Look who finally got to Haiti!!!

Troy Livesay welcoming Nate Yonker.

Nate and a team have been trying to get to Haiti and this morning they finally made it. Nate is a member at my church and he lead the team that I went with to Haiti the summer of 2008. We stayed with Troy and his family while we were there. These men move mountains in order to help the Haitians! Please keep them in your prayers.

Goodbye for now.

John Gordon Van Dam, Sr.
1/1/1919 ~ 1/27/2010

Grandpa passed away early this morning. It hurts. We knew he didn't have much longer and I am thankful that Zack came home this past weekend so that we could all go over to Grandpa's and spend some time visiting with him. I talked to the kids before we went that this would probably be the last time they see him so enjoy your time. They did. Grandpa asked Libby to sit on the bed next to him and he held her hand. It was so sweet. I am sure she will never forget that. Even as weak as Grandpa was he was still making little jokes either verbally or with his eyes. That is the Grandpa I love.

He is now in heaven back together with his lovely bride and they are both whole and pain free.

She caught me way off gaurd and I loved it!!!

Let me introduce you to Maddy....

She has a warm, gentle personality,


A bounce in her step,


And she loves herself some ice cream! My kind of girl!


She is one of the girls in my small group. I don't think she ever misses a night of our small group. She is very committed to being there. I love that about her. When she first starting coming to our group I couldn't get a word out of her and I was afraid she would stop coming. She was so quiet. That was 2 years ago. Now, I don't think I could keep her quiet if I tried. LOL!

Yesterday she made Profession of Faith at our Sunday morning church service. She was SO nervous. She had been texting me Saturday night asking me questions about it and what she needed to know, and how nervous she was. She made me promise I would sit in the front so that she could see me so that way I could shake my head yes or no for how she had to answer the questions. That cracked me up and I agreed but I reminded her that they were questions she had already answered in front of the Elders. Her arguement was that when she gets nervous she doesn't hear what people say. I think we can all relate to that.

We have four rows of chairs in our sanctuary and her family ended up sitting all the way on the right side and I ended up all the way on the left side, but right up front mind you. The pastor called her up to the front and the way they were standing she was looking right at me. She was all smiles. The pastor, bless his heart, reminded her that all the answers were "yes" unless she has changed her mind (chuckle). She did just fine without any help.

As soon as the pastor welcomed her into the church family and gave her a student Bible as a gift he told her she could go sit back down with her family.

Here is where I got my socks shocked off....

Instead of walking back to her parents, remember this is quite a shy girl around strangers, she walked across the front of the church (as the pastor said, "and she is leaving in a different direction" which brought even more attention to the situation) straight to me to give me a hug!!! She had already told my oldest daughter (also in my small group) that she was going to do it but of course the stinker didn't warn me. I stood up and hugged her REAL HARD but couldn't say anything because the girl made me cry.

So have you fallen in love with her too?

Feel free to welcome her into the family of believers. I will be showing her this post.

I love you Madison!

What to wear?

I really wish I had my own personal "dress me up"-er. Maybe I also need someone to teach me proper English. Anyway I have a really important banquet to go to on Feb. 12. It's a "Hall of Fame" banquet for track that Zack will be recognized at for Mr. Michigan Track and Field.

It makes me think back to going to awards banquets for Mark when he was playing college football. His parents always invited me along. Mark's mother dressed very proper for every occasion. I don't have that sense of style. You know the kind that can find the perfect shoes, earrings, and necklace to go with the outfit.

Where do you even buy fancy clothes these days. My favorite store is Kohl's but I have this desire to be a little more "edgy" than that. But not this edgy...


Or even this...

Ugh! I need help!

Wordless Wednesday - Beer Bread

She thinks she is so funny.
Want to make it yourself without a mix? Here's a link.

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Some kids have no luck.

My poor Libby got the bad teeth for all 4 kids. She is the only one who struggles with cavities. Only one of the other three kids has a cavity and he only has one. Libby on the other hand has many "silver stars" in her mouth. She has even had one molar pulled because the filling would be too big. You know it's bad when your child looks forward to the dentist because she gets to wear the "clown nose". All of her cavities are in baby teeth so far. I just keep praying that when her permanent teeth come in they are less prone to captivities which the dentist tells me is very possible.

What lies am I believing?

Seeing and hearing about everything going on in Haiti has really made me do some soul searching. How about you? I agree with the statement "who are we to question God" and that isn't so much what has been on my mind but more so what do I believe about who and what God is. And am I believing lies. How do I explain my God to others?

I think it is making me more aware of how the world would like to force feed us that God is love. Really? Have you read the Bible lately? Specifically the story of Job. I don't find it a coincidence that I am reading through the Bible in a year following a chronological reading plan that had me in the book of Job 2 weeks ago. God allowed Satan to test Job and that included lots of people dying. What? Part of Job's testing brought death to others. That didn't hit home, I mean REALLY hit home, until this past week.

Something else that has me thinking is something that our Youth Pastor shared with us Sunday. He was talking about the fact that Haitians were singing praises to God in the streets AFTER the earthquake. Did you catch that? They were singing praises after they had suffered such an incredible loss. Then he suggested the idea that God would use them to witness to others. Think about that. There are aid volunteers flying in from every corner of the earth. What percentage of them are believers? So could God be bringing the unsaved to Haiti to be witnessed to by the very people they thought they were going to help?

