Ready to go back!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am writing to invite you to be part of a journey that God is continuing to take me on. This time though, I have the extra blessing of bringing my husband Mike along with me. Last year I had the opportunity to go to Guatemala in January with a mission group from Michigan. While I was there we visited several different areas and did a variety of mission work. Everything we did was wonderful but there was one part that really stood out for me. We visited the Guatemala City Ghetto. This is an area in Guatemala City where the poorest of the poor live. When I was there with the group, we handed out Bibles, spoke to some of the residents about Christ, gave out candy, toys, and other various items. I really felt drawn to the ghetto and was wishing that I could spend some more time there. This was the beginning of my passion for the people in the Guatemala City Ghetto. From the minute I returned home, I felt a very strong urge to make plans to return as soon as possible.

While I was there in January, I met Ashley. She is an American, 21 years old, who has lived in Guatemala for 3 years. She has a passion for the people who live in the ghetto, and has even moved to a home in the ghetto so that she can be with them as much as possible. She has had a great influence on the people there, being Christ to them, and showing them love as Christ would do. I kept in contact with Ashley, and 8 months after I returned home, I was heading back to Guatemala by myself. This time I was going to stay with Ashley. I was so excited because this time I was going to really get to see what life in the ghetto is like, and develop relationships with the people who live there. To me, I can’t think of a better witness for Christ than to be willing to go live with these people, get to know them, and show them love by helping them in any way I can. This is exactly what I did. Ashley and I made meals for several of the families, we counseled with a few people who were struggling with issues, we gave out clothing that I had brought with me, as well as toys and other items. We also went out to the city dump, where families live, and gave them fresh baked bread that I had gotten at a bakery in the city. This was an awesome experience for me and it was a blessing for the people there as well. There is nothing more exciting than being able to tell them why I am doing what I am doing. It is all about Christ, the love He has for me, and how I want to spread that love to them.

Now, I am being blessed with the opportunity to go back to Guatemala. This time, I am getting to bring Mike with me. We plan to go December 12th – 20th of this year. I am excited that he will be able to join me in blessing the people of Guatemala. We plan to stay with Ashley once again. She is still living in the same place in the ghetto. We plan to do as many things as we are able to while we are down there. Some of the plans so far are to have a street dance one evening, have an American style cookout for the neighborhood another day, and to spend some time with the young guys who are looking for acceptance and unfortunately finding that acceptance through their participation in street gangs. I want to try to show them that there is so much more to life and other ways to fill the desire to belong than to take drugs and engage in gang activity. Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest issues in the ghetto, and many young boys and men die due to gang violence. Many innocent people lose their lives to this gang violence as well.

We are asking that you will pray for our trip to be a success and be exactly what God wants it to be. Also, as you know, any kind of mission trip takes a certain amount of money for travel and supplies. We are blessed to be able to stay with Ashley so we won’t have any expense for lodging but we do need money for our flight. We also need money for buying food and other supplies for the activities while we are there. Please pray about this and if you feel that God lays it on your heart to contribute to us financially we would greatly appreciate it. If you don’t feel that you can contribute financially, we are also looking for people who would commit to praying for us that we receive the funds that we need for the trip and that we will have a safe trip, and that we will truly be able to show the love of Christ to the people of Guatemala. If you want, you can do both, financial and commit to prayers. We are greatly appreciative of either or both!

May God Bless You!!


Mike and Amy



To see pictures and read about my last trip, please click below to view my blog.

http://amysbeat.blogspot.com/2008/09/guatemala-my-second-home.html

1991 Toyota MR2 For Sale

I know this will shock many, but I am putting my favorite car up for sale. I have decided that I want to buy a newer one, and I don't have a big enough driveway to keep both. It makes me sad to sell it. It has been a great car that I have loved to drive. I am going to post pictures on here so that anyone who asks for pictures from the ad can be directed to my blog and easily get the pictures. Here are the details for anyone else who might happen on my blog and be interested.


1991 Toyota MR2, 5-speed manual, 2.0 liter, 4 cylinder turbo engine, new 16" wheels, power door locks, power windows, power steering, AM/FM radio, CD player, cold a/c

The mileage is 198,000 and the engine was rebuilt around the 130,000 mile mark.


