First post for the New Year... Really?

 

Erin and her BIG kitten Boo. :)

 Coloring a tomato for letter T.

 E and B building a Tower. :)

 We had a small snow day, and Bodie's reaction to laying in the snow to make a
Snow Angel was this look, and one word: "COLD." :)

 Love this one. :)  His hands were getting cold, too. :)

 Making "Toothy smiles" for letter T.

Finished product. :)

I honestly cannot believe this is our first post this year!  Where has the month gone?!  I am not sure where even to start!  Right now, as one of our favorite children's books says, we have "the coughs and the sniffles and the sneeze, AH CHOO!"  Both kiddos made a trip to see our favorite Dr. Rick this week, and thankfully our ailment is only viral.  At the doctor's office, we submitted all our new insurance information (with me included, THANK YOU, LORD!) and I noticed we needed to change our emergency contact information...  Funny how the little things hit you so hard.  For the last five and a half years, I've listed Joe's mom as our emergency contact.  A flood of precious memories poured over me as I gratefully penned Joe's sister's name on the emergency contact line.  Thank the Lord we have her here if something were to happen.  Thank the Lord we had five and a half years here with Angie.  After visiting with our favorite Dr. Rick about having "the crud," I visited with the Great Physician about my once again broken heart...  I sure miss her...

The Lord has blessed us with a month of great joys.  Our Bodie-Man is a mostly big boy now!  I say mostly because he potty trained this month -- YAY!! -- but I can't seem to wean him from his pacifier!  The plan was to take it away this week, but I just can't do it when he's sick and pitiful.  :(  So that will have to come another week. :)  Erin and I began "school" again this month, and I am excited simply because she is so excited!  She is at that precious stage that I wish I could freeze forever, where she wants to marry her Daddy when she grows up and wants her Momma to be her teacher forever.  Last night she asked me if I would be her teacher when she was in high school, and I said I hoped so.  She said that that would be good because someday she wanted her job to be like mine.  I asked her what exactly she thought my job was (because it's not that glamorous most days!) and she said simply, "Us."

As one of our friends says, we are finding our "new normal."  And that's good.  This is the first time we've really "home schooled" at home since we had been helping care for Angie and taking our school stuff with us over there.  I really, really, really love being in our "classroom" and spending focused learning time with E and B each day.  Erin is reading, and Bodie is talking like crazy.  Erin is learning to tie her shoes and Bodie is learning "rhe, seh, go," and "one, two, free..."  :)   I think I have our house and school stuff all back in order now -- if only I could track down the centimeter cubes -- and am getting back in the routine of exercising, spending quiet time with the Lord, keeping our home, planning and cooking healthy meals for our family, teaching and training our children, helping Joe with his ministry, and organizing all the To Do's of the weeks.   I've had the great joy of substitute teaching for Erin's dance teacher this month after she had her second son at the end of December.  Oh, I have loved dancing again...  I am not sure how I am going to convince her to let me stay awhile after she returns, but my wheels are spinning in my mind with a plan. :)

Joe has had a little extra time now to reach out to loved ones in our congregation since Angie's homecoming, and ministering to them has been tremendously healing for him.  He has begun a few "new" ministries as well, and we've enjoyed a few evenings "just us," which has been nice.  He's gotten on board with our potty training and is quite the pro at scooping up a bare-bottomed Bodie after he says he needs to go "tee-tee" and before the mess is made.  So proud of him...both hims... ;)

