two posts in one day!

Who did you last shoot a dirty look at?
hehe... probably little miss nastia joy for playing with the blinds :))

What kind of car do you drive?
focus hatchback

Have you ever had a garage sale?
I don't believe I have

What color is your iPod?
[clears throat] :)) i have a zune, and it's black :))

What kind of dog do you have?
I have never had a dog :( I have two kitties though :)One is tortoise shell calico, and the other is gray tabby w/ white

What's for dinner tonight?
I have no idea lol.

What is the last drink you drank?
an orangeade

Last time you were sick?
throwing up sick... like 2 summers ago! and I deserve it LOL. I have never been that sick in my life! I threw up all day long! from sunrise to sunset... boy, was that a long day.

How long is your hair?
about half way down my back

Are you happy right now?
yes, yes, yes!

What did you say last?
no, nastia! you can't do that! lol

Who came over last?
probably my sister's boyfriend

Do you drink beer?
no, there are better things to do with my life :))

Have your brothers or sisters ever told you that you were adopted?
haHA! yes :)) and the funny thing is, we're twins!

What is your favorite key chain on your keys?
???

Whats in you pockets?
nothing

Who introduced you to your boyfriend or girlfriend?
I'm single :) But, when I do find my man & form a relationship with him, GOD will introduce us :))

Who is the last person you had a phone conversation with?
my mommy :)

What DVD is in your DVD player?
idk

What's something fun you did today?
it's only 10:09... lol

What do you think of when you hear the word "meow"?
nastia joy, izzie & lexi

What are you listening to right now?
jon & kate

What have you had to drink so far today?
just an orangeade

When is your birthday?
november 3




If you were abandoned in the wilderness, would you survive?
i think i could.

What is your favorite color?
green :))

What color are your eyes?
green again!


How tall are you?
5'3

Who was the last person to say they loved you and when?
my mommy!

Do you like your parents?
yes!

Do you want to have kids?
yes!!!!!

Do you want to get married?

yes, yes, yes!!! lol

What are your top five favorite boy baby names?

Hosea, Moses, Boaz, Abraham & Joseph


What are your top five favorite girl baby names?

Hadassah, Naomi, Susannah, Penelope & Mia

:))

Life is great, even in spite of all the death and disaster that has happened in the past week or so! GOD is good, and that will never change! I have to truly believe the scripture verse from joshua 1:9 that I so willingly look to. No matter what you are going through, don't get discourgaged. It may be easier to say than actually do, but it CAN be done - with His help :))


My sweet "daughters", Nastia & Izzie, are doing great, and my sister's "daughter", Lexi, is the same! It's so great to see how good they are getting along, seeing today is a week since little Isabel was welcomed into the kitty circle at my apartment :)) Here is the cutest picture ever of little Izzie being a diva!


p.s. that clutter under the table is where we had clothes draped on the chairs to dry and GUESS WHO knocked them down! lol. AND I had Zaxby's to eat & someone just had to play with a napkin :))

Gosh, do I miss Jillian, Judah & Josiah right now! I have to wait until August to see them, the last time being Christmas '08 :( They live in Florida witht their wonderful Mommy - my sister Kimberly - & their dad - Tim. I hate when I see some people with nieces/nephews very close within arms reach or a 10 mile drive everyday and they never take the time to get to know them. Some people just don't know how good they have it! Sorry if this sounds like a rant or something, but I guess it is LOL. I just love those three little kiddos SO much, and I get to see them twice a year, maybe....

