June 13th Happy 2nd Gotcha day!!!

Two years ago today our adoption of Hannah was finalized. It is so hard to believe that she has been here that long. The time has gone so fast.

Trip to China

You should be able to click on the link above and to see just how far Hannah has come!!! She is such a sweet, sweet girl. We have only had a few issues with her and just has been a wonderful addition to our family.

Hannah we love you so much and are so blessed that God chose you to be a part of our family!!!

I have insisted we recover the genuine Gospel of Jesus–that balanced New Testament message that begins not with the fleshly needs of people, but with the plan and wisdom of God–”born again” conversion that leads to righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Any “mission” that springs from “the base things of the world” is a betrayal of Christ and is what the Bible calls “another gospel.” It cannot save or redeem people either as individuals or as a society.


- K.P. Yohannan

Founder of Gospel for Asia. If you are at all interested in Mission work of any kind then this link below for a free book is a MUST read. It will change the way you think about missions.
Revolution for World Missions You should be able to just click on the link.

If that does not work then use this. https://www.gfa.org/freebook?form=frb1&theme=frb1&motiv=WA36-VLB1


September 5, 6 and 7Th. Our church. Lighthouse Community church of Allendale, Michigan will be hosting a mission conference. However it will not be your normal type mission conference.

You can see a brochure and register online here. The Isaiah project

We will focus on Worship and Mission as a RESPONSE to a vision of God—(just like Isaiah in Isaiah 6:1-8; Moses in Exodus 3:1-10; and Paul in Acts 9:1-22, plus others).

Gospel for Asia (see above) is going to be the keynote speaker and they are an awesome mission organization!!

There are some awesome speakers lined up for our break out sessions. One of them is Troy Livesay who you have hard about on my blog and has for the last two years run the mission that Nathan leads teams too. They are great friends and have a wonderful family of 7 children and they moved to Haiti 2 years ago to follow God's leading!!

for more info you can email me directly at telltheworld5@gmail.com We would love to see YOU there!!!

Michigan White caps

The kids earned free Michigan White caps tickets for a reading program that the school did. Last night was such a beautiful night. The team lost but we had a ton of fun!!! We get to go again tonight for a Godwin Plumbing work Picnic. This is always a really fun night. Jared, we will keep an eye out for you. Make sure you send a wave towards the Miller Lite deck!!!!

I do not know if any of you have heard about someone called Rubber boy
But I will say He is very hard to watch. He can do all kinds of weird
things with body parts and I really couldn't stand watching him.

White caps game

Here are some more pictures from the white caps game.

Yes, I took this one myself.

This was from the Cotton Candy!

Poor Nik!

These pictures are kind of cute!! We planted new grass where our deck used to be and in other sections of our back yard. Nikolas has a squirrel feeder back there that he keeps supplied with corn. Poor kids had to walk across the fence to get to the feeder without touching the ground!! He did a great job!!!

Before and after Deck

This is a before picture of part of our deck. The picture is not so good but its the only I could find at the moment.
A few years back our hot tub completely quit working and it was not worth putting more money into it. We had a dream of redesigning that part of the deck so that we would have a lot bigger back yard. We took off the whole section where the hot tub was.


These pictures below are the finished product!! I think it looks wonderful!!! We spent $0 money on it. Yep, you read that right! No money!! Everything we used came off of the part of the deck we got rid of.

The whole part where the steps and grill are is where we redesigned it.

Happy 8th Birthday Hannah!!

Today is Hannah's 8th birthday!! More amazing is that this is only the 2nd birthday she has ever celebrated!!! So please join me today in wishing her a happy birthday!!!

We are headed off to the white caps this evening and then again tomorrow!! I will try to remember my camera this time!! :)

Storms!

I cannot believe the storms that we have been getting lately. Fridays were bad and then Saturday nights were terrible too. I cannot remember the last time that we had 6 hours where it NEVER stopped thundering and lightning. It was crazy. Yesterday we had another set of storms roll through and our Neighbors's (across the street) basement flooded. I felt so bad for them. We were able to help carry things out and vacuum up a bunch of water but its scary how quickly that can happen. I have not see todays weather yet but I pray the worst is behind us.

Got tagged

I got tagged today by my friend Kathy.

Top 5 things you love most about the summer.

1. Things slow down a little
2. warmer weather (notice I did not say Hot)
3. I get to go to Haiti
4. The beach
5. camping


5 Things I hate about summer:

1. Heat
2. Humidity
3. Heat
4. Humidity
5. Heat and Humidity!

LOL need I say more!!

