What A Great Weekend!

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family.  It's always great to see all the family together in one place. However, I am worried about some of them....they were getting up at 3 a.m. on Black Friday to go shopping.  How do you drive anywhere at 3 a.m.?  I would love to hear how the shopping went if any of you would like to comment (since I now know you occasionally read but never comment).


Even though I wasn't up at 3 a.m., I wasn't far behind.  I was getting up at 5 a.m. to head out to Atlanta, Georgia, to volunteer in the processing center for Operation Christmas Child.  If you've read any of my previous posts, you know what this is all about. 


We had a group of 8 people from our church go to volunteer, and we couldn't have had a better trip.  God blessed us with safe travel there and back and for that I'm thankful.  While there, we worked 8 hours over two days in the processing center.  I enjoyed it a whole bunch, and I think it is safe to say everyone else did too. 


Other than working in the processing center, we had fun visiting a local mall, eating together, and just hanging out together in the hotel.  I am already looking forward to next year!


So without further delay, here are some pictures of our time in the processing center......

Our Thanksgiving Plans

Thanksgiving is almost upon us.  Who keeps speeding up time?  That's what I wanna know. 

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  I think I like it because of its "Christmasy" atmosphere, (family, food, time off from work), but without the "Christmasy" commercialism. 

After spending Thanksgiving Day with my parents and extended family and eating way too much food, Brad and I will drive the hour back home.  Without our kids!  But there's a good reason -

This year Brad and I will be joining several others from our church to travel to Suwanee, GA, to volunteer in the Operation Christmas Child Processing Center (see last post).  Brad and I were able to go last year with a different church, but we are super excited about going with a group from our church this year. 

We will leave early Friday morning (but not as early as some of you will be in Wal-Mart!), work four hours on Friday evening and four more hours on Saturday.  It is amazing to walk in a huge warehouse with shoeboxes almost wall to wall.  As we've heard many times, it's a way to be a part of something bigger than one person could ever do by themselves. 

Unfortunately my kids are not old enough to work in the warehouse and won't be for a while.  You have to be 13 years of age in order to work.  Gogurt really wishes he could go, but he has to wait a few more years.  And Poptart has to wait a lot more years. 

Please pray for our safe travel there and back. 

May your family have a great Thanksgiving this year.  And remember to take a moment and thank God for all your blessings.  Because without Him, where would we be?

A Long Journey For A Little Box

I hope by now everybody has heard of Operation Christmas Child. If you haven't, where've ya been?

Let's go on a journey with a shoebox:

Shoes gets bought. The shoes are taken out and the box is thrown into the back of the closet.

November comes. You see or hear of something that reminds you it is time once again to pack a shoebox for a needy child. You dig in the back of your closet to find a shoebox. And there it is.

You load up your children and head to your store of choice. You buy a toothbrush/toothpaste, soap/washcloth, combs/brushes, crayons/coloring book, gender- and age-appropriate toys, and anything else you think will fit in the box all the while talking to your kids about the one waiting on the box.

Where do you think she lives? Is it hot weather or cold weather there? Will these socks fit? How will we know if this little pink princess shirt is the right size?

You bring all your goodies home and pack the shoebox. Wrap it in pretty Christmas paper and you're done. Your family gathers and prays for the child who will receive this box.

Collection Week. The week before Thanksgiving. You take your shoebox to a drop-off location. They receive it and pray over your box again. Then they place your shoebox in a carton with other shoeboxes and when the carton is full, they tape it up and place the shipping label on the side.

The carton containing your shoebox is then taken to the nearest Collection Center. The carton containing your shoebox is placed on an 18-wheeler next to lots of other cartons containing lots of other peoples' shoeboxes.

The 18-wheeler travels to a Processing Center. There, hundreds of volunteers will open each carton, reach in, take out one shoebox at a time, organize them into gender and age groups then re-carton them accordingly.

During this process, every few minutes, someone will come over the loudspeaker and tell everyone to stop working, pick up the nearest box, hold it tightly, and pray along with them for that particular box. Look! Someone is holding your box!

The cartons will be held there until loaded onto airplanes, etc. and taken to their final destination. (This is undoubtedly the most adventurous part of your box's journey, but unfortunately I have not personally witnessed this, yet.)

When at their final destination, the cartons are opened and one by one the shoeboxes are taken out and handed to eager children.

Look! That little girl is opening your her box! And she absolutely loves it! And now, perhaps for the very first time, she will read about God's love for her.

All because you packed a shoebox.

P.S. The little pink princess shirt fit perfectly.

Bondage, LOL!

Yesterday morning before getting ready for church, we were all in my bedroom. I grabbed a Bible Dictionary and suggested playing a game. Here's how it would go: I would randomly open the book and point to a word. Then everybody would have to guess what that word meant. Simple.

Most words chosen were unpronouncable, never-heard-of Bible towns, objects, people, etc.

So after I had several turns, Go-gurt wanted a turn choosing the words, and then Brad wanted a turn choosing the words.

One of Brad's words was "Bondage."

Gogurt immediately started yelling, "Oh, oh, I know this one!"

"It means to get married!

Okay, we'll give that one to ya.

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And just to prove that I'm not above admitting my shortcomings on this blog and not just my children's, I will share a little story about myself. I know you cannot wait.

Many of you know I am the pianist at our church. I often enjoy singing along with the congregration as I play.

Yesterday morning during the hymn, "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," I came across this line:

Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! a spring of joy I see.

Would you believe when I got to the little word Lo with the exclamation point after it, my brain processed this as LOL!.

Honestly! I hesitated-how exactly do you sing LOL?

Well, I hope I've made you LOL today. Have a great one!

A Birth Announcement (of sorts)

When I first started this blog, I likened it to giving birth. Alot of time and trouble but in the end something rewarding.

Well, guess what? There has been another birth in the family! Brad has started his very own blog!

I trust you will all go over to Making Things Grow, bookmark it, and become a regular follower.

Thanks!

This is my beautiful daughter.






This is what my beautiful daughter will look like if she never stops sucking her thumb!