Happy Easter! :)

Benjamin is 11!

So we are inching closer and closer to having a teenager in the house! :) He's pretty pleased. When he turned 9 years old, he informed me that he was halfway there... on his way to college! Hello!! Enjoy being the little guy for a while anyway!

We're proud of Benjamin. So smart and studious. He loves to learn and study. He loves what's right and good. He's been a great big brother since forever. He's brave to try new things but not the crazy in-you-face American! Heh. He's a good basketball player. And still has a great imagination. He loves to read and to write. He's got a great journal that he started for school last year and then just kept up after the year ended. That'll be fun to read as the years go by. He's got a tender heart and a great smile. Love that kid.

This year, we're trying to get him to that observatory! I guess there's one here in Armenia and we were going to go last year but it never happened! So we better get up there this year, huh? He still is loving space and oceans. Little things in big places?! :) We've had a bit of a doughnut party for him this year. Went to Yum Yum on his birthday and also picked up some doughnuts there to share with our friends at the office the next week. We spent some time at our favorite park playing football and of course made his favorite meal for supper, bowtie noodles... noodles with cream of mushroom sauce and chicken. (used up our last cans of the sauce to celebrate him!!) :) Oh, and we made some brownies, too! And got cookies from Olivia. Yum... sweet celebrations, huh?!

Good day. Good kid. Good God. Good plans. Good life.

the voice

God uses my kids to talk to me. The other day Elijah wanted to take apart our little wooden chair to see if his big volleyball would fit through the back of it! (There's a space between the back and the seat but not one that's big enough for a big ball to fit through...) Our conversation went like this:

E: Help me take these cushions off!!
M: Lijah, it won't fit!
E: Help me take these cushions off!!
M: Lijah! Trust me!
E: Take them off; I want to see!
M: Liajh. Trust me.
E: Show me!
M: Trust me.
E: Show me!
M: Trust...

You get how the rest of the story went. As we went back and forth, I caught the unmistakable "voice" of the Lord... Um, hum. Trust Me. But I wanna see-show me... Trust Me.

So that moment in time was followed by me remembering that I needed to drip Ruth's ear with medicine to clear up her second ear infection:

M: Ruth?! Let me drip your ear.
R: Ah, wah, mooooom! ahhhhh...
M: I'm trying to help you! Lay down.
(are you hearing the "voice" already...)
R: Maaaammmm, I want to play. I don't want to lay down!
M: Ruth. I'm doing this to help you. Lay down, baby.
R: Wahhhhhhh... ~angry eyebrows and pouty lips~

Ruth is always running and hardly ever stopping. Telling her to lay down and "be still" three times a day is torture! But you and I both know why it has to be done. It is for her own good. It will make things better. Um, hum... being still is for your own good.

Give me ears to hear and faith to trust...

(~You can see that Ruth's lost her first two teeth in the past couple weeks!! One on the top and one on the bottom. The other top one is loose and should come out pretty soon, too! Cutie pa-tootie!)

checking, waiting, trusting...

So. Checking the adoption fund does not make it fill up any faster. Lesson I learned this week! Heh. I've decided that for all the checking I do... I will stop and pray about it instead of checking on it! Much more productive. And much more energizing. God has good plans.

On the upside, we have some money in our adoption fund now! Whoo! But sooo much more to go. I know God is going to teach us some amazing things as we trust and obey Him. Build our faith, Lord. You are able. Nothing is impossible with you. You say, open wide your mouth and I will fill it... we are open and waiting to see Your work fulfilled.

I've been reading about George Mueller a little bit this week. Interesting guy. You know a little bit about a guy and when you read more, the little bit you knew is even more interesting. If you don't know his story, (watch VeggieTales! :) and let me fill you in a little... he trusted God for everything and built up several orphanages through prayer. People say he never asked anyone for anything but still the money came in just when it was needed. He prayed for everything and trusted that God would answer. Cool. So it inspires us... and makes us think. Well, then. Do we not tell anyone our need and just pray? I love to know God hears and answers prayers. I believe He is as mighty and wonderful now as He's always been. So. Do we keep our plans to ourselves and just pray? Well, I kinda thought, we're the body of Christ. We should talk to each other, too, right? Then today I read an interesting quote from Mueller:

It is not enough to obtain means for the work of God, but that these means should be obtained in God's way. To ask unbelievers for means is not God's way; to press even believers to give, is not God's way; but the duty and the privilege of being allowed to contribute to the work of God should be pointed out, and this should be followed up with earnest prayer, believing prayer, and will result in the desired end.

