Lilly's friends and a South Asian Birthday Party!

Our sweet Lilly has made several friends here and she recently got invited to a birthday party for a 13 year old girl. Ella being a cute little doll, got invited as well, so I insisted we "girls" go (me included :)) We showed up at the girl's home, greeted by four girls who invited us in and we sat down and were immediately served a glass of soda and a glass of juice and a glass of water! They had typical indian snacks to eat and they sat and stared at us for almost 30 min, while I tried to make conversation and help Lilly not feel so awkward, Ella danced around and took on most of the attention.

The girl's parents finally came out from the back of the house and knowing little English, we mostly just smiled at each other. They cut and served a cake, and I thought it was about time to leave, but then they ordered pizza for us.... so, we stayed and ate pizza and after being there for about 2 1/2 hours, I thought we should go, but as we were getting ready to leave, Jonathan and the boys came to their door to drop off something. Immediately, the girls' parents invited them in and ordered more pizzas, so we waited 45 min for the pizza delivery, and Jonathan did his best to speak Hindi and talk politics with the father.

Once the pizzas arrived and they had served the children numerous rounds of coke and juice, they insisted on ordering "chocolate lava cake" from Dominos, and so we waited a short while for those to be delivered, the girl's parents began making some indian food for us and when Jonathan said he liked it, they made him several more indian treats!!!!!! IT was a PARTY to remember, we were served up and treated with much respect, and it was definitely a fun learning experience.

Since then, God has given the opportunity to share with these girls about Christ, and as we learn more about their roots, we pray for the Holy Spirit to give wisdom in sharing stories and truth with these girls who are hearing the Gospel for the first time. God is so good!!!!

Leela Ji= SPECIAL!

What a blessing and joy it has been to have Leela Ji-- our sweet househelper-- come daily and serve us! My first trimester of pregnancy was hard, I was very nauseaus, tired, physically exhausted and emotionally drained, and the Father was so so kind to provide her to help. She has cleaned, cooked and loved our family and I praise God for her! We are still crying out for her salvation, we pray that she would turn away from all the idols in her life and have complete freedom in Christ! We ask the Father that the Holy Spirit would change her and give her life everlasting! We have had the opportunity to go into her home and meet with her husband and we are praying for an awakening for both of them, her two sons have both already come to know Christ! We are thanking God for this opportunity to daily have her in our lives!

Ella's BIG NEWS!!!

We are so thrilled to announce we will be expecting baby #5 in December!!!

Little boys of mine!!!!

I cannot express how much I love my boys, their brotherhood and their love for each other! I love, love, love the way God designed them. I can just sit and watch them for hours and be entertained, not only by their actions, but their thinking!

I love in the mornings how they come straight to me with a huge smile ready to snuggle!

I love how they then immediately go and play superheroes and want to conquer the world!

I love how the minute they see their daddy, they hop on his back and are ready for a throwdown!

I love how strong and tough they are that they give all their might to wrestling their daddy and it is their most favorite thing in the world to do!

I love how they are sensitive to their sisters!

I love how they protect me and kill roaches and catch geckos that make me quiver!

I love their adventurous love for outdoors!

I love it that they would risk their limbs for no good reason except that they are BOYS!

I love that they can build good forts!

I love that when the get their haircut, it is a simple ordeal!

I like that they would be happy wearing the same outfit for 7 days straight, but I don't let them!

I adore that they are best friends with anyone who will kick the soccer ball with them!

I love that they don't care about getting dirty!

I love how they are able to ignore anything that doesn't interest them!

I love how they think their pocket knife is one of the best tools ever!

I love their interest in camp fires!

I love how they bring me their old toys and think that they are a special gift that I would love!

I love how they got a new color changing toy car and think it is so cool that it changes to camo!

I love that they bring me flowers!

I love that they daily sit in my lap and tell me I am beautiful!

I love their ability to LAUGH about nothing.

I love their excitement when they eat chocolate and drink coke!

I love their concern for the precious poor children on the street that they see constantly.

I love their love for God and for His world!

I love hearing them give words of encouragement and Scripture and that they pray with such deep faith.

I love my Father God for giving these amazing boys to us to raise, they are HIS and I take this responsibility seriously, that I have a part in two little boys lives and that I have the opportunity to show them the grace of God and Christ's love! They are gifts that I treasure and commit them to the Lord everyday knowing that it is His strength and His grace that I need in order to train them into warriors. I thank the Lord for how HE uses them to teach me and I love seeing how they are used for the KINGDOM!!!

Better late than never!!!

So, I have been really bad about posting blogs, but with the power going on and off, and being busy learning a foreign language, teaching the kids, taking care of the house and hanging out with my husband, I guess I have an excuse, right!!!? We have had some exciting times these past few months and one of the days we wanted to share with you is HOLI, "the festival of colors," it was a couple of months back, and we got to participate and meet some neighbors, make relationships, learn some culture and throw colors at people! It is celebrated for a couple of reasons, but mostly to welcome in the springtime! The one who enjoyed it the most was JONNY, by far, he had the greatest fun!!! Ella was a bit overwhelmed and very funny the way she responded by the crazy people throwing water and rubbing colors all over her cute self. Lilly was into it for about 10 minutes, then she was ready for a shower! Brax liked it and was stained for a week after all the fun! The minute all of the teenage girls saw me, they dumped a huge bucket of water on me and then continued for the entire hour we were playing! Jonathan got everyone back for me and had fun and even got to share with several men! We have learned alot about this culture, but still so much more to understand.

Frequent visitors!!

So, we have several little creatures that frequent our home, specifically MY bedroom! And I am a pure baby when I see one, but I think Jonathan, my strong macho husband actually likes the challenge of trying to catch them! And even more so, the kids really like chasing the little geckos and catching them and then petrifying our sweet house helper, Leela! I love watching the excitement, but have no desire to look upon the little lizards, I think they belong outside. There is actually a South Asian folklore regarding these species in South Asia,

"the common small house geckos are regarded as ominous creatures associated with ill fortune. They are also considered highly impure, and thought to be carriers of leprosy and other diseases... in some cases there is evidence of underlying beliefs that link the animals with fertility and well-being."


I was really thinking about them though and googled "geckos" and found that they have a purpose, they feed on mosquitos and that is purely a good thing. They were created for a purpose and they carry out their purpose well. It eventually led me to think about my purpose on earth, and how I was created to WORSHIP and glorify the One, True GOD! What a BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING purpose that we have! "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 12:13 Just as the created gecko fulfills its purpose, I long to live this portion of life that God has given me to fulfill the purpose in which he created me for!