Prayer Card Pics by Leighanne!!

Cute Pics I Couldn't Resist!

Summer Fun!

New Haircut!

Shade (Blu's brother) and Caity

Paw and Caedmon in the pool playing "washing machine"

Blu and Cambree hanging out in the pool

The look on Cason's face is hilarious!


Our nephew Brenden (Cloud and Samantha's son)

The kids are finding lots of new "toys" as we pack up the house!

Our niece Andie Lyn (Shade and Caity's daughter)

The kids (not sure why they're naked??) doing pilates with me!

All These Things...

Well, Blu resigned from his job as youth pastor this past Sunday. I guess that it was Step One in our move to Zambia. My stomach was in knots all week long as the day approached. Of course, part of it was the fact that we have been here 3 1/2 years and LOVE our church family and will miss them greatly. This is home to us. But there was something else, and I brought it up to Blu Saturday night as we lay in bed. I said, "There's no turning back after tomorrow...this is it." It hit me that we could talk about moving to Zambia all we want, but the process was going to start the next day, and it felt like there was no turning back. No changing our minds--the uprooting would begin the next day. Blu asked how I was feeling and I told him I was sad. Not for us, but for our kids....what they'll be missing. He assured me as always that our kids will have more opportunities than children that live in America and have a "normal" life. I sighed, thinking that he didn't really get my point, and went to sleep.

The next morning was a normal day of worship. You know how between songs when the music minister starts talking and you sometimes tune out? Well, the man leading music suddenly quoted Matthew 6:33. Since I have been in high school, I have quoted that as my favorite verse. Not sure why, just always one that I have liked. When Jimmy read "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." It's like I heard God say in my heart, "You are seeking my kingdom, and I will add "these things" to your life more than you can ever imagine." Now, I don't know what "these things" are, but I know that they far exceed Little League baseball, dance class, and even time with extended family. Jimmy then sang an old song, "I'd Rather Have Jesus." It was surreal to sit there and hear a scripture I had heard for years and hear a song I knew by heart but to hear them speak to ME about our move. Peace just completely fell onto me at that moment.

Blu then came home and we both shared together how that verse and song spoke to us both. God is so good. Little League baseball? Pshh...I'd rather have Jesus.

From the mouth of babes...

Conversations I've had with my kids the past few days:

Caedmon: I'm gonna marry Brookie!
Cambree: I'm gonna marry Daddy!
Caedmon: You can't marry Daddy, Cambree.
Cambree: Why not?
Caedmon: Because he doesn't have a crown.


(playing with Barbies)
Caedmon: Mama, can you put these clothes and shoes on Ken?
Me: Sure sweetie.
(Mama absentmindedly throws clothes and shoes on Ken and gives back to Caedmon)
(Caedmon sighs with pleasure)
Caedmon: There. Now all he needs is his head.
(Sure enough...I hadn't even noticed but Ken's head is nowhere to be found!)


(after a devotional on Jonathan and David, best friends in the Bible)
Me: Caedmon, do you have a best friend?
Caedmon: Yes, it's Megan. Megan and Tatum and Wyatt.
Me: Cambree, do you have a best friend?
(Cambree throws her arm over Caedmon's neck)
Cambree: My best friend is Taedmon.
Caedmon: Best friends aren't mean to each other. They love each other.
Cambree (in a soft voice, looking adoringly up at her big brother): I love Taedmon always....

Dance Recital!

Yesterday was Cambree's first dance recital! She was pretty precious! The two dances her class did was the hokey pokey, and how much is that doggie in the window. As they danced, I was watching from the wings so I couldn't see Cambree's face, but I noticed that the audience kept laughing. I asked Blu later what they were laughing at and he said that Cambree was making very intense faces as she danced!! :) Enjoy the pics from her big day!

Feed the Forgotten

Too often we hear heartbreaking stories about hungry children in Africa and we do nothing. We feel helpless. . . and so we move on. Not this time. There are people DYING in Uganda right now. There are children whose bellies are hungry and aching. There are mamas who are too weak to stand and babies begging to be held. There are people trapping termites hoping for food and eating dung in helplessness. DO NOT CAVE TO DESPAIR. YOU CAN DO SOMETHING.

For $0.14, you can feed someone a meal of posho and beans. (posho is cornmeal, which is filling and beans are protein). Take that in for a moment. . .

$0.14 a meal

$2.86 for 20 days

$1 per FAMILY

$20 feeds a family for 20 days.

How much was my Chick Fil A yesterday? How much is your Starbucks? The bigger question is how much am I willing to give up SO THAT OTHERS MIGHT EAT?

Remember Jesus story of the Good Samaritan? Remember how his very neighbors walked right by him? They probably looked at him with pity. . .probably thought "oh poor guy, that breaks my heart" but the fact is THEY DID NOTHING.

I am somewhat addicted to ice cream, and last week I had 4 Dairy Queen Blizzards and 2 Wendy's Frosties. (no comments please) The cost of that totals $15. This week, I am sacrificing all of my blizzards and frosties and giving $15 to Feed the Forgotten. I encourage you to sacrifice something this week as well.

