Our first 18th birthday

After hosting an innumerable number of children's birthday parties,

I've observed that as the children age,

the style of their birthday celebrations changes.

Gone are the princess themed parties with the dress-up and matching plates and napkins.

The Barbie-doll and castle cakes are simply fond memories.

Nobody plays games or stumbles home with a crumpled bag of candy and favors.

Enter the groups of co-ed friends who want to simply hang-out over lunch somewhere.
Or go to the mall and spend all their birthday money with their friends in tote.

I had just gotten home from a 10 day, 1,100 mile drive to Ohio with 3 kids mid-week before her birthday, and school was starting the day after her birthday.
I had spent the week before our trip organizing for school and said trip,
and hadn't put any thought into her birthday celebration yet.
  

So, undeterred, she took matters into her own hands, and crafted a fun day for herself

on the day of her actual birthday.

But I really wanted her to know how much her family adores her and asked if we could all celebrate together the following week.

I made her favorite kind of cake and we invited yet more friends who were unable to

participate in her previous gathering of  friends.

We all went out for her favorite food (Mexican)

and enjoyed a giant slab of cake at home later.

We have pretty much loved these teen years,
and all the awesome friends she has brought home with her!
How can you NOT love these faces?

We cannot wait to see what God has in store for this girl
in this next year!!

Savoring those last bits of summer

As the sun gets hotter and nearly takes your breath away with it's heat,

and the days sort of start to drag along because we've done 

just about everything you can do on summer break,
we gladly look forward to this annual treat with Grandma.

"Bingo with your Grandkids" brings out the bored, the sleepy, those yearning to break free

from the bondage of the air conditioned indoors to the gathering area

inside my mother-in-laws senior living apartments.
And what fun it is.....every year.

Who doesn't enjoy the thrill of the five matching numbers and the winning of the prize?

Everybody is winner.
Nobody goes home empty-handed.

The afternoon begins in the "in-house" movie theater with a fun kids movie and popcorn.
After that's over, the games begin.
This fun event is always capped off with ice cream sandwiches,
and everyone goes home a winner!!!
Especially Grandma!!! 

School has started and other big events

At some point, I intend to sit down for awhile and just journal how the Lord has done
miracles in our family and changed up our schooling routine in huge, unexpected ways.
Let me just say that homeschooling is not for the faint of heart.

If you want to do it well, it takes intentionality.
Schooling your children at home requires some sense of organization as well as a dash of creativity.
In my 12 years of homeschooling, I've never experienced a child who learned something about their world by simply breathing while lying in bed.
Throw some learning challenges into the mix and you have to be on your toes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Every day.  All day.
Several years ago I began praying for, no.....actually begging God for an intervention.

It took about two or three years of such praying, but God supplied the most perfect solution
for our family.

We are now a part of a "homeschool assistance program" that is a mere 3 minutes from our house and uses the same curriculum I was using at my house.
We started this new journey last school year, and it revolutionized our home!!
My children go everyday from 8 am to 12:30 pm.
It may look like an organized "private school," but it's more a hybrid of private school, homeschooling, and homeschool co-op.
The best part is that I get to call all the shots in regards to what they are doing everyday, and I get to teach a high-school elective course that is near and dear to my heart!!!
Last year it was high school Speech and Drama.
This year it is Family and Consumer Science with our first semester consisting of Foods I and next semester Sewing and Crafts I.
This has been just the thing we needed to bring back the motivation for learning!
God has, once again, proven Himself to be faithful to us and bringing something to us that we desperately needed just when we needed it the most!!

Our red-head goes to the Philippines {part 2}

When your 17-year old asks you if she can go on a missions trip half-way

around the world, you might see a parent gasp out loud.

You might see a parent react with an automatic "no."

Her dad and I have always tried to listen and consider what she talks to us about.

We see the Lord leading in her life, and we don't want to shut down

something the Lord may be calling her to or might possibly

use mightily in her life.

But the Philippine Islands?

How could we afford that?

She also asked if she could go on both the missions trips being

sponsored by our church this year.

The last two trips she has taken really stretched our faith.

But two more??

In one summer?

What about her schooling?

Yes, we homeschool and have a little more flexibility built in,

but the distraction and the loss of time could really impact her being able to

stay on track to graduate next year.

So we began praying about it.
And sending letters.
She painted and sold some canvas art.
We talked about it on social media.

By April 1, a miracle occurred.
All the money had been raised.
For both trips.
Miraculous giving.

My faith was strengthened that the Lord wanted her to go on this trip.

So off she flew.
First to Los Angeles.
Then to Hong Kong.
Finally, landing in Manila after 17 hours.


She spent her week assisting the local, indigenous church there in Manila
in their weekly feeding ministry to hundreds of children.
Many of those children only ate that one meal that week.
They were also given that Living Bread to fill their souls.
Tiny, hungry children, sent alone by their parents, to find food
and taught that Jesus loves them.


