Allow the green light of grace to shine brighter than the amber light of caution or the red light of don't.

Chuck Swindoll

Haiti

We wanted to ask you to pray for a couple of families.

First is Jesse and Kacy. Here they are with their two boys.They are some of our best buddies from the states.  They are also an amazing part of our ministry and our lives.  How God brought our families together is really cool.  That's a blog for another day. 

Jesse leaves today for Haiti. He is part of a group that is going (for a week) to help an orphanage.

Please pray for his, and the group's, safety and that as they help, in any way possible, that they can share, show and be the love of Christ to every person they come in contact with.

We also would ask for prayers for my cousin Andy and his wife Jeanne.  Wish I had a current picture of these guys so you could put a face with your prayers but I don't have one.  They too have been an incredible part of this ministry.  They have been with our family from the first day we felt a calling to come to Brasil.  We feel very close to them even though we don't get to see them very much.  I could also do a blog about them and how God has intertwined our lives over the years and through thousands of miles.  Another blog for another day.  

They are also very special to us. 

  
For the last few years they have been sponsoring a couple of kids at an orphanage in Haiti. The kids' names are James and Pharah.

We emailed them after the earthquake hit and found out that both of the kids were fine.

After years of praying and asking God if adopting them would be the right thing to do, God gave, through this disaster, a confirmation to both of them that they needed to adopt James and Pharah. God has given them peace about this big decision.

Because of the way things are happening right now it looks like this process will be greatly speeded up and there is a possibility that the kids can by with Andy and Jeanne within a few weeks.

Yesterday Jeanne sent out an email that shared what the day to day life is like for James and Pharah. She said, "Andy and I have been grieving the losses in Haiti. The World Relief building we went to each visit was destroyed...but the Morquette's home and the orphanage and new hospital had little damage. James and Pharah are ok...but the hospital is on the property and the children are being exposed to horrific scenes as so many injured flow in the hospital and the overflow is being treated outside in plain view of the kids."

We ask that you pray that all the paperwork for the adoption can be speeded up and that James and Pharah can be in their new, loving, Christian home soon.  No child needs to see the things they are seeing on a daily basis.  

 

The more I read about what is happening there the more grateful I am for people like Jesse and Kacy and Andy and Jeanne who are willing to do whatever God is asking them to do to help right now.  The people there are lacking food and clean water.  Diseases are spreading.  I've read where the people are fighting for the aid that is being delivered.  This is a picture I took off a news website of the looting going on. 

I also read this morning that criminals are raping women and young girls.  The national police chief said that 7,000 prisoners escaped from the National Penitentiary the night of the earthquake.  He said it took 5 years to apprehend them and now they are "running wild."

It's not a good place to be right now.  

And that is why now, especially now, in the midst of all of the suffering, crime and chaos, these people need to be reminded of God's goodness.  They need someone to care for them the way Jesus would. 

I am proud that these two couples we know are doing everything they can do to bring Christ's love to the people of Haiti.  I believe God will greatly bless their faithfulness.  

Please pray for these families as they minister to the people of Haiti this week and, hopefully, for many years to come.  

One brain lapse and the family gets bigger......

When Benay and I got married, the man who married us gave us a puppy for a wedding present. Actually he and his wife gave the dog to us. They bred schnauzers and gave one to us. In the brief time they had her they named her "Trouble", but we named her "Sugar". She was our first baby. At times we thought about changing her name back to "Trouble".

Sugar really was a great dog. We had her for 11 years. We went to Florida for a vacation one year and left her with someone. While this person came to let Sugar out, she took off and was killed by a car. It actually ended up being a blessing because I don't think the kids (or me and Benay) could have handled seeing that.

