Our Quick Visit to the Cousin's

Hello to all! This past weekend we had to make quick trip to the Cousin's! The Lord has blessed Noel with a device called a VNS, it has helped her epilepsy oh so very much! It is a lot like a Pacemaker, but for your brain instead of your heart. Well, the battery in it is dieing and the surgery needs to be done up here so, at 7:00 on Friday night we left out! I don't think I have ever gotten that much stuff packed into two days ever! It was great! God kept us safe, blessed our time together, and we had many laughs, smiles, hugs and kisses from little ones! OK, lets see if I can be concise about what all we did,

• Friday: Went to a funeral from 2:00-4:30, then left out at 7:00pm, arrived at destination at 3:00am
• Saturday morning and afternoon: This time was spent with the Cousin's outside, playing the Wii, and games on the computer (for those of us talented enough!)
• Saturday Afternoon: At this time we went to Darell's parent's house. His mom fixed us a wonderful super and we had a great time! Then we went to Darell's house (I haven't even known him long and that sounds weird). There we watched Pride and Prejudice.
• Sunday Morning and Afternoon: God blessed us with an AWESOME church service! I always love going to the Cousin's church! Evangelist Rick Coram preached. Then after church Darell came to the Cousin's and had lunch with us! Aunt Renee is such a good cook! And she has eleven amazing helpers!
  
• Sunday Evening: Darell took us to a place that he and Noel like to go to. THE BEACH!!! We didn't get to stay long because it started to rain. :( Then Daniel, his brother met us for pizza and ice cream! Thanks Darell! We had a blast!!!
• Monday: This was the sad, last day. But Daddy was gracious and let us leave in the afternoon instead of the morning. WoW! I didn't realize how much we had done!
  
• OH!!! And when we got home Monday night do you know what was in our mailbox?!?!?!? We are approved by C.I.S. to bring two orphans into the U.S.A.!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Lord and thanks everyone for all of your prayers!!!

Well, so much for being concise.

Here are some pics of our blessed weekend!!

Eben, Smiley and Aunt Renee!
We love you guys!

Our little twinkies,
do you notice anything?

My sister has her "own" kitchen!
It is so weird to think that in August my sister will be living here!

Keeping the little ones occupied before we leave for church.

Twp peas in a pod! Haha!
Hope helping fix lunch Sunday after church.

Smiley makin' 'em run for it!

Daddy's little girl!

He is going to be such a good daddy!

The love birds took us to the beach!
Even though we didn't get to stay long we had a lot of fun!!
We had enough time for some pictures, a race and even some tears.

It was amazing being able to take off our shoes and walk on the beach in JANUARY!
God is so awesome!
You may be wondering why above I said "even some tears." As I stood on the beach looking East I just wished that I could run across the Atlantic, and hug Sweet Pea and J Man and bring them home! Oh how I want them to be home! Up until that moment, I believed that we were adopting, but it was like RIGHT then that I realized, that two of a my siblings are thousands of miles away from me and my family where they belong! How I long for them to be home. Thank you for all your prayers and please continue to pray as you are lead.

Well, on a lighter note, there is a funny story (at least for me) about this restaurant. A lot of times Noel and Darell will go to the beach, meet his family here, eat pizza together then go get ice cream. Well, since they do that a lot they wanted to show it to us. Well, when Noel would tell us about doing this, she just said they would go to "the loop." Well, I thought that they just made a loop when they went to these three places. When I told them that it was really funny! So, if you ever have wondered, "The Loop" is a restaurant.

Then we went to ice cream!
Thanks for such a fun evening Darell and thanks for joining us Daniel!

Who do you think is going to be an AWESOME mother and happy to have her hands full one day?
I know!

This Little Lady Bug walked all the way up the stairs with these shoes on!
Do you think she like shoes? Maybe, she just sleeps with them!

WE WILL BE BACK!!!!

WE ALREADY MISS Y'ALL!!
LOVE AND HOPE TO SEE YOU GUYS SOON!

God Bless,
Joy.
"There are two things I am sure of. That I am a great sinner. And Christ is a great Savior."

Picture Perfect

The Lord blessed us with a lot of food, fellowship, laughs, joy and much more this CHRISTmas!
There was some sadness because of the two missing. Please keep them in your prayers and thank you for all the prayers that you already have said for them!

Mama cooked an awesome meal on CHRISTmas day! Thank you for always cooking for us and never expecting anything in return! Well, one thing and what you always say sums it up,

"You eat you clean!"

Thanks Mama for teaching us how to cook with such patience and helping us learn to clean as a team!

God Bless,
Jot.
"There are two things I know. That I am great sinner. And Christ is a great Savior."

Our Blessed CHRISTmas!

Here are a few pictures from a very blessed CHRISTmas!

Buddy was very thankful for the new flash that he could use when going to the barn!
It is awesome see what he was content with!Little Man got his Tractor Supply toys! He was so EXCITED!
It was a wagon holdup (what we found funny about this was that there was an Army in the middle of it!).

