Sunday Snapshot- The Middle

It is hard being a middle child (so I hear) and it has been especially hard for our middle one the last 2 weeks because both his older and younger siblings have had surgery.  Sweet Sam has not complained a bit about being shipped off from place to place while we took care of the others. 

So when he wanted to be in a karate tournament today - the day after his sister got home from the hospital, an hour after church let out, and on Halloween, I thought "sure, why not"!

He had a little difficulty getting used to the mouth piece and I wondered if it would look like a piece of chewed gum when he was done.

He got it figured out just in time to suit up for his match and WIN! Yeah Sam!

We went to the park afterwards for me to check out a new photo shoot location

And once again Sam was a trooper

Then we headed home just in time to get ready for the Fall Festival.  I love that middle child.

But then with a smile like that, how could I not be crazy about him!

That Other Song

Do you remember the video I posted chronicling our adoption process and that WAIT upon WAITs?
The song was Alway by Building 429.  Whenever I was grieving how long it was taking to get Ruthie, that song would come on the radio or to mind.  It helped me remember God's faithfulness during that time.  I haven't heard that song in at least a year but would you believe it came over my radio while I was driving to Dallas this week for Ruthie's hand surgery?  Yep I started crying. Then I looked in my rearview mirror at the beautiful little girl holding up her snack cup and saying. "Look mommie- all done."

Oh God is so good.  I can watch this video now from a completely different perspective.

2 Songs

There are 2 songs that God uses to get my attention and remind me of who He is.
I will tell you about the first now and the other one tomorrow.

Sam was a sick baby.  He had pyloric stenosis as a newborn and then just as we got over that, he was diagnosed with horrible food allergies. We talked about his diet in terms of what he could eat instead of what we had to avoid.

There were numerous times when I was in my car driving that child to the doctor or hospital and crying out to God at the same time.  I kid you not, about 80-90% of those time, the song My Redeemer Lives (video below) would come on my radio in the middle of my prayer.  The first couple times I broke down crying and the other times I would just laugh at the reminder from God that He was still there and still big enough.

It has been several years since I have heard that song.  Well the other day I was driving home from Texas Children's and praying for Jack and guess what came on the radio? Yep- that song!  I drove home through tears and told Trent all about it.

So right now I am sitting in a surgical waiting room in Dallas while Ruthie is having hand surgery.  Trent is in Houston with Jack and Sam and he just called me and said "listen to what just came on the radio"!  Yep- it was My Redeemer Lives.

YOU CAN LINK TO IT HERE if the video isn't working

Noah and Minnie Mouse

We had our Noah's Ark program at the church today and instead of making Sam an animal, I decided to let him just dress up as Noah.   Ruthie wore a Minnie Mouse costume from our trip to Disney last year.  Minnie was on the Ark- right?

 I don't know if you can tell, but Sam is surrounded by on-looking little girls.  That is my lady's man.

Testament Tuesday

I will start this the same way I did a few weeks ago.  If you are finding all of this reading to be overwhelming, DON'T QUIT!  Just pick up where we are today and keep going.  Trust me, I have been there.  Let's keep trucking through this together.

The verse that stood out to me this week is one that has taken on new meaning for me lately and has been a source of peace.

Phillipians 1:6 says "being confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus"

I find this encouraging for 2 main reasons:
1. It reminds me that HE is the one to begin the good work.  It is not up to me to convince everyone to follow Jesus.  He begins the good work and my job is just to obey and follow His leadership.

2.  He will be faithful to complete it.  When I see God moving in my family or a friend, I don't have to worry about bringing that to completion.  Just as He was the one to begin it, He will also be the one to see it to completion.  I can rest in the knowledge that if I have seen him move in that person's life, I can trust that there will be a day when that will come to fruition!

Isn't that good news?!?  I am thankful today that God loves me enough to let me see him move and walk this path with Him.

Sunday Snapshot- Going Undercover

Jack was in the hospital this week to repair his tethered spinal cord. His surgeon ordered physical therapy for him to get him up and going. My first thought was to tell him that wasn't necessary because I am a PT and I could just do it myself, but then I decided that I wanted to Jack to have the exact same care anyone else with his condition would have. That is when I decided to go undercover and not even tell the PT what I do.

I wanted her to treat Jack the same way she would treat any other patient and I didn't want her to feel like I was looking over her shoulder and evaluating her technique.

I have to say it was much harder than I expected.  I kept wanting to use words like gait, scissoring, heel strike, and base of support.  Those would have definitely blown my cover though. :)

He did great though and we got the approval to go home.  YEAH!  Aren't you glad you weren't in the elevator with us and all those balloons.

PLEASE PLEASE PRAY!

Okay so the place where we just built the duplex last week and where I went in May as a part of a team doing mobile health clinics was struck by Cholera this week.  Trent has been in contact with the Nurse Practitioner on the missionary base and he said it was critical.  There are thousands of people very sick and hundreds have died in the last 2 days.

