Long Awaited Update

Well as you can tell I haven't been very diligent in getting my blog updates done. What I thought would be a weekly post has turned into a monthly post. Thank you those of you who keep checking this and I'm sorry that I haven't been a very good blogger. There have been lots of things going on though so let me see if I can summarize.

I was going to post at the end of last month about our trip to Flagstaff at Easter. I actually started the post and never finished. We decided to start a new tradition this year and head to Flagstaff for a weekend at a cabin in the woods to celebrate the Resurrection. It was a wonderful time just to relax and kick back together as a family which we really needed. There was still a bit of snow and the kids had a wonderful time sledding and mom didn't have to partake but just watch which was a good thing.

The next big event were the April birthdays. Both Robert and Miss E have birthdays in April. I got Robert tickets to the NASCAR race in Phoenix the Saturday after his birthday. We had a blast seeing all the cars and enjoying the race. It was a nice date night for us, thanks to our friends who graciously kept all the kiddos. Next was Miss E's 9th birthday. I can hardly believe that she is 9 years old seems like just yesterday she was born, wow has a lot happened since then. She wanted an all girl birthday so we took she and two of her friends to Red Robin for a girls lunch. My mom and grandmother came up from Tucson to join us and it was a fun frilly girls day. She got lots of American Girl stuff which thrilled her to no end and it was a fun celebration.

The other major event happening on an ongoing basis is the construction of our new garage. We have been planning this for years and it is finally happening. I can honestly say we have quite the example of the Bible's direction of building a firm foundation going on in our side yard. I never knew all the work that building up a foundation for a building took, but alas now I do. We have had removal of bad rock and material, two loads of good dirt, a third load of AB material (which until now I knew nothing about and thought those were just the first two letters of the alphabet) and this weekend we are compacting all the material to prepare for the next step of digging the footers. The kids have been thrilled to help in all of this activity and help drive the Bobcat a few weeks ago and then the tractor that arrived yesterday. It is finally beginning to become a reality and hopefully before the end of May we will have a slab.

Here inside the house we are in the process of finishing up our school year. Mr. J, Mr. P and Miss E are finishing up 3rd and 4th grades and Big D and Miss A are still plugging away at Kindergarten. We will hopefully have somewhat of a break over the summer but I'll probably continue some daily work with Mr. P and Big D and Miss A over the summer so that we don't loose ground. They are my ones with some extra needs and I'm working on trying to get them all the different things that they need to get caught up. Which as I'm finding out is more than a full time job.

I think that about covers it for now. As you can see our time between blogs has not been boring. I also wanted to take the time to recommend a film to you that we went to see last night. It is called Expelled and is a documentary about the scientific community's attack on the Intelligent Design theory. Ben Stein is the narrator and director of the film and it is an amazing look into the scientific establishment and how many scientists have lost their careers because they dared to bring up the ID possibility. It was an eye opener for Robert and me to what is going on in the world and how we as Christians are viewed as fanatical freaks whose beliefs are no more than idiotic fantasy to many in the education establishment. I would recommend that you take the time to see this film and support it.

Well I will sign off for now and will do my best to post more often. Please leave me a comment and let me know you are still with me!!!

The Cost of My Salvation

Sometimes I forget in all my daily routine of what the true cost of my salvation really was for Christ. The devotional magazine that I use "Closer Walk" is taking me through the book of Romans this month. I am enjoying it particularly because each days reading is shorter than is typical and I'm able to really focus on just a few verses and what Christ is saying to me through them. The main verse for the lesson today was Romans 3:25.

Christ Jesus whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed

The word propitiation puzzles me, but my study bible describes it this way: Crucial to the significance of Christ's sacrifice, this word carries the idea of appeasemement or satisfacation in this case Christ's violent death satisfied the offended holiness and wrath of God against those for whom Christ died. For some reason this hit me hard this morning. I know that I take Christ's sacrifice for granted and it grieves my heart. I was moved by the quote in my devotion by Martin Luther. He says:

"Because Christ has become a King and Priest for you and has bestowed this great blessing on you, you dare not imagine that it cost little or comes to you because of your merit. Sin and death were overcome for you in Him and through Him. Grace and life were given you , but meant bitter work for Him. It cost Him much. He earned it at the greatest expense with His own blood, body, and life. For to put down God's wrath, judgement, hell, death, and everything evil, and to gain everything good, could not be done without satisfying divine justice. This is why Paul is in the habit of touching also on Christ's suffering and blood whenever he preaches God's grace in Christ, in order to note that all our blessings are given to us through Christ, but not without His unspeakable merit and cost."

How many times have I been prideful about something that I have done or said and not given Christ the credit. More times than I would care to admit. We talk as believers about the free gift of salvation and how all we need to do is accept it and we are saved. Do we tend to forget the price that it cost our Lord in the process? I know that I'm guilty of this so often and I focus more on what can God do for me now instead of focusing on what He has already done at the Cross.

Help me O Lord to remember your sacrifice and not to take for granted the precious gift that you gave ME at the cross. I pray that you would help me to teach this to my children that they might not take for granted your sacrifice and make it a point to be purposeful in their thanksgiving for your sacrifice. Amen.

The last thing that my devotion told me was to meditate on Psalm 22. I would encourage you to do the same and leave me a comment and let me know what the Lord speaks to you through this beautiful passage of Scripture.