Through a month of joys, my heart has also been heavy for many of our loved ones this month as well.  My precious mom (Linda) has still not fully recovered since having anaphylactic shock several months ago.  I hope she doesn't mind me sharing, but she is still very weak and needs our prayers.  She is anticipating several surgeries this year, and she needs to be strong going into them.  Her eyes are very dry after her cataract surgeries, and if you've ever experienced that, you'll sympathize because it is just miserable.  I am so hopeful that this year will bring great healing and joy to her, and it would mean so much to me if you would pray with me for her.  Also, dear friends of ours, the Peoples family, recently confirmed that one of their sons has some "special" needs, and though they are very strong in the Lord and fully trust in His plan, as you can imagine, this is quite an adjustment, if nothing else, in their thoughts and plans.  I can think of no better parents for this little guy, and he is in good hands.  I will never forget something they said to Joe and me when they announced they were expecting this little guy:  as it goes with most of us, when you make the announcement that you are expecting, people are sensitive to commit to pray for you and your pregnancy and encourage you with something like, "we're praying for a healthy baby..."  Their response was, "We are praying for our baby.  We don't care if it's a boy or a girl;  we don't care if he's healthy or not.  We are just excited God gave us this baby."  At the time, I remember thinking those were brave words and I admired them for speaking them.  Now, I admire them even more because it is clear that they were following the Lord's leading in their prayers for him. Pray for them now as they adjust and find great joy in this special call for their lives.  Also, we have other sweet friends who are so very close to finally holding their son in their arms "forever" through adoption from Ethiopia.  There are a few additional obstacles standing between them and that dream, and though they've met their precious son in person now, it seems from her blog posts that the days of waiting are only harder now that they've held him in their arms.  Pray for the sweetness of the Holy Spirit to minister to the Mullins in these last few months of "wait."  And finally, pray for my dear, dear friend Audrey and her husband Brian who announced recently that they are expecting a son in June.  To be sensitive to their circumstances, I don't want to offer any other details than this, but they need prayer in a most sincere way.  It would mean so much to me if you would pray for them.

I'll try harder to post a little more frequently.  Maybe monthly will be our "new normal," though...  Anyway, thanks for reading;  I look forward to writing and reading with you about all the joys and blessings, the trials and sorrows, and the God-willed and God-filled days that await us in 2011.

Merry Christmas :)

Yes, this is your Christmas card this year! ;)  I'll hopefully do better next year and get some cards sent, but I hope you'll be forgiving this year.  We've had a few things going on... :)

We are doing well.  For those of  you reading our blog for the first time, and for those of you who have been following us since I began the blog a few months ago, we want to thank you for reading and caring about us, especially since Joe's mom Angie went to be with Jesus last month.  It is hard to believe it's been almost a whole month since we said goodbye.  Her death has put eternity into a new perspective for us, and we love the Lord even more than ever after walking with her for as long as we could on her journey to eternity.

Angie was a Christian.  She was "born again," as we say in our church circles.  But you don't have to be in a church circle to understand what "born again" means.  In the Bible in John chapter 3, it talks about a man named Nicodemus who was a pharisee living 2000 or so years ago.  He had the incredible opportunity to be a Jew during the time Jesus lived and ministered on Earth, and his conversation with Jesus is documented here.  He spoke with Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, our Savior...face to face...and received the most incredible answer from the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.  If you were face to face with Jesus and could ask Him anything, just as Nicodemus did, have you ever thought about what would you ask Him?  His answer would be as it was for Nicodemus:  one of TRUTH, one leading to ETERNAL LIFE, and one showing you the WAY to attain that.  Through all of our lives' biggest questions, the real answers lie in the bigger picture and lead us to God's true intent for us:  fellowship with our Creator God and His Son Jesus Christ, and eternal fellowship with Him in Eternity.  Nicodemus' question for Jesus was basically, "Who are you?"  And, Jesus got right to the point.  He said that unless a person is "born again" he or she will not know the Kingdom of God and went on to explain one of the verses that is most memorized in all the Bible:  "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life."  (John 3:16)  When you look at what He said, it blows your mind!  And, kinda blows those other theories out of the water...  The idea that when we die, that's it, there is nothing else...  Or that everyone when they die will go to heaven...  Or that there is a holding tank until our loved ones pray us to eternal life...  Or that we will be our own gods...  The TRUTH told Nicodemus the truth and pointed him (and us) to these facts about eternity:  there is one...there are two choices -- eternal perishing or eternal LIFE...only through the Son of God can we receive LIFE in eternity...we cannot receive it unless we've been born again...and it's an invitation given to all of us.