I especially can't wait to meet this new little guy <3



And I'm beginning to miss my two other nephews that live 45 minutes away... I haven't seen them in two weekends. But, Holden has been sick, they've had vbs, we've had campmeeting & this weekend they were hanging out with another family at the river... SO, I have my reasons!! lol.. .it's not neglect :)) hehe

update on izzie & my 3rd nephew

Izzie is doing VERY well! Her and my sister's cat already play together and Izzie and my cat sleep very closely :)) I just love to feel her all under my feet, too!
This week has been somewhat busy, so I'm just now updating you guys :))


Timothy Judah, my third nephew that seems to never want to be quiet! I call your mom and if you're around you have to talk too :)) I love you, Judah, more than words can say! I know GOD will use you in mighty ways, because He wants to use all of us to glorify His name! I pray that you grow up into a wonderful man who loves GOD more than anything else :)) You are a great little guy who is full of life and laughter, who only needs to look at someone to smile that smile you do! I know you'll watch after your new little brother like a hawk, and I pray that you will be the leader he needs in an older brother. Love you, Judah-bug! xoxo

little miss isabel mei :))

I now have a new kitten, little miss isabel mei, or izzie for short :))She is SO sweet and has bonded really well since I met her this afternoon! I'm really suprised at how well she is doing :))

haha

I have a new computer, therefore I have a new webcam. AND.... I've never had a webcam before. I think the video explains itself :)) p.s. I'm sorry about the sound, you might have to turn it up some to hear it :))

3rd part of the story

Here is the third and the final part of the story ... :))



The heat of Addis Ababa is unbearable, nothing like the early June heat of North Carolina. There are no wide, shady oak trees here to hide under and definitely no blow up swimming pools to buy on sale at Wal-Mart.

Arriving at the agency after searching over an hour for the agency representative at the airport and barely knowing even the smallest Ethiopian phrases, they are told they can see Naomi in about ten minutes when her afternoon nap ends.

The 1971 Ford 15 passenger van that brought them here was an eye opening adventure as they drove through the place little Naomi knew as home. Through her eyes they saw the many crowded shacks built by materials pieced together, multicolored. The streets were crudely paved in sporadic places, the makeshift sidewalks pure dust. Ethiopians traveled passed the orphanage van, which stopped to wait for the mixed herd of livestock to cross, their bikes truly considered second hand items in the western world. The Jacksons stared in wonder at this place their daughter has known for the two and a half years of her existence. They had seen this in National Geographic; the kind of place they knew existed but never thought of people calling it home.

While they wait for Naomi to wake up, Nicholas decides to peruse the pictures stuck on the single bulletin board above the reception desk where piles of papers were stacked upon stacks of more papers.

How familiar those look, Nicholas says to himself, wincing at the remembrance of lengthy nights spent carefully noting each part of his and his wife’s background, both physical and genealogical, and their economic situation. Then came the wait – the exaggerated wait that raised everyone’s doubts, including his sixty year old father’s.

That’s what those info-commercials are for, son. Sponsors in the developed countries will feed her and give her an education. What more can a kid like that ask for?

“She can ask for more than this,” Nicholas mumbles under his breath as he has taken in his surroundings of the Addis Ababa orphanage. He looks at the pictures of the children, decorated with stray pieces of blue and purple construction paper in shapes of stars – crooked stars, three and nine pointed stars that he guesses the children themselves had made.

There she is, Nicholas is surprised when he locates his little girl in a picture. His brow creases and his eyes focus on the picture as he notices a little boy about the same age as she, seated beside her when she was only about a year and a half old it seemed.

Who is this kid? He looks just like Naomi…

“Mr. Jackson, you have found her in a picture I see,” says and smiles a very round, but beautiful Ethiopian woman called Hadhi, one of the main caregivers at the Faith, Hope and Love Agency.

“Yes, I have. Naomi is very beautiful, isn’t she?”

“Ah, Naomi, is it?” Hadhi questions, “A very fitting name, Mr. Jackson. Yes, she is very beautiful little girl.”

“Uh, Hadhi, who is this little boy right here, sitting beside her in this picture?”

“That is Nasli,” Hadhi simply answers.

“They look like they are good friends. And this little fellow really favors Naomi,” Nicholas partly states, partly asks.