A while later we got a border collie. One of my good friends in physical therapy school had a border collie named Oreo and she was one of the best dogs I had ever seen. So, we got one. We named her Macy. Macy was WILD. Big and wild. She was fast and strong. She used to run as fast as she could and jump past me. As she jumped, her back would hit me in the top of my shoulders or sometimes in the back of the head. I was standing up when she played this game. She almost knocked me over. Not a great dog to have with one year old Carys around. Although Carys didn't show fear, we knew Macy could literally kill her if she ever knocked her down with the same force she played with me. Soon after, Macy went away to live a great, we assume, life on a farm just outside the city we lived in. A nice farmer took her in for us.

We decided no dogs for a while.

Then God led us to Brasil.

Somehow the conversation started with Bronwyn and Ansley, that after we moved to Brasil we would get a dog. About 6 months after we moved here we got a beautiful boxer. We named her Patch. Wild, wild, wild would be the way we would describe her. One example, Benay made an apple pie one time in a pyrex glass dish. She set it on the stove to cool. Patch smelled it and went into the kitchen to try a piece. We were in another room and heard the crash. By the time I got in, she was bleeding from her mouth because of the little pieces of glass that were now covering the apple pie. Didn't stop her. She and I had a little heated discussion on why it wasn't a good idea to continue. I won......barely. We had a Brasilian sister who used to joke with us that for the first year she knew Patch she thought her name was "NO PATCH!" Funny, and not far from the truth.

About 6 months after we got Patch we found out that Benay was pregnant with Anderson. We really hadn't planned on having two babies in the house. About six months after Anderson was born we decided that one baby had to go. We decided to keep Anderson. A nice hospice nurse (who at that time was taking care of one of our neighbors who was dying) found out we were looking for a new home for Patch. One day her boyfriend taxi driver pulled up in his taxi and they all took Patch to her new home. Not a tear was shed by our family. Bronwyn and Ansley were happy to not have the dog responsibility anymore. It was a win-win for everyone.

Since then we have been pretty adamant about no more dogs until the little guys grow up. Having Giovanni extended our "No" answers when the kids got the urge to get a dog.

You might remember Carys and Sam. Unfortunately Carys grew tired of Sam. "Boring" she said he was. So Ansley began to help take care of him. That didn't really work either. So right before our furlough Sam was donated to a place in the city that takes in turtles. I'm not making that up. Ansley and her friend took Sam and he jumped right in a big tank with lots of other turtles. He was very happy.

After we got back from the states Ansley and Carys and Garrett have been asking, and asking, and asking, when were we going to get a dog. The answer has been a firm no.

A few weeks ago I saw a bumper sticker about a place in town where you can adopt pets.  My downfall was sharing this site with the kids.  A brain lapse that I can't explain.  The site showed pictures of around 1,500 dogs and cats that they had for adoption.  I knew I didn't want to pay a bunch of money for another pet, but free adoptions peaked my interest a little if we were ever going to get a dog again.  The kids hit the site hard, and within hours had a list of dogs they wanted to see.  You can read more about my downfall on a post that Benay did on her blog. Go here to check that out.

On Tuesday we went to check out 3 dogs. We came back with two. (We never actually made it to visit the third dog - thank goodness.)  Like our neighbors told us yesterday, we don't do anything small. Six kids - and when most families want one dog, we go and get two.

We didn't intend to come back with two but it just happened.

We first met Rex.

He is one month old.

Rex was a street dog that was taken in by someone who works for the site where we researched dogs. This organization takes in all kinds of strays and cleans them up, neuters them, and then puts them up for adoption. This organization has kept the city from killing thousands of strays. Everyone who works there (from the vets on down) does so on a volunteer basis.

The kids immediately wanted Rex. Once they touched him I knew it was all over.

I wanted to wait to see one of the other dogs before committing. It was a Fox Terrier.   I actually told the kids that we weren't going to get a dog on Tuesday. Yeah, that went well.

We then met Lucky.

He is 3 months old.

Lucky was born in a poor part of the city.  Another street dog.   He was born with some kind of neurological problem which caused him to fall down while he was walking.   A woman took him in (along with at least 10 other dogs in a place barely big enough for her) and began giving him medicine that the organization provided for her. Lucky doesn't fall down anymore. Her neighbors wanted to kill Lucky because of his problems but she wouldn't allow it.

