Thankful List

I hope that you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! We sat down as a family yesterday morning to make a list of 10 things we are thankful for. We are going to start doing this every year & keep our lists in a notebook so we can look back and see the countless ways God has blessed us over the years. We spent some time praying & telling God how very thankful we are. Then we turned in the girl's Bible to the story of the cross--and we reminded the girls that we are most thankful for is the LOVE God showed us when He died for us on the cross. We long for our girls to KNOW that the greatest gift ever given was salvation. He is pursuing our girls & it is truly beautiful!

So here is our Thankful List for 2010...

1. Getting to love other people (Ava)

2. For pajamas & books (Ava)

3. For Ava & Jane (Matt)

4. Food (Ava)

5. Living close to family (Rachel)

6. Jesus' love (Ava)

7. Finally having Jane home and in our family forever (Rachel)

8. That Rachel loves me (Matt)

9. Shoes we wear (Ava)

10. Butter (Jane)

**and YES...Jane really did say butter when we asked her what she was thankful for!! HAHAHAHA!!

What are you thankful for this year?


"Praise the LORD.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever." (Psalm 106:1)

What Can You Sacrifice?

Hey friends. Can I be honest with you for a minute?

I want cute new boots. Gray ones. All the cool girls wear boots & I want to be "labeled" as a cool girl. I woke up thinking about how I was going to go shopping while Ava was at school today to find the cute boots. My heart was not set on Jesus this morning. My heart was set on myself. What I WANT. What I feel the need to CONSUME. And then I read this post and everything changed.

Once again God strongly convicted my heart that what I was chasing after was something that didn't mattered. My perspective was wrong. Is it bad to want new boots? No. Is it bad to want them so others will label me a certain way. Yes. Is it bad to want boots more than Jesus & His children that are suffering. ABSOLUTELY!

What a wake up call this morning.

Praise God that He loves me enough to shake me up sometimes.

Friends, what can you give up today, this month, this year so that you will be freed up to give to others? I just spent some time rearranging our budget this month so that we could give. I don't say that so that you will say "Yay Rachel". I say that because I want you to know that I'm not asking you to do something that I myself & my family are not already doing. We must live more simply so that others may SIMPLY LIVE (Mother Theresa).

At Bible study last night my best friend Aprile reminded us that when we get to heaven one day we will stand before God & give account for everything we have done (or have not done) during our time on earth. What will that day be like for me? Will I finally realize that so much of my time, money, passion was wasted on stuff that DOES NOT MATTER? Man, I want to be different. I want to please my Savior with the way that I have used what He has given me.

Today. TODAY you can help people who are dying from cholera. Here is how (taken from my friend Jamies blog):


Real Hope for Haiti is an organization that serves in Cazale and right now they are dealing with many patients with cholera that need our help. Not many of us can go and serve there. Not many of us speak the language. Not many of us are nurses/doctors. Not many of us can leave our families for a week right now, but something we can all do is give some money to help them out.

They have made it super easy to see where your money is going. On Licia’s blog she listed out what your money will buy and how much they are using of that daily.

$10 per hour to staff the house that they are putting the cholera patients in that = $240 per day

Could you help them with 3 hours a day? $30 donation.

Could you help them with five hours a day? $50 donation.

Could you help them pay for an entire day? $240 donation.

Each lifesaving bag of IV fluid is $3.82. The average patient will go through 15 bags = $57.30 for IV fluid per patient.

Can you support one patient? $58 donation.

Can you support two patients? $116 donation.

Can you support three patients? $172 donation.

They are going through 15 gallons of bleach per day. Each gallon is $5 = $75 a day in bleach

Could you help them sanitize the place for a day? $75 donation.

Could you help them for a week? $525 donation.

These are real people on the front lines loving, serving, and helping the sickest people in Haiti right now. They are running on no sleep and no down time. These people deserve our support not only spiritually, but also financially.

This holiday season do something for someone else! Make a donation to RHFH and know that you are helping them literally save lives today.



