I've been thinking a lot lately about how we steward our finances and other resources. In the realm of adoption, I feel that if you take away all the selfish reasons for adopting or not adopting, we would have no other option but to keep adopting ad nauseum. Aaron's not convinced of this and since I know I tend toward the extremes and he tends toward the middle, I must admit I need to entertain his ideas a while longer. But, the same feeling applies to our finances. We have sooo much and so much of the world has sooo little. If we were entirely unselfish, we could live on a lot less (I think!) than we already do. I know that money doesn't solve poverty, but the people and programs that help, do require money. And we could have a lot to give, depending on how we live. It's strange to think of tightening the purse-strings when we're expecting two more kiddos and all the expenditures that come with them, but it's something that is weighing heavily on my mind and which I am struggling with God to discover what he wants us to do.

A thought-provoking quote stolen from another blog: "Too often we just do what makes sense to us and ask God to bless it. In the Beatitudes, God tells us what God blesses - the poor, the peacemakers, the hungry, those who mourn, those who show mercy....rather than do what makes sense to us and ask God's blessing, we'd do better to surround ourselves with those whom God promises to bless." (Shane Claiborne) And, I would add, to become the kind of people God blesses.

So, here I am, sitting at the computer, reading an article about an experiment in which participants engaged in a "No-Spending Month." The idea was to distinguish between necessities and wants, and to only purchase the necessary things. Very interesting reading. (Here's the link if you care to check it out: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/CouldYouStopSpendingForAMonth.aspx)

Meanwhile, Punk is prattling away about how he's going on a shopping trip with his pack-pack (ie-backpack--which was actually his life preserver!) and creating his verbal list of what he "needs" from the store. A small sample of things I heard him listing: hat, scarf, muttons (ie-mittens), pickles, uh-wivs (ie-olives), exercise machine, iron. Right, Punk. A 2.75 year old needs an elliptical machine. Good luck carrying that in your pack-pack. Of course, most of these are things he was seeing as he narrated his slow amble around the family and living rooms. Things we already have. I'm not sure where the idea for the pickles and olives came from, but, rest assured, we do have those too.