Let's Bless!

Have you guys ever heard of Embrace Grace? It's a non-profit organization formed for the purpose of providing emotional, practical and spiritual support for single young girls that find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy. Amazing, right? Actually, it's incredible.

This weekend, at Pink Impact, I was hit hard with this reality. I have heard about it several times, and even made a little something for one of the babies. But it never really sunk in until I had the opportunity to share with a girl who just recently found herself in an unplanned pregnancy about this amazing ministry. The look on her face was priceless. A look of hope instead of despair. A look of purpose instead of guilt. She was loved on instead of feeling like she was damaged goods. Someone cared about her and the new little life inside of her. She was told that no matter whether her child was planned or unplanned, the Lord still had a purpose for this sweet little bundle growing in her belly. His hands were literally holding her baby inside of her womb. 

"As Christians step out of their comfort zones and use their voice for those who have none, more and more girls are thinking twice about having an abortion. New laws are being enacted that make the mother view the sonogram and hear the heartbeat of their unborn baby at least 24 hours before undergoing an abortion procedure. This window gives them just a little more time to really process the choice they’re about to make. And because of these changes, more babies are being saved.

 This is a good thing right?

 Of course it is. It is a GREAT thing. Lives are being saved. But what happens after a girl finally makes the difficult decision to follow through with the pregnancy? A lot of times, she has nine lonely months of worry and fear. Friends distance themselves, and her family may even turn their backs on her. The father of the baby might just run because he can’t handle the pressure. What happens to this girl that made the brave and courageous decision to keep her baby when the world has turned away?"

Enter Embrace Grace. Whether they keep their baby or place for adoption, Embrace Grace is a support system for them as they begin their journey of being a young mother or blessing another family with their baby.

Recently, two young mommas blessed another family with their sweet babies. What incredible women. These women thought of the best life for their child. For whatever reason, these young moms were not able to keep their little baby. They knew that there were families out there that were yearning for a child. What a self-less act to bless another family with your child. To chose life, and carry your child for nine months, knowing that you were going to bless a family in the end of the journey. It's amazing. 

Usually, Embrace Grace throws a group shower a the end of each semester of the program that the young mommas go through. It's a wonderful thing! However, the ladies that chose adoption get a different kind of shower. They receive a "Celebration of Life" shower for their selfless act. Fun, right?! 

The next shower is THIS FRIDAY. I know, it's short notice, but I just found out about it :) HOWEVER, there is still time to send a sweet little something for these ladies. It may not get here on time, but wouldn't you like to bless them? We can get it to them within the next week or so if it doesn't make it here on time. I plan on making them some handmade goodies. 

Would you like to go in with me and do something for them? 

How awesome would it be for them to feel the love and support of ladies that have adopted, prayed for adoption, etc. How incredible would it be for it to come from women that they don't even know? 

I'll be going to the shower on Friday. At this point, I don't want to give out names for privacy purposes, but if you contact me with information, I can send you a list of their favorite things. 

Feel free to repost this picture on Instagram or Twitter to rally up support for these women. Let's use hashtag #EGCelebrationOfLife to keep it all together :)

You can email me at kimberlcampbell (at) gmail (dot) com for shipping info. 

You ladies are awesome! Thank you so much for your support and prayers for these ladies!!!

my heart is about to burst.

(Disclaimer-- this post is not eloquently written. In fact, I didn't even re-read it once I posted it. Wrong? Maybe. But it's straight from my heart. So if you're judging me grammatically, I'm probably giving you a headache. :)) 

I'm not even joking. I feel like I could explode.

For the past three weeks, I've been involved in a Women in Leadership Development class. I didn't really understand WHY I was there until this week. Now I know that I know that I know. And my heart is about to explode.

I've known since I was about 16 that I had a specific calling on my life. That I was set apart and different. But I never really realized that I have something to offer. That God has placed something so deep inside of my heart and life and he's called ME to deliver it. I didn't realize that I had influence on the women and people around me until just recently. I'm still BLOWN away when people said that I inspired them to do something, encouraged them in a specific way (by my actions, not words), spoke into their lives, etc. Sometimes, well, most of the time, I think "Why me, God. ME?!". But he keeps showing me over and over again how deep this calling is. I can't escape it. I don't want to escape it, but to be completely honest it scares me so bad.

