World Vision

This is Fredrick our World Vision Child! He lives in Uganda with his Uncle, and has no other family. Our kids have taken to doing chores to provide the $35 a month it costs to support him. Let me tell you, it is well worth it:) It so nice to see them thinking of someone besides themselves! We have written to him, and are eagerly awaiting his response.

If you have thought about sponsoring a child, I ask that you pray about it. These children have so little, and we all have so much. It's humbling to think of others in poverty, especially when our own kids throw part of their dinner away, just because they didn't like it! Our kids actually choose to not eat the rest of the night, just not to eat something that "doesn't fit their taste". There are so many who would be delighted to eat what we find disgusting or distasteful. In Haiti, they make mud pies (really mud pies, that bake on their roofs) just to satisfy their hunger pains!

Just think, if every family would skip 2 dinners out a month at a fast food restaurant, that would pay for a child to live with food, and medical, and shelter for an entire month! Or, maybe skip the Starbucks twice a week. It's a win for everyone:) You lose weight, from not drinking all the calories, and the child you support gains those calories in healthy food he/she will receive!

Fredrick's sponsorship is $35, now that is because he is a HOPE child. As a HopeChild sponsor, you are connected with one special child who will know your name, write to you and feel your tender love and prayers. Your child sponsorship monthly pledge of $35 of a HopeChild in African countries and other countries around the world can help turn the tide of the HIV and AIDS pandemic! You can provide things such as:

• Clean Water
• Nutritious Food
• Health Care, including AIDS Prevention
• Care for Sick or Dying Parents
• Educational Opportunities
• Spiritual Nurture
• HIV and AIDS counseling

There are other ways to help: sponsor a family, a child, or just to donate an animal for a village.

Visit here: World Vision

Pray about it, and think of others in this season of LOVE, Valentine's Day :)

Demographic Winter

I stumbled across this, and was curious, so I checked it out! I'm really glad I did, now knowing what it is. I was surprised to read of this "catastrophe" as they call it. It is a DVD about the declining fall of the world's population. For an average family the birthrate is 1.1 - 2.1 children. With Europe being #1 on the decline of children. 9 out of the 10 are in Europe. The Russian government is paying their citizens to have children. $9,200 per kid after the first child! Can you imagine a country that has to "PAY" them to have a family! It is so absurd...what happened to children being a blessing from the Lord?

Warning, not for young readers.*(from prairie muffin blog)

… “The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an “epidemic” far worse, but given less attention, than obesity. Young Austrians, he said, were committing national suicide if they failed to procreate. And if it were not possible to reverse the population decline they would have to understand the necessity of an “intelligent immigration policy.” Eighty five year old Carl Djerassi the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill now says that his co-creation has led to a “demographic catastrophe.”

The assault began with a personal commentary in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard by Carl Djerassi. The Austrian chemist was one of three whose formulation of the synthetic progestogen Norethisterone marked a key step toward the earliest oral contraceptive pill.

Djerassi outlined the “horror scenario” that occurred because of the population imbalance, for which his invention was partly to blame. He said that in most of Europe there was now “no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction.” He said: “This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete.”

He described families who had decided against reproduction as “wanting to enjoy their schnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it.”

The head of Austria’s Catholics, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, told an interviewer that the Vatican had forecast 40 years ago that the pill would lead to a dramatic fall in the birth rate in the west.

“Somebody above suspicion like Carl Djerassi … is saying that each family has to produce three children to maintain population levels, but we’re far away from that,” he said.”…

Read the article in its entirety here .

If you haven’t watched the documentary Demographic Winter, you NEED to watch it. Here is the link: http://www.demographicwinter.com/index.html

It makes me thankful that we have chosen to obey the Lord, and procreate:) We want our family to thrive and survive this Demographic Winter! We pray you all will be touched by this video, and take it upon yourselves to pray about this for your own family.

Blessings to you all:) Check it out!

A New Baby

For those of you who don't know...We are expecting baby #5 in August!

The Lord has blessed us with another child, and we are very excited for the time to come to actually meet this little one. I had my first doctors appointment on Tuesday, and they confirmed that tomorrow, I will be 9 weeks along. They did an ultrasound, and the kids and I saw a little ball! I had never had one before 9 weeks before, and there really isn't that much to see. We didn't see a heartbeat which was disappointing, but my midwife assured us that only once in awhile do you see a heartbeat this early. So, we will return in a month and pray we have a heartbeat! It's so nice to have a midwife that loves to make the kids apart of the appointment! She told us to schedule my appointments around lunch time, so she has more time to do ultrasounds. That way the kids can see the baby growing through all the stages:)

We ask that you pray for this baby to be healthy, and for me to be able to handle being so tired:) I do have to say, that those of you who have been sick throughout your pregnancies, I applaud you! I felt a little queasy for about a week, and I felt like I couldn't do anything:) I don't know how you do it more than once? I think if I would have been sick with Alexis, there might have been only one more after her, just because you think it might not be so bad with this next one! Thankfully the Lord knows me, and gave me a tough stomach!

Hope all is well with your families:)

Lia Sophia Party

Lia Sophia Jewelry party You're invited... Thursday, January 15th @ 6:30pm
38405 NE 216th Ave., Amboy, WA 98601

Bob & Heather's house, come see our new place, have some treats, and look at some great jewelry my friend Socorro is bringing!

*Customer special for January- *Buy 1 at regular price, get 2 at half price! (No limit!)

Great time to buy for Yourself, Birthdays, Mothers... (you can bring your husband's to shop for Valentine's Day gifts too!) R.S.V.P. 247-6261 or email, messybunch@gmail.com *Hope to see you all there! Bring a friend or two!!
Hostess Gifts:
*Book in January get $100 item, just for having a party.
*20% of show in FREE jewelry credits.
*4 items at special Hostess Bonus Prices ($15 unless otherwise noted.)
*Choose any 2 items at half price.
-Can't come to the party, but want to have your own, or look at a catalog? Let me know☺ www.liasophia.com

Christmas Day

We started our morning with stockings, and gifts.

Addie and Daddy opening her gift from Gabriel.
The boys trying out their "Diggers". They love these things, and it was perfect to have so much snow!!!
Our knights. I'm just waiting for our first emergency room trip, due to a possibly sword hit!
Alexis opening her "Liberty" doll. She was so excited (I forgot to take a picture of her doll, whoops)


Thankfully Bob's dad let us borrow his truck to get to my parent's on Christmas day! There was so much snow, that we barely got up my parent's driveway. They had snow up to the bottom of their windows...I have never seen this much snow in all my life. It was great.


Kids searching for their stockings.



Grammie, Mom, and Addie.
Our Cowboys!
Ty checking out his "Bull Whip"
Gabriel taking his turn...watch out!
Dad and his Ipod, Aunt Amy cuddling Adddie's Glow worm!
Alexis read the Christmas story from a children's Bible. She did a wonderful job!

After we all took turns opening our gifts, we enjoyed a dinner of cornish game hens, baked potatoes, rolls, and salad. It was really good, but everything Mom makes is good!