To Ellie

So I was looking up some verses, and came across Proverbs 18:24 which says "A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." I thought "Huh, how true is that?" After spending pretty much the whole summer together, we've gotten "stuck" together! From the Beach, to Guatemala, BootCamp, and then Asheville, we've traveled many miles together! Ellie, I am so incredibly thankful for you! From the first time I met you in our "Keeper's of the Home"class, I knew you would be one of my bestest friends! After your family adopted 'Siah, Keren and Kezziah, and seeing what a miracle God did in your lives,(and some other occurrences too), He then opened the door for our own adoption. You are a girl "after my own heart"! Thank you for everything you've taught me, and for your friendship!

Silly Amanda kept making us laugh



what a candid shot


Ellie, in the vines....lol. We thought it would be a cute picture..



Ellie 'n' Me



Posing for a picture


At Bootcamp with some of our awesome friends!




Some of the Guatemalan team girls



hulllooo





















Happy Birthday Ellie!
Love ya girl
~paige~

Summer '09

So it's been 10 days since I've been home from my last "summer
event". Actually it's been 10 days since I've been home with nowhere else to rush off to! This summer has definitely been crazy busy! But it has been one of the most fun and memorable ones in my life. I was gone for 4 weeks, and in that time frame I was able to go to the Beach, be an assitant counselor at a local camp, go to Guatemala, and then to Precepts Ministries "Bible BootCamp". That's why I've haven't posted in...forever. I had less than a week in between each event. I unpacked, washed clothes, then only to repack! Let's just say after doing this several times.....it's good to be home. I have so much to write, so much to tell, and soooo many pictures to post! I promise to do it all as soon as I can. I have way too many pictures to just post in one "posting" so I will make slideshows, so you can see them all!
:) ~Paige

Back To Guatemala

I'm going back to Guatemala this summer! I went 2 years ago in 2007, and had the most amazing time! God really spoke to my heart through that trip, and I can't wait to see what He has in store for me this time. I learned many lessons about myself, what true "servant-hood" looks like, and how to have the "attitude of gratitude" even in hard situations. I saw many people on the roads who looked like they had no hope. I saw people digging through trash for dinner, and I saw people who actually lived in that trash. I saw many kids who weren't as fortunate as the kids who reside in the Home where we work...they had no shoes and thread-bare clothes.
And yet, even though there was so much sadness and pain written across the faces of those destitute people, there is hope for them. There is more than just hope for them, they have a Heavenly Father that loves them, and adores them. He sent His Son to die for them. They need to know that, they need to see that there is hope for them! Guatemala holds a special place in my heart, and always will. Here is a verse that pretty much sums up everything..."How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written,"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" ~Romans 10 : 14-15
~Paige

Update on our Adoption

We are almost ready to submit our whole Homestudy to Russia! It seems like everything has gone by so quickly,and yet very slow. We're scrambling to finish up some minor things in the packet of paperwork. Stay posted!
~paige

A Winter Wonderland

It snowed today! We got about 5 inches! Schools were closed for the day, and almost everyone in the town stayed at home. As you can see in this slideshow we had a lot of fun! Before you watch this, pause the playlist at the bottom of the page, so you can hear the music on the slideshow. ~Paige

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Something Brave and Beautiful

This is a devotional from the December edition of "Focus on the Family's, Brio Magazine" for teen girls. Natalie Lloyd writes a devotional for each issue, and they are so good! I really wanted to share this one with you guys!

