<![CDATA[BRIARWOOD ~ Virginia & Washington DC's Premier Sheepadoodles & Bernedoodles - Blog-Come Get To Know Us Better]]>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 16:13:20 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Signs of the Times]]>Tue, 07 Jul 2020 11:15:53 GMThttps://www.sheepadoodlepuppiesforsale.com/blog-come-get-to-know-us-better/signs-of-the-timesSo, I have not done a good job of keeping up with the blog.  Life just got so busy and I forgot all about it.  But God has been moving so much in our hearts.  I hear Him saying, "Get Ready, for I am returning soon!"    And the focus on getting ready has caused a shift in our life.   Yes...we were Christians before, DEFINITELY!  But we recently realized we were more earth bound in our living and almost rarely thought of Jesus return.  We don't want Him to return and find us asleep mentally.  We believe He is giving His people a wake up call.  Covid.  Civil Unrest/Protests.  Economic Downturn.  I literally read TODAY in my devotions Luke chapter 12, where Jesus says, "You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky but you don't know how to interpret the present time."  My prayer today is that the Lord can help me interpret the present times. Covid.  Civil Unrest/Protests.  Economy Downturn...

I also read in this same chapter of Luke this morning.

"Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.

Be ready to open the door and let Him in the moment He arrives and knocks.

You must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will return when you least expect."

And then later in the chapter it says, "A servant who knows what the Master wants but isn't prepared and doesn't carry out those instructions will be severely punished."

I don't want to be severely punished because I know the Bible says to get ready and yet I am not truly getting ready and instead am just living as normal.  I don't want to be severely punished because I am not paying attention to Jesus' commands in the Bible and making sure that I am focusing on them so I can be sure to do them.   Right now, I can't even remember all of Jesus' commands in the Bible.  So what our family is  doing this week, is writing down all of Jesus' commands.....His words.  His instructions while He was here on earth.   Each of our older kids and also my husband and myself.  And then Monday we are going to begin comparing our lists and make a master list.  We are going to type that up and put it up in various places in our house so we can focus on learning that list and implementing it into our lives.   Is this because we are trying to earn our way to heaven?  No.  No one can do that. We are only saved by grace.  God loving us enough to have His Son, Jesus, die on the cross for our sins.    We are doing this, because, as the Scriptures say, "if you love Me, you will obey Me."   I cannot say I intend to truly obey, if I don't even try to remember the things He is telling me to do.     May God give us the time to make this change in our lives.  I want to love Him better!

May God Bless you today!   ]]><![CDATA[------------------ Memories -----------------]]>Sat, 19 Jan 2019 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.sheepadoodlepuppiesforsale.com/blog-come-get-to-know-us-better/-memoriesWould I do life, make decisions, and feel emotions the same way I did yesterday, and the day before if I knew this would be my last- or - would I look back at where so many beginnings began, and the journey thats unfolded along the way, and choose to release disappointment, sadness, and mistakes I carry to make room for one last full day of living life as it should've always been lived.
While gazing through the various windows of our life showing what we've gained and lost as the years have gone by, I would be careful not to dismiss the hard times, the experiences that reshaped us, and the events that changed everything- perhaps forever.
Remembering every detail of every happy moment and how it came to be, would in itself become a happy space.
But just below the surface of things, yet running through the course of everything I can see when the call of God on our life was born, and from there, how it connected us and all the things that have happened to us from our beginning into this future that is now our present, and wonder out loud, what if…

If I were to dream…within the context of who God truly is… a being like non other- who makes and creates, saves, and judges. Not reducing Him to life giver,  sustainer, healer from my pains, or the one who fights all my battles.  Yes, the one the bible reveals to revel in taking nothing and making something, multiplying little into much, and giving us similar to Himself, a special ability too often missed- the power of making memories. Memories, simple and subtle available to be made each day, but are often planned away, in the hustle and bustle of preparing for an uncertain future.  

Curious how difficulties that leave scars stay in our grasp for so long yet happy memories apparent as they can be often feel distant, beyond our capacity as man to relive in its fullness, or duplicate in its entirety and slips to easily through our hands.
Maybe living each day like its our last as impossible as it seems, is the catalyst to making memories big enough to carry us across the river of hard times that our calling requires us to cross. Could the memories we take the time to make become the light that helps navigate through the black days and sleepless nights. 

