Archive for the Personal
Sunday, May 12th, 2013
Dear birth mother on Mothers Day
A few years ago, I wrote several posts about our adoption story. (They start here.) So you’ve heard from me, and I hope you’ve realized our gratitude to God for bringing Talitha to us and us to Talitha.
What you might not have heard yet is Talitha’s own heart.
This morning, she got tired of waiting for me to finish sleeping late and slipped onto the bed beside me with a kiss and a perfectly chosen card, and even better, her own thoughtful note written inside.
Later this afternoon, she sat on the living room floor leaning against the sofa where her daddy was sitting. She was intent on something she was writing on her computer.
Only later, when I opened my own computer, did I realize what she’d done. I went straight up to her room to hug her and thank her.
I suspect that some of you are birth mothers whose children are in another family now. This has been a hard day for you. I pray you might receive Talitha’s words of love and thanks as if they had been written directly to you.
Dear Birth Mother,
I have no idea what you are doing right now or even where you are. But know, you are on my heart, especially today. Today I celebrate not just one mother, but two. Two mothers who have been there for me in different ways. One has nurtured and taken care of me since I was 2 months and the other is you. . . .
Saturday, May 11th, 2013
What I learned by being my Mother’s daughter
I suppose none of us ever grasps all that God works in our lives through our mothers. I believe that is true even when growing up is hard. I’m thankful that so much blessing has come from my mother in the midst of our normal family–in other words, we are all very imperfect.
And so on this Mothers Day, with thanks to God for Mother, I share this classic post with you again.
Months before the celebration of Mother and Daddy’s 40th wedding, my sister Pamela dreamed of a quilt to honor Daddy and Mother and to express thanks for the years God had given them together.
Pamela recruited squares from each of the sisters and sisters-in-law. . . . Then Pamela assembled, quilted, and stenciled the gift for Daddy and Mother.
As I look over the squares of this quilt, from oldest child to youngest of us 10 children of George and Pam Henry, I’m reminded of a few of the things I’ve learned by being my mother’s daughter. . . .
Read and/or listen to the rest of “What I Learned by Being My Mother’s Daughter”. You’ll also find photos of all the family quilt blocks, the illustrations for my thoughts.
Happy Mothers Day, dear Mother! I love you.
Monday, April 15th, 2013
Retired?
Our Bethlehem family blessed us last night with a grand recommissioning service and celebration marking the end of our 33 years as a pastor’s family and the beginning of our next chapter.
My words to our brothers and sisters there touched on the parallels between Bethlehem’s growth and our family’s.
In 1980, Bethlehem’s Sunday congregation fit well in the old Sanctuary, with elbow room to spare. That summer, we Pipers arrived as a family of 5—2 parents and 3 sons.
You who were part of Bethlehem then, I thank you for making this an easy place to become a pastor’s wife. I don’t recall any times when someone expected me to be or do some certain thing because that’s what a pastor’s wife does.
Instead, you offered me options for ministry and were willing to let me pray and talk it over with my husband and then tell you yes or no. You gave me freedom to be wife and mother and to be involved as I felt God leading me, both within the church and elsewhere. I hope that all of you now will bless Cara in the same way.
As Bethlehem grew to multiple services and built a new sanctuary, our family grew too. We added another son and a daughter and so we were a family of 7—2 parents and 5 children. The same year we adopted our youngest child, we also gained our first daughter-in-law—the beginning of the years of sending our sons one by one to their own homes with their brides. And Bethlehem was sending more of its sons and daughters to their new homes, all around the world to spread a passion for the supremacy of God through Jesus Christ.
When Talitha was a first grader, Bethlehem’s old sanctuary came down. That year while the new education building was going up, there was no Sunday school. So we used the Children Desiring God 1st grade curriculum at home—the ABC’s of God. Talitha still remembers rearranging the letters of one long word until she got incomprehensible—however much we learn about God and no matter how well we know him, there is always much more.
That education building completed the downtown campus as we see it now. And Bethlehem has multiplied from that one campus to three. Our family has multiplied too, from 5 of us at the beginning of our time at Bethlehem to 23 now—we 2 are rich with 21 sons and daughter, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren.
Bethlehem’s building with its changes is a symbol that touches just the surface of how much our lives have been interwoven with you brothers and sisters for these 33 years.
I have a gift for you, Johnny. We know that the best gift a person can give often is one that person would also like to have. So this gift to you is to go over our fireplace so that we both can have before us reminders of our life here.
Dear friends, no one but God knows what a treasure your prayers for us have been all these years. Now I ask you to pray that we will be—as Mary Schmuland said to me a few weeks ago—“Retired? No—refired.”
Thursday, April 11th, 2013
Home Grown World Christians
I’ve been in Orlando for The Gospel Coalition 2013. I led a breakout session in the pre-conference, which had a missions focus.
My session was “My Missionary Call: Missed or Misunderstood?”
