Merry Christmas

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Family Day: Red Bluff Farm

Today was absolutely gorgeous and a little chilly. Our plan was to go to Red Bluff Farm in Folsom, LA which is about an hour away from New Orleans (across the lake towards Covington). The girls woke up extremely excited about going to see pumpkins and animals and pumpkins. Did I mention that they wanted to see pumpkins?

They had a number of baby animals for us to pet. Chicks, goats, noisy piglets, and lambs to name a few. The girls had the opportunity to feed a calf with a milk bottle, but both were a little too shy to do that today. Maybe next year.

We got to see a sheep being sheered.

(Which the sheep did not like very much.)

We saw one of our friends (the Wilkerson's) while we were there and ended up hanging out with them most of the day. The Wilkerson's also adopted their daughter, Bella. Our families have much in common. They are waiting to be approved to go on the mission field, so please keep them in your prayers. They have been waiting a long time due to cut backs.

We all had some kettle corn which everyone enjoyed (maybe a little too much).

The girls then picked out their pumpkins and posed with them. Thia had trouble holding on to hers. It's a wonder it made it home.

Before we left we took a few posed pics. These took the longest to get. Neither one of them wanted to pose longer than a nano second.

The girls tried to pick up the largest pumpkins they could find, but as Thia put it...

"I too wittle."

We had two tired little girls on the way home.

They were both very proud of their pumpkins.

Everyone took good naps today.

Mosaic Family Movie Night - "Boo on the Bayou"

I wanted to share a few shots of the fun night we had tonight. Mosaic decided to love on our community tonight by doing a Family Movie Night next to Bayou St. John. We have been praying for this event for several months and everything seemed to be going well until we tried to start up the generator that would run the popcorn machine, the sound system, the movie....well pretty much everything we needed for tonight. If you read my last post you know that I am very aware that Satan does not want us to be successful in anything we are doing to get to know our neighbors and of course this tonight was no exception. The thing Satan didn't expect was that no one panicked. No one was defeated. We all began praying and acting as though all would be well. The atmosphere was not "if we get this thing to work" but "when we get this thing to work" we will get started.

We called up another friend who we thought might have a generator and, praise the Lord, he did. We had that generator up and going within 10 minutes of the start time. We had a great turn out. The weather was incredible. The popcorn was delicious. The drinks were cold. The company was loving. We got to meet a number of neighbors and love on a ton of kids.

We are so excited about what God did tonight and the wonderful time we had at Boo on the Bayou! I hope this will be an annual event. Here are a few pics of the fun we had tonight.

Cool night, warm popcorn, great capri sun, comfy chair, funny movie...

what more could a girl want!

Friends all snuggled in for the movie.

Thia has her popcorn and she is ready to watch!

At the beginning of the night we had a few chairs open.

By the end of the movie, every chair was pretty much full.

You can't see this part in the picture, but off to the left are about 20 people

sitting in portable chairs, hammocks, and on blankets.

In Need of Prayer...

I am very aware that I have not published on this blog since June and I apologize to you sweet friends and family members that read this blog to keep up with what is going on with us because you love and care about us so much. Again, I am going to try very hard to make a change. I think the reason I have trouble writing is because I am a pretty private person and sometimes I convince myself that writing is not really that important. I am slowly realizing that I am wrong.

I need all of you knowing what is going on with us if for no other reason than to have your prayer support. This week has been a very hard week for me spiritually and emotionally. My understanding of how evil Satan is has grown. I have faced a number of very evil things as a counselor, but this week has taken me to a new understanding of evil. It has reinforced my belief that Satan truly hates Christian families and will go to ANY length to destroy them. I have also come to the realization that the only thing Satan hates more than Christian families is Christian families in effective ministry.

I had a Christian family from New Orleans in my office this week who was seriously wounded both emotionally and physically. My heart went into shock and then completely broke for this family sitting in front of me in shambles. The phrase "all hell broke loose" would be an understatement. The question was asked of me, "I am a Christian and have tried to do everything the right way. Why did this happen to me?" I didn't have an answer. This week the Lord has had me on my knees more than any other time in my life. He made me aware of the fact that my family is being protected because people are praying for our protection. However, I was also made aware of the strength and the pure evilness of our enemy. I realized that we cannot have enough people praying for our protection. We are working in a city that surpassed its 2014 projected crime rate in 2011. These crimes are not just petty crimes. The crimes are assaults, rapes, and murders.

