Invisible Children

Brandon called the other day and said he dropped off a DVD at my house (I wasn't home) and told me to watch it and call him when I was finished. It was about children in Uganda. I didn't want to watch it in front of my kids because I wasn't sure what was on it. I got a chance to watch it this morning. . . . . . .

While I sit here in my comfortable house with my amazing son and watch a few extra kids today, Barney is singing "You Are Special" in the background. Lunch is in the oven & my pantry has enough food for the rest of the week. My car is in the driveway and the kids can go outside and get some fresh air if they wanted to. My other 2 boys are in school learning what they should be. Right now, they're enjoying lunch in the lunchroom with their friends around them talking about who is going to win the football game tonight. In a few minutes, they'll be heading outside to play their own football games to see who picks the best team today.

While all of this is going on here, there are children in Uganda who are running and hiding. Parents are sending their children into the city to hide in a hospital or in an abandoned bus station so they can be safe. Others are looking for new recruits -- ages 5 through 12 are ideal. Others are being desensitized to war and the killing of others. Because tomorrow, their job is to go out and kill at least 20 people. . . that is, if they survive the night in their own army's camp. Tonight, their job is to go find recruits for the Lord's Resistance Army or the LRA by raiding camps and villages and forcing children to come and join them. Then, they train these kids to kill. The worst atrocity? It's 5 year olds with small weapons. Children are the recruit of choice because they are easily replaced by raiding schools. Plus, who would shoot at a child? If an adult soldier was fighting the LRA and came upon a child solider, they would probably second guess killing that child. That split second decision could cost them their own life.

It's children who are being forced to fight or be killed. It's other children running from these kids who were "normal" yesterday! It's kids who have been a part of the army and escaped to now have a bounty out on their head. It's kids who are not allowed to cry for their siblings who have been victims of this army. It's kids who have not been allowed to be kids. It's kids who only have the clothes on their backs. They don't have food and are lucky if they get to eat once a day. They don't even have a blanket to sleep on or cover up with at night.

But then there's the pictures of the kids praising God because they survived another day.

The saddest thing? It's been going on for 22 years.

So, I went to www.invisiblechildren.com to check out their website. I feel like I should do something. I saw this shirt. At first, I was wondering why the heck they had this t-shirt!

But if you read it, it says, "90% of the LRA are abducted children". Their website says, "We care for every child soldier and are committed to their freedom". . .

So, where does that leave me today? A lot of processing. Not a lot is getting done around my house. . . But I must be productive today. . . What am I going to do about this? Not sure . . . Meanwhile, our backpack kids are being fed every weekend. . . that's some good news for today!!

Just some fun stuff

Well, this isn't so fun, but I thought I should update that the girl had an abortion. Yes, my heart is very saddened by the news, but the girl I was talking to (that's on my children's church team) was one of the first people she called & really opened up to. Please continue to pray for that girl. Her name is Bethany.

Here's some funny stuff that's been going on at our house:

The other day, I told Jaxon it was time to take a nap. Here's what went down:
Me: Jaxon, it's time to take a nap.
Jaxon: (with his bottom against the refrigerator) Nope
Me: No, Jaxon you can either go get in your bed and take a nap or you can get a spanking on your bottom.
Jaxon: (Making sure his bottom was against the refrigerator) Nope.
Me: (Now with the stick in my hand) Jaxon, your choice is to go get in your bed and take a nap or you are going to get a pop on the bottom with the stick.
Jaxon: (Running to his room) NAP! NAP! NAP!!

Tonight, Evan came up to me and he was very sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I didn't get to go get you anything for your birthday." I told him that it was ok. He said, "Well, I was thinking. . . about that hard wood floors you have been wanting. I think I'll get those for you. But, I was thinking we need them in the whole house. That's what I'll get you."

The other day I was changing Jaxon's diaper. Here's how that went down:
Me: Jaxon, let's change your diaper.
Jaxon: Nope. Daddy change stinky.
Me: Oh, daddy changed your stinky diaper?
Jaxon: Nope. Daddy stink.
Me: Daddy stink?
Jaxon: Yep. Daddy stink. P U!

God is good!

A couple of weeks ago, I was having lunch with a college girl that is on my children's church team. Somehow the topic of adoption and abortion came up. I shared my story with this girl. She told me that if she found out tomorrow that she was pregnant, she would ask the guy to pay $150 & she would pay $150 and take care of it. For a split second, I didn't understand what she was saying. Then it hit me. . . this girl who serves on my children's church team where kids are the most important people on the planet just told me that she would have an abortion if she found out there was one inside of her.

I could have argued with her that day. I could have tried to persuade her to see my point of view. But, I specifically heard God say to be quiet. When I got home, I was telling Aaron about it and I was really upset! How could this girl say that?

