Our Day Today!

Wake Up Call! Some Astounding Statistics..........

The following is a quote from a book I've been reading...in the midst of some pretty serious research. I don't want this to be a harsh post....but a motivation to us all to "run our races well, with our eyes on the prize."

"There is a mindset in the prosperous west that we deserve painfree, trouble-free existence. When life deals us the opposite, we have a right not only to blame somebody or some system and to feel sorry for ourselves, but also to devote most of our time to coping, so that we have no time or energy left over for serving others.
This mind-set gives a trajectory to life that is almost universal-namely, away from stress and toward comfort and safety and relief. Then within that very natural trajectory some people begin to think of ministry and find ways of serving God inside the boundaries set by the aims of self-protection. Then churches grow up in this mind-set, and it never occurs to anyone in such a community of believers that choosing discomfort, stress, and danger might be the right thing-even the normal, biblical thing-to do." John Piper-The Roots of Endurance

"At conception, a human has come into being. For how long? Forever. Either in heaven or hell. There is no going out of existence...You exist forever. You and God are both in the universe to stay-either as friends on His terms, or as enemies. Which it will be is proven in this life..............When I think of the atrocities on the world, like the genocides of the 20th century, it makes me want to live my life with as few regrets as possible."John Piper-Life is a Vapor

Did You Know That.......
* 50% of the world lives on just $2.00 a day
*the average income of a peasant farmer in Jiangxi, China (where Katherine is from) is $850 per year. 1/3 of that is used for coal to heat their homes. This makes the $2.oo per day accurate.
*27,000-30,000 children in the world die EVERY DAY
* That's 1 child dying every 3 seconds
*According to UNICEF...a child is defined as age 5 or under (what about the ones 5-18??)
*What do they die of??....poverty, hunger, treatable and preventable diseases
*Last year there were ONE MILLION substantiated cases of child abuse in the U.S. alone
*Over 3 million child abuse reports were made last year.
*1973-present- over 40 million abortions performed in the U.S.

Please take 5 minutes to look at this site http://miniature-earth.com....it's not a Christian site but the statistics are impressive and will hopefully make you think. It's also on the Soteria Foundation blog. (thanks Jason!)

"When I think on these things, it makes me tremble at the prospect of living a trivial, self-serving, comfortable, middle-class, ordinary, untroubled American life. I can't keep eternity out of my mind. Life is short and eternity is long. Very long. It is a long time to regret a wasted life. ....Shall we not then live our lives-and prepare for heaven-by strategizing in all our vocations, and with all our talents and all our money , to relieve suffering (now and forever) for the glory of Jesus?.......Man is not getting better. But God will hold us accountable in the age to come not for what others have done. He will call us to account for what blood-bought hope freed US (emphasis added) to do for others in the name of Christ." John Piper-Life is a Vapor

We could not have said it better.This is our motivation.....the cross is our hope. This is what moves us as a family calling...

Gotta love John Piper...my current favorite author...

Hopefully, this stirs your heart as well.......The picture is from our "princess picnic" today with our friend Alexis. After much deliberation and decision making......Katie chose to be Tinkerbell. A huge deviation from the norm. :) The others had very long explainations about their choice of attire. We think they're all beautiful!

Summer Picture of the Day

Thought this was funny today...Leni and Kristi both saw Shrek...so Leni is somewhat of a medival princess (that's quite an imagination there don't you think?! She needs to be in costume design!)....all day...everyday...... since the movie. Kristin and Katie are in competition for the Cinderella dresses as soon as they wake up, when Katie isn't wanting Minnie Mouse with the tulle pink ballet overlay on top of it. They change costumes no kidding like 8 times a day. Then they talk about them in between. It's very cute and very funny! Have you ever seen a Chinese Cinderella? Oh yea.....all this today.....before breakfast....:)

Mystery! If you're squeamish, don't read this :)

We have been solving a mystery around here for the past few weeks! First we found clues......
1. Feathers (big ones!) all over the back yard
2. Gigantic bird p**p everywhere the girls play :)
3. A turtle shell.....missing the turtle part
4. The feeling something is watching you ........constantly

What was it? We discovered a HUGE bird had nested right over the girls swing set. Now to figure out what it was. We watched, we took pictures, we discovered 2 babies in the nest that were also huge.....what were they? After our scientist Dad took over we determined we had a mama, and 2 baby RED SHOULDERED HAWKS living amongst us. We watched them feed on small reptiles, lizards, etc. Mama would bring food (live food) to the babies several times daily. The mama hawk even watched our cat intently. (Leni was very worried as she is the resident animal freak). The babies would peer over the nest and watch every action we made. They didn't miss a beat! And then yesterday.......the babies took flight over the house. The nest is now empty. We yet again were able to watch a lesson in God's marvelous creation and best of all........the cat is safe. All rejoice! Enjoy the pictures!

What we do to entertain the troops here in Florida!

Two posts today! :)

Today was chemo day for our friend Robbie. (We're thinking about you Robbie!) So Julie and I took our girls and Robbie's two adorable kids Lily and Mitchell to the park and McDonalds. We had a wonderful time and the children all enjoyed their time together. We lined them up in chronological order to capture the moment. Now....while we were setting up our photo shoot, Leni hit Kristin in the eye with a stick (it really was an accident :)) so after we made sure she was ok (yes, she is) we proceeded. THEN Kristin got her thumb stuck in one of the holes in the table. After a few tense moments......thumb came out. Can you figure out who is the drama queen?

Kristin's Big Week~

Miss Kristin has had a big week. She finished her first year of Pre-school on Tuesday with a big pizza party. We found (thanks to my neighbor) a wonderful Christian, actual preschool (not daycare format) two days a week. We decided to send Kristin at the same time that Leni went to her "school". That way everyone wasn't being dragged around to everyone else's stuff to the point of exhaustion. Anyway, Kristi thrived. It was an awesome year for her and we're sorry to say good-bye to Miss Sue and Miss Laurie. THEN Kristin's ballet class had their "in class" end of year recital. She's in the 3-4 yr old class and Mommy's very grateful they were wise enough not to include this group in the gigantic 2day big girl recital event. :) They dressed them in lavender tutu's, did their make-up, sprayed glitter on them and put flowers in their hair. They then danced to "Waltz of the Flowers". Very, very spectacular! Kristin was magnificent! She forgot to do half the dance because she was so enamored with her beautiful self all dressed up in the mirror! Mom Jo came (bearing traditional bouquets) and as a suprise....in walks Julie! Julie danced at the same school for years and was in their company program. At 16 Julie had to make a choice between pursuing dance or vocal training. The time required for both was too much. It was a heart wrenching decision...but God directed her steps. She chose voice. This was one of her first visits back to the studio. Julie got to see the ballet master (she hadn't seen in years) and it was a teary reunion.......However, now Kristin's following in big sister's footsteps and it's marvelous to watch! Julie will be traveling to Wales this summer to sing with the Xtreme Band as a mission outreach, and was on Metro's newest worship CD. She made that hard decision over 3 years ago and it's now in a season of bearing fruit. We're grateful for her heart to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit! Enjoy the pics of mom's girls......The top is Julie in Swan Lake, right before she stopped dancing.