It's time for the Bananas to Split!

Tomorrow, our "real life missionaries" Liz and Claire, leave for Thailand!  They have graduated from Mary Washington here in Virginia, and have quit their full time jobs to go around the world to teach English and share the gospel with a local church we have partnered with since Doug took the two of these girls along with a couple other of our college students last year to Bangkok, Thailand.  We will certainly  miss these beautiful smiling faces, but we know that God is going to do amazing thing through them!

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always." Matthew 28:19-20

If you are reading this, please pray for these young women as they will be there for one year.  Doug and 12 of our students from Spotswood Baptist will be (Lord willing) reuniting with them in August for a short term mission trip.

Here are their blog spots:
http://lizinbangkok.blogspot.com    http://claireinbangkok.blogspot.com
This is the Facebook page for the church: Lifepoint in Bangkok:
http://www.facebook.com/LifepointBKK

The definition of futility......

"Cleaning with children inside the house is like 

brushing your teeth while eating Oreos."

Today I took a shower, vacuumed the stairs, mopped the kitchen, washed the windows, cleaned the countertops, straightened the living room, took out the trash, and fed the kids.  But if you came into my house right now, you would call me a big fat liar. Why? Because somehow, in the last 30 minutes of the day it seems every time right before Doug gets home from work: the windows have new hand and mouth prints on them, the countertops are littered with cups and food and an indescribable goo, the carpets have dirt, my kids are hungry, I definitely don't look like I have showered today (or even for a week) and the trash has piled up again.

Why does it even surprise me anymore? Today, I was able to laugh, as in the amount of time it took me to drain the macaroni and cheese noodles, I hear Hunter say, "MOM! look!" and turn to see Addison has poured out a bag of potting soil onto the deck and is throwing it into the kitchen.  I hope to somehow clean this mess up again, throw my hair in a pony tail and make all look well and good before Doug comes home in 2.5 minutes, not that he would care.... but I care.  I worked hard to make it clean, and I want him to come home to a nice environment sometimes!  Sometimes cleaning IS futile...but necessary for my sanity.

Camping Memories

 Our church has been doing a series called "Family Ties" calling us to remember what is truly important in raising a family and teaching children to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and strength.  This last week Pastor Stone and his wife Elaine discussed how they strived to create memories (mostly free memories like being outdoors) with their children.  We wanted this for our family, and so we set out for our first family camping excursion into the deep woods.  Armed with bug spray and s'mores we decided that we were not going to have high expectations of exhilaration and joy, due to the fact that we had an 18month old and a testy 3 year old....but we were determined, none the less.


Both of our parents took us camping when we were growing up, and I still can remember the feel of the wet dew on the grass when I woke up early in the morning, and Doug remembers bologna sandwiches and going fishing.  We had an absolutely beautiful spot deep into the woods (no electricity, no running water, no toilets) just us for miles and miles and miles.... an awesome fire and a running river next to us, we claimed our adventure!


While it was IMPOSSIBLE to get two little kids to stop jumping around inside the tent and go to SLEEP, it was really sweet to have Addison walk back and forth and give us kisses and say "Night Night!" 20 times, and to have Hunter curl up next to me with his breath heavy on my shoulder.

2 am in the morning....the thought running through my head? "Ok, Doug! I promise I will NEVER ask you to take us camping again! This is MISERABLE!!"  but if you can just somehow get yourself to sleep a couple of hours, waking up to coffee and eggs over a Coleman grill and going rafting down the river in the morning, well, that was worth it.