The kids loved the story, and the heart of this woman. She had nothing, but gave what she had to save this dog. The kids decided to give Lucky his name because of his good fortune in being taken in by her.  We wanted to take a picture of this woman but she was too embarrassed and didn't allow us to do it.

After much discussion of the responsibilities that the three kids would have to take with these dogs (paying for food, shots, etc. and clean up poo and pee) we somehow ended up driving home with 2 dogs instead of 1.

The woman in the dress is named Beatriz. She is a volunteer at the organization and was very kind and helpful in taking us to see these dogs. She even told me that if it doesn't work out with our kids and the dogs, for whatever reason, to let her know and she would find them another home.

Lucky was covered in fleas. I have never seen a dog covered in more fleas than Lucky was. We went straight to the vet. On the way there we had Lucky and Rex in a box together in the car. Lucky apparently doesn't like car travel. He puked three times. The kids had the dogs in the back seat of the car. They said he was throwing up beans and rice. The woman who took him in was sharing her meals with Lucky to keep him alive. She couldn't even afford dog food.

Back to the trip to the vet.

While we were on our trip to the states a vet opened up on our street.

We went to check it out and the kids loved the women who worked there.

So Lucky and Rex got their first baths, de-fleaing, de-ticking and then were ready to come home.

They are fitting right in. And like most babies, they like to take naps.

Lucky is an instigator. He's very playful. Rex is a little guy but holds his own as best he can.

Giovanni sure is enjoying his new buddies.

So far so good. Benay and I are hoping that this new maturity and responsibility with the three new dog owners will be the norm and not just a "we want a new dog phase".

I would say our family is now officially done growing, but like I tell Benay, "Only God knows." I don't know why but she really doesn't care for that answer.

They're Back

While we were in the states I was surprised at how many people said they enjoyed it when I put up videos of our favorite soccer team.  

One person in particular asked for videos as often as possible.  She said she could hardly wait between one game highlights video to the next.  She basically said she only likes our blog because of the soccer videos.

Our team returned to the field last night to start the year.  So Joyce (J.J. if you thought it was someone else), here are your game highlights.  Enjoy:

Okay, all the above was a lie. Joyce actually had the nerve to tell me that the only time she didn't read the blog was when I posted soccer videos. Can you imagine? Doesn't like soccer? Unbelievable.  This video is still for her.  

Leni

You may remember a couple of posts we did about a year ago about a sister who is part of the house church that meets in our house.  Her sister died, and we shared how this house church ministered to her during that time.  Her name is Leni.  If you never read those posts then you can check them out here and here. 

 

We have known Leni for a few years.  She and her son Jorge have been a part of the house church that meets in our house now for a couple of years. 

She is a special sister in Christ and it's been amazing to see how much she has grown spiritually over the last few years.  

Leni and house church are a great fit.  She is really using her gifts for the Lord and seems to have really blossomed in her faith since we left the more traditional church type setting.  God is using her to grow His kingdom here in Porto Alegre. We feel blessed to have her and her son in our lives. They both continue to grow in their faith.  

They are also a lot of fun to be around.  Many Sundays they stay in our house well after house church is over.  They eat lunch with us, hang out and even take naps here.  Well, Jorge takes naps here. 

Leni has come over and taken care of our kids while Benay and I have gotten out of the city for a day or two.  The kids love her.  She's fun like a kid.  They love her until it's clean up time. She's like a drill sergeant.  The kids don't love that, but their mom and dad sure do.  Our house is usually spotless when we come home. 

She is always willing to help any person in any way she can.  She doesn't wait for a need to come to her, she goes and looks for ways to help others.  

