So thankful!

I will blog about our Thanksgiving more when I get pictures on the computer, but I wanted to get some thoughts down before I lose them!

Tonight ds1 got the mail and there was a newsletter from Voice of the Martyrs. I glanced over it and laid it down beside me to finish reading later, but ds1 and dd1 were curious and wanted to know what it was about. So first I just read the captions under the pictures. Dd1 especially was very sad to hear about the Christians in India being persecuted and sometimes killed simply for converting to Christianity. Hindu radicals burned many church buildings down and some of them still had people inside. I was hesitant to read it to them, but I want them to have a real world view, especially when it comes to our faith. These people on the other side of the world that we will likely never meet until Heaven someday are our Christian brothers and sisters!

So I read the captions and then laid it back down. Ds1, who has been reading for nearly 5 years now, picked it up and started reading (to himself) the rest of the stories. He only read the first one where it talked in detail about a man being killed. So then dd1 wanted me to read all the rest of it to her.

It was hard, and I skimmed ahead on parts just in case there was anything really graphic. (The only thing I left out was that a girl got raped....I am NOT ready to have that discussion!) We both cried on the first story that talked about the Christian man dying. It was sad.

Oh, and one thing I pointed out to them was that the date that was mentioned was the 2nd day that we were on the beach on vacation, so that made it more realistic to them.....while we were playing on the beach and in the ocean and visiting the lighthouse, our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world were facing persecution that led some of them to death. Wow. That really puts it into perspective!

I also discussed with them about religious freedom and that we are blessed here in America to have rights to protect us from things like this happening to us. We talked about how many other countries besides India also have persecuted Christians. So we are THANKFUL that we live in a country where we do have religious freedom and can worship God openly without fear of persecution.....although we could lose that someday! But we still have it now, and for that we are so thankful!

After I finished reading the entire newsletter, we prayed for everyone there; the Christians, the radicals who persecuted them and the VOM informers who are living there. Dd1 has such a heart for the lost. She said something like, "God, please help the bad guys see that being a Christian is happy, but maybe not too happy sometimes if you get killed, but they can be happy if they become a Christian. Please help the Christians there to not get hurt or killed and to have more bibles to give to the bad guys so they can become Christians and be happy." It was really sweet. Then, when we were all done praying, she told me to remind her to pray for persecuted Christians every night before bed! Then she talked about deciding whether to give money to the Christians there (via VOM) or spending it on toys instead, and she would choose "dying Christians". She had several different scenarios that were all similar, and each time she said she would choose to help her brothers and sisters who were being persecuted and also help get bibles to the anti-Christians there.

I just love how she is so unselfish. She genuinely wants to help others and to tell others about Jesus. She has said several times that she wants to be a doctor. After reading this, she now wants to be a missionary, and then she got very excited when I told her she can do both! :) And it really wouldn't surprise me a bit if she does. We would be proud.

Ds1 during this whole time was in deep thought. He sat on the other side of the room but was still praying with us (not outloud, but head bowed & eyes closed). I could tell he was in deep thought. I may discuss this with him more tomorrow if we get some time alone.

Check out the VOM website, and be sure to support them any way you can!

http://www.persecution.com/

So thankful!

I will blog about our Thanksgiving more when I get pictures on the computer, but I wanted to get some thoughts down before I lose them!

Tonight Jonathan got the mail and there was a newsletter from Voice of the Martyrs. I glanced over it and laid it down beside me to finish reading later, but Jonathan and Jayla were curious and wanted to know what it was about. So first I just read the captions under the pictures. Jayla especially was very sad to hear about the Christians in India being persecuted and sometimes killed simply for converting to Christianity. Hindu radicals burned many church buildings down and some of them still had people inside. I was hesitant to read it to them, but I want them to have a real world view, especially when it comes to our faith. These people on the other side of the world that we will likely never meet until Heaven someday are our Christian brothers and sisters!

So I read the captions and then laid it back down. Jonathan, who has been reading for nearly 5 years now, picked it up and started reading (to himself) the rest of the stories. He only read the first one where it talked in detail about a man being killed. So then Jayla wanted me to read all the rest of it to her.

