The Greatest Man to Ever Live.....

Today we celebrate 91 years with my amazing papa. Unfortunately he spent his birthday getting a heart cath done. But the greatest gift of all was hearing the doctor say "There is absolutely nothing wrong with his heart. He has the heart of a 50 year old" Thats some amazing birthday news.
Pop is a WW2 Hero. He was shot 3 times and one of those was in the back of the head. Its a miracle he is alive. All my life I heard stories of the war that still haunted his sleep. He talked about dragging a hurt soldier through a valley with enemy fire shooting at him. How he never wanted to set foot on a ship again because he had to "ride that thing from Hawaii to Okinawa".

I love this man more than life itself. He and my nan practically raised my brother and I. We walked to their house everyday after school. And if it was raining I knew my pop would be waiting outside the school with an umbrella. We spent just about every spring break camping and fishing with them. Spending the days swimming and fishing and the evenings playing rummy and laughing. They made sure we had whatever needed or wanted. When Nan got sick my pop went to the nursing home every single day to feed her lunch. He adored her. Sure they had their ups and downs, who doesn't? But they loved each other deeply. They couldn't have children of their own so they took in 5 of their nieces and nephews and raised them as their own. One of them being my mom who they brought home from the hospital. When they loved you, they loved you deep.

I was somewhat of a surprise for my parents. Not exactly planned, but God had a plan. And part of that plan unveiled when I was around 3 months old. Easter Sunday and it was my baby dedication. On that day my papa made the decision to serve the Lord and he never turned back.  One of my favorite memories is when I was in the first grade. We had a tornado warning and all of us were lined in the hallway in the typical position with our head between our knees. I was 6 years old and scared to death and I heard a voice calling my name down the hall. When I looked up my papa was there to rescue me. He grabbed my hand and took me home. My protector. My hero.

Its hard to see him frail and sometimes confused. Its devastating to imagine the day that he passes from this earth to Heaven. But I can say that he gave me the best years of his life. He has loved me unconditionally and I have returned that love. Everyone needs someone like this in their life. Someone that you know will always be there for you no matter what. I'm a better person for having him in my life. I wish that I could just freeze time and that he wouldn't get another minute older and that his health would sustain him, but I know when that day comes he has a great reward awaiting him and I am convinced that my Nan is going to meet him at the gate and be ready to take him fishing!! What a reunion that will be.

Guess Who Has a New Last Name?

I am so excited to introduce you to Samuel Christian Ward and London Elizabeth-Joy Ward!!!

I know that they have been Ward's in our heart for 3 years now but its pretty exciting to know that they are "legally" Ward's now!! We have seen some great movement in our adoption these past few months and KNOW that GOD has done it. After 2.5 years of NO MOVE whatsoever, this has just been a miracle!

Its so exciting that we can start getting their room together and knowing that they will be in it!! The next trip we make to Haiti we will get to bring them back with us and its hard for me to even wrap my brain around that!! We've decided to design a T-shirt that, with your support, we will be able to sell and raise the money we need to get them on a plane! Our great friends from Generations Church, Travis and Mel Dummond, graciously donated shirts for us so we are making 100% profit on them! That is such a huge blessing to us! The shirt design that we came up with not only directly supports London and Sam but will help raise awareness for adoption. There are over 147 million orphans worldwide, over 1 million of them reside in Haiti alone and over 150,000 eligible for adoption in the United States. As Christians, we are all called to do something! (James 1:27)

The Price of the shirts is $20 and we can ship them to you for $2. You have all done so much for us during this process and we will make sure that London and Sam know that you all played such a huge part in getting them home! We would greatly appreciate if you could help us share about these shirts! Please help us get the word out on social media by directing people to our blog or sending us a message!! We have a big goal and know with God's help that we will meet it! You can order by clicking the link on the sidebar of the blog or just sending me an email or message on facebook!!
Cant wait for you all to see our Christmas card this year!!! :)

xoxo

Transitions and Updates!!

"There's No Place Like Home" is a pretty funny thing for me to say to anyone that knows me. You see, I am terrified of the movie The Wizard of Oz. Yes I know its a classic and yes I know I'm 38 years old and yes I know that flying monkeys are not real... Nonetheless, I don't watch the movie. At all. My kids find it hilarious actually. So imagine my reaction when God called us to move to Kansas. Really. Like yellow brick road Kansas. My only experience of Kansas was traveling to towns where there really wasn't anything. And while I love rural America and envision myself with a farm, pretty much any type of miniature livestock animal I can think of and those super cool chickens that look like fraggles, I really need to be close to "town". But what is so amazing about God's calling is that He places you where you need to be and you absolutely LOVE it. That's how I feel about Kansas. So the whole "there's no place like home" I totally get now!

In December, Kelly had the honor of becoming the lead pastor at Generations Church! Its amazing and we love it so much. Everyone has been so welcoming our our brood and after just a couple of months it truly feels like home. I have never adjusted so quickly to a new place. Those of you that know me, realize how much of a feet this is! :) Its such a good feeling to know that we are rooted and planted and this is our forever home. We have a great house and the kids are loving school! In January, we got the news from Haiti that we had been waiting over two years to hear. Our file had finally been released from IBESR and approved to move forward. We were able to travel there and visit London and Sam and file some very important papers that will help in getting them home soon. We just have a couple of more steps to go and will be able to go to Haiti and actually bring them back with us! We are so excited and London and Sam are excited too!! They have gotten so big and are so smart. We had a great time with them.

So there is a bit of an update on this crew. Thanks so much for your support and prayers in this very long journey. Even though its been one of the hardest things I have every gone through I am so thankful that God has allowed us to walk this road. We have seen His hand every step of the way and when London and Sam step off that plane in the great USA we can say "God did this" and He gets all the glory for that!!!