You can mail a check to RHFH:

PO BOX 23

Elwood, IN 46036

or go to their website and donate online. REAL HOPE FOR HAITI

include a note that it is for Cholera treatment


Please consider how you can help this people. They are dying by the minute.

Matthew 25:34--40
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Family Pictures

Check out this link to some amazing pictures a friend of ours took of our family


http://abbeysaxtonphotography.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/a-bittersweet-journey/

I can't even tell you what a gift these pictures are to our family! Our photographer also wrote some very sweet words about my Mama.

I'll be back to blogging soon...just trying to store up all my thoughts about life at the moment & ponder them in my heart for awhile. It's been a rough 2 weeks for me. Still trying to process everything. Hugs to you....I'll be back soon :)

Orphan Sunday

There are 147 million orphans in the world. If 7% of people who profess to be Christ-followers adopted ONE there would be NONE! That statistic is so staggering to me! I am so thankful that my Jane girl is an orphan no more this year. I also know that adopting Jane into our family is not the only way that we can stand for the orphan. Here are 10 ways that you can stand for & with the orphans of this world. If you'd like more information about adoption or orphan care ministry, please leave me a comment with your email address.


1. Pray for them.
2. Speak up for them.
3. Provide for their needs.
4. Support those who support them.
5. Protect them from harm.
6. Visit them where they are.
7. Give sacrificially to them.
8. Encourage them to press on.
9. Adopt them into your family.
10. Mobilize your church for them.

You can't do everything but you can (and must!) do something! The Bible is very clear about God's heart for the orphan. He stands with the orphans, and so should we!

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27)

Many of you have been asking what is going on with my Mom. I've dreaded posted this on my blog, because somehow there seems to be such a realness to it when I see it in black & white. My sweet Mom is not doing well. Her health is weakening & it has been so heartwrenching to watch. She began treatment on Monday, and so far is not too sick from it. However, the side effects accumulate, so she will get progressively worse over the next 2.5 weeks. We desperately, and humbly ask for your prayers as we continue to walk this road with my Mom. We are so weary. I am so weary. But God has been faithful to give me rest that can be only be found when I meet with Him.

I ask you to join with us, as we storm the throne of God with confidence and boldly ask for my Mom's healing. Prayer works. I know it does--please join us in being a part of something amazing. Thank you friends! Below you can read an email my Dad sent out about my Mom's diagnosis. It is bleak, but nothing is impossible for the God I serve. Will you please pray?

(Written Friday October 29)
Dear Family and Friends

Today has been a difficult one....the last 2 weeks Susanna has been experiencing dizziness, balance problems, double vision, headaches, and a pain in her left buttock. Yesterday she had an MRI and today we met with her pain management doctor, Dr. Buga and her oncologist, Dr. Roberts. The MRI shows that the ovarian cancer has metasticised in her brain. There are innumerable lesions throughout the brain, but there is one lesion in the left cerebellar hemisphere that is 2.4cm x 2.4 cm. This appears to be the one that is causing the balance problems, dizziness, headaches, but not the pain in her butt.

We were able to get an appointment this afternoon with the radiologist, so Monday afternoon Susanna will begin "whole brain radiation" treatments. She will have 15 treatments, Mon-Fri for 3 weeks. Each treatment is 15 minutes. The goal is to reduce and destroy the lesions relieving the pressure in her brain that are causing the problems. Side effects are fatigue, nausea, loss of hair, possible short term memory problems.

Secondly, from her blood work her CA 125 was over 1300, and it is suspected that the pain in her butt is coming from a lesion on her spine or tumor activity in her pelvic region which is where the cancer originally was found. So she will have a CT Scan sometime next week and this will help determine if any or what kind of treatment is necessary.

We thank you so much for being there for us over these many, many months, and we need to lean on you once again. God has been so good, He has answered prayers, He has given comfort and strength and peace and family and friends, and so much more! Last Christmas, her condition was very serious and her prayer was to be able to hold her new grandbabies! God has so answered that prayer, now our prayer is that she gets to see Ava, Jane, and Isaac start their first day of school or graduate from college!

Thank you for your encouragement and your love,