One of the Best Memories

Hands down, I've made one of the best memories I will ever have of my children growing up.......taking Girly Girl on her first 'big girl' mission trip. It is something I will never forget and hopefully the impact on her heart and mind will also last a lifetime. She and I were able to spend just over 48 hours together - just me and her - working alongside our teenagers on one of their summer mission trips to Tulsa, Oklahoma. She didn't have to compete with anyone for my attention. We broke all the normal routine and rules (who cares if you have M&Ms for late night snack AND breakfast or stay up until midnight) and we just had a blast. We stayed up talking in bed about any and everything, we stopped whenever we wanted to on the 4.5 hour drive and bought snacks and drank sodas. Her adrenaline was pumping the whole time - bouncing off the walls and running down streets.

The time spent together as mom and daughter was amazing, but even more than that, the time spent walking side by side (or running ahead in her case) sharing Jesus with strangers and inviting people to hear God's Word was thrilling. We spent four hours walking the inner-city streets of Tulsa handing out tracts and having spiritual conversations when possible. She had no fear. The people didn't scare her. The surroundings didn't scare her. She handed out a Gospel tract to nearly every person we met. She was oblivious to the fact that the world around her speaks loudly against what she was doing. I was so proud of her.

We also participated in the revival/VBS evening activities. Girly Girl was one of the kids. She made crafts, listened to Bible stories and observed the recreation time (she's not big into losing or games she doesn't know). She had no idea that the kids she was with are so different from her in the world's eyes. She had no idea most of them didn't have a mom and dad at home - most not even one of the two. She had no idea that the hurts in their little hearts were bigger than most of us can even imagine. She had no idea that drug deals, hunger and addictions were commonplace in their lives. To her, they were all the same. To Jesus, they are all the same. I pray that as the world teaches her otherwise, her heart will be inclined to love them and offer them the hope of Jesus Christ.

Our team of teenagers and dedicated adults served as great role models for Girly Girl. They worked hard. The played hard. They love Jesus. I am so thankful for their willingness to include our little four-almost five year old. It is something that she will always remember. Thank you to Lindsey and Grant for having us on your door-to-door team. We loved it!

The memories are spectacular. I will treasure them always. Next up - Samoosa, in about two years! Girly Girl is already asking where Samoosa gets to go. Toads to Arkansas, Girly Girl to Oklahoma, where will Samoosa go?

Good Girl Fun on Mission

So thankful for these girls that have helped show Girly Girl it's cool to be on mission for Christ!

We had a fabulous time in Tulsa together these past few days.

Back and Hopefully More Often

I am back in the land of the blog. So much has happened since my last post. We have worked hard, been to convention, done Disney, travelled some, gotten some good pool time in, had big life happenings and now we are off again. I hope to be blogging more regularly as the summer winds down. Next post.....probably one of the most exciting of the summer. Girly Girl is going on her first 'big girl' mission trip. The kids and I left today to drive to visit the cousins and leave three of the four for a few days. Girly Girl and I will head out in the morning to meet up with our team in Oklahoma. We are so excited to get up there and be a part of what God is doing in and through our team. I can't wait for Campbell to be an active part of it. She is fired up!

Thank you Aunty Kerith and Uncle Brad for making this possible.

I Can't Believe It

It has been a year! So much has happened. Our youngest daughter, who we affectionately call String Bean, entered the world one year ago today at 3:43 pm. We had not planned on having four kids. I had very mixed emotions about the whole thing - the delivery, getting four kids age five and under dressed, the hospital (it was different from the other three), going anywhere with all four, having time to do anything, the recovery, my age, my life plans. It was all very overwhelming and continued to be many months after her arrival. But that day was so much fun! By the time you get to the fourth, unless there are suprises, you know the drill. We did and it was easy, exciting and so much fun to meet the precious gift that God had given us. She was perfect. I can look back on that day and know that God had it all planned out from the very beginning despite our plans and thoughts. I am so glad He knows what He is doing because our lives are so much better with String Bean.

A short clip of her first day.....

Happy Birthday String Bean!

For Two Reasons

This post is for two reasons only.......1) so relatives can see the boy at his kindergarten program and 2) so I can find this video ten years from now.

