We Serve an Awesome God!!

My husband has been self-employed now for a year and a half. In this economy I have to admit it has been a challenge. We have been living day-to-day recently not knowing where the next check was coming from, or if it was coming. We have been trusting the Lord will provide as He promises again and again in His word, but there have been times when our flesh has taken over and stress almost chokes the life from us. Today was one of those days. Seth hit rock bottom this morning, and I quickly followed this evening. Forgive us Lord for our disbelief. After coming downstairs and sharing with Seth that I got grumpy, he journeyed to the mailbox. We often find ourselves heading to the mailbox in search of what we call, "Miracle Mail". (God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, has money appear in the mouth of a fish, so why not a mailbox?) Today the miracle arrived!!!!!! Oh how GREAT IS OUR GOD!! As I was quickly sinking into a spirit of despair, Seth walked in with a huge smile on his face and stated, "Hey grumpy, here's some miracle mail for you." In his hand was a check for $2000.00!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was a simple, typed note attached, "I heard about your situation so I hope this helps. I love you guys and am praying for you." It brought me to tears instantly, and I am about to cry again thinking about how awesome my God is. Why He loves us so much I will never know. But I am so grateful. I write this today so we will never forget that our God WILL DO what He says He will do. He is our provider. Why is it so hard to remember? God has provided like this many times before. In fact, about two weeks ago, we got a call from our pastor who told us that someone had given him a $500.00 check to give to us!!!!! Again and again, God has been faithful. Jude 1:1 &2 from the Message states, "Writing to those loved by God the Father, called and kept safe by Jesus Christ. Relax, everything's going to be all right; rest everything's coming together." Praise you Jesus! Hebrews 6:11&12 states, "And now I want each of you to extend that same intensity toward a full-bodied hope, and keep it till the finish. Don't drag your feet. Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then get everything promised to them." Lord we are going to stay the course for you. We are believing that you are bringing everything together, and making everything right. Thank you for loving us so much. Thank you for never leaving us. Thank you for always keeping your promises. And thank you to all of you that listen to the Lord's voice, and then are obedient to what He requests. May you be forever blessed for how greatly you have blessed us. We love you all, whoever you are! We are blessed!

Pregnancy (In the Mind of a Child)

It is so fun to watch my children pretend to be little adults! Today they were playing, and both Adalie and Kylia were pregnant. (Okay, it was fun and maybe a little scary.) They had in their tummies as many babies as would fit, three for Adalie (they were little babies) and two for Kylia (hers were quite a bit larger). The playroom was the hospital where they would be delivering their babies.

The girls conversation was fascinating to listen to. At one point they came out of the bedroom and said that they had fallen asleep and when they woke up in the morning their babies were right there beside them. (Oh, how wonderful it would be if it happened that way!) At another time, Adalie was walking along and out fell one of her babies.

She quickly shoved it back under her shirt while declaring, "We aren't at the hospital yet! You can't be born yet!" (Again, so quick, so easy, but I don't think I would be putting it back.) Then last and quite possibly the most comical was when Adalie looked under her shirt and stated, "Hey mom, I could feed two babies at the same time." (The discoveries we make when we are young!) For some reason, when we are children, we long to be adults, and when we become adults we long for the simplicity of childhood. How fun it is to see ourselves through the eyes of a child and realize, today, right here and now, Life is Grand!

Sweetest Little Thing

Kylia has a special sweetness inside of her that has made me stand in awe recently. As we arrived home from church yesterday, I was scurrying around to get lunch ready, when Kylia walked in and stated, "I want to serve you today mama, what can I do?" So she set the table. Then she came back, "I want to serve you today mama, what can I do?" So she folded the clothes that just came out of the dryer. When her sister tried to help she was a little bummed, "But I am serving mommy today." All throughout the day I heard those words spoken. Kylia wanted to bless me today with all her heart, and boy was she successful! Those words, spoken from a sincere heart, made this mama's heart soar!