Leni's occupation is a masseuse.   She is always on call with different hotels in our city.  When she gets a call for a client, she goes to give a massage, but her greater purpose is to share the love of Christ with people who, quite frankly, usually don't feel they have a need for Jesus. Most of her hotel clients are pretty wealthy and seem to be far from the Lord.  

What better mission field for Leni?  She has a captive audience of one for the length of the massage session.  

She never forces her faith, but if God opens the door then you better believe she will walk right in and start sharing her faith.  

Over the last few years the economic crisis has even touched Leni and her business.  In fact, it's been horrible for her.  

She has never complained.  We've prayed frequently for her over these last few months.  Her prayer has been that God would open some kind of door for her to help support her family. It's never been for her to become wealthy.  It's always been for her to be able to pay her bills and to put food on the table.  Her prayers are prayers of faith.  She and Jorge share a house together. She has been willing to do anything.  She has never allowed pride to get in the way of any opportunity. 

She was called a couple of weeks ago to give a massage to an older woman.  The woman fell in love with Leni.  

This woman was actually in town to see her kids as well as get treatment at a hospital.  You see this woman has breast cancer.  No one knows how long she has to live. 

When she met Leni she immediately wanted Leni to stay with her.  She asked Leni to come and stay with her in the hospital.  Leni went.  Leni has an incredible way with people.  This woman, without even knowing it, began to feel the love of Jesus through Leni.  

She then asked Leni to go back home with her and to stay with her.  Her home is in Argentina. Not exactly the answer Leni was hoping for because this would mean her leaving her son and her house church.  

She asked us to pray about it.  I have to admit, it was tough for me to know how to pray.  I was very thankful for this opportunity but didn't like the fact of her leaving us and her church family.  I thought, "We need her here."  Selfish, I know.  I'm just confessing. 

Then God reminded me that it's not our will but His will.  This is no different than when God asked Benay and myself  to move to Brasil.  We know some family members and friends would have preferred our staying close to them, but God was calling us to come here. If God wanted Leni's mission field to be in another country then I could not and should not try to stop it.  As God reminded me of that the praying suddenly got easier. 

We got a text message from Leni, before she had decided one way or the other, and she said with each passing moment she had more peace from the Lord that she was supposed to go with this woman and be Christ to her.  To share God's love for her. 

I thought, "How blessed this woman is going to be to have Leni by her side and she doesn't even really understand it yet."  

The financial part will also be a blessing for Leni and her family.  Leni will go to Argentina with this woman and work for her for three months.  This is the time they agreed upon to give it a trial run together to see if it is a good fit.  

Last week we went to Leni's house with some other people from our house church, Freitas and Auristela, to take supper, give her a hug, and pray with her before she left. We were also met by our sister Renata.  

We had a great time together.  

Leni is in the middle with the black shirt. 

We don't know what's going to happen and neither does Leni.  That's kind of the point when you truly step out in faith right?  Right now, she's just following the Spirit.  

When Benay and I moved here almost 8 years ago we just wanted to be a part of a church family that would follow the Spirit. 

We are still a church family in progress as we grow in our faith and maturity, but it's really cool for us to see Leni leaving her comfort zone and stepping out in faith as she follows the Spirit to leave this country to go and minister to this woman.  

Please pray for our sister especially over these next three months. That God would open a door through Leni to share His love for this woman, and that she would give her life to Christ.  

Excellence that feels it has to be proclaimed, by the mere fact of its proclamation admits the doubt of its existence.

CleoMae Dungy

Summer Boredom-Part 2

We've shared before how our city becomes somewhat of a ghost town during our summer.  A lot of people go to the beach and stay for a few days or weeks. 

 

Things are a lot less crowded in the city in January and February.  

Those months are also high season months for hotels and apartments at the beach.  Having a family of 8 has always meant that if we go to the beach we have to find a few days to go before or after the high seasons.  It's too expensive for a family our size to go when everyone else goes.  

So, that means we are here in the city during those months.  We try to take the kids to the pool as often as possible.  We also try to take some day trips out of the city.  

