To my Mom

Thank you Mom for your Godly example of motherhood. Thank you for leading and guiding me to Christ at the young age of 5. I will always remember that day, kneeling on the floor by my bed, with the sun shining through and with you by my side praying to ask Jesus to come into my heart. Thank you for your endless hours of teaching me, bearing with my attitudes, and keeping me at home for school. I know now, as I’m a mom, how much you sacrificed for me and gave up for the sake of your children. I know God will and has blessed you for that! Thank you for your prayers, advice, and counsel throughout my life. In the hard times you pointed me to Jesus and and to trust in Him, which was exactly what I needed. Thank you for our fun shopping times together. :) Our times over tea, movies, discussing books, relationships, and just life. Thank you for all your help and generosity with our home and kids. You are a wonderful mom and I am SO glad God gave me you as my mother!

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

I love you!

“Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Proverbs 31:28-29

This post is a gift to my mom and part of The 1000 moms project.

Time flies...

When you have two kids!

Ruth 21 months & Ezra 6 months

Ruth--likes to color, play with bubbles, swim, terrorize ahem, I mean hug her brother, read books, go outside any chance she can get and wear flowers in her hair.

Ezra--likes to watch whatever his sister is doing, scoot around on his tummy, eat bananas, doesn't like it when his toys get snatched out of his hand, has the biggest smile, and talks really loudly.

Tom & Carrie--are keeping up with these two with God's strength and are very excited for their trip to Switzerland in the Fall!!!

We'll try to update more often ;)

Prayer Shower

On Saturday, May 1st Tom and I hosted a Prayer Shower for our dear friends, Sam and Charlene and their coming baby. It was a wonderful and amazing time of fellowship and prayer. I had never done or participated in anything like this before. I got the idea from an article in the Samaritan Ministries newsletter.

Many people wondered what a Prayer Shower is and how I described it was a baby shower with prayer as the focus and gifts were optional. We had a time of fellowshipping once everyone got there (there were 10 people; couples and singles), then had dessert (I made crepes), and then we prayed. Tom started us off by reading Psalm 135: 1-3 for a time of praising God. Then he read Psalm 127: 3-5 for a time of thanking God. For the last part he read Psalm 123: 1-2 for a time of petitioning/requests to God. For the requests every guest took one or more of the prayer cards that I had made. On these cards were specific requests from Sam and Charlene that they had given me.

Below are pictures of the making of the prayer cards. Sadly I didn't take any pictures at the shower, but we had a great time and I pray that God was honored during the time.

My mom and I picked out this book of fun paper.

I used some fun scissors to cut up the sentences and then glued them on the paper.

The cards.

Prayer card and popsicle stick.

Glued the popsicle stick on the back of the prayer card.

I did this for 15 of them.

Stuck the cards in a styrofoam dome, put shredded tissue paper around it, and now you have a prayer card basket!

The ringed cards are prayer cards that I gave people to take home with them. There were 10 each with a word and a correlating verse. Such as "A Servant Heart" Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men. (Ephesians 6:7)
The long paper were all of Sam and Charlene's personal prayer requests for the guests to take home and continue to pray for them.

Prayer Requests for Haiti/BHM

These are prayer requests from Deborah Baker, missionary at BHM (where I lived for 10 months)

- That God would work in the hearts of the people and that many would come to know Him through this tragedy.
- wisdom to know how to start helping the many who are hurt, without food and water or without shelter.
- safety as we receive supplies and start to distribute them. There is always a concern that we could be the target of mobbing if they know we have lots of supplies.
- That God would miraculously supply the needed diesel, water and food that we need. Our hospital needs the generator to keep it running, so diesel is a huge need.
- that the medical team scheduled to arrive on Tuesday would be able to arrive without any troubles with all their supplies
- For strength for the hospital staff, missionaries, and all those involved in the relief efforts to continue day by day.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We are continually seeing God at work and we know that He is answering prayers. - Deborah

Our little Ruthie

Being Ruth's mom...

is such an amazing blessing and privilege! She is a wonderful baby and has the greatest expressions. :) It's just so amazing to me that she was inside of me growing for 9 months and now she is here with us and has already stolen our hearts. Pregnancy and birth is such a miracle! I don't know how people can deny an Ultimate Creator when they see a tiny newborn and the miracle of birth. God is so good!

We are getting into a normal routine over here and it's going well. My mom was here for 2 weeks with us which was incredible! I seriously do not know what we would have done without her. She was simply amazing and did sooo much for us. We miss her a lot but can't wait for Christmas when we will see her and my family again. Ruth is napping right now which means I should get some stuff done before she wakes up. I'll post more pictures soon, this is just a taste of what is to come! :)

Historic Date Night

On Saturday night Tom and I went on a date to a WWII aviation museum at a local airport. When we got there they were setting up for a wedding reception (the museum is in a airport hanger). So we weren't sure if we would be able to go in at all, but after finding a volunteer who worked there we were able to look around. This particular volunteer showed us the planes they have and the war vehicles and mentioned to us that the B-25 bomber that they have was going to be landing before sunset. When Tom heard that he asked if there was anyway that we could watch the plane land, and the volunteer said yes and showed us where to go to watch it land. We needed to kill time before the plane landed, so we went to Applebee's and got some yummy appetizers and then headed back to the airport. While we were waiting for the bomber to land we had fun taking pictures of the vehicles and planes.

P-51C Mustang "Tuskegee Airmen"

US Navy Jeep and an Army truck

Sitting in the Navy Jeep

A little bit before sunset we got word that the B-25 was going to be landing soon. Since Tom and I were there so long we got to meet a lot of the volunteers and one of them took us in the Navy Jeep down to the runway to see the plane land!

Heading down to the runway

B-25 Mitchell

"Miss Mitchell"

This date was definitely "historic" and I will remember it for a long time!