Learning Not to Be Selfish

Meet the Rudy's. These are some good friends of ours that we had to selflessly allowed to leave us less than 24 hours ago. While we hold on to hope that we will get to visit with them again soon, it is not the same as knowing they are down the street and we will see them at least weekly for great fellowship. They have the cutest kids and are always willing to lend a helping hand or a shoulder to lean on. 

Do the Rudy's sound to good to be true? Well what if I add the fact that while we selfishly want to keep them to ourselves, they are unselfishly moving to Uganda to help others? I know! Here I am struggling daily with how I can help my self, make my world more comfortable and they are giving up everything and everyone they know to go across the world to help people they have never met! We send our prayers and wish them a smooth transition to their new life and that God will watch over them and provide them with everything they need; in particular some decent friends (we need them to want to come back) that will help them from getting to homesick.

The Rudy's are moving to Uganda because of an amazing organization called International Justice Mission, IJM. 

 

This video pretty much sums up how awesome IJM is. Located throughout the world they deal in the areas of sexual violence, slavery, illegal detention, police brutality, illegal property seizure and sex trafficking. You can get all sorts of information at ijm.org.

 It is only after we realize what amazing thing it is that Jesse will be doing that we can get past our sadness at losing them and look forward to seeing how God is going to use him to work in the lives of others.  

Have Some Compassion

I am a bleeding heart. There is nothing around it. I cry during sad movies, when other people are crying, during Extreme Home Makeover and most of all during Compassion Sunday. Even though I may cry at the drop of a hat Charles has never cried. Ever. (I may have seen a single tear drop once, but if I wrote that he would deny it until his ending days, saying he had something in his eye) So when Charles and I turned to each other after the request for help and said so how many? Not do you want to think about maybe, one day, in the future sponsoring a child. We wanted to know how much of our own comfort did we want to give up in order to sponsor as many children as possible. Now I will be honest we only are sponsoring one child, but we want to be able to continue our tithe to our own church, feed our own kids (I don't think Compassion has a local Virginia chapter) and we wanted the opportunity to help in other areas.  

If you want to learn more about Compassion International and how you can help visit www.compassion.com You can view images of the children who are waiting to be sponsored. While not as moving as Compassion Sunday, the faces of these children reach out and tug on your heart. 

A New Look

So, again a lot has happened since I last posted. Mainly we did welcome Margaret to the world in December. She is now almost four months old and greatly loved by her big brother.

While I would like to use this blog to keep people updated with current photos and information about what is going on in our lives I also would like to use it for another purpose. Hopefully, either way I will actually get around to keeping it updated.

Lately I have been wrestling with how I can reach others outside of my little world. I spend my days either alone with the kids or at my parents house. I do not really come into contact with anyone else outside the house. This makes it hard to really make an impact on anyone else's lives. Last night I finally made the decision to use my endless unproductive hours spent on the internet as a way to reach out to others. By way of this blog, email, and perhaps even my Facebook account I would like to touch others lives with information that has touched mine. 

In the past couple of months I have grown a heart for the children of Africa, namely those in Ethiopia. It probably greatly has to do with the fact that two families from our home-fellowship have either adopted from there or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Without knowing these friends my heart would not bleed for these children who faces have become  ingrained in my mind. I want to help these beautiful children, but I also realize that I cannot do much by myself. This is where my lovely friends come into help. 

Whether we talk daily or you are just reading this because you are curious about what I was writing, you can help. Get involved or  follow along with what I hope will be a journey in helping others. You can even pass along information or connect to my blog so that we can make a spider web of connections.

We must start somewhere and what better place then with Bale.

Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

This beautiful child was going to be thrown into the Omo River to die because her top teeth grew in before her bottom teeth. Bale is the first child they have been able to save from superstition that runs deep in rural Ethiopia. This child was just saved within the past few months and has spurred the creation of the Drawn From Water orphanage. To hear more of the story and how you can help visit www.drawnfromwater.com

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress

James 1:27

Busy Weekend!

