SMASH in the PARK!

SMASH'A'LIZING!!!

We had our FIRST Smash'a'Lizing event last Saturday! We want SMASH to reach out the community this year, and we started that by having SMASH in the Big City Park. All the families were invited and we all sat out under a big tree right next to the major walking track. We played games, we fellowshipped, and we worshipped the CREATOR in HIS Creation! We had song sheets that were translated, and a translator for Chris. Chris shared an Amazing message about God's love! It was a great "Nuts and Bolts" Salvation message. We had some vendors come up, and one fella who shared about his motorcycle accident. Even though we didn't have the Brasilian turnout that we had planned for.... One of our new families were there... One of our non-believing families... and they just SOAKED in the message! The Lord has his MIGHTY Purposes!! It also showed us which of our Smashers were really wanting to serve and had a heart for service. It was a great day!! We will continue these on a every 2 month type basis!

Caleb turns 6!!

My Baby Boy turned 6!!

It seems like just yesterday we were meeting him for the first time in Hong Kong. I took time to pull out about 30 of his Baby Pics that Sarah & Rachel had taken of him in HK. His story is so God-Sized! He has TRULY been LOVED so much by SO MANY! I just had to post a few of his baby pics here! The Lord has blessed me, as a mother, beyond all logical reason and explanation! I'm so thankful that the Lord is in the MIRACLE BUSINESS! ... Amazing Grace ...

He's such an amazing fella! I'm so proud of him!!! He is in a class of only 5, and happens to SHARE his Birthday with another boy. They had a fun Double Party at school, and then we took him out for Bowling that night! (his choice!). He also loves for anybody and everybody to join in with him... so we invited the Staff and Staff kids. We had a great night! He actually beat the other Staff kids... who are Teenagers! :) He got a big kick out of that! AND... His FAVORITE present of all.... A Bible! Now that he can read, he wanted a Bible that didn't just have pictures... he wanted a Bible like Dad's! So we got him a small sized Young Readers NIV... no pictures! He's so proud of it!!! No sweeter sound than my precious one asking..."Hey Mom & Dad... can we sit together after dinner and read the Bible?" ... He's a Whiz at memorizing Scripture also! Tonight... he was singing..."Children, obey your parents in the Loorwd, for this is right...." :) We had to joke about recording that and playing it back when he is Sixteen! ...but all joking aside... nothing is sweeter than knowing (at least for now!) your child desires to know more about Jesus! AND... he's even EVANGELIZING! He conducts his OWN "SMASH Meetings" with some of our friend's kids... where he says he "Tells them all about Jesus!" :) We may just have a little evangelist in our hands! God is So Good! He has BIG Plans for this special child! Chris and I are so thankful to have him "on loan" for a few years... please pray for us to continue to mold him in the correct way.

I know that some Adoptive parents remember birthdays as the anniversary of another event: the Amazing, Brave, SELF-LESS courage of a birthmother. The day after his birthday, I took time to explain some of this to him... and had some precious moments. We prayed for her together. And then ... Of course... in true Caleb style...this In depth Mom-driven discussion ended with "So tomorrow, after school, can I ride my bike at the school?" ... classic ...

Please join us in praying for his Amazing Birthmother & Birthfather.

Back in Brasilia!!

We arrived back in Brasilia on July 29th. Ready to start our new year. We spent a few days relaxing and trying to refresh. We were a bit too busy over the summer time to really be able to just Chill. So it was very nice to have several days of Family Time, and getting back to routines. We started inservices on August 4th and they comprised of meetings in the mornings and lots of time to work in our rooms in the afternoon. That was nice.

Every year I teach different subjects. I was excited to find out that 4 of my subjects are ones that I have taught before!! YEAH!! This Fall semester I am teaching: Life Science, Biology, Chemistry, Algebra I, Geometry, Drama, and American Literature. The Literature is a bit of a stretch, but I'm really enjoying it!!

Chris headed straight into all his Finance work... in fact, he never quite STOPPED that during the summer. Every day during the summer, he would log on to the Brasilian bank, pay bills, reconcile accounts... all of that!! So, he didn't really get any kind of break!

Caleb started the FIRST GRADE!!! That's so awesome!! :) He's with the same 3 other boys from last year, just missing his sweet Zambian girl friend! His teacher is amazing, so I'm sure he will have a good year! :)

We lost some really great students last year... and we were really afraid that the lose of those key people would be the focus of the Jr & Sr high. And it was for a few days... BUT... PRAISE THE LORD! We have 5 new students in the Jr & Sr High!! So, our actual student totals are up to 31 for the 7-12th grade! YEAH!! And, we hear that we may have a few more! We are very excited about any new opportunity to share Christ with our international students! They are just so amazing... so many countries, cultures, beliefs and experiences... all centered right here in Brasilia! Amazing!!

Please keep praying for us and all we do here!! I'll be posting some SMASH updates very soon!

Keep on Checking!!

I know some of you have been loggin on and seeing the same post over and over again. BUT, I'm back tracking some posts from the summer. I will try to add more in over the next couple of days, then update you about the new semester! School starts on THURSDAY, August 13th!! It's closing in fast! So... things are a bit psycho now... but all's well! I'm trying to add in posts.

THANKS SO MUCH for checking in!!! :)

Delayed.... but not Dismayed!

Ok... so we didn't quite make it to Brazil as expected... But, we are definitely welcoming the REST!!! YEAH!!!

We got held up in Memphis, so we didn't make our connection to Rio. Delta only has one flight A DAY to Rio, so we are waiting until tonight to fly. They (of course) didn't let us have our luggage... but they did give us little shaving kits with a toothbrush, toothpaste, all the other basic essentials, and t-shirts! YEAH! Something to sleep in! Here is a pic of Caleb and his! He kept jumping on the bed singing "I'm an ANGEL, I'm an ANGEL!" ...that he is!... LOL!

So... As I sit in Barnes and Noble and Caleb plays with the cute wooden Thomas train set with a new friend... I thought I would update the BLOG.

YES, I KNOW... I'm way behind!!!! ;) Thanks to those who graciously reminded me! :p BUT... I do have a few reasons for not blogging April and May. Those months were really hard for us! I didn't send out any of my emails either (if you want to be added to that list, reply or email me!) ... but those were tough months. It would have been hard to be encouraging. I do TRY very hard to include mostly encouraging and happy posts... and unfortunately some would have been fabricated. On *THIS SIDE* of the events, it's much easier to find the God Moments! :) So... I will now update these posts!! :)

ALL POSTS AFTER APRIL 4TH ARE NEW!!! If you haven't been here in a while... then you can just pretend it's all NEW and I didn't get behind! :) For those of you who check this Regularly - SO SORRY! - and you can catch up now! :)

Summer Memories!!

Old Friends...







New Friends...











Family...















Fun!!!!





















It was an incredible Summer!! It was another Psychotically Busy Summer... but really awesome!! From hanging out with Nana & G-daddy, Chuck, & Brooklyn - Riding bikes, eating SOUTHERN cooking, SALSA, shooting fireworks. Fun Memories with Mimi & Jennifer, Madison & William. To our AMAZING HOME GROUP FAMILY!!! *Always There to hang with, help out, meet our needs, laugh, cry, hug, encourage, love!!! To meeting incredible

people at the NICS Pre-Field orientation - Mel & Tobin, BUNKIN' BUDDIES, Incredible SMALL

groups, New Brasilia Staff, Crazy John Richards!! Hanging with Murrell... (the list goes on!). To 'Re-connecting' with Kelly & Vaishali and my MC College buddies. Seeing our Hong Kong friends! Speaking and being encouraged by Colonial Hills and Bible Church of Cabot!! 4th of July BBQ at the Williams', swimming & TONS of fun at the

Townsends!

The Most INCREDIBLE Wedding of two of the most INCREDIBLE People (Meg & Casey) - in North Carolina!! (with some Pre-Wedding Chill time at the lake with most of the Brasilia crew & Herring family!!). Museums (Coke, Aquarium, CNN, and Smithsonian!). Staying at the Amazingly Peaceful "Chateau de Folgelsong!" Cruisin' in the Olds!... Ahhh.... A truly great summer....



































God is so good to us!! He always provides... He is always faithful! We are so blessed to be so loved!! I wish we had a month for each group of people... We know we didn't get to see everyone, and for that we are so sorry... But we felt so encouraged by so many!!


















Thank you to all of you who made our "Vacation" so special!!! :)

My Momma!

Happy Birthday to my Mother!!

What a blessing she has been to me for my entire life. She IS the Proverbs 31 woman to me! She is always prepared, rising early to work for her family, and attending all her duties without idleness.

She is always caring for others. She has stayed in the hospital with people for surgeries, she tutors anybody and everybody, she's always making quilts for those who are sick.

