He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.

Martin Luther King,  Jr. 

Anderson's new favorite commercial

Dear ex-English teachers/daughters,

We thought you might like this.



P.S. Ans, who does the lady at the end remind you of with her accent?

B's Day!

Today is a special day for our family.  Today is Bronwyn's birthday.

Bronwyn, we all love you so much!  Here are our thoughts for you!

Gi: "Happy Birthday and I'm really excited when you come to our house. It will be like a big, big, big visit over. It will be fun. It will be awesome. We can like play and stuff. There is no like no space for beds and stuff but you guys can sleep on the floor and stuff. There's going to be a lot of people. Jenna, Adwee and Stephen and you are all going to wear black shirts and I do love you. Happy birthday!"

Anderson: "Hey B! Super happy birthday! I really, really, really, really miss you and love you even more. I hope you have an awesome birthday! Say hi to everyone at ACU. And I really, really, really love you! Happy birthday."

Carys: "Ponnie!!! happy birthday! first i just wanted to say that i miss you a lot and love you soooo much!! i want you to have the best birthday ever (just so you know according to me every birthday is going to be better than the last) i really wish i could be there with you and watch all of our movies and scoopie you! thanks for being awesome, and being the sweetest person i know.  love you, XOXoxOXo!

Garrett: "Happy Birthday B!! I cant believe you are 23.. You gettin old dog! I hope you have an awesome day with your friends and Stevo! Cant wait to see you in a couple of months! Miss you and love you a lot!! 

Ansley: Happy birthday to my best friend. I am beyond thankful to have you with me at acu and don't know what I'm going to do next year. Thank you for always being the bigger person and loving others in your unique, sweet way. Love you brahwee!

Stephen:  "Bronwyn, I love that I get to be married to a person as cool as you. You are the best. I am so lucky, and so are your friends and family. I hope that you feel as special (short bus) as you are today. You are beautiful. I just love you so much. Happy Birthday. I hope its VERY NICE AND YOU LIKE."

Mom: "Bronwyn, you are awesome and incredible in so many ways. Just today I was walking to my Bible study carrying all my stuff in the cute red and black bag you made me. You are so talented, even if you refuse to admit it. I am so proud of the great job you have done in school - you are going to be a great nurse! I'm so proud of the sweet and loving wife that you are. You are kind, generous and good to everyone. You are a great friend and a great friend to me. I can't wait til you get to come visit soon. Hope your birthday was just as special as you are! I love you!"

Dadster: B or Dork or Nerd (it's your birthday, take your pick), Just wanted to say how proud I am to have you as a daughter. You are a blessing to those around you and you always try to put others first. I loved getting to see you and Stephen in your ministry at ACU. You bless a lot of people there and I love how your home is a safe, open place to everyone. I know wherever God takes you guys you will be Jesus to those around you. I know people in your new home will be blessed if they can concentrate on your actions and words and not your giant forehead. Did you really think it would be all mush from me? Even though you are so weird I love you a whole bunch and can't wait to see you guys soon! Hope you've had a great day. You are a blessing to our family and we thank God for you.

Crane Giftedness

You know those goofy cranes that you see in malls, some restaurants (like Chuck E. Cheese) and game rooms?

They look like this.

I hate those things. They are money pits. The claws never seem to grab onto anything and the prizes are usually pretty nasty. But once you start you keep thinking you can get something and you keep wasting 50 cents trying.

Unless you are Carys.

Carys has always loved those cranes and she has a gift of grabbing the prizes.

In January we were with my girlfriends parents. One day we went to the mall and I saw one of those dumb crane games. I tried to go a different way but the crane was right in front of the store we needed to enter. I knew what Carys would do when she saw the crane and she did. She saw it and asked for 50 cents to play.

I said no. She PROMISED she would win something. I said no. She PROMISED she would pay me back. I said no. She PROMISED she wouldn't bug any more if she could just play it one time.

So we let her play ONE time. She won. Her brothers saw her skill and asked for a toy.

She ended up playing three times. This is what happened.

That's right. Three plays and three toys. A Wolverine doll, a teddy bear and some kind of squishy purple ball.

Granted the toys weren't "top of the line" but with Carys it's more about the thrill of winning instead of the quality of the prize.

Maybe I should let her play more often. She alone could run the crane games out of business. Then I wouldn't have to see them anymore.

For now, I'll keep trying to hold on to 50 cents and marvel at Carys' ability to beat the scamming crane business as she weasels the 50 cents out of my pocket.

For Jerry, Angie, Abigail, Madeline and Joseph

Hey Adkins Family,

Here is what you get to see, with a little long range zoom in on the best stadium in the world, a year from right now.

We are excited!

1st Day of School and Jet Lag

Gi's been having a hard time getting up since we've been back home.

He's been enjoying his sleep and we've been allowing him to sleep in a bit until he gets his body back in our time zone.

On his first day of school he wanted to dress himself and he did. He topped it off with his awesome hat. He was super excited about going back to school to see his friends.

I decided to take a picture of his first day.

I didn't like that his eyes were closed. So I asked him to let me one more. We then went on an adventure of "one more."

Below are the pics I took in order.

Almost open.

 Nope.

 Still no.

 Better but no.

 Trying real hard.

 Uh no.

 My personal favorite. He's either trying real hard or he's just given up. I have no idea where he was at this point.

We moved spots and this happened. For some reason he was finally able to open both eyes.

I'd like to say he was goofing on me with all the pictures but he literally was trying to leave them open on every picture but just couldn't.

We'll chalk it up to jet lag.

1st game back

Two weeks before we came home American Airlines changed our flights. My girlfriend actually spent 2+ hours on the phone trying to readjust our schedule after we got an email letting us know they changed everything.

We were originally scheduled to land in Porto Alegre at 8:23 on Wednesday morning. With American's changes we were scheduled to arrive Wednesday night at 9:40. We only had a 12 hour airport stay in São Paulo. Sounds fun right? If you know that airport you know it might be one of the worst in the world to have a long layover.

We talked about trying to get an earlier flight home from São Paulo. Garrett told his friends and they were excited because his team had a game that night and they wanted him to play. An earlier flight would make that happen.

We were able to get an earlier flight thanks to TAM Airlines and we got home at 4:30.

Because of being worn out from the long trip Garrett changed his mind and told us he wasn't going to play in his game.

Around 8:00 that night one of Garrett's best friends, Bruno, came over. We love Bruno. Bruno talked him into going to the game and playing. We took this picture on their way out the door.

Good thing Bruno came over and twisted Garrett's arm. Otherwise Garrett would have missed scoring this awesome goal.



In Brasil jet lag can wait when it comes to soccer.

Home

Tuesday we left one city by the water in the states....

.....for another one back home in Brasil.

We had an amazing visit to the states that lasted almost 3 months but are happy to be home and sleeping in our own beds.

Thank you for your prayers for our safety.

Going Home

Tomorrow we get on a plane to go back home. We've had a very encouraging and fun visit to the states.

Last night we got to spend time with some of our brothers and sisters in Memphis. They laughed with us, shared a meal with us and prayed over us. It was a great send off.

God constantly uses these people to bless us! This is His family.