We’re MOVING….

Sorry about our ABSENCE…….

We’ll be back SOON….

One Love….

(If you want to listen to THIS video---go down and pause the music player on the right column.)

Sometimes we FORGET that we are all connected.

We are all “IN THIS” together.

We are all ONE family.

We are all sisters and brothers.

Everyone's a relative…

Everything is RELATIVE.

Life is AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL.

AND

BEAUTIFLY PAINFUL.

I guess there  comes a time in life when you start to see the ELDERS in your family go,

you start to actually SEE the LIFE on your face,

and

you came to the realization that you CAN’T SLOW IT DOWN.

I have arrived at that point.

I have arrived at a point in my life when “mortality” seems CLOSE TO HOME.

Too close.

My children are growing older…as are my parents…

As am I.

My grandparents are growing older and their health is failing.

It FORCES me to really LOOK at  life .

It reminds me of  1 Tim 5:1-8:

¹Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, ²older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

³Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. ⁴But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. ⁵The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. ⁶But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. ⁷Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame. ⁸If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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Today I pray that God eases the pain of life for our elders.

May he grant them a SERENE PASSAGE.

AND

May he grant all those who surround them….

a GRACIOUS HEART.

Wise Beyond HER years……

Life is strange.

Sometimes…WE act like it is HARD.

Well…Here is a REALITY CHECK for you.

THIS GIRL is amazing.

Her name is Katie Davis.

Not just NORMAL LIFE amazing…

BUT

BIGGER THAN LIFE AMAZING.

She is 21 and lives in Uganda.

She lives there with her 13 adopted daughters.

You read that right……13.

AND she started AMAZIMA MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL.

STINKIN’ AWESOME!!!

I read and re-read her blog..

check it out HERE.

Its TRULY INSPIRATIONAL.

Makes you feel like a COMPLETE A** for complaining …

AT ALL.

HERE is her latest post…..Get a TISSUE and GET READY to be INSPIRED.

(It is LONG…But –I PROMISE you won’t regret it.)

