Our transportation.

Many people have asked how we get around in our city....

We have several modes of transportation!!!

However we travel, it is always an adventure! Watch a short clip that Jonathan took of Lauren, Kyna and Shawna as they recently traveled by bicycle rickshaw, it gave the guys a good laugh!!

We have a scooter, which is what we take for a quick (or not so quick) trip out and if only a few of us are going...

We sometimes get a taxi and in the past only traveled by taxi...

 Until we recently were given a vehicle to drive and it fits us all comfortably!!! It's a blessing!

We actually just took our first road trip in it last week, and it was great!

Sometimes, we travel by rickshaw, we did this a lot in our old city....

But, we could also travel by camel, elephant, bus, bicycle, train, plane, bicycle rickshaw, by foot and there is also a metro being built.

Pr*yer Request

Please pr*y for Kamala ji, she suffers from sclerosis, which is extremely painful for her and has progressively gotten worse in the past months. Please ask the Father to heal, comfort, sustain and give her body rest from this. She is a believer and has helped us with language learning. She is dear to us. Thank you!

Evidence of Grace.

Let me start of by just describing Miss Finley Claire! God has graciously given her to us to care for, and He blesses me everyday with her presence! She's 6 months old now and getting BUSY as a bee! Her first 6 months of life have consisted of a lot of transition, a lot of CUTENESS, and a lot of grace! We were in Bangkok for her birth and 6 weeks later moved to India, then on to our new city, and since we have travelled to Nepal and then south India. She has had E COLI, chickenpox, and several respiratory illnesses. We have experienced God's grace and faithfulness thru it all! She is a trooper for sure! She loves to eat and just recently began solids, she is a good sleeper and LOVES to play! She started crawling at 5 months old, saying DADA and sits up all by herself. She is daily covered from head to toe with kisses from her brothers and sisters and she has beautiful blue eyes and a long curly tongue!!! She is plain ADORABLE and we are extremely thankful for her life. Braxton is completely in love with her and makes her laugh hard. It is sweet. Lilly is amazingly helpful with her and Jonny is so gentle. Ella is like a little mommy to her and has been a great help!

As I think of GOD's grace through these past months, as He has increased my faith and lavished care after care upon our family, I am humbled. I am humbled that He would restore our family day after day. I am humbled that HE would consider us and bless us with these children. I am grateful that HE would hear the prayers prayed for Finley and our family during the hard times, and that He cares for us. I am thankful for HIS character, HIS love, HIS faithfulness. 

2 Corinthians 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

We have a Father of mercies, a God of all comfort who does not change or grow weary!!! I grow weary at times especially when it comes to things like sickness of a baby, childrearing, living cross-culturally and being away from ones I adore, but I have my trust in a POWERFUL, merciful, comforting, REDEEMING God! 

2 Corinthians continues on to say... "But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer,  so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many."

I love that HE is the MASTER Deliverer, He brings deliverance and FREEDOM, and a hope of blessing that comes from reliance on HIM. And I love that He considers our prayers and allows us to talk with HIM and seek HIM in all things. Interceding for others is beautiful!

As I look back, I just thank Him for never leaving us or forsaking us, I thank Him for teaching us, sustaining us, and for giving us a hope and a future. And I am blown away at how HE loves us. 

There is evidence of HIS grace through and through and we are so thankful.

Sickness invaded our house during this entire past month and it has been hard. From colds, coughs, wheezing, fevers, headaches, stomach pain, chicken pox, and ear infections, it has just been constant. Constant DEPENDENCY on a CONSTANTLY FAITHFUL God! As I sit up comforting a sick little girl, who I know has been created by the Hands that are holding us up now, I am comforted as well by His still calm voice to just.... Depend. Depend, let go of the worries, concerns of this world that cause me to run to other things, and come close to the GIVER.

Our God is the giver of rest, comfort, peace, joy, faithfulness, mercy and strength. In the middle of the night, the early morning, and at any and every second, HE is there, and He says to be still and know that HE is God, that HE will be exalted among the nations, to not grow weary or afraid, but to be STILL and depend. Depending on HIM is freeing, it is His desire and we serve a pure, rich in grace, powerful, redeeming, rescuing God.

Thank you God, that you are the Giver. You are the Giver of the grace that abounds thru sickness and trials, early morning feedings, middle of the night cries, and a heart's unaware need for nourishment.

I am holding the most incredible baby girl in my arms as I type, she is just pure beauty and I thank God for her life, He is using her big deep blue eyes to teach me, to remind me that as she cries out to be nourished with milk, I delight in feeding her, picking her up, loving her, caring for her, teaching her, and sharing with her the graces of God. And as she grows and the world around her captivates her more and more each day, she is eager to go, to explore, discover what is out there besides me. I love how she delights in others, I love seeing her learn, and I love seeing her realize that she must come back for her nourishment because it is what she depends on. I am just like her, I am dependent. God knows every need, desire and HE in His majesty LOVES and GIVES.

Birthdays!!!!!!!

We like birthdays in our family, we like them so much we begin celebrating the week before! We just started the "round" of kids' birthdays just last week! (Post to soon follow!)  We typically do really fun events the week prior to whoever's birthday it is. Then on the actual birthday, the birthday girl/boy gets spoiled with their favorite meals, a fun event and a special date with just Jonathan and I. Sometime during the day we go around and each person tells what they love about that person, we pray, sing, DANCE, make signs and cards, and tell about the day he/she was born. We reminisce and we look forward to all that God will do in their upcoming year.

Well, this year, my husband and children made my birthday extra FUN!!! My husband planned an afternoon for me to be surprised by my friends and have dessert and tea at an old palace! I was totally caught off guard and completely blessed! We arrived at a beautiful resort, ate real cheesecake and had delicious caramel apple pie with coconut ice-cream! YUM! It was a sweet time with my friends.

