Homework Club

This year God has laid it on my heart to become more involved in the homework club ministry taking place at our apartments.  Jake and I made a deal, I would go on Tuesdays, and he would go on Thursdays that way Landry is taken care of and at least one of us gets to go help.  This year, we have been overwhelmed with around 20 (sometimes more, sometimes less) kids coming to the 2 bedroom apartment we have rented in the complex to receive a snack, small devotion, and help with their homework or fun game time.  Organized chaos at its finest :)

I have to share about last weeks devotion time.  We had just started talking to the children about Matthew's calling by Jesus to become a disciple and what it means when Jesus tell him  "Follow me."  Many of these children have limited knowledge of Jesus and his Love for them, but for the past year, many of these kids have become involved in Awana, went to our Children's camp and VBS during the summer, and are now attending Sunday School.  So needless to say, we have a handful of children that are starting to get it!!! So, Mr. Wayne was leading the devotion time and he got to the part about Jesus saying "follow me" and Matthew leaving everything and following Christ.  We had one little girl raise her hand and say, "Wait, so did Matthew HAVE to follow Jesus or did he CHOOSE to follow Jesus?" All the adults in the room made eye contact full of surprise and amazement. What an amazing question from a child that didn't even realize what a great question that was! It just goes to show that they are listening, and God is working, and He is allowing us to see small glimpses of the fruit that is resulting from this ministry!

Shortly after, I was helping another girl with her multiplication tables and she turned to me and said, "Do you think we can make T-shirts that say I LOVE JESUS on them?" She then told me she would like her name and a scripture on the back. I told her that sounded like an awesome idea and asked her if she could think of a scripture that might go well with the I LOVE JESUS phrase on the front.  She said, "Well, I don't know a lot of scriptures, but I do remember one from Camp Sizzle that says love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength."  I exclaimed that I thought that was the perfect scripture! My heart melted.

I am just so excited to see what God does with these kids.  Please keep us in your prayers, because its exciting to see such awesome progress, but there are a lot of needs that go behind all those moments.  Pray for our students grades, many are coming needing help and are finding out several students are way behind where they should be for their grade.  We make the best of our volunteers, but many times we are having to do 3 to 1 tutoring due to lack of volunteers! So pray that God would send dedicated help that can see past the chaos and have a heart to help and love these kids. Pray that over the next few months as we speak with businesses around town such as Walmart, HEB, Walgreens, and Bealls, that maybe we could get some valuable donations to help keep our costs down.  And lastly, please pray that we can have more moments like the above stories! We have many kids starting to desire to commit their lives to Christ, which is exciting, but we need guidance on how to lead them correctly and gently towards Christ! Thank you all!

Here are few pics of what goes on every Tuesday and Thursday!

Snack time!

down to homework business

2 sweet girls working with 1 sweet lady

Mr. Wayne is clearly the favorite 

Having fun with music

Update on our Adoption process

We have had many people ask us how the process is going for our certification to foster-to-adopt, so I thought I would update everyone.  All paperwork is submitted, all inspections are passed!!! We have our first aid/CPR scheduled to take the first weekend of october and then all we have left to do is a one day training class and then we are CERTIFIED! While all the paperwork and trainings and inspections are important, we are also trying to get our family prepared and our space prepared for another little one to join us. I found gorgeous gender neutral bedding that is green and black, my mom went shopping with me at my favorite fabric store here and helped me pick material for her to sew curtains, and last weekend I repainted and replaced the hardware on an old dresser. I am pretty proud of my handiwork :) but while I stripped the old hardware off, repainted, and then later put all 18 new pulls on, I prayed for the little one God has for us. A labor of love, both manually and prayerfully for this little chosen one.

I will post more pictures of the completed nursery once we get a crib and get the room set up!

Weekend Fun

Anytime the Quisenberry clan or the Edwards gang come to town means a fun weekend fun us, but especially a fun weekend for little man of the house.  My family came for a visit a few weekends ago, and we had a blast. Saturday we spent the day at Fiesta Texas and had a blast! Landry is always so awesome on day trips like that, and this was no exception! Sunday afternoon, we pulled out the slip-n-slide that grandma bought Landry and had some more fun!
Here are some shots of the excitement, Landry wasn't sure how it worked at first, but the girls and Rance showed him how!

Zoey showing him how its done!

Zaey rocking the slip-n-slide!

The progression

Dad helping out

almost there!

Yay!!!!

He loved splashing at the end in the little pool of water

Dogpile, 3 person pile up! 

This doesn't even need words, haha. 

confession of a minister's wife

I have something as a minister's wife I need to confess...

There is "type" of minister's wife out there that I just envision when I think of a woman being a minister's wife, and probably what some church members expect to see when they see a minister's wife... you know the kind. perfectly dressed, awesome hair, always smiling, speaks eloquently, women adore her, she's the first woman signed up for everything at church, quotes the perfect scripture for the moment, and reverently falls in line behind her husband...

So, envisioning the above woman as the "perfect" minister's wife, that makes me......

Me? I love my shorts/jeans and t-shirts, i love my chacos, my hair is usually in a ponytail, I wear minimal make-up which doesn't begin to hide my skin flaws, the only time I can speak eloquently is when I'm explaining a math problem, I tend to get along better with guys than girls because I hate drama, and I tend to give my opinions on matters to my husband.

There are simply days when I look at myself and wonder why in the world God chose me to be married to a minister. I have often bought into the lie that the above picture is what I need to strive to look like/be like/act like, which is definitely a great picture to look at... except the fact that it is not me.

Over the last few months, God has been working on me. Really working on me. He has shown me ministries and opportunities that get me excited and passionate about serving people for Him for the first time in a long time.  He has given me a husband that thinks I'm beautiful at my worst, my just rolled-out-of-bed-barely-mustered-energy-to-get-dressed look. My husband values me, values my opinion, and relies on me to be his best friend. He has given me a beautiful son that doesn't care if I can speak with beautiful churchy words. He simply loves it when I sing silly songs, make funny noises for him to repeat, and tell him I love him.

There are days when I look at those seemingly perfect wives, or read their latest blog on how to have the perfect marriage, ministry, budget or children and twinge a little inside because I don't measure up. Or feel jealous or inadaquate because I look at some wives and wonder, how in the world do they look like that everyday and not spend a fortune of time and money to achieve their look?  But I'm learning to be ok with who I am, focus on the tremendous blessings he has given me, and find my stride in different ministries.