HOME!!!!!!!!

Home from an amazing missions trip to Philly followed by an incredible weekend away with my girlfriends!!

Exhausted and soooooooooo glad to be back with my hubbie and kids (though totally unexcited by the pile of laundry I'm staring down)!!

Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted soon!

Philly! Here We Come!!

I will be MIA for a few days as I am heading to Philly in the morning with the kids to help run a VBS program for some inner-city kids.

Actually, I will be meeting my parents in PA who will then take the 2 youngest kids back to their place for the week while Ayden and I stay to help with VBS.

Ayden is SO excited as this is his first mission trip and I am thrilled to finally get to see this amazing inner-city ministry first hand. For years I've been hearing about the ministry of Cornerstone Church in the neighborhood of Kensington and I've been dying to get there. Now I can!!

Unfortunately, my studly hubbie can not get away from work so he will be remaining behind this time. Something tells me that he is secretly looking forward to being in a quiet house for a week. Hmm...maybe it's all the post-it notes I keep seeing around about meals out with friends or things he's wanting to get done while we're gone:).

I would appreciate your prayers for safe travel as well as safety as we're all apart. I can't wait to tell you all about it when I get home! Have a great week and please do continue to pray for little Prince. I will post an update on him as soon as I receive one.

Thanks!

Little Prince

Many of you who have read my blog for sometime, know about our sweet little Prince whom we fell in love with while in Liberia. Today, I received an update on Prince that I wanted to share with those of you who have been praying for him since we returned in March.

Last week the woman who runs the adoption program in our town was in Liberia and got to see Prince. Clearly, when she saw him she recognized that something was wrong with him and she was able to get him seen at the local clinic immediately. We have found out that apparently Prince has both yellow fever and malaria. It breaks my heart that our sweet little boy is sick.

Please pray for our sweet little Prince and for God to restore His health. We praise God that Prince was taken to the clinic and is now receiving daily care as he recovers.

I so long to hug him back to health but I am grateful that even though I can do nothing, our heavenly Father can do anything.

Please pray for our little Prince.

The Best Layed Plans....

So, what does a family with three small children do when their outing to the local Gold Mine ends up cancelled because the Gold Mine is owned by the State and closed down on Friday without listing it on their website???

Well, maybe your family would have taken a trip to the beach or the movies or Chuck E Cheeses - but not our family - nope...

Our family decided to stop at the Vineyard that was just up the road from the Gold Mine!

Can anyone say "Grapes" kids???

And the best part???

After getting to sit at the bar and do a grape juice tasting my kids actually told me that the Vineyard was "WAY funner than the gold mine!"

Of course it was kids...Mommy's just that on top of things!

HA!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We pray you have as wonderful a weekend as we've had!!

Go Panthers!!

It's really no secret. Our boys LOVE the Panthers!

We spent yesterday on a little Summer Field Trip to Bank Of America Stadium where we took a tour of the facilities.

We had tons of fun riding the lightrail into Uptown and finding shelter from passing rain clouds. The kids loved seeing the stadium and the locker rooms and spending the day with our good friends! The Late Sam Mills TributeWow! Look at those "Skyscrapers!!"

(Yes, the kids are holding "Apartment Finders Magazines" Hey, they thought it was cool - free souvenirs ya'll!!)

Holy COW!! That's a HUGE shoe!!!!!!!!!

Yippee!! One more fun thing accomplished during Summer of 09!!

Question Number 3...

Those of you who have been following my little "series" on random questions for Cyndie know that I am now on Question Number 3.

Question # 3 is one of those questions that just grabbed my heart the minute I read it. Truthfully, it's one of those questions that I imagine we've all asked (in some form) at one time or another.

Question 3 comes to us from CatBude who writes:

"What is God's plan or message for those of us dealing with Autism...His unique and amazing purpose that for me is my daily living and breathing question and challenge?"

Now, as a bit of background, "CatBude" is a friend of mine who has struggled over the past few years to learn how to be the best mother and advocate for her precious autistic son. Cat has learned all you can imagine learning to try to make sense of this horrible disease and to attempt to give her child the best opportunities available in today's world.

And yet, as we all know; somedays it's just hard to understand WHY God has us in this struggle.

I truthfully don't know that anyone could answer this question because I firmly belive that there are just some things that only God understands.

I think of the old illustration of the beautiful cross-stitched tapestry masterpiece that seems perfect as it hangs on a wall for all to gaze at and take in. With the glimpse of an eye, it simply takes your breath away with it's vibrant colors and intricate details.

