Celebrating a Homegoing

Once again, I wanted to share some beautiful pictures of little Joshua, my darling new nephew with his happy parents (hubby's sister).  These are celebration pictures that commemorate the joyful day he was able to go home from the hospital this week.

This will be my last post about this sweetheart baby since he is now safely home and in his Mommy's arms and under her loving care.  We once again praise our wonderful Lord for His goodness to His children.

We leave our home in three days.  Our journey will begin on an overnight train to the capital city, Kiev.  From there we will fly to London and spend the night, spending one more memorable day with my mother-in-law before we part ways until Christmas - her going to Mexico and us to Dallas.

Video presentation completed? Check.

Prayer cards and display table banner printed? Check.

David's book published? Check.

Half a year of school finished, corrected, and put away? Check.

Luggage packed? Uhhh... almost.

Please pray for our safety, health, and for our children to sleep well as their little bodies adjust to new times and new places.  As always, I humbly thank you, my friends.

Now, I've gotta go finish that packing...

New Prayer Card

This is the front of our new prayer cards which have already been ordered {except those dark-colored boxes have information in them in real life that I didn't want to post here}.  The days to our departure to America are ticking by quickly, and I wish I could slow that ticking noise down!

Tomorrow we will finish our half-way point of school.... 85 days {loud cheering... can you hear it through the screen?!}.  We have been working all summer long, mostly going at it 6 days a week to get to this point.  So, while everyone else is talking about "Back to School," we are ready to be done with it!  We are all looking forward to a long-anticipated break!  Don't ya just love the flexibility of homeschooling?  Somehow, though, I think my children will be learning just as much over the next 6 months away from the books as they have learned in the books.  Funny how that works, isn't it?  Just please don't tell them that, yet... not until they have graduated. {smile}

Really, I am kidding.  I have two eager learners, one who works at a snail's pace {maybe because he loves it so much and enjoys working for so many hours?!} but still makes grades as good as the other two, and another who just enjoys dumping the other three's pencils and crayons onto the floor before he is caught in the action.

I love being a mom.  I really, really do.  So much love and entertainment wrapped into tiny {but growing} packages.

I'm really not supposed to be here blogging today.  Really, I should be working on our video presentation for furlough.  Hubby has been working on publishing a book {juicy details later} and I have been putting our presentation together.... one. picture. at. a. time.  It is a slow process, but a necessary one since this is what we use to report to our supporting churches.

God has been so good.  How do you tell that in a 6-7 minute presentation?  Guess I had better stop typing here and try to figure out the answer to that myself...

Joshua is going home!

My sweet, sweet mother-in-law made it in safely, and, boy, are we ever enjoying her!  She is such a barrel of fun and all 6 of us are vying for her attention at all times, it seems.

She shared this picture of little Joshua with us today, and I asked her to e-mail it to me so that I could share it with you too.  Doesn't he just look like a little man?!  When you look at his Mommy's hand, you can understand just how little this preemie's face really is.  So tiny, yet so perfect.

We are excited to share with you the news that little Joshua will be going home from the hospital in the next couple of days.  How grateful we are for his little life!  Thank you for the amazing, positive response you have shown in offering your prayers and words of encouragement to his family.  I know they have been encouraged to know that people from all over the globe have come before the throne of grace on their behalf.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,...  James 1:17.  Thank you, Father, for this good and perfect gift!

"Mimi"

See what I found in the boys' room yesterday?  Yes, we're all excited about hubby's Mom {aka "MIMI"} flying in tonight!  There is no less excitement in this home than if the Queen of England herself were coming.

I am sure that the next two weeks are going to be a whirlwind of fun, memories, excitement, and packing.  In a little more than two weeks, all of us will be leaving Ukraine - our family will fly to America and Mom will fly back to Mexico.  We have very mixed emotions about this upcoming trip.  We're thrilled, of course, to soon be able to see friends and family we have not seen in a long time.  But, we never love leaving our friends and ministry here.

For now, we'll just concentrate on pampering a very special lady who will be in our home in about 8 hours.  Woohoo!

VBS #2 this summer

A couple of weeks ago, hubby left for a week with a team from our church to run a second VBS in another part of Ukraine.  The group came home exhausted, happy, cameras loaded with pictures, hearts full of what God had done, and the wonderful news that...

17 children were saved!

I worked several days to put their pictures into collages.  There is an overwhelming amount to look at here, but I have added them to really show you what God is doing in Ukraine.  If you support this ministry or our family personally, you can know that your support is not in vain.  We are nothing... absolutely nothing at all.  But, we are willing servants who are excited to share God's Word with the lost, and we are thrilled that God chooses to use nobodys {and that He gives us other wonderful "nobodys" that we love very much who are willing to work with us}!

Glad to have hubby home and even happier to know that our time spent without Daddy was a sacrifice for a greater cause!

*Thanks to Igor and Lena for these fantastic photos!

Two weeks!

I have oh, so very much to write about on this blog!  Teen Camp just finished, a second VBS to write about, Nate's and hubby's birthdays, and not to mention what we're doing around the house...

But that will all have to wait.  For now, I wanted to bring you what you have all been waiting for:  news of little Joshua's health.  Today marks two weeks since the birth of this sweet preemie, and I have pictures for you to see of his progress:

 

Just a few more days, and Joshua will surpass the number of days of life this family was able to enjoy their little Jonathan before he went to Heaven five years ago.  I know that they are breathing a sigh of relief that God is giving Joshua to them to enjoy for, Lord-willing, a long, long time.

Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of life!