Please Pray!!!

Please read this story here to find out the horrible things that are happening to these boys/girls homes that have been helping troubled kids for years. Your prayers are truly needed for all of those involved in this! Let's fight the forces of Satan by coming to the throne and finding grace to help in time of need!

The Hephzibah House is another that has been attacked and they are already trying to pass legislation to shut down all homes in that state.

These kids are so much better off in the environment and programs that these homes offer. They need to stay up and running!

FEEL FREE TO POST THIS ON YOUR BLOG ALSO! WE NEED TO GET THE WORD OUT TO CHRISTIANS ACROSS AMERICA AND THE WORLD!

Please comment if you are praying!

Recent Pictures and Happenings

So today is gorgeous. I'm sitting here eating a bowl of Italian Wedding Soup, and I have a pot of chicken noodle soup on the stove cooking for supper. The weather has cooled down a little and I am taking advantage of it! I'm just hoping that it stays cool until Thanksgiving! Warm winter holidays are extremely depressing to me. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed, though. We have 6 days until Thanksgiving and how much do you wanna bet it'll be 80 degrees again by then??

Brookie fell asleep on the floor like this today. She was all whiny and got in trouble, so she got this blankie, sucked her thumb and went right to sleep on the living room floor!

A really funny thing happened the other night as I was getting her ready for church. She aggressively trying to pull off this adorable jean jumper I had put her in. Since the house was a little hot, I took it off her. When I went to put it back on she flipped out. I held up a different jumper.

"Do you want to wear this?"

"No."

Held up another one.

"Do you want to wear this?"

"Ooohh!!!!"

I took that as a yes and she was happy as a lark the whole night! Girls will be girls, starting at a young age being picky about her clothes. I told Nate she probably felt fat in that jumper :0. I just let her wear what she wanted to, but I'm sure sometimes I won't be able to do that.

Brookie LOVES outside lately and constantly asks to go "side". When she went to N.Y. for 5 days, they said she was always out there on the big trampoline, so I guess she got a little spoiled! Thankfully I have a fenced in back yard so I can just send her out there to play. Someone is supposed to be giving me a little climbing gym that her kids don't use anymore so Brooklynne has something to do besides walk around!

Yesterday we went out and played in the front yard for a little while after her nap (which explains the crazy hair!). You can't tell but it was almost 80 degrees in these pictures. I am really getting sick of warm weather, but yet I know if I was home I would want it to be warm! The eyes of man are never satisfied. I just wish it would be cool like it is today for the whole winter. And by cool I mean 40's at night, 50-60 during the day. Perfect temps. I wouldn't mind some snow on Christmas either, but that NEVER happens.

I mentioned that I had started my Christmas baking. Here is Isaac and Brooke sitting by some of the cookies! :) Last night I made the dough for sugar cookies really quick and stuck it in the fridge. Tonight or tomorrow I am going to cut them out and bake them. The problem when I make sugar cookies is that I never like to finish cutting out all the dough! It seems to last forever! :)

Well ,that's about it. Just wanted to let you know whats been going on!

The Christmas Spirit

During our Missions Conference, I was very convicted to witness to our neighbors and accquantences. A better Christian would have no problem knocking on doors in her neighboorhood and passing out tracts. She would have no problem striking up a conversation with piano students and giving them the gospel. I am not that person, sadly, and need a little help to get me started.

Enter: Christmas!!!

This year I am so excited about my little "Christmas Outreach"! Today I started my Christmas baking because I will need a lot this year. I am making plates of cookies for all the people that I am friends with that are not saved that I know of. Even if they are, I'm sure they won't mind some good, homemade Christmas cookies! Of course I will include a tract with it that tells them how they can know for sure they are going to Heaven when they die!

For my neighbors that I don't know, I'm putting together a tract and some Christmas candy. I'm going to have a caroling party and we will go door to door singing Christmas carols and hand them the little package that tells of the true meaning of Christmas. I'm hoping that this will open a door and later on I will have a good opportunity to ask them if they got a chance to read it and what they thought of it.

What about you? Is there something you can do this year to show others around you that Jesus is the Reason for the Season? We have such a great message of hope that so many people deserve to hear!