One of the resources I recommended is an article I wrote in 2002: Home Grown World Christians. Since then, our children have become adults, but the encouragements and ideas haven’t really aged.
I hope this will be helpful as you pray for and spend time with children you love, whether they are yours or part of your larger life circle.
What other suggestions would you add?
Saturday, March 16th, 2013
Brushing up on the classics
Pop quiz!
Who was Theseus? How did the Aegean Sea get its name?
If you can’t remember, perhaps our 8-year-old grandson can remind you.
Wednesday, February 6th, 2013
Black History: Talitha’s DVD recommendations
(Originally posted 2 years ago, and worth mentioning again.)
These DVDs are recommended by our daughter Talitha off the top of her head. She wants to make clear that there are other really good movies too.
I agree with her in recommending these.
As with all movies, it would be wise for parents to preview before watching with their children, especially considering the tension, language, and frightening experiences that are part of stories from this swath of our history.
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Glory Road — Story of “the groundbreaking achievement of Don Haskins, who coached the 1965-66 team from Texas Western University to the NCAA championship, using the first-ever all-black lineup in the championship game and forever changing the rules of college basketball. Texas Western’s underdog season is followed from anxious start to glorious finish. . . . This typically wholesome Disney film doesn’t flinch from the harsh realities of racial tension (including player beatings and vandalized motel rooms) that Texas Western’s black players had to struggle against as their victories began to draw national attention” (Amazon.com review).
Selma, Lord, Selma — It’s 1965, segregation is still the order of the day in the South, Martin Luther King Jr. is leading voter-registration drives, and an Alabama schoolgirl gets caught up in the civil rights movement. . . .Being forced to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar in order to vote and being gassed and beaten for marching are just some of the indignities Sheyann and her friends endure. Parents should know that two prominent characters are murdered. . . . Appropriate for kids 7 and up with adult guidance” (Amazon.com review). Based on the memoir of the same title by Sheyann Webb.
And the Children Shall Lead — “In 1964 segregation is a reality in Catesville, Mississippi, but 12-year-old Rachel doesn’t notice it because she has many white friends. When a group of civil rights activists comes to town, the tension between black and white citizens grows. It’s now up to Rachel and her friends to persuade the adults to overcome the racial barriers that divide them” (Amazon.com review)
The Great Debaters — “Inspired by real events, The Great Debaters reveals one of the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in its story of Melvin B. Tolson and his champion 1935 debate club from the all-African-American Wiley College in Texas. . . . The film is also about the state of race relations in America at the height of the Great Depression. With lynchings of black men and women a common form of entertainment and black subjugation for many rural whites, the idea of talented and highly intelligent African-American young people learning to think on their feet during debates would seem almost a hopeless endeavor” (Amazon.com review).
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Tuesday, January 1st, 2013
How do you feel?
Beginning August 1, Jason Meyer was Associate Pastor of Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist alongside my husband, the Pastor of Preaching and Vision. Now, as a result of resounding congregational approval, as of yesterday those roles 
are switched. Now Jason is Pastor for Preaching and Vision with Johnny as his associate.
This is the next-to-last step in our transition to our next chapter, when–as of the end of March–Johnny no longer is part of the pastoral staff of Bethlehem. We are thrilled with God’s guidance and work in all of this.
Last weekend was Johnny’s last sermon as “senior” pastor. Last night, during his last minutes in that role, he led Bethlehem into the New Year in communion together at the Lord’s table.
As we walked into the house at 12:30 am, he asked, “How does it feel to be the wife of an associate pastor?” Considering that I’ve spent exactly half my life as the wife of one man in one position in one place, that could have been a jarring question. But it wasn’t.
I answered, “Feels just the same. It’s you that matters, you who are my husband.”
One of the things about the he who is my husband is that he’s a man who expresses thoughts of love and life and life events and changes with poetry, as he did in his end-of-the-year blog post at Desiring God.
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
What’s up this weekend?
Hop over to Tell Me When to Pack and find out what I’m doing this weekend.
Friday, September 14th, 2012
Together for Adoption: resource links I promised this afternoon
This afternoon, I stood in front of everyone at the Together for Adoption conference and revealed my ignorance: sort of “What I didn’t know and there’s lot’s more besides.” There was so much to reveal I didn’t have time for it all, so here are links for anyone who wants more.
1. I owe tons of thanks to all my blog readers who helped me remember all I don’t know when you responded to my requests here and here. If you haven’t read through all those comments, I encourage you to take advantage of the glimpses these friends have given us into their homes.
2. As I said, my friend Dorothy Bode should have been up there with me, or instead of me. Some listeners probably agreed that it would have been less repetitive if she had been, so they wouldn’t have heard over and over, “As Dorothy told me”. . . . “As Dorothy said”. . . . I have no idea how the mother of 11 children with a houseful of hidden disabilities has time to write blog posts, and with pictures, but she does and it’s been an education for me. Dorothy’s blog. The post I quoted.
