Glad we FINALLY know!...

oh these past 5 months have been a challenge.. both physically and emotionally... I get tired, real tired, 4 kiddos that are full of life and have lots of fun, BUT oh so exhausting!... and on top of that we have had EVERY sickness that you could imagine... well you know what comes with that ..... no sleep!... oh I already wrote a blog on my sinfulness of being grumpy when I am tired :) 

well all the other children seemed to be getting better and up and about but Caleb seemed to be staying sick and not getting better he was getting worse... I took him to the dr 3 times from September to last week...The doctor finally decide to do intensive blood work and see what might be causing the sore joints, swelling joints, fatigue, crying pain, mysterious rashes, and just plain not feeling good, of course I had done my own research.. oh by the way .... you get the begeses scared out of you !!! so I stopped... I had really got to the point that I was telling him to work through the pain, drink water, and just lay on the couch... but God kept telling me that there was more and I am thankful I acted!... we got all the blood work done last Wednesday and by Friday morning we had all but 2 results... everything looked great on the 1st set, so we waiting for the rocky mountain spotted fever and lymes disease.... so this morning we got our answers.. he has Lymes.. he will take antibiotics for 14 days (strong dose)... I am grateful that there is medicine for this and that he will be feeling better soon!... I admit that my mind was all over the place... but I know that God is in control and I rest in that...                               

Is he not adorable!!!

And he is a GREAT big brother!!!!

religion or relationship??

yesterday I was SSSSOOOOOO blessed to take Laura out to lunch and just hang out.. I mean I am old she is young but God has had her bless me over 5 years.. I have seen her grow in the Lord and I am thankful for what he has done, she has grown so much in the Lord and us being able to talk about eternal things !!!
.... as we were out yesterday we went in Barnes and Noble and we were looking.. I was looking for sign language cards because Andrew LOVES his and knows them already so I thought I would get him more, so as we were looking a young man walks up and I saw he worked there and I ask him about these cards, he took me to the section but before we headed that way I noticed his name... it was Andrew!... I always love running into people with the name Andrew because it is a great time for me to ask if they know about his name in the scriptures, well this time was no different... I ask............  and he had no idea :(  then he proceeded to tell us he is not and his parents were not really into religion.. my heart sank.... I have heard this many times and it makes me sad...

Jesus wants a PERSONAL relationship with you!... its not a religion... as a matter of fact Jesus always was speaking against the religious people... its not a box of items that we check off
It is a face to face meeting with God himself....

so if you know me well then you know what happened next..........  I was able to share with him Andrew in the scriptures , he did not seem interested but I know that a seed was planted ....  I pray it fell on good soil!  I ask we pray for Andrew and his family...

I am always telling the kiddos that we need to be intentional about seeing situations that we can share the scriptures with someone... you never know what seed will come to bear....

our "7" experiment

No, I have not read the book but I have seen an article in the magazine that I get from church... its called Homelife and it really has some great articles in it, but this one caught my attention! (7 ways to declutter your life to focus on God).. I am saddened and tired of all the clutter... in my heart and my home, but we are talking about the house right now.... I know I know some might say that I just got a new washer and dryer, believe me this has gone through my mind but I will be thankful for the blessing of my husband and it will serve great proposes for our family.. hopefully growing family!

again this blog is about our "7" experiment... we (all of us, including Andrew) will be giving away 7 things per day for 7 days ... so 49 things per person ... almost 300 things will be given away and given to charity... I am excited.. it kinda makes me wanna read the book but Doug might say no to only 7 foods so we will start with this...

I will update on our progress... we start on Monday the 7th

Time is flying like usual...

