The Fight

Jack got in a fight the other day.....

With this.....

The jury's still out on who won...since he got pretty bunged up and actually pinned to the garage floor...I'm thinking victory belongs to the toolbox since it's pretty much unscathed.  Just a word of warning in case you have one of these in your own garage, if you pull all the drawers out at once and there are lots of tools inside, it will tip over (it has no regard for human life). 

That's the scariest thing we've faced so far...that is besides Noah getting trapped in the garage for a few minutes the day after the whole fight with the toolchest thing happened.  He just disappeared and we couldn't find him (you know that heart in your throat feeling of panic!) and I finally heard his little voice calling out from behind the closed garage door.  Mark just didn't realize that he was in there and he closed it.  Oops!  So, go ahead and call us to watch your kids, I promise we're not TOTALLY irresponsible parents...

A special Mother's Day...

And this is what I'm asking for.....

An organization that we strongly support as a family, Children's Hopechest, is partnering with Adoption Fathers to bring us these beautiful and unique necklaces for Mother's Day this year. Proceeds will go to help stop sex trafficking in Moldova. Here is the info I just got in my inbox from Tom Davis, the director of Children's Hopechest :

I'm on my way home from Russia after various flight cancellations and re-routes due to this volcanic ash cloud. Hopefully by the time you get this I'll be headed toward US soil.


While on this trip, I heard a powerful story that is weighing on my heart to share with you. It is an encouragement and a strong reminder that girls absolutely MUST be protected from sex trafficking. Not optional. Here's the story.


This week, I met with "Masha," a bright young lady who visits our Ministry Center in Kostroma.


She told me about the day some professional women came to her technical school in Kostroma and promised her a new job with lots of money, clothes, and jewelry.


Instead, they trapped her in a rundown apartment, beat her when she asked questions, and forced her to work in a strip club.


Scared and alone, Masha was terrified at what came next. "You'll have sex with 10 men each day," they told her. But before that, some men would come to her apartment to "teach her" what to do.


Masha managed to escape the apartment and ran to the HopeChest Ministry Center for help. Our staff immediately called the authorities, and brought her to a safe place to live.


Fortunately, Masha avoided a life of forced prostitution and stolen dignity, thanks to the intervention of the HopeChest Ministry Center in Kostroma.

My wife and I have seven children-including two daughters from Russia-and the thought of them being raped makes me extremely angry. When I heard Masha's story I wanted to do something to protect her, like I would protect my own children.


Today, you also have a unique opportunity to help protect and defend girls like Masha. Buying a Mother's Day Gift from HopeChest is just one way to join the fight against sex trafficking and forced prostitution and provide a safe haven for orphaned girls in their time of greatest need.


When you buy this necklace for your mother, wife, sister, or daughter, proceeds will go directly to support young women like Masha, and other girls who benefit from programs at the Ministry Centers. Each necklace provides one of the following:


2 weeks of direct assistance for a women in our Young Mothers Program


Nearly 1 month of mentorship, counseling, and discipleship at our Ministry Center

I encourage you to check this out! We have been supporting this ministry for a few years now and have adopted a child in Swaziland through them. For the past two years we have sent teams of people from our church who have actually spent time in our little guy's home and held him on their lap! The came back with funny stories of him and we've been able to send personal photo albums and letters to him hand delivered by our friends here. This is a worth while organization I can assure you!!

April Fool's

We're so creative most of the time...but when April Fool's comes around I'm at a loss.  This year we really wanted to play some jokes on the kids but all we could think of was this...

Green eggs for breakfast........

And this strange concoction of snow and raspberry chipotle sauce for lunch (that was Mark just so you know)....which actually kind of backfired on us when Noah devoured it......

Thank you LMBC!

Today we recieved a special blessing in the mail. One of the best parts of being a missionary is that we have an incredible team of people who support us, not just as ministry partners but as a family as well. Some of our best supporters are in Alaska. One of our churches up there formed a small group from the congregation who are assigned to us. I guess their job is to encourage us and pray for us...it's really humbling to think about! So today we got a beautiful gift in the mail, it was a stack of cards made by a 3rd grade Sunday school class! They were complete with sweet drawings and scratch and sniff stickers. One of my favorites had a picture of Jasper in his monkey hat! The boys loved reading through these and smelling the stickers. What a precious gift! We loved it and will definatly be writing back soon:)

God of This City

Today was Good Friday.  A time to remember what Easter is all about and think about the sacrifice made on our behalf.  I read the story of Jesus' betrayal and crucifixion to my boys tonight before bed.  I was amazed at how much Jack understands, he kept interrupting to tell Noah (with much enthusiasm) how important this story is...he would say "Ya Noah, Jesus died for our sins!!".  I love to hear him evangelizing to his brother!  Usually he's evangelizing about Star Wars (yes, I've labeled him a 'Star Wars Evangelist', that's how intense his love is for the Force).  Anyway, it blessed my heart to dye our eggs today and read this story with those two guys.  They're just precious. 

So much of the time we are complaining about living in the city.  I feel trapped most of the time, wishing my kids could grow up in the country like I did.  I hate our inversion in the wintertime (especially this year, yuck!) and I hate that our neighbors are just feet away from us at all times.  I hate that we have to drive to our sledding hill, and even then it's a city park.  BUT, for all the things I love to complain about, this city is pretty amazing when I stop and think about it.  We are only 15 minutes from 4 fantastic ski hills and anywhere you go in the city you have an amazing view of the mountains.  We lack for nothing when it comes to shopping or amenities and over the years I've really grown to love my neighbors and friends, especially at our wonderful church. 

Today while I was driving, the song "God Of This City" by Chris Tomlin came on.  Every time I hear that song I am so inspired by our unique position here and I really do believe that God is planning great things for this city.  Where there is great adversity to the Truth of the gospel God is at work and the battle is waging.  The culture here is so different and many people want nothing to do with this place becuase of it.   But as my husband likes to say, these people are just non-believers who like to talk about God.  I admire so many things about the LDS organization.  Like the other day when my neighborhood held a gathering at the local ward to organize and talk about disaster preparedness.  One of the women who was helping to put it on asked me to do the opening prayer and I was assuming hardly anyone would show up.  I was shocked however when there were close to 100 people there!  We really do live in a community and the reason we know each other enough to organize this way is largely to the credit of our local ward.  It was also kind of fun to be able to stand up and pray to my God for our neighborhood in their church! 

We've been so discouraged at times when thinking of how to break through to the culture here, it's like they are in chains and just need freedom.  They're so steeped in the culture and heritage that it means risking everything if they leave 'the church'.  But, I am inspired by how many people I acutally know who have taken that risk and are willing to pay the price for the freedom of the Gospel.  One of my MOPS friends recently left a polygamous marriage, listening to her is like watching God paint a picture of redemption right in front of me.  Just another day in the life of a missionary in Utah!  Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins.  Thank you for paying the price for me and for this city.  I know great things are in store for this place and I thank you for putting us right smack dab in the middle of this culture!