My son is growing up!!

My oldest son is 17 today!! Wow!!! I am taking my boys getting older much harder than I did my daughter. One more year and he's ready to face the world. It has really made me feel even more convicted to pray for him constantly. It is so hard to let go. I have to trust God and the plans He has for him.

Be blessed Sean. I am proud of you.

Love you,

Mom

Blessed Beyond Understanding!!

I am so blessed!! Today is my birthday. Just another day. I was resigned to the fact that it was going to be a very not so nice day after some things that happened last night and this morning. I was taking my boys to Grape Creek to do a Civil Air Patrol training and all families were invited. I had it all planned out. Well.....lots of stuff happened and my two youngest didn't even want to go. We got there late and I was in tears. I guess I had a little fight left in me and I called a dear friend. She listened to me, cried with me and prayed with me for quite awhile. I got out of the van......I got out of the van and everything changed. I visited with two other moms there. We watched the boys do their drills. We laughed with them, ate with them and just had a good time. It was hot and windy. Who would have picked this for their birthday. Four Civil Air Patrol leaders, nine cadets, two of my other children and a child of the leaders. Hot and windy. Yeah. I chose to be with my family. It was fun. Then the tent blew down on top of me and one of the mom leaders. Yikes!! It was okay, though. Everyone worked together to get everything put up and back together. One of the moms even bought me a cake and nine cadets sang Happy Birthday to me. That's never happened before! We then watched the boys have a much deserved water fight. And yes, I gave them permission (even asked them) to squirt me. I had fun. I am blessed.

I could have stayed in bed all day. I could have went shopping. I could have done many other things. I wanted to do something with my boys (dad was at work). It was worth it. My boys all thanked me for it.

Thank you Father for blessing me today. Thank you for showing me what is important.

Today is the 9th month anniversary for me since God healed me of my fear of what others think about me. Nine months! Praise God! Today, satan has tried to take back that healing. He has put a situation in my path that overwhelmed me for awhile there. Tonight, God put people in my path that helped me stand my ground against this. They prayed with me, hugged me, encouraged me.

Nine months ago I was in Juarez Mexico in an orphanage. God had started working on me the year before while I was in Juarez. Nine months ago, God asked me again, Lauri who do you fear Me or man? Right then and there I had to choose. I choose you God. And God gave me a whole new ministry out of it. And while in Juarez I was called on to sing a song for the ladies Bible study. The only song I could think of was "Whom Then Shall I Fear?" I sang it and cried through some of it. God was speaking to me.

Even before I went to Mexico I sang that song a whole lot. My oldest son even had my name on his cell phone as Humshali (get it.....Whom (Hum) Shall (shall) I? And out of all this God gave me a name for my ministry. Humshali.........I now have to do something with that.

God you are awesome! I praise You for showing me that You can use me right where I am.

Rosetta Stone Giveaway

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!
This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!

Hurry, I believe the last day for this contest is today.

He Knows The Plans He Has For Me Jer. 29:11

Here goes! I have no clue what I am doing. I just know that I need to be telling others about how awesome God is and what wonderful things He is doing in my life.