A few days ago, as we were sitting on our couch, Kylia stated that she wanted to go home. I thought she was being silly, so while tickling her tummy I said, "We are home silly girl." Then she exclaimed, "No, our real home mama, in heaven!" The tickling stopped. Kylia wants to see Jesus face-to-face, and she talks about heaven quite often. She is excited and ready to go. I have told her that Jesus will come back for us when He has everything ready, (and I pray that He won't take her home, unless He is ready to take us all.) I love that she realizes, in her four (almost five) year old mind, that this world is not our home, and there is something so much better to look forward to.

Kylia is my sweet little girl and I am so thankful that the Lord has entrusted her to me.

Melt My Heart

Right now life is financially tough. Yet amidst the current times, my husband still manages to melt my heart. Yesterday, after having a money talk, he responded, "Well, I'm glad you're not for lease." Going along with what I thought was a silly conversation I responded with, "Yep! I'd be the first thing to go!" He looked at me with great confusion and asked what I meant. So I said that I don't keep a roof over the girls heads or food in their tummies or clothes on their back. I'm a commodity, not a necessity (as far as physical needs go). He stopped me right then and there and with complete sincerity said that I was the most important thing in the home, that I brought peace and joy, and I made life worth living. Next to God there was only me. WOW!! He just made my week!

Sometimes as a mom, I wonder how important my life is. Does the laundry, dishes, cooking, and constant cleaning, really mean anything? But then my husband stops me mid wondering, and shows me that I am so much more. So even though finances are pinching, I know that I am blessed, because I have a husband that loves me, and tells me, in wonderful ways.

We had a Bubble

Why do we have a toilet on our front porch, you may ask? Well, it started with a little bubble. Our little bubble turned into a great big bulge, and that's when we knew something was wrong. So we called in reinforcements. My Father-in-law, Dale, stopped everything, and came a running. For two entire days, his only days off, he worked in our little bathroom, with my amazing husband, diagnosing the problem and then correcting it. What was the problem? Oy-E-Vay! Our toilet had a leak. It had been leaking since we moved in, four years ago. So when the linoleum was lifted and the floor exposed, we found yuck! Seth was going to lift off the first layer of flooring, when his hammer decided to continue through the entire floor. Was he too forceful? No way. The entire floor was completely rotted through. Dale informed us that we would have been falling through the floor ourselves within the next two weeks if we hadn't begun fixing it this weekend. The entire floor had to go. So for all of Saturday and most of Sunday, the boys sawed, and hammered, lifted and removed until we had a great big hole in our floor. But praise the Lord, the rot stopped an inch from the tub and an inch from the wall, and we never fell through the floor.

I have to admit that I used to think that plumbing wasn't that hard. Plunge a little here, Drano a little there and wallah! problem solved. Well I learned a thing or two this weekend. First of all, plumbing is hard work. Not only is there sawin' and hammerin', there's also creapin' and crawlin'. Have you ever been under the floor of your bathroom, after it has been recently de-molded. Yuck, yuck, yucky! But they did it! Not only did they crawl, but at one point they had to lay flat on the ground! Ooooo! They crawled right on down there and then hung out for a while. Crazy kids. Secondly, it's dirty work, which I got to participate in. Here is a picture of a pipe. This is the pipe that the toilet sits on top of, and all of that wonderful stuff gets flushed down. This is also the pipe that chunks of the flooring fell down, and of course, they had to be removed. Unfortunately, Dale's and Seth's hands were too large. They are just too manly. Mine however fit into the pipe perfectly. What do you know. Does that make me girly? So here I am in my pretty blue skirt about ready to remove crumbled flooring from poopy pipe. I would like to say that yes, I am now a plumber. If you ever have the chance to stick your hand down a pipe like this you will also be able to call yourself the same. (I think I racked up a few awesome daughter-in-law points though!!)

