I Feel A Change Coming On

Hi! If you're looking for our latest post, we've relocated to our own website. You can find today's post at lolinministry.com. Click the link and come visit us at our new site!

We Are ThisClose

Still not fully set up on the new platform, but we are so close we can almost taste it. Spoiler alert:  it tastes like chocolate!

Just kidding. You can't taste computers.

At any rate, I'm pretty sure this will be the last update we do on the old platform. Hopefully by this time next week we'll have a brand new look and a brand new virtual location. Thanks for sticking with us (you ARE out there reading, aren't you?). Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

In the meantime, here's some more Cute Kid Pics.

We're holding off on our contest until we have the new platform, but it'll definitely be worth the wait. In the meantime, leave us a comment either here or on facebook to let us know you're still out there. It's getting lonely around here!

TODAY IS ... not the day

We're still under construction here at lolinministry, but I have very high hopes that this week we will be able to finish transferring to a new platform, and if that's the case, then next week we'll be back in full force with a new look, a new order of posting and a GIVEAWAY!!!

That's right, to celebrate our new look, your incredible patience and because we want to trick you into leaving more comments, we'll be doing a giveaway next week. We want to celebrate the fact that we're into our third year here at lolinministry, and say thank you for sticking with us as we laugh along the way.

Last week I gave you pictures of Ky and Steph's cute kids to tide you over during our reconstruction. This week I'm posting pics of my own kiddos, but some of them were not nearly as agreeable when it came to posing.

See you next week!

Did You Miss Us?

Well I hope you were eagerly awaiting our return to blogland.

I hope you missed us as much as we missed you.

I hope you're not too disappointed to find out that everything isn't fixed yet.

We are working on switching platforms, but it is taking longer than we planned. This is no one's fault. Just a fact of life--in the ministry.

We hope to be up and running again soon. In the meantime, here's some cute pictures of kids!

Not so Littles

Yesterday was our baby's 1st birthday.

And as you can see, she already acts like a teenager. 

We spoiled her with a pair of new shoes and a puppy!! 

We also had a party for her after our midweek service at church. It was a lot of fun and my kids ate waaaayyyyy too much sugar. That is also the reason this post is so late today. 😊

When you have little kids, everyone tells you to enjoy it because it goes by fast. Well, after having 3 kids in 3 years, there were a lot of days where it didn't feel like it was going by very quickly. However, these days it's going by a little more quickly. 

It doesn't feel that long ago that it was my oldest baby's 1st birthday, and now she's 4. The picture app on my phone ocassionally creates "then & now" collages for me. 

This was the most recent one. My oldest at a year and a half, then again only a few days ago. I guess everybody knew what they were talking about after all when they said "it goes by fast" .

*we will be taking next week off from the blog for maintenance  Be sure to come back the following to see the changes! 

What Goes Around Comes Around

Twenty years ago I hired a young college student on a part time basis to come help take care of my five children (ages ten years to twenty months old) and my mountains of laundry so that I could care for our newborn sixth child and work on packing our house and belongings to move to Uganda as missionaries. She was a tremendous help, and a great influence on my small children. After we left for the mission field we kept in touch, mostly through her mother who is like a sister to me.

Years later this girl had finished college and was back in Alabama, teaching in the Christian school at our home church. We were chased out of Uganda by terrorists and came back to our home church, where she taught some of my children in high school. She was once again a tremendous influence on our children. She was one of my kids' favorite teachers, and when she got married, Matt ended up being one of the groomsmen.

(He's in the front row on the left, in case you can't tell.) She also had Stephanie tend her guestbook, and a couple of our other boys greeted people at the door.

After she married, she moved to Texas, and we moved to Florida where my husband pastored a church. Years later her family moved back to Alabama, and her children ended up being in Stephanie's wedding.

Also about twenty years ago, two young men, brothers, began working for my husband in his painting business. Their parents were missionaries, and they had been raised in Brazil on the mission field. They were in Alabama to go to Bible college, and they spent a great deal of time at our home, eating home cooked food and playing with our children. They also spent some time with my husband doing some fishing and shooting. Bob and Charlie were both courteous, well-mannered and godly young men. On more than one occasion I told my husband that if we could raised our children to be half as good as those two, we would be successful parents.

Both young men finished school and went back home to Brazil where they got married and started families. Then they came back to Alabama to start deputation as God called them both to be second generation missionaries in Brazil. We happened to be in Alabama at the same time, and Stephanie ended up babysitting their children on occasion. Both men finished deputation and have been serving in Brazil for many years now. In fact, our church supports Bob and his family.

Almost six years ago, Stephanie married a young man who was also called to the mission field of Brazil. Six years and three children later, they have finished deputation and left for Brazil last summer. They live in the same city as Bob's family and are serving with them in the work there. In fact, while Stephanie and her husband go to language school several times a week, Bob's daughter babysits for them.

I love the way God has woven these wonderful people into and through our lives. Each of these people are so incredibly special to us, and I thank God for allowing us to have had a very small influence on them. Then they each had a bigger influence on our children. Then our children had an influence on their children. And now their children are having an influence on our grandchildren.

It's also such a comfort to me to know that, while some of our family is far away in another country, they're not alone and they're not with strangers. Through God's grace, they are with people He brought into our lives many years ago.

Isn't God good?

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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:  We will be taking next week off from blogging. We've had several issues with the platform for our blog, including problems with people accessing it and leaving comments on it. We'll be doing some maintenance work next week to hopefully iron out those problems. We'll be back to blogging the week of April 29th, so make sure to come back then and see our changes. And test out our repairs by leaving comments, of course!

Happiness is Homemade

There is really nothing like spending quality time with your kids. I admit that I’m guilty at times of getting caught up in the things that need to get done and the things that have to get done that sometimes I miss out on that quality time with my girls. I’ve been working harder at putting the things that aren’t so important aside to make more memories with my girls. They are only this age for such a short time. I’m noticing that with each kid that you have the time seems to go by that much faster! 

The other night the weather was so nice, we had just put in a full day’s work at the church, I had a sink full of dishes, I didn’t have dinner ready or anything planned. So instead of facing all the work I had to do we took the girls outside to play. We played chalk, we took turns pushing the baby in the stroller and shot some hoops, it was so simple but we had a lot of fun. We came inside, ordered a pizza and spent the rest of the evening watching a movie. It didn’t cost a lot of money, but it was spontaneous and special.

I’ve had a little Easter dessert that I had been wanting to do with the girls, so over the weekend we finally got to it! 

     Here are my little sous chef’s hard at work.

and our results!

My parents got to come for a visit so we did a little early birthday party for this pretty girl! 

and she may or may not have partied too hard!

It really is the little things that matter most. I love making memories with my family!

What are some of your favorite things to do as a family?

** Next week our blog will be under construction!