Does God pull stickas'?

Well today i wanted to write about something cute Johnny said yesterday. But let me start first by saying how proud i am of all of my kids. I am so thankful that they know the Lord. They know that Jesus loves them, and that He is always with them. They know He is to come first in their life and i have even told Brandi and Joey the ultimate. That if they are ever faced in thier life with having to make a decision about proclaiming thier faith or death, then they are to choose to proclaim thier faith. They are to stay to true to Jesus Christ no matter what the cost. They know that if they were ever put in that position that after choosing to stand true to their faith in Jesus, then in the twinkling of an eye they would be with Him forever. I believe in my heart we are in the last days. Truly we have been since Pauls' time until ours, but i mean that it is very possible that during our lifetime Jesus could come back to claim His Bride. So instilling in my children the deepest love, reverance and obedience to our Lord is a top priority of mine. So yesterday i was excited when Johnny my 4 year old started asking me questions about God. He asked me " Mommy can God lift the whole world?" I said "Yes." I cant remember all of his questions because there was several, but then he asked me " Can God do anything?" I said " He can do anything and everything He wants to do." Before i tell you the funny thing he said i have to give you some background. In Johnnys pre-k class they have a monthly calendar and everyday they get a sticker UNLESS they are bad, then they get their sticker pulled. That is the teachers way of letting parents know that they may have misbehaved. So anyways back to the questions. He then asked me" Mommy..... um does God pull stickas'!" I thought that was so cute! So i said "Well He doesnt pull stickers but He has ways of letting us know when we are wrong." I was so happy for his interest in the Lord. As innocent as it was, it was another opportunity to share with this little one in the Lords flock about our Shepards ways.

The Pumpkin Patch!

Hello everyone! Here is some new pictures of me and Johnny at Serenity Farms for a field trip last week. We had so much fun. I have went every year with the kids when they go. They have a big area that is fenced in and they let all the kids go in and pet all the animals. Johnnys favorite was a 5 day old goat. It was soooooo adorable! My favorite was the Mammoth Donkey. She was a sweetheart. We also went thru Kaspers Kastle, a corn maze, a hay-ride and of course the pumpkin patch! So here are a few of the pictures i took. I hope that you enjoy them. We are all doing fine. Same old same old. The last time i wrote i talked about Patrick and i wondering if the Lord had the Ukraine in store for us. Well as of right now that does not appear to be what He has planned for us. But, He does have other plans. I cant reveal them just yet, but i am very excited, and honored! God bless you! We love you! Love, Amy

Jake took a "sword" to school today

Well i just got back from taking Jake and Joey to school. And once again Jake has totally blessed my socks right off. Now please dont get me wrong, all of my kids are special and they all have their own unique ways about them, but I have to tell you about this morning. I have been telling myself that my next blog will be about Joey, but i gotta tell ya about this because it so touched my heart this morning. Well for the past couple of weeks when i go out to pray and read my bible, i have been asking the Lord if He would make Jacob be like a trumpet. That he would "sound off" and "loudly and boldly " for the Lord wherever he is at. Whether it be at school or football, etc. Well yesterday he saw a bible that Patrick keeps in his work truck, and he asks Patrick if he could have it. Patrick said yes but that Jake would have to take care of it. So Jake gets up this morning and gets hisself ready for school and gets the Bible patrick gave him last night. He said he was bringing it to school to read during lunch! I instantly thought about my recent prayers to the Lord. So as usual we were running late for school and as i pulled up out front, Jake and Joey hopped out and had to get into school fast before they were officially late for class. Jake was running up the walkway of the school intrance with his bookbag bouncing off of his back and his bible in his right hand! It was so adorable! Now mind you, this is public school! But anyways i thought i would share this with you. It totally blesses me to see a little child like Jake who already has a fire in his heart for the Lord. I can only imagine the plans God must have for this bold little soldier in the Lords army!