So he confirmed what I had been thinking... that it should be looked upon as a "privilege to contribute to the work of God." As the body of Christ, we should like giving to the work of God. (So we weren't completely faith-less to share our excitement if it's looked at in that light, right?) And of course, what we all know about Mueller... Pray, baby, pray! Watch and see what God will do!

I've also been reading verses about being still and waiting... put your hope in God... Oh, man. Why is waiting so stinkin' hard? I think I'd rather be told I had to run across the country instead of... wait! I know God's number one thing for our lives is to know Him and that this is one big way that we get to know Him. So I understand. And I want to know Him more! But ugh. Waiting.

Then, to my relief, I read another verse about not being still.

Psalm 83:1
O God, do not keep silent;
be not quiet, O God, be not still.

So I decided that as long as I can pray, Lord, don't be quiet. Don't be still! Be big, mighty, loud, crazy - Act! Then I can deal with my own verses telling me "be still." I can rest a little easier knowing that He is not still. He is working!

We will still check the adoption fund. But we will continue to try to keep our focus on the One who has it all under control!

First Trimester

So it looks like we're in our first trimester... of adoption! Kev and I have thought about, talked about, prayed about it, and even looked into adopting in the past. It seems like now just might be the time?!

We're spending time at a special needs orphanage here and really enjoying our time there. The kids are also learning a lot and making friends, too. I love that. But being there has also stirred up (and over) our desire to adopt. In all the time I've been spending in the Word and in prayer, I just feel like God is leading us... We really want to hear His voice and follow His leading. I'm learning to not just run off ahead in my excitement. We're learning to be a team and to know Jesus better. We're praying that our family will be united and tight. And that we might be a family where the Lord will "set the lonely". (Psalm 68:6)

Our prayers have been for the Lord to lead the right people to give to help financially support this adoption. For the right child, or children, to be placed in our home, for us to be prepared for big things, for Him to go before us and stay behind us. We are thankful for His Holy Spirit in us as a counselor and guide. Trusting God for big things as He leads. Most importantly, we want to hear His voice. And to be a family that will bless children in need of a family.

I wish you guys could come up there with us... sweet kids. I'm sure you'd see how special they are and you would understand our hearts.

We've been in touch with an attorney but haven't signed anything yet. We're waiting for some funds in our adoption account so that we know we can take the first steps forward.

Right now we need around $2000 to get a home study done.

Altogether, it will cost around $30,000! This will be a God thing! We're all in! Since we sold just about everything to move overseas and are currently missionaries... you can imagine that we do not have $30,000 laying around! But we know God is big. And that he loves these little ones that "have no mama or papa". Here am I!

If you want to be a part of putting the lonely in our family, please click on the button on the side of my blog. The donations that go to that account will go right toward the adoption. It's set up specifically for that purpose. This is a personal account. (Don't send money to our missions account if you want it to go toward adoption.)

First Trimester: The exciting announcement and the morning sick not-so-fun adjustment... paperwork, paperwork, paperwork - home study - paperwork... We're still trying to imagine what life will be like and if all will go as planned. Trusting God and praying for good things!

Dreaming, wondering, planning, praying... Thanks for being a part of life with us!
For His glory!

Spring is here!

By faith... first part

Okay! I must not have posted the kids saying the first part of Hebrews 11 on here! I thought I did at Christmas time but I must have just put it on FaceBook!? Here's the first 7 verses...

Hebrews 11:1-7

By faith... middle part

Okay... well, we got the middle part of Hebrews 11 memorized, for the most part! It seems it was too early in the morning for recording and the lighting isn't too good. The kids were hoping we'd see Mt Ararat in the background but it didn't show through the window. I'm not sure I'll get them to do it again soon so let me share this try with you! At least you can see what we've been working on! :)

Hebrews 11:8-22

music gear

A couple months back, someone sent Kevin $5000 to use for growing Armenian worship teams! Whoot! So now we've got a music room set up in our basement (by the washer and dryer) complete with drums, guitars, a base, keyboard, recording stuff... Three nights this week we have people coming over for guitar lessons and practice. He'd like to get a few more groups plugged in, too! It's exciting.