“Yes, Nasli is Aam- I mean Naomi’s brother. Their mother brought them here together. They’re twins; Naomi is just smaller than he is. Most people think she is his younger sister, but I’m almost sure she was firstborn. She is a leader… yes, she is…”

“Where is he?” Nicholas asks, suddenly beyond confusion.

Stephanie and their daughters come up behind Nicholas, his wife caressing his arm with a twinkle of hope in her eyes as if to say we’re finally here… Naomi’s here… with us… she doesn’t have to wish anymore.

Nicholas gives an affectionate smile in response and mouths to his wife, I love you.
“Look, Steph, here’s a picture of Naomi,” Nicholas points to the one a little off center of the middle of the bulletin board.

“It’s Nomi,” cries little Emma, her eyes and smile lighting up her face as her mother picks her up and places her on her hip to be closer to the picture, her little pointer finger placing a kiss from her lips on Naomi’s face, just as she had begged to do every afternoon before her nap.

Their fingers now intertwined with faith, Nicholas inquires more about this stranger in the picture, “Hadhi, his name is Nasli, you said?”

“Yes, Nasli.”

Nicholas looks to his wife, pausing for a moment, encountering a perplexing, questioning look from her.

He attempts to explain the boy to his wife, “Naomi has a brother, a twin brother. His name is Nasli. There he is right there,” he says, pointing to the smiling toddler boy holding hands with Naomi in the backdrop of the orphanage play area and the completed seven piece Lion King puzzle proudly seated in his lap.

Letting it sink in, Stephanie stands motionless, thoughts reeling crazily in her head like never before. A brother? They have said nothing about him these eleven months we’ve known of her. Why? Why would they keep something like this hidden?

Nicholas inquires of Hadhi with a sense of urgency to know this boy, her brother. After thinking a moment, he touches Hadhi’s upper arm, asking, “How is he? Where is he staying; is he here in the same orphanage with Naomi?”

“Sometimes, but he spends most of his time at the clinic. The poor boy has a tumor on the only kidney he has left. He is very sick… the people at the clinic don’t except him to make it through the summer….”

But we have to try - for Naomi. She needs to know him as he was created to be, so close they have no secrets, Stephanie thinks to herself.

“Wow… such a little boy to have so many troubles….”says Nicholas.

“Yes, it is quite a sad situation for him here, but no one wants to take a sick child home. They all want a handsome, healthy baby that will cling to them the moment they meet them.”

“Why is this just now being said to us? We’ve never heard anything of Naomi having a twin. Why was this not in her papers?” asks Stephanie, finally getting up the courage to voice her thoughts.

“Because the boy was not expected to live even this long, but the few and sparse treatments he has received at the clinic have prolonged his life.”

He has to make it. He’s going to be okay. Naomi doesn’t need another blood family member lost to her forever. She already has two… or even more, Stephanie contemplates within herself, scared and partly embarrassed to voice her opinion on the matter.

Stephanie had always wanted twins, a boy and a girl, had always played around with the idea of struggling with two hungry babies at once. Maybe it was a distant dream, but it was hers nonetheless. And now it could become real, just like that.
Someone was created to be the mother of twins, right? she often asks herself when she finds the idea looked odd upon by close friends. I don’t know, maybe it’s just a woman longing to know the individuals that will be her children someday? If not, I can dream, can’t I?

She couldn’t take it any longer. It had to come out. She had to speak her mind. This was a human being they were talking about, not just couple of cattle a few herdsmen were bartering for. “How can we go about seeing him? Is he in Addis right now?” Stephanie rushes, knowing from the watery eyes of her husband in the quick glance that this is the right thing to do.

“Ma’am… I’m not exactly sure.” Suspecting the motive of the husband and wife, Hadhi adds as nicely as she knew possible, “I don’t know if he is even adoptable at this point. With all the risks involved, I’m not sure how long you’d have to wait for the okay on this one.”

