Something That is Hard to Believe

It is so hard to believe that these two precious little ones will be home Monday morning. God has given us so much; He has taught us so much and the reward isn't even here yet and we all feel so blessed already! It is hard to believe that these two are ours, that they belong to us, they have OUR last name, he is my brother, she is my sister, I will share a room with her. The list could on and on. I just pray that I will be the sister that I need to be to them. I pray that I will a good example. I pray that I will know how to teach them, how to care for them. Sometimes I get to so scared that I will not know how to help them, teach them or have patience with them. Please pray that those fears will go away for I know in my head, "That the Lord has not given us the spirit of fear, but power and of love and a sound mind." And I just need to get that from my head to my heart.

God has blessed us with an awesome friend who is bringing the babies home Sunday. You can read all the story here. She went through so much!!!! Thank you Auntie Kami!!!

God bless and thank you all so much for all your prayers and support through this past year! Hopefully by Tuesday I will have new profile picture!!
Joy

While We Were in The Wilderness

While we were at the Wilderness we were able to have amazing Bible study time. Friday night our youth minister gave a sermon at the new chapel at the campground. It came from Numbers 14. Mr. Steve was talking about how God saved the Israelites from slavery; He saved us from the slavery of our sin. Then, the Isralites went to the dessert, but God had so much for them to have and experiece; God has so much more for us to have and experience. He doesn't just want to save us and then see us in heaven. He has something so awesome for us while we're still here on earth! He wants to have personal relationship with us! But to recieve that we must do hard things, get out of our comfort zones, obey His commands even when we are uncomfortable about doing whatever it is. The night before he talked about how, yes, God wants us to be comfortable but that isn't His main drive for us. He wants us to do His will for our lives and in doing that it will cause us to uncomfertable. But He will give us the strenth to do whatever it is. But, if we just want to be saved, go to heaven some day and not do what God as for us in the middle because we think that it will be to hard and that WE WON'T BE ABLE TO DO IT, we are just hangin out in the dessert. We are just like the Israelites who are always complaining and thinking that they couldn't take the promise land. While in the dessert we can't see what God is doing. Mr. Steve asked us if we were seeing "stuff' in our relationship with Him, were we looking for God in our Bible time and was He showing Himself to us. If no, be honest with yourself and admit that you are in the dessert! The more he preached the more I realized that I was in the dessert. God had saved my soul, He has forgiven me and forgives me everyday, but I was in the dessert; I wasn't doing His commands; I wasn't doing hard or seeking Him in my Bible time. I wasn't trying to learn something every time the doors were open at church and I HAD TO CHANGE!!! AND PRAISE GOD!!!!! HE HAS RESTORED TO ME THE JOY OF HIS SALVATION!!!!! I knew that I felt different but I wasn't sure if others would see it and I so hoped that they would. God gave me proof. When we came Saturday, Mama looked at me and said, "You just look so happy. You just have this peace and contentment about you." And that is exactly how I felt. Mr. Steve said he struggled with going back to the dessert and just telling God that he had it all under control because he is a minister. And he said exactly how I felt. My sister's, Mama and Daddy are all so godly and I would just be like, "Oh I'm one of them." And that night I realized that I need to live up to the bar that they have set and really be one of them!

Thank you all for reading and please pray that I will follow God's commands for me.

God Bless,

Joy.

John 17:20

20"I pray for these followers, but I am also praying for all those who will believe in me because of their teaching."

Isn't it amazing to think that Christ prayed for us?

I hope that you have a blessed day!

Joy

The Wilderness

God blessed us with the oppertunity to go "The Wilderness." I would encourage anyone to go there. It was great and such a treat. I was able to have my Bible study in a cabin and on a boulder, I was able to take a nap and play volleyball, jump in a river and slide on a slippin-slide. It was such an amazing. I was able to spend time with my sisters and grow closer to the Lord. It was such a blessing.

This was Thursday when we got there. Everyone pitched to set up!

Our AMAZING cook! And mind you, he didn't even have electricity!

We arrived Thursday, set up, had an amazing super, went to the river and then had an amazing devotion by the camp fire!These are our two little otters. they both love the water and are amazing swimmers.

Don't both look so happy?

This was our last trip to the river Friday afternoon. We had such an awesome swim time and a lot of exercise. We came home sore but full of energy!

