Uncertainties and Certainties... (Adam is GRADUATING!)

Adam graduates from Boyce College here at Southern Baptist Theol. Seminary with a Bachelor's Degree NEXT FRIDAY!! I am so happy for him and it is great for him to be that much closer to his goal!

As far as school, Adam has made the decision to get his Master's online through Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. Before, he was going to continue on at Southern Seminary for his Master's but after much thought, and consideration, we have decided this is best. As most of you know, he has been in 'ministry' school for 5 years now and we are ready to be open to wherever the Lord leads. We have been 'tied' down to areas for the last 5 years so we knew for the sake of that and to make our schedules a little more flexible, we decided this is best. The flexibility of an online program sounds very good to us right now! He also found out that he will get 30 hours credit that will go towards his Master's degree. This is because of his really good GPA and previous Seminary and Bible college degrees! So that was wonderful news!

As for a job.. Adam took a job with the U.S. Census Bureau. He started it this week. He did quit Frito Lay because they had cut his hours back so much so he was glad to find something else that gave him a lot more hours and even better money. The bad part is.... it is only temporary. It goes for about 8 weeks and then it will be over. So right now, he is looking for something else to do after this is over. He is putting his resume out for ministry jobs and well as others.. So pray that he will be able to find something else!

As for our house: We are now working on getting our house ready to sell. We are hoping and praying that we can sell it by owner or only have to pay a smaller commission. We know that we will lose money on this house.. it is just a matter of how much... It is in HIS hands!!

As for our mission trip... We Are So Blessed! Our response has been amazing!! We are so grateful and now we just have to prepare our selves to go. We got a link to a blog that shows updates of Mission teams that are working with the Tonga people now and it really excites me to work with these people. It HUMBLES me!!

So as far as this Summer, we have got a lot going.. a lot of uncertainties of what our future holds in all of these areas. We have stressed time and time again but this is my comfort and the verse that has stuck in my mind time and time again and esp. this week.........

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Prov. 3:5-6.

My Loves..

Oh... how I thank GOD for these two!!!....

Grace LOVES playing outside. Today we 'walked' her baby up the road. :), blew bubbles, rode her new tricycle, played with sidewalk chalk and saw the neighbor's kids..

This is what Daddy and Grace does a lot while I am gone.. they try to see how high they can build a tower with the megablocks..

Daddy's proud!:)

Playing dress up with her jewelry.. check out the earrings! :) I LOVE that she is girly!!

Sweet Friends...

Grace's good friend Averi had a Birthday party last Saturday. She is like 6 days younger than Grace so she turned 2 also! I was so happy we got to go and see all our friends from Ninth and O Baptist. Grace misses all the little girls that were at that church. (She is mostly surrounded by boys at our current church). Grace has never forgot her friend Averi and talks about her all the time. Averi has the sweetest disposition and I love to see them play together and esp. more now that they haven't gotten a little older. Averi has a 6 month old baby sister also named Sofie. Averi is getting to be such a big girl and it amazes me how she has 'grown up' so much since her little sis came into the world!:) I really love all of these people....

Grace before the party... (look at our flowers we planted in the front of the peonies). We planted those last year and they came back this year and are doing so well (as well as our roses). :)

Grace was actually big enough to play in the bouncy! She LOVED it!

Grace and Birthday girl... Av

Averi's Mom, Rachel and Sofie and some of the kids..

More friends...

Grace got to spend more time with Averi and Sofie yesterday morning. Rachel was gracious enough to watch Grace for me while I slept for a few hours after working Tues. night. Adam was working all day so I would not have gotten any sleep that morning otherwise. So I was thankful and I know Grace LOVED it. She took them to story time at the Middletown Library and then they played out side some. Rachel said that Averi and Grace held hands every where they went! They are TOOO sweet! I just love it!

Grace is TWO and AL visit..

We are alive!! As most of you know we had a unexpected trip to AL a little early. The trip was bittersweet for us. We left almost a week early because we got a call on the Tuesday after Easter letting us know that Adam's Granny was only expected to live a few more days. She had a heart attack and was in heart failure and wasn't doing well at all. It didn't take much time at all for both of us to realize we had to get 'home' to AL to see Granny and be with the family before she was gone!! You see, Adam grew up right next door to his Granny and she was like a second Mom to him and his sister. She has always been such a precious, and dear lady. She has the sweetest spirit ever! She has always been so loving and so good to me also. She told me very early on to just call her "Granny". She considered me a part of the family just like every one else.

