Warning: tears may fall

Eighteen years ago today, I had been 13 for a month, went to school for a normal day of 8th grade, thinking nothing of the day. Eighteen years ago today, I went to my after school activities which were suddenly interrupted when my mother died in a tragic accident. Eighteen years ago today, my life was changed forever.

Eighteen years....that is a long time. A baby born on the same day my mom passes away is now an adult...what a weird feeling. In some ways it seems like forever, and in some ways it seems like just yesterday. I have a flood of emotions in me today. When I start to question God's plan (which is easy to do) I claim God's Word that tells me that in ALL situations, God works things for HIS good. In ALL situations, not just SOME situations. Let me tell you, that in the eighteen years of life without my mother, there has been so many situations that God has used my experience to show who HE is. I have been able to walk with other people through very difficult situations in their life in a totally different way because of what I have been through.

I still miss her though. For years and years, September 23 has been a terrible day. It has been a "day of gloom". For years, I had almost been afraid to laugh or smile on the 23rd. I did not want to forget my mom. I did not want to overlook her. While feeling pain and sadness are perfectly fine, I felt trapped by those feelings on that day, and that is not from the Lord. About 9 or 10 years ago, while I was in college, a girl named Tracey chose to pour into me and disciple me. I had talked a lot to her about how big September 23rd was in my mind. It was so overwhelming to me. Tracey challenged me to pray that God would make the 23rd something new. So I did. I started to pray that while not forgetting my mother, God would make the 23rd a day of new life. In praying this, I figured that a special friend or relative would have a baby on that day and bring new life. Year after year passed and there was never a baby born on the 23rd. However, the 23rd gradually had less and less of a hold on me.

Fast forward a few years...we had M, H, and A in our home. M had been in our home for about 1 1/2 years. For months, M had been asking about what it means to ask Jesus in her heart. She was mostly understanding, but still somewhat confused. At the beginning of that September, I knew that M was so close to making the decision to accept Christ as her Savior, so I prayed that the 23rd would be that day. On Sept. 22, it was a Saturday, and we were driving home from something. I forget the exact conversation, but God came up in the conversation. I asked M if she had Jesus in her heart and she said no. I asked if she was ready to ask Jesus in her heart and she said, "almost, but not yet." At church the next day, we had our children's musical at church. The musical so clearly and simply presented the gospel of Christ. At the end of the musical, during the invitation, M looked up at me and told us that she did not know Jesus as her Savior and wanted to.

That was it....new life. The Lord always has a better plan than we do. He does things so many times that just leaves me standing in awe. Not only did he bring these girls into our lives, but now he really brought new life right on September 23, and just to top it off, he did it at a children's musical. My mom was the queen of leading children's musicals, so that was a detail so perfect that ONLY God could have planned that!

He made my "day of gloom" a day of new life. Yes, there is still a pain I have. There are so many times that I would love to call and ask for her advice. It hurts me when the girls hurt because they do not know her. Those feelings are still there, undeniable, but I am no longer in bondage to those feelings. I am free to smile and laugh at her grave and it be ok.

I am free to remember her and miss her, smile about her, and laugh all in the same minute. I am so thankful that the Lord brought new life on the terrible day...just like he defeated death and resurrected Jesus Christ...He gives new life. My heart is full and joyful today. My heart is full on this day even remembering this day eighteen years ago.

I love their chipped nail polish and silly bands in this one!

Our dinner guest

Remember Jerry? A's best little buddy and our favorite toad/frog? Just look at this picture and see how much joy Jerry brings to A.
Just look at cute, slimy, fat Jerry. A loves him and all of his relatives. Once when it rained at night, I think every one of Jerry's friends and relatives were hopping on the road. We kept hearing a thump thump thump under the van and Autumn and I kept screaming every time, which raised questions from the girls, so we had to pretend it was a game so A would not cry herself to sleep!