The car looks and runs great, especially considering it's age. It does have a small oil leak and the t-top seals leak a during heavy rain. Other than that, I am not aware of any problems with the car. These cars are very rare and hard to find ones that look as good as this one. I am asking $4000 for the car. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at amym1130@aol.com. I receive my email very quickly so you will get a fast response mostly likely.

Out of the mouth of a 4 year old

I heard something today that really made my heart happy. It goes back to before my second trip that I took to Gutemala, where I took hundreds of pounds of clothing and shoes and other things to share with the people wo call the ghetto their home. These people are very poor, yet they are happy. They don't have loads and loads of stuff like we do here in the USA and they are very thankful for all that they have. I was blessed with the opportunity to go spend the week living with them in the ghetto and I took lots and lots of clothes with me that had been donated, and I was able to give out clothing to many many familes. I saw the excited sparkling eyes of the kids and parents alike when I handed them clothing that they really needed and told it was for them, for free. So many got new shirts, pants, shorts, hats, socks, shoes, toys, and even dinner was cooked for many families. It was great.

One thing that happened before I left was that my four year old niece gave me some shoes of hers that were too little for her. She wanted those shoes to be given to a kid in Guatemala who did not have any shoes and needed some. I think that is so awesome that Faith, my niece, was able to understand that there were other little boys and girls like her out in the world who did not have shoes and that she wanted to help by giving her shoes to them. Isn't that just precisous? Well I took her shoes and I even took a pitcture of the kid who was blesses enough to get the shoes from Faith, and gave it to Faith to remember her good deed.

I just found out today that Faith still talks about Guatemala on many different occasions. I heard the story today about when Faith and Hannah, my nieces were talking with Heather, their mom. Heather was saying that they should be blessed that they have shoes and Faith said ya, like the kids in Guatemala who dont have shoes. Hannah said "ahhhh," showing sadness for those kids. Faith piped right up and said "it's OK, Aunt Amy will go down there and give them shoes so they will be ok." I heard that story and it just melted my heart!!! Faith really understands what it is all about and I was able to be a glimpse of Jesus for Faith to see!!! I hope and pray that this sticks with her and that she will be ready to take shoes down there with me some day when she gets a little bit older. Faithy has such a great heart for "the great comission" and she is only 4 years old!!

Guatemala

I have finally gotten some pictures from Guatemala to show some of the beds that have been purchased with the money that was go graciously donated. To those of you who donated, I really appreciate the kindness. I have gotten many thanks from Ashley, on behalf of the families in the ghetto who have benefited from your kindness. I want to ad one more interesteting, yet chilling bit of information.

You might remember me talking about Elmer, one of my new friends in Guatemala. I spent time with him in January when I was there, and he had gotten out of the gangster lifestyle, and was following Christ. Well things happened, I won't go into all of that here, but he ended up back on the streets and hanging with a different gang. I did get to spend time with him again when I was there in September, but he had changed a lot. His spark was gone. Well, a few weeks ago he was shot. He had to have surgery to get the bullet fragments out of him. Anyway, he is now getting better and he has relayed his thanks many times to me, and to those who donated, for the awesome bed he has gotten to sleep in for his recovery. He lives in a house where there are a bunch of people living and they usually are 3-4 in a bed. Since they just received a new bed, he has been able to have a bed for himself during his recovery time so that he does not get kicked or hit by anyone and tear open his stitches, which by the way he has running from his belly button straight up to chest. I would post a picture, but it is not all that lovely to look at.

Thanks again to those of you who have helped in any way for my missions to Guatemala, whether it was financial for my trips or beds, or donating clothing for my Sept trip, or praying. I hope that God will open the door up again soon for me to get back there. I miss the people in the ghetto! I have such a passion for them, and hope to see them again soon.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Sorry there are not more pictures, but Ashley has been having trouble getting them to me, and I wanted to go ahead and post what I have for now. There were more beds purchased than what I have pictures of. I will try to find out the total of how many beds were purchased and will post it as soon as I find out. I did have a list of names of all the families but I lost it...........sorry.

The above picture is Elmer, the one who was shot. I decided to put the pic of him before he was shot rather than the one of his with his stitches showing.

