Compassion International

In October of 2010, Brandon and I attended the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, GA and were given the opportunity to become a sponsor through Compassion International.  This is something that I had often thought of doing, but never having the paperwork in my hand I just had never looked into it more.

We became the sponsor of a 16 year-old boy in India named Charlas.  We were given a card with his picture on it.  Once we got home we framed the picture and told the boys about Charlas.  We began to pray for him as a family and started writing him letters and sending him pictures.  Soon we began receiving letters back from Charlas.  They are filled with information about him, his culture, his family and continuous thanks to God for bringing us into his life to help him and his family.

It was humbling to receive a letter from him thanking us for the extra gift we sent for his birthday.  He used the money to buy things such as a clothes iron and a case for his clothes.

This past October we returned to the Catalyst Conference and were once again given the opportunity to serve through Compassion International.  After what we had experienced this past year through helping Charlas and hearing stories and seeing videos from the people who work for Compassion we knew that there was no way we were going to be able to hand back the cards we were given without helping those precious children.

So, we gained 2 more members of our family: Leider, an 11 year-old  boy from Colombia, and Yefta, an 8 year-old little boy from Indonesia.  Their pictures are displayed in our house as well so that we will see them often and think of them and pray for them.

I received this video in my Inbox today and wanted to share it with you as well as our experience with Compassion.  If you feel led to do so, please consider sponsoring one of these precious lives.  It's not much money to us, but it means the world to them.


End of Year Thank You 2011 from Compassion International on Vimeo.

New Year's Eve

 

Brandon and I got to celebrate New Year's this year in Pearl, Mississippi celebrating the wedding of my sweet sister Leslie and her husband, Heath.  It was a  wedding and a fun night!

Les & I...isn't she beautiful!



Stacey & I (I wish I had remembered to get a picture of the 3 of us!)

Photo Dump

Having a tea party with Elle Belle -



Instead of putting the toothpaste on her toothbrush for her, Ian gave her the tube and told her to bring it to me.  This is how she looked by the time she made it to me...



Elle kicked back playing Daddy's "Hi-Pad" -



1 hour in to putting together Elle's kitchen...



Ian's Christmas -



Noah's Christmas -



Elle's Christmas -



One of my Christmas presents - TOMS sunglasses :)

Christmas w/ Pepaw & Cookie

Since we'll be traveling to Mississippi for Leslie's wedding at the end of the week, we decided not to make the trip to Atlanta for the Fields' Christmas and go in January.  Since Pepaw & Cookie won't be over there in January, they made a stop by our house on their way over.

 

The kids ALMOST took Pepaw down -

Not quite sure what Elle was doing here -

The Adventures of Jester ~ 2011

Jester, our elf, got in to a bit of mischief again this year =)



Can you spot Jester on our light fixture?




He replaced out stockings with our underwear & panties.  The boys were NOT happy about this and made quick work of getting them down!


Jester found a dry erase marker in the boys' room...




He actually got trapped in this jar for 2 nights ;-)


Playing Operation with the kids' stuffed animals -

Christmas Night

For the past 4 years or so, the grandparents come over on Christmas night for dinner and to see what Santa brought the kids.  I didn't take any pictures during, but I did remember to take group shots of us with the kids and then the kids with each set of grandparents.

We took the "Hi-Pad" away from Elle for our pictures and she was NOT happy!

The kids with Nan & Pa -

The kids with Nana & Poppa -

Christmas with Nan & Pa

For the 1st year in I can't tell you how long, we didn't celebrate with Nan & Pa on Christmas Eve this year.  Since they've moved down to Gulf Shores, we planned for them to head up here on Christmas Day afternoon/evening so they could see what Santa brought the kids and for us to celebrate together.

Elle got some Dora Mega Bloks

Ian was pretty pumped about the new Skylanders figures that he got!

Noah showing Ian the new Ninjago figure he got -

Elle and Pa at dinner <3