And could it be that Gods gift to His only son
in His darkest moment were the happy memories of His mothers hug, his disciples laughter, and the look of that one beggars eyes He stopped
and touched in the street one seemingly insignificant day… Perhaps the weight of the cross was made slightly less unbearable because of each moment like this...
A maker, whose most wonderful attribute is love that inspires Him to create, has clearly spoken that mankind His greatest masterpiece are made
in His image, yet how often we miss the opportunity to create… to make those memories that help us bear the weight of the world, that bring laughter through tears,
a smile in the midst of sorrow, healing in pain, and hope when the precious things around you are devalued and crushed. Create we must.
Be intentional about making memories, living life today as it truly is... The only day, the only moment within our grasp.

To Love fully, laugh freely, and bask in the sunlight of 
our Maker whose image we are made in… to fulfill a calling and a certain destiny with joy. A joy that streams from the memories we make the time to create today.]]><![CDATA[Parenting wounded children]]>Tue, 25 Dec 2018 07:42:56 GMThttps://www.sheepadoodlepuppiesforsale.com/blog-come-get-to-know-us-better/parenting-wounded-childrenWe seek education, we learn new skills, we do our very best – and we make many mistakes in the process.  Yet, we do not determine whether our children are healed or not – or how quickly that healing comes.  We are vessels through whom God works his will and his healing power in the lives of our children.​

Recognizing the challenges, though, I argue that adoption and foster care of older children is absolutely positively worth it IF you can manage your expectations. Your expectations must be set very low. It may feel like that child is yours after only a short time -or-  you may never feel like that child is yours. In the same way, children who come to you with a decade-long history somewhere else may never feel emotionally “attached” to you, either. That doesn’t rule out a relationship with an older adoptee that is just as good as any other relationship as long as you don’t impose your relationships with your other kids onto your expectations for your relationship with an older adoptee.

]]><![CDATA[When the Healing Never Comes]]>Wed, 14 Nov 2018 02:02:32 GMThttps://www.sheepadoodlepuppiesforsale.com/blog-come-get-to-know-us-better/where-the-healing-never-comesThis blog and video was made for someone close to me who is going through a dark season, where the light at the end of the tunnel is just beyond sight.- “Where The healing never comes”. So to those who have adopted, to those who have visited the widows, and to the rest of you who have offered your life to save the hopeless I dedicate these words and short video…
You know who you are. The scars reveal the choice you made, to follow the only living God into the unknown, in obedience and faith, only to enter a season of disaster that has lasted longer and brought more Hell on earth than you knew possible. 
And now you are searching... grasping for answers... but remember this truth- with God it’s not "just for a reason that everything happens the way it does”. Every tear, every heart ache, every dismissal by those who were suppose to be in your corner, is all doing something… Something that living all your days in the warmth of the sun and the praise of your peers could never do…
It is bringing about perfection in your soul. It is making you into the very image of Christ who is the author of our faith, who himself learned obedience through suffering. So suffer well. Never forget that in all you go through no matter how lonely the road, and deep the pain, God is right beside you, capturing every moist drop from your eyes, collecting the pieces of your broken dreams, hurting with you, yet providing grace that will sustain you even as your hands tire and your feet wobble from the journey that's been too long and cost so much…
No it’s not meaningless- God has never loved you more or been more proud of you then in this moment when your heart is breaking, yet you drag what's left of you forward, refusing to give up...  Sometimes when all
you can do is stand again, but the force of another tragedy blows you over- its His arms that you fall into that He wanted you to be in all along. The safest, most wonderful and peaceful place in the universe. A place that can only be found when we are emptied of all that we hold dear, and hold open, empty hands up to our Father who grabs hold of them and refuses to let go, as He carries us step by step into a glorious, unimaginable never ending relationship, where all the broken pieces of our life reveal how deep , how wide, how high, and high long is the Father’s love for us, forever and always,  for all eternity.
https://youtu.be/AwAJNbuDE04
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