Friday, January 29, 2010

Friday Photo Flashback

I'm so thankful to now have some older pictures from my pre-digital camera days! Thank you Mike and Janice for bringing these priceless treasures!




Liberty - 9 months old.



Brooklyn - 3 1/2 years old.

&

Faith on her second birthday.

Faith - 16 months
Brooklyn - 2 1/2
Liberty - 6 weeks


Friday Photo Flashback

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Baptism and Salvation

Sunday was a special day for our family.

My husband baptized his first two people here in Portugal!


Taken last summer at a baptism. I forgot my camera Sunday...gasp!

AND....two ladies that have been attending our services semi-regularly got saved!! One of the ladies was the wife of a man that was baptized. What a joyous Sunday for that family!!

We are more busy in the ministry than ever before....and starting in February, it's only going to get busier! We're adding an English service as well as possible English language classes as a tool to share the Gospel. Help us pray about this please.

We are so thankful to be here, in this country, serving a Huge God!!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

8 Things I Love About Liberty

My sweet, little girl Liberty just turned 8 years old.



But it was just yesterday, she was 18 months old...promise!



Lib with her teacher and a few classmates during her party at school....






We had banana pudding at church....





Starting this year I want to adopt a birthday tradition of some of my blogger friends, and list things (the number of their age) that I love about my children.

So here goes:

I love Liberty because.....

  1. She's MINE!!
  2. She's easy to please.
  3. She's very helpful, talented and gives the best hugs.
  4. She's beautiful, reminds me of my mother and always tells me she loves me.
  5. She's an excellent student, and I never have to remind her she has homework.
  6. She makes up words that make me laugh...but she doesn't know she's done it.
  7. She's sincere, honest and trustworthy.
  8. She's got Jesus in her heart!
Happy Birthday Squirty! I Love You! ~Mom


Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tangerine Juice

What happens when tangerines fall off your tree faster than you can eat them..... or faster than you, your 6 family members, neighbors and church members can eat them?



You juice them!



But it helps to grab a helper. This pretty little thing was ready & willing to use a real knife. She informed me while cutting tangerines in half, that this was the fiurst time I allowed her to cut with anything other than a butter knife. (She still uses the wrong side of a butter knife....but she can work a paring knife fabulously!)


20 minutes later....waah-laahhh....a picture of tangerine juice!





Fun times spent with my 5 year old.....

Friday, January 15, 2010

What is a Missionary?

Somewhere between saintliness and foolishness we find a curious
creature called a missionary. Missionaries come in assorted sizes,
weights, and colors, but all are sent by one Lord who commanded His
people to evangelize.

Missionaries are found everywhere; going to, lifting up, launching
out, coming from, staying with, bringing around, bearing with, and
standing for. Christians love them, governments tolerate them,
parents pity them, pagans ignore them, and Christ protects them.

A missionary is truth with a broken jeep axle in his hand, beauty
with a sick child in his arms, wisdom with a Bible in its pocket, and
hope with Christ in its heart.

A missionary has the patience of a fisherman, the audacity of a
tightrope walker, and the carefulness of a bookkeeper, the vision of
a dreamer, the strength of a builder, the intelligence of a teacher,
the wit of a humorist, the irresponsibility of a child, and when he
attempts something, he is all prayer.

He likes letters from home, children, preaching, mission recruits,
returning from furloughs, faith promise rallies, tracts, printing
presses, radio stations, translators, mission boxes, airplanes,
villages, Bible studies, cities, correspondence courses, and book
stores. He is not much for high pressure promotion, red tape,
devaluation of the dollar, lukewarm faith, hypocrisy, and
discrimination.

Nobody else is so quick to care, and so slow to give up. Nobody else
gets so much fun out of crocodiles, boiled rice, elephants, pet
cobras, earthquakes, visas, monsoons, droughts, and conversations.