Well, we were sitting at the dinner table tonight and had just started to eat when A obviously spotted something exciting. When we looked up, we saw that the "thing" she spotted was either Jerry's cousin or baby on our sliding glass door...INSIDE! Yes, this sweet little guy was INSIDE on the glass door. As I jumped and ran to the living room, A got right over to the little guy, stood on the chair, and got him off of the sliding glass door and as she was getting off of the chair, he jumped down. All I could see was one of those funny movies where the frog jumps into every one's food and messes everything up. This frog just jumped on S's foot, then A captured him again and let him go free outside. I, however, stood in the living room until the creature was out of the house....great mother huh? A was SO very proud of herself and SO happy to see one of her favorite little guys again.

Nope, not a dull moment around this house!

Crafty Girls

Crafty girls..............nope, I'm not talking about sneaky girls, I'm talking about my girls really liking to do crafts. They are all 4 creative, and they just love to do crafts. They love to draw, paint, fold paper, cut, glue.....anything that lets them be creative. S likes to create, but she gets distracted easily. I don't think she starts with a vision and carries it out.....I think she just likes to do those crafty things especially if it is with someone else. A is definitely an artist. I will take pictures sometime of her drawings and put them on here. She not only draws really well, she has a different and artistic view on life that sets her apart from other people. I love to hear her perspective on an event that I was at....it is a totally different perspective than any one else. She loves to create. She is not predictable at all in her creations and she is so out-of-the-box. If you give her a specific task for a project, she has a hard time following your directions because she wants to put her own spin on everything. H loves to create things. She loves designing clothes. She loves making scrapbooks and just anything out of paper. The girl can make anything look so cute, and she does it FAST. M is very logical, so she is really good at constructing things. She can build buildings and things with blocks or anything really (like pretzels and marshmallows). She likes drawing and using paper, but is really good at constructing things. Autumn is good at gathering things and doing all the behind the scenes stuff for things to get done, and I'm pretty good at getting a vision for things and shouting out orders. Put us all together and what do you get??????
A really good project team!!!!!!
And lucky for us because I am a children's minister and always have a need for a good project team to put together something or another. Really....the girls are a great help to us at the church. They can set up tables and chairs, crafts, food.....they are great help! Believe me, I definitely let them use their gifts to help!!!!
In August, we did a luncheon for the public school teachers right before school started, and Autumn and I had a grand idea to give all 120 teachers, so we enlisted our little crafty girls team to help!

I waited too long to take a picture of one of our leftover gifts and somebody already got to some of the candy, but I think you can get the idea.
Here is our project we worked on all week........our little flower pot. The saying says: Thank you for helping our kids bloom. Notice the missing candy!

My mother used the hot glue gun all the time......for everything, so using the glue gun made me think of her. It really made me happy that my girls are learning to use the glue gun too.....for some strange reason, making these projects made us all feel a little closer to her!

Here is another example of my girls' craftiness. They found some old boxes and made a doll house complete with a barn. I think this project was mainly just the two older girls. That made the younger girls not very happy campers!

M mainly did all the construction and H mainly did all the decorations.

I thought it was cute that they used the fork box and forgot to cover that part.

And after all of their dollhouses.........we cannot find any tape around here! Oh well....I love to watch their creative minds at work!

I'm back!

So, I did not post for a couple of days, and I thought, I really need to post. I went to get on the internet and post, and I couldn't get on because our little internet air card thing broke. So, we were without internet for like a whole week. I didn't really realize how much I depend on the internet at home until we didn't have it....I definitely realized how spoiled I am, and how nosey I am. I just couldn't really stand it when I couldn't get on facebook every night to see what everyone was doing! So here I am....I am back on. Several posts to come.

Dinner and a Prayer

We were headed home at about 5:30ish trying to decide what to eat for dinner when we got stuck in construction traffic on the highway. We were literally 10 or less cars from our road and we were stuck for at least 15 minutes. So as our dinner discussion continued we narrowed down our options and finally decided on Chinese. When the girls heard that, they immediately jumped on the idea and wanted to not only fix Chinese, but put the card table on the floor and sit on pillows while we eat. While that was a really good idea, going to a Chinese restaurant was sounding better and better the more we sat on the road stuck in construction right by our house. So we had a vote.......two adults vote restaurant and four kids vote home. Hmmm....kind of backwards from usual! We weren't happy with the results of the vote, so we texted my friend Becky and decided that if she was in the town where the Chinese restaurant was, we would go there with her, and if she was home, we would cook at home.
And the verdict was.....

home

Autumn and I lost. So we came home and cooked a great Chinese meal. We made stir fry, rice, and lo mein. The girls set up the card table, well really they just laid it on the floor, and they put pillows on the floor to sit on. Autumn made hot tea and we served them the food and tea while singing our best Chinese song (remember we don't really know Chinese, but we fooled the girls!) The girls were amazed at our Chinese speaking talents and wanted to know where we learned the language!

