God was green to me.

A little over a year ago, we started going green with the variety of changes that take place to greenify a family. Recycling (and I do have to drive it to Waste Mgmt myself as we have no curb, therefore no cubside pick up, so there are no excuses folks), new bulbs, cloth napkins, more and more organic foods, natural cleaning products, line drying the clothes etc. etc.
I was pregnant with our 5th baby and wondered, if the Lord's return isn't in the lifetime of my children, or their children, what kind of earth will we leave behind because of the way we have thoughtlessly cared for our resources thus far? I wanted to change, to do better. To steward earth in a way that keeps us in awe of our God when we observe His creation.

In this green transformation, a wonderful surprise awaited.Utilizing resources wisely, and getting serious about conservation can lead a girl to ask herself lots of questions about how much her family truly needs. For us, it became more and more clear that the answer is shockingly little.

WE ALWAYS HAVE EVERY POSSIBLE THING WE COULD EVER NEED.

I can stop wanting for more.

Enough really is enough.

It is my personal belief that in our country, we live lives of luxury.
Our homes are luxurious, some more than others, some completely over the top, but all luxurious. They are sturdy and reasonably secure and offer shelter and protection.
Our food choices are luxurious.
We have everything and more at our fingertips in dozens of grocery stores.
Our clothing is luxurious.
We have work clothes and play clothes and dress up clothes and workout clothes and pairs and pairs of shoes.
Even our 'problems' are often luxurious. (Not always, there is true hardship, I am not referring to that.)
I find myself grumbling about the fact that I feel I have too little luxury and comfort. (I have been wrestling in my mind with my last vacation being 4 years and 3 babies ago...a 'problem' of luxury.)

Working to conserve led me down a road of more thoughtfulness about the way we live. I began to think two and three times about each of my purchases. Is this item really essential and how long will it be useful? Will it soon end up in a landfill?
That made 'stuff' much less desireable, and buying things much less fun.

I am ashamed to say, we were on a certain path. One that spent plenty of time thinking about the vacations we would take, the remodeling we would do, the truck we would buy, the tractor we wanted (remember, we're country).....Our fantasies were sadly about acquisition.

If we had not let go of our desire to acquire more/bigger/better we would not have found ourselves in a position to be willing to set aside the kind of money necessary to seek international adoption. We had considered adoption for some time, but there were plenty of excuses. No lack of "good" reasons avoid following in the direction our hearts pulled. Most of those reasons were financial. What kind of lifestyle would we be able to lead with that many children and how much luxury would we have to do without? How would be possibly set aside enough money to cover the expenses?

This is why my heart fills with gratitude for learning gruadually, over time, to lead a simpler, greener, and therefore less expensive life, which would ultimately allow us to work toward welcoming the children we now long for with our whole hearts.

I thank the Lord God Almighty for the recognition that more isn't really better.

I thank Him for the desire to conserve, which led to the realization that we could live joyfully with much less, which led to a more acute awareness of how little some people get by with, which led us to enormous gratitude for every thing we have and the recognition that we have done nothing to deserve SO much and we have SO much to give.

It has been a long process. One that is more involved than just "going green," but that certainly played a role in our change. Truthfully, we never have led extravagant lives, at least not by American standards. But, we certainly did think about the ways we would accumulate the material things we desired, on a regular basis.

We now want to conserve so that we have more to give.

Sometimes people call it sacrifice. I'm calling it Finally Waking Up to Reality.
Praising God for using greeness in our lives, which will enable us to make a more substantial contribution than we otherwise could have.

I am so grateful for God showing up in Green.