My Baby, All Grown Up....

Our oldest son, Zachary, turns 18 today. I can still remember the emotions from holding him for the very first time. He was a BIG boy, weighing in at 9lbs. 5 oz! Can you say BIG OUCH?! LOL! He has been a joy and a delight and we are very proud of who he has become. He is the world's best brother and will someday be an excellent daddy.

As my boy looks eagerly ahead to his future I must admit part of me is sad to see him grow and fly away. I know it's necessary and what we've prepared him for but still, a piece of my heart will be going with him. He is my child, my son and most especially, my friend.

Happy, happy birthday Zack!!!

You are loved more than you'll ever know....

Mission Field....

MY MISSION FIELD

Matthew 9:37-38, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest."

Do you sometimes hanker to be doing some great work for God? You feel as though you are wasting your life in your home. You would love to serve the Lord in some harvest field. Yes, it is true, the harvest is great and the laborers are few. But why are they few? Because mothers have not understood God's purpose.

Are you looking for an easy path in life in life or do you have a heart to serve God as a missionary? Dear mother, you are already a missionary. God has chosen your specific mission field for you. It is your home and family. You are employed by God to train laborers for His harvest field. You don't raise children and then send them to Bible College to prepare for service. You train them for God's service from the time they are little. They should be ready to labor in the harvest field when they come forth from your home.

Is a missionary's work easy? No, it takes sacrifice. Is motherhood easy? No, but it will be worthwhile. It takes everything you've got--all your resources of time, energy and strength--but you will influence nations. It takes sacrifice--many mothering days are exhausting and overwhelming--but you will receive the fruit of your labors and an eternal reward. It will take committed prayer and intercession, but your prayers will be answered. Remember, you are not on vacation; you are on the mission field!

Maybe God has only given you one laborer to prepare for Him--that His is plan for you. Maybe he has given you six, or even twelve! Wow, would twelve be too many? Jesus trained twelve disciples who impacted the world. How would you like to train laborers who "turn the world upside down"? (Acts 17:6)

What kind of laborers does God want us to faithfully prepare for His service? The following is my vision for our children, grandchildren and future generations. I believe He wants us to prepare children who are...

Baby lovers

Blessing imparters

Bible believers

Bible obeyers

Committed laborers in God's harvest

Courageous overcomers

Demon destroyers

Diligent workers

Evil haters

Faithful servers

         Fearless soldiers

                  Freedom fighters

Fruit bearers

God fearers

God lovers

         God pleasers

                  God worshippers

           Gospel preachers

Holy Spirit empowered witnesses

         Home lovers

              Israel supporters

                    Jesus fanatics

                     Justice keepers

                   Life choosers

                Light shiners

         Liberal threateners

     Obedient listeners

Parent honorers  
         

Responsible citizens

         Sharp arrows

                  Tomorrow's leaders

                  Truth bearers

              Truth keepers

       Truth lovers

   Truth preservers

Truth seekers

Truth speakers

Persecution endurers

         Prayer warriors

                  Righteousness lovers

                           Uncompromising disciples

                                    Valiant conquerors        

                                             Wisdom getters and

                                                  Zealous servants of the Living God!

Wow!Can you imagine anything more exciting and fulfilling that raising laborers such as these? You couldn't have a greater mission field or a greater vision.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

"Thank you, Lord, for showing me my mission field. Help me to serve you faithfully and to raise prepared laborers for your great harvest field. Lord, I am open for you to give me all the laborers you have planned for me to train. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I am a full-time missionary, recruiting and training laborers for God's harvest field.

  

Connor's Evaluation....

To all who prayed for Connor today, we thank you. We are still in the processing mode. Basically, in a nutshell, he was diagnosed with everything we've known he has. So in one sense it validated what we've felt all along but yet to be completely honest, it is also a bit disappointing as well. We've already been researching, studying, reading and implementing much of what's recommended for his "diagnosis" over the years without much success. So I guess I was hoping she would diagnosis something else we hadn't thought of and that would be the big lightbulb moment, you know?

But no.