I Am A Loser

I struggle with something that I will share. I am not about to get all personal, deep, emotional or anything like that. No, this is something that most Americans struggle with. Weight. I love to eat, therefore I gain weight! As I said, this is a problem most of America has, some admit it and try to do something about it, some people are told by their doctor that if they don't lose weight their health will be jeprodized, and others are happy the way they are.

For the past several years I have not been happy where I am, weight wise, and I have tried and tried to change my habits and lose weight, but it was just not happening. I would commit to myself that this is the day, things will change, but nope, it never did happen. I felt like I was in a never ending battle, until one day, the first Sunday of 2009, I was at church, and the pastor asked us all what we would like to give to God. This is not like a new year's resolution. I hate those and one year vowed to never make one again, and so far, that is the only new year's resolution that I have ever kept. No, this was not a resolution he was asking us to make, or even a goal. He was asking us what we ned to give to God. My first thought, I need to give God control over my body, specifically over what I put into it and how I care for it. This was not an easy decision and I did not take it lightly, but I did just that. I gave this control over to God. We were asked to actually write this down, and as a sign of giving it over to God, we were asked to come up front, and put the paper that represented what we wrote into a bag. Rod, the pastor, would then burn them. So, this was it, I gave it to God.

Right after I made this commitment, things kept happening to remind me of what I had promised. I receive a daily devotion in my email. For the next several weeks, it was about how us taking care of our bodies is an important part of our spirutial life. This was definately an encouraging way to start out in this new commitment. Then, about the 3rd week of January, there was a "biggest loser" contest that started at work. I decided that I might as well join in as further motivation to keep my commitment. I mean, I can use all of the encouragement I can get right now!

You are probably wondering by now how things are going.........either that or you are bored out of your mind, but hey, I am not making you read this. You an stop at anytime. But, I am glad to say that I have been doing well at my committment. I have lost 15 pounds since the first of the year, and this past week at work, where we weigh in once a week, I was the biggest loser of the week! I was quite surprised when I heard that I had won for the week. I was needing that encouragement though, because this has not been an easy battle, and I have a long way to go. I guess that is part of why I am blogging about this. Sometimes I feel like I am in this battle alone. I know that I have God on my side.......but it might help to also have some others on my side who might be a bit more vocal to me. If anyone reading this feels like coming along side me with some encouragement or accountablity, please let me know and please do so! I would definately appreciate it. I need to be asked and held accountable for two things. How I am doing with my eating habits as well as how I am doing with my exercise habits, the second of which I have not been doing well on.

Thanks for reading...I know this is not the most interesting blog, but I felt that if I share this with more people that I will have to do that much better to make sure I keep up my commitment!

I have a scripture to add to my message. This scripture is not in the context of weight or keeping ourselves in shape, but I do believe it can apply just the same.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

I Am Going Back To Jail - and I am excited about it!

It has been a while since I have written. I guess I just did not have anything to say that I felt was worth writing about. However, I have some interesting news that I am excited about now. Actually it came about last Sunday. I was asked by the director of the Clark County REC #5 to be in charge of putting together a music team for the weekend. If you have been reading my posts, or know me, you would know that I was on the music team for the Clark County REC #3 last year. I was definately hoping that I would get to do that again soon. Well this time, I am not only getting to play, but I am actually putting the music team together. It is a huge responsibility, and I am honored to be given the task. Now, as a drummer, it is kind of hard in dealing with the chord sheets and stuff for the singers and other musicians, since as a drummer I could care less about chords......but, I am pretty confident that I can make it work. I already have most of the band put together, and they are all very excited to be a part of this ministry.

The REC is basically an Emmaus Walk for those people who are in jails or prisons. If you don't know what an Emmaus Walk is, it is a weekend of getting away from everything and having time to focus on your spiritual walk, your relationship with Christ, and to help Christians become better leaders in their community. The REC is similar, although it is adapted for those who are incarcerated, and is more evengelical in nature, since many who attend are not already Christians.

