Happy Birthday S!

Oh the joys that our birthdays bring us!! S turned 9 today, I screamed on the way to church when it hit me, "she is halfway to 18". Yikes!! That ones hit me in the gut. Hard. BUT what a precious joy she is to me and has been for 9 sweet years. S is my angel, rule following, perfectionist, over-achiever, dancing ballerina, and my gift from God. Her name actually means princess. . . as she will remind me of often. And oh how she is. She is actually our first child even though she is right in the middle of 11 kids, she was born to us first.

What happened to my sweet little angel? She's just a big angel now!

Oh the joy of candid moments!


Tonight over dinner with the family, we all told stories of the day she was born, and memories of her being so tiny. Now she is celebrating the fact that she got an ipod shuffle for her birthday as well as a Nintendo DS. What is all that stuff and what happened to my little angel? ( I am just kidding, I know what all of that is, as my checkbook just took a dent from birthday gifts!) But in all reality, I can't believe she is growing so fast. My dad even said at dinner, "the next 9 years will go even faster, so hold on."

Here are a few moments from the last few months:

Enjoying the beach last month, S has always LOVED the ocean and water.


S finally confronting her fears of the bike without training wheels, of course still at age 8!



S's first season as a cheerleader. Go Cowboys!


Lord, may I treasure each day with her as a gift from you and never take them for granted. Thank you for such a blessing in my life!

We love you Mrs. T!

Today I am sad to post that one of our favorite teachers, Mrs. Thompson, has passed away after a sudden diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Mrs. Thompson was a first grade teacher at UCS and taught our sweet K in the 1st grade two years ago. Her daughters are also friends with several of my girls, so their family has influenced us greatly.

When K was in Mrs. T's (as the kids called her) classroom, her love for her Jesus abounded in her teaching skills. What a gift to pour out so much of His love onto precious children. Mrs. T saw a gift that K had, the gift to quickly learn a new skill, (especially math) and move on to a new concept. This is very hard for many students, yet Mrs. T constantly bragged on K's abilities and her gifts. When the hard character moments came for K, Mrs. T handled them with grace, mercy, and love. What a gift and how often I thought as I met and conferenced with her in person or on the phone, I wish I had her patience and love at all times.

Several weeks ago, Mrs. T was admitted to our local hospital after having congestive heart failure, kidney failure and a mysterious mass in her abdomen. The troops amongst our school community began praying hard for healing, we just didn't know what kind of healing God had in store for her. TOTAL HEALING!! That's the best kind, when we are in our total glorified bodies, made new, face to face with Jesus! As tears fill my eyes of the bittersweet joy found in a resurrected body, it still means I must explain death to sweet little K. As I entered her room Friday night, awakened her from an early sleep and told her of the news. I just held her as she sobbed on my shoulder, I thought to myself, the joy of the moment. To share with K the goodness and mercy God bestowed upon Mrs. T, to heal her from ALL sickness and give her a new body. As I prayed aloud through our tears, I thanked God for the influence she had in K's life, and for the answered prayer of total, complete, holy healing. I have full confidence in my faith and Mrs. T's faith that she is with her maker, best friend, and intimate Savior. The Bible tells us to be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord, what mercy and grace he has given us to help us bear the pain and sadness of the moment.

Please be in prayer for the Thompson family as they have two daughters who must live a life without their mother. Though we are sad, we have hope in Jesus! Amen.

I've missed blogging!/ Wait for the Lord!

Hello to all my friends in blog world. Our family has been so super busy lately that I have not been able to update or post any new news. The start up of school and fall activities has been nuts. Yesterday little J and I elected to be the "driver" for the afternoon to give dad a break, and we were in that big green van from 2:15-5:00. He was worn out for sure. Our fall activities run the full gamut from ballet to work to drama to you name it, we are doing it.

I desire for the kids to have lots of experiences in life and get a full heap of fun and learning all together. I love that our school offers a lot they can soak in throughout their day, but in the afternoons even with 1-2 activities per child. Well. . you do the math.

Since life has been so busy, our family verse for the past week or so has been Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the Lord; Be strong and take heart, And wait for the Lord." J was explaining to the kids last week that not only does that mean to have patience while God is teaching us lessons or life gets hard, but to TRUST. In The Message it reads like this. "Stay with God. Take heart. Don't quit. I'll say it again, Stay with God." In other words, you crazy football fans, stay on God's team. Staying in that safe place with Him makes the journey so much easier. I was telling a friend just yesterday, I am glad I am not the one who has to make the wise decisions for my life everyday. Let me explain: God's omnipotent wisdom is to my gain. My wisdom : would not get me through this life! I am staying with and trusting God for my strength and support!


So. . . these days, we are waiting, trusting, and staying with God to help us muddle through. I promise one day I will give more updates on our fun times we are enjoying.

The blessing of Dear Friends

There's nothing like some time away with the girls!! This past weekend, my college friends and I celebrated our 12th annual Labor Day trip to the beach, and oh what fun we had!! I have too much to do at this point to catch everyone up on our life, but I just had to say: "Thank you LORD for dear, precious friends!"

It's good to be home, but what a blast. I think the only time I did not hear talking was when we were sleeping!

(Gustav was churning in the gulf just behind us!!) No joke though, we were totally safe and only experienced MINOR sprinkles! Thank you Lord for safety.