Out of the mouths of babes

Well i was cleaning the boys room the other night, and came across another of Jakes writings, and it touched my heart so much. I was reminded of when Jesus said "From the lips of infants and children you have ordained praise." I asked Jake this morning about this and he said it is a song he wrote about God. It is titled " I see light." This is the translation of his song, and i will also post it after i am done. It says " I wish i had a dream that the light shined up on me with the family that I will praise the light of God is shining of God because His power is great because he has the power to heal us He is God." Sorry but he didnt add any punctuation marks, so i have no idea where some of the sentences end! But i think you can still see where he is going with this "song!"It just amazes me how the Lord is so wonderful! He works thru the youngest ones in the flock and it blesses the rest of the sheep! When you love the Lord and He is in your heart, it is only so natural to praise Him because that is what we were created for....... to give Him praise! He is glorified thru our praise! So here is the song! We went to church today, and as usual it was awesome. The kids are all doing well in school. Patrick still hasnt gotten a job, and we are still praying. He is thinking about linguistics as a major. When i first heard this i said "What?????" But you never know what the Lord has planned for you. Today in church our former pastor and another member of our church Rusty shared about thier recent missions trip to the Ukraine. Rusty is a former drug/alcohol user and has a heart for this now. He has been to the Ukraine several times, but this time he went to an HIV hospital and to an alcohol and drug hospital. This country is not like ours. They are poor compared to us. He cried on the alter today as he talked about the people there that he ministered to thru his interpreter. Later our pastor talked about how he is planning on many more trips over there. This is a country that is well on its way to being a christian nation. Next year he is asking that more people take a interest in this nation by going over there. I wont get into all of the details now because i dont feel like typing that much,but as he was talking i instantly thought about this linguistics that the Lord put on Patricks heart. I thought "Lord is this what you have for us?" I nudged Patrick and i said "Hon, I wonder if this has anything to do with the linguistics?" He said "You know i just had the same thought." So i prayed and i said "Lord is this what you are leading us to? And if so would you please confirm it?" I waited a few minutes and the Lord said "It is yet to be revealed." So we will just wait. I have to also tell you while Patrick was at the college last month he met this man briefly. Well that Sunday the same man shows up with his wife at our church! It took Patrick and him a minute to figure out where they knew each other from. Anyways last week i went on my womens retreat and guess who my roommate was...his wife! They have only been going to our church for a month now! So she and i were up talking and she told me that her husband is fascinated with linguistics!!! I said really! Come to find out, they both went to college and they wanted to major in linguistics because they either wanted to be bible translators or just see where the Lord led them with it! So anyways this is a HUGE idea and definitely not one to take lightly. But if it is of God then He will continue to open the doors for us! People may wonder why the Ukraine is a important place to minister, and of course every place on the face of the earth is important, but if you look on the map you will see that the Ukraine stands in a very sensitive part of the world. It is between Russia and Israel, and lets not forget what scripture talks about during the end times. Okay now i am tired of typing and i am going to go get a cup of tea. I know no one reads this blog other than Susie and Jen, BTW i got your voice mail Susie(hence the new post!!!), and Jen i hope your migraine is gone! And if it isnt then Let it be in Jesus' Name! Please continue to keep us in prayer. Patrick has sent his resume to atleast 30 businesses and nothing has come of them yet. We are broke, but trusting in the Lord. The Bible says to seek first His Kingdom and all else will be added, and that is so true. When Jesus said He came to give us life and that we would have it more abundantly, He didnt necessarily mean the material things of this world. In His Kingdom we do live abundantly! Hallelujah!!!!! he is a our Jehovah Jireh! He has and will provide for us!! So God bless you guys! We love you! Love Amy

