Wordless Wednesday

Dancing Babies.

Keren, Kezzie and Baby Vaden LOVE to dance! (Momma Capps and Keren would get along just fine. I'm sure of it. "Shake it, Shake it!" :)

Where in the World?

Ok, so last time I updated this I had applied to go back to China with Shaohannah's Hope. Well, I applied...and so did 50 other people. I am soooo excited that so many people wanted to go meet those precious kids! They decided to let a new group go and I agree with them 100%. I am so excited for the new team and I hope they have as much of an amazing time as our team last year did. After that, I figured that I would just stay home this summer because every time a door would open for a trip, it would close again for one reason or another. I still felt like I was supposed to do something with my summer though. Well, the solution to that came a few weeks ago when I heard about a trip that a group of close friends were taking to Guatemala to work in an orphanage this June! I prayed about it and emailed the team leader who told me to book my ticket, they still had room and the airfare was AMAZING! So the day after hearing about this trip my dad was booking my ticket! Not only that... my dad had a voucher for Delta that expired three days from the time he was booking my ticket and so I got a discount off the already discounted ticket! Talk about God going above and beyond. :) I am still amazed by it. We are going with a group to stay at an orphanage in Guatemala for a week and help out down there with projects as well as hang out with the kids. I can not wait to meet those kiddos. It's going to be an awesome trip. (On a cool side note. My sister visited the same orphanage when she was my age!)

Rachel is totally one of my bff's now but her and I met last summer on our China trip. She has two siblings adopted from Guatemala and her brother looks like he could be a third twin to my brothers. Seriously. Jeremiah saw a picture of Will (her brother) and he said "I don't remember wearing this hat. When was i wearing this hat?" He thought that Will was himself. Enough said. :) One of my other awesome bff's Paige is also going and I am soo excited!! Please pray that God would use us to minister to the kids and the workers down there and that we would bring honor and glory to Him!

Picture time... Left to Right: Jeremiah ( using drastic measures to keep Keren looking at the camera), Josiah (being squished.), Keren (being a booger causing Jer to loose focus and have to sacrifice looking at the camera for the sake of the greater good. ), James (I'm sure he was doing something.) and Keziah (sporting the best "cheese" face that is physically possible for a two year old.) Sweet boys in pajamas and boots. :) Me and my Littles. :) ( Four of them are looking and only one of them is crying about the picture being taken...In our world this is like record breaking.)

We got it...do you? :)

So mom has the flu, and its cold and rainy so this is how we spent our afternoon. Some of us are sick and we already broke like 12 things today but we've got the joy in our hearts!! The video cuts off abruptly because Kez turned off the computer. But that's how we roll. :)

Love, Ellie, Jeremiah, James, Josiah, Keziah and Rennie. P.S James just wrote "Police" on his picture without even asking how to spell it. Genius child :)

Go Barefoot. April 16th. Do it.

Have you heard of Tom's shoes yet? They are legit. For real, this is one of the coolest ideas I have ever heard of. I LOVE what they are doing and I really want to get involved. With every pair of shoes you buy from Tom's, a pair is donated to a child in need somewhere in the world. I take shoes for granted everyday here in America ( in fact I'm pretty sure I have 27 pairs too many.)

I learned recently that because children in our world today are lacking something so simple and easy to come by as shoes, they can not attend school. People in Ethiopia are seriously ill because of a disease called Podoconiosis, which is 100% preventable with shoes. Shoes can change lives. I didn't realize how much so until today and I'm pretty sure a lot of other people don't either. Check it out and raise awareness April 16th. Go Barefoot.

Joy.

Life with five small children is hard...h.a.r.d. God has realllly been working on my heart lately and has shown me that I'm not always doing the daily things with a joyful heart. I prayed for these babies for so long and now that its hard, its not always as cool as the original idea of it was. I love these kids with all of my heart but when everyone is whining and its raining and freezing and nobody is listening its not so fun.

