He's Five

And another one is another year older.  My Super Thomas is lot taller, a little thinner, and looks more like a boy than a baby boy this year. He is smart and witty and the biggest little chatter box you'll ever meet.  The kid's lips never stop moving and that goes for his little feet and legs too.  He moves constantly--until his long eyelashes close tight for sleep when he dreams quiet and still--half-way hanging off the bed, but finally, motionless. All of those little wiggles and jiggles and jabbers and clabbers make me so happy!!!  He is one super energetic kid full of personality. Social graces aren't really his strong suit. If he doesn't love you or trust you, or if he thinks your ears look funny, you will know it, but that makes the "Mom, you have pretty ears." comments just that much sweeter.

This year...

He fought like a champ to learn a new language that sometimes still comes out all mixed up, but he keeps working to get those words to come out in the right order, in the right way with the right accent.  And when all else fails, he just says what needs to be said in English with a Macedonian accent and figures it's your problem if you don't understand him. I am so proud of him for persevering in it because there is nothing easy about learning a new language.

He has finally fallen in love with his school and his teachers. 

He has continued to master the game of golf as much as one can in a country where there is no golf.  

He fell in love with tennis.

He mastered many a puzzle and MarioKart board.

He is a rockstar middle child who is best friends with his older sister and thinks his little brother is hysterical.  

He gets a prize for being the only kid looking at the camera. (Ahem, excuse me sweet little girl touching the cake that almost killed me, please, step away from the princess...) He partied-hardy with his sister and some of his friends from school at his birthday party.

 His cake was a cinch this year--all things boy and super.  Perfect for our Thomas!

On his actual birthday we were in Germany with his grandparents, which was spectacular!

He woke up as a five year old, in Munich, Germany, to a hotel room full of birthday decor.  He loved it, not to mention that across the hall, Grandma and Grandpa had presents to celebrate the day. 

The kids' birthday (and probably Christmas) present was a visit to Legoland in Germany which was a so very fun!!!  We had a blast celebrating our boy who makes us so happy every day!

Thomas, I love your stinkin' guts!!!  You are my sweet boy and I love spending my days being your mommy.  You are fearfully and wonderfully made.  God has numbered your days and his thoughts toward you are more in number than the sand. He loves you! You are smart, thoughtful, kind, funny, athletic and full of personality!  You have so many great traits and I pray that you will know that every good thing you have is from God. Son, there is much that I know you will be able to achieve in this life, but I pray that, more than anything, you will gain Christ and be found in Him, that you will have righteousness that comes through faith in Christ--that you will know Him and the power of his resurrection. He died to make you his own.  I pray that you will love him with your whole heart and abide in Him, and that from that love, obedience to Him will flow freely and happily. I LOVE YOU, baby boy! Happy 5th Birthday!

Seven

Our girl is now SEVEN! And just like last year, I can't hardly believe another year has passed with this beautiful sweet little thing, and I am so thankful for every single solitary day we have had together!  

We started the day off with birthday pancakes, just like always.

And I fought back tears as I thought about how fast the time has gone by.  Time flies when you are having fun, and it has been seven years of LOTS of fun with our girl.  

This year, she proved herself as the best big sister ever.

She learned and became immensely fluent in a second language.

She learned to ride on roller-blades and a bike with just two wheels.

She lost 6 teeth.

She told me she wanted to be a mommy (and also an artist) when she grows up. 

She fell in love with two princesses from Arendale and practiced singing like them constantly.

She conquered tons of kids' novels this summer.

She began to pray for her friends to know Jesus.

She learned even more scripture and sat and read her Bible all by herself a lot.

She believed on Jesus as her Savior and Lord and became a child of God!!!!!!

This year she chose the hardest cake ever.  I know I did a cake very similar to this last year, and I am not sure what the difference is, but this one had every cake-mishap possible. It was too short for Elsa and Ana's long model-like legs. So I added MORE layers to the bottom.  Then the cake cracked when the Long-Legged Queen and her spunky sister were pushed inside. The frosting wouldn't set, and when it did, it cracked too.  Half of my piping tools were missing (ISAIAH!). I could go on. It was tough, and I almost threw the whole darn thing in the trash and went to buy a cake that didn't have Arendale Princesses stuck inside it. But I stuck it out cause this is what my Kate wanted, and I tried not to compare it to the labor pains I felt 7 years ago... At least seven years ago, there was an epidural     a perfect beautiful little girl that I could keep forever (right?!).... Kate loved the cake and her friends all oh-ed and ah-ed over it. So I guess despite almost losing my religion over a cake, it was worth it.

On Thursday we had a Macedonian style birthday party for both Kate and Thomas, whose birthday is next week. 

We partied like wild thangs with all bagillion of her and Thomas' friends from school. We heard "May she grow big!" and "May her years be many!" from every parent who dropped off their kids. May they, indeed.

The cake ceremony was complete with three renditions of 'Happy Birthday' in two different languages, and one kid even busted out a solo. Awesome!

Our happy little family!

  We are officially partied out. Thomas' cake has been laid to rest and the other will be, wait for it... Frozen.

Kate, I am so very proud to be your mommy. I love you more than you will ever know. I am so thankful that you love Jesus and that you want to follow him.  Keep pressing into Him and He will always care for you. He will guard your heart and mind. He will give you fullness of joy and peace that passes all understanding. He is the lover of your soul. He knows you inside and out and loves every part of you. My prayer for you is that you continue to grow in the knowledge of him and, in turn, more in love with him. I pray that you will abide in him and trust him in all things. He holds your lot. Indeed you have a beautiful inheritance in Christ. He will not abandon you. He will make known to you the path of life. In His presence is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forever more. May you see it. May you taste it. There is NOTHING better! I love you with all my heart!  

