Ethiopia Bound!

Hey Folks! Today is a very exciting day! Today has been quite a few years in the making (around 4 to be exact). At 10:30 this morning, my SIL and BIL both left good old Idaho to head around the globe to Ethiopia. 32 hrs of travel time, anticipation, excitement...Let's just say, there's a lot of emotion involved with this day, and the proceeding week ahead. About 4 years ago, Korri and I both found out we were pregnant about a week apart. Talk about timing!! Unbenounst to both of us, we were on the journey of pregnancy, until a miscarriage claimed Korri & Scott's little one. This is where I get to sing the Lord's praises today, because these past 4 years have been filled with A LOT of heartache, joys, sorrows, and hopes that never seemed to pan out quite like we all wanted them to for Korri and Scott.

Until now.

As this amazing couple travels on an epic journey to worlds unknown to go and meet for the first time their 2 children, and then take them home - wow - God is so GOOD! Brother "Sid" and sister "Sophia" will be home, to their new home of Idaho in about a week. So here's the crazy, cool, totally God part. The oldest, "Sid", is a week younger than our Big boy. God knew all along, didn't He? He knew that when Korri and Scott miscarried that he was planting a miracle seed of a baby in another women's womb that would one day make his way into their hearts and home. Praise God for His faithfulness!! I am so emotional writing this to you all right now, because I am truly feeling like my faith has not been as big as it should have been through this whole journey with this precious couple. Hindsight - sigh - need I say more? Anyways, as you have spare thought time this week, if you could maybe talk a little bit to your creator about this couple as they head into parenthood with as best of a roadmap as they could find, but truly needing God's guidance and grace as they welcome these 2 kids home? HHHHMMMMmmm.... What a day today truly is.

A call for prayer

So, I just received a call - a call that breaks your heart, because you know the family involved is hurting beyond anything you can comprehend, and all that you know how to do is pray. I mentioned this family in a previous post, and you can read about them here. This family has shown so much grace in their dire situation, that I stand amazed at their reflection and radiance of what I would consider one of the worst family situations. Carmen was diagnosed almost 2 years ago with pancreatic cancer, and since has been in the fight of her life for complete healing. She's the kind of woman you wish to be someday, because her personality is magnetic, her laughter infectious, and her heart holy. She lost her father to the same cancer only years before.

"For dust you are and to dust you will return..." -Gen 3:19. None of us are guaranteed a long life here on this earth, and we are all just formed out of dust - but I can't help but stand here asking "why?" Why must this 40 yr old wife, mother of 3 small kids be struggling for life this day, bound to a hospital bed - now fighting pneumonia? I ask, boldly, that if you feel an inkling of compassion for this family, to lift them up in prayer this day. We, as the body of Christ, have a strong and powerful weapon within our grasp - and God never tires of our asking. So, I am asking what some might think is too impossible given Carmen's situation, I am asking God to heal her of this cancer, pneumonia, and restore to her health, joy, and rest.

Birthday Weekend

Well, the weekend is over and I'm ready to RELAX!! Do you ever feel like family festivities just leave you feeling worn out after words? I love it, don't get me wrong, but I am one to stress at every little detail - making sure everything is as I would want it. This only happens when I am hosting such an event at our house. So, this last weekend was chock full of celebration over our youngest little guy and his 2nd birthday! And, if you know the Kinney-way of celebrating a birthday, you would know that we spent the majority of his actual birth-day eating good food :)

So we left the house to go to the family favorite breakfast spot "The Original Pancake House" and on our way out of the subdivision we spotted a hot air balloon. This is the lowest I've ever seen one, and it cruised right over our subdivision! We knew it was surely a Happy Birthday Balloon for our little Peanut! After our marvelous breakfast, we decided we should venture over to the fair grounds for the annual summer fair that was taking place. The boys had never been, so we thought "why not?" The boys (all 3 of them) loved seeing the animals, both small and large. It has been a few years since I have been back to the fair, so I had forgotten all of the sights, sounds, and smells that come with it. Back in the day, when the fair was my very own stomping grounds, I was more interested in getting tickets and standing in line sweating out the heat for my favorite ride. But you never forget the only street running down the middle of the grounds, designated just for "fair food". I think it has quadrupled since I've been back, because we literally walked up and down that long street 5 times trying to decide on something to eat, and ended up with the good old stand-by of a Pronto-Pup and Strawberry Lemonade.....mmmmm!