On Sunday afternoon, Bethany & I were on our way to IKEA in Dallas and we were talking about adoption and abortion. I shared my story with Bethany and I told her about this lunch with this girl. Neither one of us understood where this girl was coming from and we talked about adoption, etc almost all the way there.

That night at 10:45, I received a phone call from that girl. She had just gotten a call from her best friend from back home (whose name is Bethany) just found out she is pregnant. This girl is 19 and the baby's dad is "just a nobody" (her words). She did a 3-way call with her friends to tell them the news, but to also tell them that she was going to the doctor this week and hopefully they could schedule her for an abortion by the end of the week so she could just "get this taken care of".

The college girl that is on my team broke into tears. She said, "I know that I told you a couple of weeks ago that I would have an abortion if I found myself in that situation, but tonight when I was on the phone, I couldn't tell my friend to do that. I told my friend about your story and how now you are happily married with 3 boys and she can make this work. But, I couldn't tell her to go get an abortion."

It still gives me chills just thinking about it. We prayed for this girl and prayed for the baby. There was a peace that both of us felt. I told her that I didn't know whether the girl was going to have an abortion or not, but the end question was going to be this: Will you still love her even if she does? I also shared with this girl that even though an abortion seems like it would be a quick fix, that eventually the emotional part would catch up to her friend. Either way she goes (adoption or abortion) you have to deal with the emotional side of things, but I have a much greater peace knowing that my baby is alive and well.

Anyway, continue to pray for these girls. I'm really at the point that I'll do anything to save this baby. My heart really wants to even adopt the baby if she'll just have it. But, I just want this girl to know that God still loves her.

First day of school

Here are pictures from the first day of school. For some reason, I didn't get a picture of Payton in his desk . . . not sure he would have let me do that anyway! ;)







We are back in the swing of things, but gosh, it sure is quiet around here!! I think Jaxon is actually loving being all by himself all day long. He tells them bye in the mornings and he hasn't seemed to miss them! He does love it when they get home, though. The boys are loving it, too. It's nice to be back in the routine of things for sure!!

Breakthrough has come

These last few weeks have been nothing but breakthrough for me in so many ways. We've been having vision/mission staff meetings and I was totally overwhelmed at thinking about such "big" things. A million and one questions surfaced. One of the main ones -- Am I even doing what I really want to be doing? If I could do anything, what would I do? Would it be children's ministry or would it be something else?

I've decided that at the current moment in time, I am doing what I really love doing. I'm letting kids know they are important. My vision is to transform the way the world looks at kids -- to see their potetial, to see how important they are, & to see how valuable they are. . . yep, that's what I'm doing. Children's ministry is just in my hands right now. Will I always be in children's ministry, like with a local church? Who knows. But today, children's ministry is in my hands & I'll go with that.

When it came time for me to share my vision & mission at staff meeting, I was prepared. I let my heart speak. Daniel gave me a new "title" -- Advocate for the Social Justice of Children. Sounds important, huh? I like it. The staff prayed over me and prophesied over me. I can't put into words what happened to me in that moment. I can tell you that nobody else got that special treatment when they gave theirs! ;) Brandon gave me a painting that Emilie had done. It has been hanging on his wall for quite some time. The first time I saw it, I knew it was mine. I think I actually told him that once -- he thought I was joking! ;) So, on Monday it will hang in my office. Funny thing is that I'm having Emilie paint another picture for me that will hang right beside it. The two kind of go together.

God has also brought breakthrough in my marriage. We haven't had a bad marriage by any means, but God knew what we needed. Aaron took the boys to Schlitterbahn & the Dallas Cowboys training camp. I was upset that I had to stay behind, but on the way home, God spoke to Aaron and told him things that I had been feeling for the last 11 years, but I just couldn't put it into words. There was an amazing amount of healing that took place when he got back that I didn't even know needed to happen!! Yay God!!

School starts on Monday. . . I don't know how I feel about that just yet. I'll let you know then. Speaking of the boys, they're outside playing air hockey with a golf ball & some golf clubs. I hear them banging the concrete. I better go make sure everyone still has all of their limbs!! ;)

So what's up?

It's still summer. . . things are still crazy. I'll try to fill you in.