Hadhi pauses a moment, rethinking her word choice as carefully as possible. “Mr. Jackson, Nasli is very sick. I’m not sure you and your wife know what you’re getting yourselves into here. Please, take some time and think over it. Don’t fuel your answer by the emotions welling up inside of here,” Hadhi said, placing her hand over her chest, “And again, even if he is adoptable, the wait would most likely be excruciating. Nothing is guaranteed to work out in cases like his.”

Looking into his wife’s eyes for confirmation of his thoughts, he receives her answer within seconds and answeres, “We don’t care how long it takes. We want him.”

“He needs his sister,” Nicholas adds.

“And Naomi needs him,” says Stephanie. “It doesn’t matter what problems he has, we want him.”

The three adults halt in their conversation when suddenly they hear coos from a young woman to a little girl a few steps behind her, one of the small girl’s hands in the young woman’s to encourage her along.

“Come… come along, Aamina…” the young woman leads her along, her head wrapped in native fashion, giving buoyancy to the little girl’s spirits, her eyes dancing from here to there checking things out.

Her eyes stand still when she recognizes strangers within her territory, the little girl rushing to wrap her arms about her caregiver’s legs, the young woman smiling in reassurance to the Jacksons.

Oh my goodness… it’s her. She’s here, Stephanie absentmindedly says to herself. This is magical. She is magical. Our little Naomi is here. I can’t believe she’s really here… with us. It’s not just her picture on the fridge anymore. It’s her, Stephanie joyfully weeps inside.

Hadhi says something to the little girl in her native tongue, and the little girl mutters a quiet something back in answer.

“She says hello to her new family,” Hadhi says and smiles.

“Selam,” Nicholas and Stephanie quickly repeat the greeting to the little girl in her native tongue, Stephanie smiling both to her and inside herself too, for she had waited for this moment for years it seemed. She had played it over and over in her head what she and Nicholas would say to their new daughter upon first meeting her, but all of it had left her. Nothing could have prepared her for this moment, this priceless moment - although, this little girl’s beauty could easily be the silencing factor behind it all. Being able to say hello was one of the phrases she and her husband had been determined everyone in the family knew upon arrival, even the girls.

“Selam, Naomi,” Alexia nearly whispers, unsure of her new little sister’s countenance for them just yet.

Remembering exactly how her parents taught her to pronounce the word, Sophie triumphantly says, “Seh-Lammm,” simultaneously bending her five stiffened fingers up and down in welcome as she gave her new little sister a big smile.

Sophie then turns to Emma who is standing next to her and says, pointing to the little girl still several feet across the room from where they stand, “Look, there’s Nomi, Emma-boo. That’s your new ‘lil sister.”

When Emma still stands completely motionless, Sophie encourages her, “Come on, say hey. Don’tcha remember how, Emm –”

Nicholas interrupts his daughter, and picks up Emma who looks like she is about to cry. She was never one for strangers either.

“She’s very beautiful. Kohn joh? ” Stephanie asks the women.

Hadhi and the young woman nod their heads, smiling in approval.

Stephanie continues, kneeling down to face-to-face level with her new daughter, “Kohn joh,” she says to Naomi, who gives the faintest hint of that same contagious smile found in the pictures of the agency brochure.

“Ameseginalehu…” Naomi quickly whispers, her eyes looking up into Stephanie’s then hastily darting back to her small ebony fingers. Stephanie recognizes her answer as the Amharic word to give thanks.





The hum of the ’71 Ford as it rolls down the beaten down, dusty twenty two mile long path from the clinic back to the agency lulls Nasli to sleep. These two days they are having the chance to spend with him outside of the clinic, in the soothing atmosphere of toys and healthy children, are more magical than they can know at the time. He is magical just like his sister.

He lays curled on Alexia’s lap with a racking cough that won’t subside, coming and going every two to three minutes. And even though his soft, ebony skin it doesn’t glow particularly like his sister’s, it’s still beautiful. The driver of the van doesn’t say anything to them, but they know he must be on the verge of tears from hearing this young boy’s poor cries for relief.

