Royal Family Kids Camp

I've just returned from one of the most fun, heart breaking, encouraging, gut wrenching, exciting, tear jerking, rewarding weeks of my life. There is no way I can describe to you how God worked at Royal Family Kids Camp last week. RFKC is a camp for abused foster children. PLEASE check out www.rfkc.org and give of your time or money to a camp near you. If you live in North Texas, I encourage you to go to www.ourfatherschildren.org and contact Darren Edwards at Richland Hills Church of Christ and get involved.

I was blessed to lead worship for chapel everyday for these special kids that have experienced more sickness, hatred and hardship in their 6-11 years on this earth than I will ever know. I've been back in my own bed for three nights now and have dreamed about these precious children every night. Perhaps there will come a time when I can talk or blog about them without crying, but right now I can't imagine it.

I sent them home on Friday with mixed emotions. I missed my girls and was excited to see them, but it was difficult to let go of my camp kids.

They are all unique and beautiful and uniquely beautiful, but I grew especially close to a few. Please pray for my little friends Darien, Robert, Dakota, Michael, Michael and Brandon today. May God work in their lives to nourish the seed planted in their hearts last week.

Adventures in Idaho

After several days with Steph's parents in Caldwell, we spent three wonderful days at Hayden Lake in Northern Idaho. The weather was beautiful, the lake was cold and we had to break out the sweatshirts when the sun went down. When we landed at DFW airport yesterday the thermometer read 106. I tried to get back on the plane, but it seems they have rules about such things.

We did stay an extra night in Denver on the way home. They over booked our flight so we volunteered to stay the night. It only cost United Airlines three round trip tickets, a night at the Radison and dinner and breakfast for my family. Rainey thought it was a wonderful adventure. We stayed up late, watched High School Musical and wore the same clothes two days in a row because our luggage went home without us. She also liked the overnight kits the airline gave us. They included perfume! She was in heaven.

Stephanie's dad is home and seems to be feeling better. It looks like time will be the great healer, but it is difficult to be a patient patient. Thanks for all your prayers.

Here are some pics of our adventures in Idaho:














Rainey wore out old Dan the horse and our friend Jack Doan who was kind enough to let her ride.














Emily ate "real" food for the first time courtesy of her Grans garden. Fresh carrots. She'll probably turn her nose up at the store bought food. She also liked to suck on fresh green beans straight from the garden (note the duct tape on the high chair, classic Idaho!).














That's Rainey's other friend named Jack. He's Big Jack's Grandson and they had fun in the sand by the lake. The cold, refreshing, wonderful lake!

Hello From Idaho

My family and I are on a pseudo-vacation in Idaho this week. Stephanie's dad, Ron, was supposed to be at the tail end of a three week recovery period from colon surgery this week, so we had planned to come up and be with him. Instead, he has had all sorts of complications and is still in the hospital. Things are looking up however, and he may finally get to come home on Friday.

It's a difficult time for everyone. My almost 5 year old daughter doesn't understand why Big Daddy is not at home or why Gran is so tired. We want to help Gran get some rest, but we also want our kids to have time to get to know their grandparents because we live so far away.

I guess I'm blogging about this because we need all the prayers we can get. Prayers for healing and prayers for rest. Prayers for sanity and safety. And selfishly, prayers to know how to comfort and support without stepping on toes as the in-law on the scene.

Thanks everyone.

Going on a Diet

I'm going on a diet. It's really more of a disciplinary action I guess.

I realized recently that when I want something, especially something to eat or drink, I simply get it. Coffee? There's a 7-11 on every corner. Gourmet coffee? There's a Starbucks across the street from every 7-11. Burger? Taco? Corndog? Pepper Steak? Never more than minutes away.

It's not that I'm an overeater. I'm not horribly overweight. It's just that I need to exercise some discipline in my life. As I ran errands today, it was all I could do not to stop and get a cold drink or an ice cream or a frappuccino. I resisted the urge not because those things are inherently bad, but because I don't want to be ruled by my urges.

So I'm going on a diet. A discipline diet. Because I'm not exactly giving anything up, I'm the only one who will know how I'm doing. That makes it more difficult, but you can't spell self-discipline without self...and 3 i's...and some other letters.