Be Honest

OK, my friends I want you to be honest with me even all you lurkers out there. How many cups of coffee do you drink in the morning? I'm not talking about how many mugs of coffee because some of those mugs are pretty big. How many actual cups of coffee are you drinking? I know I can't be the only one out there drinking 3/4 of a pot of coffee in the morning.

I told a friend yesterday that Chris and I didn't even drink coffee until Paige was born. Paige was in the NICU after she was born and so we were in the hospital for about a week. They brought us coffee with every meal and snack and well we didn't have much else to do so we drank the coffee. As soon as we got home from the hospital we had to go buy a coffee pot. Ever since we have become addicts and it's the hospitals fault.

So come out of lurking and leave me a comment and be honest. How many cups do you really drink?

Thankful Thursday and My Challange To You

Today I am thankful for:

Birds singing in the morning

Hugs and kisses from 3 miracle children God has blessed us with

A husband that never leaves or hangs up the phone without telling me he loves me

A puppy that cuddles under my chin to go to sleep

Friends that listen to God's call even when it's scary

Coffee in the morning (I've cut back to 6 cups)

A God who is always there for me

Now for my challenge to you:

First I want to challenge you to go read the blog post from The Journey that she wrote yesterday by clicking here.

Now I would like to challenge you to stop reading for a minute and pray for Katie and that God would bless her ministry like crazy and to provide for her every need.

One more thing I would like to ask you to do. Katie has said yes to God in something that would scare the crap out of most of us. I would say there are probably very few people that would do what Katie does. If you read her post and said to yourself "wow that's awesome" will you be willing to donate $5 to buy some seeds to help Katie with her garden project? Katie does what God asks her but she also trusts that God will provide her every need. Five dollars is a cup of coffee at St*rbucks but in Africa $5 could buy the seeds to teach a village how to survive. If you are willing to say yes to this challenge or maybe God will ask you to give to another project of hers or money to help feed the children then please go to my sidebar to the button that says Amazima. It is so easy to donate and it could change the life of a child by donating just $5.

Thank you my dear friends and don't forget to thank God for something today.

Trees, Trees and More Trees

I am so excited! I just got a email saying that the 40 Norway Spruce trees that we ordered will be here on Friday. Chris doesn't know it yet but we will be very busy planting trees this weekend.

Planting trees is a hobby of ours and is something we have done every year since we have been married (11 this October). It is so much fun to go check on our baby trees and see how they are growing. Right now we have 8 baby trees in our yard that are starting to bud and we check them every time we go out. The kids love watching them grow too and they love taking care of them.

We also have several babies at the land that we are watching too. I'm so glad God gave us enough land to plant trees for the next 80 years or so.

Giveaway at Linny's Place

I have to be crazy for even posting this because I want to win this but I need to share this giveaway with you. I'm really hoping most of you already know about this because I hope you keep up with Linny's blog.

Linny does something called memorial box Monday's. I have always thought this was a totally cool thing she did but I never thought I would do it. Actually she has posted encouraging her readers to do this many times and I just blew it off.

Today she posted and I don't know why but I knew this is something we need to start doing as a family. I doubt I will do it every Monday but our family needs to start a memorial box.

Linny feels so strongly about doing this that she is giving one away to help someone get started with one.

If you haven't been reading her blog (you are missing out on some amazing God stories if your not reading it) go back and read some of her Memorial Box Monday's.

I never realized until today how much of a witness to God's blessings and his promises a memorial box could be to our children and to those that enter our home. God has given us so much and we need to share those blessings.

So even though this could mean that we don't win the memorial box I would love for you to jump on over to her blog by clicking here and sign up for the giveaway.

7 Kids and 15 Dozen Eggs

Mom needed to get 15 dozen eggs colored for her church's Easter egg hunt tomorrow so she figured the easiest way to get it done was to have 7 of the grandkids over to help.

This is a picture of my niece Addison. Addison is just the cutest little thing and I think her hands had more coloring on them than her eggs did. Addison is just a week and a half younger than Jaxson.

Can you tell Paige was having fun? They all did a good job and it didn't take long at all with 7 kids doing it.

Jaxson LOVED coloring the eggs and you would have never guessed this was his very first time doing it. I'm excited to see what he think of the Easter egg hunt tomorrow.

Thankful Thursday

So you all know I am thankful for our new little bundle of joy who potty trained in 3 days may I add.

Something else I am very, very thankful for is our local Christian radio station. I turn the radio on to their station every chance I get to listen to the radio. I am one of those people who could never tell you who was singing or what song they were singing but I love the music.

I also love the fact that when I'm in the shower my kids turn the Christian radio on loud and jam to Christian music and not music that I have to monitor.

One more thing about the station too is that God's first little whisper to me about orphan ministry was a clip I heard on the radio about Steven Curtis Chapman and orphan ministry. At the time I thought that meant Rett was supposed to do it but God had plans for both of us. Since God used that whisper through the radio station we have been blessed more times than I could ever imagine including our precious miracle child God had waiting for us on the other side of the world.

Also through doing research for the ministry I have found some amazing orphan ministries and met some amazing people answering God's call to care for orphans.

What are you thankful for today? If you have a blog you should try doing Thankful Thursday. It seems like Thursdays lately are the days that just don't go right but doing Thankful Thursday really makes me take time to be thankful to God for even the little things.

If you do post Thankful Thursday on your blog would you please leave me a comment so I can check it out.

1 Chronicles 16:8
Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.

Have an amazing day!!!

This is Too Funny

You have got to go check out my friend Rett's blog post from today. It is so funny and I am so glad to learn that I'm not the only person in the world that has been known to do this. I would have never told anyone but since she came out to the world about it I will admit to doing it. So just click here and PLEASE leave a comment.