mmmm....PIZZA!

We had family pizza night on Friday night. I think Michael likes this tradition! :)

Daddy is so proud!

Michael has been working on his basketball skills since he could hold a ball in his hand. Here's how he's doing today. Actually, this video is a few weeks old, so his jump-shot has improved even more. He's shooting the ball from a good distance! I love how Sam's face just lights up every time Michael scores 2 points! Like father like son...

*UPDATE* I had originally made this video 'private', so you probably were not able to view it. I have made it 'public' now, so it should all be good!

More about Haiti...

I realize that I've dedicated my blog to Haiti over the past few posts. My heart just breaks for that country and the millions of people affected by it. I am just overwhelmed with what I see on the news and what I hear from Sam. I cannot even imagine going through what these Haitians are going through right now.

Sam gets home tonight. I'm so excited to see him and actually have a real conversation that is not limited by how much we pay per minute on the cell phone. He has seen a lot of suffering and has been able to bless so many people.

My mother-in-law is so eloquent with words....She says it best:

http://marciaborg.myadventures.org

*She mentions that they gave out Michael's stuffed animals to Haitian kids. When I read this, it made me cry! Michael was given so many stuffed animals when he was born that we had nothing else to do with them other than box them up to put in the basement. They have been sitting there for over a year now and not once have I even thought of them. When Sam made the decision to go to Haiti, I really wanted to send those stuffed animals. It might sound silly because the Haitians NEEDED food and water, not toys. There ended up being enough room after all the supplies were packed. Michael helped pack his animals, and he kissed every one before it went into the bag. Now, there is a Haitian child that was blessed by what we had forgotten about until a week ago. I love it!

More about Haiti

Wow!! We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the people around us. Our church is amazing! People have donated money without question! It is so great to see the hearts of people and how they are helping the Haitians! God is so good!

We took up an offering at church yesterday, donations have been made through my father-in-law's blog (more on that later), our schools have contributed, medicines have been supplied by a local pharmacy, individuals are blessing us! So awesome!

We just got back from a little shopping trip to Sam's and Wal-Mart to buy SOME of the supplies that the team is going to need. We were able to get diapers, wipes, formula, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, hand sanitizer, sterile gloves, hydrogen peroxide, bandages, and more! Our money is getting spent fast and the team needs to still buy food for the Haitians once they get into the country!

If you would like to donate to this team you can do so through Scott Borg's (my FIL) blog. Click here and then click on the "support me" button on the left of the page. Any contribution, great or small, is greatly appreciated. The team plans on buying A LOT of rice and beans and a bag of rice is not very expensive. A $5 contribution might feed a family for a week! (Your donation is made through Adventures in Missions, so it is tax-deductible.)

More importantly, however, are your prayers. Please continue to pray for this trip. I will update you when I get updated myself. The team of four - Sam, Mitch, Corey, and Marcia - leaves on Wednesday the 20th and returns home on Monday the 25th. Pray for strength for the team and the people they will be working with. Pray for divine appointments where God wants to meet the needs of certain individuals. Pray that God would give words to our team when people question why something terrible like this would happen. Pray for physical healing.

Going to Haiti...

Sam is going to Haiti next week. It's official. He got his plane ticket today.

He has a huge heart for the people in the Dominican Republic. He has gone there every summer for the past 10 or so years. He's been to Haiti a few times as well and has developed a love for the Haitian people. There are relief efforts going on in the Dominican town of Jimani, right on the border with Haiti. There are several clinics and hospitals in need of support as they attempt to restore the victims of the earthquake. We have a friend that lives in the Dominican Republic, Miguel Shaul. He just got back to the DR from a trek into Haiti and has made several contacts with doctors, pastors, etc...

Read more at Miguel's blog: http://theshauls.myadventures.org/

Please pray for the Haitian people and their families during this tragic time. Sam is going with some friends of ours, Mitch Lathem and Corey Jacobs. His mom, Marcia, is a nurse and will be able to offer a lot of medical advice and help! Sam speaks fluent Spanish and some French and understands Creole (the Haitian language), so he will be a definite asset and will be able to assist medical teams entering Haiti through the DR. Pray for this team as they leave on Wednesday. Pray that God will use them in a HUGE way and minister to the Haitians while they are there. Pray that God will meet the physical needs of these people as well as their spiritual needs.