Sometimes those things just aren't possible and we have to make up our own ways to combat summer boredom.  

You may or may not remember one of those days last summer where we dealt with the boredom.  If you don't remember or haven't seen our adventure from last year then you can go here.

Yesterday was another summer boredom day.  

A couple of our kids got creative in dealing with the boredom.

It was a little game called  "How many clothespins can I put on my face".  

The most wins.  Garrett started it and Carys joined in.  

What started at 16........

.......kept growing......

......until it eventually reached 34.  

Carys won.  If you really know her then you are so NOT surprised right now. 

Don't know why but Bronwyn, Ansley and Anderson didn't want to get involved.  

The after effect could of had something to do with it.

While they played that game, Giovanni enjoyed the game of grabbing handfuls of dirt and throwing them in the air, in his hair, in his mouth or rubbing them on his body.

We do what we can to fight boredom.  

All in all, everyone had a good time.  

What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

Matthew 16:26 (The Message)

There will only be two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done."

C.S. Lewis

Travel Day-Brasil

We arrived in São Paulo with no problems.  Like we shared yesterday, we had a great overnight flight.  Giovanni slept almost the whole way which was a blessing.  We then had to claim all of our bags and go through customs.  No big delays but not much fun to have to drag the bags around again.  

We finally made it home.... 

......and were met by a few different people. 

Bronwyn's friends from school were there....

(another classic from Bronwyn and her best friend Julia.....just look for the ones with their eyes closed)

.....and some of our brothers and sisters in Christ met us to take us home. 

 

Thankfully we have a brother here who has a huge school bus that could hold all of our stuff. He was an incredible blessing as he just muscled all of our heavy bags as he loaded and unloaded them.  His name is Renato. Here he is holding Giovanni.  

Giovanni looks a little worn out from the trip doesn't he?

We got home and were met by other family members from the house church that meets in our house.  

Even our street guard helped us with our bags.  In Brasil you pay a monthly fee to have a guard keep an eye on things.  They actually are responsible for quite a few houses on a certain street.  This is our third house to live in since we moved to Brasil and with every move God has blessed us with great street guards.  This is Gilberto. 

His guard spot is actually right in front of our house.  Jade is the dog next to him.  She definitely makes herself at home in our house. She's kind of like the street mascot.  Very cool dog. 

As we walked through the house we quickly found out the things that our Christian family had done while we were gone.  Actually it was brothers and sisters from 4 different house churches that had taken care of things for our family while we were gone.  

Things like cleaning the entire house, cutting our grass, making some electrical repairs, planting some flowers and spices and having food for us (including one of my favorite foods of sweet rice.....thanks Leni!).  We can't tell you how much all of that blessed us.  

As we walked around we noticed that they also left cool little, encouraging notes to us all throughout the house.  Each person had an encouraging note or notes written to them in their rooms.  Notes were everywhere.  It was really cool. 

Okay, I guess I need to explain Grace's note, above, to Anderson about the smelling.  Anderson has an incredible gift of being able to smell.  As you know from our Andersonism's on the blog, he just tells it like it is in his world.  One Sunday he smelled Grace and told her she smelled like ketchup.  We were thinking, "Oh Great" but Grace loved it.  She asks him now what she smells like.  I guess there could be worse things than smelling like ketchup. 

They even bought and signed a table cloth.  

Anderson came into his room and was met with this.  

That's right.  Little pieces of CANDY......ON HIS BED! (emphasis Anderson) He came out and told me and Benay that this was the best day of his LIFE!!  He's not dramatic AT ALL (emphasis mine). 

As you can tell, our Brasilian family really takes care of us.  They loved on us and were Christ to us.  We are a very blessed family and we thank God for our family here. 

It felt good for us to be back in our own home after 2+ months away.  

We tried to get rested up from our jet lag......

.......we got to play outside........

.......and, in general, we got to let our hair down a little bit.  

