Pictures!

I've been wanting to update for my sister with pictures of all the kids and what we've been doing.  I'm surprised that I'm actually doing it!  I would like to be a blogger, but it just doesn't happen. :)

Before I get to the pictures I'd like to say that I think my last post might of sounded a little self righteous!  Haha!  That is hilarious!  I'm laughing cause if you know me hopefully you knew that I was just bragging on God and what He can do with us sinful humans. (ALL of us humans since "there is no one rightous, not even one" so says the Bible)  I'm sure my sister has prayed (and is probably still praying) for me to get out of some sins just as much as I have for her. :)  We've always known each other so we know when we are walking with the Lord and when we are not.  Love you Jessica!  :)

Ok!  Back to the pictures!

Nathan reading to Raylen

Luke's impressive moves on the slip and slide

They love scaling the fence.

they just slowly make their way around the yard

everybody in on it

Anne wants to be big so bad!

The first few days these two were inseparable. 

6 weeks apart...really?

packaging zip kits for the homeless so we can be prepared

Peter reading a tract

Cute as can be!!!

AID Sudan 1K race

 

pretty much the norm...crazyness!





(I don't know how to turn the picture...see, I'm not a blogger) I was sick that day and laying down to rest.  The girls came to "rest" with me and I got Jacob to take the picture. 

Scype with mom and dad! (or aunt and uncle)

I thought this was a moment I had to capture.  Ray in Nathan's lap at co-op today.

us in our co-op garb

The four oldest kids are at my mom's this weekend.  We met her at San Jacinto mall to exchange the kids.  She just happened to be wearing red too so we got a picture with all of us.

Wow!  It's been a crazy couple of weeks.  These pictures just show the highlights.  There has been lots of schooling, lots of crying and some fighting too.  I hope Jessica, Josh and Kellen enjoy the pictures.  (this might be the only time I do this)

Pray for my sister, her husband and Kellen their toddler that is with them.  They need to be assigned a judge and then a court date before they even know when they can come home.  They probably feel like they are stuck in Eastern Europe indefinitely.  They are building bonds with there soon to be new kids.  But they miss their babies back here in the states :(  Pray that God gives them strength to endure to the end, and joy in the struggle.

There are SIX kids at my house!

It's always strange to post after a period of silence.  But I want to talk, so here I am.

The last time I posted I talked about adoption/orphan care.  So I guess it's kind of fitting for the reason I'm writing to be because of an adoption.

We have 6 kids at our house!  And if you are reading this then you must be a very good friend of mine and already know that it's not because we adopted.

My sister is adopting 3 sweet little children from Ukraine.  The story of God's amazing provision throughout this adoption is faith building to say the least.  So it would do you some good to go on over to my sister's blog and read all about their journey to and through surrendering their will to His.  Amazing!  Redemption is the word that comes to mind when I think of my sister.  Seeing her transform from the girl that I prayed countless times to be drawn out of some mucky sins into the incredible woman of God who lives out her faith in a way that I can only gawk at has been breathtaking.  Only God can do miracles like that and I praise Him for loving us so much to bring us up out of the muck. 

All that to say...I have 6 kids at my house because we are keeping 2 of her kids while she and her husband (and 1 year old) are doing crazy paper work and getting to know the three kids they are adopting.

Here is a visual of these sweet babies that you can be praying for.

Josslyn

Parker

Danil

It has been such a blessing to have Luke and Raylen at our house since Saturday.  They have been doing things like lizard hunting, swinging, playing run after then hide from the lawn mower, scooters, tree climbing, tea parties and tons of other fun stuff.  I think what they are most obsessed with now is lizards.

We are having so much fun and I wouldn't call it hard at all.  But I guess it is only the end of the second full day!  I guess we will see how it's going on day 23.

conservation

"For in the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." --B. Dioum 


This is obviously talking about animals...but can the same be said about children?




Do we Love children?  Not just our own children.  Not just the cute children.  Not just the well behaved children.  Not just the children that we come in contact with.  


But the child in Eastern Europe with no parent that loves him that will die of dehydration in an institution.  
And the baby in Haiti whose mommy can't care for her so she just gives her away.  
And the boy in Uganda who has been forced to kill another.   
And the unwanted baby girl left to die in a ditch in China.
And the sick 
And the ugly
And the difficult 
And the unloveable.


That is the Heart of MY God.  He loves the unloveable.  


And he loves me.  Me, who's heart, deep down, is as selfish and ugly as everyone else's.  




Do we understand?  Do we undertand what these children are going through?  Or do we shut our eyes and cover our ears and hum a happy tune so that we forget.  Do we zone out so that we can get the sickening images of children in unbelievable conditions out of our brains.  


I have.  I have for many years.  I've hummed the happy tune of "Jesus loves me" in my comfortable, air conditioned home with more JUNK than I even want, let alone need.


But when I started singing "Jesus loves the little children" with my eyes and mind wide open to Who "all the children of the world" are, I wasn't so comfortable.




Have we been taught?  Yes.  We have been taught.  We know.  We know that there are so many unloved children in the world we probably can't even count or comprehend it.


I'm lucky to say that I'm in a church that I have heard the word adoption from the pulpit from time to time.  And many Christian celebrities are using their platform to campaign for these precious souls.  (Caring for their bodies in Jesus name IS caring for their souls)




Pure Religion is "to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  As James 1:27 says this is the only "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless!"


Do we want to be accepted by God? 
Is our heart aching for those that the Lord loves?  
Really?  
What are we doing to "conserve" what we love?  
Are we leaving that job for someone else?


