on my mind...

Last night, I went back and forth between nightmares of Haiti, and nightmares of having my teeth cleaned. I in no way mean to belittle the events in Haiti by comparing them to a teeth-cleaning, but I'll admit that I'm a big baby when it comes to the dentist. And even after meticulously flossing every single day for the past year, I ended up having lots of tartar again and a very painful cleaning. Then today, I had to get novocaine and a filling repaired. It's 4:30 and I'm ready to crawl into bed. (okay, I'm going to stop whining about my silly teeth now, and be grateful for dentists who have fixed a lot of things in my mouth!)

Before I go to sleep (which, of course, will not actually happen anytime soon), I'd like to put in a plea for everyone to email their senators regarding the situation in Haiti. It's really very easy. Go to www.senate.gov/ and scroll down to "senators". Find your two senators and send them an email asking that they support every measure to get all orphans who had been living in orphanages at the time of the earthquake, to get out of Haiti and be flown to the U.S. It really does make a difference. Then, find an organization that you trust, and donate whatever you can to relief work in Haiti. Many people are without water and food. They need every person to help.

On a much, much brighter note, some of the Haitian orphans are already in the U.S. Their new families have come for them and they are together forever, at last. Praise our wonderful God!!

a mama when you're feeling sick...

Lily has been a little under the weather for the past few days.

Yesterday, she gave me a hug after I had handed her a cup of tea.

"Wouldn't it be terrible to not have a mama when you feel sick?" Lily asked.

Oh yes, my precious girl. It would be terrible to be sick and hurting and lonely, with no mama (or daddy) to hold you, and read to you, and bring you a cup of warm tea.

Praying for His Kingdom...where there are no orphans...where there are only sons and daughters.

Praying for the 147 million orphans who have no mama to hold them when they are sick.

Praying for the precious children of Haiti, some who have recently become orphans and some who have been waiting many years for a mama to hold them when they are sick.
May Your Kingdom come, Lord Jesus. May Your Kingdom come.

Theology 101

It is absolutely remarkable to me that when you give a little child the opportunity to know and love the Lord, they will fully embrace that chance.

Grace is a worshiper. She loves singing, dancing and giving praise and honor to our precious and worthy Lord. When we pray together as a family, Grace loves to have me whisper a psalm to her, so that she can offer it up as a fervent prayer to God. When we are at our Sunday gathering, she is thrilled to dance with her little friend, Addie, in praise to Jesus. And, before eating, she frequently asks if she can thank God for our food.

Of course, with all of this sweet learning about our Lord, there are bound to be a few humorous moments.

One day, during our family prayer time, Grace was hopping up and down with her hand raised. Yes. We sometimes insist on hand-raising in this family of five talkative children.

"I pray?" Grace asked.

"Yes Grace."

With a beautiful, wide smile, Grace exclaimed, "Jesus, you LOVE money!"

Huh? What was my child saying?! Jesus loves money?! Okay, you might have to know me to realize how funny this is. I'm totally not a money person, except as it relates to what God could do with it. George Muller is one of my greatest heroes in the faith, and I am enamoured with simple living. Yet, here is my sweet little daughter saying Jesus loves money!

Okay, I thought, let's try to go with it..."Yes, Jesus," I stammered, "You love when your people use the money, that you so generously give, to your glory!"

"Jesus! We want money! Lots of it!"

Well, uh...that didn't work. Let's try again. "Yes Jesus, give us money so that we can give to others!"

"Jesus, You really, really, really love money!"

hmmm...I guess that I'll leave this one alone for now. We'll try theology class another day...perhaps when Grace is six! For now, I'll just revel in the fact that Grace gives her full heart in love for our beautiful Saviour (even if she does think that Jesus is really into lots of cash!).

pushover...

Okay, so what she really needed was a pair of brown, suede loafers...

But tell me, how could I say "no" to this little sparkle-loving girl?!

My little lovers

Tonight, I walked in the bathroom while my two littlest girls were enjoying a relaxing bath. They were listening to a CD, and from behind the shower curtain I heard Grace's little voice belt out (with Misty Edwards) "God is a lover, looking for a lover..."

There was a pause, and then the question, "Lily, what's a lover?"

"Oh, well, you know how I love you? I'm a lover, because I love you. Do you love me, Grace?"

"Yes."

"Well, then you're a lover!"

Holiday Highlights

Whew! I feel like the time between Thanksgiving and the New Year completely sped by! After my parent's visit in November, we had a whirlwind of activites, including a Christmas concert, Christmas parties, craft and cookie making, going to see a living nativity....and the list could go on!

I thought that I'd post a few picture highlights of Christmas week through the New year, but I decide not to post all of the early December pictures, because otherwise this post would be very long!!

On Christmas Eve, Oma, Opa and Grammy (David's parents and grandmother) came to our house to join us for a little Christmas celebration and also for the celebration at our church.

Jadon was all grins when Oma and Opa gave him a lego set. He must have said "thank you" and "xie xie" 20 or 30 times!

Grace and Lily enjoy some new dollhouse furniture.

The next morning we had a little family time. These two boys absolutely delight in picking out each other's gifts. Here's a brother-hug.

Our friends Anthony and Suzanne spent the afternoon with us on Christmas day. We had a great time!

Suzanne and Grace, playing Operation (Suzanne's gift from Anthony!).

On the 27th, we jumped in the van, and started our trip to MN. We love car trips. Sure, 1060 miles in the car can be a little bit long, but it can be fun too and a great time to be together! The kids did great!

We stayed at a fun hotel in South Dakota. It has a water park inside!

When we arrived in MN, we enjoyed a couple of quiet days.

On New Year's Eve, we went to a really fun first night celebration. The kids had a good time!

The girls had their faces painted.

The rest of my family came on New Year's Day. Grace and Selah liked having matching pony tails.

All the nieces love Aunt Angela!

And Lily adores Kiah. Kiah is so sweet to Lily.

Cole is such a fun cousin too! He played legos and cards with the boys.

Kiah and Kendra were the hairstylists. Angela was going curly, and Yana was going straight!

My brother, Phil and his wife, Annette, clean up after our big (late) Christmas celebration.

Cole helps Jadon tie a knot with his knot book.

What a blessing to have such special times with family and friends.

A little bit of sunshine

These two guys totally light up my life...