Crown Center

Every Friday after Thanksgiving we go to Crown Center with Papa and Nana Ketchum to see the Mayor's Christmas tree lighting. We look forward to it every year! We go eat lunch at A Streetcar Named Desire, admire all the pretty Christmas trees and awesome train set at Union Station, and run through Crayola Land (which Alex named the Promised Land when she was two). We couldn't hit that this time because of the crazy long lines, and we missed the tree lighting, because our Lila was sick, but it was still fun. We are going to be going back in a couple weeks with our home school group, so we should be able to do Crayola Land then. Our parents came back to our house and we watched the Polar Express on Vince's new TV. It was so much fun! I had to put a pic of Vince putting lip gloss on his little Jewel. He is such a good daddy to his girls!

Giving Thanks!

Thanksgiving was so wonderful! We always spend Thanksgiving with my parents and Vince's parents together. We don't have to drive all over and it is such a blessing that my our parents love each other! It was beautiful weather for the first part of the day, until a cold front moved in. We took advantage of it by playing outside with our new friends (Holly (Uncle Chris' lovely girlfriend) had her two nieces with her). Lots of turkey, cranberry salad, mashed potatoes and peanut butter pie filled our bellies. We were thankful for our health (which now we are all sick, Lila especially). We were thankful for what Christ has done for us. We were thankful for God blessing us with food and shelter. We prayed for our Titus. That the people taking care of him would be blessed and that we would get him home soon. We prayed for Eileen (beautiful momma of three), Caden (age 5) and Sara (age 4); all who are suffering with cancer. God is so good and we have so much to be grateful for. I have been taking care of our sick little Lila for the past few days, praying for these precious children who are sick. I was reading one of my blogs that I keep up on www.sethbarnes.com and he wrote this excerpt from Brennan Manning (one of my favorite authors)...In The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus he tells the story of a man with 13 children who is asked which of them he loves the most. He answers that the one he loves the most was the one who needed him the most at the time.

God is like that - he loves those most who need him the most. Our need forces us to be dependent on him. We struggle to feel God's love in America because we depend on him so little.

Manning observes that we need to be more secure in how God feels about us. God is genuinely fond of you. He's not waiting for you to become more moral to start loving you.

If you want a GREAT book to read, I recommend Abba's Child, by Manning. It changed my life. Happy Thanksgiving!

Leapin' Lizards (or Toads)

We went on a field trip with our home school group to the KU Natural History Museum a couple of weeks ago. I've been slacking updating this! We had a great time and about 30 kids came! We went on a scavenger hunt through the museum and then our friend at church, David McLeod, took us for a 'behind the scenes' tour. We got to see all sorts of amphibians. They have over 300,000 specimens in lab! He showed us frogs and sicilians and many other creatures he discovered on his trip to Thailand. It was very interesting and we learned that one of the frog species only consists of females! It was a lot of fun!

Titus Update

Our friend and agency director just got back from Ethiopia last Saturday. She visited the new HIV orphanage, the original orphanage, and our son! We got beautiful pictures (and I mean BEAUTIFUL!!!) and wonderful video! It was such a blessing to get it and to see how much he has changed in just under 2 months! Our friend also bought him a hat at market and had him wear it and then she brought it home to us. I was lying in bed with it and I thought "wouldn't it be cool if there was a hair in it?" I looked and looked and then I saw it. A very tiny, very curly black hair. It almost looked like an eyelash, just a little longer and curlier! I was ecstatic and have it in a tupperware! I put my hand in the hat and slept with it (I wasn't feeling too good that day) and just thought "my son's head was in here last week!" Gosh, I want him home sooooo badly! Just pray that we get a court date soon. We are hoping a court date before Christmas and pick-up mid January, if all goes well. Just thought I'd share!

Annual Pumpkin Pick

We go every year to Shaake's Pumpkin Patch. It was PACKED! We went on a Saturday and the pickings were slim, but we found 3 that we liked. I get pics of the girls every year and I just love seeing them and how they've changed. We saw are great friends (and ex-neighbors) the Rea's there, so that was fun. They just moved to their new house this week and will be greatly missed. (At least they are only a few blocks away)!

Riding Cayenne

Our Uncle Chris' girlfriend, Holly, treated us a couple Sundays ago to riding her horse. We had a great time! Cayenne eats A LOT of grass and was tired after we all road her. I was scared to ride her so I made Chris walk the horse while I rode. The last time I had rode a horse, I got bucked off and my sister landed on top of me! Here are some pics. (Haley was unable to attend; she was sick with kitty allergies).

American Royal

The Grace homeschool group went to the American Royal for a field trip on Oct. 20th. There were probably about 50 of us there, so it was a pretty good turn out. We got a "behind the scenes" tour and then we got to see a junior rodeo. It was pretty neat seeing 6-13 year-olds roping and riding! We got to see a cow get milked and a the famous Cowboy Monkey! Here are some pics.