HE WILL RETURN!

As Jesus ascended in to Heaven:

"As they were straining their eyes to see him, two white-robed men suddenly stood there among them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing here staring at the sky? Jesus has been taken away from you into heaven. And someday, just as you saw him go, HE WILL RETURN!" (emphasis added).

As I read this morning, my heart started beating fast and I got really excited! HE WILL RETURN! There is more to this life. Many days, I lose sight of His returning. I get caught up in day to day chores, selfishness, sadness for friends who our struggling, anger towards how the poor are treated, and the things of this world.

This is not our home!! All of our stuff is going to burn. We were not created to stay put on this earth. There is so more. One day Christ will appear from the clouds to rapture us with Him forever. It will happen. Could be today.

Can you imagine what that day will be like?

Will you be with the Savior eternally?

Pure Sweetness

Love this sweet girl!

Enjoying the Fall

They asked if they could rake the leaves. Who would deny such a request? We made a huge pile and they had the best time running and diving. I couldn't get a picture of Caleb when he was jumping in because he got up too fast to do it again.

I have love all of beautiful colors God has revealed this fall. It makes me sad to see all the trees starting to be bare, but I am anticipating the first buds of Spring. It has been the most beautiful fall I can remember and we are enjoying every minute of it.

Happy Fall, ya'll!

DIY-One of My Many Projects

Before

After

Chris laughs at me because I always have projects that I want to do. He says that my mind never rests and that's true for the most part. Most of my projects usually involve redoing something inexpensively. Last Saturday, he went out to get his hair cut and came home to me painting the armoire. I put Anna and Caleb in the floor to paint pumpkins and I painted the armoire.

My goal was to give this room a pop of color. We have a lot of browns in this room that were boring me. I didn't want to spend much or paint the entire room, so I opted this.

I love it! It makes me feel happy:) Head on over here to see more do it yourself projects.

What do you think?

October in a Nutshell

I haven't been great with keeping up with our blog now that facebook takes up some of my time. So, I thought I'd catch up on some of October. We took our annual trip to Smiley Hollow and had a great time! Our church has a celebration there every year and we always look forward to it.
The kids loved eating playing golf, going on a hay ride, eating cotton candy, popcorn, and lots of yummy food. It's indeed a place that will make you smile:)
We also celebrated October by carving our pumpkin, painting pumpkins, jumping in leaves, playing football in the backyard, making sand pies, enjoying bonfires on our back porch along with s'mores (always a must!), pretended to camp out, and searched for beautiful leaves.

Family nights, pumpkin shaped cookies, a jack-o-lantern shaped pizza, apple cider, and pumpkin spice candles also made October special. It was a wonderful month and a beautiful fall! I'm sad to see all of the leaves disappearing, but enjoyed it while it lasted.

Halloween 09

Caleb chose to be the "good" Spiderman. After we got his costume in the mail, he wore it every afternoon when he got home from school until dinner. He had a great time at his Halloween party and parade at school. The parade is always a highlight to their day. He made the cutest Spiderman I've ever seen:)
Anna Marie was Snow White. She said, "I don't like Halloween because of all the nasty things." She didn't even want to walk in the Halloween section at Target because it was "nasty." She was a beautiful princess. We took her trick or treating to our neighbors before it got dark so she wouldn't be scared. She takes after her momma because I have always been a chicken and don't like the scary costumes either.

Hooray!

Our Dossier is on its way!! Today, it will be mailed to corporate offices and within two weeks it will be sent to Ethiopia to be translated. Hopefully, the process will go smoothly. I am praying that we don't have to redo any documents. I have never had so many documents to copy, organize, find, and sort. Writing out the $8500 check is the largest amount of money we have ever spent on anything in our lives. We don't buy expensive items. Most of our home decor has been given to us, found on the side of the road, or purchased for a good bargain. The most we have ever spent on a car is $2300. I can think of a better way to spend it than on our babies life!

When we were telling Anna and Caleb about sending off our dossier, they started talking about our baby. "What if it's a girl? What if it's a boy? They will look different from us, won't they? If it's a girl, I'm going to show her how to play with my babies. If it's a boy, I will show him how to throw a football." On and on they make plans for our third baby. Then Caleb said, "When we get our baby from Ethiopia, I bet he will cry in Spanish." That gave us a good laugh! It's so sweet to see how they have responded to the adoption process and how they anticipate the homecoming of our baby. I love it that they are seeing the needs of others instead of only being self-centered. We try to teach them about poverty and give them a global view.

We are all excited and look forward to the referral day! But for now, waiting it will be. I've heard this is the hardest part of the whole process. For now, my goal is to enjoy our family and seize each day as it comes.

Thank you to all of you who have supported us and given financially. We could not have done this without the provisions of God's people. It's awesome to see so many of our family and friends playing a huge role in changing our child's destiny. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!