My kids passed these cookies out to their teachers at school yesterday.  OK, I would love to take credit for making them, but I didn't.  My sister did. 





The kids have been watching The Bible on the History channel.  As you can see they are more than into it.  I was a little torn having the younger kids watch it since it has some violence, but decided they needed to watch it.  Stafan being 100% boy says, "This is so interesting and good!"  I'm pretty sure it is the fighting he loves.  He even wants to get the popcorn out.  They are getting their Bible stories down.





We adopted Shepard in 2010 when he was 8 y.o.  The first year, actually longer, he wouldn't sleep on the top bunk, because of being scared.  He slept on the floor next to Stafan's bed.  I even told the social worker he slept on the floor.  She said, "You mean the bed?"  No, he sleeps on the floor.  : - )  Well, he has finally started sleeping on the top, but since watching The Bible he tried to go back on the floor.  I told him no, but he is OK with it since I let him have the dog up there with him.  LOL

What does this mean?

OK, this is going to sound weird, but it'll just have to, because this is what happened.   About a week ago on a Thursday Stafan was home sick from school.   He wanted to go to school, but I wouldn't let him.  He didn't have a temperature, but the night before it was 100.1.   Since, I have a lot of kids, 10 and soon 12, when I just have one with me I usually try and spoil them.  I know the number of kids makes me weird all by itself, but remember I'm adopting orphans not popping them out. : - )  Anyway,  since I just had Stafan, I let him go to the candy shop and pick out a bag of the mix 'n match.  I also let him have anything he wanted for lunch, which meant Panda Expres, because that is what all the kids ALWAYS pick.  That's not the weird part of my story though.

The weird part is coming, but first I have to explain some things about me and my sister, Becki.  If Becki or I say something to our kids--for example, if I am arguing with my kids and I say, "Aunt Becki thinks so too" or "Aunt Becki does the same with her kids"--they will answer,  "Well, you're the same people so it doesn't count!!"  Back to the my story.   I had a 40% off coupon at Gap Thursday so I just had to go there sick or no sick kid.  Since I had Stafan I didn't stay very long.  I got what I wanted and we left the store happy.  As Stafan and I were walking down the main aisle of the mall about a store past Gap, I heard someone faintly but very clearly say, "Sammy."  I actually turned around and looked, but I only saw three teenager looking girls, so Stafan and I kept going and went to the parking garage.  As we were walking through the parking garage, I thought I saw my sister's car and asked Stafan if it was Aunt Becki's car.  He didn't think so, but I was pretty sure it was, because of her special plates and her fish sign. Also, I figured she probably had the same Gap coupon and was making a mall run on her lunch hour.  So,  Saturday morning I asked my sister, "Were you at the mall Thursday?"  She said, "Yes and Megan (the sales girl at Gap--trust me we know the sales girls at the mall) said I had just missed you by about 10 minutes."  So,  I told Becki, "Oh, I heard someone say "Sammy" right after I left the store."  She said, " I didn't see you, but I thought I heard someone say Becki."  I then asked if she heard it in the parking garage, because I thought maybe she heard me talking to Stafan about her car.  She said "No, it was right before I went into Gap and I even turned around in the hall and looked behind me."  I had not told her that I too had turned around and looked.   The mall was pretty dead so when you turned around you would have seen if anyone was there. 

When I think about this, it gives me goosebumps.  I think it has to mean something.  Nothing like this has ever happened to us before.  Growing up my mom was very against things like Ouija boards and anything that goes along with it, so I've never gone near things like that and never will!  To me what happened must have come from God or an angel.   




'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.' 
Leviticus 19:31

They Minister to the Needs of Believers: Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
Hebrews 1:14 

 
The question is why?  One thought I've had is that both my sister and I had been praying especially hard all that week.  We have a friend who has been going through an extremely hard time.  Could God be telling Becki and me something about our relationship with each other?  Or could this have happened so that I would write about it and you, whoever you are, would read about it and think about how God is real and can speak to us if we open our hearts to listen?    

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/angels-demons-15-powerful-bible-verses/#ixzz2NlU1TnZN

 

"Yes, angels are real. They are not the product of your imagination."

Billy Graham
 

 

 

 

Flashback Friday

Oh my.  This was my Mom's family, the Bakers, in the early 60s.  I was in the blue dress on the right.  My cousin, Deanna was in the blue dress with the red bow.  She always had cooler clothes than me.



