Auction for adoption benefit

On Saturday evening, there was a spaghetti dinner and auction to benefit the adoption of a couple of special children in Peru.

Paige and Jim adopted sweet Emma last year and are looking to adopt the other two! You can read about it here.
Beth helped make this auction possible. An incredible caring woman with 2 adopted children from the Ukraine.


When they found out what the auction was for, the auctioneer donated his time and the building was also donated rent free!!






There was a lot of cool stuff! Over $3,000 was raised! Foreign adoption costs are really high so if you want to help, I know they would love that!! Help bring home these precious children!

Mom2Mom: Blessed

One of my routines is the monthly Mom2Mom we have. We have a Tuesday evening session and a Wednesday morning one too.

A light meal is enjoyed.

And coffee and tea, of course!

When I was a young mom living in Wichita while Al was doing his residency, and me not knowing many people at all, I attended a mother's hour that was held at a church close to our apartment. I loved it. Didn't know anybody there, but it met such a need for me. Learning how to be a better mom; learning how to walk with Jesus. Some older women in their 70's took care of Josh and the other children. I loved them! You could tell they just enjoyed the children so much!

Even after moving away from Wichita, I still kept going back each month. Many years later, when my kids were all in school, the our older women's Bible study I belonged to started a mother's hour that we call "Mom to Mom" (it has morphed to M2M for some of us)

Each month we have a special speaker. This month it was Gail Voth. You can read about their story here. The book we are going through this year for M2M is "Growing Grateful Kids" by Susie Larson. I highly recommend this book! The section we looked at was "Teach Perspective". The chapters were - Develop Compassion, Ask for Wisdom, Live Humbly, and Embrace Contentment.

Gail shared that in America we are so very blessed and we need to bless others with what He has blessed us with. She said that if 58 airplanes (747's) fell out of the sky each day, we would take notice!! We surely would! And yet, each day 29,000 children die and do we even bat an eye?! 70% of those are from poor water, malnutrition, childbirth (her son was in this category), respiratory illness or malaria.

Today I read this blog . Please take time to read it. It will hurt; it made me mad. How people can be so callous toward others, especially children, I do not understand!! There must be some way to intervene. But in such a country, how? I know I can pray. "Prayer is the wrist that moves the hand of God!" There is a Dark Power in the universe - he is the power behind death, suicide, disease and sin. The Evil One hates God, hates anything that reminds him of the glory of God...wherever it exists. We are at war. We each have a crucial role to play. We must ask Him what our role is to be. He ultimately wins and Satan will be conquered!

* * * * * * *

During the Wednesday morning M2M, I help out in the nursery.

With the older ones, I tell a lesson that reflects what the speaker talks about. So we talked about sharing our blessings with others.

Count Your Blessings (taken from "Growing Grateful Kids")

* If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep - you are richer than 70% of the world.

* If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somplace...you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

* If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

* If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

* If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death...you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.

* If your parents are still alive and still married...you are very rare.

* If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful...you are blessed because, although the majority CAN, most do not.

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Not the routine

My Tuesday routine usually involves leading the Young Mom's Biblestudy and also helping my Aunt Millie. But this week is Mom2Mom at church so we don't have Biblestudy with the mommies.

After taking care of Aunt Millie, I took care of the grandkids, which isn't my usual routine. But Jill was running a fever. So the girls came. And it was a gorgeous day. This is January?? In the 50's? I LOVE it!! (today it snowed, by the way - that is Kansas for you!)

The girls brought their scooters and we took a walk around the lake. A 2 hour walk!!

"Halt!"

"Beware of the poop!"

Really?! Look at that mess! I think we have about 1,000 Canada geese around.

Seriously on Sunday morning at church, one of my nursery classes was out on our playground and the children ran under the play equipment so they wouldn't get plastered by the geese flying overhead. Can we just get some hunters out here?

I told the children to dodge the poop, but Sophie didn't have much luck. We had to wash the scooter when we got home and disinfect it!
The girls had so much fun! They have quite the imagination!
They found hills to climb.


The next several pictures are ones the girls took. They enjoy photography! I hold on to the camera (or to the strap) but I let them figure out what they will shoot and they click away.













Sophie is just singing away while riding her scooter. The girls just love being outdoors! I am not so looking forward to the next couple of months with ice and cold. A sunny, mild day with snow on the ground I will not mind.
Going back home. What a wonderful afternoon.
And Jill is well today so that is good. More on my routine on the next post.

Back to the routine

It was so wonderful having all the grandchildren with us last week!

But the holidays are done. The Alabama and Arkansas kids are back at home. And it is time to get back into the routine of things.

On Mondays, while Jill teaches music at the preschool, I have Hannah and Sophia. And I take that opportunity to teach them Japanese. This is one of the tools I use.

Today we also did flashcards with a story I made up, reviewing and learning greetings one would use in Japan. We also did a color sheet with animals and reviewed animals and what they say. Also reviewed colors.
Tonight we have community life with the young marrieds so the girls helped me make some delicioius peanut crisp bars, one of their Papa's favorites!

We sort of got cheerios all over the floor - accidents happen with little ones about! But they got out the broom and swept it all up and then took the kitchen rugs outside and shook them out! They are such helpers!


Ready for small group tonight! (and the girls got a little snack too for a reward!)

Recipe for Peanut Crisp bars:
Combine in saucepan and bring to boil:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup light corn syrup
Take off heat and blend in 1 cup peanut butter (I use crunchy)
Combine in large bowl:
3 cups rice krispies
3 cups cheerios
Add to the hot mixture and blend well.
Press into buttered (or sprayed with Pam) 9 x 13 pan.
If you want, you can melt a bag of chocolate chips and spread that on top too!