A missionary is an unusual creature: you can send him to a far
country, but you had better not forget him. You can get him out of
your hair, but you had better not get him out of your heart. He is
your servant, your right hand, your dependent. A Bible-preaching, God-
fearing, God-serving, self-sharing bundle of love. When you come to
church with that smug feeling that you are a super Christian, he can
shatter it with simple words, "Come over and help us."

That, my friend, is what a missionary truly is...

Author Unknown

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

I've Created a Monster


Portugal Rocks!




Brooklyn, my oldest daughter has started her own blog, Portugal Rocks.

It didn't take long for her to start competing with me over blogging topics and her daddy even bought her 'her own' pen drive to keep pictures on specifically for blogging. She races to my computer yelling, "I thought of it first" when she has an idea for a post, and even laments when we forget to photograph certain events she would have loved to blog about. Apparently she's like me in the thought that all posts must have pictures!

Anyway....how about going on over and saying "hi". Encourage a young blogger.

Thanks,

Monday, January 11, 2010

Zits, Shaving Cream and Hormones

Of all the gifts this boy got for Christmas, I believe his 'shaving kit' was his favorite!

Sent to him from a precious supporting church in Kimberly, AL, Justice was ready for a bath the moment he opened it up. Complete with Transformers shaving cream, lathering brush and razor....he's all set!




My youngest daughter came home from Kindergarten last week with an enormous envelope full of all her drawings from the first half of the school year. She very proudly told us about each one as I pulled them out of the envelope and all of us "oooohh'd and awww'd". She pulled this one out and we all just sort of stared....

Then she said very excitedly, "It YOU Mama....it's you!"

She wanted me to be proud. After all, she DID make me a queen.



She said those big orange spots are freckles. My dermatologist says they're as a result of hormone imbalance.

When my 3rd grader's classmates are telling her..."So what...you're mama has zits!" ----It's time to see a doctor. After the birth of my fifth child, and only son, my hormones went haywire. It wasn't until he came along that at times I questioned my sanity. One man in my life was plenty. But this smaller version of his daddy, sure is a sweetie and worth every temper tantrum and mama fit I throw. I blame it all on the hormones now. It's nice to have an escape.

But look at this other picture Trinity drew. This must have been a clear skin day, cause I'm "freckle" free. I'm also sporting a pink, frizzy hairdo which I strangely like.



This little elf footed family is a pretty one...even if the daddy only has 5 hairs on his head.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Good-byes are Inevitable

Our guests left yesterday. It's sad around here.



Of all the time we've spent with guests over the last two years, Nanny and Papaw experienced by far, the worst weather Portugal has to offer.



That didn't stop us from doing things, although maybe it should have and we all wouldn't have ended up with head colds.



We finally got smart and found something to do indoors. The kids had been wanting to see the aquarium for some time now, so we loaded up and went to Porto.








Touching a starfish.



Our van seats seven people and there are seven people in my family, so we fill it up. When we have guests, we have to take 2 vehicles everywhere.

Brooklyn rode with me in our little "run around town" car while everyone else rode in the van. I thought she and I would have some great conversations.....but all she did was read. Guess I'm not as interesting as a book.


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Now, today, life is back to normal. After an incredibly busy December, I am looking forward to getting back to the usual. We have tons of things to catch up on. Including loosing the weight I gained during the holidays....ouch! I visited the gym this morning for the first time in a month. It was very ugly...but at the same time felt wonderful. I'm looking forward to getting everything "back on track".

Happy New Year everyone!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

A Week Just Isn't Long Enough

I can hardly believe that Nanny and Papaw will be leaving in three days! Time is flying by.

Their luggage made it to our home without harm last Tuesday evening and we prepared the gifts for the kids to have Christmas Wednesday morning.







The weather has been difficult. It hailed on us while at the market Thursday and poured down rain while trying to walk around a castle built in the 10th century. But we're having a good time just talking and catching up.......













(that's nanny and Papaw in the distance)



We had some friends over for New Years Eve. Food was great, ping pong was fun and the fireworks were pretty. But the laughs we all shared were the best of all!