I want to write something about my life and how it has been an amazing adventure with Jesus. He has taken me all over the world, changed my life and set me free from many emotional wounds and healed me physically and emotionally.
I was born in 1954 and adopted at 2 weeks old. I've always know I was adopted. My adopted mom was a perfectionist and very controlling. She loved me in the best way she could, but I never felt I could measure up. Add that to the rejection that a child feels when given up it just causes you to have deep hurts. I spent my life rebelling against that stuff mom wanted to put on me. Hindsight is always 20/20. The things I hated growing up, make me sad now. She wasted a whole life trying to make me into her image, and I wasted my whole life trying to get out from under that. Jesus wants us to help our children find who they are in Him.
As a result of those wounds I got into drugs and alcohol abuse and was kind of a hippy in the late 60s and early 70s. I met my husband and we were both into partying and having a good time. He came from a very dysfunctional family also. We married in 1977, and moved from California to Washington in 1981. God took us away from everyone and everything we knew and brought us to a place where we were desperate because we had no money and didn't know how we were going to live from week to week. I watched tv and the only channel we got had the 700 club. That's how I found Jesus. Bill prayed the prayer at the same time I did.
That started a journey of inner healing and deliverance for me. It took many years of counseling and prayer and God coming in to show me how much He loves me. It took much forgiveness for the things mom did in her own woundedness. It took repentence for my bitterness and resentment. Today I am a much more healed person, able to give and receive love, both with people and with God.
In 1995 God led us to sell everything and go to Youth With a Mission...starting our "Great Adventure". We went to a missions school in Montana and then off to Ukraine for an outreach. Our whole family went and it was a great experience. We learned so much about their culture and that was wonderful. My daughter and I traveled back there the next year to work with a church.
That started the most amazing part of our lives. When I turned 40, we started traveling. I always say...life begins at 40. Mine sure did. In 1999 Bill went to work overseas and we have traveled all over the world since then. It has been a blessing and God has worked in some amazing ways in our lives. Bill has been in 2 war zones and God has used him to minister to soldiers and also the local nationals in those countries.
I don't know what the future brings. But I know that we are on our Amazing Adventure and Jesus is at the wheel. It's an awesome feeling knowing that the God of the Universe has our lives in the palm of His hand. I can't wait to see what is around the corner.