However, this is where the class comes in. I feel, well, now I know, that I am in an intense time of mentoring and equipping for what God has for me. I'm going through things in my life so that I can be an aide or a bridge for people to find Christ through their circumstances. I learning to love people where they are at, knowing that I am not the one to "fix" them. Because frankly, nothing in me will help anyone else out. It's all God.

I'm about to run off onto a rabbit trail. Will you stick with me a minute? One of the biggest lessons I've learned through this season was to just LOVE. That when I clothe myself in love, the Lord shines through and can do what he wants through me. That nothing I do is of me, that it's all of Him. That I myself, Kimber Campbell, am not the "fixer". Want to know something crazy? I was becoming prideful when I thought, "Well, I'll just send them this sermon and they'll find God and he'll turn their lives around. I'll be the one to START the turning of their hearts." My mom called it out in me. PRIDE. Harsh words, right? Yeah. But it struck deep. I thought I could make people turn back to Christ. I was so wrong. Hearts are turned to Christ when they surrender, sometimes hit rock bottom, and ultimately chose for themselves to follow Christ. And none of that is because of me.

So yes, I'm extremely excited for what the Lord is doing in and through me. Someone today said the Lord spoke to her in this way. He gave her a picture of a dresser. He was cleaning it out, getting rid of the things she didn't need, and re-folding the clothes, putting them exactly where HE wanted them. And that's what the Lord is doing in my life. He's cleaning me out. Re-arranging some things, and getting rid of the things that aren't necessary.

And I love it so very much. I can't wait for what He has for me next!

C O F F E E D A T E

Today I'm linking up with Alissa from Rags to Stiches for a Coffee Date. Please excuse my "hair horn" coming out of the right side of my head. My hair is still growing out from losing it while I was pregnant. No amount of pomade, hairspray, hairstyling cream, gel, whatever will fix it. So eat your heart out. It's sayin' HEY GIRL! 

Alright. I'm a nerd. ENJOY! 

Contentment Challenge: Nancy Ray Photography #contentmentchallenge

E A S T E R 2013

Walking away from this weekend, I'm left with wonderful memories of my girl's first Easter. It was a great time spent with family and friends, but more importantly, I'm still a bit taken back by what my Savior did for me on the cross. And if I'm being completely honest, I wish I was as impacted by it on an every day basis, not just one weekend out of the year. It's almost as if I went, "Oh, ya. He did that for ME." Why isn't it a reality on a hour by hour basis? Why isn't it always at the forefront of my mind. I'm still working on that. I don't have the answer but I know that the more I look inwardly at myself, He'll show me and it will draw me closer to Him. 

Here's what I do know: In Jesus, there was no trace of self-importance. He died. He CHOSE to die. The mind of Jesus was to be at the bottom. I know that the more I fashion myself to be that way, to mimic the life of Christ and to clothe myself in love as He did, that the cross will be a reality to me once again. I know I said that I didn't know the answer in the paragraph above but... He just made it real to me. Just had an "oh, ya, duh." moment as He was speaking through my fingertips. Love that.

These pictures make me giggle, because Caroline could have cared less about the egg hunt. We walked around with her for pictures sake and she was just irritated that we would let her eat grass. She was also 2 hours overdue for a nap. Fun. But, with her personality coming out more and more every day, she was a real trooper and had giggling, clapping, and squealing for her cousins as they ran by with eggs. It was a good day.

Little Life Lessons: Forgiveness

Forgiveness. Hard word, huh? For me, too.

There was a guest speaker at Bethesda this past Sunday. (R.T. Kendall.-- listen here) He was on the older side and to be honest, I had already turned my ears off when he came up to the podium. Why do I do that? Well, I was wrong. And this message was for me. 

He spoke on the thing that causes me to want to bury my head in my pillow. TOTAL FORGIVENESS. But he brought a whole other facet to the word that I had never heard before. He spoke on "How you know you forgave someone". Well, dangit. Had I forgiven the people who wronged me? I thought I had, but I was so wrong.

"You know you have forgiven someone when you don't talk about it anymore." Kinda going along with the word's lesson from last week, huh? Didn't think of that until just now. I had apparently "forgiven" them, but I would still spout off if I was upset about something and vent about something that was in the past. Wrong. So very wrong.

"you won't let them be afraid of you." Perfect love casts out fear. They were afraid of me. They didn't know how to act around me now. That's not what I wanted. I never want to drive fear into some one. 

