One week away................

With the race just one week away, there is so much that still needs to be done. Right now I am going through and documenting and rechecking all the registrations to make sure I have everything correct and in its place. We have close to 60 people registered so far and I expect to receive many more registrations this week and have tons more to register the day of the race!!! We are so excited and blessed to have such wonderful support from our family, friends and the city of Abbeville. If you have not registered you can go to THIS website and either pay through paypal or print off the form and mail it in! Remember that if you wait and register on Saturday the fee goes up to $30!

On another note, my sweet sister will be having her 2nd baby this week, and we are so excited for she, Wesley and big brother Nate! I am so excited to meet this new blessing to our family! So many great things are happening and I am thankful that Christ has allowed me to be part of it all!

I've got feathers, don't ruffle them!!

You may have seen this..............................or even this!

Feather extensions are everywhere, I have 6 as a matter of fact and my daughter has 1! Steven Tyler has them, the today show even did an entire segment on the extensions. Some people may think they are strange, tacky or unattractive, I on the other hand think they are a good way to change your look without committing to a complete hair color change. A friend of mine from NY even has some "feathas", as we call them. I adore them.....just don't ruffle my feathas!!!:)

Words of Wisdom....you can never hear this enough!

I do not always quote people on my blog, but I came across the following advice on Holly Furtick's blog. I have heard this before, but at this point in my life where I am juggling kids, my marriage, my job....well you get the picture. As a pastor's wife I see so much of the dark side of ministry and although we are early in our ministry journey we have already learned so much! One day we will write a book.......it is in our 20 year plan:) Here are some words of wisdom from Mrs. Furtick......

Here's the thing, and this is not just pertaining to ministry. In life, you can either become a slave to everyone's opinions of what you should do and say, or you can decide what your gifts and priorities are and order your life around that. BUT either way, someone is not going to be happy because you can never make everyone happy with you, no matter how hard you try. And it always hurts when people are not happy with you.

My goal should not be to make everyone happy. My goal should be to serve and honor the people God has directly placed in my life, to put them first and let everything else fall into place. For me that is my husband, then my kids, then my family, close friends and our church. And when, not if, someone gets upset because I did not meet their expectation, I will be sad, I will be hurt, but I will not be surprised.

So in clarification of this statement that I made last week, "As best as I can, I need to tell others who I am, not the other way around," telling others who I am doesn't always mean that everyone will be happy with me, but hopefully my kids will not grow up saying I put everyone before them. And hopefully, my marriage will be stronger in 20 years than it is today because I chose to make it a priority.

It is RACE TIME folks!

At this very moment I am recording and going through race tee sponsors and I am in awe of how awesome the people of Abbeville, Greenwood, California and New York are:)! We have church planting friends in NY who donated to our adoption race and then we have a friend who is flying all the way from Cali to run in our race! I am super pumped about how amazing the people are that God has placed in our lives. I am convinced that God places people in our path daily for the main purpose of building His kingdom........that is why we must be intentional with the relationships we build with each other!

REGISTER, REGISTER, REGISTER!!!!!! www.abbevillespringfestival.com

The registration process is very simple, just click on the link above, click on 5k run/walk and then click the buy button!!!! If you want to simply donate funds, click on the donate button on the right-hand side of my blog. Thanks in advance for all your prayers and thoughts as we seek to bring our daughter home!

"New Stuff Coming Soon" Final Trailer

One of my most favorite bands of all time "CALEB". This is the band of Steven Curtis Chapman's sons Caleb and Will Franklin. They are super amazing and the talent is off the chain!!!!:) Enjoy this teaser for their new album which will be released soon!

Tomorrow's Challenge

Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for our family. On Tuesday, Caroline Reese Zijacek went to be with Jesus after fighting for her life for 5 days. We are distraught, heartbroken and anxious. We know that Jesus has and will continue to receive the glory for it all! Please remember Reese's family, Christen, Joe, Faith and Hunter as they grieve her death.

"Out of these ashes

Beauty will rise

And we will dance among the ruins

We will see it with our own eyes

Out of these ashes

Beauty will rise

For we know joy is coming in the morning

In the morning

Beauty will rise"

We love you so much sweet little lady, and my life will never be the same because I had the honor of knowing you. I look forward to seeing your sweet face in heaven one day!!!"

What I am looking forward to.....

WOW, what an amazing week!!!! After last weeks record attendance at church, the birth of Cann great grand #11 (she is need of much prayer) I just didn't think I was even going to be able to sleep last night. Much of yesterday was spent making preparations for today's church service. From making lists of names of people to invite to praying over each name at 1:00 am during a horrific thunderstorm, God has showed Himself faithful! I woke up this morning to more rain and children who didn't want to get motivated and move out the door, but Curt and I were both determined to be on time and to be pumped because we were expecting BIG things!!! This week was our first official week in the exercise room. We moved this week because as of last week we had outgrown the front room at the YMCA. We knew our crowd was going to be bigger but we had no idea what God was about to do. After a big breakfast cooked by our sweet Regina (her pancakes are the bomb) we talked about life and the church growth and moving in new volunteers. At 10:30, people began to flood in..........there was no room to move in the lobby.........let's just say I have not given or received that many high fives in years! The exercise room was packed out and there are plans to move to the gym after next week!!!! Carlton actually called it before 10:30, he said, "I figure after next week ya'll will probably be needing that extra space in the back gym"! Well Carlton, you were right!!! As I type, some of our volunteers are at the Lander FCA setting up sound and lights to help reach out to more Lander students.

Here are a few things I am looking forward to:

• An exhausted husband who will sleep well after this long but successful day of serving the Lord
• Chatting more with some of our new college students this week
• Saturday night text/Facebook-a-thon night with a few very special students
• Sunday morning when we get to do it all again

Sunday is my week off, but I will probably show up early so I can see God work!

This younger generation is craving a relationship with Jesus Christ. Be there to show them the way!!!