There's nothing spectacularly different about me. I'm a sinner saved by grace trying to make the most of every minute I am given on this earth.

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I am a follower of Jesus. I am a wife. I am a Mother of Twin girls blessed by adoption. I am a crafter, deal finder, thrifter, and DIYer. I am a sister. I am a talker, and I ought to be a better listener than I am, but I am working on that. I am a friend. I am a daughter. 

 

My favorite thing to do is give new life to old things by creating something unique. I find my inspiration from the flea market, garage sales, Pinterest, Thrift stores, and TJ Maxx. 

 

My inspiration to create beauty in my home and in my life is my mom. She was always decorating and re-decorating our home as a child. Our favorite thing to do together was scope out yard sales and go to the flea market in search of undiscovered treasures.

 

You may have noticed how I said "was." My mom was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer called Multiple Myeloma in November 2009. She battled hard with faith unlike any I have ever seen for 3 1/2 years. We shared many precious moments during those difficult years, and I feel blessed to have had that time. We all will lose loved ones at some point in our life, and we were blessed enough to have a warning. Although, we were able to make the most out of our time together, it still seemed much too short. 

 

When my mom passed away in May of 2013, I listened to Laura Story's "Blessings" on repeat. We sang it at her memorial service, and still to this day, I can't listen to it without tearing up. The main theme is about recognizing that God is good through the difficult times in life and the good times, and that we need to  learn to praise Him among the trials because this life is temporary. The life we live on this earth is just a small dot in the long line of eternity - this is Not Our Home. 

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That's where the name of my blog comes from. Hebrews 13:14 says, " For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come." Although this world is not our home, what we do here and how we spend our time/resources on this earth does matter in light of eternity.

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That brings me to our present situation... After almost 3 years of trying to grow our family biologically, Last January we decided that God was calling us to step out in faith and begin the adoption process. In November, we received the best phone call ever - a birth mother wanted us to be the parents to her TWIN daughters!

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So I am now a twin mama to the 2 most beautiful girls! I am so grateful every day that God chose me to be there mama. You'll learn more about our adoption journey through my upcoming posts, so stay tuned!

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You may have been thinking the whole time - Jeez, doesn't it seem a little ironic that the name of your blog is Not Our Home, yet it's about DIY home stuff and raising kids in your HOME? It is ironic, isn't it? That's the point, I guess - This isn't our ultimate home, but I think it is part of God's plan for us to see beauty around us - in our homes, in our family, in our friends, in our work. There is a reason we are drawn to the beauty in nature and have a desire to create beauty in our homes. My goal of this blog is to inspire others to create beauty around them (on a budget) while focusing on the most important things in life - people and pointing them to God's ultimate purpose for their life.