O's New Life

From the moment our children are born, Drew and I began praying about our children's salvation. We seek day after day ways to grow them, and point them in direction of the God who created them, loves them, and sent His son to bear our sin on the cross and die. The daily question is, "are we doing enough? Are we doing it right? How will we know when they become authentic followers of Jesus Christ?

One thing we've always prayed is that it would be confirmed that they would not become Christians because of any pressure from us. (As if that could be an authentic conversion!) We wanted to know that God and God alone is pursuing each of their hearts to draw them unto himself.

About a month ago, our daughter O did just that. One night, she just said, "I"m ready momma. I'm ready to have Jesus in my heart." I asked her what that meant, and after telling me what she thought it was, I felt like she understood what it meant. And she said, "I just feel like He wants me to follow Him, that He wants to be in my heart. I believe that I need Him. " She told me she wanted to pray all by herself, without my help. At first, she started going through the ABC's of salvation. I stopped her in the middle of her prayer and asked her, "didn't you just tell me that you felt like Jesus needed to be in your heart? That He wanted to be there? Talk to him about how you feel about giving him your heart, your life." She proceeded to pray one of the most sacred, precious prayers I've ever heard in my life. She broke down into tears and poured her heart out to God, crying for Him to come into her life, and that she wanted to follow Him "forever," as she put it. God's presence was all around us as she prayed that prayer, and 3 or 4 weeks later, she followed her decision in baptism. We were blessed that Drew was able to baptize her. It was an enormous privilege for him. We are overjoyed with the blessing of her salvation, and give God glory and honor for it!

E's Kindergarten Play

E had a wonderful Kindergarten play on nursery rhymes. I am amazed at what those teachers do and am so grateful to them! E had a speaking part at the beginning, then did a cute little hand rhyme called Miss Sue. Here's the sweet video of the speaking part. Aunt Nancy, Mimi, and Nana all came to see her!

M's 3rd birthday

M turned 3 this March and we had a faaaaabbbulous Dora party! We had tattoos, coloring pages, and bracelet making inside, then went outside and had a real Dora adventure! We had maps and followed the trail until we got to the pinata that Swiper swiped! As you will see in the picture below, Drew graciously agreed to be Swiper again(he was Swiper when O had a Dora party when she was 3!) I love my husband, he is NOT AFRAID!! My camera battery died, so I don't have many pics of this, but it was a super fun party!

This is the absolute truth as I know it. You can buy the best of everything for your kids. You can buy them every gadget that hits the stores. You can take them to every Pixar film made. You can dress them in the most fabulous clothes. You can plan every second of their day with educational, fun, brain-stimulating activities. You can plan an extravagant trip to the most fun place on earth, with the best rides, characters, 3D movies-just a fantasy world. But every time you ask them, days later, what the best part of the trip/day, etc. was, they will almost always say something, that, to you, seems really small. Or simple. Those are the memories they keep with them. It's the unexpected detour for ice cream. Or the little dog you see on your way to the theme park. Or the snack you gave them in the car. Or the silly songs you sang that morning at breakfast.

We had a big reminder of that in Orlando. After days at Disney, my dad was just itching to take the girls to an orange grove. They were in the middle of a Honey I Shrunk The Kids playground at Hollywood Studios, and the second we asked them if they wanted to go, they all immediately jumped off what they were playing and said an enthusiastic YES!! So we spent the afternoon at an orange grove sampling fresh, delicious juice, picking oranges, learning about different types of oranges, and basically making ourselves sick on the abundance of fruit that was before us. And guess what my kids say when you ask them about our trip? They always talk about how great that trip to the orange grove was. Sometimes, they barely even mention Disney World.

It's definitely the simpler things in life that bring the most blessing.

I. Was. The Next. American. Idol.

So most of you heard that I won American Idol at Hollywood Studios in Orlando. Funny, some people thought this actually meant I made the show. I did not. But I will say, doing the one in Orlando reallllly felt real. I mean, the stage was amazing, I sang in front of 1000 people, and I had 3 judges truly critique me. So, though I'm 35 and won't ever be on the real thing, it sure felt pretty darn close. Competition wasn't too fierce, so I'm definitely not bragging. I mean, a 75 year old blind woman who sang "Crazy" by Patsy Cline nearly beat me. But it was fun! And hilarious! So, I won't embarass myself with the video of me actually singing, but here's a little clip of my interview before my performance. I'm especially fond of a tiny voice on the video saying, "that's my mommy!" See if you can catch it!

My Middle Eastern Family

There's nothing important in these pictures, except that they are Hi-LAR-ious and I cry-laugh everytime I look at the succession! This was at Epcot in Turkey or somewhere like that.

The Place Where Dreams Come True 2010

Waaaaayyyy back in February, we took a family vacation to kid (and parent!) paradise. Can you guess where we went???
My M looooooves Snow White and can actually quote almost the entire story for memory. So she was pretty pumped to meet her idol. Snow White said to her, "why hello, I'm Snow White, what is your name?" And M replied, "Snow White." She lives in her own little Fantasyland.
We were so excited that Mimi and PopPop got to go with us. Besides really enjoying their company and making great memories, they helped so much with M, because really, besides meeting the princesses and riding Dumbo, M was NOT a fan. NOT AT ALL.
Because Disney World is really a honeymoon when you're there (Ha! Note the sarcasm!) Drew and I just had to get a kiss in at Minnie's house. The kids were either really disturbed, or falling asleep, I'm not sure. And no, I have no idea why my booty is sticking out. Just a bad decision.
The best stuff is free, of course, so trying on different hats at the millions of kiosks was one of our favorite daily activities. We liked to joke with O that her teeth look exactly like Goofy's. She thought it was funny, don't get mad at me!!
Through all the rushing around, over-stimulation, and exhaustion, we all truly had a memorable, fantastic time. I'm hoping some permanent memories were made!!