Happy Birthday Mik!  

Mik has been with our family since the end of May...and he has grown 5 inches in 9 months.  He has grown tall and handsome.  Mostly he has grown as a person, as a member of the family, as a son, as a brother, as a friend, as a student. 

 He is a very gentle giant.  

Mik has had a pretty awesome week!  

We celebrated his birthday as a family.

Then he got an award at school.  It was an award for

 "Appreciating where he lives and goes to school".

  I'm so proud of all the progress Mik has made in 9 months time. 

 He has worked hard.

Now, as we speak....we have a barn full of friends that came over to celebrate with him. 

 He is pretty happy about this whole "birthday thing"....no matter what age he is.

Happy Birthday Esther!

Happy Birthday Esther!

  Yes, she is a teenager.

  It has been evident for a while that this girl is ready to be a full-on teenager, and it is finally reality.  

Thankfully, I LOVE TEENAGERS. 

Because here in a few days I will have 4 of them in this family.

 I love so many things about teens.

They are a bit reckless and crazy, and they live out loud with passion and they think they are invincible! 

 They live like they will live forever.

Teens that have their hearts right and their lives sold out for Jesus are the most effective people to get the Good News out because they live without all the fear and the stuff and the burdens that tend to creep in and weigh us down.

We celebrated and celebrated in total Esther style.  

We enjoyed friends, and chipati, and dancing, and ice cream, and music, and it just goes on and on!  

We have had Tucker,  one of our bestest friends in the whole Ugandan world, come stay with us for a few days,

Charlie and Tucker are friends and brothers and they have spent time together on both sides of the world. 

 and our Minnesota daughter, Catrina got to come for a sweet visit. 

Catrina lived with us for 10 months a few years ago..and it does my heart good to know she is willing to come back.  lol.  We didn't scare her off.  :)

 It was a true world wide celebration.  

We have so much to be thankful for and I can't think of a better time to remember that then

 Miss Esther's 13th Birthday!!

Livin' on LOVE!

25 years ago today, on Valentines, I said "yes" to love.  

It was a very worldly love, but it was

 yes 

and it was

 love,

with a whole bunch of lust in there.

My man asked me to marry him on our first Valentines together.

  My kids laugh at us all the time, because our story is not romantic and it is not recommended!

It is by the GRACE of God and HIS relentless LOVE that we have continued in LOVE.

 We were destined to fail...we pretty much did everything wrong. 

 On Valentine's Day 25 years ago, I thought  we were breaking up, and my wild man ended up asking me to marry him, and I said,

 "YES"! 

We kept it quiet because I had to finish high school first.  ha!

I fell in love with Charlie when I was barely 17 years old.

  He was a wild man. 

 He rode bulls and drove a "predator van" ( that's what we call it now). 

 It was a beautiful van with a bed and a tv in the the back.

 *kids - do not try this at home*. 

Our relationship has gone like this: 

 No plan, just wing it, and live on LOVE.

And thanks be to God...the maker and author of LOVE...He has guided us and LOVED us and taught us 

WHO LOVE

really is.

 We have just continued to say "yes" to LOVE, and 

LOVE has GROWN!

Over the years....the Lord has developed in us TRUE love. 

 As we have learned to love God and say "yes" to the source of LOVE we have learned to love each other better.  

God has been so gracious and patient with us to teach us to love and protect us as we have learned and grown.  

He has taught us to LOVE, by LOVING us perfectly.

My man is still wild, and I'm more in LOVE with him than ever before.

I pray we continue to say

 YES to LOVE

 and GROW MORE IN LOVE.

Peace and Passion

Hebrews 12:28-29

The Message (MSG)

28-29 Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? 
Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God.
 For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. 
God himself is Fire!

Peace and Passion.

They seem a bit contradictory. 

 The Holy Spirit is often described as "fire" or "water" in God's word.  

 I was thinking about that the other day, as I'm watching someone in my world who has walked away from a whole bunch of good stuff that makes a whole bunch of good sense,  and set it all down in an effort to  pursue a passion,

 a passion to follow God....and there is peace.

A river can rage and destroy,
and cleanse and cool, 
at the same time it can be the most peaceful sound and sight ever experienced.
A river is the most inviting in the hot and dry.

A fire can rage and destroy,
 and cleanse and warm,
 and be the most peaceful sight and feel ever experienced .
A crackling fire is the most inviting in the cold and the dark.

I think Peace is misunderstood. 

 Many times, it is thought of as quiet and still and 

BORING.

I think Peace...true Peace...our Peace...is 

WILD and full of PASSION.

Luke 3:16

The Message (MSG)

16-17 But John intervened: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

Lord, 
Teach me to live with 
Passion and Peace.  
Baptize me in your
 FIRE AND WATER.