He has the same magical eyes as Naomi, the same soft, light brown curls, too. But they don’t shine like hers. No, they plead for help.

Still, he’s magical in everyway.

His little voice keeps asking for his sister. He wants Aamina, because ironically she makes him feel safe. She’s his security blanket like her name entails.

But she’s also beautiful and gentle, too.

Naomi is in her mother’s lap, her head resting on her shoulder, stray tears slowly drying and a lost whimper shaking her little body as Stephanie rubs her back in a circular motion to calm her. The journey has taken its toll on everyone, but especially the youngest ones. But she knows there is a difference in the tiredness everyone else feels compared with the complete exhaustion this little boy begs to be released from.

But all that will change. We’re going to get you the best doctor available, my little treasure.

“Mom, what are we going to call my little brother?” Alexia thoughtfully asks, excited beyond words that he had taken very quickly to her when they met his sweet little face at the clinic.

“Before we knew that we were getting Naomi,” Stephanie begins, biting her lip and pausing to keep the hot, stinging tears at bay, “we had picked out the name Boaz for a boy.”
“It mea- ,” she tries, her voice choking as the tears release, “It means ‘strength’.”

Softly caressing his hairline, Alexia whispers to her new little brother, “Boaz, you are your name – strength. We’re going to get you help, little buddy, I promise. Just keep hanging on…”

the 2nd part to the story

Sorry it has taking so long to get the 2nd part of the story up here. The third and final part should be up here within the next day. Enjoy :))

The missionary to Ethiopia at the Sunday service at their church that September night humbled both Nicholas and Stephanie’s spirits with the life story and pictures of a little boy named Berihun, a five year old who asked for the love of parents. The love he didn’t know personally, but the love his grandmother had told him he deserved the day she dropped him off at the orphanage.
There were a lot of kids in the pictures of the slideshow, but there was this one little girl that seemed to be in every one of them. The little girl brightened up every picture she appeared in. It was like the camera focused itself on her.
Her smile is contagious, Nicholas whispered to his wife who was captivated in the missionary’s presentation of the orphanage.
You mean that little girl, Stephanie whispered back, quickly pointing to the little girl on the screen before the slide show continued on to another picture.
Yeah, Nicholas answered.
Stephanie lovingly nodded her head, saying, I know.
That’s her, he mouthed to his wife. Isn’t she adorable?
Stephanie smiled and wept silently in her soul, for they had found their child. Or rather, the child had found them. It was then they knew adoption was the answer; it was His answer to their prayers.
After the service the missionary had given them the brochure from the adoption agency he and a few others ran in a village in Ethiopia, the Faith, Hope and Love Adoption Agency. Nicholas and Stephanie discussed certain legal issues of adoption with the agency and found themselves to be fully capable by Ethiopian law of adopting a child.
Stephanie opened the brochure to look over a few more cosmetic details, and her heart melted when she saw the same little girl in the side flap of the informational brochure. She shared this with her husband, prompting them to ask were the kids on the brochure some of those that remained at the orphanage.
The missionary told them it could not be promised that they all were indeed still there, but that some of them were. The couple asked about the little girl they had seen in the pictures, the little girl whose smile had captured their hearts already. He couldn’t remember her by name, but recognized immediately who the couple was asking about and assured them that he could give a call tomorrow morning to the agency to confirm her whereabouts.
Naomi was indeed found to be still within the care of the orphanage. It was His answer.



