Merry Christmas!
Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity, But in doing it .On our blog you will notice all of our feet. We chose this picture because it reminded us of walking on a journey. We started the year with uncertainty due to Sean’s unexpected illness. The thought of Sean having a life threatening illness really made us stop and think about what is most important in life. So I ask you this year what is most important in your life? For us, it definitely is our faith and family.
Here are some quick highlights:
God came through and Sean is better. We got to see God’s hand at work in our life through this and experience his healing power. I hope that each of you get to experience His miracles in your life during your journey. We realized that during the hard times Christ was holding us on our journey. If you have read the poem “Footprints in the Sand”, you will remember that it speaks of Christ carrying us during the hard times in our life. When you look back you only see one set of footprints in the sand. This is how we felt through this dark time of uncertainty and looking back we know that Christ was carrying us.
We hosted two wonderful girls from Haiti. (Feb- July) They had heart surgery. We helped them find their adoptive families. It was our joy to have them in our lives. We miss them but as the quote says at the top of the page our joy was in the doing. Having Jhiny and Christelle was a joy. We didn’t get to become their adoptive parents but we got be a part of their lives.
Take time this next year to find joy in doing something.
We stepped out in faith and I was able to cut back from the hospital and be home with the girls more. This is an answer to prayer. Each day is a journey of faith but it is worth every moment to be with my girls. Our journey this year has been full of faith, miracles, growth and joy. May your journey this coming year be full of joy instead of sadness, new experiences instead of memories of old experiences, doing good instead of doing nothing, giving instead of keeping, stepping out in faith instead of being immobilized by worry, love instead of hate. In short, we all are on our journey of life. May Christ carry you this year! Live, Laugh and Love!
Love,
The Oswald Clan
Things that I am thankful for this 2008
1. Healthy Family
2. Great friends
3. God's Miracles
4. My faith
5. God's blessings
Simple but what is in my heart.
2. Great friends
3. God's Miracles
4. My faith
5. God's blessings
Simple but what is in my heart.
Kirianna at a basketball game
Kirianna decided to go out for the basketball team this year! A large learning curve for her but she is having a ball!
Great-Grandpa's 80th birthday!
We had a wonderful visit with Grandpa and Grandma Oswald! They came for a family reunion and wedding! It was a joy to see them! Grandpa and Grandma Oswald have been a blessing to us in our lives. They have been an example of how to live your life.Sean and Grandpa, Sean's Dad and Sean's nephew all went to a Cubs game (5th row seats) for Grandpa's 80th birthday! They had the time of their life. Grandpa had never been that close to the field and he loved it. He has been a Cubs fan for 77 years! Go Cubs!
Finding God
I had a thought today, God is always here with us!It's not about finding the next new thing. The new church that has the corner on the next new thing. It is about you bringing yourself to God! Doing the things in your life to enable yourself to feel his presence! Making yourself available to be used by him. I doesn't matter if your in the desert or a quiet country church! He is always with us! We have to bring ourselves and our relationship to him! I hope this makes sense. I have struggled with a restless wondering for so many years! Always wanting to find the next new thing. God is opening my eyes to the fact that he is always with us, his powerful, mind blowing presence is available to me everyday. I have to make time to bring myself into his presence to be blessed!
The Dells
Don't wake me up, Mom!!
This was the view from our porch! I could watch the kids swim from my air conditioned room!
Sleeping in the Van! Tired out from 4 days of swimming.
Oklahoma
Katerina and Fastina had a blast this summer in the Children's Community Theater production of Oklahoma! I love those songs!