Travel Day-United States

We've got a good friend (and former missionary to Amsterdam) who likes to share the following quote:

"If you came back, you wanted to leave again. If you went away, you longed to come back. Wherever you were, you could hear the call of the homeland, like the note of a herdsman's horn far away in the hills. You had one home out there and one over here, and yet you were an alien in both places. Your true abiding place was the vision of something very far off, and your soul like the waves, always restless and forever in motion." 

-Johan Bojer, "The Immigrants"

We share that just to let you know how difficult it can be for us when it comes time for us to go on our trips to the United States.  We go back every two years to visit our family, friends and supporters.  It's tough because after almost 8 years here, Brasil feels like our home. It's hard for us to take 2 months out of our lives here and go back to the states.  Don't get me wrong, we love going back and visiting everyone but just imagine if you loved where you live and every 2 years you had to pull up for 8-10 weeks and be away from your family and friends.  

Saying that, after 2+ months in the states it's also tough to leave everyone there and come back to Brasil. We are very blessed to have strong families on 2 different continents.  It is a blessing but on travel days it's still tough to say goodbye to one group or the other.  

On the day we woke up to leave the states, last month, and come back home Benay said, "I am ready to go home but I also don't want to."  I believe from the youngest to the oldest in our family we all felt the same way on that day.    

My travel day started by having these guys put me in a chair, lay hands on me and pray over me, for our family and for God's work in Porto Alegre.

 

You might remember the "Memphis Guys" from this post.  The group has actually grown since we were last in the states. They continue to pray together every Tuesday morning and every Tuesday they pray for our family.  They are a HUGE blessing, in more ways than one, to our family and this ministry. 

We enjoyed a little lunch.......

.....and then we loaded up our 28 bags (14 that weighed 70 pounds).

 We had help from my parents, sister and even suckered my aunt and uncle to help pack (the stories I could tell about my uncle.....he just looks guilty doesn't he?)........ 

.........as well as babysit.  

It only took 4 cars to get all of this to the airport. 

We said our goodbyes to everyone and we were off to Dallas.

The older I get the less I like turbulence.  We had some bad turbulence on the way to Dallas.  The kind where the plane dips and feels like a roller coaster.  While I was praying, literally, for our safety I glanced up and looked at Carys.  She had a big smile on her face and said, "This is awesome!!"  I clutched my heart and kept praying. 

We then ended up circling the Dallas airport because we weren't able to land for almost an hour because of wind sheers at the airport.  Wind sheers?  Like the ones that can flip a plane on landing?  Lovely.  More heart clutching.  They cancelled all landings.  

We finally landed but had to sit on the runway for 15 minutes because as our pilot said, "They gave our gate to another plane and we'll just sit here until they can figure it out."  Gave our gate away?  What?

 It was a little boring.......

....but we'll take boring over the "fear your plane is about to crash because of the turbulence or wind sheers that close down a huge airport" feeling any day.

What made the delay kind of stressful was the fact that by the time we got off the plane we only had 45 minutes to go to a different section of the airport and get on our international flight.  We made it and then had another delay of an hour in taking off. 

At least we knew our luggage from the first flight made it for the international flight. 

We had a really good overnight flight.  This was a pretty common picture of the flight.  

Anderson playing games and Giovanni sleeping hard. 

Travel day is always hectic as we have to get 28 bags ready, have 10 passports ready at all check points (Anderson and Giovanni have dual citizenship), fly on 3 different planes and spend about 24 hours of travel time but God always blesses us. 

And somehow we've always gotten back home or to the states without any major problems.  

Next travel day blog.......Brasil. 

Heat Spiders?

A couple of weeks ago Matt (our teammate) and I went for a run together. He, like me, likes to run.  Over our almost eight years of being in Brasil we've run quite a few times together.  We've even run in few races together.  I love to run with him.  We always spend time praying and encouraging each other as we run. 

On the day we ran it was very humid. Very humid.  One of our 90-100% humidity days with the temperature in the 90's.  