Love and Light…Jana

It is dark. It is quiet. The cold rain drips through her thatched roof soaking through the thin sheet she wraps around her skeletally frail body. Grace is 80 years old, blind, and all alone. Her HIV has progressed into full blown AIDS making it impossible for her tiny body to fight off any type of infection. The merciless cough caused by tuberculosis racks her body. In despair she cries out to God, a God she has not spoken to in twenty years, believing he had forsaken her when the AIDS virus took her precious husband and all 6 of her children from this earth. She wails to Him and asks if He can hear her. She knows that her life is near the end. She desperately wants to believe in something, anything, before she departs from this world. She begs the Lord that if He can hear her, if He is indeed real, He would send her a friend, a visitor, some kind of sign that someone out there cares. She falls asleep shivering, with a plastic trash bag over her head to keep the rain off her face.
The next day I make the familiar trek through the Masese III village, Patricia strapped to my back, bandaging wounds, testing for malaria, kissing foreheads. A woman from our beading group (go buy a beautifully handmade necklace and feed a child! www.147millionorphans.com) suggests that I go visit a blind old woman that she has heard of who may need some assistance, so I grab my dear friend Tamara and head deep into the village in the direction we have been pointed. I am not prepared for the sight that meets my eyes. Grace is indeed old and blind, but that only scratches the surface of her troubles. I actually spend a few minutes marveling at the fact that she is still alive. Her body is hardly strong enough to sit up, let alone stand or walk. She has not eaten in three days, and she hasn’t seen in 5 years. What gets to me most is the eerie quietness that surrounds her house, in the very back of the village near a trash pile, all the neighbors gone to work, even the wind seems quiet today. I think for a moment that her tiny mud house is exceptionally dark inside, and then I remember that for her, it is already dark anyway. I embrace this sweet woman, patting her back and kissing her cheeks and I tell her that Jesus loves her and I love her. “He does!” She exclaims. “He has sent me visitors as I asked!” Her excitement turns to a whisper, “I had stopped believing. I did not think God cared for me. Lord, I believe in You.” Tears streamed down both of our faces and together we began to pray to our Father who sees and hears and answers even the smallest of our requests.
All this took place about three months ago and was just the beginning of lots and lots of time spent with Grace. I would take her food a few times a week that her neighbors would help her cook every day. We went to many, many doctor’s appointments getting her treatment for her TB, blood transfusions, and lots of vitamins. When I brought the girls to meet her, they instantly fell in love with her sweet heart and immediately adopted her as their Jja Jja (grandmother). Most Sundays the girls and I pack up a picnic lunch and head over to Jja Jja Grace’s house to share a meal with her, read the Bible, sing and dance. The girls love it and Grace loves the house filled with noise and laughter. On Christmas day we ate lunch at her house and God gave all of us the most beautiful Christmas gift (second only to His Son, of course!) Jja Jja Grace, who just months ago had been too weak to stand, began to walk. She walked around the outside of her entire house (about ten square feet), praising the Lord the whole time. As neighbors came to watch and ask, we prayed with them to accept Jesus. Grace’s testimony was changing lives right before our eyes, and how blessed we felt to be a part of it.
Two days ago I went to visit Grace and was surprised to see that the food we had sent her for the week remained uncooked and uneaten. She said the neighbor who had been helping her cook the food had moved away three days ago, and she had not eaten since. I asked her how she had been taking her medicine, and she said that she feels around for each of her five packets of medicine and swallows one pill out of each. This presents a problem as they are all different, some to be taken 3 times a day, some to be taken two at a time, some with food, and some without. This clearly was not going to work. After talking to more of Grace’s neighbors and finding no one that was willing or even able to help, it struck me. We were going to have to move Jja Jja Grace in with us. To say that the idea of this overwhelmed me would be an extreme understatement. The girls helped me cook Grace’s lunch and wash some clothes for her, and we headed home so that I could think and pray about what to do next.
I rolled around in my bed not sleeping that night, “God are you truly asking me to do this?” And God said, “I think you know the answer. You don’t actually wonder if I am truly asking you to do this, you are just afraid of the inconvenience it may be to you to have a blind old woman in your care.” It was true. Somehow, adopting a grandmother seemed a lot more daunting than adopting a child. But it boiled down to this: Do I believe that Jesus was serious? Do I believe what He said was true? And the answer is yes. I believe that he was serious when He said to love my neighbor as myself, and I believe He meant this even when my neighbor was not tiny and cute and cuddly. I believe when He said to love my neighbor as MYSELF. He really meant to care for others as I would care for myself or my family, and I would never let myself or my family live in such conditions. How different it can be to “believe” the word of God and to take it literally.
As I thought of all the different life changes that would need to take place for us to accommodate Jja Jja Grace completely overwhelmed me, but the only reasons I could think of to NOT move her in with us were completely selfish. We have enough room, we have enough food, we have enough love. We have enough. I kept coming back to Matthew 25, a passage etched in my hear that says:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for the least of these brother’s of mine, you did not do for me.’
Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
I BELIEVE that when Jesus said, “I tell you the TRUTH,” He meant just that, that His words were true and He wasn’t kidding. YES, I believe that I am saved by faith through GRACE. Grace that is freely given and cannot be earned by anything I do. But I also believe that sometimes we rely so heavily on the Grace of God to cover our sins that we blatantly disobey His word and feel ok about it. “Depart from me you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” THAT is what Jesus will say to those of us who do not care for the least of these. I believe this is true because I believe His word is true, EVERY word is true, plain and simple. That is a heavy, heartbreaking thought. How often have we neglected you, Lord?
“I’m sick,” He said, “will you look after me? Will you invite me in?”
Yes.
In the morning I sat the girls down for a family meeting, something that is quite routine at our house. I already knew what their response would be when I asked them what they thought about Jja Jja Grace coming to live with us; I knew that they would be more than willing, excited even. They are SO MUCH better than me at giving without holding anything back. The vote was unanimous, they jumped up and down and squealed and told me thank you for having such a good idea. I laughed to myself; this was SO not my idea.
We went back to Masese that day and after women’s meeting went down to Jja Jja Grace’s house to invite her to move into our home. Tears welled in her eyes and a grin crossed her face, “God has given me a family,” she cried. “All these years with no one, and He has given me a new family!” What happened next threw me for a loop though; she said no! I looked up and wondered. All that thinking and processing and not sleeping, and she said no. She said that she was too old to start a new life and would be too much of a burden on us. She said that Jesus would be the one to take care of her and we could just continue to do what we can at her house. The girls begged and pleaded, but she had made up her mind. I will not pretend that my selfish, human heart didn’t feel some relief.
As we left, all feeling encouraged by the love God has sewn into our relationships with Grace, I wondered if He just wanted to grow me. If He just wanted to see if I would say yes. If in some small way, I was like Abraham and He just wanted to make sure I was willing to sacrifice it all for Him, only to tell me that I didn’t really have to. Jja Jja Grace may still move in; she may not. I am leaving that one in God’s hands. I believe however that the act of Grace moving into our home was not really the point; God just wanted to work in my heart. I am so thankful that He loves me enough to teach and mold me on such a personal level. I am thankful for Jja Jja Grace and all she has taught me and my family about Jesus. I am thankful for the opportunity to look into the eyes of the least of these and know that Jesus is staring back at me. I am thankful for the opportunity to simply say, “Yes.”

