Preparing for our Baby Girl !!!

In preparation for our sweet baby (due March 4th) we have begun to decorate the nursery. Thankfully we have some wonderful family members helping that purchased our bedding!!! (A huge thank you to Kevin & Ronda, Grandpa & Grandma, and Dad & Jerri!!!!)
Here are a few pics to give a glimpse into our little one's room. How exciting preparing for a new baby!

New Beginnings

Recently I had decided to delete this blog altogether. I hardly have time to keep up with it and when I do get the time, I am too tired to think of anything to say! However, I have had a change of mind, and so now I am going to try to do a better job of sharing with others the things happening in our lives.
In a nutshell, here are a few areas of our lives that are in the midst of change and I am sure, I will be addressing:
* Baby #6 is soon to be delivered! Only 7 1/2 weeks left and we will have the wonderful blessing of meeting our baby girl (obviously unnamed at this point!)
* Food changes are on the horizon - I have taken a real interest in the subject of free range farming and whole foods and am planning on delving into the issue wholeheartedly. There are several books I am looking forward to reading on this and I will be sharing our journey into a healthier lifestyle here on the blog. The more Jason and I discuss cancer and other diseases, the more convinced I am that our foods have ALOT to do with it. We are hoping to be able to bring our family into a better place nutritionally this year.

Hopefully what we learn and experience will be a blessing to someone else and at the least will challenge or inspire. I am looking forward to some new beginnings in our home this year and hope you will enjoy hearing a little more about these things soon.

Cristy in Africa-Day 4 by Jason

Well, it is now 9:40 and I have finally gotten everyone calmed down and in the bed. Today was a good day. Got up early, went to store and picked up some milk and cereal for the boys. Ben got the boys up and going around 9:00. The Dinn's picked up Nathan and Luke to spend the day at there home. Becky Garner picked up Caleb and Jacob and were off to the water park. Ben came to the church for the MS Serve Day. I am so proud of that boy! He is really growing up to be a fine young man. So mature to be 14. Sure, sometimes I wonder about him, but overall the boy gets the job done and really does it well. I picked Ben up some Chick-fil-a w/ a Chocolate Milkshake to surprise him because he has been such a help since Cristy has been gone. Then, I took the van to have tires put on and oil changed and got a burger at The Collegiate "WOW, what a hamburger" All by myself I sat there and all I could think about was Cristy. I have never since we have been married been cut off from communication from her like this. It is driving me crazy!! I just wish I could hear her voice for just 1 minute. I guess it just really sank in while I was sitting there by myself. Well, I got up, got over it and walked back over to Harrison Tire and got my van and headed back to the BUSY office. Lots of work to do. 42 people gave there lives to Christ yesterday and 47 last week at the Outreach at Fairstreet. Much follow up to do and we are working hard on that. Worked on that for a while and Ben came over to my office after he was done painting in the MS room and I ran him home to meet Becky Garner w/ Jacob and Caleb around 4:00. Went back to my office and worked for about another hour and headed to p/u Luke and Nathan from the Dinn's. Got everyone home and we had a family meeting before heading over to Randy and Nikki Grizzle's for dinner. Great evening,great food, and awesome fellowship!! Talked more of Cristy with them and how much we were all just wanting to talk with her. Tonight when we got home, my precious little Luke broke down. He told me, while in tears "I am so sad and why can't mommy just come back home?" OH, that was hard on me. At that moment, I realized even more than I ever have before how much we all desperately need her. Thank God for marriage and family! What a gift from the Lord. If you read this, please pray for all of us. Cristy, when you read this, know there are 6 boys here that LOVE you and desperately need you, and are glad you are back!! Love you BABY!!

Nearly Time!!!

Only 10 more days and I am boarding a plane and headed to the other side of the world! I cannot even describe all of the feelings and thoughts that are running through my mind these days.
Of course, there is the excitement of going to another country with a completely different culture to share the good news of Jesus Christ...but with that comes a little apprehension. What will it be like? What can I expect? Will I get sick? Will my husband and kids survive without me? etc....
Currently, I am in the packing phase. I have pulled out all of my clothing that I have collected so far (we have to dress differently because of the culture) and the gifts I have stock-piled to take to the nationals who I will be working with each day. I am compiling a never-ending list in my mind of all of the last minute things I need to remember...intense bug repellant, malaria medication, Bibles for the leaders, finish making the bracelets to take over, and on and on it goes!
The funny thing is that I have tons of stuff to take, literally a 2-pg packing list, but I am only allowed 2 suitcases and a carry-on with weight limits! How will I ever fit it all in, package it correctly, and make it there with everything I need to bring with me? It's not like there is a Wal-Mart down the street I can run to if I forget something important! We will be in primitive villages lined with huts with Jesus and each other and that is it! But of course, that is all we need...I must keep reminding myself of this fact.
Over all, I do have a great peace about going (even if it doesn't sound like it). I am humbled to be able to take the gospel to people who have never heard the name of Jesus. To think back to when God changed my life and brought me into his family - never would I have dreamed that He would use me at all - even more so in another country! I am thankful that God chooses the foolish to become wise and the weak to be made strong for His glory and purposes! I cannot wait to see what the Holy Spirit accomplishes in the lives of those who will hear in 10 short days...I keep thinking of the souls that I will spend eternity with because of our trip to Africa! How awesome that we will take part in fulfilling Scriptures - that in Heaven some from every tribe and tongue will worship God together. It is an amazing fact that God uses ordinary people like me and you to accomplish eternal purposes! What a miracle that we are entrusted by God Himself with the greatest message ever shared!