Relatives, enjoy......Toads' Kindergarten program from his last day of school. He is on the top row, in the middle and holds the letter 'O' in the alphabet song.

Everyone else, ignore.

How We Manage Without Him

As many of you know, Nathan recently returned from a trip to Africa. While I normally like to travel with the kids while he is away to see my family and friends, this trip was different. We have a kindergartner in public school. He did not have nine days off of school while dad was in Zimbabwe. The five Linos stayed in our routine and continued on without him. Toads' school schedule worked out perfectly prior to the trip for us to have the afternoon together as a family. School released early the day before departure, so we ventured down to Discovery Green in downtown Houston. We had the green all to ourselves in the midst of the skyscrapers and then shared the water feature with a school field trip. It was a nice afternoon together as a family before the 9 nine days with only two emails as our only form of communication. I have many thoughts regarding a trip like this, so here is a short list:

---Nathan should go every chance he gets. The Lord always uses these times to work in and through Nathan for His glory. I don't ever want to stop that! 

---Satan could easily use me and the kids to stop the Lord's work on these trips. He most often attacks in the health arena. (This time we narrowly avoided an asthma-related hospital stay and had two ear infections that made for really long nights.)

---I miss him while he is gone, but know the time apart is good for all of us. We certainly appreciate him and what he does more when he returns.

---I always feel safe while he is gone.

---I have a great respect for single moms and military wives - at least I know there is an end to going solo and we can count the short days until his return.

---We stick to our routine. Keeping everything as normal as possible makes for happy kids.

---I look forward to travelling with him one day!

  

 

One Book I Did Not Particularly Care For

Reading is something I like to do, don't do enough of and wish I did faster. I try to read things that are going to be either helpful to my daily living or actually appeal to me. If I am going to read something with the purpose of it helping my daily living then I have some things I would like to see: 1) It cannot contradict the Bible in any way; 2)It uses the Bible for establishing principles; and 3)It is not stacked full of pop-psych, catchy trends.

Well, several months ago, I finished reading All You Need to Know About...Raising Girls. Since we have three of these little creatures in our care, I thought this would be great. There sure is a lot to know and I need it! "Raising Girls journeys into the heart of girls to help parents understand their daughter's different stages of development: what is normal, what is not, and how to relate effectively." - is what caught my eye when perusing amazon.com for a new book. Melissa Trevathan and Sissy Goff have broken the book up into three sections: What's Normal, What's Not - a look at typical behaviors in the discovery, adventurous, narcissistic and autonomous years; What's Going On With Her - in her heart and mind about relationships, family, boys and society's effects on her; and How Can I Help? - parenting through a clear lens.

The authors did what they did well. They have decades of combined experience in the counseling room with girls and they effectively communicated the scientific aspect of girls' developmental stages. They walked through each phase well enough for anyone with an un-scientific mind to recognize where their child is in the process. The book causes parents to at least question whether or not they are parenting through a blurry or clear lens......playing favorites, living vicariously through a child, anger, etc.

Raising Girls did fall short in a couple of areas for me. The Bible and its principles were not at the forefront. While in the introduction, the authors do incite a desire to 'equip you with a voice to call out who God has uniquely created her to be," it was not until well into the second chapter that the name of God was even mentioned. Scripture was certainly not drawn upon in great amounts. In fact, it was sparsely quoted. I found it difficult to reconcile calling out my uniquely created daughter without hardly a mention of the One who created her. Secondly, pop-psych was dominant. Many a quote from different psychologists and philosophers peppered the 243 pages. In many cases, the psychological statement or observation was used as a 'jumping-off point' rather than a supplement. Lastly, I was troubled by one particular example used by the authors to bring home a point. Now, I am realistic in understanding that dad is not always around (whatever the circumstance) to help mom home from the hospital, but in using the example of a mother bringing home her newborn baby from the hospital with her good female friend, the authors left room for interpretation on how they feel about the Biblical design for family. It seems to me that in a book deisgned to aid in the building of biblical families, a male-female scenario would have been desirable to establish the author's point.

I will take away from Raising Girls the fact that I don't know everything. I will not however, find all I need to know about raising my three precious girls from this book.