The kids and I just had devotions together the other day from 2 Chronicles 20 about Jehoshaphat. After he inquired of the Lord, the Lord said, basically: Go, be there, and I will win the battle. They sent the musicians out first singing, "Give thanks to the Lord, for His love endures forever." The battle was won before they even got there! (The enemies turned and fought each other instead!) Verse 22, "As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the [enemy]..." Love it! You see that a few times in the Bible... the worship goes first and then the battle is won! Love the power of worship. Glad we get to be a part of that in Armenia!

(The kids loved that "phat" part of Jehoshaphat's name... Benjamin said if he named his kid that, he could call him "phatty!" Heh! The girls wondered what would happen if he was skinny... but called fatty... lots of laughter from all of them over the whole thing...)

-The first pic is a guitar lesson... the second is us trying out the mics with Daddy for our morning worship! We're helpers!

Ruth turns seven!

This is Ruth's second birthday in Armenia! Last year, our plane touched down on the fourth of March. Ruth turned six years old then next day, on the fifth! Well, here she is having another birthday in Yerevan!
The day before her birthday, Ruth decided to pick out her birthday outfit on her own... a tee shirt that says "Cheerleader" and pink shorts to match! Heh. We made her put pants on to go out! But she thought it was perfect! :) Daddy made her eggs and lavash for breakfast. I made her pancakes for lunch. Then we went out shopping! Daddy said she could pick out a present! (She wanted to go to Target, but instead we went to Barekamutyun, the underground market by the metro!) She chose a barbie with hair kind of like hers and some purple toy dress shoes (that didn't fit after we got home... boo!). Hannie got her a puzzle of Ariel that she's put together at least a hundred times now!Ruthie decided that she either wanted to go swimming or bowling to celebrate. So we ended up at the bowling alley! She invited a few friends. And so our next stop was the Play City bowling alley! She did a great job bowling on her big day! Even got a strike! And like two spares! Girlie! We frosted the cupcakes there and the kids loved putting the M&M's on with her! We ended up playing some in the play place in the same building, too! It was a busy, fun day.
We love our bubbly, friendly, giggly, brave, sparkly girl! So glad we have our sweet Ruth Anne to liven up the place! Always running, always really happy (or really mad!!), always making friends, always with a hug... our girl. Happy 7th Birthday, baby! (She was born "sunny side up", which makes delivery a little harder, but is a good description of our Roo baby!)


This last pic was a few days later, with our friends up at the office! Ruth asked if we could bring them banana bread to celebrate! We even used some of our last package of chocolate chips for the special occasion! :) (M&M's work just as well!!)

Birthday in the making!

When I was approaching my 30th birthday, I asked Kevin if we could do something "more" like take a short term missions trip overseas instead of go to Paridisos! ;) He thought that was a good idea so we checked into it. Long story short... we were asked if we'd consider going overseas for a couple months, then a few months, then a year, 18 months... 2 years?! We felt like the Lord was leading us to keep stepping forward and so we kept saying yes. Well, preparing for a two week trip is different then preparing for a two year trip! So after going to training and then itenerating for a few years, we finally boarded a plane for our overseas trip! In the meantime, my 30th birthday came and went, and so did my 31st, 32nd, and 33rd. We were almost here by the 33rd - missed it by like two weeks. But now. Here we are. Overseas. Trying to stay humble and obedient. Still taking steps of faith. Still growing and going forward. Still trying to do "more" and live out abundant life! But we are here in Armenia. We can still celebrate my 30th birthday for a few more years anyway, right?!

(First pic... by the Cascades just after taking the kids out to Taco Maco!! Second pic... Me -with Kev- at the Marriott downtown at the Republic Square!)


34 years old and still celebrating my 30th! :)

60/70

Just a shout out to my Dad, who turned 70 in January and Kev's Mom, who turned 60 this month! Whoot! We love you both so much. So glad we get to call you ours! :)

Spacious Place

Quite a while back, I'd read a few verses about a spacious place. These verses came back to me on our recent trip up to Georgia. We're driving through these winding, mountain roads. The kids and I all have some small to larger cases of motion sickness. So this time we took some motion sickness pills (after having one child who was throwing-up motion sick on the last trip up there!). We twist and drive and turn and breath. Heh. It's really pretty but when you're motion sick, it takes away from that a little bit. The roads can be narrow in places. We drive along the edge of drop offs with cars coming toward us in the other lane. The roads are also usually rough with construction or just rough because they're worn out! This road north also has three tunnels that we get to drive through. We like tunnels... they're kind of exciting. But these are dark, pot-holed tunnels. One really looks like you're driving through a cave! (And it also has a ginormous pothole in the middle of it!)