That same picture that was pulled from the manila envelope months later after the encounter with the Ethiopian missionary would decorate the refrigerator for months. That picture of a small female toddler in a bright hot pink Dora the Explorer t-shirt torn in the sleeve and lime green shorts that looked two sizes too big for her was spoken to daily. There were strawberry jelly kisses wiped off Nomi’s photogenic face after snack time in the morning. Colorful letters were written in macaroni and cheese yellow and tickle me pink, hanging on by magnets until they could hold no more and were moved to the drawer that held things for her scrapbook.
Among all the small clutter, the A+ on a report, the first drawing by their youngest at preschool, it hanged. It was the first thing Nicholas and Stephanie saw in the morning when reaching for the vanilla creamer, bringing a smile to their faces and giving them hope to continue to wish for their little girl so very far away – the little girl wishing for that someone to hug her when her fearful sobs shake her body so fiercely they dare to take her breath for a moment.



The flight overseas to the city of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia is very long, exhausting, and full of questions from their three daughters. Their eldest, Alexia, wants to know if this means they are moving to a new house because the bedrooms for the kids are now down to two, and with three – soon to be four – daughters that is an impossible fit, especially when she herself is soon to be fifteen . Her iPod set to repeat the same exhilarating piece from Pride and Prejudice, she cradles her younger sister Emma, who is every bit of a shy three year old. Her little sister’s curls spread on her lap as Alexia strokes her fingers through the almost snow white locks. Emma sleeps soundly through the hum of the engine with her thumb barely inside her lips now, her bottom lip cradling its fall.
Emma always called herself the baby.
Not for long, Emma-boo, Alexia says to herself. You will soon share that title with your new sister. It’ll be Emma-boo and Nomi now. She smiles as she thinks about it.
She couldn’t wait to meet her new little sister in person. Strangely, even though Sophie and Emma were her blood sisters, she didn’t feel any different about Naomi than she had on the trips to the hospital on the days those two had been born. She was her sister too, a Jackson just like all of them.
Meanwhile, Sophie, the impossible five year old quizzes her parents on her soon-to-be sissy, looking once more over the only connection she has with Naomi’s world, holding the picture up very proudly for the gentleman seated behind them to see.
“Isn’t she pretty?” Sophie blatantly asks the man in her five year old honesty.
He nods, smiling as he says, “That’s a very pretty little girl. Is that going to be your sister?”
Taking a deep breath in, her little teeth showing as she excitedly grins, “Yep!”
The gentleman chuckles a little, as her excitement is contagious, “Does she have a name?”
“Yep, we’re going to call her Naomi. Her real name is Ah-meen-ah, though,” Sophie slowly spells out with her words, just like her mother and father had done for her younger sister Emma several times when the child found it difficult to pronounce the beginning “ah” sound.
“Well that’s a very pretty name.”
“I know,” Sophie answers, her eyes big and her curls bouncing with several nods up and down.
Stephanie taps on her daughter’s shoulder, “Sophie, what do you say?”
She quickly covers her mouth with her little hand, both in embarrassment and amusement, and giggling to herself peeks back around the seat again to the gentleman, “Thank you.”


“Mommy, tell me about Nomi again,” Sophie cuddles into the crook of her mother’s arm, exhaling from exhaustion, her eyes rimmed in red and her eyelashes falling in a sporadic rhythm over her blue seas. Weary of the extended flight, Sophie feels around for Emma’s sippy cup and sucks the last of it dry.
“Sweetheart, we’ve already told you all we know about Naomi,” Stephanie answers. She truly felt like tears could break forth any moment from the stress of everything. It is all she can do to put forth the effort to seem like the Mommy she knows her girls need her to be right now.
“But I wanna know more…” Sophie pouts, her rosy pink bottom lip poking out, her small, light blonde eyebrows furrowed into a small V. Thinking to herself for a second, she then cocks her head in question, peering up into her father’s face, “What are her Mommy and Daddy’s names?”
“Honey, we don’t know anything other than what we’ve told you already. Naomi is a very shy, beautiful little Ethiopian baby. And she’s a Jackson just like you,” Nicholas kindly tells his daughter.
She points proudly to her chest with her pointer finger and says, “Nomi’s just like Sophie.”
“Yes, just like you,” Nicholas answers and smiles.