I am looking forward to this opportunity to visit the jail again and to worship the Lord with a group of people who, sadly, are forgotten by many in the community. Ya, they have messed up and are there for a reason, but through Christ they can have the same eternal freedom that we are all promised! I think it is awsome that our theme song for the weekend is "I Am Free." We want to show these ladies that although they are not physically free to do what they want, if they choose to follow Christ, they are free indeed!

John 8:32 "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

The Big Game

Today I went to see my niece play basketball.....she is 4. Her team is called the Black Knights and they played against the Bumblebees. I think this was her 2nd game but it was the first one that I have been to. It was too cute. They have these little short goals, and a miniature basketball. They basically take turns on who gets to bring the ball down the court, and of course there is no passing, and not much dribbling, but.......they have to start somewhere.

I posted a little video of Faith bringing the ball down the court. For some reason, when she has the ball, she can't seem to say on her feet. It is pretty funny. You will notice how she loses the ball to the other team and they give it back. How cute is that. They love to take turns.

Part 2 of Last Weekend

In my last post I said that I was going to post a part 2 of my weekend that I had....last weekend. I guess since this weekend is already here, I should probably do that. I dont know if anyone even reads my blogs, so maybe no one has even been waiting for part 2, but here it is anyway.

Last weekend, besides playing in the band for the Rise to the Challenge middle school retreat, Mike and I also sponsored Patrick on a Chrysalis. For anyone who does not know what that is, it is similar to an Emmaus Walk but it is designed for teenagers. For those of you who don't know what an Emmaus Walk is...just read my old blogs and you will learn all about it.

I felt very blessed to get to sponsor Patrick on his Chrysalis, as he is one of my best friends. I know the blessing I got from going on my Emmaus Walk, and even more so from working on an Emmaus Walk and an REC. I was happy to be giving Patrick a chance to receive those blessings as well.

When we got to see Patrick it was great to see that he had experienced God in a new way...and mostly through the selfless love of others, mostly people who he did not even know. I prayed and continue to pray that this experience was great for him and that in some ways I got to and still get to help in his continued Walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Love you Patrick!

Rise to the Challenge Blog Part 1

This past weekend was a very busy but very fulfilling one for Mike and me, as well as many others. A while back I was asked to put together a band to play for a retreat at the Highland Hills Middle School. It was for junior high aged kids. I put together a band of people who I already play with regularly, and it turned out awesome. Barry on lead vocals and guitar, Andy lead guitar, Mike on bass guitar, Thomas on keys, and myself on drums. We had an awesome time playing together and it would seem that the crowd, kids and adult workers as well, really got into the worship big time and loved praising God through the music. Since we were set up in a gym and playing for young teenagers, we really got to rock it out as big as we wanted to, and boy did we take advantage of that opportunity. It is not too often that we get that chance. It was so awesome to see the kids raising their hands, jumping up and down, dancing and holding onto friend, just so excited and happy to be worshipping God. You saw at the beginning of the blog some pictures and below is a video. It too way to long to upload this, so here is a link to my youtube page where all of the videos are uploaded. You can hear first hand what we did, and in some of the videos, you can see the kiddos jumping around and having a blast.

http://www.youtube.com/amym1130 (click here to view all of the videos)

My weekend also involved another exciting event, which I will blog about in part 2, so come back soon.

Wii Fun!

Much to my sister-in-law's surprise, yes, I played a Wii for the FIRST time on December 23rd. We were at my best friend, Laura's house and we played it and had an awesome time. I loved it. I always figured I would enjoy the Wii more than traditional video game consoles, because of the more "involved and active" nature of the games and the controller technology. Well I was right. I played it and I was hooked. So the next day...on Christmas Eve, Mike and I are out looking for a Wii. Now, we are sensible people and realized that we would probably not find one, and we didn't, but it was worth a try.

Last night, we had our Christmas gathering with my dad and family in Madison. We got our Christmas gift from my dad, which is money, and the thought is that when we can find it, we will get the Wii. On the way home we decided to stop in the Walmart in Scottsburg, and I went straight for the electronics area. I see what I think is a Wii console but I figure it can't be, it must be the Wii fitness or something like that. There was a Walmart worker standing there so I ask, is that a Wii? He says ya..."we just found it. We told someone a little while ago we were sold out and then we found this one back there. We just put it in the case 5 minutes ago." Of course I quickly say I want it and we got our other things to go along with it and made our purchase.