I have finally had time to sit at the thing.. oh this computer and write some of my happenings..
well now it is quiet and I have time to think :)  I have read friends blogs and got a little jealous that their happenings and them actually writing them down.. but jealousy is a sin so I repent.... tonight has been a great night.. Doug and I started watching the live stream of Passion 2013... well I finished and am listening to Francis Chan (notice Doug is not mentioned.. he is soooooo tired) ..We had a very busy month of  December:


Deacons Christmas party
Christmas musical... we missed .... stomach virus :(
Christmas caroling ... got rejected 2 times
Caleb blood work
Christmas with mom, dad, and family
Family time
burning the old swing set
Ladies tea
took goodies to Doug's work
Christmas caroling at the Martinez house

so thankful we made it, we have been so blessed by God and truly thankful for his protection and hand in our lives this past year!

may I be in awe of Him and His presence each day of 2013

Wednesday... doozie of a day....

ummm.. well the Lord just has me in one of those places... can't really pin point it.... although I know that He has given me His eyes to see...

Wednesday was probably one of the hardest days recently... It started that morning with hearing some news that just broke my heart, we have a friend waiting on test results from a biopsy, we witnessed a pretty bad car accident, we see the news helicopter flying over and since we have no TV the Lord provided my dad so he told me about the 5 year old in our town that was getting attacked by 3 family dogs, a teenager that I know with an attempted suicide, a  young man facing life in prison (mourning for his family),friends son with broken arm, 2 ladies that have just been diagnosed with cancer, mom had a note sent out to her condo association about her being president,childs cancer coming back and agressive at that,  another marriage destroyed, unbeleving spouses of friends..... this was a hard day, sad day, doozie of a day!!!!....

BUT I have ask the Lord to give me His eyes, give me His heart, Love like He does... well.... HE HAS!!! I want the things that break His heart to break mine... in this world we live in we have become so desensitized to our surroundings, possibly even turning our heads ......we are a selfish people (I being number 1) as I pondered, prayed, and was heartbroken over these things the scripture that kept coming to my mind was

Matthew 5:4  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.... this is the meaning of mourning over sin, my sin, the worlds sin....  and looking back on Wednesday all these things in someway had to do with sin... maybe not their own sin , but the sin of the world....

I often go back to what it must have been like in the garden when Adam and Eve were in PERFECT communion with God!... thankful for my Savior, My Lord that one day if we are in Christ we will be in PERFECT communion with God, No sin, No suffering, No tradegy, No crying.... 
so as Wednesday came and left I am thankful God comforted me and HE is my HOPE! ..... I can't imagine the non believer hearing or witnessing these things and having NO HOPE.....  breaks.my.heart!...

so as this season of Christ approaches know that there is HOPE, He is HOPE....

confessions from a Sinner!

OK..... confessions are not my favorite.. BUT God wants us to confess our sin, ask for forgiveness and guess what ... WE ARE FORGIVEN!! thankful for that!... I think I blogged a while ago that when I get tired I am GRUMPY... well that is where I am again... TIRED... between my own sickness and the kiddos being sick I have not got adequate sleep for this busy momma!.. NO EXCUSE though!.. SIN.. SIN.. SIN.... it is who we are... yes all of us... the scripture says we are born from our father Adam, and we go back to the garden and he sinned... so if I am from Adam, then I am a sinner... sometime we think the life of a Christian is easy.. ummm NO... I am tempted and as sinful as an unbeliever... BUT if I confess my sins to God, I am assured he will forgive me... I am to put my sinful desires behind me... I feel like Paul ALOT...

 

especially this scripture 

Romans 7:15  For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

so confession.... I am a SINNER SAVED BY GRACE!!!!

 I have a GREAT SAVIOR...

Do you know Him?

.... ask yourself this question.... What shall I do with this Jesus???  ....

 

  My hope is everyone knows Jesus...

My hope is in HIM!

My hope is knowing He is the only way to eternal life..

All dogs go to...............

as I was up with Andrew last night................

I heard what I hear often at night.... DOGS!!!!

 I love our dogs and our neighbor dogs...

does that sound strange??? my neighbors dogs???

well,  when they hang at your house ALL the time they really become ours...

we love on them, pick ticks off them, and when they are injured we take them to the rightful owners home!...

 At any given time we can have upwards of 9 dogs in our yard!

 We love them... and really do love each one!..

so I say All Dogs go to.......

THE LAWRENCE'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!