My Jakey

Well i thought i would share a little about my son Jacob. Jacob is my 6 year old son. He is a ray of sunshine in my life. I wanted to share our conversation after school on Friday of last week. He told me that the teacher wanted them to share one wish. He said his wish was that "everybody could be a christian." And he also told her that the red stands for " Jesus' blood when he died on the cross." This wasnt a big surprise to me, because his teacher last year informed me that Jake raised his hand and told on everybody who used the Lords Name in vain! Jake has always had such a innocent yet passionate love for God. He loves praying for people. A couple weeks ago my youngest son Johnny slammed his finger in the storm door. He cried so hard and i said to Johnny "Honey do you want mommy to pray?" He shook his head yes and as we were kneeling down, Jacob yells from the other room "Mommy i already prayed for him!" Then the other day i was cleaning and i found a paper and Jake had wrote"I LOVE JESUS AND HE LOVES ME. WE WILL ALWAYS LOVE EVERYBODY." I need to tell you that my pregnancy with him was not the easiest. I went to the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore for a level 2 sonogram because i had taken a medine during the early part of my pregnancy that is a known drug to cause major cranial defects in fetuses(Depakoate). So my nerves were already racked to say the least. But i still was not prepared for what i heard. I noticed the tech was very quiet and serious, and i asked the question we all ask"So how does everything look?" She said "We are not allowed to say, the doctor will speak with you when iam done." I thought this odd because i had had several sonograms before with other pregnancys and usually the tech will light-heartedly say" So good so far", or something to that nature. She finished up and about 10 minutes later the doctor comes in and starts doing his own sonogram. I asked him "So is everything alright?" I will never forget his answer as long as i live. He said " Well you have asked me a pretty blunt question, so i am going to give you a pretty blunt answer...no." My heart sank. He went on to tell us that Jacob had 3 cysts in his brain, his cerebellum was underdeveloped, and his intestines had fluid in them. These were "markers" for 3 different conditions...one being fatal. The first was Downs Syndrome( Okay i can deal with that. i know people with downs kids and they are great! I also used to be a hugger for the Special Olympics.) The second was Cystic Fibrosis. Now this was harder to take because i know this to be a chronic fatal illness, but i can deal with that too, because i still would hopefully have him here for many years. Then the words i never wanted to hear. Trisomy 18 or 21( i honestly cannot remember which one it was.) But the doctor told us that i would either not carry to term or if i did, he would die soon after birth. MY HEART WAS CRUSHED. After talking a little more, he said the dreaded words you never want to hear...."If you choose to terminate we can do that here." I will never forget what my hero of a husband said next. He stood up out of his chair and very sternly said "DOC THAT WILL NOT EVEN BE AN OPTION!" From that point on i knew that no matter what this baby had, we would get thru this together. I cried all the way home. I called Patricks Aunt Susie and told her. She said"Dont you worry about this honey. i am going to get all of the prayer warriors on this." And thats what we did! PRAYED! The following Monday i went back in for an amniocentesis(not a good experience), but my results would not be in for a week or two. We kept praying. The following Friday i went in for another level 2 sonogram for a recheck of the growth of the cyst, cerebellum and intestinal fluid. I still at this point had not recieved my ammio results yet. Another tech was doing my sonogram and she asked who did my last sono. I told her who it was(i dont want to mention who he is here, but i can tell you he was a teacher and a head doctor in the perinatal unit.) She said "Well i dont know what is going on, but there is no cyst in this babys brain, his cerebellum is perfect size and his intestines are fine."PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!! I said"Oh, i know why!!!" God healed him! I saw the cysts in his brain. I had a top doctor who diagnosed this baby with a underdeveloped cerebellum and fluid in his intestines. The rest of the pregancy went on as planned, however, the morning Jake was born he had to be transported back to Uof M because he was having heart, breathing problems and he couldnt regulate his body temp. He was there for 4 days and then came home and has been blessing us ever since! He reminds me of a gentle giant. He is big for his age, but he is such a little lover. One day during sunday school a couple months ago, his teacher told me that he raised his hand out of the blue and he told the class that "God has us under His wings." I know God has big plans for this little boy of mine! I am so glad God gave him to me!

Brandi singing at church

Yesterday was a wonderful day at church. It always is, but yesterday was special because Brandi sang special music. She sang the song by Selah called "Wonderful Merciful Savior." It was absolutely beautiful. This was not her first time because she has been singing in church since she was 9 years old, but yesterday was different. A few months ago i prayed to the Lord and i asked Him if He would draw her ever more closely to Him. I prayed that she would have a desire on her own to know Him. Not just know about Him...but know Him. Well later that day as we were getting ready for dinner, here comes Brandi into the kitchen with her bible. She sat down and started reading! I didnt say anything, but inside i was soooo happy. Since then she has been reading her bible and at times she will come downstairs and ask questions about what she has read. I love watching as my daughter grows in the Lord. She is a teenager now so this is always on my heart. I know that the "world" is going to tug on her one way, but God has her by the hand. I told her yesterday as she was getting ready for church that today was going to be different when she sings. She wanted to know why. I said "because now you know who you are singing to. You have a relationship with the Lord and when you sing today, you will truly be singing to Him and for Him." I was so blessed to see my little girl up there singing for the Lord Most High. After church one of the elders approached me and he looked like he was going to cry and he said what a wonderful job she did. He said "dont get me wrong, i always enjoy hearing Brandi sing, but today was different. You could really see that she was feeling everything she was singing, and i really really enjoyed it."It just is such a beautiful thing to see your children grow up in the Lord, and actually what it is, is that He is growing up in them. I am so grateful to God for such a wonderful daughter. And i am grateful for what He is doing in her life already!

THEY ARE OFF TO SCHOOL!! Yahooo!

Well it is official, all 4 of my kids are in school! It is so nice to have a few hours to myself! They started last week, but i just got my pictures back today, so that is why iam waiting until now to blog. Brandi started 8th grade, Joey (5th), Jacob (1st), and Johnny has a half day of pre-k!! I used to wait until late at night to read my bible and pray, but now i go out to a spot i have cleared in the woods to read and pray. It is so peaceful out there. Yesterday morning before church i went out to pray and read and a bird nearly skimmed the top of my head! I feel it was Gods' way of reminding me that He will always provide for us, because look how He cares for the birds of the air. Patrick hasnt worked in 6 weeks now, and he has filled out several applications, but so far, no job. So anyways, back to the school stuff......Getting supplies for 4 kids is tough. Well i guess i will run. We love everyone! God bless you!