Do You Know What These Are?

If you guessed shoeboxes the your right. Do you know what there for?

This is the start to our boxes to fill for Samaritans Purse for next Christmas and I am sooooo very excited. We saved the shoeboxes we got at Christmas and we will fill a box for every pair of shoes we buy for our family this year so only God knows how many we will be filling this year.

If you have never heard of Operation Christmas Child then please, please click here to learn. By simply filling a box for a child for Christmas you are giving a child a chance to spend eternity in heaven. The children getting these boxes get a chance to learn about Jesus! Don't wait until next fall to start filling your boxes, why not start today and then maybe a few more kids will get a chance to know Jesus. It is also just a shoebox that you fill so it doesn't have to cost much at all. You can even fill them with things from the dollar store.

The reason I am posting this today is because I signed up for a giveaway at Wee Share and I won and the item I won will be going into one of my shoeboxes. I'm hoping I win several things this year to fill shoeboxes up with.

Some things we have put in our boxes are: stickers, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste. We put in stuffed animal, school supplies, small toys and candy. My favorite things to put in them are things that people make for adoption fundraisers. I LOVE, LOVE , LOVE when I can support an adoption and at the same time give it to someone else to bless. A couple adoption fundraiser things I put in the boxes this year were: Beading To China silverware (no knives) and fancy children's aprons.

If you make boxes up would you please leave a comment of some things you put in your boxes to give new people doing it ideas? Also how do you decided how many boxes to do?

Why Is It.....

I am sitting up late due to kids keep making noises that are waking me up but I have a question for all of you my friends.

Why is it that I could handle childbirth with 2 kids, 7 weeks of labor with one of them, flying to the other side of the world for our 3rd child (I'm terrified of flying).

I have had broken bones in my life.

I have handled many, many things.

For some reason though I cannot handle a broken toenail that I got on Christmas morning. I am not kidding you. I caught my nail on our wood floor while opening gifts and I won't go into details but I almost passed out. Chris has been taking care of it for me and again tonight when he went to change the bandaid I almost got sick and passed out and had to lay down.

IS THAT NOT CRAZY?

Do You Believe In Miracles?

I'm talking about the real kind of miracles, the kind of miracles that you actually see with your eyes. It's easy to say when someone is in an accident "oh it's a miracle you survived". There are things we say everyday "oh that's a miracle that happened." Have you ever really wondered though if God actually does real, real miracles today?

I have a friend that has a disease that causes tumors to grow all over her body. My friend has had a lot of these tumors removed but it is rare for them to be cancerous. Within the last year or so she got the horrible news that some of her tumors had become cancerous and due to it being so rare they really had no idea how to treat her and pretty much just wanted to experiment on her for science.

My friend is in her early 30's and a mom to 3 young boys that need their momma around. They have prayed and prayed for God to heal her and were beginning to think God was not listening.

About a month or so ago they found a cancerous tumor that they said they needed to remove. They thought they could hold it off until after Christmas and all that good stuff. Two weeks before Christmas my friend went to see the surgeon and he gave her some really bad news. The tumor was growing very, very fast and they couldn't wait it needed to go now. One week before Christmas my friend went in for surgery.

The night she had surgery her husband called me to tell me that the tumor was not there. The Dr. searched and searched all over her and NOTHING. They have 3 pictures of this tumor and it was no where to be found.

God removed that tumor for her. My friend got a physical MIRACLE from God for Christmas!!!

Have you seen God do a real physical miracle? If so can you share because I love nothing more than BIG GOD stories?

WOW, What A Week

Wow, this has been one crazy week full of fun.

A week ago we took Paige to her very first movie. Paige loved it and was quiet the whole time. A word of warning to parents though. The movie that you see in the picture behind her has a lot of evil in it that I would not have let her watch if I would have known about before going. Next time this momma will be a lot more cautious even when it seems like a movie for children.
Chris celebrated his 33rd birthday on Christmas Eve. Daddy always gets a special cake decorated by his precious kiddos. I found these really cool markers for decorating cake and it was perfect for the kids. Did you see what Amaya wrote on the cake? She didn't even ask how to write it (OK, I know we need a little practice on the S's.)

Isn't he just the cutest? God truly blessed me with an incredible husband!!!

We have a tradition in our house that after Chris' birthday party is over the kids get a special Christmas Eve gift of new PJ's. They are showing off their new PJ's here.

So after cleaning the house, decorating cake, having party, getting PJ's and putting them on it is finally time to make cookies for Santa. Yes, I was one worn out momma by the end of the day.

We had a wonderful Christmas! Now I have sick kiddos and a messy house but oh well. I hope all you had a wonderful Christmas too.

Where's Your Shoebox?

I am so excited because I just got our email from Samaritans Purse saying our shoeboxes went to Benin. I had never heard of Benin and then I read more and they are in Benin, AFRICA!!!

My heart has been in Africa for sometime now so I am very, very excited about where God shipped our shoeboxes to.

This is my favorite project and it's fun that we can see where the boxes go now.

So where did you boxes go?

PS If you don't know what I'm talking about click here.

I Started Another Blog

I started another blog because of my new found addiction. I really hope to use this blog to share adoption fundraisers, great Etsy finds, other great handmade finds and well GREAT GIVEAWAYS!!!

I don't have much on there yet but I would LOVE for you to hop on over and become a follower. You might just come across some hidden treasure!


www.onthesearchforhiddentreasure.blogspot.com

Oh I Have A Headache

Can anyone else relate? I have had a headache for 2 days and couldn't figure out why.

Could it be that Chris' birthday is in 3 days?

Maybe it's that Christmas is in 4 and I'm not ready yet?

Maybe it's that Jaxson's birthday is next week?

Wow, why did 3 very important men in my life have to have birthdays all in the same week?

I love it though and would trade Jesus, Chris or Jaxson for the world =)