A Heavy Heart for Sweet Lucy and Her Family

Today my heart is heavy. I have been following a blog for over a year now about a sweet little girl named Lucy who is Maya's age who has been battling cancer. Her previous scans showed the cancer was gone and then in the past few days Lucy has gotten sick and they found out that her cancer is back and there is nothing they can do. They don't have long with sweet little Lucy.

Lucy has an older sister and a younger brother Jack. She has 2 loving parents who have been such an inspiration to me. My heart HURTS for them. No one should ever have to endure this type of pain. And Lucy's mamma Kate has handled it with grace and beauty. She is very honest about her feelings and I admire her.

Please pray for sweet Lucy and her family and Jesus please keep that baby girl from having to struggle and please keep her pain-free. Have grace and mercy on her family and Jesus please protect little Ella's heart as she deals with all of this info.

Hug your kids tight and be thankful that they are healthy!

Turning Whittling into Giggling!

Last night Joe was teaching Max how to whittle a stick. He was loving it. So this morning he came into the kitchen with his spear and said, "dad, I need to giggle more on this." He said giggle instead of whittle! So whittling will forever be giggling to us! I love him!

Always Want to Remember This

Today Ella did a presentation in class on Ethiopia, she did such a great job and we were so proud of her. At the end of her presentation she said, "and the best gift Ethiopia ever gave me was this little boy my baby brother." At that point Ade ran to her and hugged her. I mean it was a very precious sight for sure. Such a beautiful picture of adoption and unfailing love! She made me a proud Mamma!

We were watching a really neat video tonight about a baby boy who was born with no eyes and a really bad cleft pallet. Maya had to get up from the computer because it was breaking her heart so bad. She has such a tender heart. A couple of hours later we were all hanging out in our room and she comes in and says, "Mom, I have a great song for that baby boy." She starts singing, "give me your eyes for just one second." The song by Brandon Heath, I almost busted into tears. These are the moments I don't want to end and the ones I want to hang on to forever! I am going to bed with a full heart and a blessed Mamma tonight!

Maya Jane was Baptized Today!

Maya Jane asked Jesus into her heart about a year ago. Well today she got baptized! She was so big and so brave and she knew exactly what she wanted to do. She got up there in front of the whole church spoke clearly and loudly and did her thing. She told me before hand that she was going to get the junk off and come up clean! It blesses my heart to know that my baby girl gets it! She amazes me. She got to pick where we went for lunch today and she picked "Burger King" for her baptism dinner!!! Too funny. And she sure has been milking this baptism thing, I can't tell you how many times we have heard, "but it's my baptism day!" How can you say no to that?:) We are very proud of her and we love her very much! Maya Jane, we can't wait to see all of the awesome things that God has planned for you and your life! We love you!

Daddy Comes Home Tomorrow

Joe left for Florida on Thursday for his annual trip to visit his brother. I used to really dread this trip because I thought of how much work it was going to be with the kids all by myself, but the last few years I have really enjoyed it. I am glad for Joe that he gets to spend some time alone with his brother and relax and I get to hang with my kiddos and enjoy the Mom and Kids time!

We have had all sorts of fun. On Saturday I went to Hobby Lobby and bought all sorts of crafts. One thing I got that I absolutely love was a 4 pack of canvases. The kids each painted something on their canvas and I did as well and we hung them up in the playroom. It looks so cute and it something we can always look at and remember doing that together! My kiddos are craft crazy, they would do crafts all day long if I would let them. I on the other hand have to mentally prepare myself for the mess it is going to create! But it is always worth it because it brings them so much joy. Ade was a hoot, he was more interested in painting the paper plate that the paint was on rather then paint his cross! He is a crack up. We also got all sorts of beads and made necklaces and bracelets! They have been beading fools! It is also so good for their fine motor skills.

The kids also swam several times this weekend in the cold pool on these super windy days! But they don't care! They are loving life. Accept for Ade again, I put him in the pool and he got out as fast as he could and said, "I cold"! He was the smart one! I on the other hand was sitting in a corner with a towel wrapped around me because I was so cold. This pool is going to be a God-send this summer!

Today we went to church and headed to my sisters for a party. It was a lot of fun and we got some cute things. We came back to town and headed to WM and came home for a relaxing evening. Although the power did go out for about an hour due to the wind. But we had fun making bracelets and talking!

I am reminded this weekend of how blessed I am to have a husband who really helps me out a lot and loves being with our kids. And I am reminded of what great kids I have and how they are an inheritance from the Lord. If only I could remember that when they are telling me no, making messes, asking me a thousand questions and not giving me one ounce of privacy!:) But I wouldn't change it for the world and I need to appreciate this blessing the Lord has given me, the blessing of 4 littles that call me MOM!!!

I Just Don't See It

I was getting my hair done today and I was talking about my trip to Ethiopia and how there were kids with lice, ringworm, scabs and sores all over their faces and crust around their mouths and noses. One woman said to me I don't know if I could do that, if I could touch kids like that, with all of that stuff, she said, I don't know how you do it. And my answer was simple," I just don't see it." I went all the way to Africa to LOVE on these kids, who knows maybe the ones with the open sores and flies all over them never get touched. What if I was the only one to touch them and love on them in weeks? I'm sorry, but they are people and we need to act like Jesus and to LOVE!

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

We have had such a wonderful Easter weekend. On Friday Maya and Ade got to attend the Easter Egg Hunt at Vintage. They had so much fun. And got A LOT of candy! Later that afternoon we headed over to Joe's parents and we got to meet a very special little lady! Little Annika! Sheldon and Denise are in the process of adopting their 3rd child. She is absolutely precious and has a smile that would melt any heart! We were all instantly in love! I thought it was super precious of my girls, they were really concerned about Amos, because they said they know what it is like to have a new baby in the house that gets all the attention! So they were really trying to make him feel special. It melted my heart.

Saturday we headed up to Grant City with my family. We always have such a blast in Grant City! I can't even get enough of it! The kids have so much fun and I so much enjoy all my family! We had some very tired children on the way home. My sis and her family stayed all night so that was a special night for the kids as well.

We woke up this morning and headed to church and then over to my parents house for a very yummy dinner. It was a great Easter.

This Easter I am especially reminded of how I have no room to complain about my day or say this is the worst day ever. I'm pretty sure the worst day ever would be hanging on a cross and getting beaten. I have nothing to complain about. I have a lot of prayer requests and goals in my life that are going to take JESUS to accomplish. But if he could hang on that cross, I can overcome some things that need to be overcome!

I am super excited about tomorrow evening, my team from Ethiopia is coming over for pizza and I can't wait to see them all! Happy Easter! HE IS RISEN!!!