I have already throughly enjoyed my new toy. Mike and I stayed up too late last night playing, knowing that we would be getting up early for church, but it was worth it! And yes, we did get up and go to church! Then after lunch today, "our boys" came over and we had hours of Wii fun playing.

So that is one of my Christmas fun stories. I know we are not to relish material things, and I can say I am one who does not do that, and I think most who know me would agree to that. But, I do think that God allows us to have fun things and He enjoys seeing His children have fun, and I can't help but wonder....were we prompted to leave Madison just at the right time, and prompted to stop at that Walmart just in time to find that Wii? Hmm....makes you wonder. I know for sure that my God works in the big things in my life AND the little things....

Guatemala Bed Frenzie!

My last post was about how I am on a mission to get beds for families in the ghetto of Guatemala city who are very very poor. Read the previous post for more information on that. Well I am so pleased and thankful to God to say that I have already sent $150.00 to Ashley, my friend and contact in Guatemala, and she bought 5 twin beds with that money. Those beds were a huge blessing to some families there. I also have already gotten $600 more that was donated by other people to send down there to purchase more beds!! The families in the ghetto of Guatemala are going to be so blessed by the people here in Indiana who have been so gracious as to donate to them.

I can say that this has me aching to be able to go down there myself and help buy, deliver, and set up the beds, but I don't think that is going to happen......however, I don't ever put limits on God! If He wants it to happen, it will happen. But, if it does not, I will be sure to ask Ashley to take bunches of pictures for me of the "bed frenzie" in the ghetto and send them to me so I can enjoy and share them.

A big shout out of thanks to Mom, Chastity, the Hornung family and the Cook family!! You shall be blessed by God for your generosity!

Ever since I have been back from Guatemala this last time I have been working on another mission that I came up while I was down there. As we hosted families into Ashley's house and fed them dinner, we were able to get to know the familes and their situations. This family was our first guests the very first night I was there. I learned that they do not have a bed. Many famlies here in la Limonada have a bed but there will be many who sleep in that one bed. Yet, some don't have even one bed. This family lives in a tin shack of a house, that has a dirt floor. They have no beds at all so they sleep on blankets on the floor. During the raining season, the water comes into the house and the floor where they sleep becomes mud. I felt a strong pull to be sure this family would receive a bed. I talked to Ashley about it and she got some things worked out in her end and found out that we can buy a set of bunk beds for $150 each. I had already been saving up money for this express purpose, so I have already sent the check to buy this family this set of bunk beds. Below you will see pictures of this family. They make tortillas in their home to sell to try to make money. doing this day in and day out makes their walls stained from the smoke and soot of the fire. This is their reality, their life, everyday of every week of every month. I am praying that when they get this bed given to them that they will see love and I pray that the love they see is the love of Jesus Christ. I want them to embrace His love.

Look at these pictures. Look at the situation they are living in right now. Then come back later and see them again with their new bunk beds in their home. See the excitement that will be in their eyes.

Once Ashley gets the beds and they get them in this family's house, she will get us some more pictures to see how it looks. Then the next step is to see who else we can help. Ashley already has two more familes in mind who are in similiar situations, and who need beds. If anyone of you out there reading this would like to join in with this mission, please please contact me at my email amym1130@aol.com I would love to have others join in this mission with me. You will be so blessed if you do.

Thanks for taking time to read this and if you want to read more about my last trip to Guatemala, click on the link below. It will take you to the page where I blogged and put up pictures after I returned from my trip.

http://amysbeat.blogspot.com/2008/09/guatemala-my-second-home.html

visit

A month ago I met a new friend, who happens to be a pastor. He pastors a small church off highway 135, between New Salisbury and Corydon. I told him that we would come visit him sometime soon, and today was the day. Mike and I went to his church this morning. It was a very nice visit. Their church is small, only around 50-55 in attendence. It was really nice, everyone was very friendly and it seemed like a family. It is a Methodist church, so they only take communion each month there is a 5th Sunday, so today was a special communion service. I really enjoyed how we all went forward to partake in the communion meal. It makes it a very active participation in the communion ceremony. I liked that. I am sure I will be around there for more visits soon.

