Bird Smack

I just had to laugh when I saw this. We have a very high entryway to our front door with a window over the door. There was a single feather on the ground in front of our door and a perfect silhouette of a brid on our window. Hmmm.

Making Lemonade

We got lemons. So we made some Lemonade today. Mmm good.

Birthday Video

For some reason the video didn't load up on that last entry. Here it is:

Lucy's Birthday

Lucy's birthday was Sunday. We took the girls to Rainforest Cafe to celebrate. We got the Volcano thinking they would enjoy the wait staff shoutig "Volcano" and the sparkler on top. They didn't shout and they aren't allowed to have sparklers in Arizona. Bummer. That is all we did for her birthday because I hadn't found her birthday presents in all our boxes yet. Found them last night so we bought her a little Dora cake and gave her her presents- Mickey and Minnie dolls. She loves Mickey Mouse. We got a video of her blowing out her candles, she's very good at is as you can see. :-) I took off her shirt before she ate the purple cake, that was a great idea, she painted her chest with her fingers covered with purple frosting. Great fun.

She's a cutie, and we love her. Happy Birthday Lucy, you're 2!

The Texas Peaks head West part II

It's been a little difficult to blog. So I'll summarize the last week. The second day of our drive we drove through New Mexico and Arizona. They don't seem to have back roads in the west. They made one main road the mountains and desert and you're welcome! It was a gorgeous drive. There was snow in the mountains all through New Mexico and we even drove through a little falling snow.
We stopped at a a hole in the wall pizza joint in Flagstaff for dinner. It only had 3 tables and we took up half of the place. There was lots of snow in Flagstaff and very cold. Phoenix is only an hour and a half away from Flagstaff and when we got there we had to shed the coats and gloves, very nice temps in the 70s in Phoenix. What a difference!

The dogs did pretty well on the drive, they were medicated for the trip but they were still so nervous, Pixie's whole face was covered with drool at our first stop. They didn't go to the bathroom during the entire drive. Strange. When we finally arrived in Phoenix, they did their business and then they just wanted to sleep.

We saw our house that we had rented online for the first time on Friday. We love it. We had fun playing tag and hide-and-go-seek through the empty house and sliding in our socks on the wood floors.

The movers came Saturday and left us in a mess of boxes. I'll let you know when we've settled in. Maybe even give you a tour.

The Texas Peaks Head West Part I

We cruised down route 66 today as we headed west towards Phoenix. Brent had the kids and the camper in one vehicle and I drove the van with pets and plants. I armed myself with chocolate and Mountain Dew and hit the road. One of the challenges of being short is that unless it is noon, the sun visor in the car does nothing. I had a ball cap and the biggest darkest sunglasses I could find to try to block out the sun, I looked like an incognito movie star.

The drive was great, We have been all over the upper half of Route 66 and it was fun to drive the rest of it. The kitchy-ness did not let me down. I wanted to stop at the "Chine-Ital-Mexi-Ameri-Q" Resturaunt but we had just filled up at a McDonalds outside of Oklahoma City. Driving past the BAR S Hot dog factory was a highlight for Brent. In Texas We got to see the Biggest Cross in The Western Hemisphere in Groom, Texas. Quite an accomplishment. I wanted to know what the story behind Deaf Smith County in Texas, guess I'll never know. We ate dinner in Vega, Texas. It's like Vegas- but not. We ate at the Dairy Queen there, the only resturant in town. The terrain was fabulous, we drove by Palo Dura in the Texas Panhandle and spent the night in the mountains of Abuquerque, NM.

Phoenix on my mind

The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11

For more than a month, Brent and I have had a running joke that somehow every day we see our hear Phoenix mentioned everywhere. We call it our Phoenix fix. Billboards, news, internet, friends... everywhere. It's weird because before, it had never been on my radar, I knew nothing of Phoenix or Arizona now, I hear about it every day. Today, my Phoenix fix came at church and it made me laugh and I just had to share it. The pastor shared the above verse today in his sermon. Obviously the verse is referring to Phoenix!

We pack up tomorrow, load Tuesday and then we'll be off to that sun-scorched land!

