Family

Family

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Church or Art?

As many of you know Delayna has been taking art classes for a few years now. I posted some pictures of her paintings recently that she is trying to sell to raise money for a trip to go to Camp YES in Canada this summer. She normally has class on Friday afternoons from 2:30-6:30, but sometimes she has to leave a little early for a church activity. This past week, due to Semana Santa,  they had class on Wednesday since Friday was a holiday.  When she arrived to class, she informed her teacher that she would have to leave early because of church that night. Her teacher then told her, "you need to choose between art and church!" At first Delayna thought she was kidding with her, but after a minute she realized that she was serious.  At that point all kinds of things were going through Delayna's mind. One of which was that maybe she could stay a little later to please her teacher and still have enough time to get ready for church. Then she made her decision. She paid her teacher for the past month, packed up her stuff and walked out! We are so proud of her for taking that stand! But then, I believe, God blessed her for that decision. She was well on her way home and her teacher came running after her and told her, "if your faith means that much to you, you can come back". That night at church during our prayer meeting, Delayna requested prayer for her salvation.
Sometimes we wonder about kids that are raised in church and don't have a choice about going. What will they do when they are tested? When they have to make a choice without us, what will it be? It was such a blessing to see her make the right choice when faced with a test like that.
At church

Her paintings

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Birthdays and Girlfriends?

We had Pastor Ken Shaver and his wife here with us the beginning of March. He preached a family conference for us and our church's 6th anniversary. We had 225 on Sunday morning and a couple saved. We really enjoyed having them stay with us. They sure spoiled us rotten. They brought a suitcase full of goodies for us and the Wessons. My kids immediately adopted them as grandparents. :) We were sad to see them leave.
On March 7th Jesse turned 6 years old.  He was so excited for March to get here because he knew he was going to get a box of presents from his Nanny, one to open each day of the month. He had watched Seth do it in January and he was ready for his turn. He has loved it. He lays it out each night before he goes to bed so he can pick it up on his way downstairs in the morning.
One Saturday, Stu was out passing out flyers for the family conference. He had given one to a lady that was in her yard and when he was done telling her about it she asked him if he wanted a girlfriend. He told her no, he was happily married but she acted like, so what, do you want a girlfriend?! I'm glad he said no. :) It is very common in this Country for the men to have both a wife and a girlfriend and they both know about each other. We've had to deal with those situations a few times.
We live on a cul d sac and the kids love going out on "the circle" to play. Most evening our kids and the Wesson's kids are all out there playing along with some neighbor kids. The other night Seth came in  from playing and said "Mom, I need to tell you something bad that I did.". I asked what it was and he told me that he had pulled a branch off of one of the trees. The neighbors like to keep the circle looking nice, so there are a couple of trees the kids can climb and the rest they are to leave alone. I told him that he knew he wasn't suppose to touch them. He said, "but it wasn't me, Ashlyn (Wesson)  forced me to." I told him that she couldn't force him to do anything, that it was his choice to obey or disobey. He then said, "but mom, she looked at me with that face and I had to do it!". It took all I had to keep from busting out laughing.