On my actual birthday, I woke up to breakfast in bed prepared by the ONE and ONLY, Jonny (J-Dawg) Dobbs, overwhelmed with homemade cards and gifts, a dance party, a hat party, pool time, brick oven pizza at a rooftop restaurant, a movie night and a family sleepover on the living room floor!!!!!! It was a lovely day, I felt completely loved and blessed. Along with all that, I received many birthday wishes and prayers from my family and from people I feel honored to call "friends!"

I love God. I love His kindness of giving life and birthdays, and I am thankful for the most precious gift ever, eternal life, a life lived for Him.  

A rare nap with the girls = a handcrafted moment

So, yesterday was a day of sickness in our house. Finley just got over having a quick virus and I caught it and was down for the day, it slowed me down and I actually got to take a good rest/nap with both the little gals. This never happens, first of all, I am not a big napper and secondly, Ella has not taken naps for a year or so and suddenly since the heat here is so exhausting, I have found her daily lying on the marble floor trying to cool off and then dozing into a good afternoon nap. Well, as they were fast asleep on each side of me, I just rested in the moment and gave praise to God for these little beauties!!! Words cannot express how much I love these sisters (as well as every one of our children!!) 

God blessed me gently during this time and reminded me of a sweet verse I love to pray over my girls,

Psalm 144:12 says, 

"May our daughters be like graceful pillars, carved to beautify a palace."


As a mommy to 3 girls, I seek God and ask that in His grace, I would build them up and lay a foundation for them of love, prayer, grace and humility. Each day I pray that I would be a polisher of their lives, that they would be "finely graved and beautifully polished, adorned with grace and good works, particularly with modesty, meekness, and humility."

Since living in India, we have bought several intricately carved pieces of furniture for our home. I imagine the time and thought that goes into the process of completing such a piece of art. A skilled craftsman uses his hands to create with such detail a beautiful decoration that adorns a room and catches the eye of those who are in the room. These earthly creations remind me that we have a Master Carver, One that intricately carves our lives if we offer them to HIM and He thoughtfully beautifies us in order that He may be glorified!

I really love this verse!!! And as beautiful as Lilly, Ella and Finley appear on the outside, it is my desire that as they grow and are carved by the Maker's hands, their words, actions and lives would shine Christ and that He is the true beauty that would be magnified each and everyday. 


It is a BLESSING to see Lilly in relationship with her Savior. God is at work in her and to see with my own eyes this verse lived out, it just makes me WORSHIP! Thank you, Father, for carving and beautifying from within!!!

Bahuut Grace.

Bahuut (in Hindi it means "lots of") Grace-

 Each day that I awake, each moment that is captivated, I see God's grace abounding. It is an undeserving grace, I fall short day after day and I am reminded that we are living in this momentary affliction, and that God has a surpassing power that belongs to HIM alone. Grace is a surpassing power that He can only give.

 I have been camping out in 2 Corinthians this week just thinking on Chapter 4 and it is good. Thinking about how we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (vs 11) That is grace. This is moment by moment... and praise the Lord it is moment by moment. I need Him in the good, the bad, the scary, the fun, the exciting, the crazy, and the calm moments. I have been reminded that we serve a FAITHFUL God, and as His grace extends to more and more people, it increases thanksgiving to the glory of God.

 It takes time to think about grace. I really am amazed at how God's grace extends to me personally, then to my marriage, my children, our family unit, our extended family, my friends, to the people that are in and out of my home daily, the villages and homes that we are in, the national believers, our churches, our countries, this world and how the Grace-giver's righteous right hand is assigning all of it. As His child, I am being inwardly renewed day by day, "for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things, that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal") Vs 17-18. I need to hear these words daily. I need to hear them so I don't lose heart, as a child of God, a wife, mother, friend, language learner, a person in this world (this crazy world I live in) and as a daughter of the King.

 The days I am living can seem so real, so non-transient, I wake up to my husband (whom I adore), praying for me, then one by one, 1,2,3,4,5 sweet children crawling in my bed to snuggle and get their first morning hugs and kisses and we pray personally for each one, asking the Lord to extend His grace, His hand for our day, then as we get to breakfast, the rush of the day begins.

 And then I forget. I forget that this is just a momentary affliction, that I am being prepared for eternity, and so I think about the things that are seen, the things that are transient, and I can lose heart, because my focus is on those things. And then He renews me again and again so that His life may be manifested in my flesh. What an incredible God, whose grace is pure and good and immeasurable. And as His grace extends thru all the moments of the day, all I can do is praise and thank Him for His love.

 This really is a life lived in and by grace. I think it's good to just ponder them...

 Grace:

 Saved by grace through faith.
Growing in an everlasting relationship with my Savior.
Forgiven for all my sins.
Being transformed into a new creation.
Worshipping the ONE TRUE GOD.
Set free.
Rescued.
Loved.
Beautified.
Sustained daily.
Raised in a loving, Christian home.
Married to my husband who leads our home as a servant of God.
Mommy to 5 beautiful children who love each other.
Living in India.
Seeing God at work in people's lives.
Blessed by having my dear friend homeschool our children.
Having a beautiful pool in India to swim at when we so choose.
Having an amazing house helper, cook and Auntie come each day to help me.
Skype.
Parents and Grandparents who love God and their grandchildren.
Peaches and watermelon in India.
Air conditioning in the desert.
Sunsets.
Rainbows.
Hugs.
Kisses.
Words.
A 5 month old baby.
Music.
My sweet sister friends.
Adoption.
Love.
Rain.
A little 3 year old girl who loves to sing and dance.

And the list goes on......

As I choose to acknowledge the graces, it generates thankfulness.