So Many Places to Start...

I have so much that I could put in here, however, it is getting late and I would love to head to bed after we watch the 10:00 weather and news. We had our Christmas programs today. We had a great time. John was in the drama in the adult program and John and Michaela both had pretty big parts in the children's program. All the kids did great.

Then last week we celebrated Michaela's 7th birthday! She had her bestest friend in the whole world, Faith, spend the night and we took them to Build-a-Bear and let them Build a bunny! LOL They had a great time. Faith named her bunny Candy and Michaela named her bunny Chloe. Then we went to John's very first concert with homeschool orchestra. Yes, he is the one playing the cello. They did so good.




Then we just had some fun today. We practiced yesterday and then pulled the programs off today. I love my family and my church family!

Bethanie Grace Baker

On November 4th, 2008 at 11:52 pm little Bethanie Grace was born into the kingdom of God. Bethanie was the second child of Jenn's brother Doug and his wife Missy. Although we are saddened by the loss we are very joyful of the time that God gave us with her. Doug and Missy have had such peace knowing that God is good and right in all that He has done in their lives. These events are beyond our understanding and yet it doesn't diminish the hope we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. We wanted to share this video with all of our closest friends and family knowing that through your prayers you have had such an impact in our life, as well as Doug & Missy's.

Reality...

As many of you already know, my brother and his wife are expecting their second little girl. In June, she was diagnosed with Anencephaly, a condition where there is no brain or skull above her eyes. There is just nothing there. Anything short of a miracle of God, she (Bethanie Grace Baker) will pass away soon after birth. Missy was put in the hospital yesterday morning (10-30-08) and she is probably going to be there for the duration. They are just waiting for her water to break, which is also another issue. She is producing to much amniotic fluid. She is miserable, and starting to be in a little bit of pain. Please pray for her safety, and then for guidence, strength, and grace!

She's Coming!

We are so excited today because Mary is on her way here. They left this morning about 9:30 Missouri time and they will stop and stay in Oklahoma somewhere, then head on in to Springfield by Wednesday. We are very anxious to get her here. She is also very excited. Continue to pray for traveling mercies.

The Waiting Game

We have been waiting for a while for Mary to come and live with us. Well, we thought that it was all going to happen this weekend, but God has other plans. It is very close and I need to be patient. I am getting very excited about her being here and I would ask that you pray with us for God's perfect will and direction. We (John and I) haven't felt that great the last couple of days. Just a typical cold, but life does go on and there are things to do. I did start my Project 365 over and the pic that I posted for today is of John and John watching National Treasure 2 while we sit around and try not to use our brains. It kind of hurts! LOL Anyway, I just felt the need to type a little bit, but I do think that I will head to bed and call it a day!

Night, night!

Spooktacular!

Okay--so we don't celebrate Halloween, but we have a zoo pass that gets us in the zoo all year for free, and they were having their annual Spooktacular event. We decided that it would be fun for the kids to go to the zoo at night AND get candy! How fun is that! We are REALLY looking forward to next week, though. On Thursday, we will be heading to Incredible Pizza. This is just something that we started several years ago on Halloween to get the kids out of the house from Trick or Treaters. So since it falls on Friday this year we will go to Incredible Pizza on Thursday and then on Friday we will be out at the farm that our Pastor works at to have our Church's annual Fall Festival. We always have so much fun and the kids get soooo much candy! We always have a big bond fire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows for Smores, an dthe kids run around and go on hayrides then we have a great devotions from God's Word! It is wonderful to be with a church family!

Here are some pics from the other night and I will post some more of next weekend!





This was a picture that I took inside the anaconda exhibit. It made me laugh!

Well.......

Once again I find myself at the computer, late at night, with the realization that I need to write something, yet there is so much to write about.

We found ourselves at church 4 of the 5 weekdays last week. We hosted a Home Missions Conference that lasted 2 1/2 days. I cannot explain how incredible it was to be there. We were able to serve home missionaries and New Testament Church Planters. What an amazing experience to be able to sit and talk with those that have a passion to win American souls for Christ. I must confess that I was not looking forward to the exhaustion that I knew the week would bring, nor was I excited about not being at home much and my house going to pot while we were working at the church. However, I prayed that God would take away those feelings and give me a passion and a compassion for those that we were serving so they could go out and serve. Boy, did He answer my prayers. I have to tell you, I was embarassed by the fact that I have a healthy body and the ablility to work and there was a couple at the conference that had to give up traveling because he just physically could not do it anymore! I was ashamed of myself and asked God to forgive me! I received such a blessing this last week. I wouldn't change it for the world.

We are still in prayer about when Mary will be able to move up here. There have been a few hang ups, but we know that God is in control and the He has the best plan, so we are going to sit still and just let Him work. We are very excited about her moving here though. We are still making the preparations and still looking for that day. We would appreciate all your prayers. I know that Mary would too.

I would like to ask prayer for Michaela. She is asking alot of questions about salvation and baptism. We are treading lightly on what we say and trying to answer the way that God would have us to. As a mom I would ask God that she go straight from "safe" to "SAVED".

