We're off...

to that beautiful country that has caputured my heart!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you that have donated for chickens!!!  We just recounted and we have close to 200 chickens!!!  woo hoo!!!  What a blessing for the children!!!

Thank you for your prayers as we travel!

Merry CHRISTmas

to you!

From our house...

to yours!

May Christ's love surround you this CHRISTmas day and always!

Labor of Love

Be blessed by HIS beautiful and perfect love as you celebrate this CHRISTmas.

Ten Dollars

can make a BIG difference!

$10 will buy a chicken that will provide eggs...

to help improve the diets of precious orphans.

We have 55 chickens so far.

Our ultimate GOAL is 200...

we would be thrilled to raise enough
for 100 chickens!

 PLEASE help us reach our goal and

DONATE today!

THANK YOU to all that have already donated!

Days Gone By...

Preparation

I must confess... I have been struggling lately.  Struggling to prepare for Christmas AND our trip to Africa.  Struggling to have a joyful and thankful heart in the process.

I don't always like preparation.  It's tedious.  Time consuming. Tiring. Preparation does NOT equal "instant gratification".  Preparation equals hard work.

This morning as I read in "Jesus Calling" about being "plagued by a persistent problem", I realized... I have been focused on the preparations. The work.  I have allowed the enormous amount of preparation before me steal my joy.

I have been "plagued" by a lack of joy.

I am reminded that Jesus was focused on the end result.  You. Me.  He was prepared.  Faithfully, lovingly, with joy set before Him... prepared.

My sweet Savior reminded me that the preparations are necessary for the end result.  I need to be grateful for the preparations, so that "it loses its power to drag me down".

The preparations accomplish the end result. The end result is what it's all about.

So... as I continue to prepare,  I will endeavor to keep my focus on the end result and I will do so with a joyful and thankful heart! 

Thankful for my blessed Savior, Who came into this world prepared, from the beginning, to die for me.

Thankful for the bounty of blessings my Father has bestowed.  Thankful for the number of children I have to bless this Christmas.  Thankful for the opportunity to travel to a country that has captured my heart and to be able to love on the orphans there.  Thankful for the three Ugandan beauties that now call me 'Mummy' and wait with great anticipation to come home.

Thankful that through my heavenly Father's "preparations" in me the end result will produce "a transcendent Glory never to cease!"

Thank you, Lord, for faithfully, patiently, lovingly preparing me for Your purpose.

"For our light and momentary afflictions (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!]."  2 Cor. 4:17 (Amp)

TOMS Shoes

Chicken Project

In a few weeks we will be returning to Uganda with a team of Jesus followers to visit CLM Orphan Village. 

Our team will be building a chicken coop (or maybe it's a hen house?) in the orphan village and purchasing chickens (or hens!) in order to provide eggs for the children.

Our goal is to raise enough money to buy 200 chickens.  Each chicken costs about $10.

If you would like to bless these children with a "gift that keeps on giving!"... please click the donate button over on the right side of this page... it would be 'egg'specially appreciated!!

Thank you for joining us in making a difference in the lives of these beautiful children!!

Superior PLUS

Abigail played in her first piano festival today.

She received a rating of Superior Plus... which is the highest rating awarded!

She went on to perform in the Honors Recital and received a trophy too!

Congratulations Abigail!  We are so proud of you!

A Traffic Lesson

The travel necessary to accomplish the many journeys our family embarks on each day is mind numbing.  My normal "mode of operation" in dealing with large vehicles, that block my view and keep a pace that I am usually in too big of a hurry to appreciate, is...

to get around said visual block and avoid this pacesetter that hinders me from arriving at my destination in the least amount of time possible.

Recently, as I was following a large vehicle along, not able to see around it and actually enjoying the pace it had set, this thought enveloped me...

"This is what it looks like to follow Jesus".

(Stay with me here.)

"This is what it looks like to follow Jesus... and to trust Him completely".

"This is what it looks like..."

(Okay, get past the big dirty truck, and quit trying to read whatever is scribbled in the dirt and hear the message...;)

We need to follow Jesus... closely.

So closely that we cannot see around Him.

We need to keep our eyes on Him. Our attention on Him.

When He slows down, we slow down.

We don't need to see around Him.

We don't have to know what's coming next.

We just need to trust Him.

So faithfully that we don't even try to see around Him.

I realized that...

I shouldn't try and rush around Him to get to a destination in MY timing.  I should patiently and joyfully wait on Him.  I need to remember that He accomplishes things in the time that I sometimes view as wasted.

I need to follow His lead.  I must trust that He will set a pace that is perfect.  I must trust that He will take care of the timing... and that His purpose WILL be accomplished in the exact moment He had planned all along.

Thank you, Jesus, for reminding me that
Your ways are not my ways. 

You have a perfect plan and all I need to do is TRUST in You completely.

To FOLLOW You closely...
without trying to see around You.
To keep my attention on You and to remember that YOU are the way.

Just so you know... I will continue going around any large vehicle that impedes my journey with the same dedication I have always had in getting my children where they need to be on time.

But... I will forever remember this particular traffic lesson while I do so.

Heaven & Earth

I recently bought this CD by Phil Wickham and I have been totally blessed by EVERY song...

and I think you will be too!  Check it out...

http://www.philwickham.com/