Changed

We sang this song at church today and it really reminded me how I need to bring change, be a blessing, to bring love and to share the invitation of God's LOVE and GRACE.  My hope is that Christ can be seen through me. That I appear different to others. If I have failed to do this, I have failed ultimately.  In the big picture of eternity nothing in this life matters except to know God and make him known.  A lot of days I need that reality check as I let the worries and stresses of this world overtake me.  How can I focus less on myself and more on showing thankfulness for God's amazing gift of love and sacrifice.....

 

In Jesus’ name I’ve been changed, I’ve been filled,

I’ve been found, I’ve been freed, I’ve been saved!

In Jesus’ blood I’ve been loved, I’ve been cleansed,

And redeemed, and released, rearranged

But how can I show You that I’m grateful?

You’ve been so generous to me.

How can I worship more than singing?

And live out Redemption’s melody.

I have been blessed – now I want to be a blessing

I have been loved – now I want to bring love

I’ve been invited – I want to share the invitation

I have been changed – to bring change, to bring change

In Jesus’ name we are changed, we are called,

We are chosen, adopted, and named!

In Jesus’ blood we are loved, we are healed,

We’re forgiven and free of our shame!

We want to show You that we’re thankful

Flooding Your world with hope and peace

Help us  to worship more than singing

Giving Redemption hands and feet

We have been blessed – now we’re going to be a blessing

We have been loved – now we’re going to bring love

We’ve been invited – we’re going to share the invitation

We have been changed – to bring change, to bring change

We have been changed – to bring change, to bring change

Thank You for this new life, thank You for the invitation!

God, we want to live it loud enough to shake the nations ” in Your name!

We have been saved – we’re going to shout about the Savior

We have been found – we’re going to turn over every stone

We’ve been empowered – to love the world to Heaven

We have been changed – to bring change, to bring change

We have been changed – to bring change, to bring change

We have been changed – to bring change, to bring change

OOhhhh Shadows!!

 For those of you who know our dog, Kona, and how obsessed she is with shadows, I think we have two children now that like shadows! Lincoln saw his shadow and just couldn't "grab it!" It kept moving! Imagine that! 

(And he's starting to get his knees under him a little while he's scooching!)

Drawn From Water

I found out about this orphanage named "Drawn From Water" on my friend's blog.  They are an organization that rescues "mingi" children.  Mingi-meaning cursed.  There are tribes in Africa that believe that these mingi children on their land curses the tribe so their solution is to drown the children.  There are different ways they define "cursed." This post from their blog on Feb. 20 gives an explanation of how these poor children are labeled as mingi. 

"There are three types of ways that a child can be deemed mingi.  The first and most common is the top teeth coming in before the bottom, that can be the first set of teeth or the adult teeth. The second is called girl mingi, and is when a child is born to a mother and father who are not married. The third is called woman mingi, and happens when a child is born to a mother and father who are married but did not announce to the tribes that they were planning to get pregnant before they became pregnant.  Any of these three happening will make a child mingi and thus by tribal law must be killed."

Click here to read more about their story and how it got started.  
They have a facebook page you can join to help spread word.

The Wheels on the......

....bus trolley go round and round!  That's right Lincoln went on his first trolley ride last night.  We went with Rick and Kendra to a cute coffee shop in Oldtown to listen to some music but it was REALLY crowded with people who had the same idea.  So we decided to get a group to go ride the trolley with us.  It's fun and it's FREE!

I figured it would be fine to tote Lincoln around all evening because he falls asleep so well in his car seat.  But another thing he does well is he loves to see what's going on around him.  So with all the people around him and all the excitement on the trolley, he couldn't close his eyes!  He was wide awake and surprisingly very happy!

                                            Here we are on the trolley                                                    

Bilibo Play Shell Giveaway!

My friend K is doing a giveaway on her blog. It's for a great kids toy called a Bilibo. Here's the link to the giveaway, go there and enter yourself. This is a great toy that lets kids imaginations go wild! They can use it for whatever their hearts desire.

He'll Be Crawling Before We Know It!