We are living in a city that people easily are able to throw together a party where excessive drinking and immorality are expected, but when a church or community association tries to put together a wholesome family movie night, paper work falls through the cracks and road blocks seem to come from all sides at the last minute.

So, the main reason for this post today is to ask you to begin earnestly praying for our family. God is doing some amazing miracles through Mosaic and Restoration. People are being saved and families/relationships are being restored. Churches are working together in a never before seen way. Light is being shown in this city. Satan is not happy.

This city is full of wonderful aspects. The food is incredible. The music is unmatched. The people are relational and warm. They enjoy relaxing and having a good time with one another. These aspects are not the bad in this city. The problem is that Satan has corrupted these wonderful aspects. He has taken what God intended for good and used it for evil. He has added many other evil aspects into this city such as drugs, sexual immorality, sex trafficking, drunkenness, and the like.

Mosaic has begun to pray that the Lord would Redeem the "good things" and destroy the bad. I have been made aware this week that this prayer means we are opening ourselves up to a spiritual war I never wanted to imagine was there.

Please join with us to pray for the redemption of our mid-city neighborhood and this city of New Orleans. Please pray for the success of the events Mosaic and Restoration attempt to do to minister to this mid-city neighborhood. As you pray for these things, please pray for the protection of my family and the families of Mosaic and Restoration working to minister in a city that Satan thought he had conquered. God has already won the war, but we have a number of very very hard battles to fight.

Thanks! We are very grateful for you!

Our Tent

When I was a kid I remember putting sheets over our dining room table and pulling as many blankets and pillows under the "fort" as we could find. We made it as cozy as possible and then spent hours reading and playing in it.

From that, I got the idea of giving Karis and Thia a "fort" although they do not call it a "fort". They both call the contraption a tent. On this day they both had to have their pillows to lean against and Karis had to be dressed up in her Cinderella dress. They both grabbed a number of books and then piled on Karis bed. I threw the blanket over the top and they laid underneath their tent for a while. It was not as long as I had hoped because Thia realized that when she sat up completely her head brushed against the "tent". She then realized that she could completely aggravate her sister by making the tent go up and down. After a while the tent completely fell a part which caused hysterics on the part of Karis. Needless to say, it sounded like a good idea at the time. Maybe the mixture of a 4yr old and a 2 yr old under the tent is a bad combo. Karis has enjoyed the tent for much longer by herself and during her naps. Maybe Thia will catch on to the "point" as she gets a little older. Oh well....it makes for great stories.

Bye Bye Nassy

Thia said goodbye to her passy at the end of last week. Here is a video of her saying goodbye...

Page and I expected a really big fight at her next bed time. Her first nap was pretty rough, but she has gone to bed every other time with very little trouble. It took about 2 or 3 days and she has completely stopped asking for the "nassy" all together! YAY!!!!!

"I like crusts now, Mom!"

A few days ago I made myself some toast for breakfast. While I was eating the toast, Karis decided that she would like some toast for breakfast as well. It is amazing to me that my girls timing is so exact. It seems that right as I sit down to eat, they have another immediate need that needs to be met. For this reason, I am not sure I remember the last warm breakfast I have had. However, this is a topic for another day. The topic I am writing about today is Karis and her overnight love for crusts.

Each time I make toast or a sandwich for Karis I usually get a very long speech about how she emphatically "DOES NOT" like crusts. I heard the long and the short versions of this speech. It usually goes something like this...."Mom, you know that I don't like the crusts on my sandwich (or toast). I have never liked the crusts on my sandwich (or toast). Even when I was a little baby, I did not like the crusts on my sandwich (or toast). You are not going to leave the crusts on it are you, Mom?"

Well, on this day I told her that I was leaving the crust on the toast because it was still hot. I have always found hot toast easier to eat with the crust on. It is less likely to burn my fingers that way. At least this is the excuse I gave her at the time. I really do find toast easier to eat with the crusts, but the real reason I left the crusts on was because I was hungry and wanted my breakfast. For some reason she decided to actually try the crusts. The next thing I hear is...."MOM!! I LIKE CRUSTS!!!

Just think, another few seconds of doing the "old way" and my daughter would have never experienced the joys of crust eating. :-) Thank goodness I was so hungry that day.

Picture of Karis eating the crusts.

MOM!! I LIKE THE CRUSTS!!