In this world of fierce independence, it is sobering to realize that this is one thing I cannot do on my own.  In a world of codependence, it is terrifying to realize that no one can do this for me.  In a world of "rose colored glasses," it is awakening to realize that I can't just wait until tomorrow and everything will be okay.  In a world of pessimism, it is enlightening to realize that even in my criticisms it is still true.  It is true that our Creator God is Holy and perfect, and because we are not - the Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of His glory - we cannot be in the presence of God. Our sin separates us ETERNALLY from God, and since there are two choices in eternity, life or perishing, that means we all perish.

Then enters Jesus.  He never sinned -- never lied, never cheated on the job, never lusted after a woman, never talked about someone behind their back, never envied what others had, never took the Lord's name in vain, never did anything selfishly, never made excuses, never became apathetic... He was sinless, holy, and perfect, and he was HUMAN LIKE US, tempted in all the same ways we are, the Bible says.  Which gave him full access to Eternal Life and the earned right to be there.  But He gave it up.  You know why?  Because He knew we couldn't do it on our own.  So He gave His right to us.  He died (through crucifixion), fulfilled every Old Testament prophesy on the books, and extended an invitation then and now:  be born again.

Put off your old self, and put on a new self.  One that is forgiven.  One that is "clothed in white."  One that has full access to a Holy God and Eternal Life.  One that accepts God's gift to you through Jesus Christ.

As we journeyed with Angie in her final days on earth, she was never alone.  The Lord sent Jesus to greet her.  He allowed her glimpses of where she was going.  She saw loved ones who had "crossed the river," as the Psalm says, before her.  And we experienced her experiencing unexplainable, unadulterated JOY.  For Angie to not experience sadness or grief or guilt over leaving the family she felt enormous responsibility and fierce, zealous love and protection for, she must have seen and known something way greater than I can explain.  But she didn't.

You can know that kind of peace and joy, too.  We have much to celebrate in the Birth of Christ.  He was and is the answer to everything.

Merry Christmas. :)

A tribute to my Mother-In-Law

This morning we celebrated my precious Mother-In-Law's entrance into Heaven.  Knowing her, I am sure she made a grand entrance.  :)  She had a list of questions to ask Jesus and many of our Biblical ancestors and was excited to fill in the gaps for so many of our earthly curiosities:  to Mary, what was it like to know she was pregnant with the Son of God and finally feel Him move inside of her belly?  to John:  fill me in on what you didn't say in Revelation!  to the blind man:  what was it like when you first saw your parents after being blind all your life?  These were a few of many questions she and I pondered over... :)

She's met my precious PaPa who went to be with Jesus 13 years ago...  She's been reunited to her husband who died 36 years ago...  She has a new body with no back pain, no cancer, and as she told Cody won't have to go to the bathroom anymore! :)  She is standing in the presence of glory.  And she is experiencing joys we can only imagine...  Good for her. :)

Romans 8:13 encourages us, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed in us." "We grieve, but not as those without hope,"  1 Thessalonians 4:13.  

Her funeral services will be Thursday, December 2 at 10:00 a.m. at Southside Baptist Church (Joe will be officiating) if you want to celebrate her life with us or in your prayers.  Thanks for loving her and for loving us.  She's left quite a legacy of love to continue after her.  I am glad I am a part of it... :)

Angels' Pillow Fight

I am sitting here at the computer, sipping my delicious indulgence (swiss chocolate mocha coffee) this morning, telling the Lord how much I need Him today and listening to Him tell me how He has supplied all my needs in Christ Jesus, even before I ever asked.  My handsome husband snores quietly in the bedroom;  Erin is snuggling up close beside him in our bed.  My little boy just said "Mommy" in his sleep.  Two cats have been silenced with their breakfast, and Peanut (my dog) has curled up in my lap.  And now, I look outside and the beautiful, soaking, drenching rain that the Lord sent us last night has just turned into gigantic snowflakes!  Let me now just imagine the crackling of a fireplace.  Ah, a perfect morning.  Thank You, Lord.