The rock on the other side was fun to some. I jumped off once and it just wasn't my thing. I kind of just like to sit in the water. But, it was fun watching and wading.

Group picture! I love this one! It is so cute!! I had a blast and got a lot closer to the Lord while in
"The Wilderness."

God Bless!
Joy.

I'm Late!

As you all know, J Man has his passport!!!! PRAISE GOD!!! I would of done a post sooner but we were at a youth retreat (which I will be doing a post on later in the week) when we got the most amazing call from Mama saying Joha had the passport! And when Joha got word that the passport was done, it was after hours. He didn't HAVE to go get it, but he wanted to have it as soon as possible. What a chivalrous act! He went above and beyond!

As I think that you all know, all the youth come to our house on Sunday nights for Small Groups. Mama gives a devotion and then we break up into small groups and pray for each other. Well, all of the youth have REALLY been with us on this whole thing. It was so awesome to see a bunch of teenagers so EXCITED about a little boy's passport whom they haven't even met!

God has given us so much! Without Him these babies woundn't be ours.
Thank you all so much for your prayers, support and encouragement!

God Bless,
Joy.

Please...

Please pray for the churches in Iraq. Please read the article below; it is very short. Please keep these precious lives in your prayers as they face pursecution in a war torn country.

Thank you and God Bless,
Joy.

On July 11, two bombs targeted churches in the cities of Baghdad and Mosul, and killed at least four people and injured 30 others, according to VOM contacts.Two bombs ripped through the St. Joseph church in western Baghdad at approximately 10:00 p.m. The next afternoon, three bombs exploded within 15 minutes of each other outside three different church buildings in Baghdad. That evening, a car bomb detonated outside a church building in the eastern region of the city. Minutes later, another bomb exploded outside a church building in Baghdad's Dora district.Meanwhile, on July 13, a car bomb detonated near Our Lady of Fatima Church in the city of Mosul.This is the latest attack on Christians in Iraq. The Christian community in Iraq is estimated to be 3 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, or about 800,000. Since 2003, Christian leaders, churches and businesses in Iraq have been targeted by Islamic extremists. As a result, many believers have fled.


Please Pray!

Please join The Voice of the Martyrs in praying for the families of those who lost their lives, and also for those who were wounded in this wave of violence. Ask the Lord to thwart the plans of the wicked, who would rid Iraq of any Christian influence.As the United States withdraws its troops, pray the Iraqi security forces would protect its citizens from terrorist attacks and be diligent in bringing perpetrators of violence to justice.Pray He will empower and give discernment to the Christians in Iraq to continue sharing the gospel in the face of persecution.The Voice of the Martyrs actively supports Christians in Iraq with Action Packs, material resources for Christian leaders and evangelistic literature. VOM distributes the New Testament in Arabic, and also supports widows through the Families of Martyrs fund.

Not What We Thought...

As many of you know, the passport we thought was ours turned out to belong to another little fella with same African name as J Man. Even though we are very sad at the fact that we still have no idea when our babies will be home we are rejoicing at the fact that another little fell can come home. In the past couple months I have found much comfort in this verse:

Zechariah 4:7

Even a mountain of problems WILL be smmothed out by Him.

When the temple is finished, He will put its most important stone in place.

Then the people will shout,

"God bless it! God bless it!"

The reason being: He WILL smooth out our troubles and right now during all our waiting He is putting in place the most important things. We may not even know what those things are, but, whatever they, they are God's will and we will need them. A building will fall apart without a cornerstone and I really think that that is what God is putting in place right now.

Thank you all for your prayers!

God Bless,

Joy.

FIRST EVER TEARS OF JOY!

HEY EVERYONE!!! WE HAVE JUST GOTTEN WORD THAT JESSE'S PASSPORT IS FINISHED AND WILL BE PICKED UP MONDAY!!! PLEASE BE IN PRAYER THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE IN ORDER THAT OUR BABIES CAN SOON COME HOME!!! tHANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!

ps. please read the post about Daddy below. because of him and his obedience we can adopt these precious babies and raise the up for him!!!

Picture Perfect

To some, this man is,

• a logger
• a man who will talk your ears off
• a friend you can ALWAYS count on
• their boss
• their brother
• a very Godly man
• a man who thinks of others always before himself
• Someones only friend "in the whole wide world."
• One of the most hard working men you will ever meet
• And, I think one of my favorites, said by dear friends, "Completely RIPPED!"
• And said by a sweet little lady, "Just such a nice big guy."