Earlier in the week, it was my freezer/ice maker. My wonderful husband fixed it!! Last night, my washer started smelling like something was burning... not good when today is laundry day! ;) Call the repairman and he can't come until August 11th!! So, my piles of laundry are sitting in the bathrooms -- that's why I have time to blog! ;)

Cherith & I went to the American Idol concert last week. It was a BLAST!! Here are a few pics from it. . . out of the 87 pictures that I took (I'll spare you all of the bad ones):

Adam

Adam & Allison singing "Slow Ride" -- this was my favorite part of the night

Kris Allen

Adam & Kris during the finale

Top 10 during the finale
L to R: Scott, Lil, Michael, Danny, Adam, Kris, Allison, Anoop, Megan, & Matt

Anoop

Michael Sarver

Lil Rounds & Megan

Allison singing "Cry Baby"

Danny singing "My Wish" -- the most powerful performance of the night

I'm in one of the weirdest and hardest seasons of my life. Right now I'm listening to Kris Vallotton's message "Love Suffers Long" and it seems to be right where I am. These last few weeks have been so lonely, frustrating, hard, emotional, etc. I just want to scream sometimes -- yes, that's how I feel. Kris said his season lasted 5 months. . . just hoping mine is shorter! ;)

Still doing P90X. I really like it! Everyone else has dropped out of the group, but I'm still going and I'm determined to finish. 6 am is early, but it's so nice to get it out of the way for my day and then when I get home, I still have about 1 1/2 hours to myself before the boys wake up and I'm really liking that! But, I'm on week 7 out of 12, so I'm on the down-side!!

Here's some AMAZING news!! Emilie has been working so hard on my classrooms and the hallway. Here's some before & after pictures of the barn, which will be for the 2 year olds:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This isn't even completely finished, but isn't it amazing?!?! It's finished now, but I just don't have pictures of it. She's been working so hard and has so much done! When she finishes the hallway, we'll only have cutting in to do inside the classrooms & flooring. . . then we can move in!! I want Emilie to paint the inside of the classrooms, so I'm believing God for the money to pay her what she is worth. God owns everything, right? So, my amount isn't very big. ;)

OK . . gotta run and get something done. Pray for me. I'm asking God what His vision is for children's church. I know it's big and I know it's bigger than me. . . I just need to know what God says about it.

My Latest Project

Goodbye John Wayne . . . Hello Cars!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:
The boys putting up the stickers

The bed with the most ridiculous stickers!

This excited little boy makes it worth it all. . . and no, I never got the permanent marker all covered up. . . guess it's ok.

Yesterday, we found out that Payton's principal passed away. We are very sad and words just really can't even begin to express what an amazing woman she was. So, last night we told the boys and talked about it. They both seemed ok with it. Here's how part of the conversation went:

Aaron: But, she's alive in Heaven.
Evan: What? You mean she's up in the sky with God? That Heaven?
Aaron: Yes.
Evan: Now that's just awesome!

I think that pretty much sums it up. Please pray for her family and for the Cornerstone family. I love that school because it really does feel like one big happy family, so we are all grieving about this loss.

What's Up?

So, what's been going on . . . hmmm. Ever feel like you're so busy, but when you sit and think about it, you can't remember what you've been so busy doing? That's me.

So, I'll share our summer with pictures of what we've been doing (in no particular order):

The classrooms. . . they are consuming my thoughts. It's all good and it's going good, but there's so much to think about and decide!! Emilie is working on some sketches for me right now and just with what I've seen so far, I'm in total amazement!! She is amazing! These are pictures of the other end of the hallway before and during the work day. Hopefully we'll get started on the children's church end of the hallway soon!

BEFORE:

DURING:
OUTSIDE DURING:Somehow I haven't gotten "after" pictures yet. Better go do that before we have another work day and everything changes!! I have a TON of pictures from the work day, but I'll just share a few for now.

Jaxon's taking swimming lessons. He's not all that fond of them. He likes to crawl out and jump back in, but that's about it. He's finally getting the concept of splashing and kicking. He'll do it outside of the pool, but once he gets in, that all seems to go out the window!

I found this in my garage. . . yes, I was scared. But, I'm glad that I didn't know they can jump!!

Here it is dead at the end of my driveway:
I went outside the other night to find this on my roof:

There is quite a funny story behind this, but maybe I'll share it later. I'm trying to keep this post short! ;)

Payton took this picture of Evan. I was pretty impressed!

Evan's been taking swimming lessons this week. He loves to jump in and when he does, his goal is to splash everyone in his class.

I took the kids to Mine By Design the other day and we had a blast! It was more expensive than I had planned on spending, but we had fun. Definitely a place I won't take Jaxon in the future!


This weekend, I'm planning a While You Were Out room transformation of my own. I'll be transforming Evan's "Two Horse Ranch" into the ultimate CARS room, complete with car beds for him and Jaxon. I'm really excited about it. He has no idea I'm doing it this weekend! ;)

I've been working out to P90X at 6 am. I didn't think I would like it at first, but I'm really enjoying it. I've lost 6 pounds in just over a week. I am pretty impressed. I've not had sweet tea in 10 days and counting! It's not easy, by any means, but I feel really good once I've done it. I pulled a stomach muscle last week and pulled a shoulder one last night picking up Jaxon. I guess I'll have to be more careful for the next week or so.

So, there's our summer so far in a nutshell. When I get a chance, I might share the story of Evan on the house. It was pretty funny!!