"To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger."  Romans 2:7-8

And if we are "doing anything,"  are we doing it in the name of the Holy Son of the Living God with the sole purpose to make His name known and glorified in every corner of the Earth?  

Or are we "doing" as a means to lift our own name, or check a box.  "Doing" just enough to clear the guilt nagging our self-serving heart.

"Once our eyes have been opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know, and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:14


God is opening the eyes of the church to the suffering of the orphans around the world!  


Praise God!  Open my eyes God!  Let me hear your voice!  Let me hear the cries of help from the unloved!  the orphaned and widowed!  Let me go forth and love as You have loved me!  Please use me to shine YOUR light in every corner of the Earth!  Open my eyes and ears and don't ever let them be shut again!  Use me!  Use me to crush the enemy's plans to squelch the fire that is starting to burn brightly in the church!  


Please pray with me about what God wants us (personally, as a family and as a church)  to do in response to this awakening.


If every Christian family adopted, Heaven might be that much fuller. 

And if every person that visited my sisters blog gave just $2, then she would be thousands of dollars closer to her son who is now sleeping in a crib in an orphanage in Eastern Europe as he has done all 4 years of his life.  


Conserve what you love...Love what He loves.

Catching Up - Peter

I'm so behind on blogging and there is so much I want to say about some things that God is showing me.  But real quick, over the next few days weeks I want to catch up with all the stuff that has happened and I never posted about it.  Like Anne's first birthday!  And Nathan getting baptized!  Oh my goodness!  How did I miss those!

But since Peter turned 5 months on the 20th, we will start with him.

Here are some sweet pictures at the hospital.

just minutes old

he's a keeper!



love at first sight!



one worn out mama

one sleepy baby

That's all for now.  I hope to do some more catching up soon with pictures of how big he has gotten.

No Poo!

Since this is a mommy blog I'm sure most of you are thinking I'm about to go into detail of my children's bathroom/diaper habits.  Sorry to disappoint you, but this is about my experiment in quiting the shampoo addiction.  And other things I'm have been dabbling in this month.

What is the purpose of not using shampoo (or "no poo" as some call it)? 

Well, one reason is that using shampoo every day can strip your hair of it's natural oils and actually cause it to produce more oil than it needs. 

Another reason is that you aren't using chemicals.  Chemicals that end up in your body (and your baby, if you are pregnant or nursing).  These chemicals can do some crazy things to your body and even cause cancer!  Scary!

This is my third week, I think...mommy brain can make four weeks seem like one, and vice versa (sp?).
And to tell you the truth my hair is pretty gunky.  Stephen and my friends tell me it doesn't look bad.
But what do you expect them to say?  Go wash your hair!?
To me my hair feels, ummm....well...like I haven't washed in three weeks.

I'm ready to throw in the towel and sneak into Stephen's shampoo.  (which happens to be natural anyway so I wouldn't feel that bad)  But I did commit myself to at least two months and to tell you the truth I'm not usually that concerned with what my hair looks like....It's in a ponytail 99% of the time anyway.

And it's not like I'm just not washing my hair at all.  I'm using baking soda.  I'm also using baking soda for deodorant and roach bait/poison.  (I know gross, but we all have them for time to time, right?) And the other day I used baking soda to brush my teeth.  Really nasty, but my teeth were nice and slick :)

So, we will see how this all turns out. 

I've also started a whole new way of washing my face.

With oil!  I know.  Yuck, is what most of you are thinking.  But actually some oils, like castor oil, can be quite drying.  And castor oil (which is the main ingredient in the oil face washing combination) really does a good job of drawing out dirt, oil and toxins that are in your pours.   I'm still playing with the different kinds of oils to find out the right combination for my skin, but this is another thing that I'm going to commit myself to for a while to see if it really works.  Here is where I read about the oil cleansing method.

http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/

Something else I've been into the last couple of months is soap making.  Soap Making!  Now this is exciting!  (I know doesn't take much to get me excited)



I wish computers had smell-a-vision.  It smells that good!

 I first made some wonderful smelling patchouli soap with my mom and sister.  My mom is a veteran soap maker and knew what she was doing.

My friend Lisa and I then made some plain soap to practice with.  It was our first time by ourselves to make soap so we wanted to do something simple.




This week Lisa and I got together again to make soap, this time joined by our good friend Erin.  We decided to get really fancy and make peppermint colored with green swirls.  Fun!  And my whole house now smells like peppermint!  I love it!  



Beautiful!

 I have the soap curing in the boys bathroom and it really helps the whole stinky boy bathroom smell.
Anyone with boys knows what I'm talking about ; )

NINE years!

Has it really been that long!?  Things have been anything but easy.  But I'm so grateful for what has happened during these 9 years. 

God has made beautiful children through us!  How amazing! 

I'm so excited to see what God has planned for the years ahead.

I have a lot to say to my love, but I'm saving that for his ears alone.

Happy anniversary!  I love you!

some things I learned today...

- It's not a good sign if you pick up your Bible to find dust on it.
- Don't shake out your dust rag right out side you door.
- I'm lucky that 2 of my 4 kids take naps.
- Your kids will not be so upset when you lock them out if you set up the baby pool.
- If you keep the porch swept then your floors will be a lot cleaner.
- Letting your 5 year old sweep the porch is so worth it (even though it's worse after he finishes)
- Cleaning the part of the house that your husband will appreciate is better for you than cleaning the part that you will appreciate.
- Blog post always end because there is either a fight, a spill, a crash or a baby crying.