I am tagging:

Diane

Jen

Cheri

Julie

Karla

Mari

Terry

Paul Washer: Loved

There is a blog that I read every day called Defending Contending

They are a group of people that are willing to lay their life on the line to share the truth. It is not for the faint of heart but boy do I applaud what they are doing and that they are trying to get the truth out there when so may people and ministers today want to water down the truth of Jesus Christ. this video was on their today and thought I would share it with all of you.

Good-bye Kindergarten, Hello first grade

Ryan and Terri (Caleb's best friend and they live across
the street from us) Awesome neighbors!
Caleb being Caleb
Caleb's other buds!
Hannah and one of her friends
Mrs. Vander Stel. I could not have asked for a better teacher for my two kids this past year. She is so sweet and they enjoyed her so much.

Hard to believe that my two youngest are going to be in First grade next September. Today was Hannah and Caleb's last day of school. I was able to go at 11:30 and have Lunch with them and then we went outside and played some games. We had so much fun!! They had a awesome teacher this year and she had her own blog for the class which I thought was wonderful!

Here is some video of our day. Hard to believe the will all be in school full time next year! That did make me a little teary today! :)

Caleb and Marshmellow Hockey

Blog award

My friend Cheri gave me this blog today!!! I am giving it right back to her!! Thank you so much! You mean the world to me!!

I am also giving this award out to some people that I call very, very good friends. God has blessed me so much with a very close group of friends and I appreciate you all more than you will EVER know!!!

Julie

Michelle - You do need a blog! :)

Diane

Tori

Tammy

Kimberly

Amy K. - You need a blog too!! :)

Tara L

Theresa B - Are you still blogging?!!

Beth - I need to get you blogging. By the way for those of you who do not know Beth and I have been friends for about 32 years now!! How cool is that!!!

What is your Vocabulary score!

Your Vocabulary Score: B+

You have a zealous love for the English language, and many find your vocabulary edifying. Don't fret that you didn't get every word right, your vocabulary can be easily ameliorated!

How's" Your Vocabulary?

Yeah! I got a B+!!

My Grandma is 97 today!!

Please join me in wishing my Grandma a Very happy 97th birthday today!!!!

She is a wonderful Godly woman who I love so dearly. It has been wonderul watching my children get to know her. She is so sweet and every other Sunday night my mom and Dad, My Aunt and Uncle, my counsins and my family get together and visit with her for a few hours. We started doing this when my Grandpa got really sick 20 years ago. After he died we just continued on and it has been such a blessing.


We also had a great time camping this past weekend. The weather was perfect. I will also try to get out take my after pictures of our deck reconstruction and try to look for my before pictures as well because as you know I forgot to take them. I also forgot to take my camera camping this weekend. I think I need to tie it to my wrists.

Gospel for Asia

This man has forever changed the way we think about mission and mission trips and what we are called to do on mission trips. I loved this quote from him.

Both in India and in my travels around Western countries, I constantly uncovered a preoccupation with so-called “ministry” activities operated by Christian workers, financed by church monies, but with little else to distinguish them as Christian. . . . Social concern is a natural fruit of the Gospel. But to put it first is to put the cart before the horse; and from experience, we have seen it fail in India for more than 200 years. Yet while I realized the intrinsic nature of the Gospel involved [in] caring for the poor, I knew the priority was giving them the Gospel. Meeting their needs was a means to share the love of Christ so they would be saved for eternity.
- K.P. Yohannan
http://www.gfa.org

Hannah and Caleb's field trip

Hannah and Caleb went to the Tuensink's pony farm last week for their class field trip. They had so much fun. I was not able to go on this one but their teacher has a blog where she took lots of pictures!!!

Robin Update

Okay Patty, here you go an update on our birds!! They are so much fun to watch. They are really growing up fast!!

God's creation at its finest!!

Nate and I were playing badmitten with the boys and this is how the sun looked today! It was so neat looking!!

Matt Redmond Mission's Flame

Our Pastor told us about this song this week and of course Youtube had a video of it!!

Great song!!!

Group 1 crew - Forgive me

I heard this on our local radio station station yesterday. WAY FM It is geared more for the college age and teen group but its pobably my favorite radio station due NO commercials and I love the music.