After our run we began talking about how uncomfortable it was to run that day and how hot our summer has been so far.  But how it was nothing in comparison to our very first summer here. The summer of 2002-3.  Matt remembers us having 12-13 straight days with temperatures at or around 100 (38 degrees celsius).  That felt even hotter where we lived at the time(nothing but apartments surrounding us) with the afternoon sun shining straight into our living room window every day.  We thought we were going to die.  We had to have special curtains made to help try to "black out" the sun and keep the heat out. 

Why share all of that now? 

The heat is back.  

A couple of nights ago it was 85 degrees (30 degrees celsius) in our house.  

It's not a fun thing to sit in a chair, lay down in your bed, basically doing nothing really, and sweat.  You can take an ice cold shower and get out and then you sweat.  It isn't fun but we have done the best we can to get used to it.  Okay, we deal with it.  

Two nights ago, as we slept, for some unexplained reason (so we thought) Benay and I woke up at the same time.  It was around 1:00 in the morning.  She told me she had the sensation of something crawling on her and it woke her up.  I then told her at the exact moment she woke up I was waking up with the sensation that something was crawling on me as well.  I literally grabbed something off my body and threw it across the room.  

It's a weird sensation to wake up from a dead sleep, feel something on you and instinctively grab it and throw it.  I must be a Jedi. 

We talked about what it was and the best thing I could explain was it was some kind of spider.  

Yesterday we were hanging out with some of our Brasilian friends.  We were all complaining about the heat.  

Benay then told our story of feeling like we had something on us during the night.  The wife of this couple told Benay that it's pretty common for the heat to drive the spiders out at night.  

Super.  Heat spiders.  In our bed.  Crawling on us during the night.  It can't get any better than that. 

Later, after that conversation, I got in my head that we would be ending this blazing heat soon. That somehow we were almost done with summer.  I started to feel a little bit better about getting the heat out of our house as well as the heat spiders.  

I have no idea what I was thinking.  In reality, if we were on the Northern Hemisphere calendar, it is only the middle of July here.  We still have a couple months worth of heat.  

Anybody have any Raid?

Food Math

I'm in my room last night and Anderson comes in with a pretty deep question.  It went like this:

Anderson: "Hey dad.  Guess what number I'm thinking of?"

Me:  "I don't have any idea. Tell me."

Anderson:  "No.  You have to guess. It's a food."

Me:  "Uh Anderson, a number is not a food."

Anderson:  "Sure it is.  Guess."

Me: "I really don't know."

Anderson: "Okay, I'll just tell you."

Me:  "That's a good idea."

Anderson: "There's seven."

Me:  "Really?"

Anderson:  "Yes. Number one is bacon. Number two is grilled cheese. Number three is waffles. Number four is pizza.  Number five is macaroni and cheese.  Number six is every kind of dessert and number seven is cup cakes with sprinkles and syrup on top with ice cream and vanilla cookie.....vanilla/chocolate.  All of that mixed together."

Don't know why the question stumped me.  It really was kind of simple.  Don't you think?

He definitely is a lot of fun to be around. 

When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship--when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.  

There are vast areas of stubbornness and ignorance the Holy Spirit has to reveal in each of us, but it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone.  Are we alone with Him now?  Or are we more concerned with our own ideas, friendships, and cares for our bodies?  Jesus cannot teach us anything until we quiet all our intellectual questions and get alone with Him.

Oswald Chambers

Sugar Rush

The kids gave Benay a cookbook for Christmas.  She loves it.  

The girls also love it and have been making some new things to eat for the family.  

The other day Carys made a cake.  It was really good.  

She made too much icing so after she iced the cake she put what was left over in the refrigerator.

A certain one year old found it.  You can see here that it made him very happy:

But all good things must come to an end.  

Forced detox is never a pretty thing....... 

The side effects can be brutal. 

But he'll thank us later from saving him from a life of crashing after each sugar high.