Fall Family Times

October!  Already.  October is a busy month for our family.  We've got 3 birthdays:  Slava will be 7 on the 16th, Wayne will celebrate on the 18th (I won't give away his age, but next year he'll be the big 5.0.!), and Anna will be 13 on the 22nd.  Thankfully we can get a way with one family party, but I am letting Anna have a friends party since she'll be officially a teenager.  She even got to start youth group and go on the youth retreat to Vermont last weekend.  These kids are growing up!

Slava playing with the 100 matchbox cars we have.

 Slava will be turning 7 this month. I can't believe just 2 years ago we were heading to Ukraine to bring him home.  We've learned a lot about "kids from hard places" in the past 2 years.  I've been meaning to do a blog post on just that topic.  I'll try to get to it soon.

Jordan & Daddy playing checkers.

 Jordan is getting pretty good at this game.  I love it when the kids bust out the board games.  It's one of my favorite family things to do.

Wayne Jr. turned 23!

 We had a family dinner a couple weeks ago to celebrate with Wayne Jr.  We don't do a huge extended family thing once the kids turn 18.  After that we just do our immediate family and the grandparents.  We gotta give those precious aunts & uncles a break!  So small meant about 25 of us!

Homeschooling Moments

 This is one of the few moments during our day that Jordan & Slava actually play together.  Typically they do their own thing when I'm not nailing them to the chair to do school work.  Of course I don't use nails...duct tape works just a well.

Apple Picking Time!

 Wayne loves to take the kids apple picking.  This year all the big kids were away on a youth retreat, so we had to recruit my parents in order to have enough pickers!  One of the above boys likes to throw apples at the other children.  Can you guess which one?  Hint:  he's the one holding the green bag!

Slumber Party!

 Last night Sierra invited the little boys to sleep over in her room and watch a movie.  She's an excellent big sister.

Orphan Sunday Cup Sleeves

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to speak at Abounding Love in Ravena.  Mary joined me and we shared on the orphan crisis and the Church's responsibility to care for orphans.  We shared some practical ways people can help and extended an invitation to our Orphan Conference.  On Oct. 13th our ministry, Justice For Orphans, is hosting a free conference.  We'll be sharing more in depth on orphans, adoption, foster care, and global orphan care.  We hope to rally the Church for the cause of the fatherless.  Orphan Sunday will be here before we know it and I'm trying to recruit churches to do something on Nov. 4th.

Defend the cause of the fatherless.     Isaiah 1:17