Orphan Alert: 13yo beauty ageing out soon

For more information contact Bringing Hope to Children. This is what they say about her: Xie ChunYuan has to find a family before November 5. On that day she will be 14 years old and under Chinese adoption laws, she will be too old to be adopted...no exceptions will be allowed. ChunYuan has been with a foster family since she was a baby and is a well-liked, friendly young girl. She enjoys school and is helpful around the house. Her favorite stories are biographies of famous people and she will repeat the stories she learns at school to her foster brothers and sisters. ChunYuan is a very pretty girl with rosy cheeks and beautiful eyes. She has waited for so long to have a real family and now her chance is almost gone. In just a few short months it will be too late for ChunYuan. If you already have a dossier logged in, or are close to completing a dossier (or are one of those special families who will move mountains to adopt a child)...please open your heart to ChunYuan. Please hurry!

Orphan Alert: 6yo girl dreaming of her family

Just look at this darlin! 6yo healthy girl with speech delays looking for her family. She is in Eastern Europe and you can contact Partners for Adoption for more information.

the tire

I've showed this picture to so many friends already, but it is still a great story. Last week, a friend and myself and our 5 kids, made a road trip. It was a long trip, 15hrs one way. Around midnight I heard a pop and flapping coming from under the car. I screamed, my friend woke up my friend from her nice restful sleep screaming and I pulled over thinking it was a blowout. I was in the middle of now where, no moon, no light. I used my cellphone for a flashlight, couldn't see anything wrong with the tires and nothing hanging down from the bottom of the car. I got back on the road and the car drove ok, it shook a little but it did fine. I made it to the next town, went to a gas station and looked all over my car again. Still couldn't see anything wrong so I decided to try and make it to my stop for the night, 300 miles away. The car still shook a little but handled well. Made it to my hotel. The next day I pulled in to a garage just to make sure everything was ok. They looked around my car and saw my tire. When they showed me my tire, I started shaking all over. I did have a blowout that night, but somehow God held that tire together and it didn't even lose air and I made it another 300 miles on that tire! No damage done to the rim or the car, or our lives. Thank you Lord again, for protecting me from my stupidity.

Orphan Alert: girl with the curls, 3 year old bundle of fun

It's such a tiny picture, sorry about that. I saw this child's profile on Rainbowkids.com this is what they say about her:

When she had just entered the orphanage, her personality was lively and outgoing. She liked to talk and to smile, and she liked to snuggle in the nanny’s arms. She likes to play games together with the other little children. Now, she is already over two years old, and she is incredibly sweet. She can put on and take off her own clothes. Upon seeing another little child drop a toy, she will run over very quickly and pick the toy up. She likes for the nanny to praise her. Every day she is happy and joyous; to see her is to love her. She had some delays and one seizure in 2008 which was treated successfully with no more episodes. She is currently in foster care and sharing her exroverted personality with them all. She is doing well and needs a family to continue to help her developmentally. Date: August 1, 2009

Her file is with Chinese Children Adoption International

And I shall call them Squishy.

I picked a small basket of peaches yesterday. After I finished I put the basket on the table on the porch and Karianne picked up the basket and touched every peach saying, "squishy, squishy, squishy... um momma, I accidentally poked a whole in all of your peaches." So much for eating them slowly. Cooked them all up and put them in a cake.

One Prayer

On Sunday mornings, I wake up at 7am, get the older three girls dressed for church and get them out the door with their dad who as a pastor, gets there early. I don't have to be at church until 10:30. I get a nice quiet morning with Lucy to get ready for church. A lot of the time, I like to watch Lifechurch.tv online before going to church. Its a church we attended in Oklahoma last summer. Right now they are doing a sermon series where each week a different pastor from around the world does a sermon. This week, Craig Groeshel, the pastor of Lifechurch preached. You can watch it online, they broadcast the service almost every hour all week long. You can watch it here.

I just thought I'd share the outline for today's message:

ONE PRAYER
Unstoppable Courage

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

The path to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear.

• Benaiah was one of the top five soldiers in Israel.
• He was a General in the Israeli army.
• He was the Captain of King David’s bodyguards.

Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. 21 And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. 2 Samuel 23:20-21 He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. 2 Samuel 23:20b

• WHAT LION DO YOU NEED TO CHASE?

PEOPLE WITH UNSTOPPABLE COURAGE

· KNOW THAT THE BIGGER THEIR GOD IS THE SMALLER THE LIONS BECOME.

When (King Darius) came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?" ₂₁ Daniel answered, "O king, live forever! ₂₂ My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. Daniel 6:20-22

· UNDERSTAND THAT PLAYING IT SAFE IS RISKY.

And without faith it is impossible to please God… Hebrews 11:6

We live by faith, not by sight… 2 Corinthians 5:7 TALK IT OVER

• What lion do you need to chase? How will you break through your fear to reach your greatest potential?
• How big is your God compared to what you’re facing? Remind each other how big your head knows He is so your heart can be encouraged.
• Can you please God playing it safe? What faith risks do you need to take right now?

What did God say to you through this message? What are you going to do about it? Spend time this week talking it over. Find more at www.lifechurch.tv/talkitover.

The Lion, the Witch and Karianne

Our girls go to bed at night with music, the modern way, they all have mp3 players. Karianne and Angie like listening to stories. We've found the old Superman and Lone Ranger radio programs and put it on their players. they love it.
We discovered yesterday that the library has all the Focus on the Family Radio theater programs on e audio book that you can download off the computer. They just delete it off your mp3 player somehow when it is due back at the library. So cool. So last night Brent checked out The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe drama from Focus on the Family and put it on Karianne's Mp3 Player. We put her to bed listening to it.
Around 2 in the morning she knocked on our door mumbling something about bumping her foot, she still had her earphones on. Around 4am I woke up to sounds of someone running on the stairs. I made Brent go check it out. He came back and reported that Karianne was going downstairs to sleep and she was still listening to her story. She told him she hadn't slept all night because she was listening to the story. I didn't think the story was that long!! Around 5am I got up to put Lucy back to bed and found Karianne once again, in a different spot, wide awake still listening to her story. She told me she had stayed up all night listening to it. Crazy kid.
This morning she is not acting tired at all. I asked her if she really stayed up all night and she said yes. I asked if she finished the story and she said, "yup. 2 times, maybe 3 times." I think we'll hold off a couple nights on the next story in the series until she catches up on her sleep!

Afternoon update, Karianne is fast asleep on the couch.

A visit to the Desert Botanical Gardens

There's an old children's picture book called Three Jolly Huntsmen. It's about three hunters going into the woods laughing, talking, having fun and all the animals hide from them and they never see any animals on their hunt.
We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens this past weekend. I was expecting desert and cacti. Again, Arizona surprised me. It was acres of lush, beautiful garden full of wildlife, birds and butterflies. We took a walk through the area at sunset. It was very peaceful- well it would have been peaceful if it was just Brent and I strolling through the gardens holding hands like the other couples there. The kids were enjoying the adventure, singing marching songs, shouting "Look Look!" Chasing each other. Brent and I took turns walking ahead or falling way behind to enjoy the beauty of the evening. We kept trying to get them to walk quietly so they could see the animals. We found a few rabbits, humming birds and a lizard. The rest were hiding from the 4 Jolly Huntsmen, given ample warning that we were coming.