More Bakers on my Grandpa's front porch. My Grandpa built that house after their first house burnt down.   My Mom was a teenager and said when she got off the school bus the driver told them their house was gone.  They lived in a tent while he rebuilt until a storm blew it down, and then a little shed on their property.   The men in chairs where my Aunts' husbands.  The man in the chair on the left taught school in CA, and so did my Aunt.  The one on the right owned a sawmill and the man sitting on the step was my Mom's brother, a preacher who graduated from Anderson University.  

 

 My Mom's youngest sister, Adria.  In the first picture, she is in the purple.  The one that dressed her kids... aah cute!  She taught school in Louisiana.  My Aunt Adria looked like Doris Day.

 

 My Mom's 2nd to the youngest sister, Joyce.  Actually, her kids dressed nice too.  I would get at least 2 sacks of clothes from her girls every 6 months and to this day I'm thankful. : - )




 My little sister and me.  We literally got in trouble if our shoe strings were not tied straight.  I still remember those dresses, because I liked them both.  I must have really liked them to still remember them, because they are long gone.  My Mom made them.  My dress was red candy stripe and my sister's had little pale pink flowers.  I bet she can't remember them!  I was 6 y.o. and she looks about a year old.  We must have been going to church, because usually we were barefoot. 






This was my Grandpa's bathtub that was in the house above. After he died, my Mom's oldest sister bought his house. She threw this tub out in their pasture where it set for 20 years!! When we built our house, over 10 years ago, we went and got his bathtub. I have it in my downstairs bath now. My Grandpa was the best Christian I ever knew. He never gossiped. I know he had to get mad, but was so slow to anger, I don't know if anyone ever saw it. No one ever caught him using a swear word. One day he was working using a machine that cut off his finger. Later a man said, "I bet he cussed then." The other man, said "No sir, he just said, I declare." His biggest fault probably was he was too giving. One time my Grandma had saved up a $1000. They were poor and I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to save that much money up way back then. Without telling her he took it and gave it away. I was over 40 years old when I heard that story and it was the first time I realized he wasn't quite perfect.

Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh  

Genesis 2:22-24 




Yes, Brady and Rebecca are married! Congratulations! We love you!
 




















And if getting married wasn't big enough, Brady was also just promoted to Sargent!! Congratulations again Brady.

From Lyric's perspective

From Lyric's perspective

Getting ready for church. Both Gabrielle and Cokie were not smiling in this picture, but it was probably because they were tired.  I am Lyric with the dog on my shirt.

Nope, they're still not smiling.

You can see someone in the back round about to throw a snowball. That person is Stafan. We have a game where we try to throw a snowball on top of the roof of the shed as high as we can.

Eliot came with us because he slept the night and was going to the same place as us any way.

You can see Shepard behind Stafan walking off. He was probably ticked off at something. Shepard is like that. He has a temper.




Payton posing for the camera. She does that to.

That orange sauce on Darby's plate is buffalo sauce. It is spicy, but it taste like ranch so usually put a little pepper sauce on my food. 

Eliot is clearly looking at something that is amazingly unbelievable in ways that make his mouth pop open.

 
Lael decided to go to lunch with us today. It's not like she does it a lot.

If you can see Arden is on her phone doing who knows what.  She is mostly on her phone doing (at home) looking up funny pictures on this thing called photo-opp, I think.

Andrew's first stroll outside.

My niece, Gabrielle. Gabrielle and my Lyric are in the same class at school.  Before that she was in Stafan's since kindergarten. 







Last week Lyric and Gabrielle had to give a speech. I video taped Lyric practicing hers.








I guess you could say our kids and both my sisters' are almost being raised more like siblings than cousins.  They go to the same school, same church and very few days go by that they don't see one another.  This was Gabrielle and her sister Darby.  Looks like we were practicing learning to read.





Lyric is really a sweet kid and the first to show kindness and it isn't just be saying it. : - )  Her teachers say she is very helpful to the other kids.  But, she also likes herself a lot. : - ) When she was little and one of the kids told on her she would go into shock and be like... how dare they mess with "The Lyric Ya Ni" which is what her Dad calls her. She would instantly haul off and give the offender a smack. She doesn't still do that-I don't think.

Lyric's referral picture-back when she was Shi Ya Ni! She was the only kid I ever heard of that was actually spoiled in the orphanage. Lyric was a special need baby and her heart repaired in China by Hopeful Hearts.

The three most dangerous words

 It's a girl.



http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/





 









This week two of my friends, my sister and I, along with several of our kids went to http://www.marian.edu/ to view It's a Girl.