It was hard, and I skimmed ahead on parts just in case there was anything really graphic. (The only thing I left out was that a girl got raped....I am NOT ready to have that discussion!) We both cried on the first story that talked about the Christian man dying. It was sad.

Oh, and one thing I pointed out to them was that the date that was mentioned was the 2nd day that we were on the beach on vacation, so that made it more realistic to them.....while we were playing on the beach and in the ocean and visiting the lighthouse, our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world were facing persecution that led some of them to death. Wow. That really puts it into perspective!

I also discussed with them about religious freedom and that we are blessed here in America to have rights to protect us from things like this happening to us. We talked about how many other countries besides India also have persecuted Christians. So we are THANKFUL that we live in a country where we do have religious freedom and can worship God openly without fear of persecution.....although we could lose that someday! But we still have it now, and for that we are so thankful!

After I finished reading the entire newsletter, we prayed for everyone there; the Christians, the radicals who persecuted them and the VOM informers who are living there. Jayla has such a heart for the lost. She said something like, "God, please help the bad guys see that being a Christian is happy, but maybe not too happy sometimes if you get killed, but they can be happy if they become a Christian. Please help the Christians there to not get hurt or killed and to have more bibles to give to the bad guys so they can become Christians and be happy." It was really sweet. Then, when we were all done praying, she told me to remind her to pray for persecuted Christians every night before bed! Then she talked about deciding whether to give money to the Christians there (via VOM) or spending it on toys instead, and she would choose "dying Christians". She had several different scenarios that were all similar, and each time she said she would choose to help her brothers and sisters who were being persecuted and also help get bibles to the anti-Christians there.

I just love how she is so unselfish. She genuinely wants to help others and to tell others about Jesus. She has said several times that she wants to be a doctor. After reading this, she now wants to be a missionary, and then she got very excited when I told her she can do both! :) And it really wouldn't surprise me a bit if she does. We would be proud.

Jonathan during this whole time was in deep thought. He sat on the other side of the room but was still praying with us (not outloud, but head bowed & eyes closed). I could tell he was in deep thought. I may discuss this with him more tomorrow if we get some time alone.

Check out the VOM website, and be sure to support them any way you can!

http://www.persecution.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We've had an interesting Thanksgiving day so far. All is good now, but early, early this morning Jack had another seizure! :( I was still awake, finishing up after baking some yummy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies....my favorite! I was about to head to bed when Jack woke up SCREAMING! I ran to check on him. He was still laying face-down, unable to move, and he had a fever. We just put 2 and 2 together and figured out he must have had another seizure.

So I had to mentally prepare for a long night and very little sleep. :) We were at the ER from about 2am until 5:15 or so, and he didn't get back to sleep until 4:45, just before we checked out, because there were just too many distractions. He has had a cold this past week too, but I thought he was nearly over it when he just developed this nasty cough that sounds really painful. :( So the diagnosis is Acute Bronchitis with a possible (because we didn't actually see it) febrile seizure. He didn't really seem too concerned about this being his 2nd seizure, I guess because it was again caused by a fast-rising temperature. If he hadn't had a fever, they would be much more concerned, I guess.

So we have decided to stay home today. We were a little bummed about it, but it's okay. We're still on for our own Thanksgiving dinner here at our house tomorrow with my mom. We're really looking forward to that! Afterward we plan to decorate for Christmas.

In the meantime, we will just bum around the house, watch football and cartoons, play games, eat those yummy cookies that I was going to take today......and just relax! It has been a trying year for our family, but we still have a lot to be thankful for! God is good!

Vacation - Day 1

I will attempt to get all the pictures together from vacation and blog about one day at a time. Maybe I can get it done that way. :)

We started out leaving in the *afternoon* on Saturday, September 20th. We actually left after Myles' nephew's wedding had already started, and it was 2 hours away! So obviously we missed it, but we still went to visit his brother and their family. It was nice. We hadn't been there in years! We just hung out and relaxed. They have grandkids that are over a lot, so they had plenty of toys for our kids to play with. They offered to let us spend the night. What a blessing! They also invited us to church the next day, but we really needed to get on the road. We were planning to go to the zoo that next morning and then get as many hours on the road as possible.