Here's a new picture of Josiah :)) <3

my one and only amazing niece :))

Jillian Michaela, my one and only amazing niece! I love you more than words can say. You are an amazing four year old little girl that who has shown me how great a niece can be :)) I love being an aunt to you and I pray that you grow up to be a woman who adores GOD with everything within you. I know that he has given you two younger brothers to watch after and lead, and I pray that GOD gives you the patience and wisdom to lead these two young boys, Judah & Josiah. I thank GOD for you, Jillian. You have my heart <3 Love you sweetie!!

:)) <3

I had the most awesome experience this morning :)) I was complaining to my mom on the phone on the way to work about having to go so early everyday (leave the house @ 7:20... lol... just one of those "wish i had a life thing" lol) & the next thing I know, the car in front of me at the stoplight is sporting a "I LOVE ETHIOPIA" bumpersticker! And the thing is, the devil tries to plant seeds of doubt in your mind every now and then [about adopting and so forth] but that experience this morning was SO a GOD thing! My GOD is awesome! He speaks to you when you least expect it and gives you encouragement :))

Yay! :)) I'm getting a new computer thursday! Finally I won't have to ask my sister to use her's anymore :) GOD is SO good! I thought I would have to wait at least two more weeks, and it's funny how giving tithes gives you more money than you thought you had!!! :)) GOD is awesome! You are my everything! And I will adore You! It's the little things like this that speak volumes to me about my GOD...

Lately this week I have had ethiopia/africa and my future kids on my heart and in my daydreams :)) It's a wonderful feeling when GOD places something on your heart and won't let it go :))

nephew # 4

My newest nephew, Josiah Gabriel, is so amazingly adorable! He was born about 9 weeks ago, but I must wait until August to see & hold him for the first time in person. I just want to thank You, GOD for creating this wonderful little boy, and I pray that he comes to know You at a very early age. I pray that he loves You more than anything and serves You all the days of his life. I know that He is a blessing from You, as all children are :)) I pray that He grows up to be a man after Your own heart & longs to serve You with everything he has.

Josiah, I love you so much!

Wow... the song that I talked about two posts ago has been on the radio almost everytime I've turned the radio on! how amazing :))

thunderstorms :))

I love thunderstorms, just not when I'm alone. It's been storming outside for the past 2 1/2 hours, and in the second hour I believe that's when I realized that it was okay, you know? GOD is in control. There's a lyric from a song that the choir at my church sings, "no matter the storms that come my way... I will trust in You", and that is SO true! People can choose not to trust, but I have chosen to trust and it has given me an overwhelming peace in my life and tonight it gave me peace that GOD is watching out for me. It just feels so good to know that joshua 1:9 is from my GOD!

p.s. i'm having trouble w/ the getting the additional part of the story up here right now, but it should be up here soon :))

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord GOD Almighty! Who was, and is, and is to come! With all creation I sing, praise to the King of kings! You are my everything! And I will adore You! This song has been on my heart throughout the day, and I youtubed it tonight after work and watched/listened to the powerfully anointed kari jobe version :)) GOD is great!! Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FObjd5wrgZ8

Hmmm... what a week! My computer has a virus and I can't use it anymore! :( So, I'm on my sister's :)) I also started a new job this week, which is wonderful :) Praise GOD! [I was worried this new job wouldn't be that great] I think we have finally gotten rid of the fleas in the apartment [the fleas from our half-grown kittens/cats :) & we gave nastia and lexi [the kittens/cats] flea baths last night without getting all scratched up from head to toe. Yet, my sister and I didn't manage to get away untouched, my little darling, Nastia Joy, scratched my sisters eyebrow in the process of wetting her down for the flea treatment. But, GOD is good! With my computer down, I'm having some issues posting the rest of my story, but I will hopefully finish posting it this weekend, along w/ some pictures of the process of bathing two kittens/cats. GOD is great!