Stowaway

On Alice's last day of school in our old neighborhood, she played the "stowaway" in a pirate's musical. :)

  

Alice is the stowaway to the left of the pirates ;)

She did such a good job acting and singing, I hoped I could share her singing, but haven't figured out how to do that yet! 

In the meantime, here are a few more pictures I took of the play. :) 

The stage from where we were sitting. 

The pirates. 

The pirate to beat was wearing a crown.

 

There was a singing competition. 

The stowaway, singing like a pirate! ;)

Farewell But Not Forgotten

Hannah and Lera were given a little going away party by their teachers and classmates before we moved. <3 

This was Hannah SAYING GOODBYE to her teacher ~ thank you for my presents Mrs. M.! They go great with my new POOL! :D

 

Saying goodbye to Mrs. P. ~ thank you for my new puppy play dough set. Lera and I LOVE playing with it!! 

Lera hugging her teacher, Mrs. C. ~ XOXO ~ thank you for my presents! ;)

LAST HUGS with Mrs. C. but NOT FORGOTTEN! <3 

Hannah had FUN at her party! :)

Lera could go FAST! :)

Rachel had a blast playing with all the kids lol! :)

This was Alice's school too! She came and joined us before she had to get ready for a play she did on the same day! Look for that post next! :) 

Heaven came down

For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth. Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered. Psalm 108:4-6

~ Just when I was missing heaven, it came down to me, priceless! :) ~

Do you ever miss heaven? I do! I was feeling that way when I was giving last drinks of tea to Hannah and Lera before bedtime in the kitchen last night. Out of the blue, Hannah said, "what's that?", pointing out the kitchen window. The mini blinds were closed at the top, so I had to get down to her level to see through the small opening at the bottom of the window to what she was pointing at. When I looked out, it made me very happy! I told the girls to come with me! We ran outside and saw the precious sight of orange, pink, blue, and purple sky displayed together as the sun was setting on our day, and I "knew" it was God! Thank You God for helping me feel Your presence and know You are with me. Thank You for lighting my path and reminding me You understand my heart misses the place where my soul belongs. Thank You for using Hannah to point me to You as You wanted to show me Your love in the beautiful night sky. Thank You, Jesus and Holy Spirit. Amen. :) ~ THANKFUL!! 

The Afters - Light Up The Sky (lyrics)

http://youtu.be/DylHHuvImPE

The problem

It's Saturday morning. Hannah is dancing to Just Dance Wii. I'm just getting started, wiping down counters and table tops from last nights dinner. Radio on, of course.  Who can work without it? Not me! :) And it hits me as I sing along to one of my favorites, You're an Overcomer, by Mandisa. That the problem with the world is ME! The longer I live, with each grey hair I try to cover up with hair dye, (lol) there's no covering up the love of Jesus in me. Just when I think I can't love any more than 10 people at a time, God takes us to Ukraine to adopt a "little blond angel", we called Angel, until we brought her home, now known as Lera. Ok, so that should do it, right? Nope! God's not finished teaching me how deep and how wide His love REALLY IS. Besides, we have two grandchildren, TWO on the way, and their precious mothers!! :) :) So what am I getting at? Drum roll......can I say it? Help me LORD! Gay people! What?! Yep!! I don't like it. I'm kicking and screaming inside. NO LORD! Not ME! There must be some kind of mistake. I didn't sign up for this. I'm busy loving Lera and Hannah...isn't that ENOUGH? Obviously not...you see, our daughter is gay (she likes girls). I do too, but I don't want to marry them! Didn't we raise her right? Where did we go wrong? (Silence) So it is, we are on this path, not one we would have chose to travel, nonetheless we are on it, with our daughter because, WE LOVE HER! (and, we are trying to love her friends, LORD help us!) Still kicking and screaming inside, Not wanting to discriminate and learning to LOVE "differently". (Don't worry, I still believe in Biblical marriage...a man shall leave his mother and father and cling to his wife.... Gen. 2:24).  So LORD, how do we do this?  Follow me, I know the way, I am the way! (John 14:6). 

Father, I know there must be other moms and dads reading this. I pray for them too! Please remind us it's not about us. You are the reason we live and breathe and You came to save sinners. You love us just the way we are, but you love us too much to leave us that way. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Help me to lay down my life. I want to love like you do. Teach ME LORD. In Jesus name. Amen.