Snow Day!

We had snow last week! We got out of school for half a day Thursday, all day Friday, and then again on Monday! Woo hoo!! We definitely enjoyed our time at home as a family. It was a nice treat!

Snow days are good for two things:

Playing outside...

And building forts with Daddy.

Don't make fun of the Georgia snow. We take what we can get!

Resolutions

I don't usually make resolutions because I'm not good at keeping them. However, this year felt like a good "goal-setting" year for me. I have a lot of things in mind for 2010.

This year I resolve to....

-Spend more time with Jesus...in prayer and in His word. I'm still working through my Esther Bible Study and my small group is about to start studying Corinthians, which I'm really excited about! I want to stay excited about learning more about the Lord through his word. I've also come to realize that I talk to Jesus a lot, but I don't listen very well. I need to do a better job at listening to His voice.

-Be a better wife. I want to serve Sam and give him my best...not just my leftovers. I want to greet him with a smile when he comes home from work. I want to keep a positive attitude through basketball season. And, I want to cook our dinners more often. That has to do with being a better wife, right? I'm dusting off those cookbooks now...

-Be a better mother. I resolve to spend more time in the floor playing with Michael and less time on the computer when it's play time. I want to feed him good nutritious foods and teach him something new everyday! I treasure this time with him and I am in constant amazement at the miracle that is his life! He is such a blessing to the both of us and I don't want this time to pass me by and regret not playing with his "Little People" garage more often!

-Be healthier. Eat better foods. Drink more water. Exercise more...enough said.

-Organize and (hopefully) finish the basement. Our goals for the basement are to make a play area for Michael and future children, a craft area for me, an office area, and possibly a TV/gaming area. That's high hopes...I think we can do it!! We're waiting on Mr. Government to send us some tax return money!

-Recover 6 years of pictures from our old hard drive. Remember when our computer crashed a year ago? Well, that hard drive is still sitting in a closet because the Geek Squad couldn't do anything about it. I'm on a mission to find someone to successfully recover our pictures!

-Be a better keeper of our home. My problem isn't necessarily cleaning, but organizing. I don't want to have to scramble to throw things in my closet when company comes over. I would love to dwell in an organized living space all the time. It's not just Michael's toys. I have always been bad about not putting things where they belong. I've got to stop that habit this year. It drives me nuts! The Fly Lady says to always go to bed with a shiny sink, so that's where I'm starting.

I hope I can stick to these. I think that now that I've told the world what I hope to accomplish, it will help me be accountable. If you made resolutions this year, I hope you stick to yours as well.

Question: What are you calling the new year? Two thousand ten or twenty ten or two-oh-one-oh? Ha!! I say Two thousand ten, but have heard it so many ways. Also, what do we call this decade? The twenty-teens? The tens? Oh my...so many things to think of!

2010...Really??

Can you believe it's January already? Seriously? I can't believe how fast time has flown by! I just now had time to sit and upload all of our pictures from our Christmas festivities. I did, however, manage to get all our Christmas decorations put back in the basement. I always am a little sad when I do that, but I was kind of glad to get our house back to normal.

We had a whirlwind of a holiday! We started on the 19th and ended our Christmas celebrations on the 28th! So much fun! We had our Christmas in Georgia with both of our families and then flew to Kansas City, Missouri, to have Christmas with Sam's grandparents, uncle, and cousins. We haven't seen them in such a long time and we haven't spent Christmas there in several years! It was great to see them!

We got to have a white Christmas! Our plane landed (luckily) about 30 minutes before it started icing. It snowed about 6 inches overnight! It was so much that Sam had to shovel the driveway so we could get out to go to his grandma's house. We are not used to that at all. Can you even buy snow shovels in Georgia!?

Michael is such a trooper, too! He just travels right alongside us....doesn't sleep well...but he's his usual self during the day! We love that little man!

I had to include this silly-face picture because in all of our pictures Michael looks expression-less. I promise that he's full of personality. When that camera comes on, his face goes blank! We're working on smiling on command!