HAITI on my HEART

Because of the Times is over for another year!!! Our guest are now all gone and a sad sort of quietness remains! The kids are tired and busying themselves with other things, so I want call them to help with laundry, I suppose. My heart is full from all the blessings and encouragement I received during the conference, but somewhere deep inside I hurt today!



I ache with an awareness of human suffering most of us cannot and never will understand! Haiti is on my heart today! The orphans that were orphans before the earthquake and the newly formed orphans. Toby left for Haiti the Thursday after the earthquake to help in the assessment of the churches, bible school, and headquarters compound for our organization! To hear him tell of the devastation is worse then the images on the news to me. To hear him speak of the children is heart wrenching!!!!



I want to help! I research and become angry at what I hear and read! I am sick of organizations that say they want to help the children and all they do is thwart the process in many countries! An orphan before the earthquake is now a much more needy orphan now! I have been contacted by numerous families that would take a child in for foster, yet we wait to see what our government has to say! I am not advocating going along the street picking up children, just bring out the ones that were already in orphanages!!!!



A team will leave Wed. with C.S.I. to help and pave the way for more medical teams. I am thankful for what my husband was able to do and what he is involved in to bring relief to the victims of Haiti! Yet, it does not seem to be enough!!!!! I'm glad there will with more relief work, but still............

I hope, research, contact people, advocate, cry, pray, and hurt deep down inside for all those that wait in HAITI!

Toby's Little Friend

There once was a man named Toby,
Who really didn't want a little puppy.

Even though he resisted,

His family insisted,

And now he is quite fond of Miss Winnie!

So, I am not much of a poet, but I just couldn't resist!!!!! :)

It is true that Toby really didn't want us to get Winnie, but he has changed his mind about the whole idea. He told me the other day that she was one of the best little dogs he has ever been around! She loves to snuggle up close to him in his chair on cold nights! Much to my dismay, I think she loves him more than me!

T'K Loses Her 1st Tooth

Last year, T'K fell off her bike and hurt her mouth! During the fall, one of her front teeth was damaged! The dentist thought that it would just slowly die, but would wait and fall out when she lost her baby teeth! Well, that tooth had other plans!!!!! During the Christmas holidays it abscessed and had to be pulled last week! I asked the dentist how long before another tooth would take its place, and he said a year or more! Well, guess it adds to her personality!!!!!

Showing off her lost tooth, new clothes, purse, hat, and glasses!

Nothing gets this child down!!!!!

What Happened in December

I am so sorry Blog! I have been so neglectful of you! I have had not one, but several reasons for my neglect. It does not help the fact that I have failed to record the events of our lives for almost a month now! I will do better this year!!!! I promise! {:sniff:}{:sniff:}

Now that that is behind me, maybe I can be a better blogger this year!

I was wondering the other day what happened to the month of December?! I am not sure, because it flew by so fast that I almost missed it!

Here are some of the highlights of December since my last post:

1. Winnie has proven to be a sweetheart, but a very time consuming part of our life! It is like having a baby all over again, except I can leave her for a couple of hours at a time if I have to go somewhere!

2. We have painted a few walls in our little house! Alan was here a week and a half changing the way we viewed several rooms! Here are the two colors of the girls room! I was not really excited about the Caribbean Cool blue color that K. wanted as an accent wall, but it turned out nice in the end! Pictures will be posted as soon as we are finished decorating!

3. The kids have taken to the trees! T'K even got in on this little excursion under very heavy supervision!!!!!

4. Christmas came and went in a hurry! I think there was so much going on I missed the anticipation of the whole blessed event! WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!! Below is one of my favorite Christmas photos!

We celebrated Christmas at our house this year! It was so nice not to have to run everywhere celebrating with each family group! Next year I think I would like to leave the day after Christmas on a vacation and just spend time alone with my family!


5. After the older siblings had to have a pair of Conv*rse tinnies, Kensli decided she needed some with pink sparkles! We couldn't find any her size that were Conv*rse, but we did find this D*llard's brand that were exactly what she wanted! She wears them everywhere with everything!!!!

