Happy Thanksgiving!

Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national holiday to set aside a day of thanksgiving and Praise to God our Father in Heaven for all the blessings He has given us. We need to remember the real reason behind Thanksgiving and remember how blessed we are. All too often, especially in a nation as wonderful as the U.S., we get caught up in all the things, all the stuff we want. We are bombarded with advertisements on a daily basis for any number of things that will "improve" our life. We are blessed to have been born here in a land of opportunity. We have so much that so many do not have. As I read about our Compassion child, it makes that even more fresh in my mind. So many people across the world lack clean water, electricity, and a solid roof. So many people are hungry each and every day so while we enjoy our feasts today, give thanks for what we have and think of those that have so much less. Lift them up in prayer. Regardless of your beliefs, you didn't choose to be born here....that in itself is a blessing that is outside your control. Be thankful today and every day! God bless!

Fall

I really didn't know what to expect out of the seasons here other than HOT in the summer and no snow in the winter. I had heard that the leaves don't change colors. When we built our house, we requested Red Maple trees in the yard. I picked them because we had bought a type of Red Maple tree (it's called an Autumn Blaze) in memory of my Grandpud when he died. We planted it at my mom and dad's house and it turns a gorgeous vibrant red in the fall. So it reminds me of his tree since I can't see it all the time anymore and it reminds us of home a bit. I was pleasantly surprised that the leaves do change color a bit down here.

One of our Red Maples.

It's really kind of nice that the leaves do change some. It gives us a semblance of fall without the cold, bitter air. I think we have the first Red Maples in the neighborhood and the same builder chose a Red Maple for the house across the street.

We are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving. We're going to my brother's for the day which will be nice. This is the first Thanksgiving I've had off in 3 years. It's nice to have been invited so it's worth having the day off. :) Doc did some Thanksgiving activities at school this past week because they are off all next week. He was so proud of his Indian hat and vest.

Dad took a picture of him to show me when I got home.

Of course Doc was still awake and had to tell me all about his Indian clothes before he would go to sleep. That boy is so attached to me. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving with my brother this year. We have been blessed and have so much to be thankful for.

Compassion

For awhile now, the orphans and children of poverty have been on my heart. I would love to do mission work, but right now that is not right for our family. I would love to adopt, but right now it is not within our means. That is OK. There will be a time. I believe that and I believe it is something impressed upon me by God. However, I wanted to do something NOW. We decided as a family to choose to sponsor a child through Compassion International. It is a child sponsorship program that provides food, educational opportunities, health and hygiene training, and medical check ups in addition to the message of Jesus. This program helps spread God's love to these children who many times feel as though they don't matter.

How do you choose a child?! There are so many. We poured over child profiles and pictures looking for a child to sponsor. We had decided we would like to sponsor a girl because we have all boys. Silly reason, sure, but it helped us narrow it down a little bit.  Then we asked the kids what age they would like. Doc said 4, Mr. X said 3. We looked and looked. We found about 6 different girls that stuck out to us to choose from. It was agreed upon to pick Genesis from Ecuador. She is 5 almost 6. A little older than we had originally planned but she has been waiting over 6 months. I just don't know how to choose from so many. I don't feel like I chose the right way but I prayed that God would lead us to the right child. Genesis means "birth" in Greek and is the first book of the Bible. To me, the name means a beginning. I hope that our sponsorship is the beginning of a new life for this precious little girl. Mr. X is so sweet. We placed her profile on our fridge and this morning I found this:

Mr. X wrote on it, "We all love you."

Mr. X just warms my heart. He is becoming more and more empathetic to those around him and I love to see it. I love that he is so sensitive to others and that the Gospel is so simple to him. Sometimes I worry that he doesn't really get it but then he will say something or do something that proves otherwise. Kids keep it simple. We, as adults, make it more difficult than it needs to be. Then at dinner, Mr. X prayed for her. He prayed that she would be able to go to school and that Jesus would remember to love her. :)

One of the six girls we chose from has really tugged at my heart strings. Oh how I wanted to sponsor her but it was not for me to decide on my own. This is as much for my children as it is for the child we sponsor. This little girl's name is Yuyun. She is from Indonesia and 4 yrs old. I prayed that someone would sponsor her soon since it was not for us to do. I just looked at Compassion's website and she isn't there! An answer to prayer I am sure of it. Someone sponsored that sweet girl. Oh how it makes my heart sing to know these children are being chosen each and every day! Will you pray for them? Will you pray that more children are sponsored and get the opportunity to hear about Jesus?