Later that week, she participated in two massive VBS programs.
These are not Vacation Bible Schools like you typically see here in America.
You know the ones.
With the cutsie themes, and matching snacks and crafts.
With bounce houses and face painting and water balloons.
With a highly organized, time-driven schedule consisting of game time,
snack time, story time, and craft time.
Where there is less time for the Holy Spirit to woo hearts and more time
for entertaining?
Don't get me wrong here.
I love Vacation Bible School here in America.
I take my children to several every summer.
They have their purpose for both the children and the workers,
and they do reach unbelieving children.
But when you hear stories of thousands of children packing into a rented
school building who will sit in one classroom for two hours in the morning
without rice crispy treats and Kool-Aid,
and hundreds will respond to the stories of God's unending love for them
and receive Him as their Savior that day.......
it makes you wonder if our culture has drowned out the voice of Jesus.

She was involved with two VBS programs that week.
Several hundred children responded to the invitation to receive Christ as their Savior.
Hundred.
Raised their little hands that they had prayed and received the Living Bread
that would satisfy that gnawing hunger in their souls.

 We don't regret sending her.
More than just the hearts of these children were touched and changed.
But it touched our daughter's heart.
To be in that culture.
To see the impoverished living conditions of many of these city dwellers.
She would most likely never experience anything like that in her own country.

How could we, as her parents, not say yes!!



Our red-head goes to the Philippines

So after months of preparation, prayers, and philanthropic enterprises, the day finally arrived.

{You can read the first post about her adventures here.}

It was Thursday morning, April 30, 2015. 

The day Lexi's mission team was heading to the Philippines on an 18-hour journey.

Her dad and I had been planning this day for several weeks now.

Her flight was scheduled to leave from Dallas heading to Hong Kong at noon.
I mentioned this to her dad and asked if there was any way he could break away from work for a couple hours, or go in late, or trade with someone so he could go with us to say goodbye.
He asked around and figured out a way to work from 5 am to 9 am thus enabling him to get home

in time for us to get her there a couple hours before departure time. 

We would even have time to pick up Grandma Brough too!

Perfect.

The only possible hitch was if someone called in that morning thus requiring my husband to make up the difference in staffing.

But the chances were slim.

We were very excited when we went to bed Wednesday evening.

She was completely packed, ready to go.

Imagine our utter dismay when we were jolted out of bed by the phone ringing at 2 am.

Immediately, we thought my husband was being called into work, or worse yet, being alerted that indeed someone HAD called in, and he wasn't going to be able to go to the airport with us.

Instead, it was the mission team leader.

He was calling us because he had just spent hours on the phone with the airlines re-booking their flight.
As he was double-checking everything before going to bed Wednesday evening, he noticed that their flight from Hong-Kong to Manila had been changed to an earlier arrival time meaning they would have missed that flight.
There were no other flights out the day they were arriving which meant a 24-hour or more layover in Hong-Kong.  No one from the airlines had bothered letting him know of that change, so it was absolutely God's providence that he noticed it when he did.
He was able to book a new departing flight, but it was much earlier on Thursday morning.
Instead of leaving around 12 pm, they were now departing at 9:30 am!!!!!
As I lay there in the bed at 2 am trying to process this, it hit me.
Oh man, we're going to have to leave the house by 7:00 am.  And hit the highway at rush hour.
And get up by 6 am.....and my husband will be working.
He won't be able to go now.

After things settled down a bit, I was reminded of this scripture verse:

"People make plans in their minds 

{human hearts plan their path},

but the Lord decides what they will do

 {establishes their step.}"

Proverbs 16:9

Everything worked out.
We got her to the airport on time.
Not with the Brough Family Entourage we had originally planned, but that's ok.
Instead of a straight-through flight from Dallas to Hong-Kong, they would now have a lay-over in Los Angeles.  I really liked that idea!!
We saw how the Lord knew this was going to happen and had it all worked out for us before we even knew there needed to be a change.
It gave us even more peace that He was watching over her, He was going with Her, and that she would be safe.

To be continued.......

A tale of two birthdays

Once upon a time........

Two brothers celebrated the completion of yet another voyage around the sun.

The oldest brother was celebrating his 13th trip.

 He was not a very materialistic chap, and could only think of one thing that he reeeeeeally

wanted for this momentous birthday.

The other brother was celebrating his 9th trip around the sun.
By the time his birthday rolled around in late May,

the rain had been coming,
in record amounts.

This guy didn't have a lot of requests either, but he DID ask specifically for a special lunch.

We ran through raindrops.

These were the last two birthdays of our family's spring "birthday season,"

and though we couldn't go swimming in May on Garrett's birthday as in other years

because of the massive rain and flooding all month, we were excited for the things

to come for these boys in the upcoming summer!!!!