But then you turn it over.

On the backside it is a jumbled mess of threads overlapping and colors that run together like a mud filled puddle on a rainy day. There is absolutely NOTHING pretty about the masterpiece when you look at the back.

That's like our lives with God.

Often, all we are able to see is the jumbled mess on the back of that tapestry. A lot of days it is really easy to get caught in the pain of that mess or the confusion that it brings to our lives. However, that's not the end of the story. You see, God sees the tapestry as the finished masterpiece. He looks at all of those confusing and painful stitches and He sees the big picture that He's weaving together into something beautiful.

We've all been in this place where we've questioned what God is doing in our lives.
Why is my child sick? Why did my husband lose his job? Why is my friend fighting an addiction? Why is my marriage failing? Why, Why, Why?

Sometimes, there are no answers except to know that God is in control. God sees our pain, He hears our cries and He will never leave us or forsake us. If He's placed you in this situation then He will never be far from you.

I have this quote sitting on my desk:
"The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you." Anonymous

To My sweet sister Cat and all the others out there who have ever wondered what God's big plan really is - have faith. You (and I) have been handpicked for our role in this life. It's only a temporary role and we only have the "blink of an eye" to do the best that we can do. For those of us who accept Christ, we can take heart in knowing that God is with us each and every step we take and our rewards (and hopefully a greater understanding) will be in Heaven. If we simply follow His will, we can rest assured that His grace will carry us through.

Thank you Cat for this question...we all needed it.

Dum, Dum, Dum....Drumroll Please!!!!!!!

And the winner of the autographed copy of "Hope's Wish" is..............

JENNIFER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jennifer is a long-distance friend whom I met about a year ago at a Writer's Conference. Jennifer has walked an amazing journey with the Lord and writes often of the lessons that God is revealing to her in the wake of her son's death from cancer. Check out her blog sometime at:

http://jennifer-ashesforbeauty.blogspot.com/

I have to say that I have been so excited by all of your questions for me and I will continue to answer all of them over the next weeks. Thanks so much to everyone who asked and please don't feel a need to stop asking:)

Congratulations Jennifer!!

Question Number 2

So, here we go again...

Randomly chosen - Question Number 2 from our "Enquiring Minds Want To Know" Series.

Question 2 comes to us from Annette who asked, "How do you do Elle's hair?"

Well, Annette...let me just say -- it's been a journey!

When we were first blessed with our little adopted Elle, I used to just let her hair do it's thing. As it grew, she had a little q-tip type hair-do and I would just throw a bow in it as we left the house.

For months upon months I noticed something....my white friends would always comment on how adorable Elle's hair was. My black friends??? Well, they tended to stay VERY quiet.

That is; until one fateful day.

On that fateful Sunday afternoon I heard a knock at my door where my wonderful black neighbor stood with a comb in her hand and a misson on her mind.

"Step aside Cyndie...it's time you learn how to do Elle's hair."

GULP.

Well, I'll admit - it wasn't a pretty sight. Weeping and gnashing of teeth ensued as little Elle received her first hairdo by a black woman. I remember my neighbor repeatedly saying, "Elle, you're going to have to get used to this...it's a way of life now."

And so, there you have it...No, I've not begun braiding Elle's hair yet. I'm not that talented yet and quite honestly I love the little Mickey Mouse Poofs that she wears most days. We'll get to the braids but for now we're just counting our blessings that we've figured out how to effectively comb it!

The entire process requires LOTS of detangling spray and a comb on a daily basis. We have been advised not to wash her hair more than once or twice a week and beyond that we just need to schedule an extra 15 minutes a day to get the snarls out and pull it up again.

We're far from experts but it's working for us right now. Oh, and by the way....I now get complements from both my black and white friends! :)

Reminder! Tonight at midnight is the deadline for asking me a question and being entered into the drawing for the "Hope's Wish" book! Bring 'em on!! They've been amazing so far and I can't wait to answer all of them!

Friday at Midnight

Just a reminder! Friday at Midnight is the deadline for the "Ask Cyndie Everything You've Always Wanted To Know About Her" contest. Okay, well maybe not EVERYTHING.

Maybe just pick a few of your top questions and shoot them my way. I have already gotten some great ones and I'm going to be randomly going down the list to answer them for you. If you have no idea what I'm talking about then see this post. There's a prize!!