Monday, January 25, 2010

Shirts for Shoes

SHIRTS FOR SHOES

A great gift to give for Valentine's Day!

Click on this button for more information...

Be My Valentine


What is Shirts For Shoes?
Providing shoes & shirts for 400 orphans enrolled in HopeChest programs.
For every T shirt you buy- HopeChest will provide a new pair of shoes & a new shirt for an orphan.
100% of proceeds will benefit orphans in Ethiopia.
To Ethiopia with Love- projects throughout the country that HopeChest sponsors.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

the perfect southern January day!

60 something & sunny! Such a great day......Spring we can't wait for your arrival!!!!



Tuesday, January 19, 2010

some favorites

I don't have a ton of words today - but I was looking through some pictures & these are a few that I ran across from the recent past. Some really good memories - mostly from around Thanksgiving.







This was taken late one night as we were getting back to the hotel....my husband is a strong man :)



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Thursday, January 14, 2010

the Levys

There's this amazing family that I have gotten to be friends with & right now, Amy (the mom) is in Uganda to bring her little girl, Sarah, home. Sarah is in the hospital right now & there are many prayer requests that we would love for you to join us in.......check out their story here.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

so.....

who does the baby resemble the most? I know these pictures aren't totally fair as their ages aren't lined up correctly.....but it's the best i can do since the computer crashed & sent my photos into the abyss to never be recovered.......but, what do you think?


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oatmeal snapshots

This was just me trying to get a picture of the baby eating oatmeal. She was having the best time & she is in desperate need of a bath & whenever the camera comes out she reacts a lot like Chandler from Friends





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Friday, January 8, 2010

snow!

Can't talk right now - making hot chocolate to warm up these littles :). Hope you're enjoying your day as much as we are!!!

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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

revisitng the 70s

I mean, it looks like I took a curling iron to the sides of her hair. And anyone who knows me knows that I am not of the schooling that will acutally add something like curling my infant's hair to my to-do list. I do love her hair.......and she has a personality to match.
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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

big change

My girl just came in here to tell me that her brother told her that her favorite color was brown & she was mad because her favorite color in fact is not brown, it is pink.
"Is it true?" I said.
"No" - she responded with sniffles
"Then tell him it's not the truth and then shake it off" and then I did a little shimmy shake dance to, you know, illustrate the shaking off.
She smiled.

What if for your whole life you believed something so strongly that you would do anything because of that conviction. What if you were told your whole life that you were allergic to peanuts - spent your life avoiding all peanut products & things made on equipment that is also used with peanuts.........and then one day you learn that you are not allergic to peanuts. Maybe things within your body changed. Maybe you were never allergic to peanuts to begin with. I don't know. But would you immediately start eating peanuts? I think I would have a hard time. I think all of the years of being afraid of & accustomed to avoiding peanuts would make it more difficult to just jump into a peanut eating free lifestyle.
I read about Paul. No one was more convinced of his rightness that he was. Few people have moved forward in a mission to defend what he believed to be true & honorable. We can all agree that from the outside his ways seemed wicked - but his heart believed that he was defending God. And if Jesus wasn't Jesus, then maybe he was.
Paul, who at this point is called Saul, was on his way to take believers in Christ to prison & he had an encounter with the Lord. Everything changed. Everything he had believed was different. And he didn't run from it.
The truth was so big for him, that he changed his mind. He learned - it says he sat with the disciples for several days.
He was teachable.
That's the word that most people will use to describe my husband. A quality that I am learning from him. A quality that I am seeing my daughter learn from him. An amazing quality.....and rare. So, I guess today I am thankful for my husband.

just to explain all the noise

These are some of the pictures to help you understand the noise level on Christmas morning. I wish I cuold say they were playing in unity a rendetion of "Joy to the World" but it was really nothing like that. At this point i wonder if we will ever have visitors again....the loudness, the licking of the food.....it's just his food remember.....but still, who would really want to visit at this point? And why would I keep telling about it all?? Well, friends, it's just the reality....and we kinda like the reality. We kinda like it a whole lot :)


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Monday, January 4, 2010

Christmas morn

This picture actually helped to explain a lot of Christmas morning to me - after the fact. You see, I realize from this particular picture that my boy was woken from a deep sleep to come check out the festivities. He was confused. He is 2. He wasn't even sure what was going on. And some of the gifts given involved noise - a trumpet, a violin, a harmonica, a saxophone, a guitar........it was loud. It was nuts. And there was crying. Lots of falling apart & crying. I remember looking at Lee with my arms out with a "What in the world is going on here!??!" Now, don't get me wrong......there were happy moments & I was successful at recording each smile on film. Just a lot of pictures taken one right after the other.
Following a good breakfast, lunch at the grandparents & a nap....the Christmas magic was back in action. All smiles & giggles......& jumping.....Granddaddy sent a mini indoor trampoline & the kids just jumped & jumped. Our families were SO incredibly generous with gifts, as they always are......i haven't been able to pick which gift was the favorite of the year...which is great. The kids have been joyfully occupied by all of their new gifts. Was there a favorite gift in your house this year?
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Saturday, January 2, 2010

cookies & saliva

I am just so behind on documenting this season....it was crazy. Crazy fun. But nevertheless, it was a little bit full of the crazy. I am making notes to avoid - or at least try to avoid - the craziness next year. These are pictures from Christmas eve. Our church gave the kids the ingredients to make cakes or cookies to celebrate Jesus' birthday. So we made them & my boy licked his hands & then touched each cookie so only they truly got to enjoy the sugary goodness of the cookies. We have actually learned that in my boy's short life not to ever eat after him.
He licks his food. You should know that if you ever come over here. He "marks" his food the way a dog marks his territory...a little different in that I have never seen him pee on his food - but he does lick it. And that falls into the same category in my opinion.
Just know you've been warned.
It was a great December! The kids are at such fun ages.....except for the baby - a story for another time.
Much to update.....I know. I'll get it done. Just check back this week....you'll see.


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