These Times Don't Last Long Enough!

As I said in my last post, Felicia (one of my best friends) and Claire (my sister) came for about 10 days and we had the best time together, as always. Usually, Feli and Ashley (my other best friend :) come together, but since Ash is working at a girls home this year, she wasn't able to come. Although we really missed her, we still had a blast! On Thursday we went to some beautiful botanical gardens near our house. I had never been there before and when we saw all of it I saw what I've been missing these past couple years! It was so beautiful and perfect for taking lots of pictures, of course :). I am so blessed to have the best family and friends. I wish that we could all be in the same state at least all the time, but such is life. This is where God has placed me and I just have to be happy with that! I just wish that our times together could last longer. I can't wait till Heaven when we will be together forever and won't have to say goodbye again!

Trying to take some "fall" pictures even though she's in a pink dress :)

We thought this trellis was so pretty!

Brookie loved the water and all of the gardens and especially this waterfall!

This is the view of the rose garden. You can't see them all, but it was so pretty considering it's November!

We had to take all our pictures with the self timer, but they turned out pretty good!

I'm so happy that she can finally walk :)

We loved the bamboo!

There were a lot of ponds too, that were sort of mucky :) but some had fish!

Checking In...

Hi Everyone!

Things have been really busy around here, but I just wanted to check in with all of you, my faithful readers. :) HA. Felicia and Claire (best friend and sister) have been here now since Wednesday, and they leave this weekend. :( We are having a blast together. I have spent way too much money since they've been here and now I'm left with no money for diapers! :) Thankfully I had an extra check that I deposited so that I could buy some! Honestly, all the money I've spent has mainly been on Christmas gifts for my family and friends. With 8 siblings you have to be creative and frugal. I've been finding things on clearance and only have 2 more siblings to buy for! Then I have to decide what to get for my parents, which is always hard. My Mom is easy since she loves clothes just like me but I never know what to get for my dad.
Last week, my parents left on a Saturday. My sister was coming the following Wednesday, so I let Brookie go home with them and come back with Claire. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I couldn't actually think of a reason not to do it other than my own selfishness, so I (sobbing uncontrollably) sent my 19 month old baby off to the airport. She gave me a kiss, told me she loved me and said "bye" before she left which only made it worse. I was pretty depressed the day she left, but after that I really enjoyed myself! It was nice having freedom and more free time! The biggest thing was not needing to have any sort of schedule. I could do what I wanted whenever I wanted! :) Nate and I had a perfect date night one of the evenings and had a blast. Of course, when Wednesday came I was more than ready to see Brooklynne and have her in my arms again! She's been quite the handful lately, so when she came back I was renewed to spend more time and effort training her and disciplining her. I do not want a tyrant on my hands!
Anyway, that's about all that's been going on besides all of our shopping! And eating of course. We have been making the best food, and it's been healthy too. Although you would not know by looking at us, because we all feel like we are getting fat. :)
I will be posting some pictures of their trip in the next couple days!

Jenna

He that is in us is greater than He that is in the World!

Our Missions Conference was wonderful this week. We heard many great sermons that didn't totally focus on missions, but focused on the heart that makes you willing to give and go. Each sermon spoke to me in some way and I wrote down a list of points from various messages that I don't want to forget.
One of those things was concerning the state of our nation today. Everyone is up in arms about this election and I'm no exception. However, you must vote for who you feel that you can. I'm not here to debate politics. In a few hours we will have our new president and what each of us thinks won't really matter anymore.
The end must come and that is what I was encouraged about in a sermon that my dad preached. He said that all of these leaders are like pawns on a chess board. God, in his infinite wisdom, is moving around the pawns so that they are all in the perfect position for him to come down and say, "GET OUT OF HERE!" and reign forever and ever. Maybe at some point in our lives we will have to suffer for Christ's sake like the Christians who went before us as Martyrs. We have had the easiest lives in the history of Christianity, but that may change in our lifetime. We all believe that we will be ruptured out of here before it gets too bad, but we have to be prepared in case that does not happen!
I'm not saying that one President or the other will make the difference. The end may or may not happen in our lifetime, but keep your eyes upward! This could be the day that the Lord returns in glory!