The Desert is Fun

Christmas

The weekend before... family gathering with my dad's side of the family. So fun to catch up with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins.

Christmas Eve/Christmas Day... the benefit of having our parents live only 3 miles away is that we get to go back and forth as much as we'd like to see them and other family members who drop by at different times throughout the day. It was nice to spend Christmas with our wonderful families.

The day after Christmas we headed out to the desert for some dirt bike riding fun. We had a blast with my sister, her husband and my super cool nephews. We were also able to spend some time with friends which was wonderful.

Now I am tired and my house needs to be cleaned, Christmas needs to be put away, Marley needs a bath, and I get to enjoy 5 more days off of work. I love my life.

Thoughts from reading about Katie

If you have never read Katie's blog, I highly encourage you to do so. Unlike anything I have ever seen or read before, I am moved to action when I read her blog. I think the most fascinating thing about reading her poignant stories of taking care of many, many children in Uganda is the fact that she has abondoned everything to follow God. She is forgoing safety, comfort and all she has ever been used to in order to pick up her cross and follow Him. That kind of obedience is unfathomable to me, but should it be? I get caught up in the comforts of life that I very honestly enjoy and could not imagine living without. Are we all supposed to sell everything and move to Uganda to do what she is doing? No. But what I must do is figure out what wholeheartedly following Christ looks like amidst the many comforts of the USA. We are richer than almost everyone in almost every other country in the world- even if we only own 2 pairs of shoes and use food stamps. What would it look like to live here, but not really live like I did? Is anything I do ever enough? Aside from Him I don't think so. See, what's amazing about what Katie is doing is that she is completely living with, living for and walking with Christ. He is all she has. What she does is amazing, yes, but no works she ever accomplishes on earth would mean anything apart from Christ. I can busy myself with "doing stuff" in the name of God's love, but if my heart strays from Him or His purpose, it's really all just about me. That's the last thing it should be about. I am humbled to seek Him and His unique plan for using me; not for my glory but for His alone. Please read and seek.

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

Christmas for those who need it most

On Sunday I went solo to an awesome event. Randy was at home sick :( Our Bible study got together with other local Bible studies from our church to have a night of worship, a potluck, and a gift wrapping extravaganza! We collected new/used toys to wrap for an orphanage in Mexico. We also purchased new gifts for the Ventura County Rescue Mission so that children with no home could have one toy this Christmas. I feel so broken when I think of either of these groups of children, so being able to bring them a little joy this Christmas is such a blessing. Can I just say, it is really difficult to wrap a football or soccer ball!

O Chirstmas Tree...

I love celebrating the Christmas season in our first home! Randy put the lights up on our house a few weeks ago which is so fun! Last year we didn't even put up a tree because we were in our studio so even having a tree this year has been great.

Randy was on the ground doing push up's and sit up's and Marley wandered over to him and decided it was time to snuggle. She is so cute!

Sweet Sleep

I heard about this wonderful charity through another blog I read.

http://www.sweetsleep.com/

Here is info from their website:

What is Sweet Sleep?
Sweet Sleep is a faith-based nonprofit organization which exists to share God’s love by providing beds to the world’s orphaned and abandoned children.

According to UNICEF, there are more that 210 million orphans worldwide. Today, 5,760 more children will become orphans.

Orphaned and abandoned children around the world suffer from lack of sufficient or healthy places to sleep. These children often sleep on old, broken and soiled beds or have no beds at all – forcing them to sleep on paper-thin mats or cold, hard floors, making them susceptible to crawling, biting insects and disease. In these conditions, it is nearly impossible to get a good night’s sleep and the effects are staggering:

■1 in 5 of all childhood deaths is caused from malaria. 90% of these children are in Africa alone.
■A sagging or misshapen mattress may add tension to a child’s joints because their bodies rest on the mattress for hours at a time. Even if a child sleeps well on a bad mattress, these injuries to their bodies only make them weaker.
■Old mattresses or scraps of foam are breeding grounds for bed bugs and allergens that contribute to startling increases in respiratory diseases, including asthma as well as rhinitis, eczema and bed bug bites.
■When children continuously do not get enough sleep it affects their health, makes them tired during the day, hinders their ability to do well at school and leaves them more prone to disease.

Sweet Sleep’s provision of mosquito nets to orphanages is literally life-changing to children who live in fear of death by malaria. With your help, we are able to get sweet orphaned and abandoned children around the world into healthy, comfortable new Sweet Sleep beds.

For Christmas you can go to their website and give the gift of "Sweet Sleep." You can donate in someone's honor and they will send the recipient info about their gift. What a cool idea!

Our Cruise in Photos

Our cruise was AMAZING! The weather was perfect, the food was great and we had a blast with Randy's family. It was so much fun!