Getting Settled

We have had so much upheaval lately. Now, I can finally say, we are getting settled. GQ changed schools the same week we started packing up to move. Now we are getting into new routines and getting our new house in order. GQ is adjusting to having a big boy bed and Doc and Mr. X are adjusting to sharing a room again. We have had few moments of downtime but not much.

We did a movie night for the kiddos one night. They loved it! Mr. X didn't want his picture taken though and GQ was plastered up next to Mr. X so we just got a picture of Doc.

 The windows are low enough for them to look out so they were watching the builders across the road. This will work until our plants in the front grow higher than the bottom of the windows. We are sure how high we will let them get but for now the kids can see out the windows. :)

Since starting at his new school, GQ has been all about the "baby". He insisted on me wrapping up his baby for him. And then his baby needed to go with him in the car.

The boys are feeling the tiredness of the move too! We caught GQ lying down on the table because he was tired. I'm not sure why he picked the table but it was cute anyways.

Our church family has been such a blessing to us with this move. They helped with the kids, they helped with the move, they loaned us trucks... It has been amazing to feel such an outpouring of love.

Moving!

Boy has time flown! We have been super busy packing up and moving a few weeks earlier than planned. We bought a house! We are liking our new neighborhood so far and meeting our new neighbors. We have a playground right down the road and can enjoy the pool anytime.

We got to enjoy Halloween in our new neighborhood and the kids had a blast!

Our Little Super Heroes

Mr. X doing his Green Lantern impression.

GQ's little legs just didn't keep up with his brothers.

The move has also given us the push we needed to get GQ in a big boy bed. So far I think he likes it. It took him a few nights to get use to it but he really seems to enjoy it now. The older two are sharing a room and have bunk beds. Another new adventure for us. They have shared a room in the past but never had bunk beds. Doc sleeps on top (with railings of course) and loves it. The only problem there is the giggling at bed time. It's getting better though and if they can continue to happily share a room, we get to have a guest room for when family comes to visit. We are thankful for the many blessings that God has given us.

Playtime and the Zoo

Last time I wrote a bit about my kids imaginative play. Well, the other day Doc pulled out his tool bench and wanted to set it up. I couldn't remember how it went back together so I said he could play with it on the floor. So that's what he did. Little did I know, he wasn't going to fix things with tools....he was going to be like his dad and tinker. So all 3 of my little guys lined up to be computer repairmen.

Pausing to grin at the camera...

Concentrating hard on his work.

I got a kick out of watching them. It seems their dad is rubbing off on them. :) 

Today was one of my rare Saturdays off. It was nice to enjoy a good family day together. I slept in a bit and just relaxed this morning. Doc wanted to read about Jesus so we read all the stories about Jesus in their Bible Story Book. We then decided to stop at the park so the kids could play since the temp was just right.

Doc loves climbing this but he looks so tiny up there...

The play structure has this thing that they can jump on to get their jumps out. GQ loves to jump!

 

While we were at the park, some friends invited us to go to the zoo with them so off we went. This was our first time to visit this zoo. The kids had a blast!

Leopard

Lion

You could feed the giraffes!

This was the first time the kids have seen a giraffe. Mr. X was intently watching them.

I love this picture of GQ watching the giraffes.

Doc had a great time!

These giraffes were funny. The big one was trying to eat and the little one kept sticking its tongue out to try to get the big one's food.

Doc checking out his zoo map to see where we should go next.

Jaguar. Big and beautiful.

We stopped to grab a quick bite to eat and the kids stuck their feet in the fountain.

Doc sat on the other side of the fountain from his brothers and friends.

The petting zoo. They had brushes for the kids to brush the goats.

They had a play area for the kids. Doc is always trying new things! He didn't quite make it to the top but he sure did try hard.

Pretending they are monkeys over by the squirrel monkey exhibit.

On our way out, our leopard friend decided to make a better appearance.

This was the sea turtle out front. Doc was looking at all the animals painted on it.

The kids had fun and Doc has been begging to play with Z & M so this was a great opportunity to do both. Sometimes you just have to splurge a little and have some fun doing something you don't do every day. It was worth it. :)