My life purpose
So, I am reading this book called- Don't waste your life by John Piper. He makes the statement that,
the opposite of wasting your life is to live by a single, soul-satisfying passion for the supremacy of God in all things. I was thinking... Do I stop and see God's supremacy in all things??? Do realize that my sole purpose in life is to glorify him? I had to stop and think. I so often get caught up in doing things and the busy life. The homeschool mom always looking for ways to make my kids the smartest,it is many things many different days. Do I realize that this is for not. My purpose is to glorify him. I so many times define myself by the things around me of this world ( the best house, best behaved kids...). I need to define myself by the statement- " Does my life glorify God today?" "
I want to be free from self and full of Joy in God; I want to enjoy making much of God, not me. And I want the fullness of my joy to last forever"John Piper says it so well. This is really my hearts desire. So many times however in a day I forget this. Pray in agreement with me today that all of us would stop and remember what really matters about our lives and not get caught up.
Grandpa and Grandma's visit to Peoria
We had a wonderful visit with my parents. They came down for Fastina's and Katerina's OKLAHOMA play.
Grandma threw a western party at her hotel for the girls in OKLAHOMA. We had western food, cowhats and even rootbeer in cups the shape of cow boots. Grandma lives for these parties and details.
Tea Party with Grandma. Grandma loves tea so we went out to Maria's Tea Room. The little girls got tea pots and tea cups with lunch.
Saying goodbye to Jhiny
Jhiny has been with us for approx. 5 months. She has been a blessing to our family.She left today to be adopted by a wonderful family in St. Louis. Jhiny is from Haiti and came to America for heart surgery and adoption. She blessed my daughters with wonderful friendship. She came to know Christ while with us. Please pray for Jhiny as she enters a new school, continues to learn english and adjust to her new surroundings. Also pray that my daughters will be able to keep in touch with her and encourage her.
My summer garden
The girls started a fairy garden last year. Each year we add a few more elements.
The black rocks around the outside,they painted with chalkboard paint and the little girls will draw on them with sidewalk chalk. Keeps them busy for hours on end and a new slate each morning after we water the plants.
You can catch me pulling weed each morning. I need to wear shorts more often to get some sun on my legs - Oh well.
I am having a blast this summer. You can see the day lilies are blooming. I also started a kitchen herb rack. I have fresh basil, sage, lavendar, sugar plant and lemon mint. It adds alot to any summer cooking.
15 Years of Marriage
We celebrated 15 years of marriage June 19. I was trying to get a good picture for our blog but getting a good picture of Sean is like impossible. Every picture we took he looks like he is whacked out on drugs. Then it became a joke and we took about 20 pictures trying to get a good one. Here are a few of the results. Oh Well! On our weekend away - we wrote down our top 15 moments over the years. 1.- getting married 2. Birth of daughter #one 3. Graduation from nursing school. 4.Birth of daughter # two 4. Graduation from Asbury 5. Getting the call to ministry in India 6. Birth of daughter # three. 6. purchase of our first home. 7. Adoption of a daughter
8.Graduation from Law school 9. Adoption of another daughter 10. Sean getting a job as a lawyer 11. surviving bowel perf and death 12. finding out pregnant with daughter #6. 13. Birth of daughter # 6. 14. Taking each of our daughters to Disney by themselves. 15. Our fifteenth wedding anniversary( the fact that we have made it this long)
I was blessed by my children today. Khloe-Ann has been sick over the last few days with a high fever. I have begun to start to worry. I have been giving her tylenol/motrin around the clock. My daughters said to me this afternoon, lets annoint her with oil and pray for healing mom and pray for God to heal her body. I was struck with the fact that I had not done this or even thought of this. So many times we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and kids and forget the important things like praying for our children's healing. This should be my first response. I thank the Lord that I have these wonderful daughters to teach me , humble me and remind me ultimately who is our Rock, our Healer!
Fun way to teach about Henry VIII
Here is a fun way to teach elementary children about King Henry. I downloaded and laminated the faces of King Henry's 6 wives and then the children in our homeschool co-op elementry history class acted out the song "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced beheaded, survived." We had a blast, I was rolling on the floor laughing as the kids acted out the wives it was a blast. Try it with the kids. Make sure to give them some fun details on each of the wives. Heres a good wedsite for informations- englishhistory.net/tudor/monarch. Have fun!
Easter
I went a little crazy with the matching outfits. It is not everyday though that you get to dress 8 girls for Easter
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