Baby Girl is growing up SO FAST!
Isn't she GORGEOUS?!

Noel and her Florida winter clothes!
She is so happy!

Hope got a J.Crew sweater!
Our little fashion bug!

Mama has been needing a coat, but, as you all know, she would NEVER buy one for herself!
So, Daddy asked Hope to find one online and she did!
I think in this picture she is saying,
"YOU DIDN'T?!?!?"

The Lord blessed us with a lot of sister time!
Baby Girl and Noel are very close!
Their relationship is so sweet!

The Friday after CHRISTmas, Noel and Darell had super with our AWESOME aunt and uncle!
They are such a blessing!

I don't know what I would do without Hope!

CHRISTmas dinner!
Thank you Mama for always cooking so selflessly for us all!
You are the most wonderful mother that anyone could EVER ask for!

And next year we will have two beautiful faces around the table!
Little Jesse is so cute!It seems as though Jubilee is going to fulfill the meaning of her name!

I hope that you all had a very blessed CHRISTmas and that the celebration of our Savior's birth will not end when what we American's call, "The CHRISTmas Season" ends. May we keep this season in our hearts all year and never forget nor take for granted what our Lord has done for us!

Thank you,
Lord for all that you have blessed us with!
One blessing is immeasurable and you have given us countless blessings!
Thank you again and again!
Amen.

God Bless,
Joy.

“There are two things I know. That I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior”. Amazing Grace

Picture Perfect

We love and miss you Noel! See you at Thanksgiving!

Dear Lord, Please keep noel safe as she is away and please let he come home safely! Thank you for the awesome man that you sent to find her
and for the wonderful live that he has for Noel!
I don' t think I could let my sister marry anyone else!
Thank you again Father!
Amen.

God Bless,
Joy. ;)

Philippians 1:7-11~

7How natural it is that I should feel as I do about you, for you have a very special place in my heart. We have shared together the blessings of God, both when I was in prison and when I was out, defending the truth and telling others about Christ. 8Only God knows how deep my love and longing for you-with the tenderness of Christ. 9My prayer for you is that you will overflow more and more with love for others, and at the same time keep on growing in spiritual knowledge and insight,10for I want you always to see clearly the difference between right and wrong, and to be inwardly clean, no one being able to criticize you from now until the Lord returns. 11May you always be doing those good, kind things which show that you are a child of God, for this will bring much praise and glory to the Lord.

So, we left Friday morning for the airport to pick up Sissy! Everyone was full of EXCITEMENT!!! It seemed like it took FOREVER to get there, but the ride was full of a laughter, giggles(and there is a big difference between giggling and laughing), smiles and I think that the van was probably glowing because we were all so HAPPY! Wait, we weren't happy, we were full of JOY!! Then, we were all together again! Praise the Lord!!!

DoodleBug helping get us ready for the road
(notice the big smile on Baby Girls Face in the right hand corner)!

WERE ON OUR WAY!!!!

Our paster volunteered to drive us to the airport(we thought that was pretty BRAVE) since Mama had never been there.
We all agreed that this was a perfect picture of his personality!

All together now!
Just two left, please keep them in your prayers.

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN!

Daddy with his little girl!

Beautiful smiles!

Like mother, like daughter,
GORGEOUS!!

The two gigglers!

Thank you for keeping us safe in our travels Lord, and thank you for allowing us to have this time with Noel!

God Bless,
Joy. ;)

Guess what?!!!!

My gorgeous sister is coming home in 15 and1/2 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas of '07

Nursing grad. '08! You go girl!!

Graduation party, May '08

And just downright GORGEOUS!! Wouldn't you agree?
I know someone who sure would!
(i just had to say that Darell!)

Love and can't wait to see you!!!

Picture Perfect

Every bed in our house was slept in! It was so great to have company!

This was taken after breakfast on Sunday, right we left for church.

A Busy, but Blessed Weekend!

This weekend seems to of FLOWN by!! If some of you don't know, Noel has been staying with our cousins a lot this summer and while she has been there, God has blessed her patience as she waited for the right "one" and he sent him to her! They are sweetest couple, so happy and full of joy and the love of God in there relationship is obvious! They are so happy! They both just seem to be walking on clouds and glowing at the same time! And if you haven't heard, or your not sure, they are engaged! I don't think I could ever let anyone else have my sister other then Darell. As they were here this weekend it was neat having a big brother around. Darell parents and younger brother were all able to come and we had a blast! Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, us girls all stayed up until around 1:00 am! It was so good to be able to talk and laugh like that all together again!

Thanks Darell for bringing her home and keeping her safe all the while! I really enjoyed spending time with you and picking on you this weekend! Welcome to the family!

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for putting Noel and Darell together and blessing their relationship! THank you for their awesome example of a pure couple only wanting to please you!






And now, drum role please!!!!! Noel and Darell are engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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And also this weekend Noel, Hope and I were all Baptized!
Thank you Father You Awesome Saving Grace that you have so richly blessed us with!