if you give a toddler a popsicle

I'm tired and I want to go to bed. But I want to wait on Kyle, and he's still working. I'm killing time by blogging. I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors that I may make in my sleepy state. I'm normally such a stickler, but I'm just too tired to care about it right now.

So here are just a couple of pics from Hudson eating a popsicle last night.



My, what good posture you have!



Love this one!



And there are my two boys, having a grand time together.

I love my family. We're beginning to pray for our brother(s) and/or sister(s) that will join our family one day. Who knows when it will be. But God hears our prayers. He knows our hearts. I'm so glad He does.

a sense of wonder

We took Hudson to the zoo today. We have season passes to the Fort Worth Zoo, and today was the first day in two months that we've actually wanted to go. It's just been too hot- but today was wonderful. The older Hudson gets, the more I enjoy going with him. Kyle and I have always loved the zoo, but seeing it through the eyes of our son is even more fun. Here are just a few pictures of his response to seeing things...



Checking out the rhinos and the giraffes.



Looking at the birds.



Don't know what he was looking at here. It was during the train ride.



Observing (or trying to observe) the turkeys and deer.

Don't you love seeing things through the eyes of a child? It gives you such a different perspective. Sometimes it's like seeing things for the first time all over again. I feel like reading God's Word can be like this. I really desire to see His words with fresh eyes every time, but it just doesn't happen that way.

Kyle and I are beginning the Radical Experiment. The first two parts of the experiment are to pray for the world and to read through God's Word in its entirety. Those seem like such small steps, but I know that they are huge. I know that I don't always pray with a sense of expectancy- like God's really going to do something great through my prayers. So as we pray for the world, I'm expecting that God's going to show Kyle and me where He wants us to go on a mission trip. I'm expecting that God is going to give us a heart for the unreached and undesirable. I'm expecting that God is going to show us where to adopt our next child. I'm also going to pray that I'll see the Scripture with fresh eyes. Can you imagine reading the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000 for the first time? I told this story to my students at church a couple of weeks ago. They had never heard that story, and their reactions were awesome. I know that God is going to do some amazing things in our lives over the next year. I know that there will be battles and challenges. But I also know that there is joy in the journey, and my Jesus is worth more than any battle wound I will ever encounter. I can't wait to experience this. I can't wait to meet Jesus all over again.

couponing for the glory of God

I'm not a couponer. Believe me, I've tried. I look on those websites of people who faithfully coupon and save a ton of money. I would love to be able to cut my grocery bills in half the way that they do, but I just don't know how.

But look what's on my kitchen table this morning...


Coupons. I'm trying again. Kyle and I have stripped down our budget to try and save money for mission trips and adoption. One of the areas where I'd like to cut back is groceries. I don't buy name brands. I only buy what we need. So the only other possible way for me to save money is to coupon. Kyle knows the struggle I've had with trying to learn how to coupon. I told him last night that this time will be different. I'm going to pray while I coupon that somehow God will be glorified through our family's use of coupons. I have a budget friendly cookbook that Kyle got me for my birthday. It talks about how to organize and use coupons effectively. We'll see how things go. I think the only way that this will work is by God's intervention on my behalf. In our weakness He is made strong- must apply to coupons, too, right?

a sealed envelope, a nutt, and one very tall baby

We really celebrate birthdays at our house. We celebrate the whole week leading up to your birthday. Normally for Kyle's birthday he gets one small gift each day. They're all hanging from a birthday banner, and each morning he gets to select a gift. Kyle hung small cards from the birthday banner this week. Each card had a clue which led me to a small gift (like pretzel M&Ms, yum!). Friday's card led me on a scavenger hunt through the house. I had to pack a bag, pick out some games, and then I would find our destination in the spice rack in the pantry. Well, the destination was in a sealed envelope that said, "To be opened at mile 30." So I had to wait until we had driven 30 miles before I could find out where we were going. I'm not good at being patient, but I'm very good at following directions. I didn't peek, even when I had the opportunity to look at Kyle's maps in his drawer. I didn't look- because I don't like ruining surprises.

