Thanksgiving Holidays

We have had a wonderful week! The boys have enjoyed being out of school and Lauren has enjoyed them being at home too. The boys have been hunting with their Dad this week. Brendan shot his first duck, a pintail. He was so excited about that. I was proud too because I don't think that I could hit a moving target! We went to a movie, watched Uncle Ryan win at the drag races, and had a great time Thursday visiting with family. It is a little sad that we have to get back into the school routine on Monday. Lauren has been sleeping until 9 or 10am. She will not be happy when we have to wake her to take the boys to school. Lauren and I braved the mall today while the boys were hunting. The crowd wasn't bad and the prices weren't cheap. We didn't buy alot but we were happy to be out of the house and had a great time watching everyone else. I guess that's all I have to report this time. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. WE truly have so much to be thankful for!!!!!!!

Yep, its Thad!

Have you ever had a helicopter land in your front yard? Well, that happened to us this week. Thad is finishing up on his private helicopter license and he surprised the kids this week by landing in our yard. They loved it! I thought Aaron was gonna run right up to it but he stopped. I am posting several pictures so you can see what a small space he was flying in. (yes, he is proud of that)
Click on the last picture so you can see the helicopter!

Pacifier Substitute

Lauren has not ever really taken a pacifier. There were times when she was smaller that I wished she would have. As a newborn, we would give her one as we rocked her but other than that....nope, not interested. This week she has decided that pacifiers are really neat. Her baby has one. Her cousins have one and she does not so...........she has found her own pacifier and it is this little red cookie cutter. It is really funny to see her walk around with it in her mouth. She calls it a pacy and puts it in her purse when she is finished with it. We went in a store yesterday that had brightly colored pacifiers and she stood there for the longest looking at each one. I could tell she wanted one badly but I resisted. We will see how long this lasts.

Orphanage in Brazil

On our last day in Brazil, we had the opportunity to go to an orphanage in Anapolis. A sweet lady by the name of Haidi took us there. She teaches the young girls at the orphanage about the Bible. Most of the children there were older as you can tell by the pictures. They really enjoyed having their picture taken and then seeing the image on my camera. So I just kept taking pictures for them to see. I was very impressed by this orphanage.There was a room were the children made crafts and a pool. As we took a tour, Haidi pointed out the children's responsibilities. There rooms were kept SO clean and they took turns with other chores like hanging out clothes and feeding the smaller children. I can only guess that these responsibilities create a sense of self worth and shows the important role that each child has in this "family". The children seemed happy. We were told that this orphanage is run only by donations from area churches and anyone else willing to give. What a ministry for these kids- a safe place for them to be. I am not trying to say that this is a paradise but many of these kids came from awful abusive situations and I am thankful that they are being taken care of here.

Boxes, Boxes and More Boxes

Our stuff arrived from Michigan on Monday afternoon. The kids were running around like it was Christmas time. Aaron followed every box to see if there were toys in there. We only had two boxes of toys but....they were the BEST TOYS EVER! It seems that they forgot about the ones that mom purged before we left Michigan. I love to watch them get excited over the stuff that they forgot they had. Even Lauren grinned ear to ear as I pulled out stuffed animals that have been packed for months. Its like she really remembers them!
So today I have had the task of finding a place for all of these things that I didn't get rid of before we left. We have so many boxes everywhere. In fact, I have gotten SO many things put away but if you walked in our home, you wouldn't know it. Now I am sorting through the rest, trying to find homes for the stuff that we don't need. Lauren has been my helper since everyone else is gone for the day. You know, I don't think these boxes will go anywhere. We may just go for a car ride to get out of the chaos!

Brazil and the Ebersoles

I have so much to post about Brazil. I just couldn't do it in one post. Brazil was my first trip to a third world country. Thad has been to many and I have only heard about his trips. It is a completely different thing to experience it on my own. It is actually one of those things that you can't describe with words, pictures, or videos--but here I am trying to do it. Some of my first thoughts about Brazil was that we (in the states) have NO idea about how blessed we are. Even though I have heard this all my life, again, it was one of those things that I had to experience.

Our friends, the Ebersoles, have been in Brazil since June. They have a beautiful family with 3 children and one on the way! They were so great to let us stay in their home, taxi us around and translate whenever needed! We really got a taste of what life would be like there with kids and all. They are doing such an awesome job at transitioning to life in a new country. We were able to attend church with them (even though we didn't understand a thing) and meet their new friends from church. They had a Monday night meeting in their home where all the young couples from church came. We were really tired that night so we decided to go to bed. When I heard the music coming from the den, I just couldn't stay in bed. They had a wonderful time of praise and worship. I didn't know the words to the songs but it was so easy to see their hearts for God. It excited me that even though I was in a different country--these were my brothers and sisters in Christ! This was a very important experience for me. These christians welcomed me -the foreigner- with the love of God and that was just a life changing moment for me.

Ok, lots more to write but I will have to stop for now. If you would like to learn more about the Ebersoles, check out their website. www.ebersoleonline.com
Their journey is an amazing one!

Girls Nite Out!

My sister and I got the crazy idea that we needed to do something fun together so we had a night out. This wasn't a spur of the moment thing. It all started when we heard that one of our favorite singers was coming to Shreveport. We ended up getting the best seats for the Brad Paisley concert. We weren't right by the stage but we were oh so close. We had a great time. Taylor Swift and Rodney Atkins also performed. We had a great time people watching, listening to the music, and just hanging out. So I can't resist posting pictures from the concert. I've never seen or heard anyone play the guitar like this guy can!







And I didn't mean for this to turn out to be an "ode to Brad Paisley" but this video is worth watching!!!!!Ok, having trouble posting videos too. I'll figure this out sooner or later.

Trick my Trunk?!

Are you familiar with the CMT show, "Trick my Truck?" If not, it is a series where they take an 18 wheeler and deck it out. We are talking new interior- the works. I think I even saw one where there was a fish tank inside! So this year on Halloween our church had "Trick my Trunk." We were asked to decorate the inside of our trunks like a story from the Bible. We usually do not participate in Halloween but we loved this idea as an outreach and had alot of fun. Our class had two cars. One with Shadrach, Meshach, and Obednigo in the fiery furnace and the other was Jars of Clay. My kids had a blast handing out candy! I was so surprised that they liked it better than EATING the candy. We handed out tracs. One was a free ticket (to heaven) and the other was a huge one hundred dollar bill. I loved those. Talk about attention grabbers. We also had invitations to church on some of the candy. I hope we see some new faces on Sunday. My pictures will show how much fun the kids had--Lauren and Aaron in the bouncer--the boys giving out candy and Lauren eating it!

Brazil

We had a great trip to Brazil. It is a beautiful place and we met some wonderful people. However, we just did not feel God's peace that this was the place He would have us work. Yes, it is strange but we have prayed for a while that if this was the place, we would know it. We didn't have the certainty that we would need to move a family of six here. What now? We don't know. We do know that God has a plan for us!! Pray for us that we would draw close to HIM during this time of waiting. We want to be faithful, obedient servants. That is our hearts desire!!!!

We had a great time visiting with the Ebersoles. They have a beautiful family and are involved with a great organization!! We also met some wonderful people from the organization. They invested lots of time in us and we are certain that they have a heart to serve and are doing a wonderful job in Brazil.

I will try to include some pictures in this post but I am still having problems with adding captions to my pictures. If anyone would like to clue me in to that, feel free! So here goes the pics............