the afternoon with Claire!!! She is so cute and fun and she is growing so fast!!!

The kids had so much fun playing with her...

And Auntie Julie and I had fun chatting...

Claire loves her owl and she loves it when we make the "hoot-hoot" sound!

After they left, Keegan put together a toy that Nana got for Baby Kaylee (who we are hoping to know who she is soon!)...

He has always been so good at putting things together...I think it comes from all the Lego building!

And since Monday was a holiday, Kennady got to see her life-long friend, Lauren! They made and decorated cookie dough pops and did some pretty great art work!

We LOVE long weekends!!!!!

Football, Softball and Family Fun

We had jersey day at school last week...

And Softball try-outs this week...

Went to the Cabin with Grandma over the weekend and did a little hiking...

Now we are looking forward to a 3 day weekend!!!

The Power of A Testimony

I find it fascinating that we have a Father in Heaven who loves His children so much that He will go to such great lengths to show each and every one His great love...even if it means taking ONE FAMILY from across the world and joining them to an ORPHAN who is lonely and desperate for a family so that they can adopt that orphan and give them a home and a family.  That is what He did for each one of us...He adopted us into His family by sending His One and Only Son so that we can follow Him as our Lord, be filled with joy and peace and have a home in Heaven eternally!!! 


Lifesong For Orphans is an adoption ministry that  seeks to equip the church so that each member can provide something for the orphan: 
"some to adopt, some to care, some to give".


Here is a video clip of one family's story... GOD IS SO GOOD!!!





Harper Adoption Story from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.





Just think...He loves each and every one of us as much as that precious baby that He chose for this family!!! All He asks is that we TRUST Him and RECEIVE His love! He amazes me and I stand in AWE of Him and His great LOVE!!!


Jesus, we praise Your Holy Name! I stand in awe of YOU and Your great love! Thank You for being a Father to the fatherless. Thank You for setting the lonely in families. Thank You for raising up so many wonderful ministries to care for the least, the last and the lost - for this is Your Heart! Bless each one of them as they go out in Your Name!


If you are wondering what part God may want you to play in an orphan's life, OR if you want to see where God is at work in the lives of orphans, 
here are some resources that may help! (as well as the links in the sidebar)


http://www.christianalliancefororphans.org/agencies-and-ministries/advocacy/


"if you SPEND yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your LIGHT will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday." Isaiah 58:10 (caps mine)


Jesus tells us that we are the LIGHT of the world (Matthew 5:14) 
If we want our light to shine, we must SPEND ourselves 
in behalf of the needy!!! So let's say it together, 
"Here we are Lord! Send us!!!"

Another update...

Last Wednesday we received another precious referral. She was a 10 month old girl with Clubfoot. We had her file locked for 72 hours for medical review. We sent it out to 3 different doctors and we began to pray. We really felt open to her need and excited about her and we decided that we would proceed forward, thinking that this may be the child that God has chosen for us. We asked HIM to open or close the door and give us wisdom based on HIS Will. Well, the very next day (just a few hours before we were about to submit our Letter of Intent to adopt her) we opened our email and our agency let us know that the Chinese Government had done something they had never seen them do - they pulled her file even though we had it locked and placed her with another family who had been following her for a few months. We took that as a clear "No" and we praised HIM who knows ALL THINGS! He already knows our daughter and He made it clear to us that that precious little one is not ours...
and the best part is that He gave her another family!

Friday morning I woke up and felt that Jesus wanted us to gather together and pray with others. So we sent out a few quick texts to a few friends that we thought may be available with such short notice and had them over to pray. We praised HIS Name and worshiped Him...we prayed whatever we felt Him put on our hearts, both for our adoption and for others in the room.

Mostly we just came back to praising and worshiping Him.

Our friend, Jon, shared from 2 Chronicles 20 where King Jehoshaphat was told that a vast army was coming against God's people, so he called a fast and began to praise God. He prayed, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." (v.12)  Then the LORD raised up a prophet to speak. He said, "This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow march down against them...You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you.' " (v. 14-17)

So early in the morning they rose and Jehoshaphat "appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise Him for the splendor of His holiness as they went out at the head of the army saying: 'Give thanks to the Lord, for His love endures forever.' " (v. 21)

"As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another. When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; 
no one had escaped." (v. 24)

We all agreed that this is what we felt Jesus did as we all gathered to praise Him...as we worshiped His Name, He accomplished more behind the scenes than we will probably ever know! There is  power in the Name of Jesus! And there is power in PRAISING HIS HOLY NAME!!!  I have no idea what He did on Friday night as we gathered, but I know that He moved mountains in our adoption process - we could feel His Spirit moving mightily!!! He is good all the time :-)

"Ah, Sovereign LORD, You have made the Heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You." Jeremiah 32:17

Adoption Update

We received a referral of a beautiful and precious little girl (12 months old) the other day. She had a cleft lip and cleft palate which would need to be repaired once she got home. We prayed about it and right away we felt the Lord pressing on our hearts to wait and to trust Him. So we called our agency and let them know that we did not feel that she was our daughter. We feel clearly that for right now we are to
"wait" and to "trust". So that is what we are doing  :)

Dear Jesus, please provide a family for that sweet little one.