Movie Day Tuesdays

Just thought I would give everyone the list of $1 movies at Century 12 theaters this summer!

These are on TUESDAYS ONLY at 10:45 AM ONLY!! ;)

June 16th: Charlotte's Web
June 23rd: Igor
June 30th: Jimmy Neutron
July 7th: Horton Hears a Who
July 14th: The Tale of Despereaux
July 21st: Kung Fu Panda
July 28th: Kit Kittredge
August 4th: Madagascar 2
August 11th: Space Chimps

All shows start at 10:45 am!!

Summer schedule

Do you have a summer schedule? For example, during the school year, every day was something:

Monday: day at the office

Tuesday: coffee @ Pam's & I pick up the kids, which meant I went to town to run errands

Wednesday: watched Cherith's kids in AM ...didn't go anywhere, so I could clean, etc.

Thursday: coffee with Brandi & Krissy; picked up kids, so I stayed in town

Friday: home & backpacks

Now that school is out, I need a schedule! I have a babysitter for 1/2 day on Monday, so most of my work has to be done @ home, but I don't want to ignore the kids!

It's been the first real week of summer & I know that I wasted so much time, but I HATE wasting time! I want to have a schedule this summer, so I thought I would ask what others are doing.

Thank You!!

Thank you guys for praying for me!! I had so much fun on Sunday! I told the staff at our early morning meeting that I was expecting it to be great in the service, but what was going on inside of me was the thing that mattered the most.

First off, I finally believed that I could talk to adults. I always knew I could talk to kids and probably wouldn't have trouble talking to a room full of kids. But adults? That's a whole other ballgame for me. When people would give me prophetic words about me leading out in conferences, it was hard for me to receive it. I couldn't see a conference of elementary school kids, but I really couldn't see a conference of adults. I can now!

Secondly, I've always felt like an "understudy". Would I ever be an equal in a man's world? Let's face it . . . ministry is mainly a man's world. I am not a man. ;) Would I ever be treated as an equal? Now, I know so.

Thirdly, I now know that I can write a sermon. ;) I did use some of Deborah Reed's sermon, but a lot of that sermon was my own. That I am very proud of.

I was so nervous when I first got up there, but once I got going, it just felt so comfortable and normal. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity. I know what an honor it is to speak behind the pulpit and I sure didn't take it lightly by any means, but I was amazed at how God used that sermon.

By the way, I'm speaking at WOW in June! Kids is my favorite subject to talk about and my WOW topic is my second favorite! You'll have to come to see what it's all about!! ;)

Tomorrow (almost today), we leave on vacation! I'm working on getting everyone packed -- not fun! ;)

Sunday

I am preaching this Sunday!!! I mean, preaching in the BIG SERVICE AKA the ADULTS! I'm so excited . . . and nervous. . . and overwhelmed. . . and pumped . . . and wondering what the heck I'm going to wear. . . you know, I don't have church clothes! ;)

Anyway, say a little prayer for me this week. This is a sermon that has been in me for a while and I'm excited about sharing it...just not sure how I'll do teaching to people older than 12 year old! ;)

In Honor of Grandma Bowen

On Saturday, we received a call that Aaron's grandma had passed away. It was quite a shock and still doesn't seem real at times. She was the perfect example of the scripture that says, "Give and it will come back to you -- good measure, pressed down, shaken together, & running over (so much that you can't hold it." (my interpretation)

She was such a giver. She gave to everything! I remember when Alan & Cortney were moving to Arizona and they called them up to the front of the church and prayed over them. Aaron's grandma wrote them a check to help them move (it wasn't a small one, either).

Every birthday, we would get a check in the mail for however old we were and they started at $1. This year, I would have gotten a check for $32. Every birthday and anniversary, there was a card of encouragement and a check inside. She was the most amazing person with birthdays and anniversaries!!

She gave money to children's church and backpacks and always wanted to know what we were doing next. She gave money towards my trip to Cambodia and wanted to know all of the details when I got back.

Because of these events, Aaron went to see his mom on Sunday for Mother's Day and they went to her house and kind of went through her things. He said it was very interesting how much and where she gave. I can only imagine.

So, today we honored Grandma Bowen. Evan had a tub of toys that he wanted to sell in a garage sale. I wasn't thrilled about the idea, but he was stuck on it! On Sunday, I asked him if he would like to take them to the CCRC and give them away. His face lit up and he got all excited!! This morning, he got up and started going through his toys again to find others that he doesn't play with anymore and some that he said he just didn't need.

I was/am so proud of him. I am proud of the fact that he is such a big giver. I know that Grandma Bowen would have been proud of him giving and I know that we may not get anything physical from her death, but I am excited about the memories of how much of a giver that she truly was. I pray that I can follow in those footsteps.

Unloading from the car

In front of the CCRC

The toys dumped on the sorting cart