After church Mike and I went out with my friend and his wife for lunch and had a really good time. It was nice to be able to sit down and just chat with some good friends. Then this evening Mike and I went to my parents house. Today is my birthday, so my mom made my favorite meal and a birthday cake for me, and we enjoyed visiting with them and my brother and his family.

It was a very nice day all around. A good day for a birthday.

Emmaus Walk

It has been a week now since the ending of the women's Emmaus Walk that I worked. I planned to blog about it as soon as I got home but for some reason I just did not feel like I had the words to say at that time.

For those who don't know, I was playing drums on the music team for the walk. And for those of you who don't know what an Emmaus Walk is, I will just say that it is a 72 hour experience that is open to all Christians to attend, and it is designed to help you focus on your walk with the Lord, strengthen your walk, and help you become a better servent for our God. If you have never been on one and want to go, let Mike or myself know and we'd love to talk to you about it and if you feel it is for you, we'd sponsor you to go.

This walk was the first one that I had worked. I worked on an REC, which is the same kind of experience but for those who are incarcerated. I loved working that REC. I know that I blogged about it a while back when I did it. This was different, and I really did not know what to expect, but it was great. I saw many women open themselves up to the working of the Holy Spirit, and because of that many lives were changed..for the better!! Since I was playing drums and not working as closely with the women, I did not get to know a lot of them, but I did have a few who I talked to and one who I am keeping in contact with. She grew a lot on the walk but still has a lot of stuff to deal with and I want to continue to talk to her and get to know her and hopefully God will help me to help her. I also came home with a new good friend, which I did not expect to do. He was actually working the walk also. He is a pastor and a great man of God! We got the chance to talk and get to know one another and build the start of a new friendship that I hope continues.

I do have to say that God intervened in a great way on this walk, on many occasions. The most personal and close to home for me was the band. We had a tough time getting things together and did not feel (at least I did not feel) that we were ready, but I think that God worked through us and the women seemed to really have a great time worshiping God through the music. That is the whole reason that we are there, to lead them in praising and worshipping God, so....mission accomplished. Yet another time when God came through and made things happen.......God is Good!

One more note, I was asked by someone who I saw this past weekend to put together a music team for a middle school event in January. I am pretty excited about this. I have already started working on it, and am looking forward to rocking it out with a bunch of middle schoolers, and hopefully bringing some of them to Christ!!

Update

I have posted on here a few times about a potential situation where Mike and I might get to adopt a set of twins due in April. Well I had just recently posted that I had not gotten any news lately about the situation. My contact person, Lindsey, has moved away from where the birth mother, Autumn, lives, so she has not talked to her much lately. Tonight I was surprised to have a message from Lindsay when I got off of work. She was upset though, and asked me to call her. I did, and I got some very sad news. Autumn had found out that the babies are a boy and a girl, which is what we were hoping for. However, the baby boy just died. It was due to a genetic disorder that is inherited, and apparently runs in Autumn's family. Lindsay was not really clear on all of the details, but it has something to do with extra fluid building up. It is something that usually goes away as the baby develops, but in some cases, as in this one, there is hemoraging, and the baby died. As far as they know the baby girl is OK and continuing to develop well.

Autumn and Lee, her husband, are pretty torn up about this, as I am sure anyone would be. I am pretty upset about it myself, even though these were not my babies and there was not a final decision yet about an adoption. Please pray for all involved, and continue to pray for the decision that they need to make as far as actually choosing adoption or not.

Stuggles

I want to write to ask for continued prayer for Autumn, her husband Lee, the babies, Lindsey, and myself. Things have pretty much stopped as far as the potential adoption. Basically, I am getting no communication from anyone. Lindsey, from what I understand, is getting back with old friends........you know, the kind who get you into trouble, you end up in rehab, and then get yourself clean, and vow never to go back to them, but you do anyway? So, I have tried and tried to get in touch with her, but she is not answering and not returning calls. I have heard about her getting back with her old friends, and back into drugs from her brother, who asked for me to pray for her. She has also pretty much moved back to this area, which is where those friends are, so she is no longer around Autumn. So, my prayer for her is that she wakes up to what she is doing and gets out before she completly brings herself down again.