We knew the day would come but Granny passed away on Saturday April 10th. We did get to spend a lot of time at the hospital and she was able to recognize us and even hugged us and muttered to Adam "I Love You". That was so special. We take great solace in the fact that she belonged to the kingdom of God and she is now in Heaven. Praise God for that promise!!

On the sweeter side, we were in AL for both my and Grace's Birthday. She turned 2 on April 12th, 2010. It is so hard to believe our baby is TWO!! She has blossomed into a ball of fun! She is such a sweet, sweet girl and we love her so much!! It warms our heart to hear her speak so clearly and to hear her so plainly say... "I Love You Momma/ Daddy". She will just out of the blue come up to us or others and say this, or want to give us a kiss!!:)

We were planning on going to AL anyways for Grace's B'day, but because of Adam's Granny we went a week early. It ended up all working out to be there for almost 2 weeks. We got to see family that we haven't seen in a long time on both sides and even spent some time with friends.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

At the end I believe it will go into old pictures... don't mind them..

Easter 2010

We have had a GREAT Easter this year. We started the day off with all of Grace's 'goodies' the 'Easter Bunny' brought her and then some from both of her grandparents. They sent her some things in the mail. She first looked at all her stuff right after she woke up and had just came down stairs so she was still 'groggy' but she LOVED all of her stuff. I guess the highlight had to be the CHOCOLATE!! :)

Church was GREAT today! We had a great crowd and 4 people were baptized today. I LOVE how this year Easter has meant so much more to me. I believe I have reflected on what Easter means so much more this year. As I was singing praises to my King, I was SO thankful for the cross and that how Jesus is RISEN!

We ended going over to a friend's house after church (Faith and Brian Busby) to eat lunch with them. She had cooked for Easter and invited us to come. It was very good and we were LOVING the company on Easter. :)

After Grace got up from her nap Grace hunted Easter eggs for the FIRST time. We hid them in the front yard and Grace was so proud of herself for finding all of the eggs. She did sooo good!:)

Ready for the 'Easter Bunny' and I guess, Elmo too :)

From us or the 'Easter Bunny'... her biggest fascination was seeing what was in the eggs :-)

Her FAVORITE-- CHOCOLATE!!!

Gifts from Nana and Paw Paw..

Gifts from Nanny and Papa... LOVING talking Tweety..

Lining up all of her stuffed babies! :)

Gorgeous Grace in her Easter dress and new shoes :) She calls them her heels!! (that's my girl!) LOL

Ready to go hunt some eggs with her new shades from Nana and Paw Paw

She is good at this!..

Playing with her new magnetic numbers and below LOVING her candy jewelry, from us. She is a jewelry girl!!

Warm weather and fun around the house...

We finally pulled out all of our spring/summer clothes this week. I painted Grace's toenails just like Mommy's for the first time! She LOVED it! She felt so big and she kept saying 'pretty'. LOL. She has been admiring them for days!!! Check them out... :)


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Fun outside....

Fun inside...

Momma's play-doh art work, and Grace's below.. ;o)

"How Great Is Our God.. Sing With Me.. "

Do I really have to say it! HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!!! We have seen God's provision, direction, sovreignty in our life time and time again. We were floored again this week by how AWESOME God is! The Lord has laid it on many hearts to give to our Mission trip to Africa. We are thankful for EVERY SINGLE CENT we get! It has taken all of these donations to get to where we are today. We are actually doing pretty well! This past week we were ASTONISHED by a donation we got from someone we hardly know. This person is at our church now but WOW, what a sacrifice!! We talked to her today at church and she blessed our hearts even more. She told us that she use to go on Mission trips but now due to her age and physical condition, she is unable to go. She said she feels like we all are to serve by going or sending (etc. etc.). She said the Lord just laid it on her heart and she feels PRIVILEGED to be a part of His work. What a TESTIMONY to all of us!!

We are forever grateful as we continue to prepare our hearts, minds, and as we pray for the Lord to help us in this. We also pray for the Lord to prepare the hearts of the people we will face!!

Enjoying Everyday...

