Julie Gumm - Author

Absolutely Ordinary

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Last Saturday Mark got to speak at a local Orphan Awareness Seminar at Vineyard Church in Peoria. It was all coordinated by Marianne – awesome mom to the awesome Jen.

Mark did an awesome job talking about God’s call to care for the orphan. Then Jen followed it up talking about their family’s story and how they are not extraordinary. They are perfectly ordinary.

That’s been playing over in my head since then. (Of course she said a bunch of other REALLY great stuff too.)

Then today I read this post over at Storing Up Treasures.

Adoptive parents are not to be idolized. We are human. We are broken and we do NOT have it all together.

We are ordinary.

Financial Freedom Means You Can Do Crazy Stuff!!

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So in November 2007 we did IT. We paid off our mortgage!! Making that last electronic payment caused great excitement.

A couple weeks later we received a letter from Wells Fargo. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I felt like it should have been accompanied by a gold-leafed certificate or have made a kazoo noise and showered confetti on me when I opened the envelope. Just a letter on Wells Fargo letterhead.

Oh well. I still stuck it up on our refrigerator for a couple weeks.

Suddenly there was this influx of “extra” cash. Woohoo!! Mark and I went on a cruise to celebrate.

Alone.

Without the kids.

(Mark wanted me to be sure to tell you that we hadn’t completely lost our minds. We got a heck of a deal on a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise that cost us about $1,000 total include flight to LA, shuttle, etc.)

Guess what I brought on the cruise?

Stacks of adoption agency brochures 🙂

So we had all this extra cash that we could use to finance the adoption. Right?

Well behind the scenes, and for some time before even, Mark had been wrestling with his ministry job. Was it really where God wanted him? Was this the best use of his spiritual gifts? etc. etc. He prayed, and waited, and prayed and waited. Kind of a “Okay God, I will go but WHAT do you want me to do.”

But he just kept hearing “Go”.

Um, who voluntarily quits their job without a new one lined up? Or at least a general direction? Crazy people right?

Or….people who have options.

People who have no house payment, no car payments, no credit card bill.

Of course I like to assume that we would have been obedient even IF we still had that house payment. But it was sure a lot easier this way.

Yet one question remained.

How would we pay for the adoption?

To be continued…

Clothing Diet

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It’s been amazing to me how much I’ve seen on the news in the last few months about “clothing diets”. Turns out there’s a whole group doing the no shopping for a year thing. I’m not sure I’m ready for 6 items for 30 days though.

So we’ve passed the halfway mark. I’m looking forward to getting down the bins of winter clothes. Except of course it’ s not really cold in Phoenix yet. Heck, this week we finally made it down to the 70s for the high. Brrrrr!

There have been a few “special occasions” lately where typically I would have gone out and bought a new outfit, or at least a new top. Instead I got creative with what’s in the closet and my jewelry. Truth is that once you’re at the event you’re having so much fun it doesn’t really matter.

The gauntlet Mark threw down last April was mostly about money. But for me the purpose of this challenge, other than proving to him I can do it, is to truly discover why I shop. What are my motivations behind what I buy and how much I buy?

The first is Boredom with a capital B. I’m not sure if this affects all women or just some but I get tired of the clothes in my closet. Maybe because I’m a somewhat creative person I find more of a “personality outlet” in what I wear. Not sure. But I am getting REALLY sick of the clothes in my closet.

Second is vanity, pure and simple. Which is weird. Because really I’m not the type of person that cares what people think about me. So why am I trying to impress people with what I wear? Still thinking on that one…