Our Compassion Kids!

We have sponsored 3 kids through Compassion International for several years. We let the kids pick a country and then tried to find a child similar in age. Mikayla writes to a girl her age in Guatemala,



Gus writes to a boy in Thailand the same age as him



And Owen writes to a boy with almost the same birthday as his in Bolivia




We dream of one day traveling to one or more of hese countries to meet our sponsored children in person, but for now we pray for them and think of them everyday. We wonder what their day is like and talk about what would be different and what would be the same as our day.


Sponsor a Child



When Mary and Zeke (our two younger children) get a little older we will add two more Compassion kids to our family, so they can each write to a child too.

I was searching the Compassion website the other day and realized there is much more we can do to help Compassion International beyond sponsoring a child. There are other important programs like:

Compassion Sunday

Leadership Development Program

Child Survival Program


And on Compassion Internationale's website you can read wonderful accounts of how God is working in the lives of the children we sponsor and also in the lives of the people sponsoring:

On Pastor's Story

How MercyMe's Bart Millard was inspired by his young son

20 years after being sponsored, a Thank you

There is also a wonderful Compassion Blog

Real Moments in my Life

I have recently been blessed and inspired by reading Jeanette's blog, A Moment with M.O.M. At times she posts about real moments in their home

We are truly blessed as moms to see these real moments in life, our lives, our children's lives and the lives of those around us. So I'm hoping to also begin capturing some of those every day moments that make my life so special and unique.

And here are two very Real Moments from my life today:

Kids being goofy in the back seat



Our trip to UnderWater World

Maple Sugaring at Papa's Cabin

Our morning at Papa's Cabin began with Gus, Papa Ron and Great Grandpa explaining a bit about their land and how maple sugaring works. That metal stove thing is the boiler where they boil the sap into syrup. That black and white picture you see on the wall is a blown up version of a picture taken during harvest over a hundered years ago:




"STRELOW,PLESSEL & GUTZKOW CO. THRASHIN
For Christenson Brothers, Rock Creek, Minnesota Oct. 15, 1892"

Sitting in that black and white picture is my Great Grandpa Gus as a young boy (that would be our Gus's Great Great Grandpa Gus) and his dad, Peder Christenson.

Then the kids paired off and grabbed a bucket to go collect the sap

Papa Ron and little Mary supervised

Collecting all that sap can make your bucket very heavy

Some kids got drawn to the beauty of the creek
... even though you'll find no sap in there

Once all the bags of sap were emptied and brought back to the boiler, we got a good bonfire going

And Mikayla set up the table for lunch

The kids each roasted a hot dog or two, followed by roasting a marshmellow or two or three of four :-)




I think its safe to say we all had a wonderful day! I'll add the pictures of their walk down by the creek to the beaver dam and archery practice in another post

Slideshow design personalized with Smilebox

I ♥ Faces - week 12

This week at I ♥ Faces their challenge theme is "Angles". I confess that on first glance at the line up of weekly challenge themes I thought it read "Angels" and said "guess I'll skip that week since I've never photographed an angel" ... then realized I read it wrong (phew...)

So off I went to find a photo with a creative or interesting angle ... ended up looking at pictures from 4 years ago! It was a really fun trip down memory lane. Man these kids grow really fast! So here is my entry of our 4th child, Z. He LOVED talking to himself in this mirror. I guess this day he was really cracking himself up and I remember my daughter saying "mom, I wonder what he is telling himself thats so funny"



I guess he could qualify for the challenge even if it was angels, since we think he is a gift straight from heaven itself (but then I'm a bit biased, I'm his mom). If you would like to see a much more recent shot of cute little guy click HERE

If you want to see some more fun pictures from the I ♥ Faces Angles (not angels) Challenge or share one of your own click on the button below:

Undo

I must admit that this is my daily (sometimes hourly) prayer:



So blessed to know the love and mercy of our Savior!

I ♥ Faces - Constructive Feedback

I decided to enter a picture I took of Mary last summer over at I ♥ Faces

Vist Mary's blog to see my entry and read the feedback and please do go visit I ♥ Faces

I ♥ Faces - Week 11

This week at I ♥ Faces their challenge theme is "Bundled Up". I must tell you that living in MN provides me with many pictures of people all bundled up. So it was a tough pick. Here is the one I finally chose of my hubby and our youngest daughter, taken while we were on our winter vacation in northern MN. They were standing in the middle of frozen lake and visiting the local musher who was giving dog sled rides. Behind them is the tee-pee we used as a warming house. We bundled up everyone on that trip so we could all be outside enjoying the snow together:



All our babies and toddlers have been "worn" in some way or fashion (slings, wraps, backpacks, ect). Here Allen was wearing Mary in her Ergo carrier, which works great in the cold and snow because it allows the little one being carried to be well bundled in a snow suit or coat. She loves to ride on her daddy's back.

We really do enjoy our annual family trip up to Bearskin Lodge. While there we enjoy cross country skiing, dog sledding, ice skating, snow showing, broom ball, lots of coffee and hot co-coa by warm fires, and the wonderful company of aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. If you would like to see more pictures from our wintery vacation to northern MN click HERE

If you want to see some more fun pictures from I ♥ Faces Bundled Up Challenge or share one of your own click on the button below:

Dead Sea Scrolls

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the opening night of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Thanks, Dad, for taking me along as your guest!

It was an amazing evening, I took quite a few pictures but neither my pictures nor my words will even come close to the greatness of this exhibit. If you are in MN, please do put this on your must do list.

Cameras and photos were not allowed inside the exhibit but my dad was an invited guest to the "Premier Private Reception celebrating the opening of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition", so I took plenty of pictures there. For the reception they served us delicious flavors and aromas from the middle east. There was also lively music from Mark Stillman and Voices of Sepharad. The Science Museum did an excellent job transporting our senses of sight, smell and taste to the area near Jerusalem where the Dead Sea Scrolls were accidentally discovered by shepards back in 1947. Not only the food, but the music, the drinks, the whole atmosphere was wonderful!!! It really set the stage to take in this great exhibit.

We were also honored to hear Dr Eric Jolly, President of The Science Museum of Minnesota speak and then we heard from Shuka Dorfman, from the Israel Antiquities Authority, where the scrolls are cared for, preserved and housed when they not part of an exhibit. Another blessing of the evening came just at the end of the exhibit. After seeing the actual pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls we were lead into another room, where we were transported back into this century. On display was information about and some of the actual folios from The Saint Johns Bible. I did not realize until I saw some of those pages what a great undertaking this is that has been commissioned by St Johns Abbey and University right here in Minnesota. If you have not heard about The Saint John’s Bible, which is the world’s newest hand-scribed illustrated Bible, and the first to be commissioned in 500 years, please visit HERE to learn more and even see some of the pages.

March 11th, 2010

Same shots I posted yesterday, but our oldest daughter played around with her photo editing software: