I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by my imaginary friend* Lori Downs with instructions to post the 6th photo in my 6th folder. When she tagged me, she said, "I bet it will be a kiddo!" Well...how 'bout two kiddos? :)

January 2007...This is a photo of Robert and Josiah with Robert's new bow and arrow (junior set) that he had gotten for Christmas in 2006. This was immediately before we got a bale of hay for him to use with target practice. We have a really long back yard so he was hitting nothing but yard here.

If you look really closely, you may see a little bit of red poking out of Josiah's collar. He has a Spiderman costume (bodysuit) underneath his clothes. He wore it to the point that the zipper in the back broke and holes are in both knees. And he still wears it, even though it's so short the "knees" are at his thighs. His big brother (the original owner of the Spiderman suit) refuses to give up possession of the Spiderman mask that went with this well-loved costume. Never mind that it doesn't fit him comfortably or that he even wears it...ever...Sigh...

I am supposed to tag 6 people now. I choose:

1. Dannielle at 50 Fingers & 50 Toes.

2. Mama Ant at Ants-on-a-Farm.

3. Julie at From Inmates to Playdates. (And please read this post and keep her family in your prayers!)

4. Dawn at My Home Sweet Home.

5. ...And I ran out of steam here. You can consider yourself tagged if you want to participate! I love the randomness of this (although that's probably because I had recently gone through old photo files and kept only the ones I loved...you know, the ones I might one day actually get printed...maybe...). I just failed miserably with the passing it on part.

* "Imaginary friend" is the term my husband uses for people I have met online but have never met in person or talked to on the phone...and they may or may not even know that I exist. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Without excuse

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Romans 1:20 (NIV)

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News Headlines

On the day when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making news with her statement "Contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government" (Really? Tell that to European nations...), I thought I would share a beautiful story I found in my inbox today. Those of you who email me with various stories that are forwarded from inbox to inbox probably know that I will look on snopes.com or wherever before forwarding anything. Well, I investigated this story and found the text of this email nearly word-for-word here, and also found the story here and here.

~~~~~

Pam's Story

Pam knows about the pain of considering abortion.

More than 21 years ago, she and her husband, Bob, were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in a contaminated food or drink. She entered into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant. Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety and told her that the medicines had caused irreversible damage to her baby. She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted.

The doctors "didn't think of it as a life, they thought of it as a mass of fetal tissue," Pam said.

While pregnant, Pam nearly lost their baby four times but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband, "If you will give us a son, we'll name him 'Timothy,' and we'll make him a preacher."

Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and, eventually, gave birth to a health baby boy August 14, 1987.

Pam's youngest son is indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father's ministry in the Philippines .

He also plays football. Pam's son is Tim Tebow.

Last year, the University of Florida 's star quarterback, became the first sophomore in history to win college football's highest award, the Heisman Trophy. Tim's notoriety and the family's inspiring story have given Pam numerous opportunities to speak on behalf of women's centers across the country.

She was the keynote speaker at the Oct. 23, 2008, benefit banquet for two Louisville ministries. A Woman's Choice Resource Center offers such services as free pregnancy tests, post-abortion counseling, adoption information, and material support. Necole's Place is a companion ministry that provides support services for women in need.

Several Louisville-area Kentucky Baptist churches and Long Run Baptist Association help support both ministries.

A Woman's Choice board chairman, John Schmitt, reported at the banquet that in the 20 years since the resource center opened, 4,500 children have been saved from abortion -- 400 in this year alone.

Speaking of the thousands of lives saved, Pam Tebow said, "That just blows my mind. Every little baby you save matters."

What NOT to do on a Sunday night

Update: I am going green and recycling this post to participate in a brand spankin' new blog carnival hosted by Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife.




If it's Sunday night and your husband is asking if you'd like to watch a movie with him, question him fully on what exactly "action" might mean. And if the movie is Eagle Eye, check the time because you really need at least a few hours in between watching this INTENSE "action" movie and going to bed.

At least.

And PG-13? Who are we kidding? It was a good movie, definitely kept the plot line going at a rapid pace, lots of twists and turns...lots of explosions, lots of edge-of-your-seat scenes, and not a whole lot that I would want a 13 year old watching. There were parts I didn't even want to see.

After the movie was over, I washed up for bed, climbed under the covers, hopped back up to give Grace some medicine for an earache when she cried a few minutes later, and then laid there for a while wide awake before giving up and heading back out to the living room. I figured I would get some of my homework done with the Beth Moore Bible study I'm in, Psalms of Ascent. And, no, it was not that I thought it would put me to sleep, but I thought it would help calm me down enough to where sleep could be a possibilty...Jason has already questioned me on that point! ;)

And do you know what? I can get three days' worth of homework done in under 50 minutes when it's 1:00 a.m.-ish and the house is totally quiet and no one is calling me "Mom-can-I." (Hey--It's a step up from "But-Mommy.")

And do you know what else? I can lay there in bed mulling over some of the personal questions in the homework that I didn't immediately have answers for when I was sitting in my chair. I thought, "OK, I'll think about that later" and moved on...only I really didn't think "later" would be so soon.

I was thinking more like daytime.

Instead, I was still awake and making a mental list of things other people might ridicule me for. Seriously. Now, doesn't that sound like fun?

To check out what other people have learned this week, visit Musings of a Housewife.

More of the Little Gym Dawg

This picture was taken soon after this one, when Grace got tickled at herself and started clapping. I love the expression on her face! What a doll!

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

If you are a part of the same Bible study I'm currently doing, you will remember this specific topic in the video session last night. But even if you're not in the Psalms of Ascent Bible study, it applies to all of us who are believers. I ran across this post by Alicia @ Confessions of a Snowflake tonight, and I would love for you to read it, too!

Wordless Wednesday: Little Gym Dawg

This is Grace when she was 8 months old, before all of the curls came in. When she was on her belly, she would push up into a split until she was in a sitting position! Seriously...This is not posed--there was only the conscious effort I made to catch her in a full split while she was wearing this particular outfit. ;)  Just look at all of that sweet chubbiness! What do you think...future gymnast?

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