And here's the kicker. "Don't let them feel guilty." But, wait?! Don't they need to know how hurt I was? No. He said that it's almost like we can't bear the thought of them not knowing how wounded we are. We can't wait for them to be sorry. We have to CHOOSE to forgive. You see, my mom always taught me that forgiveness was a choice, not a feeling. Even well into my twenties and even now she'll remind me to make a daily choice (sometimes hourly) to forgive people. She is and was right. I need to extend grace. Instead of rubbing it in their face, I need to cover their fragile ego-- because I know that God is ultimately at the bottom of it all and that HE is the greatest judge. Not me. 

One of my favorite quotes from Sunday. "Forgiveness is a life sentence." meaning that I forgave you then and I forgive you now. It's constant. 

Joseph was given a lofty position because he TOTALLY FORGAVE his brothers for sending him into slavery. But it turned out to be the greatest thing that ever happened to him. Imagine what God can do in your life when there is no bitterness at all! 

This message changed my life. And I don't say that loosely. I put it into practice this week and I'm telling you.... I'm a better person and my family/friends are better because of it. 

How'd you like that for my little life lesson from my twenties that happened 4 days ago? ha! I'm always learning something new!

Please, please, please listen to that message. It's about 35-40 minutes. SO much of my post above came from his message and my notes. I give him FULL credit (RT Kendall). I couldn't stop writing notes and this is about a quarter of them :)

Have a life lesson you'd like to share? We want to hear it! This is week TWO of our bi-weekly Thursday series, "Little Life Lessons". Please join us! You can also head over to Lindsay's blog to link up as well. We'd love to have you! Link up below!

what I wore wednesday

soo this is my first one of these EVER. I decided I'm a total nerd when it comes to taking pictures of myself. And then all of the pictures that I took with my tripod were out of focus. I'm not a fashion blogger ;)

This is just one of my everyday outfits. I think all I did was pick up my niece from school. I got dressed because I always feel better about myself when I'm semi put together. 

jeans: Belk // top: Gap Maternity (fits like a normal shirt because I accidentally shrunk it) // cami: local boutique
watch: Sam Moon // scarf: Target // flats: Target

Once I realized the focus was off I just took a shot in the mirror. Standard selfie :)

I only took a picture of myself one day out of the week. Whoops! I'll try and get better at that :) 

Linking up with Lindsay @ The Pleated Poppy 

Little Life Lesson: Words

My mom taught me this verse in the midst of me "letting off steam.".

I was angry, hurt, annoyed, bitter, etc. etc.

But I was wrong.

There are countless times that this verse rushes to my head in the midst of a talk amongst girlfriends. Because frankly, you and I both know how us women folk are. We think it's "okay" to vent. "okay" to talk about the nitty gritty of someone else's life. (I'm reminding myself of this truth as I type this. I constantly have to check myself.)

But something I learned from my sweet mom, sitting at the kitchen table a few years back as I was just entering my 20's was this: "where there are many words, sin is not absent."

She kindly said to me, "Kimber, I don't need to know the details. I don't need to know why, or how, or when."

This was so foreign to me, because I would crave details. I mean I want to know what my husband eats for lunch and how many bites he took... for crying out loud. And you want me to hold my tongue and not say anything?! WHAT?!

When a girlfriend wants to talk about another dear friend? walk away, change the subject, hold my tongue.

Many words in a conversation leaves room for the enemy to come in and create a gossiping environment. We say things we never should have said.. and then later that day or night, we look back and regret not biting our tongue in the midst of conversation. It's so easy for us girls to jump off the gossip cliff and fall. It gets out of hand, fast. I know from first hand experience. I wish I didn't. But I do, and I only end up hurting myself and others.

I learned this lesson the hard way. But it was a valuable one! I want to be a better wife, mother, daughter and friend and I can start by controlling the small little muscle in my mouth. A small muscle that can also wreak havoc and "kill" someone or myself if I'm not carefully guiding it.