I love the snow.  Especially this kind of snow -- huge, white, fluffy flakes that look like the angels opened their down pillows from heaven and shared the splendor of their pillow fight.  But I don't love the cold.  My nose gets cold, like a puppy's. :)  And I've yet to find the solution for that besides wearing Erin's clown nose, and who who wants to do that all day?  It seems befitting of the Lord, though, that even though we live in a world that the Bible describes as "fallen" and we bear the consequences of our own sin and the sins of others, the Lord brings us blessings in the middle of the cold.  Each snowflake, like His blessings, created uniquely by our Amazing Creator.

Now, if someone would just volunteer to build me a fireplace... ;)

Boo

We are pleased to introduce our newest family member:  Boo Stepp. :)  On Halloween night, after our dress up time was over and our outreach at Church had finished, Bodie decided that he wanted to see the bumbins (pumpkins) again, so I took one for the team, braved the cold one last time, lit the pumpkins, and admired our work.  :)  When suddenly, out of the night, we heard the sweetest, loudest meow ever, almost as if he were across the street, saw us, and yelled, "Hey, wait for me!!!"  And out of the night, the most precious little cat came to greet us. 

I, being the sensible mother I am (yeah, right?), and of course not knowing if the cat was healthy or nice, (but oh, so cute!) immediately told the kids NOT TO TOUCH!!  So, I did...  You know, just to see if he was okay...  In the meantime, this little kitty won the heart of my little girl and gained her good graces.  I got a good look at -- uh hummm, obvisously a HIM, and he looked perfectly fine -- beautiful shiny coat, sweet, sweet, sweet demeanor, maybe a little skinny... After all it was Halloween, and he was hungry, and I have heard of awful things that horrible people do to cats on Halloween...  I never intended that he would make it into the house!  When I told the kids that we needed to come in from the cold, I guess I wasn't explicit about letting the cat continue to be warmed by the pumpkins because once I got a good look at my children when we were all warm back inside the house, my beautiful Snow White had put her prince to sweet sleep on her chest.  He didn't move for an hour and a half.  Neither did she.  She just started her quest to convince us that her prince deserved to have a family...

Her first move:  she named him Boo because he found us on Halloween.  Her next move:  "Don't you know that if you give an animal a name, you get to keep him?"  Then: "Mom, I think I have fallen in love with him."  And her final move:  tears.  Sigh...  Truth was I had fallen in love with the fact that he had chosen my daughter.  And, it's not like I don't love animals too...  We have a dog and a cat already, and they both are really MY animals.  They love me and pretty much no one else.  I have always wanted her to have that special, sweet relationship that comes from an animal choosing YOU above all others.

It was getting late, and I was cowering in my exhaustion, so we laid out our "fleece."  I told poor Erin that the kitty HAD to sleep outside that night -- after all, we didn't know if he had any shots and we owed it to our own pets to not get them sick -- but if he was still there in the morning, I'd talk to Daddy and see if he would take Erin and Boo to the vet to make him ours.  After a tearful and heartbreaking, "I'm gonna miss you, Boo..." and lots of boo hoo hoo, we put a blanket out for him, watched him scamper away, said a prayer, and went to bed.

The next morning when I woke, Joe told me excitedly that he had checked on the kitty at three in the morning, and he was laying on the blanket!  (guess he won Joe's heart, too!)  I took a peak, and sure enough, there he was!  Erin awoke not long afterwards, and immediately wanted to check on Boo.  She opened the door, he meowed an excited good morning greeting, and ran to her open arms.  Precious.  She closed her eyes, held him tightly, and said, "I knew you'd stay!"  She didn't put him down all morning. Joe got the appointment with the vet, and Boo's quest was successful.  He was adopted, complete with golden tag and our last name to prove it.  I sure have a happy girl. :)

It sure reminds me of the excitement and peace I experienced when I was adopted -- into the Family of God. In my search to find protection, security, and acceptance in my life, the Lord scooped me up, held me to His heart, gave me rest, stamped His Name on my heart, and called me His own. "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.'  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs -- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."  Romans 8: 15-17.

