on of my favorite photos

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic (sp?) after reading Debra's blog today so I dug up some of my all time favorite photos of the boys. :) Enjoy.

Pray Ronel Home!

For many of you that follow my Facebook page you've read my please. But I want to reach out to those that read this blog too. Ernest and Debra Parker were in the process of adopting Ronel from Haiti before the quake. When the US granted Humanitarian Parole for Haitian adoptees two weeks ago, they got busy doing what needed to be done to bring Ronel home. However because he was missing some paper work, he was not able to come home when several others were. It's been heartbreaking for the Parkers. And for those of us praying, although our heartbreak pales in comparison. Last week Ernest went to Haiti with everything they needed. He's been told every day since that today will be the day they can come home. And then every night he's told maybe tomorow. For whatever reason, Unicef has gotten in the way of adoptees going out of the country. They are going around in circles and causing major problems. Ernest and Ronel have slept on the floor of the embassy for a week. Leaving without Ronel is not an option. So this is a call to arms! Raise up your arms and pray with me and several hundred other prayer warriors. Let's pray without ceasing and pray Ronel home! God is so much bigger than we can ever imagine so let's take this to Him! He is our rescuer. Our protector. Our healer. And yes, OUR SAVIOR! He comes to the rescue when we need Him, and WE NEED HIM! Please get on your knees, your face, stand and shout, raise your arms up high, do whatever you need to do to plead straight to the heart of God. Plead the Parkers case and pray pray pray with all you've got. God has radically changed my prayer life over the past several weeks. Let him change yours too! Go before the trone and stand in the gap for this family. And then watch God work, cause He's got something awesome in mind for this family. I feel it with every fiber in me. God has something BIG in store. Pray my friends. Pray Ronel home!

words fail.

There are no words. I can't imagine what the people of Haiti are going through. Praying seems like such a small, intangible way to help, but it is all we can do so we do it. I beg you to pray as well. We know of several missionary families there in haiti who are right in the middle of the mess after the quake. Some report the ground is still shaking. Some have gone out in search of friends, workers, and loved ones only to see body after body laid out on the streets. Some have needed to buy supplies and food only to find that prices have doubled, if not more. There is minimal contact, phone lines are down, it is almost impossible to get in touch with anyone there. It seems the only way to hear news right now is through Facebook and Twitter. Through those sites we've been able to hear that everyone we know is safe. Those are only the dozen we know, there are still hundreds of thousands of people that are waiting to get in touch with their family. It is unreal. I can't begin to imagine what these people in Haiti are going through. Nor can I even begin to explain it in a way that would do it justice. What I can do is ask you to pray for these people. Please please pray for them. They will need massive help. This is one situation in which differences need to put aside and people need to come together and just help. Just love on these people and HELP them. We can't jump on a plane and get there ASAP, but we can come together as brothers and sisters in Christ and PRAY. Some can help financially and I'll leave some links to where you can do that, but the biggest way to help right now other than money is prayer. Lift these people up before the throne. The need is massive but so is God. He can take this situation and turn it for His good and I know He will. Please don't passively read this, please actively kneel and pray for these people. God is calling us to Him, stand in the gap and come before Him for these people.

I will be editing below and adding links of where you can find information on Haiti and information on donations.

Real Hope For Haiti - We first heard of the Rescue Center through Debra and our hearts have been captured by them every since then. The work they do in His name is amazing. Currently they are sleeping outdoors because their clinic/center building is cracked. 70 children sleeping outside. Praise God they are all safe and okay! Please follow Licia's blog and pray for them. Please also keep Debra and her family in your prayers as they are adopting a little boy, Ronel, from Haiti who stays at the Rescue Center. You can also mail a check to this address:

RHFH, PO Box 23, Elwood IN 46036

Help Haiti T-Shirts - Aaron and Jamie Ivey are a couple we also found through Debra. Their adoption journey has touched our hearts and we have followed their story and prayed for them for several years. Currently they are adopting a little boy Amos who is at the Rescue Center. Click the link above if you'd like to purchase a Help Haiti t-shirt. All the proceeds will go to Haiti.

The Livesay Family story on CNN.com

Livesay Blog - Troy and Tara are missionaries to Haiti. Over the past few days they have been working non-stop trying to find people in Haiti. You can follow Troy on Twitter and their blog.

The Livesay's also work with two other ministries who need prayers and financial support. They are Heartline Ministries and World Wide Village.

Send Relief $ via Text Messaging - You can send $10 of relief money through your cellular phone by texting, the charge will come on your next cell phone bill - if you have this # please post it in the comments, I am working on finding the right one. ** Edit - I believe you text Haiti to 90999 to donate to the Red Cross. Someone please post the correct # if I am wrong.

Debra and Ernest on their local news channel

The Ivey family on thier local news channel

I am working on more links, will edit as I get them.

i got boots y'all

okay, I have NO idea where my love of shoes came from. Growing up I didn't really care if I had "fancy" shoes. But as I have grown, so has my crazy passion for a good lookin' pair of shoes. I do know where my crazy NEED for a good pair of brown boots came from. It all started with a brown dress I found at Ross. It's cute, it's stylish, it would go perfect with a good pair of brown boots. So began the hunt. I was okay taking my time, wanted to wait for sales. Then those durn little girls on the Gap commercial got me. Up sparked the hunt for boots! Still wanting a good sale I stayed away from the $75 "me precious" boots. Today was the day. :) I found some adorable boots at Wal Mart AND they were at a price that agreed with my passion. I'm so excited! I now have the full outfit and I can NOT wait to wear it :) Better still is that these pretties will go with jeans, crops, heck they'll go with just about anything :) I might even wear them with my pj's I love them so much :) Here's a pic of the darlings that are now resting on the middle shelf of my packed up closet. The look good there. As if they were made just for that shelf in my closet. :) I love them.