So I guess there is not much left to say about that day we left, and not many pictures either, but it's a start! LOL! It was SO GREAT to get to sit and relax with *just* Max and Gerri. We had a good time and plan to go back again soon.

Girl Scout "Mommy and Me" campout!

Okay, okay, okay! I'm finally getting to this post.

So last weekend at this time we were on a freezing cold hike in the mountains and on a lake! That wind was cutting! But the scenery was beautiful. Jayla had lots of time to actually get to know some of the other girls and she played some fun games and did a few cool crafts. I was with her the whole time.....she wouldn't have let me leave anyway. :) Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

The theme was polka dots, so here the girls were decorating hankies with fabric paint into dots. They were required to wear something on their head any time we were outside, and most wore a hanky or hat all weekend.
Flag cermony. Jayla is the small one in the blue shirt.

Being silly in bed, trying to wind down the first night.

The girls made pudding in ziplock bags and then had pudding in cones for a snack. They were all being silly in this picture. All of these girls are 1st graders.


All the Daisies and Brownies who went, minus one who was not cooperating with her mom (the Daisies leader), so she stayed behind. Jayla is the one in the front with pink sleeves in between the pink and purple coats.

Our hike out onto the lake. This is the view back toward the cabin.

They used nylon loops to make bracelets, headbands, jumpropes.....Now Jayla is showing her brothers how to make these. :)

Here is the view from the cabin down to the lake.

This was cool. Down the road there was a Boy Scout camp where they had a "ghost town" that they either built or use for projects, we guessed. They also had a huge fort, pirate ship and a castle!





Then we had a bonfire. We were too far away from it to really feel any heat. :(


And then we ended our trip with a few last pictures of our group. We had a great time!

Catching up

Okay, I think this was from two weeks ago. We went to the Lowe's Build-and-Grow kids workshop. Jonathan has been before but I don't think the others have, so it's been a while! I've already signed them up for the December one, which will be gingerbread houses. They look so cute!

In case you can't see the picture very well, you can click to enlarge, but it is Jimmie Johnson's (NASCAR driver) hauler and car. The kids had a blast making them. I was helping Jacob and Jayla both, and we were ahead of Myles and Jonathan for a while! They've really had a lot of fun playing with these. I wish I'd gotten a side picture, but Jonathan took this one and another of them upside down. LOL!
As sad as this may be, I believe this is the only picture I got of Jacob on his birthday! If you look closely you can see that he is standing in Jack's walker and holding it up. That silly kid!
I can't believe he is already four years old! He keeps us in stitches but is still also in that trying stage. He's maturing though, I can see it nearly every day. Just the last couple of days he has eagerly helped clean up his toys and has also shown a lot of kindness to Jayla since she has been feeling a little under the weather. He has been so sweet to her. :)

So for his birthday, we started the evening with a birthday gift scavenger hunt. We wrote clues down that he had to figure out on his own and follow until he reached his gift! He received Cranky the Crane (Thomas the Train toy) the night before, and then for the hunt he tracked down the games of Perfection and Uno and also a pirate dress-up set! He loved that the most, of course! What little boy wouldn't? :) Then we went to his favorite pizza place as a family. It was the same place as last year, and he even got a birthday balloon hat like last year, from the same balloon guy. Afterward, Daddy wanted to take him to pick out a gift from him and he wanted him to choose something that went with Cranky the Crane, so he chose Jeremy the Jet plane with the airport. Now he can connect the two together with the tracks. That is pretty much all we did, but he had a blast and is loving his new toys.

Jonathan lost a third tooth! He has only lost three on the bottom, which is weird to me. I thought number 3 and 4 would be the two on the top! Oh, and when it first came out, I commented on a "pool of blood" and a huge gaping hole, so he called it a 4-star hotel. LOL! I have no idea why he said that, but it was funny, for some weird reason!
I think I'll save the Girl Scout camp for a separate post, and I'll try to get to it in the next few minutes. :)

Cybercocoa

For those cold days when you are out of hot chocolate....