Today I'm linking up with my beautiful friends Lindsay Dryer & Amy Reed who I met through The Influence Network. This is week ONE of our Thursday series, "Little Life Lessons". Please join us! We'd love to have you! You can head on over to either one of their blogs to link-up and share your lesson. 

influential women

A few weeks ago, I joined The Influence Network, a network of women from many different walks of like all brought together by one common thread-- Jesus. Today, a bunch of ladies are linking up together to share a little bit about ourselves, and to put faces with names. So, happy to "meet" you all!

photo by Two Pair Photography

Three little tidbits about me:

1. I'm a sucker for anything with mint in it. Like, eat-a-whole-sleeve-of-thin-mints-in-one-sitting-without-even-realizing-it lover. Sometimes I look down and am disappointed that there are none left, but then embarrassed that I just inhaled a disgusting amount of cookies.
2. I crack really cheesy jokes, and I usually think they are hilarious even when no one else does. And I can't stop laughing. I'm basically an old man.
3. I have SUPER curly hair, but I usually straighten it. After Caroline was born, the curl went away? It's slowly coming back. Did this happen to any of y'all? So weird to me.

One valuable thing I've gained from the Network:

Only one?! To be honest, I am consistently blown away by the network of woman I've met. I feel like I'm not alone in many of the areas I thought only I struggled. It's so encouraging to hear other women are dealing with the same things, or are in the same life stage that I am. Because I am a stay-at-home mom, I feel like I can still connect with other women around me, even if I can't physically get out of the house to make a lunch date or a coffee date. I still have the same type of realness online. I have also met a few friends that I feel could be life time friends the more we get to know each other. Also, to know that we are all there for the same common purpose, glorifying God and making His name great and known is a hit out of the park for me. That is ultimately my heart's desire and to have other women running along side of me, sans competition, is one of the most encouraging things in my life right now. I only wish I would have joined a few months back instead of waiting until February!

Want to join? It's SO worth it. Click here to jump in!

30 Day Shred + Weekend Recap

I'm not one to break up relationships... but I'm R E A L L Y trying to discourage the long lasting bestie relationship that my thighs have with each other. They need to separate.. mk? With lots of work, they are finally starting say goodbye to one another. Thank the Lord!

Which brings me to my next point-- I'm on day 13 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and it is killer. I am not proud to announce that I have in fact cussed a few (okay, a lot) of times while doing squats and v-flys or whatever she calls them. I hated her at that moment. But....... I have seen results! I am 5 lbs down, 5lbs away from pre-pregnancy weight and 10lbs from wedding weight. I can do this. I'm in it for the long haul....it's kinda addicting :) Working out paired with eating right is making a huge difference. I'm not sure why I didn't do this a few months ago... I feel so much better.

This weekend was a really relaxing one. Caroline and I spent time with her Daddy on Saturday and then celebrated Rachel's birthday (again ;)) with her Bella. Urban Outfitters and Tillmans. Not a bad combo :)

Sunday, I was on the tech team for the morning service at church. Note to self, do not eat a Starbucks classic breakfast sandwich with sausage right before. My stomach was not okay from all the grease in the sausage. Worship slides and rolling tummy? NOT a good combo! That night we headed up to Jakes Hamburgers for my brother-in-law and his friend's gig. They did an amazing cover of The Civil Wars "Poison and Wine". So good. Love their voices together.

And thats that. What were you up to this weekend?

Trusting Without Borders

I woke up this morning to the battle. You know those kind of days? Where it's literally one thing after the other. All valid, all needing attention, all important. Big life stuff. I'm not being dramatic. My first response, and really the same response up until a little bit ago was "Are you kidding me?!".

To be honest, I should have expected it. This always happens after a breakthrough.

The song Oceans (Where My Feet May Fail)--Hillsong United really shook me this weekend. I mean like, it was on repeat for a good while. Over and over I was letting the words wash over me. It's like the words of my heart that I didn't know how to express had made it out into a song. Love how that works. One of the verses (and chorus) is this:

I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters

Your sovereign hand

Will be my guide

Where feet may fail and fear surrounds meYou've never failed and You won't start now

His grace abounds in deepest waters. A friend of mine and I were talking this weekend about how in John it says "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." I  WILL have trials. I WILL have sorrows. But HE has overcome the world. He has overcome these very things I'm working through. He has overcome sickness in my family. He has overcome the relationship struggles. He has overcome anything and everything that I am working through. The absolute safest place for me to be is with my eyes set on Him... trusting without borders. I love that the verse says, "You've never failed and you won't start now." 

So again, in everything, I am going to live in complete dependence on Him. I'm not sure why every day I have to do that. I wish I could just wake up and live it. But that's my human nature. I have to commit myself and my life and the circumstances around me every day to Him. Maybe every hour or minute, taking every thought captive. 

The bridge of this song has become my prayer. I hope it becomes yours, too. 

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior