Please, Please Pray

I just read the following update from Licia in Cazale and the rescue center.  I visited there in May and Dave and I now support them.  Would you please pray for their situation there.  It’s not good.  It’s really not good!  Having been there I just can’t stop thinking about all of them.

Per Licia:  “Ike hit us hard here in Cazale.  We had to run with the children to the second story of the houses.  There is much destruction.  I have not slept yet.  Everything everywhere is a mess. They are removing bodies from the river that has been washed down from other villages.  It is very serious.  Lori and Charles house has a least 1 foot of mud in it.  Most of their belongings are destroyed.  The water level in their house was waist high.  The main bridge in Cazale washed away.  Please….I am asking you from the deepest part of my heart to pray..pray for us..pray for the kids….pray…pray…pray.  All the kids in the RC are safe.  My family is safe.  Amos, Story, faith, hope, Rosena, ronel all safe.  Unbelievable pictures to share.”

BIG NEWS FROM OUR HOUSE!!!

Click here to find out what it is!!!!!

Vacation is Over

It’s over.  Hannah kicked us out a day early but it was time to come home.  We had an amazing restful time.  I took lots of pictures but the funny thing is that I’m not in hardly any of them!  I was the picture taker.  Which is just fine with me.  One thing for sure is that we’ll be back next year!

The best view in the house

Slushies and Ice Cream for Breakfast.

Great Nana Making Breakfast

My Nana and Papa and My Mom and Dad

 

Izzie learned to swim on her own

 

Not too old for the Lazy River

Izzie hated the sand. No Beach pictures for this family this year.

My amazing parents!

They survived all the girls!!!

Putt Putt anyone?

No where else I

Loving the Ocean

Caitlynn.....

Nana and her girls

Time to call it a night or a vacation.

Priorities

In the midst of detoxing it’s always good to be reminded of what my priorities are.  Here’s mine in no particular order. 

• My relationship with the Lord
• Relationship with Dave
• MY CHILDREN.  Love them. Love them. Love them.
• The Kresge, Rhodes, Steele and Pruitt Families
• Our adoption process
• Wayfarer
• My relationships with my girlfriends

There are more for sure but these are the top ones that help me choose when to say no to things or to weed things out in my life.  These are the things that come to the front when I am in detoxing mode.

Detoxing

Detoxing from what you ask?

• vacation
• food
• no sleep
• blogging
• reading emails
• political conversations in the background
• reading blogs
• pulling weeds in the flower beds
• relationships
• adoption paperwork
• Peoples opinions
• keeping up with the laundry
• Internet
• did I say food already?
• People who think everything is always the best ever….
• caffeine

Yes, I am in a season of detoxing.  In a season where so many things fight for your attention and you have to choose where you put your time.  I’ve done a good job of it the past few months but then other things arrise and you have to detox some more.  Saying no to things is hard for me when I want to stay current in the lives of other people and the things that make up my day.

Haiti

As I sit here at 6am in the morning in North Myrtle Beach I am stirred awake.  Everyone here is sleeping but I am not.  We are heading home today since Hannah is to hit here late this afternoon but that is not why I am awake.  I am awake because I can’t stop thinking about Haiti and all that is going on there.  About now Roosters are crowing and the country there is coming alive.  Please pray for Haiti when you think about it.  They can not handle the rain that is coming their way.  Heartline (where our son is) as I know they are all ok.  Haiti has such a grip on my heart and it amazes me that it’s only 1.5 hrs by plane off the Florida coast and yet I have barely heard any media coverage on the dire situation there.  Why is that?  I don’t know.  It’s as if this very close island does not even exhist off of our coast.  People are dying, loosing everything, don’t have clean water, are in need of food.  Please pray.

Here is Jason’s blog with some good links to articles.

One article and her is another

Being LAZY

And the relaxation continues…. We are being very LAZY especially floating on the LAZY river.  Yesterday, Dave went golfing and the girls and I hit the beach and pool again.  Izzie HATES the beach.  HMM wonder where she gets that from?  Emma and I took a LONG walk on the beach yesterday.  It was wonderful.  Just holding hands and walking and talking.  She is growing up so fast.   And last night was our annual putt putt tournament at Captain Hooks.  Emma got a whole in one and Izzie and I did a great job at finding peoples balls and putting them in the hole.

So are plans for today?  Do what we did yesterday all over again.

Oh Myrtle how we love thee

Well we are here and day one is over.  I must say I am a beach person.  There is nothing I love better than a view of the ocean at all times, walking the beach, hearing the beach.  For me it’s peaceful, restful and pure bliss.  We had a wonderful day and can’t wait to do it all over again tomorrow.

The girls… Aren’t they so cute?

Dinner with the family.  The best part of being here this week is that we are all here together with all of the Rhodes/Great Nana made home made beef strugenough (totally mis-spelled that one).. Yummy in my tummy!

Adoption Process Update

With being excited about our family vacation there are other things going on around our home that are exciting as well.  I am hoping to finish up some things on our end so we can make some really wonderful announcements concerning our adoption process.   We do have a referral on a little boy and I can’t wait to tell you all about him and the wonderful way our lives have intersected.   We’ve known about him for a while now but have been waiting on getting all of his information in hand.  So that official announcement is coming soon with all the details and even a blog where you’ll be able to follow our adoption journey.  We are thrilled and excited and love being on this journey.  Thanks for all of your support.  We are in the final stages of our dossier as well and I should be able to send it to Haiti in the next 4 weeks.

Can anyone say beach?

We are heading to North Myrtle Beach on Saturday for a much anticipated family vacation.  This will be the third year to do this and we can’t wait.  We love going during the first week of September because all the kids are back to school and things there are peaceful and quite.  Yes, Emma has started school this year but she’s already missing some days.  We just decided that we are not going to let the public school dictate our family times together.  We are respectful of it but it won’t hold us back.  Dave is gone all summer so it’s special to be able to find time at the end of the summer travel to get together with our extended family.

I can’t wait to sit and watch the ocean, hear the waves put me to sleep at night, ride the lazy river for hours each day, walk the beach, build sand castles with the girls, play an outlandish amount of putt putt, have some fun date nights with my hubby and sister and brother in law. 

Here is a picture from our first year at the beach in 2006.  I was major prego at the time…oh my!  But look at this clan.  We have a lot of fun together. 

And last year, floating on the lazy river…..  One of the funniest memories was seeing great papa get on the lazy river and flip.  Well funny for us watching but not funny for him.

I’ll fill you in next week on our daily activities.  But until then, I’ve got to go and pack for vacation!  Oh yeah…stay away hurricanes please!