Monday, July 19, 2010

Our Homeschooled Munchkins are SO Deprived!

We picked up Miss B yesterday & are currently hanging out in the Dallas area for a couple days as a family before heading back home and into the busy-ness of life.

SO many things have amazed us about how she handled herself without us near. Some great friendships were formed with the other people on her team. She had a great time reaching out to homeless people and innercity kids.

However, the part that sticks out the most in my mind is this...

We were leaving the YWAM (Youth With a Mission) ranch and saw an old school bus driving to the area that we just left. Cowboy & I suggested that it was probably heading to pick up a youth group that was part of Miss B's team.

At this point she blurted out, "I got to ride a school bus! I was SO excited! Everyone said, 'Uck! We have to ride on a school bus?' And I was like, 'Sweet! I get to ride a school bus! How cool!"

That's what happens when you send your 13-year old homeschooled daughter on a mission trip...She finally gets to ride a school bus & is excited about it!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for...

1. An end in sight to the rearrangement of our munchkins' furniture and painting their bedrooms.

2. Less stuff in our home...declutter, declutter, declutter!

3. A trip with Cowboy that is now booked to Washington, DC in September. I can't wait for four nights with NO munchkins. I've never been to DC and am excited to indulge the nerdy side of myself. Did I mention the fact that I'll have uninterrupted time with Cowboy on the flights there & back? CAN'T wait!

4. The conversations that my friend Supersize (because of her supersized family & heart) and I are having as we figure out where in Africa God wants us to go next year. SO many kids that need God's love!

5. My father-in-law's retirement! He put in his last day of work yesterday and we're all going to go celebrate with him this evening.

6. Progress in NoBo's development. In the last several weeks he has said Mama, Nana, and many other things. He's bringing a baby doll to us for us to kiss on a regular basis. He's wanting to hug often. He's saying, "woof, woof" when he sees pictures of dogs. He FINALLY weighs 20 pounds!!! He brought me lotion today to massage him. AMAZING things are happening in his little body and I'm very grateful to God for progress.

7. Communication with Miss B while she's away on her first big mission trip. I can't wait to see her pretty face & hug the breath out of her!!!

8. 2 sweet boys in Rwanda that C-Man and Little I are sponsoring from Compassion International. Their pictures arrived yesterday and today and are framed in their bedrooms. 2 sweet boys in my home are thrilled to get to pray for these guys on the other side of the world. There's talk from our kids that we someday need to take a family trip to Rwanda to meet all 3 kids we have there. Can't imagine how that could ever happen, but I love that they're thinking like this.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Missing Miss B Who's in Mission

Miss B (our 13-year old daughter) has been on her mission trip now for 1 1/2 weeks. Only a few more days until we get to pick her up & I can't wait.

She has called and texted periodically, but it's all been abbreviated communication until today.

Today when she called we actually TALKED. We discussed the work that her group is doing, the people that are on her mission team, and about our plans to go to IKEA after we pick her up on Sunday.

I asked her if they had already done VBS with the inner-city kids today and she said that would be this evening.

She said, "We worked with homeless people today. Mom, I love homeless people." (I already knew this because we pray for homeless people when we see them on the street corner & we try to keep water & food in our van to give to them & she has always been concerned for them).

I said, "I know, but you love those VBS kids too, don't you?"

To which she said, "Yeah, mom. I just love people."

WOW!!! It doesn't get much better than that!

I pray that I'm training all my munchkins to love people the way Christ loves us.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

He Keeps Me in Stitches

Today C-Man & Cowboy were wrestling around when Cowboy noticed something on C-Man's toenail. He said, "What's on your toenail?"

C-Man said, "It's a crack and it's been there as long as I can remember."

To which Cowboy replied,

"It's better to have a crack in your toenail than a toenail in your crack."

Laughter is such a beautiful thing!!!