As you all may know, Isaac and Holly has been recruiting me to the choir for a while now. I finally did start going and now I am officially in the choir. I didn't know if I wanted to commit to going on Wed. nights for choir practice but I have actually really been loving it. It is nice to get out and Grace comes with me on Wed. nights to choir practice because Adam is working. They let her run around in the choir room and just play while we practice. (It is a very laid back practice). The other people in the choir have grown to LOVE Grace and they look forward to seeing her. She LOVES it too because she gets so much attention. They all smile and laugh at her and she is the queen bee.:) I am glad it is working out so well and I am happy to be a part of it. I have known for a long time that I needed to serve in this area. So it feels good doing what I am told!!:)

This past Friday, we had Ronnie and Marci Parrott over and their 2 kids. They have 2 1/2 year old and a one year old. Grace loves Jack (who is 2). They are in Sunday school together and Jack is such a sweet and fun little boy. I cooked supper for them and they brought dessert. We hung out for a while and all of the kids had so much fun playing together. Grace and Jack ran around the living room and laughed and squealed. They were so cute together. I was so amazed at Anna Kate. She will be 1 this week and she is so tough. I guess she is used to having a older brother but she gets knocked down and falls down all of the time and it doesn't even phase her. She was right in the middle of them! They all are so much fun to be around. We are thankful for the Parrott's and their encouragement to us over the past year!

Yesterday, our mission group went back and visited the Assisted Living home in Valley Station. We are trying to go monthly and the old people are just loving it. Grace goes with us and she is also a highlight to them!:) I was able to talk to one man about his Salvation. He said he is Catholic. We will see. Next month, we plan on going back and doing some music for them. Isaac plays the guitar and his wife Holly and him both sing beautifully. So I know they will love that!

After we got home, I left and went shopping all by myself to the mall and Target. I have been needing some clothes. I told Adam that it could be my early b'day gift!:) So.. I went. It was great to actually have time to look and then I went and got my FREE Versa Spa tan due to a grand opening of a tanning salon. I HAD to take advantage of that!

I am looking forward to Easter. I am going to be off now for Saturday night so we can all go to church together. (I swapped days with some one). It is also going to be the 4 year Anniversary for our church being Highview at Valley Station. It is going to be a big day and this week is suppose to be beautiful. Hopefully, the weather will hold out for Easter!!:)

The Things She Says... watch what you say:)

Grace is taking everything in (verbally) these days. Her vocabulary amazes us more every day. She can really tell us just about anything. When we walk in the door from being gone or when we talk to her over the phone while we are gone.. she in her very excited voice QUICKLY has to tell you what is on her mind or what she is or has been doing. It is like she can't get it out fast enough! :) She has really been cracking us up lately with things she says.. I will let the video speak for itself. :)

(Her hair is wild because it had been in pigtails and she took them down)..

Make sure you turn up your volume!!.....

Good Times

The last two days have been great. The weather has been just gorgeous. Yesterday, after getting a good nights rest, Grace and I decided to go 'check out' toddler story time at our local library yesterday morning. It was great. They read some books to them and sang some songs, played music, and let them dance and even make a craft at the end. This is all FREE. :) In the month of March, they are doing color themed weeks. Yesterday was the color yellow. They encourage you to dress your child in something of the color, or bring snacks, etc. in that color. Most everything was about colors yesterday from the stories, to the songs, to the crafts, etc. Mostly about the color yellow. At the end I helped Grace make a yellow daffodil (craft) to bring home. They stamped her hand with a sun when we were walking out the door and she just LOVED that. She has never seen (ink) stamps before. She really liked it but spent most of the time just looking around the room at all the other kids and watching what they did since this was her first time. We will definitely go back.

Grace has also been doing better on her naps and sleeping in general the last 2 days and nights. She still wakes up once during the night but has went back to sleep but she still wants us to stay with her until she goes to sleep. She acts scared to go to sleep on her own now. Hopefully, she will soon learn and trust being able to go to sleep on her own.

Yesterday, after her nap, we went for a walk through the neighborhood. We came home and our neighbors little boy was outside playing with his grandmother. Grace just HAD to go see him and play with him so we went over for just a bit. They chased each other around the yard and Grace just got so tickled at him. He was being very silly and hyper. He is around 3 1/2. I told my neighbor today, that we are DEFINITELY going to have to get our kiddos together more often to play!!

Last night, I experimented and improvised on our Supper. We didn't have everything I needed for a homemade pizza but I kind of made my own sauce and did different cheeses than normal. It ended up turning out very good and Grace gobbled it right up too. Which is always a plus!:) I think she liked it even more because she 'helped' me put the toppings on the pizza and other things. I LOVE my little helper!:)

You can see the stamp on her hand and the first craft we made..

My little darlin':)