Something Brave and Beautiful
by Natalie Lloyd
I couldn't see the tv in the lobby, but I could hear the crowds on the screen cheering. I pictured the people bundled up in wool coats, mittens and funky scarves. I pictured a giant sparkly ball ready to descend toward a new set of numbers. I knew confetti was flying through the air.
I tried to think about those things and not the pain in my stomach that had landed me there in the ER on New Year's Eve. The hypochondriac in me was prepared for the worst: Maybe my appendix had burst. Maybe I'd swallowed my night guard. (This hasn't happened, but I have a habit of spitting it out at night. I wake up in the morning in a panic until I find it.) A few hours later the ER doctor would finally drop in and tell me I just had a virus. As I was waiting, listening to a distant TV, a new sound eclipsed the unified roar of the people in Times Square. I heard a gurney being pulled through the door on the far side of the room. The room was frantic as people shouted orders.
I heard a long buzz that signified a flatline on a heart monitor. The shocks to the heart didn't work. The room grew weirdly quiet. Then someone called the time of death. Time of death?! In the same room I was in, somewhere on the other side of an ugly blue curtain, someone had died. I felt sick, even sicker than I felt when I first got there.
I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, as it was a hospital. But it seemed so bizarre to me that while most of the world was celebrating, in the same room I was in someone's heart had stopped beating. Eventually, the quiet gave way to sniffles and sobs as family came into the room. That was not how I'd planned to spend my New Year's eve. Most years I sit around with my friends or my family, countdown from 10 to one, blow the kazoo and drink Cherry Coke. I fall into the same old cliche' New Year rituals : I make new plans and goals. I decide it's time to get back on the treadmill and refocus my writing and get back in touch with old friends. Dec. 31 becomes an eve of good intentions for me. The whole point of the day is to dream big and welcome a new beginning. My New Year's Eve in the emergency room reminded me that night doesn't just celebrate beginnings though: It signifies an end.
Living in Light of Eternity
On my way home, I started thinking about what I'd just seen in the emergency room. What if the situation had been reversed? What if my heart had stopped that night? It was kind of a morbid way to end the year, a far cry from my usual dreamy"conquer the world" mindset. But it was kind of fitting, too.
I'm all about thinking ahead and planning for the future, but the Bible tells me specifically not to bank on the future. I can try to trap time in a silver watch or measure it on a calendar, but I can't stop it from moving, I can't control it or hold onto it or bank up extra minutes to keep. I'm just told to do something important with it today. Instead of making another resolution that I would, in all likelihood, forget by Jan. 4, I approached the new year with a different attitude.
Shaking the Foundations
Isaiah 6 highlights a particularly pivotal year in the prophet's life. King Uzziah had passed away,
leaving Israel in turmoil and leaving Isaiah heartbroken. This is his friend and childhood hero. The grief and uncertainty must have been overwhelming. But the death of the king would not be what Isaiah remembered most about that year. In verse 6:1 the prophet writes "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted , and the train of his robe filled the temple." I went to church with my friend Kay in Dallas recently, and her pastor gave me some cool insights on that verse.
"Remember," said Dr. St. John, "it may not have been the same day Uzziah died that Isaiah saw the Lord. We don't know his immediate reaction to losing his friend. We just know, at some point, he didn't let the chaos, the unknown or the unfamiliarity hold him back any longer."
At some point in that crazy year, Isaiah saw God move in a big way. When Isaiah is reminded of God's sovereignty, he does something brave and beautiful.
He says, "Here am I. Send me" (6:8)
That kind of attitude jolts my heart back to life this time of year. It's the kind of attitude that looks, with eager anticipation , towards the new. But it's also the attitude of a servant who is living his life in light of eternity. Uzziah's death reminded Isaiah of how fragile life is. With one whispered prayer, he dedicated every day he had left to the service of his God.
No More Empty Resolutions
This year, instead of making another list of good intentions, I want to try to live in light of eternity, too. I wrote this prayer in my journal:

Shake the foundations of my heart. Touch my lips and touch my life. I will not burn out this year; I will burn bright. Inasmuch as I can see you on this side of heaven, I want to see You. I want to learn to love the way you do. Change scares me. But in this moment of transition, in this season of weird unfamiliarity or sudden loss, I'm still going to look for You. I'm tired of sitting by my own private pity pool and comparing tan lines with other people. I'm not looking for their approval anymore. No more empty resolutions. No more frail intentions. This year, I want to do something brave and beautiful. From the deepest corner of my trembling heart, I'm whispering the same words Isaiah did: Here I am. Send me. Because my days don't mean anything if they don't belong to You.

Happy New Year's Eve, Brio Sisses! This year, don't let fear hold you back. Do something brave and beautiful.

My Family's Adoption Part 1

First of all I want to write 2 parts to our journey, Part 1, the steps and the process that we are going through, then I want to write Part 2 on this whole experience and the trips to get her.


Okay, it all started a few years a ago, actually more than a few. I was about ten years old when I met "Her".
"Her" was a girl from Belarus, she was here as an exchange student and she was staying with a family that we knew. I met her at their son's birthday party. Soon we became friends, we couldn't even understand each other, she was from Belarus after all. She came over to my house to play after the party, and we played Barbies and dolls. From the way she lit up and carefully handled each doll I figured she probably didn't have very many dolls (if she had any at all) back home in Belarus. I ended up giving her some of my Barbies and she got really excited! She started speaking really fast in her language, and hugged me a dozen times. I was glad to be able to share some of my things with someone who probably didn't have very many.
After that I told my parents I really wanted a sister, and I wanted my family to adopt a little girl.
Two years later my sister was born! I love her to pieces! She is the best little sister ever! But my brothers and I still wanted to adopt a sibling. The Lord has blessed my family so much, and we want to share what we have and what we've been given with someone who doesn't have a good chance at life. My brothers and I prayed for years about adoption, and my family has always had a heart for adoption, but we never pursued it. This past summer and fall, the Lord really worked on dad's heart . He impressed it harder upon his heart, and he got to see how the Lord was working through many families who were adopting. On October 3, 2008 my parent's told us we were officially going to pursue adoption and take that step of faith.

As you can imagine we were quite excited! It was incredible! To have been praying about this for so many years, when you are sure that this would never happen, but you still kept praying.....
So, now we have gotten our Social Worker, Case Manager, and we have recently completed our Home Study.
The many, many, many stacks of paperwork! Who knew? The many, many, many trips to the Post Office. "We have to get there before it closes!" Fun right? Not really. Worth it? Definitely

My parents chose to adopt from Russia, we've been assigned to go to Volgograd. So somewhere in South West Russia is my sister, waiting for us to come and get her. :)