Two Peas In A Pod

Today we babysat a friends kids, Hannah and Daniel had a BLAST together!!! He is SO CUTE!!!

Homeschooling is underway!

After a solid year of fighting with the school system here, it is clear that they will NOT be providing any services to Meya :-( Long hard battle and it is time to surrender...
Being adopted as an older child along with being an English Language Learner has left her with huge gaps in her education, to which homeschooling seems the only possible option.
Her teachers this school year really bent over backwards for her, but the 'system' and their 'rules' are just a loosing battle.
Pray for us!!!

FDA, American NEEDS a change!!!

Rather then mashing up strawberries to make strawberry flavor, here is what the FDA approves:
"A typical artificial strawberry flavor, like the kind found in a Burger
King strawberry milk shake, contains the following ingredients: amyl
acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl
acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl
valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate,
ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate,
ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl
nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin,
hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), a-ionone,
isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol,
4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl
cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl
salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl
isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether,
g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent. "

Q.WHY???
A.Money
Q.Is it healthy?
A.No

Maree's first soccer game!

Maree had her first soccer game today, and did great!

A Time To Live And A Time To Die

Death comes with great sadness, but OH! WHAT A LIFE SHE LIVED!
If you havent read the book "There's No Me Without You", please do! Haregewoin Teferra is a beautiful and amazing woman, who suddenly went to be with the Lord on St.Patrics Day. The legacy she has left behind is a legacy few accomplish! I can just imagine her up above, reaping her rewards for her years of laborous work on this Earth, reunited with her husband and daughter! OH! What a beautiful sight it must be!!!
"Thank you for all you did Haregewoin, for the birth land of my daughters, for the children in their mother country who lost their mothers-for all the children who's mother you became!"

"THE ONLY HOPE FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE 25 MILLION ORPHANS...ARE PEOPLE LIKE HAREGEWOIN TEFERRA. A DOZEN GLOBAL CONFERENCES WILL NOT SHED HALF THE LIGHT THAT HER LIFE DOES."
—Rev. Dr. Gary Gunderson
Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

Another fun day with the babies!

We spent another fun filled day with Shanelles twin babies. Its so fun watching Luke being so loving and thoughtful with little ones. :-) We played lots of Patty Cake, Wheels On The Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider, love it!

A Fun Saturday Afternoon

Feeding the Seagulls

We went to the beach today to feed some seagulls, and Maree did such a great job, they began to really trust her and get close!

Mormon for a day?

When I think of an example of humility, I think of mormons. Why? Because we have had mormons knock on our door and ask to mow our lawn, AND DO IT! Because we have had mormons ask if we needed help cutting down some dead trees, AND DO IT!
Yet, many of us struggle with the idea of having to give someone a ride across town when we hadnt planned on it.
Manual labor is a high priced job for a reason, its ALOT of work, and fairly undesireable to most people.
Yet all summer long, in the Virginia humidity, I saw mormon boys on bikes with their white shirts and backpacks, riding around, LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO HELP!
Why is this a 'mormon' thing? Why isnt this a 'Christian' thing??!
So what if all of us were mormon for the day?
(no worries, Im not converting, I dont believe in the book of mormon, and think the founder is a nut case! But, we as Christians DO need to look at what we are doing to be examples of Christ!)

Luke Crowder Band!!

Luke said he wanted hair like the Open Skys guy(David Crowder), but dad cut it :-(
So, here is how he would look!!
(Good job on the pic grandma!)

What a fun SNOW day!!!