What's going on.....

What a month! There has been a lot going on. In our families and with us! It hasn't worked out for me to blog any of this since so many things have been happening.

One of the things below was Sonya's birthday - very fun times. Also April is engaged! Hooray! She and Tobi will be getting married in March. Aunt Barbara and I are going to give a family shower for her. I'm very excited about it. We received so many showers when we were married that it is nice to give back and be apart of someone else's new life - especially when it is your sister-in-law! :)

Destin finally says my name. My mom and Brittany started calling me "Auntie M". So when Destin says it is sounds like "Ann-y, Mmmm". He can't say "M" yet, but the "mmmm" is too cute! :) He also has a hard time saying Granma for my mom, so it comes out as "Double"!!! - Hilarious! The other day in the car, we were saying the ABC's and he will repeat each letter as you say it and towards the end of the alphabet he started saying "LM-mommy, N, OP-mommy, Q, RS-mommy, T, UV-mommy......" he's so funny.

The adoption has been really frustrating the past month or two, but things are finally picking up!

Brent and I have been doing some adoption training online this weekend. There is a lot - and when I say a lot - I mean A LOT of reading to do!! There were plenty of videos to watch also. I really enjoyed the videos. They contained very good information on medical issues, traveling issues, post-adoption information with the agencies and government(s). The interviews with the families were my favorite part of the training. It was really interesting to hear their experiences with different parts of the adoption and traveling. Some of the information seemed to go over my head, but I like knowing what to expect and I'm sure I will need a refresh course! But the agency will be giving us exactly what we need to know at the right time.

Speaking of agencies, we are currently hoping to transfer to a different agency! We are very excited about this new agency! We are hoping that everything transfers smoothly and quickly!But a few things are slower than I would like!
We are partly to blame for the slow down in this process. For a few weeks, we really weren't

sure what we were going to do. I started to second guess everything. Then one night my friend, April, stopped by for a visit and during our conversation, she started me on the thought maybe that God had a different idea for our adoption than I originally thought. April's friendship is a true blessing. She is one of the few people I know (or at least who I have talked to) who understands about not knowing what God is doing. Even though they were very different circumstances, we had a lot of the same feelings and thoughts about what was going on our lives. We know God has this process, but the pathway is very foggy, if not at what seemed to be dead-end!

So I've been reading this book called "Disappointment with God" by Phillip Yancy. It's very good so far. You should check it out. Although I did wonder what the people at the bookstore thought about me as I was buying it! :)

Sonya turns 50!

My mother-in-law turned 50 this month. So we threw a surprise party for her at our house! The whole family came! We all had a great time! Mini-burgers, cake, dancing, even Pin-the-Tail on the Donkey!

New Year

I am so glad that it is finally 2010. 2009 could not end soon enough! :)

I realized I haven't blogged in almost 2 months! You may have even given up on ever hearing from me again! ha! November and December were very busy months. I pretty sure I didn't sit down until New Years Day!

We had a good time with our families over Christmas. We took the youth to Gatlinburg for the Scott Dawson winter youth conference. It was very good this year. The kids really enjoyed it - or at least they seemed to! :) I hardly have any pictures of any thing with Christmas or the youth trip. Sometimes I get too worried about getting a picture and I don't enjoy the moment or the time. So this year, I just decided to enjoy everything and not worry about getting a good picture.

Life's a little bit crazy right now, okay, a little, I'm sorry - it's a lot crazy! In fact I have been pretty bummed about 5 or 6 things going on in life right now. So the other night I had to sit down and list all the good things in my life - which do out weigh the not so good, confusing things in life. :)

One fun thing that is going on is that Brent and I are taking dancing lessons starting this week! We got them for our parents for Christmas and so we are going to take too! It's only 6 weeks - ballroom and latin. My parents preferred the ballroom lessons and Brent's parents preferred the latin lessons - so Brent and I decided to take both so that we could be with each set of parents. It should be fun. Of course you can sign up for session 2 when this first 6 weeks is up, so we'll see how it goes! We took lessons for a few weeks while we were in Texas and really enjoyed it.

I found this note on one of my friend's website - I really liked it.


“casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

It is a happy way of soothing sorrow when we can feel that He cares for us. Christian, do not dishonor your faith by always wearing a brow of care. Come and cast your burden on your Lord. You are staggering beneath a weight that you Father would not feel. What seems to be a crushing burden to you would be like a little dust on the scale to Him. Nothing is so sweet as to “Lie passive in God’s hands, and know no will but His.” … What a serene and quiet life might you lead if you would leave providing to the God of divine care! With a little oil in the cruse and a handful of meal in the barrel, Elijah outlived the famine, and you will do the same. If God cares for you, why do you need to worry? Can you trust Him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens; He has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul; be done with fretful care, and leave all your concerns in the hands of a gracious God.