The Greatest Blessing, and one for which I can NEVER Re-pay, is her attention, love, care, and time when I was sick. If any of you reading this don't know... in February 1999, I was diagnosed with Cancer in the bone of my left arm. It was aggressive, so I had to also have aggressive Chemotherapy and Radical surgery. Mom put her life on hold for TWO YEARS to be with me, stay with me in the hospital, care for me. Chris and Mom had a "tag team" approach. Mom took care of me in the hospital, and Chris took care of me when they discharged me. Both had to deal with stuff you would NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT!! TRUST ME!!!

My Mom is an Amazing Leader, Servant, Teacher, and Pastor! The Lord has blessed my life with her!

Thank you, MOM, for ALL you have done for me. Happy Birthday!

Ahhh.... AMERICA the Beautiful!

It never ceases to amaze me of how much I love that American Flag! It brings so much joy to my heart to see them flying all over the US around the 4th. What a beautiful site. I found myself wanting to take as many pics of them as I could. I would stare at them.... especially that BIG one on Goodman Road at the Nissan Dealership. That's my favorite one.

There's another one at my Mom and Dad's house. They fly it out in the front. It has now replaced the giant Dogwood tree as our favorite Family Photo spot. Interestingly, one of my girls from BIS asked me the other day... "Is it required for everyone in America to put a Flag up?" (this was after she saw my pics from summer) At first I said "of course not, there's not that many.... well.... actually... there are... A LOT OF THEM!! In fact, most people do fly theirs all year long too! I guess we're just really patriotic!" :)

I love that!!! I love that everyone finds ways to CELEBRATE our nation... no matter the "economic downturn" or the political garbage. God is Great! He planned our Government to be rooted and based on HIM! We must praise HIM for that! Despite the issues, our country was built upon HIS promises.

PFO 2009

We arrived back in the US at the end of June. We were asked to be advisors for our network's Pre-Field Orientation. It was amazing! 180 new teachers heading out to the "ends of the Earth" to spread the GOOD NEWS of JESUS!! AWESOME!!





We had an Awesome time there! It was TOUGH... Long Days, Late Nights, and VERY Early Mornings. But it was still really great!

We really got to know the other advisors and our new staff, as well. As part of being an advisor, we lead small groups. I had a small group of 5 girls. It was really a blessing!!! It is so amazing how close you can get with people you just met, because of your "LIKE-MINDED-NESS!"


Chris had an AMAZING Group also! He had 3 couples and a single guy. It was a great set-up!!






I'm glad I made Life-Long, World-Wide friends!! :) Please pray for all of them as they deal with the massive transition of living overseas. Many are new teachers and young, or new teachers that have changed careers! :) The Lord is going to do Great and Mighty things through them all!!

CALEB GRADUATED!!

My Angel Baby graduated from Kindergarten! Amazing!! He had a Great Year! His teacher is so amazing! I just can't say enough great things about her! She has a PASSION for JESUS and I have to say... that is her greatest quality! She is so good with her kids! She LOVES them!!





Caleb has learned to READ this year! He knows how to add and subtract, count by 2's, 5's, 10's. AND SO MUCH MORE! :) He's doing so good!!! :)






Here are some pics from Graduation. His class is so diverse! There are only 5 of them... but they come from 5 different countries, have completely different complexions and ethnicity. They are a Beautiful representation of Heaven!! The only girl, Nana, is Caleb's best friend!! She is such a blessing! Her family is amazing! God is so good!! :)

The Prom!

The High School wanted a Prom again... so I got it all fixed up for them! :) It was really a very nice evening! Amanda was my Right Hand Gal... plus some!!! She was AMAZING! I learned a new decoration trick using tissue paper, which was FAR better than just balloons. It was SO NICE... the new campus can be quickly turned into a very romantic, peaceful place at night! We cut off all the lights, and put some spotlights up on some of our trees. We "MADE" a dance floor by enclosing an open patio area with some Black TNT (paper/plastic like stuff - we use it for everything! and it's super cheap!). It was really Incredible! The kids were very surprised that we could make the school, NOT feel like the School! :) They helped out with some of the planning, and a little of the decorations and invitations and all! It was very nice!!! :) Very Memorable! :)

A NEW PASTOR!!

GOD IS FAITHUL!! GOD IS TRUE TO HIS PROMISES!!

We are thankfully celebrating because our church has voted on and called a new pastor! We have had an interim pastor for the past 18 months, and he and his wife are really nice people! But... we are so thankful to have a new Pastor heading to the International Baptist Church. Mark & Lydia are incredible people! We were fortunate to spend a great deal of time with them while they visited Brasilia. He preaches and teaches with God-given Authority and challenges us to study more indepthly! Please pray for them as they transition to Brasilia, and into our VERY Multicultural church... where Baptist is on the sign and in the doctorine... but that's about it! :) We have almost every tongue, tribe, and nation represented... so no one really fits into a "Baptist" box. Praise the LORD that He doesn't require that of us!! :) Praise the Lord that HE allows us to have different views... yet ONE ETERNAL SALVATION PATH!! and ONE TRUE SOURCE!! :)

Science Fair

Ahh... Science Fair... I love Science Fair!! Well... I Love the NIGHT of Science Fair! :)

I teach ALL the Sciences for Grades 5 - 12! So.. that was 51 students to get ready for Science Fair and grade all the Research Reports, Papers, Displays, Projects... it was a lot! I got them all ready as EARLY AS POSSIBLE! and... overall... they did well. :) ... and I was glad it was over! :) THEY WERE TOO!

Marthon Brasilia!!

WOW!!! Chris and Casey set out in January to run a Marathon!!! So they started training... every Saturday, Casey, Chris, and Megan would get up at at 5am and go running!

They trained... and trained HARD!! It was definitely a lesson in discipline for them all!! They promised when they had actually run 40 km in practice... that Casey & Chris would run in their Sunga's! (Brazilian Speedos! -the most common bathing suit for me, and most of the men wear them to run in also!) SO... they did!!! And it "Just so happened" to also be when Megan's Parents were in town for a visit!! Megan and Casey are NOW married (July 11th)!! But.... can you imagine... wearing your sunga in front of your Future In-Laws that you had only met twice before!!! That's courage!!! :) So... Chris and Casey got to the park on that Saturday...wearing... well.... VERY LITTLE!!!!! :) (...the pic was in the reception video also!!! LOL!!)

On Tuesday, April 21st... Chris, Casey, Megan, and Scott (Student who joined in!) ran 26.3 MILES! Chris finished in 4 HOURS and 45 MINUTES!! That... my friends... is a LONG TIME to be pounding the pavement!! The actual course had many hills! They had practiced on flat ground. They did so good... What an encouragement! Chris was able to incorporate much of wht he learned into SMASH messages! :) Talk about Perseverance! :)

SMASH RETREAT 2009!

...::: BULLET PROOF :::...

Proverbs 4: 20 - 27 - Above all else Guard your hearts!

~How to Guard your Life, Mind, and Hearts...

and how to stand in the gap to help protect your brother as well ~

A week before the retreat... we were so PUMPED! It was gonna be AWESOME! God was going to ROCK it OUT AGAIN! We had an INCREDIBLE Speaker coming from Rio. The same guy we had last year! ... then ... The DAY BEFORE THE RETREAT... Our speaker called, and said he had to go to the States for a family emergency... oh no... what are we going to do??? Are the kids all going to cancel??? Will they think this is just another SMASH night??? They will be so disappointed...... Can *WE* (the Smash leaders) actually pull off an ENTIRE weekend retreat... and make it powerful enough to rock our kids' hearts??? We aren't equipped... We have all the other details worked out... but We aren't prepared... what are *WE* going to do?????

Knock, Knock, Knock.... HELLO?!?!?! HELLO!!!!!!

IT'S NOT ABOUT Y-O-U!!! IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!!!!!

IT'S ABOUT ME... I AM YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR... THIS RETREAT IS ABOUT ME! I WILL *STILL* ROCK THEIR HEARTS... IT WASN'T ANY SPEAKER THAT WAS DOING THAT ANYWAY... I AM! AND I WILL STILL BE!!!

IT'S ABOUT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...so we humbly said... "Yes, LORD!! Please forgive us!" ... and we spent the next 24 hours ON OUR FACES getting ready to hear what HE has to say!!! Then... we just jumped out there and did what He said! It was incredible!!!! :) The LORD IS MIGHTY TO SAVE!

The most powerful moment was Saturday night. We had a praise team there to do music, and they had left their equipment up at the front. Well... during free time, the kids started playing "AMERICAN IDOL" with the microphones! A couple got on the keyboard, some on the guitars... and they were all just singing and having fun. A bit later... as more kids started coming in... more joined in... and then they started singing praise songs. Jonathan grabbed his guitar and played without plugging up. All the kids came in, stood arm in arm, Singing LOUDLY praises to the KING! Singing at the tops of their lungs!!! It was the most powerful night!! It lasted almost 2 hours! The kids didn't want to stop!!! They didn't care who was standing next to them... how well they sang... tears streaming down their cheeks... raising hands to Jesus! It was so powerful! You could feel the Holy Spirit so thick... just kids... praising!!! No fancy band, no fancy music, no words put up on Power Point. ..... Just hearts ..... I am forever changed...