Birthday Baby

March 28, 2025

Celebrating Life

Dear Nieces & Nephews

Last Saturday Uncle Kerry and I went to Mike Smith’s celebration of life. It was so good to see many of you there! Some of you we haven’t seen since you were teens, and there you were with your own little ones. It struck me, even as they ran around, how I could identify whose they were by their eyes. Such fun!

The service celebrated the gift of Mike, and his story as a prodigal son. Reesa did the speaking, and she did a beautiful job of telling about how his life impacted her and so many others.

Every morning since then, I’ve awoken to the words, “Celebrate life today .”

So I have. And with it has come a flood of memories of our children in all their stages of development … a timeless mix of babyhood, childhood, adolescence and beyond.

Here's a story I've been enjoying:

Our hands were very full when it came time to renew our foster care license in 2010, so we told our home consultant we would let things expire and decline any further placements. Then she went on vacation. She must have forgotten to put the note in our file. Her substitute called that week to tell us about Sanaa. This tiny 6-week-old needed care for just a few weeks until her grandma could take her in. Would we do it?

Okay.

Weeks turned into months. Grandma didn’t work out. Other relatives surfaced and then disappeared. Mom pulled herself together, worked toward reunification, then got into trouble. More time passed.

We were in love. When Amy, her first foster mom, brought her to us she had said, “You will have fun with this one!” She was right. Sanaa was so full of joy. Picking her up would bring a squeal of delight and legs kicking with enough sproing to send any heart to the moon and back.

But we held back a portion of our heart. How else would we let go when the time came?

One day as I was jotting down dates, it dawned on me that not only had Sanaa been born on Thaddeus’s birthday, she was placed in foster care on my birthday and she came to us on Kieran’s birthday.

She was our birthday baby. A gift from God. We decided it was time to receive her as our own and give her our full hearts. We did, and to our delight, she stayed.

In the noise and exhaustion of caring for six little ones, God knew our language in that season, and He spoke it. We had what we needed to hang on and press forward.

Upper adolescence has blown in with hurricane force and brought a different form of noise and exhaustion. God is once again speaking in a language we can understand. Just as we find ourselves wondering if we missed His direction somewhere along the way, we are noticing patterns in our names (at birth, at adoption, and among our biological parents): Two Melissa’s, three Nicoles, four Johns, three Kerrys, a couple Michelles, and a whole slew of stand-alone corkers like Emmanuel. For the fun of it, I put the meanings of these names into something like a mission statement for our family. It goes like this:

“Through the cross-pollination of people groups in our family, there will be great victory with an abundance of joy, peace, hope and love. Darkness will be supplanted by praise. God is with us and is gracious, and has given us courageous hearts like His as he fashions us into a beautiful work of art, a pure waterfall ... its power harnessed for the display of His glory.”

Now THAT is worth celebrating.

I’d love to hear your life celebrations, if you get a chance to send them my way. I’m cheering for you!

Love,

Aunt Michelle

Riddle: Which is cuter, above or below?

Answer: Both! There's a whole lot of cuteness to be seen in adolescence if we open our hearts enough to look.

< Older Post

Adventure Day

By Michelle Hauge • March 23, 2025

Dear Nieces & Nephews, We had been home schooling your cousins for several years when I decided our days had become too mundane, and “Adventure Days” were born. Once a week, I’d wake everyone up with a mysterious list of items to pack, then we’d drive off into the great unknown. The study desk for the day might be a new library, the top of a bluff, the base of a waterfall, a waterpark in its off-season, a donut shop. Kids had only to trust, follow along and have a great time. Some of them loved these days and still talk about them today. Some chafed and battled. Why? I still ponder my way through the psychology of it. I’d suspect there were two elements at work: pride (“I have better ideas than you; I want to do mine instead.”) and insecurity (“My trust broke when I was a baby and I can’t trust you unless you’re utterly predictable.”) Both demonstrate an insatiable appetite for being in control. And I relate to both. It amazes me how diligent God is in refining the skill set I need to trust Him in each day’s unpredictability. It’s finally dawning on me that the angst in the pit of my stomach won’t dissipate until I let go of my pride and insecurity and stop battling for my own way, which sounds like this: “I want adventure, but it needs to be of MY choosing, in MY timing. I need YOU to be steady and predictable and safe. YOUR job is to (please) make it comfortable and fun, and (please) make sure I look really good to everyone else along the way.” God doesn’t usually go along with requests like this. He loves me too much. He loves YOU too much too. If you feel like you’re drowning today, please learn this alongside me: The very life circumstances that are drowning us can also make us float. The difference is in our response. Lightness and ease will not come from being in control of our own adventure, but in surrendering and trusting the One who loves us so very much. He is trustworthy, even when others haven’t been. Peace will not come when the unpredictable stops. It will come when we learn to float in it. How do we learn this skill? Ask the Holy Spirit for swimming lessons. He will teach you. He will . Just ask. Even if you don’t think you know how to hear His voice, I guarantee He will not give you a snake when you ask for bread. (Matthew 7:9.) He’s the One who knit you together in your mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13.) He knows every thought before it even enters your mind. (Psalm 139:2.) He certainly knows your language. Pay attention. Make Him your focus, not the circumstances that are making you panic. Then respond. We’re on the adventure of a lifetime together, you and I. Let’s enjoy it! Love, Aunt Michelle

