JOE TURNS DOUBLE-DIGIT....

December is a very busy month for us.

Not only do we have all the fun that goes along with Christmas, but our family also has 3 birthdays to celebrate.

Our first December birthday belongs to Joseph, who had a very special birthday this year. He turned 10 yesterday. He is now officially DOUBLE DIGITS!!!

His festivities of choice this year were just hanging at the house playing with a new

NINTENDO DS.

Plus, we watched "Get Smart", and had homemade pizza, angel food cake, and fudge royale ice cream. Not a bad menu, eh? It was all Joe's idea.

But, do you know how hard it is to get candles to stick in angel food cake?!?!

Each year I like taking birthday pictures. One advantage to public schooling is the cheesy studio portraits they take each year. It atleast ensures that you have some sort of visual timeline of your children as they grow. However, my homeschooled children have the sweet priviledge of having a photographer for a mother who has consistently taken their yearly birthday photos (they may not word it quite like that.... coming from them it may sound something more like, "Mom is CONSTANTLY snapping that silly camera in our face!"). Anyway, you can see some examples of our portrait session below. We took a little "stroll" down to the lake right at dusk and boy was it nice.

Geez..... three children double-digits now.

Reminds me that I need to enjoy each and everyday with them.

Thanks, Lord, that you have given me time each day to be with them and teach them Your ways.

BTW, as a note to my family, Barry says that Joseph is the spitting image of Mama.

; o )

PLAYING WITH PORTRAITS

I had a whim to do something fun when we got home from church this afternoon. So, I put the kids (and Barry) in some natural light with a black background and took a few Christmas portraits. Nothing fancy - still in our "church clothes", but just for fun and posterity. They didn't turn out too bad.

KT took this last one of Barry and I.

I had the honor of helping out a dear friend of mine this past Saturday as she married her only son off. I took several photos and hope to post one or two before the week is out.

I WISH I WAS IN THE LAND OF COTTON... LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY--

Meet the Cooley kids, Abbey and Robbie.

I had the priveledge of taking a few portraits of them this afternoon in a local cotton field. Yeah, genius idea, I know. However, as much as I would like for it to be, it wasn't my idea. It was their mother's. She has been a literal life-saver to me since our move. I met their sweet family when we first moved into the first rental home. They were our neighbors. I think everyone remembers what a hard time Joe had with the move and Robbie certainly helped ease his "move-sickness". So, below you'll see a few of my favorites, plus one of the Galyean Gang.

By the way, the cute pooch is "Tooley", Jackson's buddy. : o )

KT is always nosing around in new books. She finally came across a series, "Carolina Sisters", by Michael Phillips, that I absolutely LOVE. It is historical fiction and tells the tale of two Civil War Era girls who happen into each other's paths only to discover that they are biological cousins. No big deal -- except that one is black and the other white. Back then that was an even bigger deal than it is now. Anyway, the girls find themselves alone, with no one. So, they work the cotton fields in order to try make end meet.

I say all of that to say that the whole time I was in the field taking pictures today, I just couldn't get it out of mind what used to transpire in probably the very fields in which I stood. Wow. How far we have come......

"Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton,

Old times there are not forgotten,

Look away, look away, look away

Dixie Land."

GETTING IN THE SPIRIT

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

BEN'S 3RD GOTCHA DAY

Turn the sidebar music off!!!

HAPPY THIRD GOTCHA DAY, BENJAMIN!!!

WE LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!

Below you will find a video that I had been wanting to create for Ben since the day we arrived home. However, with life, a husband, 4 kids, well.... you get the picture. It didn't happen. However, our new pastor, Cameron, invited us to share our testimony and Ben's story yesterday in both services. After using up about 2 boxes of kleenexes, we got through it and it went beautifully. I pray that God will bring his heart of adoption to many people through our little one's profound story. If you want to hear it sometime, email me privately. I have a neat "journal entry" that explains it all and I'll send it to you. Just have some tissue handy. BTW, the video below is pretty long, so give yourself several minutes if you choose to watch it.

A FEW FACTS
*If 7% of the the world’s Christians adopted only 1 parentless child, the world’s orphan problem would be solved.
* If we put all the of the world’s orphans in a single file line, it would wrap around the world 2.5 times.
*There are over 400,000 churches in America, but only 113, 000 children are adopted annually.

WEBSITES TO CHECK OUT
*www.worldorphans.org
*www.hopefororphans.org
*Rick Warren - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zQYA6OgyuM
*John Piper - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgNXQ2CazUg

THE GOOD NEWS:

Romans 8:15 (NASB)--parentheses mine

"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba (meaning quite literally, "Daddy")! Father!"

BLADEN COUNTY WATERWAYS

Below you will find a glimpse of the lovely Cape Fear River. We cross this river everyday as we traverse to and from our new home on White Lake. Remember the movie, "Cape Fear"? I think it came out in the nineties? It was based on this river. I guess it would give the Cape Fear a bad name, but it is really a lovely river, complete with locks and all. Really neat!!!

And the next few photos were taken at Jones Lake, also here in Bladen County. My in-laws came to visit about a month ago and while out driving, we happened to stumble across this beautiful place at just the right time to catch a few sunset dream photos. I nearly broke my neck running about all over the place with the camera in hopes of getting a few good ones.

The water on this particular evening was so gorgeous. It was so still that it was just like a mirror.

Cypress trees jut out of the water all around its edges. The water at all the lakes here in Bladen County (with the exception of White Lake, of course) are a dark, murky red/brown. White Lake is perfectly clear as it is spring fed. Its bottom is white sand and it is a virtual dream for anyone who like the water. Since we have moved to White Lake, I find myself wanting to do nothing other than ride around on my bike, soaking in the views, smells, and feel of the Autumn air in Eastern Carolina. Yeah, I think I'm starting to like it here.

JUST FOR FUN......

ENOUGH SAID.