Did you know...

~Each year November is designated National Adoption Month by the President of the United States. This was first declared in 1990.

~There are approximately 143 million orphans


~Every 15 seconds, another child in Africa becomes an AIDS orphan

~Over one-third of Americans have ever considered adopting, but no more than 2 percent of Americans have actually adopted. Somewhere between those percentages lies the number of people seeking to adopt-that is, those who have taken concrete steps to adopt a child.

~Each year 14, 505, 000 children grow up as orphans and age out of the system by age sixteen

~Only 34% OF CHRISTIAN FAMILIES CONSIDER ADOPTING and ONLY 1% OF CHRISTIAN FAMILIES ACTUALLY DO??

~ Just as a side note...According to Planned Parenthood's latest report, abortions increased to 305,310 abortions up from 289,750 in 2006.

~We are home study approved and praying for another baby girl to join our family! Just wanted you to know, I will post more about this at a later date...

My heart is for adoption. However, in a perfect world, there would be no need for adoption. Biological families would stay together, children would be raised in their homeland, surrounded by their culture and connected to their roots. But we do not live in a perfect world. Adoption is not the answer for solving the underlying issues of poverty and disease and famine and war. It won’t stop the cycle of more children becoming orphans. It is a life-line thrown out to a precious few. The tough question is what is the solution to the root of these issues?… how do we make a difference not just in one child’s life(or 2!) through adoption, but in the lives of the thousands left behind… and ultimately how do we stop the cycles that turn innocent children into orphans?

I don't know. I just know we have so much to be thankful for. And a whole lot of work to do. We each have a part, and I by no means state all this to say... "Yay for me, I have done my job." Oh no, I have to and want to do so much more. Those statistics break my heart and blow my mind. It is just as a reminder that something ~ lots of things ~ have to be done and if adoption is "not your thing" then find what is and do it!

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Now, off to celebrate Thanksgiving with lots of food, Black Friday shopping, and getting our Christmas tree...talk about being polluted by the world...UGH!

Oh one last thing, you NEED to see the movie Blind Side, it is awesome!

whoa, long time no post....

First of all, thumbs up for Ryan, he shot a nice buck last Friday night with his bow! The boys helped with the short tracking job, thus the cute picture, they were pretty excited!

And a great big thumbs down for me, who has been super busy doing SEVERAL things other than blogging! But, I am happy to report some of those things are finally finished! One of the things I was working on was a photo album of our trip to Guatemala. Yes, I am aware that was well over a year ago, however I had over 500 pictures to deal with and let's just say it got a little overwhelming for me. I go into shut down mode when I get overwhelmed, but I got a 20% off coupon plus free shipping that had to be used by the end of the month, so, nothing like a good discount to get me moving, and I finished it up. All 208 pages of it! I also put my blog in there for that period of time, I am so happy it is done, it didn't cost me a fortune, and we will have a nice big ol' coffee table book of our time spent there!

Anaya has been playing with her babies so much lately, so I hauled all of my old babies out and she was thrilled! The doll with the bib is wearing one of the outfits Anaya wore on our first visit trip! It was tight on that doll!

The look on Easton's face says it all! That is a LOT of mandarin oranges ~ the sick thing is they ate almost all of them in ONE sitting! WOW! I don't want to see our grocery bill in a few years!

fall fun...

A couple bugs, several Star Wars creatures, some pretty girls and a cow!

Who is that masked man catching a ride?

All that fun wore Anaya right out! She was cold, so we put her in the wagon, covered her up and within minutes she was out!One cute little lady bug...
2 adorable bees!
These pictures are from our hayride with the Jr. Highers last week...

Chubby cheeks!

This little guy has been very busy lately! In one day, he managed to clear off 2 ears of corn...

With a little help from this guy.

Unfortunately, this is right in front of the table we were doing home school at, my back was to him, but I immediately knew when he was there because the boys would giggle and get all excited..."He's baaack!" This went on for a while, and finally even I was getting into it! It is amazing how much he could fit in his little cheeks!

He was pretty determined...
He cleaned the whole thing off...

Then somehow he managed to throw it out! I just had to laugh at his determination!

Yet another animal manages to deter us from our work! To read about that, click here.

A minute in the life of a home schooling mother...

Yes, weapons are sometimes seen in our school! "Hand over your gun" also gets repeated from time to time!

Here is a sampling of ONE MINUTE of my homeschooling day today...

(Easton,) "Mom, do I cirkle dis or cwoss it out?"..."circle." (Dylan,) "Is that my next word?"..."no, your word is self-conscious." (Jayden,) "Mom, how many letters are in spoil?"..."5." (Spencer,) "I thought 3 + 4= seven?" ..."It does." "But, you just said 5!" (Meanwhile Anaya is hollering,) " PEEE!"
What in the world...must we all speak at the same time? Give me a break children!! I laughed about the whole situation...after a while! No wonder I am ditsy sometimes, my kids use up every last brain cell I have through out the day!

Market Day project...

Spencer made these beautiful candy necklaces for his Market Day project for Friday Addition.
Look at the concentration on his face, tongue out and all! He was having a good time until he stapled his finger, he howled for quite some time about that! OUCH! This was a fun project...until the injury! One down, 2 more to go...(hopefully I won't have to help the other boys as much!) I get 30 cents an hour for my work, I earned about...90 cents today! I guess I can't complain, that's 90 cents more than I usually make!;)

reluctant youth leader...

Some of our kids helping with worship.

3 of the 8 high school students that joined us to work as kitchen staff.

Playing foosball.Doing the "break it down" table slap thing!

Ryan trying to learn the "break it down" table slap thing, he actually did very good, I didn't even attempt it!

Paint ball, in the snow and sleet!

Dylan and Maggie playing scalps!

The great group of kids we were able to spend some time with!

I wish I could say that I was so excited to serve the Lord this weekend and spend time with some of the junior high youth at the retreat...BUT I cannot! I knew the forecast was calling for rain and cold weather, and quite honestly I wanted nothing more than to stay in my nice warm home! But, Ryan needed another youth leader to help him out and so by default...I had to go! Ryan got sitters for the other kids (another reason I wasn't going to go~I know it is no small task to get someone to care for 4 kids!) But, thanks to my dear sister in laws, I was able to go! And, I am pleased to tell you, that I had a great time. The kids were great, and I had fun hanging out with them. (Which was no surprise, I do enjoy working with them on Wed. nights!) I did skip out on paint ball (it was raining/snowing and COLD!) I am not a fan of getting shot at, especially in the cold/wet weather! We watched an amazing video about a missionary who went to live among a tribe and eventually was able to share the gospel in their language. It took about 3 months of teaching 2 times a day(after many years of living among them) to go through the whole bible, story after story. In the end, they were so happy to hear about the good news of Christ that the whole village jumped up and down...for 2 1/2 hours! 2 1/2 hours! WOW! It was amazing, I cried. When was the last time I got that excited about God and what He has done for me?!...NEVER! I want that! "Lord, forgive me for my reluctance to go and serve you. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to go and grow!"