1. Pray that God will bring aid to these people quickly
2. Pray for the health care providers and missionaries over there that they would remain healthy
3. Pray that God would use this to draw people to himself

Terry Snow the director of the organization we worked with has seen incredible ministry opportunities come out of the earthquake.  Pray that this opens doors for more ministry as his team tries to serve the people of St. Marc.

You can see the story HERE from CNN

Coming Along

Okay the good news is that Jack was able to walk a little tonight.  The bad news is that it was with much resistance and lots of tears.  The payoff was getting to ride in the wheelchair up to the radio station.  They even let him sit behind the mic and tell jokes.  These pictures are from the happier moments of our day.
Pray for less pain tomorrow.  They aren't going to let him leave until he is moving better.

Jack's Surgery

Jack had surgery yesterday to repair his tethered spinal cord.  He is recovering well.  We had a good night with very little pain, but he is in a little pain this morning and has developed a cough that makes his back hurt.  He is also a little sad.  Please be praying that his spirits pick up, that the pain goes away, and that we have a good day of starting to sit him up.

Testament Tuesday

This week we read Paul's letters to the Corinthians.  I was telling Trent last night how I wasn't comfortable with Paul's tone in those letters and I am pretty sure I would have been one of the people in the early church criticizing him.  That led me to ponder the actions of the apostles and the early church.  They weren't conventional or politically correct like we like our churches today.  I have a feeling if Paul landed here in 2010 he wouldn't be wearing a suit and tie and standing behind a podium.  Do we look more like the opponents of the early church than we should as we look with a critical eye at the methods of churches around us?  Just a thought.

On another note...
Jack is having surgery tomorrow to repair his spinal cord.  We will be going in VERY early and I think surgery is somewhere mid morning.  Please pray for him and for the doctors.  We believe strongly that God has guided our steps to this point and plans to do something incredible through this.  Thanks again for walking this road with us.

Sunday Snapshot- That House in Haiti

Several months ago I told you about a trip our church would be taking in October to build a home in Haiti.  Several of you contributed to that house by having portraits taken of your family.  We raised enough money to not only build a house, but a duplex for 2 families.  The men returned home last night and Dustin Bennett was nice enough to get the pictures out quickly.  Thanks Dustin for taking these. 

Here is the house!

This last picture is of the team and one of the families getting the home.  The first family is a couple with a toddler and 2 week old baby.  Can you imagine spending your pregnancy in a tent in Haiti?
The second family is a teenage girl who thought she lost everyone and then recently found her 2 younger siblings.  How cool is that?  You can see them on the video.  Both families helped build all week.

I am also posting the link to a video of more pictures. YWAM is designing an entire community with 84 homes placed on 7 cul-de-sacs with a school, commercial area, relief storage, a market, and a slaughter house.  All they need is money and volunteers.  If you want to read more or participate in this project with this incredible organization, you can go  HERE  or send me an email and I can get you to the right contacts.

Here is a link to that video.  So Amazing!
the video

Wordless Wednesday

Testament Tuesday

First of all I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBECCA!  Rebecca is my dearest and longest friend and today is her birthday.  Everyone should have a friend like my Bec.  Love you Rebecca and am blessed to call you friend.

So onto Testament Tuesday as we read through the book of Acts.  I think the thing that stood out to me the most was how God consistently used the persecution of the Christians to advance the spreading of the Gospel.  A couple times we saw where the believers were scattered and it was always followed by a statement about many more hearing about Christ through that.

So What does that mean for us?  Well let's think about it.  If I were a follower of Christ during those times, I would have had a very well mapped out plan as to how I was going to spread the word about Christ and it wouldn't have included persecution and running away.  I bet they weren't much different.

It makes me think of other times when I have had a plan that hasn't gone my way and reminds me that God's plans are far superior to mine.

Sorry this is short this week.  I am super tired and a little overextended.  I promise to do better next week. :)

Here are a few more vacation pics.

Sunday Snapshot- That Thought We Should Always Ignore

There is one thought that every mother or photographer should ignore.  It is, "Oh I will just leave my camera here.  Surely I won't need it".    Been there, done that? Wish you hadn't?

The first night at our hotel in Cancun, we were walking around and came upon a lifeguard sorting through buckets of baby sea turtles, and he let my kids each hold one.  Of course I had left my camera in the room! UGH!  Every day after that I would ask if they had found anymore and he would say no.  I was so sad that I had missed capturing that moment.

The last night there, we walked back down to the beach (camera in hand this time) and I saw the same guy cleaning up from the day.  I asked if he had found any turtles and he said, "Yes we just found 3.  Would your kids like to release them into the ocean?"  I was probably more excited then they were.

Here are the pictures from that.  

It was  a super cool way to end our trip.