Equal & Opposite Reaction

By Michelle Hauge • February 26, 2025

Dear Nieces & Nephews, “Grandpa Dave” has been God’s gift to our family since both sets of grandparents left early for heaven. We don’t live super close, so most of our contact lately has been over the phone, talking about challenges and breakthroughs and what we see God doing through them. Yesterday he told me that while thinking about how dismal the world is looking these days, he was reminded of Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. “God is getting ready to release an equal and opposite reaction to all that the Enemy has been unleashing,” he said. I had to wrestle through the concept of “equal” when it comes to God and Satan, but eventually it made sense. God’s not wasteful. I think He uses just enough of his bottomless resources to meet each action with its equal reaction. And here’s another scientific truth we see everywhere: When opposite and equal forces collide, there is a burst of ... shall we say ... productivity ? When it’s opposite electrical charges, there is a spark or release of energy; the intensity depends on the magnitude of the charges involved. Varying air temperatures collide to create a storm. (I could go on, but I'll stop before my simplicity brings laughter to the true scientists among you.) That’s where my encouragement for today is coming from. My life has been a fierce, ongoing storm for some time now. (I’ll bet I’m not the only one.) Every day there is either cataclysmic disturbance with flying debris, a respite of sunshine and rainbows, or darkening clouds as another onslaught forms. The main goal of my quiet times is to lift my chin, focus my attention on the Savior, press on, and hold onto peace. Bill Johnson says, “We only have authority over the storms we’ve learned to sleep through.” Jesus has a cushion laid out for me in the bottom of the boat beside Him, and I intend to use it. Then I'll wake up occasionally to watch the lightning display or pull others to safety. This morning I studied all of Newton’s Laws of Motion, and there is a boatload of spiritual truth hiding in all three. I plan to dive deep and learn as much as I can from them about my Creator because the more I grasp how He thinks naturally , the more I’ll understand Him supernaturally . Without this, I’m sure I will sink. With it, I’m in for the ride of my life. Hoping to find you resting there alongside, Aunt Michelle

ONE of Them

By Michelle Hauge • February 20, 2025

One of them . I don’t think God said it that way. I imagine the Trinity in a family conference, discussing the plight of their beloved fallen creation, stressing a different word in the phrase. One of them. “I’ll become one of them,” Jesus offered. It’s all in the italics. If Jesus had said “one of them ,” it would have pulled Him down into our shame. Instead, He lifted us up into His glory. And so He became one of us. He lived our life, pain and limitations with us, and then had the connection He needed to pull us out of it. I’ve found myself knocking on a lot of doors these past few years. Introducing myself. Offering an apology, a request to pray together, a box of donuts, a grocery gift card. All to people I would have once considered a them , but through unexpected (and unasked-for) twists in my life path, I find myself one . This is where I choose to either look down on them as a beneath-me people group, or see them as created treasures on a difficult life path. This is where I choose to enter their shame or pull them up into my glory. The glory which is mine because Jesus pulled me up into His . This, my dear nieces and nephews, is the heart of The Gospel. And it will be the theme of our quarterly Camp Fire event this Sunday. “Winter Embers, A Beach Party” is a 6-hour sample of our summer camp. We’ll heat up the house, wear shorts and play beach games. Then we’ll worship till we encounter the Holy Spirit and let Him challenge and equip us to live the Great Commission. The teaching will be Rated G in content but not in Holy Spirit. Kids don’t need watered-down challenges. Their young hearts ache for the full-on opportunity to love and be loved. You can sign up for it using the following link if you’re Age 7 or up. (Yes, older is fine as long as you’re not offended by simplicity; we just might put you to work.) https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0548A8A72CABFE3-54544043-winter When I was little, my parents would lead us in singing the following song at our home church in Cambridge, and it has gripped my heart ever since. It begins with the Father asking this of Jesus: “Will you be poured out as wine upon the altar for Me? Will you be broken as bread to feed the hungry? Will you be so one with me that I may do just as I will … To make you light and love and life, my will fulfilled?” Jesus then responds: “Yes, I’ll be poured out as wine upon the altar for you. Yes, I’ll be broken as bread to feed the hungry. Yes, I’ll be so one with you that you may do just as you will To make me light and love and life, thy will fulfilled.” Then Jesus turns to us and asks us the same question His Father asked Him . And he gives us the chance to respond in kind. When I’ve said yes, it’s because I’ve had no idea what it was going to look like. Otherwise I wouldn’t have had the courage. But I’m glad. As much as I’ve disliked the process of becoming one of them, I’m grateful for how He’s used it to make me more like Him. Hope to see you Sunday! Aunt Michelle