So now that you have an idea of the mountain roads, let me get on to my point. After a couple hours of all the twisting and bumping, we get over the mountain passes and it starts to level off... then there's a really pretty place where you can look back and see the snow capped mountains behind you and a river with some flat land and green grass beside the road. It's pretty. Pretty and spacious. We've passed all the twists and turns and now we can see out a ways. (Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm from North Dakota and we can see forever there, but...?) I like getting to that place in the drive.

Psalm 31:8.
"You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place."
(You give me relief.)

Psalm 18:19 (and Deut 22:20)
"He brought me out into a spacious place... He rescued me because He delighted in me."

My enemy isn't completely like David's... I don't have someone with a spear chasing me or a whole army looking for me. Heh. But I have questions that aren't answered. I wonder about the future. I am unsure sometimes. I can't see around the next curve. I don't like it. I like to see out ahead of me... I know the verses about how His Word is a lamp onto our feet and I've thought about how it doesn't say it's a beacon into the future! But also I like that the Lord says that even now, in this life, there will be spacious places for us. We will be brought out into them and our feet will walk into the spacious place. We will see and understand a few things. Maybe not all things... but at some time, we will see some space.

Isaiah 33:17
"Your eyes will see the King in His beauty and view the land that stretches afar."

Our eyes should be longing to see the King in His beauty... after that, we get to view the land that stretches afar. Focus. My eyes so often want to see what's next. I'm learning to look for the beauty of the King, trusting that in time He will show me more. More of Him and more of His plan for us. Good plans... future and hope plans. Spacious places...

I have a Secret

"I have a secret." I said to my friend.
"What?"
"I want to adopt!"
"Jill! That's not a secret!"

So I guess I don't have a secret! :) From the time I was little, watching Little Orphan Annie and adopting Cabbage Patch Kids, to when I was old enough to babysit and work in preschools and getting my degree in Early Childhood Education... I've always loved kids. Especially kids who need extra love. Then Kevin and I had baby Joshua who was so sick and we were told to abort him. Love that son of ours. We had him with us for two months and have never regretted it. Along the way, we've had four more of our own, we've checked into adopting a little girl with a cleft lip/palate in Kazakhstan whose picture we saw online, and we've filled also out a form for Holt International wondering where that might lead...? Nothing came of it. But we did end up heading into missions and here we are in Armenia. Is it possible that we were lead here "for such a time as this"? I'm not sure, but we are open to the possibilities and checking into things here. We found an agency in Carolina that works with Armenian adoptions and got tons of papers from them this week! Super exciting and faith building! As another friend put it, it's like stepping out of the boat!

Ruth asked me to read that Bible study for devotions today. (Each week, each of the kids gets one day to pick the family devotions...) Peter walks on water because he dares to trust Jesus! Crazy! I also heard the story of the miracle of the 5,000 fish today, too... Andrew saw the possibilities of what Jesus could do when he saw the five loaves and two fish!

The kids were all on our bed the other morning (imagine the scene from Cheaper by the dozen...) and we were talking about the possibility of adopting. Elijah says we should adopt 100 babies and give 100 kisses! Ruth says she wants to adopt somebody in a wheelchair! Hannie says when she grows up she wants to adopt... And Benjamin, our almost 11 year old, says something like... isn't it expensive? Heh. So we got into a good discussion about how God provides and if He directs us to do something according to His plan, He can provide above and beyond. We'll have to pray and trust Him. Yeah, they know He provides but this is big (feeding 5,000 or walking on water big!).

Then we went out to have breakfast and devotions. We read stories of Elijah and Elisha (guess who's day it was to pick the devotions...). We read three days worth since they were each short stories. So we got three "Thoughts for the Day":
-Blessings come from God.
-God's ways are not our ways.
-God provides for us as we show faith.
Awesome. I love it when He speaks and we hear!

Psalm 68 talks about how God sets the lonely in families... so our prayer has been that He would do just that! That He would bless our family as He sees fit and prepare us for it!