Our dinner turned into a little cultural experience and then to prayer for the Chinese people. We talked about China and how we all want to go there and S cried because she doesn't want to go and she doesn't want us to go without her! Go figure! The evening ended with a fun game that H accidentally started. After everything she said, she did this kind of fake nasally laugh for some reason. It was so funny that we just made it a rule. After everything we said, we had to do that fake nasally laugh.....it was SO fun and SOOOOOO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a great night with few fits, fights and fusses thrown in!

The wrong finger....again

So a while back, I wrote about my friend Becky giving the wrong finger. It's a funny story. Read it here: http://tinsleygirls.blogspot.com/2010/08/wrong-finger.html Well, it happened again. Not the same scenario, but it did happen again. Becky just couldn't keep her sweet little fingers under control. Let me reiterate to you that Becky is a very innocent, and rather gullible person. She really doesn't have a mean bone in her body, so just the thought that she might flip someone off just makes her panic. Well, onto the story. The scene?.....the first football game.

Becky walks through crowds of people as if she is in a parade, smiling and waving at everyone she sees, whether she knows them or not. That's just Becky. She loves people and she loves talking to people and being friendly to people. Football games are way more than just a game. It is the perfect opportunity to see everyone you want to see...well that's how Becky and I both see it. Anyway, back to the story...Becky and her husband Skip were walking, or parading, to their seat, greeting everyone on the way. They passed by the high school principal, so Becky, being the friendly person she is, smiles, greets him with a smile and hello, and lifts her hand to wave. The problem, however, is that with one hand, she was holding on to Skip, balancing herself as she made her way through the bleachers, and she had her phone in her other hand. No problem for Becky, she just waved to the principal, phone in hand, lifting a finger as she waved. Wait....noooooooo.....A finger? Yes ladies and gentleman, she lifted ONE finger...THE finger. She sure did. That's right, Becky flipped off the high school principal. And not only did she flip off the principal, she smiled as she did it! Don't worry, I don't think he noticed!

So......if anyone reading this blog has some really cute mittens that can be worn in any season, please let me know because Becky could really benefit from them. We might have to use oven mits!!!!

revival

We had a revival at our church this past week. Let me tell you......God did some wonderful things in my life! I will briefly, or as briefly as this wordy girl can, tell you about it. It started out with prayer cottage meetings. We met several times in different people's homes the month before the revival just to pray. With school starting, it sometimes became a harder choice to go to these meetings, but I enjoyed getting to pray with people and know people more. One meeting, however, we took the girls. Children usually don't go to these, and I was a little nervous to take them. I don't know why I worry about these things, but we gave them the huge lecture before we walked in the house. It went something like this: Don't touch things in their house, don't be noisy, don't jump into people's lap, don't ask questions, don't breathe.....well, I didn't say don't breathe, but I might as well have. We walked into a sweet older couple's home, and the people were so sweet to the girls, asking them about school, and so on. The girls had minor fussing about where they say, but nothing major. After a little chit chat, we began to pray. The floor was open to whoever wanted to pray. The girls were quiet and still. Every time there was silence, A looked at us and mouthed, "I want to pray". We mouthed back to go ahead, but she was scared. Finally, after everyone had prayed, the leader asked if anyone else wanted to pray. A stuck her hand up in the air, which was great except that every one's eyes were closed and didn't see her. Then, our brave 6 year old voiced a sweet, sincere prayer. She prayed for sick people, prayed that our church would be well again, and prayed that people would come to church. H followed suit and prayed too. I was so proud! I think how intimidating it would be for a child to speak up with all of those adults to pray...and they did it!

So then revival began. Sunday morning was great and people were excited. We came home from lunch and went down for our Sunday nap. During our nap, H came running into our room saying, "Mr. O is at our door!" You see, Mr. O is a man we met...we aren't sure if he knows the Lord, and a few weeks ago his dad went to his house to see him and Mr. O was unconscious. He was in a coma and really not doing well for several days. He was totally out of it in ICU. We don't know this man really , but we prayed for him. One day (look at my post "One of those Days") we went to the city to one task, but that did not work out, so we went to the hospital and visited Mr. O. He was out of it, didn't know we were there, and we honestly didn't think he would make it. Each girl prayed for him in his room. Well, Mr. O came to our door. Not long after our visit, the Lord did a miracle in him. Praise to the Lord....the ONLY one who can do miracles like that! The girls went and told him that they prayed for him, and that God did a miracle. He agreed with them, and he was in a church that morning! They invited him to revival. He did not come to revival, but I am glad we invited him and I am just thrilled that the Lord healed him!
I can't go into every detail in what I learned and the cool things that happened, but it was a fun week. One more story: There is a wonderful older woman in our church named Miss Ruth. Miss Ruth is also a nurse, and earlier in the year, she talked to our AWANA kids about the flu bug and washing your hands and so on. A talks about flu bugs all the time. She thinks about flu bugs now....thanks Miss Ruth! A also LOVES Miss Ruth. She goes and hugs her at church, which totally makes her day. Well, on Tuesday night of revival, we were sitting in service, and A crawled on my lap in tears. She wasn't just whining, she was in tears. "What's wrong?"
"I don't want Miss Ruth to die!" She thinks about the oddest things. She is fascinated with the aging process....which makes for very embarrassing questions or statements to people. (We just secretly hope their hearing is bad and maybe they don't understand her) She thought about Miss Ruth the whole service. Of course Miss Ruth wasn't there, so she was so worried that she was sick or had died....so we called Miss Ruth as soon as the service was over. As the phone rang, I prayed she would answer, or it would be a horribly long night for the poor girl! Luckily she did answer, and luckily she has a tender heart and understanding and I don't think she was offended. She loves the girls and I think she was surprised someone missed her that much at church! Well......guess who showed up the next night at church.......yep, Miss Ruth and her husband AND they sat right by us! A was delighted!
Oh, and one more.........H has been in tumbling the last few years. It was great for her....it improved her coordination, confidence, and so on. However, at the end of last year, we just decided that we weren't going to put her back into tumbling this year. The girls have been in different things: M did horse riding, A did art, and S isn't in anything yet. H is so creative and loves to create things with scrapbook paper. She also loves to help cook, well really she loves to bake and she LOVES all of those cake decorating shows. Her dream is to open her own bakery. She also loves to design, and she is really good at it! When she draws, she will draw different outfits, and some of them are really cute! I would buy her clothes for sure! Anyway, with all of this in mind, we were praying for a lady that H connects with that might spend some time with her and cook with her or sew with her. Well, in the Lord's awesome style, He answered our prayers. A week or so back, we were at a church service, and a friend of ours sat in front of us and was talking with us. She was visiting with the girls and found out that her first and middle names are the same as H's two middle names! They instantly connected with that discovery. Well, H and J have seen each other a few times and they talk about various things. I'm not sure exactly how it came up, but one night before the revival service started, H came and told me that J said they could decorate cupcakes together! I am telling you....H BEAMED!!!!! She just could not contain her excitement. She sat down and wrote her a note telling her how happy she was about making cupcakes....H was praising the Lord for this answer to prayer. Now, I am not so sure that J knows what she is getting into, and I don't know that she knows she really committed, and I keep trying to tell H that, but she is so excited. She has been working extra hard at her chores and doing extra chores to make more money so she can pay J to teach her to decorate cupcakes! H has it pictured......she knows exactly who she will give cupcakes to first....I really think the girl might explode from excitement! And.....she is so pretty anyway, but when she is excited, her eyes just sparkle and are the most beautiful things ever.......SO PRETTY!

So these are just a few things the Lord has done for us lately! Thank you Lord for your blessings! Thank you for the way you bless us in the little details of life!