We are all doing well. We have missed being at home and we are looking forward to the next couple of weeks when we are able to be home more, but we love b ing on the go and to not be on the go would feel quite strange! I know that there are alot of you that feel the same way.

Here are a few pics of this last weekend! We had a great time at O'Reilly's family Funfest and then at the zoo. This first one is of Thing One and Thing Two--Hey I think that they live with me!

Yep, I was right--they do.....


I guess that this will be all for now. We have a few fun things coming up....so I will be blogging and posting more pics then.

Oh I almost forgot...I have to post a pic of this cake. A good friend of mine that goes to church with me makes these beautiful cakes and this is one that she made for the Music director at our church. We celebrated their 20th anniversary at our church, which is a feat for this day and time.


Yes that is a cake! Isn't she incredible!!!

Oh My!

Well, I guess that I should be shot for letting my blog go this long without but a single note or picture. We have been busy, but so is everyone else, and that is really no excuse for letting the time slip away. We recently got back from yet another journey to New Mexico. We are praying that Mary will be with us soon. We should hear something soon.


We surprised Mary with Mom and Dad coming with us to her graduation then...


We surprised her with Angela getting to be there also.

She was totally overwhelmed

Mary and Sam

Mary Signing with the children's choir at her church

Mary and Sam

John doing the morning devotions the day we left!

We had such a wonderful time. Now we are just looking forward to what God is going to do in the future. I will hopefully get my rear in gear and get this and my Project 365 totally caught up.

Where has the Time Gone!

I realized that it has been a while since I posted my last blog. No we haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Though somtimes I wish that someone would show me where that cliff is. LOL

We have been crazy busy the last couple of weeks. We just got back from our trip to Oklahoma City, to the prison that we visit out there every month that has a fifth Sunday. We love going and so look forward to the fellowship and then getting to be in 3 services with upwards to a 100 or more inmates. These women are wonderful. One lady has a daughter name Michaela, I think she spells it different (but we know the correct way, right LOL LOL LOL) Her little girl is a year or two younger than Kae, but she has CP and is having a double hip surgery to try to correct some of the things that are wrong with her little body. It again reminds me to be thankful for the health that God has given my children. It makes my heart ache to see the confusion that is in that prison with some of those ladies. They are searching for the truth and they have to wade through all of the other junk in order to find it. We just have to present the truth and then pray that God blesses it and allows those that are searching to find the ones in the prison that have the truth and stick close to them. As we left this time, again our hearts were broken. While we were in the yard waiting to be let back into the building, we saw some of the ladies in their rooms waving at us through the windows. Please pray for our prison ministry. It is something that John and I are very thankful to God for--He has allowed us to be a part of it.

We are getting ready to start school. We are suppose to start today, but I went to the Urgent Care yesterday with a severe Badder infection. I never imagined that it would be as bad as it is. They said that the lab repost said that there were too many White Blood Cells to count....I guess that is pretty bad. She wanted to know if I needed to get a note to stay home from work. I said sure...can I get out of housework and laundry. She just laughed and said that she would see what she could do. My wonderful husband though is trying to get me to postpone starting school a day or two--but my kids are bored and they need some stimulation. So...since the pain medicine seems to be kicking in better than last night..I think that we are going to go ahead and get started!

I will have to update my other blog, Jenn's Project 365, with pictures. I have several days to make up for. TTFN

Blessings on Me

Ya know, sometimes I sit back and listen to the things going on around me and I have to say "Thank you Lord, for your blessings on me"!
We had such a wonderful service on Sunday. It wasn't meant to be this way, but God is good. As the song services went on, we sang "Because He Lives". In the second verse of that song it talks about how sweet it is to hold a newborn baby. As you can imagine we were up in choir and Missy started to cry. Reality kind of set in, and after the song the choir was dismissed as tears were rolling down the faces of all of the ladies in our church. The message that Preacher brought went right along with it. God put everything together so nicely. At invitation, a few of us went to the alter to pray and at that time Preacher told the visitors in our church about Doug and Missy and Bethanie. Then he asked for all the men to come forward to pray for Doug and Missy. It was beautiful. The reality of losing little Bethanie, anything short of a miracle of God, became real to the church. We are holding to the belief that God can heal that baby, if He has it in His will, but we are preparing and believing that God is right all the time. I love my church family! I am so thankful that God has put us in this place at this time. We may not stay here for the rest of our lives--God might have other plans for us in the future, but for now, this is our home, and this is our church family and we are so blessed and so thankful for it. WHAT A WONDERFUL GOD WE SERVE!!!

