Somedays my blog posts are light and fluffy. Somedays they are passionate for the orphan. Always they are filled with the faithfulness of God. Today though I have to share a bit of my past so that you can hear my heart about my present.
As I’ve eluded to many times before here, my growing up was anything but ideal. Abuse was rampant and life was painful every single day. The only word to describe my dad, for me, would be “cruel”. Some day I will write more about it, but really, I lived in fear any moment that my dad was at home. His almost daily threat was that he was going to kill me. It was a not flippant sentence. His form of discipline was going to the knife drawer and pulling one out.
Not really pleasant words, but a bit of background so you are better acquainted with my life and and my full emotional healing brought about only by Almighty God. I was thinking the other day about what I used to play when I was a little girl. I always played alone. I never wanted to have friends over….what would they think of me if they saw my dad like that? I never wanted to go anywhere else to play….if my home was scary, what went on in other people’s homes? I definitely was not brave enough to find out.
Back to what I would play when I was a little girl. I would always play that I was the wife of a military man…my husband was deployed in VietNam and we had a baby girl, my doll (who was black!!) =) How God must have smiled knowing that one day I would have two children (so far) from Africa.
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Anyway, everyday I would play that the camera crew would come and interview us as to what it was like to have my husband deployed. And do you know how I would end every “interview”? I would always say, “But God has been sooooo faithful.” 
I read my Bible as a little girl and saw God’s faithful hand throughout my life, even in the midst of the pain. I would lay awake and pray each night and talk to the Lord. He was so faithful. He brought me out of all that pain…and healed me from all the abuse. And don’t misunderstand for a second…I love my dad. I have completely forgiven him. (I am only sharing what my childhood was like.)
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So you can imagine what my prayers were like when I was growing up. Begging God for a husband who was the opposite of my dad. A man who would love me and our children, who would be tender and who would represent Jesus in everyway. Oh how He answered all those prayers.
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Last week-end our church sponsored the first Annual Daddy-Daughter Dance in our community. There were almost 200 men and their daughters. My eyes welled with tears as I looked at my precious husband as he prepared to take our three little princesses to the dance. They were beaming and so was daddy.
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Liberty looked stunning….she was wearing the dress Emma wore for the Autumn bash in the fall…again an Antique store find…
God’s infinite love and grace being shown in a tangible way to my heart….look for yourself…..three little girls being shown day in and day out how a daddy is supposed to be….a daddy who loves them unconditionally, who treats them with tenderness and respect, who points them to Jesus, who supports them, who will always treasure them and would never, ever, ever consider hurting them.
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Grown up Princesses walked through the “ballroom” ….(Daddy, Emmy and I found her dress at an antique store for $19.00 and it was gorgeous!)
One princess and the prince….
One princess and the prince….
And let the record show….that the Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving God who delivered me and set me free, has blessed me more than words can say – how I will praise His name until my last breath!!
Beautiful….
Linny that was so sweet! God is good!
Linny, I am so sorry to hear about Autumn. I was hoping, since you had not posted about her, that she was better. The following is advise concerning the chemo from personal experience. (I will NEVER take it again)
1. The foods you eat are very restricted … if you choose to follow the regulations. Plain
jello goes down easy. NO red meat or pork. The only meats are chicken and seafood, NOTHING fried. No fresh uncooked vegetables, NO fruit. Don't EVEN look at anything that contains tomatoes or tomato product (they are a fruit). That limits a lot of the food in the winter. NO chili, stew, or spaghetti.
2. There is medicine that will slow the nausea. I was allegic to the most expensive and the common drugs. They literally had to knock me out for 5 days.
3. There is good over the counter medicine for constipation.
4. My mother (God rest her) believed in spinach and beets for blood building. I detest beets, but I remembered this 'cure' and ate 1/2 box frozen spinach and 1/2 of the smallest cans possible of beets for lunch. (I looked up beets and they have no blood building qualities, but I ate them anyway)
5. Vanilla ice-cream is not just for dessert, it is a meal! I discovered this late in treatment, wish I had known sooner! LOL When vanilla 'worked' I did not dare try anything else.
Pass this on to Autumn and I wish her the best. This is a terrible time and she needs prayers for strength. When people offered to pray for me I asked them to ask for strength.
God, give Autumn the strength to make it through 5 more minutes. When she is able, give her strength to make it through an hour. You know that she is struggling. With Your help all things are possible. Thank you.
Beautiful! Wonderful! Such a precious gift your sweet husband is from your LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER!
The girls all look so beautiful..I bet they had so much fun!
AMAZING!!!! Thank God for WONDERFUL HUSBANDS!!!!!
Oh Linny, you're making me cry. The girls look magnificent!! Liberty is Stunning!!! What a beauty.
they all look like Princesses but I don't see Liberty as much(in pics), she really looks lovely.
My crew just scurried out to our schools Father / Daughter dance tonight.I'm enjoying so unusual quiet time with Em and Andrew.
oh linny – your girls are beautiful!!
Fantastic God. Fantastic Daddy and Husband you have. What a gift. One of my son-in-laws has a very special relationship with his tiny daughter. He knows the language of her heart. It's such a thing of beauty whether he's snuggling her, pouring her and her dollies tea or making her a diamond necklace himself. (Clear assorted plastic beads) These men do reflect the Father's heart. PTL
My precious Godly husband is at a Church sponsored Daddy Daughter dance as I type. I just finished taking pictures and sent them on their way.
Thank you for sharing once again the hurt and pain that many others may be going through, but know there IS hope through our HEAVENLY FATHER whose love NEVER fails!
xoxo
S.