Now, Autumn and Lee do have my phone number and have called me once. However, I tried to call them, left a message and they never called me back. I therefore cannot call them again because that would be like I was pushing them to talk to me, and I will not do that. My prayer is that they continue to think about the well being of the babies, and continue to keep Mike and me in mind as far as adopting.

I ask for prayer for the babies, that they grow, develop, and are born healthy when the right time comes.

The prayers that I ask for myself are that I will have peace for this whole situation. When the lack of communication first started, I did not handle it well. I started having anxiety attacks, and was so upset trying to figure out what I could do to make this happen. Then I finally prayed about it, and gave it BACK to God, and asked him to help me deal with this, and to give me peace. So far, I have done pretty well since then. I still have had no communication but I am doing a better job of allowing God to handle things.

Please pray for these things. I do appreciate all of the prayers that I know have gone up on behalf of this situation, and also the words of encouragement.

Fun Times!!

Last Saturday evening was our Bonfire/Costume Party, and from what I can tell, it was a sucess. We had a pretty large group of people from around 3 years old up to............well I am not sure, but there was a large, diverse group, and everyone seemed to have a great time. A lot of people dressed up and I was so glad and thankful for those who dressed up. We had a contest and here are the results. Best overall costume was won by a landslide by Sam Fanning. He was dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow, and his costume was awesome. For the most creative the winner was Thomas Fanning, who dressed up as Elton John. Mike ran away with the votes for the funniest, but since Mike and I did not want to take our own prizes, we checked on second place, which was Thomas Fanning once again. He already got a prize so third place was tied between Patrick Fanning, my brother Doug, and myself. We decided that the prize would go to Patrick, who dressed up as the Middle Man...it is a TV show character.

All in all, I think that things went well. We had a "sit-in" movie theatre set up on the side of the house where we showed Cars, and the classic Frankenstein, we had a Guitar Hero area on the other side of the house, game area, pumpkin carving area and the bonfire. We had some great pumpkins carved, as you can see in the pictures below.

Thanks to all of you who came out and spent the evening with us. We just might have to do this again next year for those of you who missed out, and for those of you who came to come again and have fun.

The hotdog and hamburger cook of the day!
And here he is again, with his alter ego coming out!

Sam used his creative side to help make the signs for the party.
Patrick used his knife and hatchet skills to make stakes for me.

Mary Popins meets Captain Jack Sparrow meets.......um girly man!




My Aunt Marci and her friend Rusella. They are from Madison/Hanover.

The two cutest pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.


The "road" and the bunny. Pumpkin carving cowboy.

Lynn concetrated on this pumpkin for a long time! Hers is the tree that is supposed to say Happy Halloween on it.
Michael enjoyed watching Cars. I knew that it was one of his favorites, which is why I chose to show it.
Wow........brother and sister love.
My parents.......I think Pop is scared by the lion, although he was dressed as lion tamer and had his whip and chair along with him.


I am not exactly what to title this one but I was glad that Ash came and brought along her friend and that they dressed up.

Captain Jack Sparrow and his buddy Will Turner. I guess this must have been when Jack switched sides. You never really can tell who's side Jack is on!
Strike a pose!
Guitar Hero is always a hit, even among pirates.
How sweet. My brother, the road, along with his daughters Hannah the cat and Faith the pumpkin.

Here kitty kitty kitty...........
Cheyla was dressed up as a man-woman, and Carly was dressed up as Sam Fanning. Notice the bracelets on the arms.
It might be hard to figure this one out, but Evan was a gangster. His pants were sagging....and his hat was on crooked but it was making his cross eyed so he straightened it up!

Miss Mary Poppins was lovely. She also brought her date, Dick Van Dyke who you can see below. He did not bring his chimney sweep with him though.

Here he is....the love of Mary Poppins life!

Mr. Middle Man.........you will have to watch the TV show to learn more about his. It is still a bit of a mystery to me. I have seen clips though.............a funny, crime fighting guy. Mr. Elton John is in the yard! Complete with the leopard print shirt, the red leather pants and the crazy sunglasses!
The scarecrow from OZ.........

Pumpkins that were carved at the party.........and a few the night before the party.

This is my pumpkin....