Be Mine

For Valentine's Day a couple girls in my small group and I all thought it would be great to do something together for V-Day so we mentioned it to our husbands and they planned a dinner for us. The guys put it all together and made all the food. It was so sweet and fun! Tyler was in charge of making Jello and dessert. The dessert he chose was Angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries...yum! The Jello was the hard part :) Bless his heart he was trying so hard but he didn't know that you are supposed to pour the boiling water into another bowl with the jello mix instead of the other way around (the jello into the boiling water on the stove). He let it continue to boil on the stove and it boiled over and RED jello went EVERYWHERE! Onto our WHITE counters, WHITE floors, WHITE drawer at the bottom of the stove. We're still finding it in little spaces. Tyler felt so bad and kept apologizing for messing up my kitchen. Needless to say the Jello didn't get done in time so we stopped by Dillons and bought jello cups :)

The guys served salad, garlic bread, chicken alfredo, pasta with tomato sauce, jello, angel food cake and great wine.....it was all YUMMO!
Then we played the game "Wits and Wagers" the new game that we play just about every time we get together with any of these couples.

We are all blessed with amazing husbands!

This picture makes me laugh, look at Justin in the bottom right corner. He claims he was playing with the dog HAHAHA

Great Friends

I tried to get everyone in while we were at the table, almost got everyone

Lincoln got to spend the evening with the G Family. We are so blessed to know them and are so grateful for how they love on our little guy.

Prayer Needed This Weekend!

Our friends, are in the process (and have been in the process for a long time now) of adopting from Kyrgyzstan. This is what K wrote on their adoption blog,

"This has me in tears today. Please take 4 minutes to watch this video and PRAY PRAY PRAY for the state of Kyrgyz adoptions, which have been delayed almost TWO YEARS now. This week, and February 15, are crucial. Pray especially for "the 65". They have been waiting almost that long also, and MANY are considered "critical special needs". Many of those parents have held their children, even, on their first trip, and then their second trip where they'd be able to bring them home shortly after never happened... It's TIME! I can't beg you enough to be on your knees for the situation and the efforts and meetings happening RIGHT NOW!"

How Many Times Do We Choose Comfort Instead of the Cross?

Katie and her 14 daughters

Go read this blog post. Very challenging. Very true. My God gave everything for me. How much am I willing to give for His sake? How many times to we grieve our sweet Savior’s heart because we refuse to COUNT THE COST?

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2010/02/she-was-eighteen-years-old-and-she-had.html

6 Month Pictures

Our little family

Kisses :)

Lincoln loves his Daddy!

Everything goes in the mouth

I am so blessed

Trying to give mommy kisses

I love this little guy SO much

Super sweet

My happy little man

Lincoln typical look

Pictures taken by Angela Kleinsasser

So Very Grateful!

I've never been so happy to turn another year older! Not that this was a horrible year and I just want to put it behind me, that's not it at all! This year was filled with so many wonderful things and I am just so grateful to have experienced it all and all of God's wonderful Grace, Perfect Timing and Power. I think I've always taken "life" for granted. This year I realized just how quickly it can be taken from you. All of our days are numbered and not one of us will die one day before we are supposed to, "All the days ordained for me were written in you book before one of them came to be." Psalms 139: 16 That doesn't worry me because of the future I have with Christ. Because I have asked Him to be my personal Lord and Savior and to come into my life, I will get to spend eternity with HIM in HEAVEN! If anyone reading this has questions about this feel free to leave a comment or email me marie.rempel@gmail.com and I'd love to share this amazing gift with you!

I've never been so sick as I was this year but God had a plan in it all. I'm so grateful to celebrate another year of my life and all the blessings God has given me just in this last year!

My day started off with waking up to a bouquet of beautiful flowers from my amazing Husband and a two cards. One from him and one from my "kids" (Lincoln and Kona, hehe). I was able to have breakfast at Panera with a close friend, and then celebrated with friends eating pizza and of course ICE CREAM CAKE! :) It was such a special day and I'm so very lucky to have such great and close friends, a son who gives me smiles like it's my birthday everyday and a husband who I love more and more each day.

Never Too Early

....to start looking for a good deal on the next carseat Lincoln will use! I know it'll still be awhile until Lincoln moves up to the next type of carseat but they can be pretty pricey and I wanted to start looking now so I can get as good of a deal as I can! So I found this blog through a friend and it tells all about "Good Buys" for Babies! It's an awesome blog and wish I would've found it sooner!

Anyways they are having a drawing to give away a Britax Carseat like this one and I would LOVE to win it! From everything that I've heard and read Britax is the BEST in carseat safety ratings etc.

So if you are a mom and have a little one that you would like to save some money on, check out this blog http://www.babygoodbuys.com/.