Now you know my not-so-secret secret! :)

Tbilisi Georgia

Every 120 days, our visas expire and we need to leave the country and come back in again to apply for new visas. This time we drove up through the mountains in northern Armenia and crossed the boarder to continue on up into Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. A friend of a friend met us at the boarder so we could follow him up... good thing, too, because we would have been so lost in Tbilisi! Big, pretty city! We drove through town some and then stopped at... McDonalds!! :) We don't have anything like that here in Yerevan so that was eeeexciting! After that we went to their ministry center for the night and in the morning we headed back to Armenia. So it was a short trip but still fun to see around! Next time, we'll try to plan to stay a little longer!
(And to check out their other two McDonalds!!)On the way back to Yerevan, we got a flat tire... in the mountains... in the snow... in the cold... just outside a little village. Kevin drove us back to the gas station there and we had about 6 guys come and help. It was freezing out there and the tire was stuck on there pretty good. After they all worked hard and we all thanked them a lot, we waved good bye and Kev turned the key to start the car back up - dead. No battery. Not a sound... Wait, guys... come back! :) We jumped the car and it was all good. Needless to say, we were pretty happy to get back home where we were safe and warm!

Our visa's expire on May 28th so at least there shouldn't be as much snow then!! Heh.

(The last two pics are Kote, who took care of us!! Thank you!! And the last one, we were just getting into the snow... see the zig zagging sign?!)

Back to Bethlehem

We finally got back to Bethlehem Orphanage! After almost a YEAR... for crying out loud! :) (We had to track down the number and address and the main lady isn't there anymore and then Christmas came... yada, yada.) We were so glad to find the place again and to get back up there! We recognized some of the kids from last March and some of them even recognized us! Crazy.
It's a special needs orphanage with about 8 older kids between the ages 5-10 and more babies upstairs. We didn't see this time because a few were sick. A lot of the kids we played with have down syndrome and a few are in wheelchairs. We went there with balloons and a guitar and all of our kids. It was a good time and we're hoping to get back up there every Saturday! It's great for us and for our kids and the gals up there say it's great for their kids to play with ours, too! Yea! We're looking forward to getting to know them better. Pray that we'll be a blessing to them... I know they'll be a blessing to us! Pray for us, too... our hearts are open to adoption and we are praying to be walking in the path the Lord has for us!

January 21st Christmas!

My family sent Christmas presents the beginning of December... and we got them January 21st! So after waiting a month... we had the second half of our Christmas! Pretty exciting. Everything made it over, too! Before we opened the packages, we decided to watched the Muppet's Christmas again, just to get in the spirit. And our tree was left up for the celebration so we were set there... surprisingly, I'm the one ready for it to be put away... even Kevin wants it to stay up! Heh. Weird. We read all the names for Jesus that we tore off for our Christmas chain count down. (They had been put on the tree after we tore them off!) And opened up our gifts from home!

There's nothing like getting love from home! Whoo-hoo! Christmas on January 21st!

Our baby is FIVE years old!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Elijah Edward Crawford! Time goes by so fast. Lijah's adorable, curious, smart, learning to read, friendly, snuggly, sweet with babies, quick to make a friend, and very talkative! Even while I type, he's talking, talking... I think about Kung Fu Panda. Heh... We are so blessed to have our baby boy, er, I mean, little man as our son. Love that kid!

We had kind of a low key birthday for him... After Monday devotions, we had cake with our friends up at the Fire Bible Office. Then for lunch we had pizza at Play City with our family and Oliver, his buddy. The kids got to play games and climb in the play place. That night we came home to watch a "new, good movie" because that's what Lijah had asked for... but when we were about to start the movie Up, he decided he'd rather watch an old Magic School bus! Birthday boy gets to call the shots so Magic School bus it was! He said, "Look at all my presents!" to the 5 or so gifts that he got! Honey. He went to bed with a smile on his face. Fearfully and Wonderfully made!

video of the kids singing for Christmas

This is part of the kid's program for the Christmas service on January 6th, in Hrazdan! Such sweeties! :)

Merry Armenian Christmas!

Tsoorb Tsnoond! Holy Birthday! We got to spend the Armenian Christmas in Hrazdan with friends! They had a great church service with kids singing and dancing and songs. We went to have dinner with our friends after the service. Love those guys. The kids had a blast! It's fun for them to have friends here to fill in for their aunts and uncles in the states! After we came back to Yerevan we went downtown and saw the big tree in the square!

Let me show you some of our Christmas here!


A few days before the Armenian Christmas, we went to a Santa show with Nadela and her kids... Ruth says the girl with Santa is Mary Christmas! :)