On the Road Again!

Just headed in the other direction!! I am so excited to be going home to see everyone! We left this morning around 5:00. We are currently in N. Georgia so we still have a LONG way to go... But so far so good. We stopped and got breakfast and Starbucks. Andon has already watched one movie. And has already asked if we are in Florida about 50 times. :)

Here are a couple pictures of the back seat passengers...



And of course the handsome driver.. :)


Please pray for safe travel for us. It is pouring where we are and visibility is awful!

Thanks so much!

~Jen

Our sweet little Juma

Last night we sat down as a family and went through the Compassion International website. Compassion International is a Christian child advocacy ministry that aids children all over the world. We have been talking about sponsoring a child forever so it was very fun to actually do it!

If you go through the website they have many pictures of children who need a sponsor. It only costs 32.00 a month to help provide food and clean water, medical care, educational opportunities, important life-skills training and most importantly they will hear about Jesus!

We narrowed it down (it is so hard to choose) to a sweet little 4 year old boy in Tanzania, East Africa. His name is Juma and he has no siblings and lives with his grandparents. The website tells you what chores they do around the house and what they like to do for fun. We can write him letters and sweet cards anytime we want!

We are so excited to be a small part of Juma's life. Even though Andon thinks he is already his brother and that we may go get him!! :)

I put a link on the side of my page if anyone is interested in sponsoring a child.

~Jen

It's Snowing Here!!

Yesterday evening when Jared came home he said it was lightly snowing outside. I looked and it really wasn't much. It already has snowed once but just a few flurries and I was freaking out! Hey, I was born and raised in Florida, what do you expect? :) Well a few hours had gone by, Andon was in bed sleeping and Jared and I just finished watching a movie. I kept hearing people outside and had to know what the fuss was all about. I looked out the window and everything was pure white!! It was so bright outside that it looked like daylight! It was beautiful! I was running around the house so excited. We had to wake Andon up because he has been waiting to be able to make a snowball! :) So we all got dressed and headed out to play for a little.

I didn't have my camera last night or I would have pictures. But, I did get it today!! Yes, I know that is very exciting to everyone reading this... Probably not, but I am thrilled to have it back before Christmas. :)

So, here are a few pictures of Andon playing in the snow today...


Here he is making one of the many snow angels he made! :)


And here he is eating the snow! Don't worry, I reminded him of the yellow stuff... :)


Andon is home today because they called off school for this little bit of snow! He can say he had his first "snow day"! :)

Rockin Out at the Show!

I mentioned in a previous post that when Jared was working the YS Convention here in Nashville, Andon and I were able to hang out one of the days. We had so much fun hanging in the booth and walking around the show looking at all the fun stuff there.

One booth was a company that does youth camps in Colorado so they had fake snow blowing out the whole time with a really neat outdoorsy backdrop. Andon brought me back to that booth four times to play in the snow. I guess he thought it was real. :) There was also live music playing just a few booths down from where we were which was so fun.

Jared's company was having a contest running in their booth and the prize was the game Guitar Hero. So in between all the people playing, Andon would grab the guitar and rock out a little. While he was playing Pam snapped this photo for me. Thanks, Pam!

He loves playing guitar and really any instrument. So for Christmas one of his gifts is a new guitar and lessons. Jared and him are going to learn together! I don't know, maybe this Nashville thing is already starting to rub off on us! :)

Pics with Santa!

A couple friends of mine have posted pictures of their kids with Santa from the last few years and I loved it! So I went looking for the pics of Andon and Santa. Trying to figure out which years I took him and actually have a picture to show!

Andon was born in November of 2003 and we didn't take him to see Santa that year so no picture. :(

I did take him in 2004 but I didn't get the picture on a CD and I didn't bring a camera so I have a really cute picture that I can't post. It is the cutest one, you know when they are screaming their heads off to get away from the crazy man!

I guess I didn't take him to see him in 2005 either because I can't find a picture and really can't remember taking him. Oh my, I can't believe I am talking about this! I know this is a big tradition with some people and you really wouldn't miss it but it hasn't really been to us. Though I will say it has been fun the last few years taking him!

Here are a couple pictures from 2006...



Here are a couple pictures from 2007...


And here is the pic from this year... We took him over while Daddy was home for the week of Thanksgiving.

I have to say, the Santa in Florida was awesome! The Santa here was very sweet but the colors of the photos and the whole setup wasn't nearly as good. But oh well, Andon didn't notice a differance.
It was so cute watching him talk to him so seriously about some Batman toy he wanted. And Santa was looking up at us saying "Oh a Batman toy, good". So funny! I don't really remember that from the years before so it was very funny to me.

On a side note, I really can't stand not having a camera around. There are so many times I have gone to pull it out. I haven't heard back from Nikon yet as to when I will be getting it. Hopefully before Christmas!!

I took Andon to his first Tae Kwon Do class today. They told us to come at 3:50 so we did and when we got there the guy said the class starts at 4:30. So he gave Andon a private lesson until the class began. We get 2 classes for free as well as the adorable uniform! And then we can decide if we want to enroll him. I think we will after Christmas vacation. It was so fun to watch him learning from a Tae Kwon Do master, I was just sitting in the back quietly watching and smiling.

Jared had the last week off and we spent a lot of time together. Watching movies, eating way too much food and getting some Christmas shopping done. The only bummer thing was the day before Thanksgiving we decided to upgrade our software from Tiger to Leopard or something like that and cleared out our internet!? It was terrible! I'm not on the computer that much but to not be able to go on it AT ALL was no fun. And it was like that for 5 days! Anyway, I'm back in business and the computer is running better and faster than ever!

Hope everyone is doing well!! All 10 of you who read this!! :)

Just one of those days...

I just want to write a quick post about how my day has started off.

I guess I should first tell you about yesterday.

My husband left the house at 8:30a.m. and didn't return until 11:45p.m. His company is at the Youth Specialties Convention here in Nashville until Sunday. So needless to say it was a long day. I had mine and Andon's day all scheduled out with school time here at home and plenty of play time. You know with only having one kid you are the playmate! :) But for some reason all throughout the day I felt like I was being attacked. I kept focusing on negative things and just crying and feeling so sad for myself. I even thought to make a list of all the things I am sad about or struggling with and then I told myself that I have so much to be thankful for as well so I better write that list too. I really wanted to write them down, get them out of my head and just give it to God. I'm not going to write out the things here but I will tell you that loneliness has been a big one. Missing my friends and family and Andon's little friends from home so much. I am making new friends here and I am so thankful that God quickly put them in my path. But I still ache inside, just typing this brings tears to my eyes.

Well this morning after I dropped Andon off at his Mom's Day Out I headed to the bookstore. When I was getting out of the car I saw a family of six getting out of their car. Something about them just caught my attention and felt very familiar. I really wanted to talk to the wife. But I thought how can I just walk over to them and tell them that, they will totally think I am crazy!

So I headed to the store and outside were these clearance baskets that I had to go through. As I am going through those baskets one of their kids asks if they can look so the parents stop with him. I thought here's your opportunity! So I asked them if they were on vacation, because it's 9:30 in the morning and they were all dressed up like they were going somewhere. They said they were traveling from Illinois to Florida! So quickly the wife and I started talking and I had told her that we just moved here three months ago from Florida. As I was talking to her I noticed their youngest daughter who they adopted from China had a cleft lip that had been repaired beautifully. I was so excited to tell her all about Andon and show her pictures of my precious boy. It was so nice to be able to tell her how the last few years have gone with surgeries and therapy and see God show himself in so many ways.

Then we started to talk about moving. I was having to fight back the tears (you know, don't want her to think I am crazy)... She said they have moved quite a bit in the last few years due to her husbands job and that it gets easier after the first couple of months. She said she realized that every time they moved God had something better for them where they were going. I told her I got that from God too but have yet to see it. We then got out my bible because she wanted to give me a verse to really soak in. She said she really loved the whole Chapter of Isiah 43. Which happens to be one of my favorites as well. Isiah 43:1 has meant a lot to me. That is the verse I have on the side of my blog. It says...

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine."

Really, that says's everything to me.

She wanted to read to me Isiah 43:18,19 "Forget the former things; do not dwell in the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

She said it's just learning to trust Him through this hard time.

And I do.

I just have those days where I have to tell Satan and tell him loud to get behind me! And yesterday I didn't. I was attacked until the time I fell asleep holding my precious little boy. (When Jared's not home at night I let him sleep in my bed :)).
I actually fell asleep with him telling me "Mommy I just want to look at you" while rubbing my face. Does it get any better then that?! Sweet thing.

I am once again amazed by our Heavenly Father. He put me in the path of a family traveling from Illinois to Florida. They were just waiting for TJ Maxx to open to grab their daughter a coat and then getting on their way. Thank you so much God for allowing me to meet Melissa and her family even if it was just for 45 minutes in a book store.

We did exchange e-mail addresses, I just have a feeling we will always be in contact.:)

My camera broke!!

I don't really know what happened but my camera is broken! I sat on the phone with the manufacturer trying to figure out what was wrong with it and no luck. I am so bummed because it's the only one I have. We are shipping it to Nikon today and they said it could be up to 3 weeks with shipping and everything!

Ever since I started blogging I see differant things we do as an opportunity to take pictures to post about. Now I feel like I have nothing to post about! :) I'm sure I do but I just like to add pictures.

We put up our little christmas tree! Yes, already. Andon and I got so excited about Christmas and wanted to decorate so when Jared came home he said "let's do it". So the apartment looks so cute and festive. We had to use Andon's little tree that we usually put in his bedroom for our living room so it wouldn't be too crowded. And of course we decorated his bedroom with lights and garland. It looks really fun. I'm sorry that I have no pictures to show.

And last night we decorated a cute little gingerbread house. Well it looks cuter on the box but ours is pretty good. And no pics of that either....

Well with no pictures i'm going to have to try and let my true writing talents shine through!! We'll see how many posts I have written before I get my camera back! If i've been gone for a while you'll know why! :)