To me, yes, he is all these things, but he is so much more. He is my father. He has taught me so much. I personly think that the funniest thing he has taught me and my sisters to do is argue, and now he can never win. He also taught us how to drive backwards with our mirrors before we went forwards. He is so patient, so loving, caring. He has never yelled at me or any of my siblings out of anger or frustration. Sometimes I wish that he would of just spanked me because having Daddy kneal down and look at you with his huge green eyes made you feel so small. But, with that, he taught to look at people in the eye, get on their level and to use self control in all that we do.

Thank you Daddy for working so hard so that we can stay at home!

Love you!

Your little girl,

JoyJoy.

PS. Listen to #8 on my playlist to the right. The last verse, I think puts Daddy into words very well!

Chivalry

Nowadays you don't see much chivalry. But, I have been blessed to see it in friends and family quite a bit here lately.

We have heard that a girl's part of being chivalrous is accepting when a guy offers to do something. Well, for us independent girls at times it is hard to do that! Baby Girl especially. Well, the fella above, a friend of our cousin, did an act you rarely see, he gave Baby Girl his chair and would not take no for an answer. Baby Girl was not going to be left standing up!

This little cutie is my double first cousin. Two sisters married two brothers. Just the other Sunday he was at our house. When he walked by he noticed that I was leaning over my foot with a pair of tweezers. He asked what I was doing, I told him that I was trying to get a piece of glass out of my foot. He then took the tweezers away, put my DIRTY foot on his knee and ran his finger across my foot to find the glass. Then, he just pulled it right out! It made my week!!

You all know Buddy. He is growing up and maturing so much, so fast! And you all know that when we come home from the mission trip we are VERY TIRED! Well, the Friday we got home, Hope was looking for her dirty clothes. Buddy then walks into the kitchen, figures out our problem, and looks at Hope and says,

"Well, I hope that you like your clothes on heavy duty."

All on his own he got Hope's clothes, and started the washing machine!

I know that we all want to see more chivalry in our society, don't get me wrong, but girlies, half of chivalry is us; we have to accept it when a guy wants to help us! We have to say, "Thank you," when they want to give us their chair. Baby Girl could have stood up; I could have gotten the glass out of my foot and Hope could have washed her own clothes, but these three young men wanted to help us. And in helping us, it made them feel needed and us feel loved. Accept it when a guy wants to help you. When he does ask, it doesn't mean that he thinks that you are incapable of doing whatever it is, he just wants to be the man that God is molding him into and we need to accept it so that God can mold us into the women that he wants us to be.

God Bless,

Joy.

Hard Times and Patience

Psalm 70:20

You have given me many troubles and bad tmes, but you will give me new life again.

James 1:2-4

2My brothers and sister, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, 3because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience. 4Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you be perfect and complete and will have everything you need.

Louisiana Mission Trip, Part 2

This post is about Sunday and Monday. Sunday is always a really great day. Well, all of them are great days, but every Sunday is great because is the day that the Lord has set aside for rest! And boy do we take advantage of that! The Lord really blessed this trip, as he does all of them.

Sunday afternoon the church fed us an amazing lunch! Man, Louisiana folk know how to feed a crowd with their Cajun cooking!
We all have to wear our Carpenters For Christ shirts. They aren't the best looking things, but, we make a joke out of them.

A very sweet lady from their church offered to take out n the town. She took us to the Red River walk and the Board Walk (an outdoor mall that was like a little village). IT was GREAT!!!!!
And THEN...
We went to Bass Pro!!! It was so great! There was a Sonic inside the store AND it was HAPPY HOUR! All of their slushies are half off! It. was. so. great!!! Uncle JR. bought us all one.
THANKS Uncle JR.!!!

Monday morning all the guys and men the roof at 5:30 to beat the heat. They said that they were going to quite at about 10:30, but, needless to say, they finished at lunch! They did not want to stop until it was done!

These are the three stooge's and hair stylists.
Individually known as, Whit, Lil' Darlin' and Pooh Bear.

We all love putting up sheet rock! It so much fun and according to Chris, third from the left, claims that if there are three girls nailing up the sheet rock, six hammers fly by! We had a great time and love working with each other and for the Lord!

More to come...

God Bless,
Joy.