Cool

I threw hot water up in the very cold air and it vaporized. Pretty neat.

Baby Bees Boutique GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Baby Bees Boutique GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Very cute stuff, and from Phoenix!

Abundant Life

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have life more abundantly".(John 10:10)

January is Sanctity of Life month. In memory of the Roe vs Wade supreme court decision that happened in January 1973, We've tried to reclaim the anniversary as a time to honor all life.

I remember as a teenager I told my friends and told them to spread the word, if they ever faced abortion, to please let me have the child before they did that. I don't know what I thought I was going to do if anyone ever took me up on that offer, but I knew I meant it.

Six years ago in January, I heard Steven Curtis Chapman's testimony on the radio about their decision to adopt. They had adopted a baby girl from China. We had buried our stillborn son a year and a half before and we were childless and empty. The testimony was very moving to me, I had wanted to adopt, but couldn't convince Brent to look into it. The very next day, my friend Lavonne invited me to lunch. She and her husband had also experienced infertility and loss and she wanted to tell me over lunch that they had decided to adopt a baby from China and wanted us to go with them and adopt as well.

Six years ago in January, Sanctity of Life Month, God laid on our hearts the call to adopt. A decision that changed our lives and our calling forever. It is amazing thing to allow God to use you in a big thing. It takes a long time just to be willing sometimes, but when you are willing, you will never be the same.

I confess, it would have been easier remain as we were, there's a lot of mess with paperwork, money and children with all their baggage. But I truly shudder to think what I would be missing out on if we had not opened our hearts on Sanctity of Life month to BE the difference of life or death to a child. You touch the heart of God when you care for orphans. We have now taken 2 little girls as our own. Given them names, love and a family forever. What a privilege to be a mirror in a small way of what God has done for all of us.

Since our first adoption, we began to get involved in finding homes for children, helping others adopt and even helping care for orphans who are not adopted. This is an abundant life, and we look forward to living more abundantly.

That's life.

"As a dog returns to it's vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness." Proverbs 26:11

I've never been able to understand how some dog owners are able to ride around town and run their errands with a dog in the car that seems to be enjoying the ride. I have never had a dog like that. I've had quite a few dogs, and none of them have ever enjoyed riding in a car. Forseeing trouble on our crosscountry road trip next week, I asked the vet for something to help the dogs travel. Today I went to the vet to pick up some anxiety pills for them. I brought our 5 month old Howie along for the ride, just to let him get used to the car a little. The vet is maybe 3 miles from our house. Last month I took Howie to the vet and he was so nervous he threw up in the car. I thought maybe he'd do better this time. The vet was closed so I didn't even get what a went out for so we turned around and headed home. Karianne was in the car with me. On the way home Howie was quiet. I asked Karianne in the back seat if Howie had thrown up. She said no. I said, "are you sure? I smell dog food." I turned around and took a glance, yup. He did. Karianne said, "uh when someone throws up, I feel like throwing up..." I hollered, "Karianne, don't look at him, look out the window!" I started chattering about the sites we were passing to distract her. Then I heard a disgusting sound of lapping. Ug, that nasty animal is eating it! I turned up the radio and sang along so Karianne couldn't hear it. We reached home within a few minutes and I turned around to check on Howie. He was sitting there looking fine, no vomit anywhere.
Karianne said, "Where did it go?"

Ride 'em Cowgirl

A New Year

Every year brings changes for everyone. Without trying, we have a history of starting the year with big changes. We got married in January, we've had babies in January. We bought a car in January once. This year we decided to move cross country in January.

Brent took the position of Children's Pastor at Paradise Valley Community Church in Phoenix, AZ. We'll be moving in just over a week from now.

We leave Oklahoma with heavy hearts and joyful memories at the same time. We came here with 2 children and leave with 4. That is a joy and a miracle for us. The hardest thing will be to leave our baby son who was buried in a Tulsa cemetery three years ago in January. And the memory of Lucy's twin who didn't make it here, but went straight to Heaven to be with her siblings there.

So we look forward to a new year, excited about our new ministry, new friends and new memories to be made.

To our friends in Oklahoma, thank you and see you on Facebook. ;-)