3. Three years ago I wrote a series of posts telling our adoption story. It begins here.
4. The letter Johnny wrote to me saying yes to our adoption.
5. I quoted from Karen Richburg’s book, Disrupting Grace: A Story of Relinquishment and Healing.
6. Perhaps disability and orphan care are the most common topics
on my blog. Joni and Friends is the organization that I’ve done a lot of volunteering for. I highly any of Joni’s books, written from the perspective of decades as quadriplegic.
7. Seems like RAD came into the list several times. So let me recommend Karyn Purvis’s The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family. This has become the prime resource for parents wanting to help their children with attachment and sensory difficulties. Actually, when Johnny and I read it together, we found much of it practical and helpful for general parenting.
8. Here are a couple of posts with suggestions for the person, like
me, with ADD. In particular, I hope the books might be helpful.
9. Oh yes. And pressure cooker. I thought it was a cool –I mean sizzling — image. But maybe only us pre-microwave era oldies knew what I was talking about.
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If you make a purchase after you click on a product link in a post here or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar at my travel blog, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I did.
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Thursday, August 9th, 2012
Had I but known . . . Help me!
Less than a month from now is the 40th anniversary of my becoming a mother. Had I but known that 40 years into mothering there would still be so many things I wish I knew. . . . There are so many things I thought I knew, but I didn’t really. There are so many things I hadn’t even thought about knowing, things waiting to bless me or to blindside me.
That’s my speaking topic, especially as it regards adoption, at Together for Adoption 2012 in Atlanta, September 14-15–what I didn’t know:
- If we just love our child enough . . .
- Some children are added by birth and some by adoption–it’s a simple as that . . .
- We will treat our adopted child just as we do the ones who were born to us . . .
- We will never blame adoption for difficulties our child may have . . .
- and . . . and . . . and . . .
I need your help. If you’re a parent by birth or by adoption or both, I need your help based on your experience. If you know someone who’s a parent by birth or adoption, I need your help based on your observations.
- What do you wish you’d known as you launched into parenting, whether by adoption or by birth?
- What have you learned or are you experiencing that’s very different than what you’d expected, whether happy or hard?
- What were you totally ignorant about at the beginning that you’re learning by experience?
- What unexpected things have blessed you?
- What unexpected things have blindsided you?
Your comments will prime the pump of my own thoughts as I prepare, but I will in no way compromise your privacy. In fact, if it makes it easier, feel free to respond anonymously via the comments to this post, or by using the comment button above to send me an email.
(In the spirit of “What I didn’t know,” I’ll announce in the next couple of days a gift that I’ll send to 2 commenters, randomly chosen.)
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If you make a purchase after you click on a product link in a post here or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar at my travel blog, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I did.
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Please visit my travel blog too–Tell Me When To Pack
Sunday, June 10th, 2012
Together for Adoption 2012: win a registration
Adoption changed our lives. A couple of years ago, I wrote a series of posts telling some of our family’s adoption story. It begins here.
We knew lots of people who had adopted, and their experiences had taught us a lot. What I didn’t know, though, was how much we still would be learning now, 16 years into being an adoptive family.
That’s what I plan to talk about when I speak at Together for Adoption 2012 in Atlanta, September 14-15–What I Wish I’d Known.
The organizers have graciously given me registrations to share with 6 of you. Here’s what you need to do:
- Visit the Together for Adoption website and look over the conference information. If you subscribe to the Together for Adoption blog, that earns you an additional entry.
- Use your social media outlets to tell others about this chance to win a registration. Each additional social medium earns you an additional entry into the drawing. For example, if you were to link to this contest post from your blog and from Twitter and from Facebook, that would be 3 entries. (If you don’t use any social media, you may use email to send a bunch of friends the link to this blog post.)
- Comment once at this post to let me know you have completed #1 and #2 and to report any of the optional extras you’ve completed.
- Deadline is 11:59 pm cst, Monday, June 18.
I hope I’ll see you in Atlanta.
(If you want a headstart, I recommend Reclaiming Adoption, edited by Dan Cruver.)
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Subscribe to NoelPiper.com by using the one of the Subscribe links to the right or by clicking here.
If you make a purchase after you click on a product link in a post here or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar at my travel blog, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I did.
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Please visit my travel blog too–Tell Me When To Pack.
Sunday, May 13th, 2012
What I learned from my Mother
Months before the celebration of Mother and Daddy’s 40th wedding, my sister Pamela dreamed of a quilt to honor Daddy and Mother and to express thanks for the years God had given them together.
Pamela recruited squares from each of the sisters and sisters-in-law. . . . Then Pamela assembled, quilted, and stenciled the gift for Daddy and Mother.
As I look over the squares of this quilt, from oldest child to youngest of us 10 children of George and Pam Henry, I’m reminded of a few of the things I’ve learned by being my mother’s daughter. . . . (Read and/or listen to the rest of “What I Learned by Being My Mother’s Daughter”-and there are photos of all the family quilt blocks.)
Happy Mothers Day, dear Mother! I love you.