The money raised will feed those precious children. There are 3 - 4 villages that are being targeted. These people are literally starving. . Will you help? Even with paypal fees (2-3%) even $1 will feed 6 people! You CAN make a difference.

Join us and Children's HopeChest to FEED THE FORGOTTEN!!!

JUST GO TO WWW.HOPECHEST.ORG AND WRITE "FEED THE FORGOTTEN" IN THE NOTES SECTION!

Thanks and God bless!

Let's Party!!

Today was Caedmon's 4th birthday party! We had 19 adults and 11 kids at the party! It was INSANE in my small house, but our huge backyard was put to great use, even though it was HOT!
Caedmon is SMITTEN by sweet little Megan!

Too bad I missed the pic of the little boy who LICKED Caedmon's cake about 30 seconds after this picture!!

This was the cake table that had a train running around it, the cake in the middle and the party favors (train hats, train whistles, and train suckers) around it!

Caedmon and Cambree enjoyed getting to spend time with their cousin Andie!

Train decor everywhere!

The bounce house was definitely worth the money!

Cucumber sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, chips, dip, pasta salad, fruit salad, etc!

Opening gifts was chaotic with all those people! Ou shy little Caedmon got really overwhelmed and just wanted to crawl into a hole!

Each year he loves opening his card and $2 bills from Grandma!

Grandpa and Mama Dee

Paw and Big Maw

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

I'm a little behind with this post, but my dad had a birthday last week, and we got to drive down to Temple to spend some time with him!
I made him a Domino cake. It was actually a turtle cake with German chocolate cake mix, pecans, caramel, and chocolate chips! If you're a "42" player, you know that it's the 6-4 domino. If you're not (like my sweet sister) then you just get confused and think Dad was turning 64 (he's not..)!

An African theme of gifts--a "Big Five" tie and the African game Mancala

Is it just me, or does Grandma look mischievous in this picture????

Cake time!

This Saturday is Caedmon's 4th birthday party (birthday is June 2nd). I think I went a little overboard, reasoning in my head that this will be his last party in the USA! So I invited tons of people, rented a bounce house, have tons of food, etc. With cooking, cleaning, family coming, etc., I figured I better get the cake made and put in the freezer so I will have time to do other stuff!! I think I get better each year! :)

Wedding!

This past weekend, we went to Lubbock for my best friend's little sister's wedding. Bethany was 2 years old when we moved out there and met their family, so it was SURREAL having my own 2 year old at Bethany's wedding!!

Sonny & Bethany at the rehearsal dinner

Not sure what he was doing, but I definitely got it on camera!

Papaw holding Cason, Mama Sue, Christen (Andrew's wife), and Matt in the background

Whitney, Bethany, and their mama Robbo :)

Siblings Whitney, Andrew, and Bethany

Cambree was just there for the cake!

Me and my girls :)

Blu did the first part of the wedding so Bethany's dad, Ben, could walk her down the aisle!

School's Out!

Caedmon just finished his first year of preschool! He did great all year and never once complained about going--it's so fun when they love school! His end of year program was fun to watch, although Caedmon is VERY shy in front of people and mostly he just stood with his fingers in his mouth! :)

Time to share

I have been fairly careful (sometimes even secretive!) about what I share on this blog since I know there are some in our church and community who read it. However, I feel at peace about sharing openly about what is going on in our lives regarding our future.

After MUCH prayer, confusion, rebellion, more prayer, and finally peace--we are moving back to Zambia. We are heading back as independent missionaries to begin the New Day Orphanage in Mapanza, Zambia. We will leave our job as youth pastor at the end of July and head to Bangs, Texas, where we will spend the next six months traveling, speaking to churches, gaining prayer and financial support, and of course packing/crating. We plan to return to Zambia in January of 2010.

Everyone we have talked to has been so supportive of this, and most seem not at all surprised that God has called us back to Africa. Africa is in our blood--the friends, the smiles, the children, the poverty--it is in our blood and forever in our hearts.

I want to share with you our new website so you can see all that we're up to. www.newdayorphanage.org

Please lift our family up in your prayers during these next few months as we all adjust to tremendous changes in our lives.

God bless, and we hope you come along for the ride!

Tornado!!

We were in a tornado this weekend! Tornados have always fascinated and terrified me. I grew up about 12 miles from the town of Jarrell, where the F-5 tornado of 1997killed several people, so I always pay close attention when bad weather comes and take tornados very seriously!