The Silver Streak

The Lord is good and He provides even for our most human needs and wants! We have a new van...this time not boring white but silver. Such a small detail but He even took care of that. Our whole experience getting it was just such a blessing. We have a wonderful gentleman that has helped us get two of our other vehicles that was able to get this van for us. It is a year newer than our old van and even has some upgrades that we had put on including a DVD player for those long van trips with our five blessings. The insurance company has already paid us and so even that has gone so smoothly. We are thanking God for this new blessing and have dubbed it the Silver Streak. A little more catchy than The Big White Bus. All the praise goes to the Lord.

Our California Adventure and the Lord's Deliverance

January 30th marked the beginning of our first real family vacation since all our children came home from Russia. We were off to Disneyland and a fun filled adventure with all our kiddos and some good friends. Our first stop in Redlands to have lunch with another friend ended with our youngest daughter Miss A getting her finger caught in the van door. Perhaps this was the Lord's way of warning us of things yet to come? She was okay though and after getting her calmed down we pressed onward. We made it through LA traffic and to our hotel which was delightful and after getting some dinner socked in for the night to get some rest before our big adventure the next day.

Thursday we headed for the Magic Kingdom and all that awaited us there. What a treat to see our children's faces as they entered this magical world. I think they were all a bit overwhelmed and didn't know what to do first. We started with a few autographs and then headed for rides. Our daughter Miss E was a bit apprehensive about this whole thing and wasn't too sure she even wanted to brave anything faster than the rockets in Tomorrowland. As the day progressed though she warmed up and started being a little braver. We did all the major attractions and even met Jack Sparrow on the Pirate Island. Big J our oldest son was particularly pleased with this. We all left exhausted and very cold and ready to crash at closing time.

Our original plan was to head to California Adventure the next day. This was our first detour...both Miss A and Miss E ended up with fevers in the night (three trips on Splash Mountain probably didn't help) and clearly we were not doing more rides any time soon. We ended up at the beach for while that day and had a fairly quiet day. This was the first time that Big J, Mr. P, Little D and Miss A had ever been to the ocean so it was fun again to see their faces and watch them collect shells. We have some precious photos to commemorate the event.

Saturday the kiddos were feeling well enough to head back to the parks. California Adventure was first on the list and the big rollercoaster which Big J and Mr. P and Mr. Upton had been eyeing since we arrived. We finished the day back over at Disney and had a date with the princesses. This was definitely the highlight for Miss E and Miss A. They got to see all their favorites and we had many photo ops. Mr. R and I even got to go back for a date on Saturday night which was a real treat...thank you friends for watching our brood!

By Sunday we were more than ready to head for home. It was also nasty weather when we left there that afternoon. Poring down rain coming back across I-10. We were cruising along when we came upon an accident. I was thanking God for keeping us safe, especially since Miss E was with our friends and we had one of their sons with us, and praying for those involved. After we cleared the accident and were getting up to speed a car whizzed past us came up on our friends and cut over in front of us. He then lost control and began to spin towards the guard rail. R did his very best to slow down and get away from him but it was not to be. He came back across two lanes and we crashed into the back quarter panel of his car and we then came back across to the right and ended up in the ditch. I think we were all in shock, I know for sure I was, but praise the Lord we were all okay. All of the children were safe and not harmed in any way. The airbag hit my face so that was hurting but aside from that and being extremely cold I was fine. R was amazing. He immediately took control and when the highway patrol and rescue squad arrived he was on top of everything.

We serve an amazing God and He was with us in that van and sent amazing people to take care of us. Everyone was so kind and compassionate and took such wonderful care of us. The rest of the day was filled with getting a rental van and making it as far as Palm Desert to rest for the night. We made it home safely on Monday and everyone checked out perfectly with all their doctors. God is good. We don't have a new van yet but our friends are graciously letting us borrow their van until all the details get worked out and we can get in a new one. We have a wonderful gentleman at the Ford dealership who we have worked with before who is working on finding us what we are looking for. Our van was totalled and left in CA so we don't have to worry about getting it back, another praise. God has seen us through all the details, the insurance people have been very kind and things are moving along very well.

Who would have known that our family vacation would end up this way. I must say though that I'm praising Him for this experience, I have seen His fingerprints all over every piece of it. Although I spent most of last week in a fog just trying to get my head around it, now I can honestly say what a blessing to be able to SEE Him so clearly. I praise Him for all of it the good the bad and the ugly.

Welcome to the World of Blogging

Who would have thought that I would ever finally get a blog started. My sweet friend Christina has been encouraging me to start a blog for months and I finally got around to it today. I have recently started reading different blogs having to do with Christian Womanhood and have come across some facinating and heartfelt sites. I don't know that I will ever have anything very thought provoking to share but for the few people who will probably read this perhaps I can share a bit of my heart and how God is helping me through this journey as I wait for His return.


I am a mother of five blessings which I guess means that I probably have a few stories to tell. Four of my five blessings are from Russia and they have enriched as well as challenged me in more ways than I can express. My dear husband and I were on a path towards being missionaries with FamilyLife last year and what God taught us through that experience is that we are indeed already missionaries to these five children. He has given us a unique family and what He reminded us is that we can be just as useful to Him by being the very best mom and dad we can be and hopefully bring many generations into the Kingdom for His glory. We are spending this new year focusing on them and how we can best disciple them. Perhaps someday He will call us to another mission field but for now we are content to reside in Arizona and raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

So I guess that will be it for my first blog entry...what do you think Christina?