After two days, of hard work I now have a floor again. This project which could have cost $2000.00, only cost $118.00. Praise the Lord for my husband and his dad. I felt so blessed this weekend by them both. And strangely enough, I felt loved. I felt loved by a father-in-law that was willing to drop everything to help. It showed how much he cares about us. I felt loved by a husband, who after getting up at 4:00 a.m. the previous morning, driving 3 hours to Yakima, working 12 hours, and then driving home 3 hours, continued working through the weekend to make our home safe. I felt loved by a mother-in-law who bought a booster seat for my daughter this weekend, because she saw a need. (I know that has nothing to do with the plumbing, but it made me feel loved.) We are blessed, and God is good.

I think the moral of the story is this, don't let a little bubble turn into a huge bulge, but if you do, you might find that your loved too.

Highlights

We traveled to Portland this weekend for the Fourth of July. There were a few things that happened, or were said, that are definitely worth remembering. Here are a few.
1. Zoie looked at Uncle Ben's underarm and stated, "You have a beard!"
2. Have you heard the saying, "That's what I'm talking about!"? Well, I was talking with Seth and while meaning to say this phrase, he actually said, "I'm talking about that!" I never laughed so hard.
3. We did a six mile hike in ninety degree weather, whew! Thankfully, we stopped a few times to stick our feet in the water. The girls (except Zoie, who was asleep in the backpack at the time) wanted to wade through the water. Daddy's response, "Only if you are brave and don't act like little girls." My question, "What else are they supposed to act like?" As you can see from the picture, no tears, just smiles, brave girls!
4. Zoie fell INTO the bathtub. One minute she was standing beside me, and the next her feet were in the air and her face in the water. It gave her quite the fright, but for some reason hit me as incredibly funny. (Who falls into a bathtub?)
5. I walked into mom and dad's room and came upon a precious sight. Zoie was sitting on the ground, with guitar in hand, and was singing to Grandpa Lonnie and Kylia. The sun was shining through the window onto her hair, and she looked radiant. Her songs were her own, about Jesus and her family. Then she gave the guitar to Kylia who also made up her own songs. Some about Jesus and one about the riverside. The girls amazed me with their abilities. We may have songwriters in our family!
6. When we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Himes' house, the girls saw the inflatable water slide, and instantly started stripping down. By the time I made it outside they were all three, naked but for panties, slipping and sliding all over the place. (As you may notice in these pictures, the girls have on swimsuits. These were from a previous day, with a bit more modesty. No panty pictures of my girls!)
7. The girls were given Oreo's during their sliding adventures, and it was an awesome sight to watch. Within seconds, the Oreo's hit their mark, and the girls were singing, dancing, running, and laughing, all quite loudly. (Remember this was all taking place in nothing but panties.) One song was about their love of their belly buttons. Adalie performed a penguin dance, and to end it all they sang, "So long, farewell," from the Sound of Music, complete with the "Cuckoo, Cuckoo".
8. As the performances were ending and the night drawing to a close, my father-in-law leaned over, and with complete sincerity said, "I am so glad you came." It made my day!

My Precious Adalie

My Adalie has such a sensitive spirit. She was staying with Grandma for the week while Seth and I were gone. Grandma had on a D.C. Talk tee-shirt (a Christian rap group) that screamed "Jesus Freak!" As adults we know that this means some one on fire for Jesus, but in her precious, younger mind it was quite troublesome. She even had to ask Grandma what her shirt said, (even though she can read herself), and asked what that meant. She didn't say anything for a while, but after a bit asked Grandma to take off the tee-shirt and get rid of it. Those two words together didn't sit right in her spirit, and she was bold enough to do something about it.

Again she was reading a story out loud and came across the word "wicked". She had to stop completely and couldn't read the word. I explained to her its meaning, and in this context it wasn't wrong to say, but she looked up at me and asked, so sweetly, if it would be okay to skip. She then replaced it with another word, and continued on.

I prayed this sensitivity to the Spirit will continue into her adult life. She has such a wonderful gift, and lives will be blessed because of it!