This weekend, we were spending time with family in Brownwood/Early, Texas. We were in Early on Friday night at Blu's brother's home, watching tv. 6 adults, 5 children under the age of 4. Out of nowhere, we hear this big boom of thunder. We ran outside thinking it was a space shuttle or something because we had no idea storms were coming. Sure enough, we saw some dark clouds and it started to rain a little bit. Cloud (Blu's brother) rushes outside to pull in his 2009 Maserati. While he's gone, we hear a loud noise that we knew was hail. Cloud then rushes in and says that when he pulled his car in, the radio had sirens going off and said there were tornados in Early and we needed to take cover. We got all of the kids into the hallway and watched out the windows as trees blew so hard. Then, everything got still. At this point, we all moved to the big window to see what was happening!! Then, the wind started again and this time we got really scared and moved to the closet. The kids did ok but were not happy about being in the closet with the lights off. We had no tv, no internet, and couldn't get a radio station so we had no idea what was happening. Finally, around 10pm things calmed down and we ran next door for some matches. The neighbor informed us that a fence blew into his windows. Limbs were down everywhere. As we drove back out to Lake Brownwood from Early, we saw that buildings were missing siding, signs and poles were leaning, and limbs were all over the place! There was no power at the lake either until almost 1am. We then found out that there were 4 confirmed sightings of a tornado touchdown at Early High School, DIRECTLY across the street from where Cloud's house was!!! Kroger lost part of its roof, Higginbotham's lost its roof, and Hastings was damaged pretty bad! Cool, huh!!! I've now been in Hurricane Isabel in Virginia, an earthquake in Acapulco, and now a tornado in Early!

And, now, as a reward for reading this long blog that was a slight exaggeration of actual events but mostly accurate, you can receive access to some privileged information! www.newdayorphanage.org Enjoy! :)

Goin' to Africa...

It's taken me a week to write this blog. Or I guess I should say it's taken me a week to be able to find this story funny so that I could write a blog. :)

Caedmon and Cambree have been doing really well with Baby Cason lately. Last Wednesday, Cason was on the living room floor and the kids were laying beside him as they watched tv. I was in Caedmon's closet hanging up clothes. All of a sudden, I hear this screaming, but it sounded distant so I thought it was from the tv. Suddenly it clicked in my mind that it was Baby Cason, but his screaming was from a long ways off. I sprinted through the house and found him outside, on the back porch, laying face down on the concrete beside the bbq grill, screaming his head off!! I spanked the older 2 kids and put them in their rooms so I could calm down and get Cason calm. Then, when the kids came out of their rooms, I asked Caedmon for an explanation of how Baby Cason got outside. Here was his response:

"Well Mama I said who wants to go to Africa and Baby Cason said I do and Africa is in the backyard so I had to take him to Africa and then Cambree put him up on the bench and then he rolled off."

Um, where to even start? With the fact that Africa is not in the backyard??? I calmly explained that Baby Cason is too little to play in Africa and he needed to stay inside (in the USA??). In the end, Cason ended up with a small bump on his head, but otherwise, he survived his trip to Africa.

Never too young??

You know, I've always heard that a child is never too young to learn about Jesus. Hmm.....

You have to picture my daughter, Cambree. She has HUGE blue eyes and a complete poker face. She gets her "wide-eyed, serious as a heart attack" face on when she is thinking about something serious. Then, she will get right in your face to tell you what she wants to say.

When I tucked her in last night, I told her, "Cambree, you go to sleep. Do you remember what's going to happen to you if you get out of bed?" (answer: spanking)

Her eyes got so big as she looked up at me seriously and whispered, "I'm gonna die on a cross."

We love Grandma!!

This is my very special Grandma with my 3 kiddos. My favorite memory of Grandma is playing putt-putt with her. She ALWAYS won and I would get so frustrated that she wouldn't let me win! She also took us bowling, always had a chocolate jar at her house, played card games with us, colored with us, had Disney movies at her house and special blankets for us to use on the floor, and had the best climbing trees EVER. This past weekend was strange, because we went to see her, and we (me, Blu, and Grandma) sat in the rocking chairs on the porch while the kids ran around the backyard. It was so surreal, because I can remember running around the backyard with my cousins while all the "old" people sat in the rocking chairs on the porch!! Yes, I have become one of the "old" people now!! It's incredible to me that my kids will have memories of Grandma just like I do. Did I mention that Grandma had seven kids? What about 18 grandchildren? How about 29 great-grandchildren? (#30 is due this summer). But I'm definitely her favorite. :)

Zambia Conclusion

Ok, sorry it took me so long to conclude, but Easter weekend kept us busy and on the road.

It was weird being in Zambia. Being there, it was like we had never left. Being back in the USA, it's like we were never there. They are two different worlds.

We could never have just randomly taken a trip to Zambia. Cloud paid for our airfare and my parents paid for travel expenses along the way. Both sets of grandparents kept our kids for 2 weeks, giving up their entire Spring Break to chase them around. Wes and Laurie and my sister and her family cooked for us, drove us around, and gave of their time on short notice to accommodate us and our needs. We could never have gone without all of this help.

So, in conclusion, I'll share the song lyrics of one of my new favorite songs by Matthew West, called "The Motions."
____________________________________________________________________

This might hurt
It’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care
If I break
At least I’ll be feeling something
‘Cause just ok
Is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I DON'T WANT TO SPEND MY WHOLE LIFE ASKING
WHAT IF I HAD GIVEN EVERYTHING?
Instead of going through the motions

No regrets
Not this time
I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love
Make me whole
I think I’m finally feeling something

Take me all the way
Take me all the way
Take me all the way
___________________________________________________________

We belong in Zambia.

Easter 2009