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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Amanda of RDD (Guest Post + Giveaway)

Are you guys just the luckiest readers or what?! You know why? Because you're reading my blog. Duh. ;)
Hehee I'm just kidding!!! Today I have another fabulous lady guest posting!! Can you guys guess who??
Can ya can ya can ya????
Probably not. Because you know, she's kinda a big deal in the blogging world. And I'm just starting out. So you're gonna be like, "no, she's not posting here!" and Imma be like "uh, yeah she is! *insert hair flip here* people just love me, okay." ...okay I'm just kidding. {maybe}. But she is a big deal!!!
Do you guys know Amanda over at Royal Daughter Designs? I'm sure that you do, she's amazing!!! I kinda flipped for joy when she agreed to guest post! And then she threw in something that surprised me!
~drum-roll please~
A faaaabulouuuus giveaway!!! {yes, I did say that as if I was announcing you guys won a braaand newww carr!!!}
I didn't think she was going to, because did you know she had 30 days of giveaways on her blog?? It was insanely awesome. OH OH and I won something from it!!! Can you guess what?
A blog design from Amanda herself!!! So keep your eye out for some amazing eye candy changes around here. I can't wait! Anyways, enough with my ramblings. On to the star guest!

~~~

Hi y'all! I'm Amanda, the creative mind behind Royal Daughter Designs. I'm a country girl, farming and ranching on eight beautiful Texas acres. My husband, Mr. E., is a minister and a seminary professor and I'm a small business owner and a graduate student. I'm a has-been foster mom, a self-proclaimed animal lover, laundry procrastinator, sweet tea junkie, and high-heel hater.

Last September my husband and I became first time parents to three foster boys, ages 10, 11, and 15. (My husband and I aren't even old enough to have a 15 year old!) Our boys lived with us for almost six months, and throughout their stay with us people told us how brave we were.



I'm not brave.
Really, I’m not. But for some reason people kept telling me how brave I am. As if doing something completely crazy is automatically equated with bravery.

Three boys.
Three.
Boys.

How is it that the idea of taking in three boys is both reminiscent of a classical piece of literature and a modern day suspense thriller movie at the same time? 

How is it that my heart was filled with love and compassion for them, yet also afraid for them? How is it that my mind knew the craziness of it all, and knew that if it was His will, it wasn’t crazy? How is it that my heart was filled with excitement when the paperwork came in the mail, yet sank in fear at the thought of sending it in? The dual-mindedness was quite vexing!

I wanted my motives to be

pure
righteous
honest
God-honoring
selfless

I wanted to be obedient and surrendered to Him. If He asked me, I wanted to say yes.  And only if He asked. I didn’t want to say yes to anyone but Him, the only One who has the right to ask me to such a thing. That endeavor was so much bigger than me. So much beyond my ability. No one else had the right to ask that of me. And when He but whispered, I was compelled to say yes.

And in our hardest times with our boys, I always heard Him.

Trust me.

He'd nudge my soul with the reminder to trust Him.

To trust that if He asked me to do this:

I will never be alone.
He will equip me.
He will uphold me.
He will sustain me.
He will empower me.
He will give me wisdom.
He will receive the glory.

Throughout the process I realized that it wasn't about me, or our boys at all. It was always all about Him.
Thank you Rachel, for allowing me to share a little piece of what the Lord has taught me over the last year. Y'all can get to know me better over at my blog, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

~~~

Isn't she amazing? And I must say. Not many women can pull off brunette and blonde! I'm totally jealous. Head on over to her blog, follow her, and say hi! You won't regret it!!! Okay, ta ta for now!

psych.

You didn't think I forgot about the giveaway did you? Amanda is generously giving away the following prints!


Mannn. I'm jealous. I want to win these!!!
And you know what's even better? She's actually going to print them out and send them to the winner. How amazing is that?? So getta entering!!!! {oh, and puhlease be honest. I will be checking. Loves and hugs!}


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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