Every tongue, tribe, and nation...

It's the song of the redeemed
Rising from the African plain
It's the song of the forgiven
Drowning out the Amazon rain
The song of the Asian believers
Filled with God's holy fire
It's every tribe, every tongue, every nation
A love song born of a grateful choir

It's all God's children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It's all God's children singing
Glory, Glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns

Let it rise above the four winds
Caught up in the heavenly sound
Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals
To the faithful gathered underground
Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation
Some were meant to persist
Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples
None rings truer than this

And all the powers of darkness
Tremble at what they just heard
'Cause all the powers of darkness
Can't drown out a single word

When all God's children sing out
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
All God's people singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
~He Reigns by Newsboys~

We watched Blood Diamonds the other night…what a sad movie and yet probably incredibly accurate. Steve and I cried and cried after the movie was over…cried for our children, cried for all the people of Sierra Leone, cried for what Satan, the enemy is trying to do to every nation and people. I have been thinking recently how each nation and people group represented in our family has been or is being attacked by the enemy…Vietnam is a communist country and persecutes Christians and minority people groups (which is what Kailee is), Korea(north, not the south where Alyssum is from, but Korea just the same) persecutes Christians and has an agreement with China that if any Koreans cross the border they are to be returned and then Korea either executes them, puts them in prison, or forced labor, and then Sierra Leone which is at peace now, but has just come out of a horrible civil war over diamonds. The enemy is out to get each and every tongue, tribe, and nation any way he can…he will use anything he can to destroy. It has reminded me how much we need to pray and expect to see God move on the hearts of people.

Summer has come...

...to the place we call home...Homer, Alaska! Our summer has been rather cold so far, but this last week we had some beautiful warm sunny summer days with one day hitting highs of 75 in our yard!! The kids had so much fun spending their days playing outside in the warmth...shorts, tank tops, and flip flops were the dress code for those days! We had fun taking pictures too...


Big sister love...Adams, Kailee, and Alyssum love their big sister, Ann Marie!!


Ethan, Adams, Ann Marie, Alyssum, Tyler, Kailee enjoying a sunny summer day!!

At the pond

Our Alaskan summers are just way too short, we never seem to have enough time to do all that we would like to do! We have so much work we would like to get done in our yard, the garden needs our attention, and the business is always pulling Steve away, but sometimes we just have to say enough work and time for some fun with the kids...

On Saturday afternoon we put aside our projects and hiked through the woods by our house to this little pond. Ethan and Tyler have been begging to take their blow-up rafts out to the pond! So the kids donned life jackets and carried rafts on their heads to get to the pond! Saturday was a beautiful warm sunny day and we were all wearing shorts and sandals...not quite the right attire for a hike through our Alaskan woods! The kids had so much fun rowing around and around the pond.

Kids say the funniest things...

...and are always keeping us on our toes!! I really should be keeping a journal of "Funny Kid Sayings"...I could probably publish a book by the time all the kids move out of the house! So since there have been several funny things lately about skin color I thought I would share the laughter...

...Last week when we were in Anchorage for the kids citizenship we made our usual run through Costco before heading home. As the girls and I were wondering around amongst the clothes tables Kailee saw a black shirt that she thought would fit Ann Marie. But then she said, "Ann Marie, you would look like a burnt hot dog in that black shirt!" Brown on the inside with a black skin on the outside! Ann Marie and I laughed and laughed!! I think we have been having alot of hot dogs over the fire recently!

...This week I took the kids to the park in town just for something fun and different to do. A little girl about Alyssum's age came up to her and asked her if she could speak Chinese! Then a few minutes later she hopped on the tire swing with Adams and asked him, "Do you tan?" Adams just looked at her with an "I don't understand you" look. Then she said, "Oh yeah, my dad told me that God made some people with brown skin!"

...Adams is always telling us he is turning white...his skin gets a sort of white tint to it when it is dry! But then last night right after he said that he is turning white, he turned to Ann Marie and stared her in the face and said, "You are getting black!" I really don't think Adams has much concept of skin color or the fact that we are all different colors, but he hears us talk about it and he has to make his comments too!

Our kids are always calling themselves chocolate, vanilla, or caramel depending on their skin color. Having a family of many different colors and nationalities is so much fun!

"Yes--But...!"

"Lord, I will follow You, but..." Luke 9:61

Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, "Yes, but--suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about...?" Or we say, "Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn't go against my common sense, but don't ask me to take a step in the dark."

Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person es ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.

By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ's statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis--only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.
~My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

So how often do we say, "Yes, but God...!"? I know for myself I want to follow what God has for my life, but when I come up to something that doesn't make sense to me I begin to question God. Taking that step of faith when it doesn't make sense can be so difficult...what a difference we could make in this world if we would say, "Yes, God!!"

Citizenship

On June 6 four of our six children got their United States Citizenship Certificates. That means we are at the end of the paperwork trail for all of our adopted kids!! It has been 7 years of continuous paperwork...well worth the effort, but good to be at the end. Their citizenship was actually granted upon adoption here in the United States, but we don't get the certificate until we apply for it through USCIS (immigration). I think the citizenship certificate was more significant for us as parents than it was for the kids...they kept asking, "What are we doing? Why are we going to this appointment? What is it for?" Ann Marie was the only one who really understood what it was all about and she had to take an oath and sign her own certificate. We decided that if we all had to take the oath we would take our US citizenship alot more seriously! Here are the kids with their Certificates of Citizenship...