Speaking from my own personal experience I felt God's presence while in Haiti in a very indescribable way. I had a whole higher realization that God could meet my needs and the needs of my children with or without my help.

So do I believe God is love? Absolutely! I know God loves me. Do I believe the world view of love is really what true love is? Absolutely not! Sometimes love hurts.

To God and God alone be the glory!

De-lurking week

Mari had this on her blog yesterday and I thought it was a fun idea.

Did you know this is de-lurking week?
That means this is your opportunity to make yourself known! After today, you can go back to lurking, but for today would you leave a comment with your name and where you are from?
I would appreciate it so much!

Smiles!
Jennifer

Please Pray for Haiti

The already impoverished country of Haiti experienced a 7.3 earthquake yesterday. Having been there myself in July of 2008 this is very near and dear to my heart. Please pray for Haiti as they are dealing with huge devastation right now. Here are a couple links to blogs from people in Haiti right now:

The Livesay [Haiti] Welbog
There are other links on the Livesay's site also down on the left-hand side.
Providence Ministries
RHFH Rescue Center
If you Twitter you can also follow Troy Livesay.

A blessing indeed!

Yesterday I got that call that we all hate to get but it is part of life. "Grandpa isn't doing well." I knew he had aged a lot between Thanksgiving and Christmas but I still wasn't ready for that call. January 1st I posted about him celebrating his 91st birthday. He was in the hospital for his birthday but he was able to come home on Sunday. Yesterday he gave us quite a scare. The doctor wasn't able to get any response from him. My Aunt is wintering in Texas and she was told she should come home. She will be here at 3pm today.

I went and sat with Grandpa last night and to everyone's surprise he was awake, sitting up, and being his spunky self (as spunky as you can be at 91 that is, wink). He enjoys giving people a hard time, especially my Dad. When my Dad came in the room to give him his hearing aids he handed him the first one and said, "I thought you might like to have these in while people are here. This one is for your right ear". After Grandpa had it in Dad handed him the next one and said, "this is the one for your left ear". I chuckled a little when I seen Grandpa furrow his brow at him with a look of "really? I thought it was a second one for my right ear". LOL! Then my Dad (because he is just like his father) seen the scowl and said, "and this one is for your middle ear" and pretended to hand him a third one. Since Grandpa hadn't put in the second one yet he looked at my Dad and proceeded to put the left hearing aid in his nose!!! We were all laughing then!

I love my Grandpa so much and I am so blessed to know that he loves me just as much. I will be very sad to see Grandpa leave this world but I am holding onto the image of God with his arms spread waiting to greet my Grandfather with a huge hug and whisper into his ear "well done good and faithful servant, well done."

This is one of my favorite pictures of Grandpa with Kaylyn about 10 years ago.

Enjoy it while you can.

Soaking up the sun looks pretty good to me too. Now I just need to teach her to help fold the laundry with me instead of just providing me company. We certainly could use some more sun.

She shoots, she SCORES!

Libby had her first basketball game this morning. She really enjoyed it. It was quite an eye opener for her to realize how winded she was after only a 45min long game. She was hoping they had practice during the week. No such luck. She will have to get some running in on her own while daddy walks the track. It was an early lesson in the importance of conditioning. Wink!

That is her taking the shot and she did make one basket. I took this picture with my phone. Phones really aren't good for action shots. LOL!

Guess what day it is?

It's an Emily day. Libby was actually happy to have a dentist appointment today because she knew that meant she would get to spend more time with Emily. Maybe I should schedule all of those not so fun appointments on Friday's. Poor Libby is very stuffed up though and I think you can see it in this picture. 'Tis the season I guess.

Yes, you might get slammed against the wall!

Anna is on an indoor soccer team right now. I see it as a mix between hockey and soccer. It gets very intense but it is really fun to watch.

What sports do you enjoy watching?

Wordless Wednesday-Traditions

Every year I give my kids pj's on Christmas Eve and we take a Christmas picture.

I couldn't help but wonder while taking this picture about how many more years I will have them all home on Christmas Eve.

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Wii is great!

I love how the Wii is something that EVERYONE can play together and how it levels the playing field. I took this picture last night with my phone while Mark and Kaylyn were playing Wii Play together.

If you are considering getting a Wii I would recommend getting 2 controllers right from the start. We got the Wii last Christmas and just got a 2nd controller this last week with Christmas money from my Uncle Jer to our entire family. It has been so much fun playing against each other.

Dinner is in the crockpot.

Thanks to Kristen at We Are That Family my family is going to eat well for a while. I won her giveaway from Homemade Gourmet. I am so excited to to try all of these yummy meals out. Tonight we are having Chipotle Raspberry Chicken. Doesn't that sound yummy? For more information on Tami, the founder of Homemade Gourmet, check out her blog Around the Table with Tami.

Guess what?

Do you like the t-shirt I gave my niece?

Happy 91st birthday Grandpa!

This picture was taken last February while my Grandpa was staying in Texas with my Aunt for a couple of months. My mom and dad (in the picture with him) were visiting him on their way to Arizona.


This has been a hard year on Grandpa. He continues to battle congestive heart failure. My dad had to take him to the ER this morning because he was so nauseous and having dry heaves (sorry about the tmi). They ended up admitting him so he is spending his birthday in the hospital. Poor Grandpa. They are thinking it is from a change in his medicine but wanted to monitor him overnight.

This is a picture from Christmas day.

I love you Grandpa!