So my emotions are a bit mixed at this point. The Dr. was very thorough and took her time to explain to us a bit more about the brain from a professional standpoint, which was very helpful.

Also, another great side benefit of all the questions/explanations is that we've also figured out some areas we need to dig deeper in, research more, for Gabriella. As I was researching these things on the web today I definitely had that lightbulb moment with some of her issues. Thank you Lord!

The Dr. couldn't give us much hope in Connor's future improvement but that's ok because we know Connor has a Great Physician who is in the MIRACLE business! We won't stop hoping, praying and believing that God will heal Connor in His time. I believe these are all steps....steps that are leading us to where He wants us to be, where He wants us to go. I'm praying not only for continued strength for this unknown journey but also for JOY. How I so desperately want to exude JOY no matter the circumstances. No matter how hard the day is, no matter who is screaming,  or how many times I've been on my face in the kitchen sobbing to my Father God. These years will not be wasted! God already knows how He will redeem these years of our lives. My God is a good God. I just know in my bones that He has BIG things planned for us on the other side of all of this and a certain little boy will be standing right beside of us testifying of God's miraculous touch in His life and His faithfulness!!

Do you know what these are?

Homemade stilts! A blast from my past. I can remember my parents making these for me and my brother to keep us busy. LOL! So today I thought, why not?! And guess what? It works. All 4 of the little's have loved trying them out, putting toys inside of them, and there's Nolan using it to talk into. Connor also got the great idea to tie them onto his big wheel and made some wonderful music with them. LOL! Oh how I love the simplicity of toys that use the imagination!

Great Reminder....

"If each grain of sand on the seashore

 were numbered

 and the sum labeled

 "chosen of God,"

They'd be numbers still,

 not names;

salvation comes

 by personal selection.

God doesn't count us;

 He calls us by name.

Arithmetic is not His focus."

Romans 9:25 ~ The Message

IT"S OFFICIAL!! We are now the proud parents of a little girl......

Who can READ!!

Sweet Kyalynn's reading skills have bloomed. She is so cute to listen to as she reads. I LOVE it! This is a HUGE milestone for her and us. You see, she has to work extra, extra hard to accomplish most tasks that others do easily. She is a strong, determined little girl and we couldn't be more proud of her!

Not only is Kyalynn autistic but she is also deaf in one ear and severely hard of hearing in the other. I can't even imagine how hard it is for her to hear sounds and then replicate them. She doesn't do it perfectly, by any means, sometimes she doesn't annunciate her letters clearly or they are left open-ended, but she has the basics down.

While we were on vacation we watched an Extreme Home Makeover show about a family with an autistic son. To help the design crew understand this boys sensory issues they had Ty set on a chair and had people overloading his sensory input with noises, talking, bright lights, textures, etc. It really helped Sean and I understand another piece of this autistic puzzle for our girl. I totally believe that sometimes God uses the little things to help us understand the BIG picture. To help us understand Kyalynn's hearing issues we've also done the same kind of test as above amongst ourselves. We've put earphones on one ear and plugged the other with our finger lightly and then had the rest of the family talking, laughing, yelling, etc, so we could hear like Kyalynn does. It was very disturbing and even annoying. No wonder she blocks us out by putting her finger in her one ear! LOL! When she is reading to me if I try to help her with a word instantly her little finger goes into her working ear and plugs it up. She wants to do it ALL by herself! :)

So, yes, we are very happy for her, proud even but may I be honest here and say if this little girl never read or did anything else we would still be very happy and proud of her! She is such an incredible gift!!!!

Are You A Pumpkin?...

"Being a good person is like being a pumpkin.

 God lifts you up, takes you in, 

and washes all the dirt off of you. 

He opens you up, 

touches you deep inside 

and scoops out all 

of the yucky stuff -- including the 

seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.

 Then He carves you a bright new 

smiling face and puts His light 

inside of you to shine

 for all the world to see. 

I love this! I saw this on my friend's blog and just had to post it here. Thanks Tina!! What a great illustration for kids or any of us to really "get" what it means to be saved, cleaned up and shining for Him!