At mile 30 I opened the envelope and found out that we were going to Granbury, Texas, and staying in The Nutthouse Historic Hotel. No comments, please, on the irony of the "Nutthouse" part. Kyle told me that he had read several reviews of the hotel and was looking forward to our trip. There was only one review that concerned him. It talked about experiencing paranormal activity in the hotel room. Specifically, the feeling that someone was watching the couple while they slept. Seriously?! That sort of thing freaks me out. You can read the review for yourself here.

The rooms at this hotel are decorated with early 1900 period pieces. And photographs, apparently. Photographs from this period are really odd to me. No one ever smiles. Family portraits look sad or angry because everyone is just staring blankly at the camera. I wonder what people will say about our family portraits one hundred years from now, though. "Why is everyone wearing white and khaki?" or "Why is that family standing in the middle of a field laughing?" or "Why is that bride standing barefoot in the middle of a barn by herself?" I digress. The first photograph that caught our attention was one of the very tall baby. Kyle immediately thought that was pretty creepy. He said that baby would make a pretty good ghost. Which one do you think is the most likely to haunt a hotel?


The very tall baby.


A happy family.


Another happy family.


I should have my picture taken like the lady on the right.


This lovely lady kept a watchful eye over our bed. Yikes!




I'll leave you with a photo of the way we ended our evening. It was perfect and heavenly and right. We enjoyed it. Twice. Yes, you should be jealous.










Come on, surely you didn't think I would post a picture of something else?!

how to begin a birthday week

The best way to begin your celebration for your 30th birthday is to make a memory. It helps if it is slightly awkward for all involved, that way it's memorable for everyone. I chose to kick off my birthday week wearing my old prom dress to life group. Yes, it was weird. It was hot outside, and wearing a long formal dress was not comfortable. Plus, it was pretty tight. I had difficulty breathing deeply. But you only turn 30 once, so why not make it interesting, right?



Walking into life group. I'm glad everyone laughed too instead of just staring at me.



Intimate prom pose.



Traditional prom pose. Plus Kyle's goofy grin.

sleepyhead

Gotta love the bed head.



I promise I didn't wake him up. He told me he was ready to get going. Maybe he's regretting his decision.



Maybe I'll just rest here a minute.



There are the puffy eyes. He gets those from his mother.

psalm 67

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us,
that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
May the people praise you, O God, may all the peoples praise you.
May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.
May the peoples praise you, O God, may all the peoples praise you.
Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.
God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear Him.

Kyle memorized this chapter of the Psalms. I'm still working on it. I think I've got about half of it done. It's pretty short, so it shouldn't be taking me this long. Oh well.

He pointed out to me the first word of the second verse, "that". May God bless us that His salvation may be known among all nations. My blessings are not intended for my own pleasure. My salvation, my house, my son, my blessings are all part of a much bigger picture. They are all intended to make God's name great. There is no one greater, no one higher, no one like our God! What a joy and privilege to serve Him.

where we are

After reading the book Radical by David Platt, Kyle and I have been making some changes in our lives. Some are big, some are small. We just got rid of U-verse. This is a small change, but it's big for us since it's almost football season. We'll be thankful for friends and family in our lives with televisions and cable once that season opener rolls around. We've decided to go on a short-term mission trip. We don't know how to make it happen financially, but we've made that commitment.

As for big changes, here they are. We're going through the process of being licensed to become foster parents. We've turned in our application. We'll see what happens from here. We've also decided that we're going to adopt internationally. That is definitely a big dream for us financially speaking, but we believe that we've been called by God to do this. As Christ-followers we're called to defend the cause of the fatherless. There are around 133 million orphans around the world. Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned because of HIV or AIDS. In Ethiopia 1 in 10 children is an orphan. 1 in 10. That's heart-breaking. Everyday 26,000 children die from starvation or preventable disease. The statistics are mind-blowing, but I'm sure when you look into the eyes of one of the dying or the orphaned, it becomes reality. We're praying that we'll see with Jesus' eyes.

Please pray for us as we begin this new chapter of our lives. It's exciting to not know what our family will look like in five years. Who knows? We might have five kids by then!

our little reader

That's right. Our boy loves to read. I walked into his room and caught him with this library book in his lap. This is definitely a joy of parenthood.