Happy Seventh!!!

Thankful for the Body

Just as the hand doesn't hear or see from the elbow all that often, they are joined together, working to carry the baby, or wash the dishes, or any other number of things. The Body works together sometimes completely unaware of how it all comes together to support and bear the weight of the rest of the Body. Knit together. Functioning at its best, together. We have seen this very thing play out in front of our eyes many times over the years. And if you are at all familiar with this blog, you have heard me ramble on and on about how much I love the Body of Christ and about how very grateful I am for it. I can't get over it. It's kind of amazing! I am most thankful for the head, who is Christ, who moves in and through the members to cause them to hold up one another, loving one another and bearing with one another for His great Name's sake. This used to be a great mystery to me, but this week, it became even less of a mystery and more of a reality to me. And it is one mystery for which I am so thankful and by which I am overwhelmed with love for my Lord and the members of His body.  

Less than 48 hours ago, we put a volunteer team from our home church, the Summit in RDU, in a taxi to head back to their homes.  We had a phenomenal week with them in which we felt loved on and encouraged.  We partnered with them to love on the people of this town with servant hearts in acts of kindness.  At the beginning of the week, they led a seminar to encourage our small group to have a servant's heart, a heart like Jesus, and to branch out in their community to meet needs around them.  And then they spent the rest of their week living out the words of that seminar, that were basically just words from scripture.  Here's where it gets great (as if that wasn't great enough), the Lord, in His goodness, used the work of four different churches, three of whom weren't even here physically, to meet some needs and partner together with us this week--and none of them know one another or planned these things.... But God did!  

A church in Nevada, full of people we've never met, contacted us and asked what they could send to support us. Praying about it, I requested that they send school supplies to be given to kids here, and they did. 

Yay! School supplies!!! AND American CHOCOLATE!

So with our family and this team from the Summit, we packaged them up to be ready to hand out to kids here. Summit brought more candy and school supplies to add to these bags and along with handmade dolls from another church in NC, we headed to one of the hospitals in town to hand them all out to the kiddos who are there for long periods of time.  

After that we headed to the schools to help teach English and give out pencils, some other school supplies and CANDY!  We had a blast teaching the kids some English songs and helping them all practice the English they already know.  The local news did a story on us in the schools that you can see HERE. (Once in the link, scroll down to see a slideshow of pictures they took of us interacting with the sweet kids.) 

The group also helped hand out the final seed packets.  They loved on some of our closest friends with gifts and time in their homes. They loved on our small group by teaching them about being compelled by the love of Jesus and then modeling it for them. They loved on us, as they brought us awesome gifts from the states!

Gifts included, but were certainly not limited to, Anna (from Frozen) Captain America and one of the coolest bouncy balls ever. The kids were thrilled! So thankful! 

On Friday night, while the guys played chess with some friends and watched the kids, the ladies helped me do a women's event. A lady (again, that I've never met) gave my mom a TON of Mary Kay samples. Mom sent them, and after they sat in Brian's office for a couple of months, the Lord opened up a door for us to use them to have a make-up night as one of the women on the Summit team had an understanding of what to do with all the make-up. Her mom used to sell the stuff! And yes, that is most definitely a God-thing, cause had it been left up to me... those poor women....  

We had a great crowd and lots of fun. The ladies LOVED the make-up, heard the good news of Jesus' love for them and many walked away with their first Bible and the knowledge of how to have a relationship with Him, their Creator--who makes all things beautiful.

Such an amazing week!!!

And two days after the dust settles, I still sit in awe of the goodness of our great God who is sovereign over EVERYthing, even Mary Kay make-up. No one knew how God was going to use those dolls that were sent, or the school supplies, or the make-up. I couldn't have told you even a week ago how it was all going to play out and work together for His glory. But He did. 

He knew about the mom I would meet in the hospital who would give me her phone number and take a Bible, promising to read it, and He led a lady, over 5 years ago, in NC, to sit and make over 100 cloth dolls. 

He knew that those school supplies would be a blessing to little boys and girls sitting in a hospital as well as in the schools here, and He led a church in Nevada to collect them and ship them our way.  

He knew make-up would draw 11 new women (+ 9 others) into our coffee house to hear the news of Jesus and He even ordained a girl, from NC, who knew what to do with all that make-up be here to lead that night.

And what's more, He knew my son would be head over heels in love with an apron, yes, an apron, because it has golf clubs on it. So he had a lady make one for him and his daddy. 

Their new aprons that they couldn't be more excited about! Don't they look studly!

He knew the look my kids would make when they got new toys from America. 

He knew the week would be exhausting but full of opportunities and so he called many of you out to pray for the team, for the week, for the work. You prayed for strength and for His word to go forth and your prayers were answered. 

He knew! And He ordained it all! WOW! What a great God we serve!!! 

Y'all, He gives good gifts to His children. Do you see it? He works in and through His Body of Believers to bless, support, encourage and further His work on this earth. Man, I can't wait until heaven when we will all be together around his throne praising Him for letting us, different parts of His Body, be a part of this, His work. Until then, though, I'm gonna praise Him with a grateful heart for how I've seen His hand move in the big and small things this last week and through the years! 

Praise His Name!