Jesus is clearly at work...this is not looking at all like what we thought it would. But we feel a TREMENDOUS peace and excitement for what He has ahead. And in this time of waiting, He is drawing our hearts even closer to His ~ and nothing is better than that!

Dear Jesus, we praise You that You are Holy and good and that You hold all things together. You are all that we need! Your love reaches farther and deeper than we can ever imagine. Each and every orphan was knit together in their mother's womb by You and each one is precious to You. Please cover our Kaylee Grace ~ You know her intimately. You know how many hairs are on her head. You knew her before time began...and You knew that You'd bless us with her and entrust us with her precious life so that she may come to know You and feel Your love. Please let her be getting love from her caretakers. Let her be getting quality food that nourishes her body. May You knit our hearts together with hers even now by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Please help us to wait well...may we be patient to wait for Your timing and may we be drawn closer to Your Heart every day! In Jesus' Name, Amen.

"Audacious faith doesn't mean my prayers work every time. It means that God is working even when my prayers don't seem to be working at all." 
Sun Stand Still - Steven Furtick

Johanson Family Memories ~ 2011

2011 Family Prayer Verse: Philippians 3:7-8
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of CHRIST. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing CHRIST JESUS my LORD, for whose sake I have lost all things."


O Lord, may we as a family consider
EVERYTHING a loss compared to knowing YOU!!!

Our Favorite Family Memories of 2011~

January...

We went skiing as a family for the first time!
Thankfully we had 2 pros with us - Brodie and Alese :)

Kolson received the "Blue Ribbon Cub" award



February...

Kolson and I began enjoying our last semester of
"lunch" days after he'd get home from Kindergarten

March...

We enjoyed watching Keegan's Baseball season
(especially since he couldn't play last year because of a neck injury)

Kennady had 2 Cheer Competitions

April...

Our family went to the Beach for Easter Break...

We celebrated the RESURRECTION of our Lord Jesus!!!

Easter

Kennady started Softball season

And...We were the first to put our boat on the lake -
Brodie was a little excited :)

May...

Auntie Julie's/Baby Claire's Baby Shower

Jen's 35th Birthday

Kolson's Kindergarten Hat Parade

All 3 kids were in Miss Mandy's beautiful wedding

June...

Kennady received the "Block G" award

Keegan received "Blue Ribbon Cub"


Boy's Baseball Party...(Keegan's 9th and Kolson's 7th Birthday Parties)

Keegan's Team

Kolson's Team

Keegan in outfield

Kolson batting

Happy Birthday!!!

Church Softball started :)

And...

We started the ADOPTION process!!!
This is one of my favorite pictures - we had to
turn so many family pictures in for our application
so we started getting creative by trying to all line up on
the slide...which didn't work too well :)

July...

Kolson's actual Birthday :)

Baby Claire was born!!!

Ben and Alese's Wedding!!! We can't believe
our Miss Alese is all grown up and married!!!
She is such a beautiful woman of God and we are so happy
that she found such a great man who loves her & puts Jesus 1st!

Best dancers there!



August...

Our annual beach trip for the summer

Back to School!!!

September...

Brodie's 38th Birthday!!!

October...

Disneyland!!! Alese was able to
visit us since she lives near there :)

Brodie and Kennady stunting

Happy Fall!!!


November...

Kennady's 11th Birthday!!!

We love hosting Thanksgiving at our house :)

December...

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Gingerbread Men...

Parties...

More parties :)


And since Christmas we have had...

Lots of Cake Pop making...

Lots of Lego Building...

More lego building

And as usual...Football!!!



We are looking forward to all that Jesus has in 2012.
His ways are BEST and He is above all, over all and in all!


Our Prayer Verse for 2012 is Acts 20:24

"I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -
the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."

Dear Jesus, may we as a family consider our lives worth nothing to us. By Your grace, may we run this earthly race well and complete the task You have given to us as Christians - to tell of YOUR GRACE!!!
In Jesus' Name we ask this, Amen
































house :)