6. Toby became very sick the day after Christmas with some sort of kidney infection! He is much better now and will go back for tests to make sure all is OK on the 12th.

7. Granny was in the hospital due to dehydration! She is much better now and out of the hospital! Thank you, Jesus!

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas! The new year is already shaping up to be quiet an interesting one! Can't wait to see what God has in store!

Winnie

Winnie came to live with us a little earlier than expected! She is such an awesome little dog! Everyone, that has met her, comments on her calmness and sweetness! She has adjusted nicely to all the commotion of our house and evens adds to it with an occasional bark! Her favorite thing to bark at is T'K (Kensli), when T'K is fussing at her! It is so cute! T'K will fuss at her in Spanish, which keeps us laughing! Guess Winnie will be bilingual in fussing! :)

T'K did have a few jealously issues, but seems to be over it now! At first she accused me of not treating her the way I did the puppy! Guess it didn't dawn on her that at times I put Winnie in a crate and we go places without her! Jealousy just doesn't see things clearly! :)

K. has been very helpful with Winnie! She has even gotten up during the night to let Winnie potty!

T'K told someone the other day that she had met Mrs. Claus! They wanted to know where and when!!! She explained that Mrs. Claus had brought Winnie to us early! (Sorry, Tammy, you will forever be Mrs. Claus to our youngest!)

Welcome to the Family, Winnie!!!!!

IMAGINE CHRISTMAS

This was the year for Imagine Christmas production at our church! R. and K. were both in the production, so a lot of time was spent at the church in the last few weeks!

It was an awesome musical production of the Christmas story!

R. and K. in costume with some of the other cast members!

Kaitlyn had a speaking part this year and did awesome! R. and K. both love acting and do a good job at whatever part they are cast! After 3 nights of performances and countless rehearsals the kids were tired but sad to see it come to an end!

AWESOME JOB, CAST AND CREW!!!!!!!

Thanks for bringing the Christmas story alive once more!!!!!

What does Snow Bring????

Screaming, Squealing, Giggles, and Lots of Eating is what SNOW brings to our house!!!!!!

Yesterday morning we woke up to the weather channel heralding the good news of snow coming our way! We were under a winter weather advisory!!!!!! I understand tornado watches and warnings, hurricane advisories, and flash flood watches, but not winter weather advisories!!!!!!


Ricky was the first to realize it was snowing, and he came tearing through the house shouting the good news loud enough to make the rafters ring! The kids had to go flying outside and see the wonderful sight! When I got outside, I had to run everybody back in because no one had shoes or coats on! Yes, we are not prepared for snow!!!!



After the kids were properly attired in whatever we could find deemed warm enough for this kind of weather, we flew back outside to enjoy our little slice of a winter wonderland!



Quotes I overheard:

"Look! They turned it on again!!!! --Kaitlyn

"Wow, this is the best day I have ever had!"--Nicholas

"If you put your hand on the snow and leave it there, your hand starts to freeze!"--Ricky

"Snow makes me SO hungry!"--Kaitlyn

"It's like ice cubes falling from the sky!"--Kensli

"When can we make a snowman? Can I make a snow angel?"--Kensli and Nicholas

"They lied! Where is the 3 inches they were talking about on the weather channel?"--Kaitlyn

"My fingers are frost bitten!"--Ricky

After a while the novelty wore off and they all decided that the warmth of the house and chocolate chip cookies was a better idea!

It's SNOWING!!!!!

Last night was our Christmas Banquet, and by the time it was over it had stopped! It snowed around 4 hours, and here that really is a MAJOR WEATHER EVENT!!!!

Our wagon this morning! Looks more like a dusting than a real snow!!!!

Enough snow to throw a snowball!!!

The sun is shining this morning and Nicholas just announced that the snowing is falling from the trees! It won't last long, but is was fun for the kids while it lasted! What a wonderful way to start off the Christmas season!!!!!!!