So this weekend started on Saturday when we drove to PA for my cousin Jonathan's birthday. Charlie has such a blast playing with Jonathan's son Paul. He could not sit still to eat -- he wanted to play trucks with Paul! The wedding was fun. It was nice to not have to worry about working for once. I think this is the first wedding that Charles and I have been to together that we were not taking pictures. By the end of the evening we were tired and had a long drive home. I got the privilege of driving the 3.5 hours home and even got to add to the time by taking the wrong way around the beltway. Charles was helpful enough to wake up every now and than only to comment later on my "aggressive" driving.

We had to be up early on Sunday for some church responsibilities. Poor Charlie fell asleep in the car and woke up in the car. He probably thought he had been in there the whole time. We had a blast in Sunday school. We also got to meet the absolutely adorable and tiny baby Levi!

Sunday was also Grandpa Charlie's birthday. So we got to have dinner with Grandpa, Grandma, and John. Also, it was a great time to have cake and ice cream also!

I think the most special thing we got to do was on Monday Charles took the day off and took us to Cox Farm. I have lived here my entire life and have never heard of Cox until we moved out here. It was a blast! It was a little hot, but the weekday afternoon was perfect since it was not crowded. Charlie got to go down all the really large slides, pet and feed the goats, and he loved the apples! He walked around for about 40 minutes until he finished the apple. He really wants to go back with his cousins another day. Mommy and Daddy are recovering from carrying him up the steep hills (it was hard enough for Mommy to get up the hill alone, not to mention getting up off the slide at the bottom). Charlie's favorite thing was the hay ride. he did it back to back he liked it so much. He really wanted to go again, but it was time to move on. Charlie also got to pick out his own pumpkin and has since given it a ride in his big truck. After such a long weekend it may take a day or two to recover!

Once again . . .

So once again I have not come through as promised and am severely behind in updating this blog. I guess I am just not much of a blogger. Not much is going on right now. Charlie and I are just hanging out and playing with various motor vehicles. Charles spends his days training new employees how to ruin other peoples days (ie collecting money).

In other news. we are patiently awaiting our newest addition Margaret Faymr. She should be arriving sometime close to Christmas! Until then we are trying to prepare Charlie for his world to be flipped upside down. (I don't think he knows what is coming -- he stills says "no baby")

Well we just got back from a 3.5 mile walk and what better way to ruin exercise but to go eat some lunch!

Once again it has been too long since my last post (honestly I did not even read it to find out where I left off) I guess I will just hit the highlights of the past few months. November was a busy month! On the 15th we closed on our first home! That's right we are now homeowners. We did not get to move in though until December since I hung my senior show that very same weekend and was busy preparing for that. Now we are in our new home fully furnished mainly through the generosity of those at our church.

I know you will find it hard to believe but I finally graduated. She officially does not have to go back to GMU ever again. It is an adjustment though, there is not much to do now. Charlie and I really are just hanging out around the house with Duke (Charlie's Christmas present, a 1 year old black lab) who he loves to play catch with.

As with any new year there are new goals and adjustments to be made. We hopefully will figure out what adventures we are going to attempt in the near future or before the year ends.

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year!

A New House . . .

So again a lot ahs happened since I last wrote. We are in the process of buying a house! We have to first and foremost give credit to God for providing this house -- a miracle in itself. Next we have to thank the Simmons who are selling us their house! With out these guys we would never have known about this oppertunity.

All of this is happening so fast. We are trying to close by the 19th and we only learned about it about two weeks ago! So we are busy, busy, busy. Trying to get all of our paper work in order as well as trying to stay on top of class work is a challange. The good news is that although all sorts of things are happening at once they are all exciting.

Please pray for us as we prepare for this move and the many other crazy obligations that we have at the same time. Pray that the closing goes smoothly and that we will not have any problems!