God really spoke to my heart a few weeks ago though and said..."hey, remember all those people you saw in Africa who were soo joyful? Their circumstances were even more not fun than yours. In fact, they had some of the worst circumstances you could ever imagine. But they trusted me. They knew that I have a plan for them. If you would just stop being so darn selfish and know that I have called you to this and that I will give you everything you need to complete this task, you can do it. Not only that...You can do it with joy." James 1: 2-3 says "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."

God has called me to the awesome task of being the big sister to 5 precious orphans who are orphans no more. I realized that I was not enjoying them as much as I could be because of my selfish heart. Within the past few weeks though, I have really begun to pray for God to change my heart and give me a servants heart. I want to be Jesus's hands and feet and I want to love my siblings the way Jesus loves them. I want to serve them the way Jesus would if He were here.

Let me tell you, in bringing Christ into my thoughts more and continually going to Him in prayer when it gets tough, I have been able to enjoy my siblings in a whole new way. He has given me new eyes to see this situation. Instead of having to feed the kids breakfast while thinking about all the school I have to do...just in devoting my thoughts to getting the kids fed and talking to the boys about things while Im doing it has allowed me to enjoy them more and I'm not as short tempered when something unexpected happens. (something usually does.)

I have seen everyone in my family in a new light and I really believe that Jesus has answered my prayer and has allowed me to see a little but more of how he views them and has allowed me to know Him on a deeper level then before. I have learned firsthand these past few weeks that our joy truly can not be full until we are depending fully on Christ for our needs. I can not do anything in my own strength but through him, I can do all things. I want to decrease so that He may increase.

Luke 21:19 "By your endurance you will gain your lives." By serving Christ, we are given the oppurtunity to truly live.

1 Peter 1:7 "so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ..." I pray that God will refine my heart through the hard times and I pray that most importantly, He will use me to show His love to the littles. He has allowed me to enjoy this...:)

Family Friends...

We have some families we see regularly now who have adopted Ethiopian children and it is so awesome to see how the Lord is working in all of our lives through adoption. The Campbell Family recently got home with beautiful baby Abe. Is he beautiful or what? The Craigs. We are pretty much BFF's. I love them a lot. They adopted Amber and Amon. :) Kezzie is basically in love with Amon and if he's over at our house. She's not far. I wish I had a better picture of Amon because then you would see why Keziah thinks he is so cool. He IS so cool. My Bestest friends. Amanda, Morgan, Morgan's little sister Amber, and I. Beautiful Amber. Nathan and Amber Craig. I'm so blessed to have the greatest friends in the world. They have amazing hearts for God and orphans and I'm so thankful for them!

It's official.

I stink at blogging.

Tomorrow is my nephew's first birthday party! Time has flown by and I can't believe he is turning a year old already. He is so precious and we love him to pieces.

We have had sooo much going on lately! I've been so busy with school and school + family + friends and... uhh...+ facebook= no time for blogging. I refuse to become one of those people who resign from it completely though. I will just continue to do a crappy job of it when i can. :)

I hear this week if I'm going to China!! I'm trying so hard not to be anxious. But that being said....I want to know if I'm going. kind of like as in...i want to know right now. I'll be content with either way because God knows best but I really hope I got in!

P.S. My friends Julee and Chrissy are in China now! ( We traveled to China together last summer and i love them both sooo much.) They will be there for a year working with orphans. :) They have sent out a prayer request for an orphanage they are working with that has recently become infected with a very serious case of the chicken pox and its spreading. Please pray that these babies would be healed and that it would not continue to spread!

Life with the Littles.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

More China News!

I've applied to go to China with Shaohannah's Hope again this summer! God still has China on my heart and I've been praying a lot about what Im supposed to do about it. Through sharing about The China Home Foundation and promoting the sponsorship program has been one of the ways I've really felt Him calling me lately but I also feel like Im supposed to go back. So I applied this week to go back with SH this summer and Im praying for God's will to be done! I really hope I get accepted! I miss China and the kids so much. Especially little Michael, I would get to see him if I can go this summer! I'd have to raise about $3,100 for this trip. I know that if its God's will He will provide the money though so Im not worried! :) So if i get in, im gonna need to do a lot of babysitting. Soo... call me. ;)