life takes it's toll

There are some days when I feel like the heaviness of life is sitting on my shoulders. I have felt that for the past several months. Carrying what we've carried, silently giving it up to God, waiting for His response, it's heavy. It's taken it's toll emotionally. We've dealth with things we never expected to. It's draining. I'm tired. There are days I think I could just spend the whole day napping. But, in all of that the way was made clear. We know what God wants us to do and it hurts. But when has God moved us without tugging our heartstrings? It happens. We've got spiritual "stretch marks". God is doing a new work, moving us in a new way, and pulling us from our comfort zone. It happens. We've no choice but to jump on and follow Him. Not to do so would put us outside of His will and that's a place we don't want to be. So yes, while I sit feeling the weight of life sitting heavily, I know that God is taking that weight little by little and moving it. How can I not be happy and excited when I know who is at the helm? We've news to share (possibly, when it's not too shocking to write), but for now we ask that you pray for us. I've dealt with more of the "stuff" because I'm home and can, but it weighs just as heavily on Scott as it does me. Possibly more because he's seeing it's effect on me. We will come out better on the other side. God will carry us through. I have no doubt. For now we hang onto that and ask you to pray for us. God has chosen this time in our lives to move, and while it's uncomfortable, it's also exciting. I may not write again before Christmas so for all that read this before then I want to wish you a Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday is filled with family, fun, and lots of love and smiles. I hope Santa leaves you something special under your tree!

getting ready for the move

And oh my how God is moving! Good grief He has us caught up in a whirl wind of MOVE. We are moving physically in about three weeks, emotionally all month long, and spiritually like crazy! God is teaching me so much. Not only through school but through life. Wowzers. While I can't share everything with you right now, I can share our thoughts on the physical move. I don't think we've found greater friends than we have in the LeBouf's and the Hernandez's. And both families are moving this month. :( I am more sad because of that than I have ever been. Tomorrow the LeBouf's pull out of town, after Christmas the Hernandez's. The blessing in this is that they are following God's will for their lives and because of this God has blessed them, and us. We are moving into the Hernandez's house. God used all of our situations to bless us all. Now how cool is that? I will not miss this apartment. We've had some really great times here. We've been here for three years now and it seems like it's flown by. David learned to ride his bike here. Dano learned to ride his scooter and make more noise to annoy our neighbors than I thought was humanly possible :) . Scott and I learned that we need storage space. Lots of storage space. At first I thought I might miss the memories we've had here. But they are just memories and we take them with us. We will not miss it here because #1 - we know it's time to move on to something bigger, #2 - our boys need a home with a yard, our halls can't take much more scooter riding, and #3 - we need a safe environment for our family. Crime has increasingly gone up over here, at one point the managers stopped running the background checks and people got in that shouldn't have. It's not a safe place for our kids to play outside, and well - boys just need a yard to run in. What I will miss are the kiddos we're moving away from. I've always loved living so close to kids from our church. We're here to play, listen, and pray with and for them whenever they need it. They know they can knock on our door any time. They also know they can yell from the lawn to our patio any time they just want to say hello. This is the method chosen by most because they like to see me stumble out onto the patio to see who's down there. They are so sweet. And so special to us. I love those kids. But as I said, it's time for us to move on. God's taking us in a new direction and using us to bless our friends. He's using them to bless our socks off! I cannot wait to move into our new home. It is beautiful. We have grand plans which include some paint, flooring, and such. But our biggest plan is to make it our home. Something that is ours. Something that our boys can grow up in. Something that, if we ever had to leave it, I would miss like crazy. God's timing in all of this has been incredible. I know I said it before but I'll say it again - God is just too cool for words. Why He's chosen a crazy girl like me to bless so incredibly, I cannot understand. I do not deserve to be blessed like this. I do find it odd that at this sad time while my two closest friends are preparing to leave I still have reason to smile. God is good to me. :) We have a much bigger bit of news that is just out of our reach right now so I can't share that, but wow. You wanna talk about God blessing you beyond anything you could possibly measure.... yeah, that's what He's doing. His ways are not our ways, and oh how I love that they are not. Had we gone on our own without His guidance we would be in deep loss. Praise God for His still small whisper that leads us each day! Not sure what more to say :)

thanksgiving

How much do you love Thanksgiving? Take that and multiply it by 20. That's me. I love love LOVE Thanksgiving. It is my favorite time of year. I love all the cooking, I love all the colors, and I love all the family time. When I was growing up we'd always have Thanksgiving at my Dad's Aunt Gerneva's. Oh wow it was fun. All of my cousins would come (I'm sure there were some adults there somewhere) and we had our own table and everything. Back when the "kids table" was cool. We always had the big spread of food - so big in fact that Aunt Gerneva would have to cover her kitchen sink with a giant board to make more room for the food. Moms potatoe salad was (and still is) a big hit, there were always at least 3 pumpkin pies, Beau always made a cherry cheesecake, the rolls always burnt :). It was Thanksgiving and I loved it. I'm trying to instill that same sense of family togetherness and love in my boys. We make sure to spend Thanksgiving together as a family and with our families. We spend lunch with my mom and dad and then it's off to Scott's brother Allen's house for dinner. Both meals are unique, but I love them both. Our families couldn't be more different, but I think that is what makes them so special. I couldn't imagine our Thanksgiving being any different. I get excited just thinking about it! I can't wait! We may have lots of turkey and dressing but it's all good :), we love lots of turkey and dressing. It may not be like it used to be but our Thanksgiving is still full of family, fun, and LOADS of good food. (we've even managed not to burn the rolls the last several years!)

So what about you? How do you celebrate Thanksgiving? What traditions have you added/changed over the years?