I heard this song twice. the first time I was not sure I liked it. It is rappier than I like. However the second time I heard it the words just hit me. My heart tells me we do not have a lot if time left in this world as we know it. My heart hurts for those that do not have Jesus yet and this song just made me teary eyed when I really listened too it. Give it a chance. Listen to it a few times. some of you may have heard it already. some of you will hate it! That is okay!! I like the chorus! :)

Feathered friends in the play area!

We had a robin move in behind the kids swing set and decided it was a great place to lay eggs.
The eggs have hatched and Nate took these pictures tonight!! What fun!!

What sweet children!!

I know I am probably biased but are they not just the cutest,
sweetest kids you have ever seen!!! :)
They are ages 11, 9, 9, 7 and 7!

MyPersonality.info Badge

While I am waiting to have my new Dish installed I thought I would give you all one of our families favorite recipes! Yum! It is best if you make it up in the morning and then rerigerate until you bake at night. The noodles stay more firm.

2 (15oz) cans tomato sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
10-12 oz pkg. fine eggs noodles
8oz cream cheese, softened
2 c sour cream
12 green onions , optional
1 1/2lb. ground beef

in a large skillet, brown ground beef; drain. Stir in tomato sauce and seasonings. Heat boiling; reduce heat and simmer,uncovered, 15 minutes. Heat oven to 350. cook noodles as directed on package. combine cream cheese and sour cream. Stir in Green onions id desired. In 9X13 pan, layer cooked noodles, cream cheese mixture, meat sauce and cheese. Bake about 1 hour or until bubbly. Makes 10 servings.

Since 1995 we have had Direct Tv and while I love them we found we can save $20 extra dollars a month and have a DVR. So we switched. I think I have the crabbiest guy on the planet in my house at this moment. Ugh! I am also missing out on one of my favorite activities and that is getting together with 3 of my friends on Tuesday's. Sigh!

Also for all of you Dish network people out there will you do me a favor and email them and ask them to add the Sleuth channel to their line up! Nate and I are addicted to old Miami vice reruns and Dish network does not carry that channel yet! I have asked but there is power in numbers!! :)

God is with you!

I received this from a good friend today! I really like it!! :)

God is for you .Not "may be," not "has been,"not "was,"not "would be," But "God Is!!" He is for you .Today. At this hour. At this minute. As you read this sentence. No need to wait in line or come back tomorrow. He is with you. He could not be closer than he is at this second. His loyalty wont Increase if you are better nor lessen if you are worse. He is for you. God is for you. Had he a calendar, your birthday would be circled. If he drove a car , your name would be on the bumper, If there's a tree in heaven, he's carved your name in the bark. We know he has a tattoo, and we know what it say's "I have written you name on my hand,".....(Isa. 49:16

How normal are you?

You Are Fairly Normal

You scored 50% normal on this quiz Like most people you are normal in some ways... But you aren't a completely normal person. You're a little weird too! Why You Are Normal: You are still with your first love You rather be screwed over than screw someone else over You prefer your friends to your family You eat the frosting first You prefer the sun to the moon Why You Aren't Normal: If given the choice, you would choose to have more time over more money When you're in a car, you prefer to be the passenger You know a little about many subjects You would rather be tan than pale If you had to, you rather live without laughter and still have music

What's" Normal About You... And What's Not?

Book written by an birth mom/adoptive mom

A friend asked if I would post this on my blog!! If anyone is interested please click on the link below. All the proceeds go to Bethany Christian Services.

Hi Bethany Family, I’m posting this to several boards to let you know about a wonderful book written by one of our own Bethany moms. The book is called The Perfect Present and was written by Gayle Opp. Gayle is a birth mom and an adoptive mom (domestic, China). I love this picture book because it can be used as a springboard to talk with my daughter about her birth mom as well as her adoption into our family. Gayle used paper doll cut-outs to illustrate her book, and several of the dolls could represent various children from around the world (i.e. not just Caucasian) making this picture book suitable for domestically and/or internationally adopted children. What sets this adoption book apart from others is how Gayle points children to Jesus and how God gave us His only Son. She also includes her own story on the last page of the book (keep a Kleenex handy!). You can see some sample pages from Gayle’s book here: http://discussion.bethany.org/viewtopic.php?p=510053#510053 (scroll to the end of page 2). You can order Gayle’s book from Bethany here: http://www.bethany.org/A55798/bethanyWWW.nsf/0/4688203EA5BDB8C0852570DD006AF917?OpenDocument (Gayle is donating 100% of the book sales to her local Bethany office.) Thanks for taking a look and supporting a new author/illustrator and Bethany!