Beach Pics

Family Vacation

We recently returned from a week long family beach vacation to Panama City. It was a wonderful trip full of exciting events.
We spent the week meeting new people, interacting with wildlife, and doing all sorts of memorable things.
Among some of the "beach critters" we happened to see were dolphins, sting rays, whelks, barnacles, starfish, crabs, sea urchins, and other things we could not identify. It was fun to take our field guide along and look up all of the neat creatures we came across, trying to identify as many as we could. After dinner as we would walk along the docks near the restaurants, my boys would stretch out and lean way over the docks looking at the various things either floating in the water or clinging to the posts of the dock. I loved watching them interact with God's Creation with such fascination and as Ben stated one evening, "this is real learning you don't get in a classroom!" I agree!!
As for our outings, this year we were fortunate enough to be able to take the boys on the Pirate Ship. We have looked at it for a few years now and finally felt they were all old enough to enjoy it. We cruised along in the water for about 2 hours and had fun watching the boys shoot each other with water guns, mop the poop deck, play games, and search for treasure. It really was alot of fun and we were able to get a close up of the dolphins as we rounded the bend close to St. Andrews State Park. So much fun to be out on the water with the wind whipping around us and the salty seawater spraying upwards.
Other things we did were go-karts and putt-putt golf. Both of these were fun as well, although competition can sometimes make it challenging to keep everyone loving each other and enjoying the evening. Overall, they did really well and I am glad we took the time to do some out-of-the-water activities. Now that the boys are all getting old enough to participate, it makes things more fun for everyone.
Of course, "all good things must come to an end" (or so they say), so we are now back in Georgia doing the things that we ordinarily do as a family, continuing to enjoy the carefree pace of Summer. Our vacation was a wonderful reprieve from busyness that had great benefits to all of us. I am looking forward to our next trip already!

A Gentle Reminder

Isn't it funny that you can know something as a fact, yet not realize it fully until little moments when God opens your eyes and gives you a gentle, but pointed reminder?
Tonight was one of those moments for me.
I was invited by a sweet friend to attend her Senior Banquet. She is graduating in just a couple of weeks and our church set aside an evening to celebrate together with friends and family.
During the course of the evening, a slide show was shown of each graduating Senior and pictures played across the screen beginning with their births, and on into their current lives. Many of these young people I did not know, so I was a little surprised when I felt that knot in my stomach and the increasing desire to shed a tear. I began to think, "If I am emotional now, what will I be like when my own children's lives are portrayed on that screen?"
Of course that thought did not subside and after it was over I stood in the hallway talking with a dear friend who is sending 2 of her boys off to college in the Fall and her last child is entering High School. She shared with me the tears she had shed in the last two weeks as she readied herself for this night and went through pictures for the presentation. Many of those tears are joyful because her children are maturing into true followers of Christ, but some of those tears were from the realization and sadness of how short life truly is.
It is one of those facts that you know and you even talk about it with others at family reunions and birthday parties, but there are certain times when the realization sets in and you don't only know it in your head - but your heart gets it too and you are moved by it.
Scripture declares it this way, "For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." (James 4:14)
Casting Crowns puts it into a tune, "I am a flower quickly fading - here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind...", and grandmothers remind us, "Enjoy them while you can - they grow up fast." We hear it so often, but are we really listening? Are we heeding these words of wisdom?
I know that I personally can get so caught up in the demands of life that sometimes I forget to enjoy the living. I take my life and my family's lives for granted and at times even have the audacity to complain over my situation or circumstance. Oh, how I wish I could have it burned into my heart to take each day as a gift and realize the fragility of life and the fleeting nature of it.
One person wisely said "when the hourglass runs out of sand, you can't flip it over and start again". How true, yet how forgotten!
I don't want to be this person who dreads for the years to pass and is so focused on the passing that I miss the daily moments, but I also don't want to take for granted that each day is precious and never to be repeated. Time truly is our most valuable commodity and the reality is that once we spend it, it is gone. There is no getting it back, trading for more, or any other clever method. We have what God has ordained for us to have and not a minute more. The same is true with time with our children. We don't always have tomorrow - we have TODAY...really, we aren't even guaranteed more than the moment we are in.
It is my sincere prayer that I will be a good steward of the time He has given me and pour my heart into the most precious gifts He has placed in my care: my husband and children. When I get to that time when my "chicks take flight" I want to be able to look back on their time in our home and know that I intentionally savored every moment of that huge chapter of my life. I hope not one page of it will have been wasted or written in a hurry, but instead that each moment was filled with love and gratitude for every breath we shared together.