See you again in a week!  Thanks for reading!

A peak at our week

As you know from my prior posts, we are homeschooling Erin.  We started out with basic preschool stuff and have moved on to Kindergarten.  She is an eager, enthusiastic learner, is GREAT at math, and she is going to be a quick reader.  I got an idea from a homeschooling website, and after we tried it this past week, I love it.  We are focusing on Erin's school four days of the week (we can easily do that since she gets one-on-one time with her teacher all day, every day!!!) and focus on our toddler the other day. :)  The homeschool mom whose blog I was reading named hers "Toddler Tuesday."   But if you know me, I get a little OCD, and I can't imagine breaking our week up like that, so Bodie is going to have Fun Fridays. :)

We worked on the letter H this week, and I thought I'd share some of our work through the week.  This, of course, is not nearly all of it, but this is what I happened to remember to get pictures of!!!

Letter H, covered with Happy faces and Hearts. :)

Her number circle.  I downloaded these from Confessionsofahomeschooler.com and we really like them.  She counts the dots and clips the clothes pin with the correct number on it. :)

She is making words out of her vowel ladder.  She is working on "hat" and "hen" in this picture. :)

We made Haystacks for snacks. :)

And the timing fell perfectly -- H for Halloween. :)

We took Bodie and Erin to Jess and Doris' ranch and saw the Heifers. :)

 She LOVES to paint, so we painted pumkins, too, for Halloween. :)

These are a few of the highlights, with many, many more sweet spots in our week. :)  Here are our beautiful Snow White and Monkey for Halloween!  Have a blessed week, everyone!

Shared Prayers

I am so incredibly burdened for several dear families we know, and I wanted to share about them with you so you can join me in prayer for them.  So I'll do just a quick update on all of us today...  The kids and I have been battling sickness this last week but maybe, hopefully we are all on the mend.  I think Bodie grew an inch yesterday -- he just seems so big all of a sudden!!!  As for Erin, after five weeks of preschool, we decided that she is in Kindergarten, so I am restructuring, reorganizing, and replanning!!!  Joe has been crazy, wonderfully busy with ministry stuff.  And, I had my platelets tested today, and we'll have the results back next week, so keep you fingers crossed for me!  Mom got her second cataract surgery performed successfully with no anaphylactic shock (Praise God!);  and Angie continues to do well -- she has some infection in her leg now, but she's doing about the same other than that. :)

The sweetness of the Lord is shown so clearly in these families who need our prayers!  These families who are ministering through adoption and/or the mission field are heavy on my heart.  Will you pray with them with us?

* Friends of ours who are ministering in Pennsylvania are in the process of adopting a little boy from Ethiopia.  They are in the process of fundraising (because adoptions are very expensive) and doing all the paperwork required to "bring him home."  Pray for Joel Peoples, that this process will be smooth and that he'll be able to come home soon. :) 

* Pray also for our friends Heather and Bill who within the past week brought their little boy Samuel home from Korea after a year of the adoption process.  What a wonderful homecoming and gift he is.  Pray for their bonding and adjustment!  He's seven months old, and deliciously adorable!

* Another adoption prayer request - friends of ours who are also adopting from Ethiopia could meet their little guy for the first time any day now, and as you can imagine they are filled with joy and anticipation!  Pray for the Mullins as they prepare to travel and meet their son for the very first time. :)

* Also be in prayer for Jessica Hoover and her husband who will be leaving to Liberia in the next week to begin their mission work there.  We are so excited for them! :)

* Our precious friends the Nilsens have returned to the Dominican Republic after a few months of much needed rest in the States.  They are re-energized and their health has returned after their sabbatical,  and we are so very excited to see how the Lord will use them as they return to the work the Lord has called them to.

Thanks for joining us in prayer!  :)