Our Family may be growing, not the way you may think though. We are in the process of adopting a little girl from Ghana. She is the sister of our newly adopted cousins, Eben and Joel. If you feel led, please keep our family in your prayers for the Ghana government still needs to approve of our family size.

May God bless you and I hope you have a good day!
Joy.

"I Simply Think of my Favorite Things..."

I think that one of Hope's favorite things to do would have to involve playing the piano!

Hope LOVES to, yes, play the piano but she loves to share the talent that the Lord has given her by teaching His little children.
She is at a piano camp right now and there has been much less piano music going
on in our house this week!

She also can sing like Princess Aurora!

She is an AMAZING pianist, teacher, friend, sister and many other things!

Thank you Lord for letting Hope be one of my sisters!

Levi (my first cousin) and Brittany (his wonderful fiancee)
Have set their wedding date!!!
We are so happy for them!!
October 11th 2008!May God bless them and keep them as they start a new life together!

A Very Blessed Louisiana Mission Trip

"Smiley", our wonderful driver and comedian!

The work the Lord had ready for us to do!

It is so awesome to see everyone pitching in to get all that was needed done!
Mrs. W. wasn't about to let anyone out do her!

Hope sharpening her own pencil!

(a lil' scary!)

In these pictures it may look like all we did was play but we did get a lot of work done because of God's awesome power!!!

PRAISE GOD!!!

Me and my "big brother."

Mrs. W. taught us all how to jitterbug!!

Smiley found himself a buddy who was always willing to help do ANYTHING!!

Hope keeping her ice cream from Smiley.

As He always does, the Lord blessed us with an AWESOME Carpenters For Christ Mission Trip! It's AMAZING the energy, patience, endurance, strength and much more that He gives us!!! Knowing that God is giving you that energy at right around 3:00 when you really just wanna go take a nap then you just take a little break and you FEEL like you have taken a nap is AMAZING!!

The church there was wonderful to us, they fed us three meals a day, people from their church came and worked with us and you could just feel the love that they had for the Lord and for us who were working!! It was so awesome!!

But if you feel led, please pray for that church because the sanctuary was hit by a tornado and it still has a ways to go but Lord willing, with the help of their insurance it will be fully prepared and ready for worship in two weeks!!

Thank you for praying for us while we were gone on the mission that God had laid out for us to go and do!!

Blessings,
Joy.

Picture Perfect

"I Will Make You Lie Down In Green Pastures."

"I Simply Think of My Favorite Things...

"And Then I Don't Feel So Bad!"


I think that pretty much one of the boys favorite things to do is...

"Play Ball!"

They are both on a team in our community and they both REALLY enjoy it!

Buddy is all time pitcher with a fast ball at 50MPH.
Not counting the 2 games Buddy's team played this week, he has had 70 strike outs!!
He also is an AWESOME 3rd basemen when he is having to let his arm rest from a previous game.

Little Man is either short stop, left field or pitcher.
He says that he enjoys short stop the most because there is a lot of action there and he jumps right in the middle of it and has hardly missed any balls this season at all!!!
One night he had to play left field and was bored to death.
It was really funny to watch him dance around in the field but pay attention at the same time!

"Hit it boy!!"

"Did you see me?"
How couldn't we you were awesome!

"MAKE 'EM SWING BUDDY!"

Notice the brown blob on the left hand side of the picture.

Look at me Buddy!
"What'd ya say?"

THANK YOU LORD FOR MY LITTLE BROTHERS!!
THEY ARE SO AWESOME AND SO MUCH FUN!!

Many of you may already know about this but if you don't, I know that it is kind of long but please read and keep this family in your prayers as they go through this time of suffering.

According to the Tennessean, Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday afternoon after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name.

The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home at about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson said. He did not see Maria in the driveway before the vehicle struck her, she said.

“It appears to be a terrible accident,’’ McPherson said.

No charges are expected, she said. The accident was witnessed by two other children; the entire family was home at the time, McPherson said.

Singer/songwriter Chapman, who recently was inducted into Music City Walk of Fame, is one of contemporary Christian music’s most recognizable and most awarded names.

He and his wife Mary Beth have long been supporters of international adoption, having brought three girls from China into their family. Maria was the youngest.
The couple is so active in the cause that they formed an organization, Shaohannah’s Hope, to aid families wanting to adopt.

With his latest music tour, which came through Nashville in November, Chapman started a campaign called “Change for Orphans”. He asked audience members at each stop to bring spare change to the concert, where it was counted and given to a local family to aid in their adoption process.

“I don’t know of anybody who loves his children more than he does and is so committed to the adoption concept, and to lose one, no matter what the circumstances, is heartbreaking beyond all comprehension,” said John Styll, president of the Nashville-based Gospel Music Association.

“He talks about his kids all the time. That’s his life. His kids are more important to him than music, that’s for sure.”

The tragedy was announced during Wednesday-night services at Harpeth Hills Church of Christ, which the family attends. Maria had just graduated from the church preschool.

And word spread throughout the tight-knit Christian music community on Wednesday evening.

Styll got the news not long after Maria’s death.

“I’m confident I can speak for everyone in the community to say we will do everything we can to support this family, as we would do at any time, but especially at a time like this,” he said.

Most of the Chapman family was at Vanderbilt children’s hospital after the accident and could not be contacted. The long, gravel driveway leading to the home west of Franklin was blocked off by Williamson County sheriff’s deputies.



Please pray for this family and especially the brother that was driving the vehicle.

A Blessed Last Day of School!

We had a very blessed last day of school at the
Tennessee Aquarium!

"I got you wet!"
"I can do this!"