P.S. I'm headed back to China! This time as support for my friend who is a single mom adopting the sweetest and most beautiful SN 22 month old!!
These pictures are amazing and I'm brought to tears as I read what you wrote. It makes me want to pray even more every day for my sweet daughter's future husband and for my husband to be the daddy that God created him to be. Thank you for sharing! And I'm rejoicing with you in God's faithfulness.
lots of love,
jenn
There are few words that express how I'm feeling right now. What an incredible post and what a precious father/daughter dance. What a beautiful idea!!! What wonderful memories. Hugs and love
Wow, we have very similar childhood stories. From abuse to playing that your hub was away at war. It is my goal this year to find my way to forgiveness for my Monster (mother's husband). I so badly want that but just don't know how!
Linny-
How inspiring your story is. While my childhood was not as scary as yours, it was for sure less than ideal. I grew up thinking I would only marry to divorce, and have children that were seriously messed up. God has conquered those fears in me and has given me an amazingly Godly man. One day we will both have and adopt children and we will do what we can to show them the Fathers great love. Thank you for being so open about your past. It shows the change is possible 🙂
Amazing! You are amazing and God's grace is AMAZING!!!!! So glad that you came through your childhood nightmare and have had healing and now so many wonderful blessings! Thanks for sharing! The pictures are great! You do have very fortunate children to have wonderful parents who are showing them the way to the Lord and who are loving them the way that you and Dw are.
What a BEAUTIFUL night!! How very special!
I completely understand. My husband was raised by an alcoholic, terribly abusive dad. How my husband turned out so normal and such an amazing Dad himself was only an act of God!
He's a man of God completely and totally in love with his children! God is good!
Amazing that same awe-inspiring, mountain moving, miracle working Almighty Father set me free as well and blessed me with you know who and for that I will be grateful all the days of my life!!!
BTW he is closer to 50 today!!!! We are having a date in our bedroom after the littles go to bed. Picking up some food from Kevin's restaurant to eat in bed, watching a comedy together and hanging the sign on the door!!
Loving you!!
They look beautiful, precious, and deeply loved. Jubilee's huge smile always cracks me up. What a sunshine! Thank you, Jesus for husband's/Daddy's who love You and love their families!
Very sweet pictures! You are very blessed and your hubby is one lucky guy too!
Such beautiful pictures and an awesome example of our loving Father!!!
Oh, Linny, God is faithful, and thank you for testifying about His goodness!
You are blessed, dear friend!
Love~
SO SWEET!!! I love how He can take away and heal our pasts and give us SUCH futures that effect those way beyond us!!!! All such beautiful girls!
Amen and Amen! I am so glad that you got the picture on my facebook! 🙂 Every snap I took of them I thought I hope Linny can use these! 🙂 It brought tears to my eyes as I watch DW dance with his princesses! 🙂 Yeah Jesus for hearing our hearts cry! 🙂
Another tear-jerking, heart-warming post! As a mother to 3 boys, I treasure the pictures of Dw and your daughters.
On a side note, thank you for the chocolate chip pie recipe. I made two of them a few days after you posted the recipe. They were so yummy and gone oh, too quickly! I plan on making them for our Beth Moore Bible study this week. In fact, I think it might be one of those recipes, I don't know whether to thank you for or ban from the recipe file so that my jeans still fit…
Thanks, Linny!
Carla
I'm back to comment now that the tears have dried.
Only one problem–I just read through the comments, and NOW I need to dry them again.
Hold on . . .
Okay.
Linny first of all I praise HIM for hearing your prayers as a little girl . . . for giving you the strength to hold on . . . for rescuing you . . . for bringing you Dw . . . and ultimately for HEALING you, and setting you FREE!
Next I praise HIm that He uses your healed heart to minister to SO MANY. (As I typed that I just thought, "Wow, she really is a MOM to MANY, many more than the ten precious ones who call you mom). God is using your broken heart, now restored, to lead others to Him–in the midst of their brokeness. Thank you Linny.
Then there are the princesses (to include the grown ones). Oh my. All so different, all so completely loved by their daddy–and their heavenly Father. All such a picture of your healed heart Linny, such a picture of your hopes and dreams. God is so good. So very good.
Love you friend. Love you! Love you!
Tina– who married the military man, and whose first doll was also black. 🙂 xo
Praisin him with you Linny! Thank you Jesus!
Beautiful pics of your sweet girls and their wonderful Daddy! God is so good!!
He certainly is a Miracle-working, Mountain moving, Awe-inspiring God!
BEAUTIFUL! From the lovely 'princesses' to the love your husband has for his girls, for his FATHER, that he is a living example of His love!
I'm so grateful that God blessed you with DW. He was chosen for you so long ago. Our Father knew exactly the kind of husband you would need, and you DESERVED! I'm so sorry of your hurtful past, but I know you find comfort in seeing your girls loved by their daddy in the way you only dreamed. The good thing is that our Heavenly Father has never left you or forsaken you!
I haven't been commenting lately, and I'm behind on reading posts…but I sure have missed your blog! I think of you often and love seeing these photos of Princeess Jubilee dancing with her Daddy! 🙂
love you dear friend!
~ Tanya
Wow, Just, Wow. God is so good! That is why I pray for my kids spouses. The ones He has chosen for them from the beginning. I just can't wait to see who they are! God loves us so much He meddles in our relationships when we let him!
AND, I pray for EACH of your daughters…someday will have a loving husband just like their Daddy!
Our God reigns!
SO glad you get to experience our Heavenly Father's love! Oh, and Dw rocks too!
🙂
Isn't God amazing?!!!