Everyday Life

It seems as if this year has flown by. Are we really in the middle of August? We have so much that is going on and so much coming up in the next few months. Michaela is doing great! Her Steri-strip came off the other day while she was playing outside. She didn't even realize it until she took her bath. This was probably the best way for it to come off. The incision looks great, but we go back to the Dr. on Monday for her to take a look at it.
We are getting ready for school. I am trying to get organized and I really need to get this Switched On Schoolhouse program for John figured out. If I don't he will be merrily doing school work and I won't have a clue as to how to grade it. LOL He is going to be a wiz on the computer I have a feeling.
Mary, one of John's sisters, is re-locating and will be living with us for a while, until she gets her own place. We are very excited! The kids are really excited to have Aunt Mary around.
God is stilling opening doors with our prison ministry at church. In July, John and I were able to go to a women's facility in Newport, AR. John loves to go to Fulton to the Processing Center, and we look forward to the times that we get to go to Oklahoma City to the women's facility there. We get to go at the end of this month. We are already praying and asking God for protection and for souls to be saved. We believe that God is doing a wonderful work through our church for the Prision ministry. We are excited and thankful that God has chosen us to be a part of it.
Pray for us as we get ready to enter this busy season of the year. I would also ask you to continue to pray for my brother and his wife and little girl as well as the rest of our family. As many of you know, they are expecting their second child, Bethanie Grace, but she has been diagnosed with a fatal condition Anencephaly as well as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. If Bethanie makes it full term, she may not live long after she arrives. Melissa is due with her on December 27th. There are so many holidays and special days in the latter part of the year. Pray for God's mercy and strength. We know that He has a plan and a purpose.
On a another note--we are enjoying watching the Olympics. We have watched every race that Michael Phelps has been in, and the gymnastics were spectacular. John Richard is totally caught up in all of it. He truely doesn't want to miss a moment of it. I know this all just seems to be everyday life--but it is our everyday life and I thought you would like to know that we love the place that God has put us in---in our everyday life.

A-OK

I just wanted to let everyone know that we got the results from Michaela's surgery last Wednesday. I realized that I had not posted anything about it when I received great persecution for it. So here it goes...
Everything is great! No problems anywhere. She is such a trooper too. We didn't even need to get her pain medicine filled, all she needed was regular motrin and Tylenol. We go back to the surgeon on the 18th for her to look at the incisions and make sure she is healing correctly. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Stunts, Surprises, and Surgery!

Well, This is going to be a very interesting blog! We decided to go to Silver Dollar City on the absolute HOTTEST Day of this year! I hate the heat, and if you know me at all--you know that I lie not! We took the kids to SDC to see the magician, Peter Gossemer, ride the Lost River, and sweat off 50lbs! (if that were only true, LOL)
Here is Kae playing with the coolest stuff in the world. Play foam--little balls of different colored foam that never dries out. Cute snowman!

Here is the last of Peter Gossemer's show. It really was great--How did he do all of that!

Here is our Surprise! Uncle Michael flew in Sunday night to be with us on the day of Michaela's surgery. Yes, It was just a minor surgery, but he felt like he needed to be here, and we are sooooooo thankful that he was. Michael has the most wonderful wife ever! She told him that he needed to be here if he felt that way. We love you Aunt Katie!!!!


This was the morning of the Kae's surgery--going into the surgery center

Getting all ready. We were so thankful to have Mrs. Khristina as our nurse. She goes to our church and she is a recovery room nurse. God is so good!

They gave her bubbles to blow and crayons and a coloring book to keep her entertained while we waited for them to come and get her. She had already had her "Tylenol cocktail". Just a little tired--not to mention it was about 7:15am and she had been up since 5:30 am.

This can only be described as sheer bordem! We were waiting for Kae to come back from the recovery room.


This was right after they brought her back to us. She is so sleepy. She did great though. She had a yucky looking mole removed from the back of her head and then a good sized cyst and a couple of tiny moles removed from her right thigh. They are sending both off to be analyzed and we should find out more on Wednesday or so. She was such a trooper!

Just Hangin' Out

These were just fun pictues that I wanted to share.

Michaela's Big Night

Here are some pics of our Pee Wee Club at church. They do a fantastic job of singing and quoting scripture. On this night, Kae had the solo verse in the song and she did a great job! We are sooo proud of her.

Randomness

Well, it have been a while since a have posted anything, so I thought it was time to sit and put some new things on here. I will start with John's 10th birthday.




I also took the kids to the zoo on John's birthday. We had a great time.

We watched some girls feed the hippo a WHOLE watermelon! It was amazing!

The elephants were VERY thirsty! LOL

Michaela took this one of the deer. She loves them and knows right where they are at in the zoo.

The reason for the funny grins on the kids faces is because right before I took this pic, the giraffe behind Michaels blew air on her and made her hair flip up in the back. It was so funny!

They had the best time playing at the jumping jewels water feature at the zoo. They were soaked by the time it was all said and done.

They had the whole thing to themselves for a little bit.

They would catch the water as it would pop up and then splash it in their faces! LOL

We finished up the day by eating dinner--at our house the one having the birthday gets to pick what they want to eat, John picked Fettucini Alfredo with chicken. So I made alfredo and we ended with a mean game of Life! What a great day he had. It's amazing how much it means to your kids when you just spend an important day doing whatever they want to do.