8limbs Helps Haiti….

My LOVELY, DEAR friend and Yoga teacher Brit is JUMPING RIGHT in to help those in Haiti!

In times like these….,when WE feel sooo helpless the ONLY thing we can do is go from SQUARE ONE.

Brits’ SQUARE ONE starts at the studio.

SOOOO….Being the SWEET SOUL that she is she is DONATING HER TIME and THE STUDIO SPACE to HELP HAITI!!!

This is the deal…..

8 Limbs Help Haiti.

They are having 4 YOGA CLASSES for Haiti.

ALL donations go to the RED CROSS for Haiti.

100%

ANY AMOUNT OF DONATIONS….

AWESOME.

SO lets ALL START at Brits’ SQUARE ONE.

8 Limbs Yoga

Classes for Haiti are THIS FRIDAY (today)and SUNDAY 6 AND 8 pm!!!!

If you don’t DO YOGA….Just drop off some $$$$$ or cans of food  or clothes. 

Life is to short NOT to.

Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

HELP

Found an AWESOME list of ways to HELP HAITI:

Look HERE!!!!!

Let us all do what we can, when  we can, where we can.

Tried and TRUE….

After having 4 kids ..I have become “THAT MOM”.

The one who has tried and FAILED at SOOOOOO many discipline techniques that I cant even remember them all.

I mean there was a time when i SWORE i would never spank my kids.

ROOKIE.

LOL

I NOW believe that there are times when you HAVE to spank.

ON OCCASION.

When “the punishment” fits “the crime”.

We discipline for DIFFERENT REASONS:

I KNOW that I want my kids to HONOR and RESPECT us as parents.

I want them to OBEY…the first time.

AND..MOSTLY-

I want them to KNOW that WE(the parents) are not the JUDGE…GOD is.

I have learned thru my parenting trials and tribulations that 1 day something will work ..THEN…the next day it won’t!

OR

One thing may work with 1 child and not the next!

BUT……………

After 9 years , 3 months, 1 week and 1 day…….

I HAVE learned a trick:

1. I have the BEST ADVICE for interrupting .

When I am on the phone or am talking to someone face to face(rarely eye-level) LOL….INEVITABLY –there is a child who is pulling on me or  interrupting me while I am talking.  Sooooo-A while ago we started making the kids walk up and hold onto our wrist if they wanted to talk to us.

Its AMAZING!!!

Our kids KNOW that they ARE NOT ALLOWED to interrupt so they KNOW NOW that this is a better choice when ASKING for something.

It produces BETTER RESULTS.

LOL

They KNOW that we will ANSWER …WHEN we get a moment.

When WE ARE READY!

And …IT WORKS!!!!!!!!

Prov 22:15: "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."

Prov 23:13: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die."

Prov 23:14: "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell (Shoel)."

Prov 29:15: "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."

A Vacation in Pictures….

   

     

We had a GREAT time with Pawpaw and Mimi Suzy.

I asked EACH of the kids what their FAVORITE thing they did was and HERE it is:

SHEBA:

“I liked making the cupcake!  It was fun and tasted like strawberry cupcakes!”

MALACHI:

“I liked getting my Heelys, and making the GIANT cupcake.   Geo-caching was fun too!!!  I liked the travel bug Sheba found.”

SHASHAMANE:

“I liked the fort!  We got to hear the cannons ..it was only sound.”

EZEKIEL:

“My favorite was Geo-caching.  I liked the one near the ampitheatre.  It was right near a palm tree and it had 1 travel bug in it. It was pretty hard to find.  We tried twice.  It was in a place where there was water for the people to drink while they made coquina bricks!!!”

(love the history lesson in the last one!!!  Thanks Pawpaw!!!)

We also got a Wiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They LOVE it!!!!

I have to referee …..ALOT NOW!

I also got an AMAZING little gadget called a FLIP VIDEO…

STINKIN’ AWESOME!!!!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

We had a great time and hated to see them go.

they ONLY thing that gets me thru is ……

My MOM, SISTER and NEICE are NEXT!!!!!!

Family is such a blessing and every year I REALIZE it MORE.