-Charles H. Spurgeon

Hope you are enjoying the new year!

Destin turns 2

My brother's baby turned 2 in November. Below is the cake Britt made and Destin blowing out the candles - as best he could! HA!




Destin's train set from his mom and dad.

Daddy and Destin

Brent builds a fence

This is Brent adding on to the fence!

Here are the last pictures of Hurley and Cody together. :(

What did we do in October?

We went to a costume birthday party for two guys in our church who were turning 50. It was a fun night!

Brent was very proud of his red-neck wrestling costume!

Ashes had an Apple Dipping Party! I got the idea from my friend Sandra! It was so fun!

We had a blast! We also talked about how God wants us to be warrior princesses for Him.

I love these girls - they are so much fun!

Shannon's apple had everything on it. This is her trying to eat it! :)

For those who don't know - Ashes is a girl's Bible study we do at church.

We had Fall Bon-fire
at the Angle's house.

We went to Youth Quake.

The pictures tell it all.

Cold, wet, and crowded! Yet a bit fun! :)

October was pretty busy! (plus I left my camera at mom's or Britt's and I did not get it back till yesterday.)

Video at the bottom

Brent went to Houston this weekend to NEHBC where our friend Tim is the youth minister. The video at the bottom of the page is a highlight of the weekend, from Tim's blog. Check out Tim's blog and the great ministry he and his wife, Sharon are apart of!

So I had to put the video at the bottom of the page b/c I can't figure out how to put it in a normal post. Sorry.

Orphan Sunday

Today is National Orphan Day! And Brent was asked to preach - well not because it was this day, it just happend to be that MJ was out of town. But I thought it was a neat circumstance. :)
I think God makes cool details happen like that.

Also we finished our fund-raiser of selling Boston Butts for our adoption. It was so great! Our goal was to sell 100! I knew it could happen, I was just wondering if it would, and IT DID!!! YAY PRAISE THE LORD!!
Actually, the cut off was 96 because of the way we had to cook them, but some people gave more than just the price we set for the boston butt, so we raised as much as if we had sold 100 and maybe a few more! We are so excited! We can almost pay for our entire home study! This is a great encouragment to us! Especially since the last fund-raiser was a wash - literally too -haha -it rained that day. We almost wanted to give up on everything and move back to Texas!!

But perhaps it did not go well because we had not yet changed our adoption back to Peru.
We are so excited about adopting from Peru. It's so right. I just know it!

We have future fund-raisers planned for January - April. Please pray for the Lord to prompt people to give. We cannot do this without the Lord or without others giving for a sweet child in Peru! But God never starts something that He does not finish, so I just have to be patient - which really stinks. I'm no good at being patient.

But back to Orphan Sunday. His Voice for Sudan is a non-profit that our friends Vernon and Amber have been blessed to start some orphanages there.

Here are the links for their sites:
http://www.vimeo.com/1875783 - this is a great video that Amber made.

http://www.hisvoiceforsudan.com/-this has all the info you need about Vernon and Amber's non-profit, plus videos and pictures.

http://www.hisvoiceforsudan.blogspot.com/-this is their running blog. It is fun and current!

These past two weeks.......

Brent did a funeral this week. Very sad.

Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

The week really did not get much better in the fact that someone shot our puppy, Hurley. Point blank, in the face. His whole right side of his face was gone. In broad daylight. At the stop sign by our house, Brent was outside with them. We know it was one of our neighbors. Which one is a mystery. But neither of our neighbors like us. I think the feeling is mutual. Poor Hurley. He was not even a year old. So sweet and friendly. Loved to play chase and tug-of-war and run crazy around the house with Cody and toss a ball in the air. Cody did live. He came streaking back to the house after the shot was fired. Brent had to take Hurley off and get rid of him all by himself. I was at work. That night Cody curled up in our closet and only came out once to go outside and then straight back to the closet. We took him to the vet the next day. He had small pieces of shrapnel in him. But he got a bath there and is much better. All though it is sad, because Cody keeps looking for Hurley to come home.

We've been doing a Bible study on Anger in our sunday school class. And it has come at a good time. Probably because of me. Obviously shooting our dog made me very angry, but there are other situations in recent weeks that just make me so angry too, so apparently I need to learn to deal with my anger! :) There are three different ways people handle their anger by Stewing, Spewing and Solver. I'm a spewer and Brent is more a stewer! HA! What a combination! But it is a really good study.

Maybe next week will be better.

New this month:

We decided (finally) to head back to Peru for our adoption.

Brent's mammow is getting married today.

I am reading Job in my time with the Lord. It's interesting.