The next day was the family Birthday Party for our little guy-and we had a blast! I love having everyone together in one giant chaotic gathering, full of good conversation and food. My birthday caked attempt this year was a "Cookie Monster" cake, because our little peanut is just that - and because I saw one at Albertson's that looked really cute and seemed semi-easy to do. Well, 50 lbs of frosting later, I was wondering "what was I thinking?" as I ended up with a more Bob Marley looking Cookie Monster cake....Oh well! Anyways, all in all it was a fun weekend, and hope you enjoy all the pics!
Our little Peanut
The Happy Birthday balloon over one of the houses in our subdivision
Over one of our ponds
Eating cake, mmmmmm.
Stuffing cake in his little mouth, atta' boy!
My lovely photo-op with the "Cookie Monster/Bob Marley" cake....
The boys on the big tractors at the fair
Having fun playin!
Big Boy's first car
Just like the pig on Charlotte's web!
Goats!
Horses!
Crazy Horns!

2nd Annual Roaring Springs Party

Yesterday marked year #2 of us venturing over to the world's largest and most crazy waterpark ever! (well, maybe not world's largest!)

We have made this sort of a tradition with the Tindall's since Little Peanut and Anna have the same birthday.

We seem to have more and more fun every year with the boy's getting older and more capable of swimming/playing independently - but we're still having to have a cautious eye on the two rascals :) So - enjoy the pics!

Birthday kids!
A glimpse of the craziness during dinner
Little Peanut and Wende
The Boys going down the slide
Mr. Peanut
Big Boy
Mmmmm Gatorade!
Josh and I comparing shades - I think mine are way cooler!

Extreme Makeover - Peru Edition

Wow, what a crazy/fun/HOT week last week was! I'm trying to get over "the crud" so excuse my coughing! Anyways, husband and I had the opportunity to work on a fun project this last week for the organization "Extreme Nazarene". This is the same organization that we went to Argentina with this last year. So, they recruited husband and I, Travis and Wende, Debbie, and even my Sister-in-Law Korri to come out and work on outfitting a HUGE semi trailer for their marketing this next year for their new project in Peru.

So, the best way to describe what we did was basically to have you watch any episode of "Extreme Makeover" and there you have it-that is what we did in a nutshell, only it was inside of a semi trailer. Basically, some guy donated the use of his big-rig for the next year for Extreme to use as their way to market their next big event in Peru. So they will travel across country stopping at churches along the way, and when they pull up to your church, they'll open up the back of the trailer and from their you enter into another world; Peru. The guy donating the use of his truck is paying for gas and everything! (which is about $1 a mile!) So our job was to outfit the trailer to give onlookers the experience of feeling like they were standing in different parts of peru. So husband and Travis were in charge of framing and some electrical stuff, and the ladies were in charge of the rest. Brian Tibbs, who is in charge of Extreme, took 4 massively cool pictures of 4 different sides of Peru which he then had turned into murals that were basically 3 panels of wallpaper that we glued to the walls-and wall-la you feel like you're standing in Peru. It was pretty amazing to see how God pulled the whole thing together! We had 1 week to finish the truck, which meant paint, glue, decorate, all of these had to come together in about 5 days. And, it is about 90 degrees on average every day here, now, and did I happen to mention that the semi is painted black? I soon began to refer to the truck as the "black beast" because it was at least 10 degrees hotter inside than it was outside. So anyways, the truck leaves tomorrow for it's maiden voyage to Seattle where it's journey begins to spread the good news.

So, if you happen to see the "black beast" entering into your town, I encourage you to stop by and take a tour-it is pretty cool the work that they are going to be doing over in Peru. And who knows, maybe you'll want to get involved somehow?


The "Black Beast"
Korri working hard the first day, which consisted of us mainly painting for 6 hours! Yikes!!
Debbie posing next to her "floating village" mural. Apparently up to 5,000 people can live on these floating villages made up of reeds tied tightly together!
Debbie and her finished "hut"-which is going to hide the AC unit nicely!
The poverty side of Peru (this was part of my room)
This is me laying pavers in the "rich side" of Peru (also in my room)...Don't look too close, I'm pretty sure I have sweat stains on my shirt!
Husband putting up a fake corrugated metal roof in my room
an old motor bike we found on craigslist for the "brothel" room
Our little Peanut :) I had to throw this picture in!

Fruit Basket Upset

Ok people, I totally hated that game in my earlier days of being a teen and attending youth group festivities. So today, as I'm trying to unwind my thoughts from the tightly wound ball that they are, I suddenly put it all together; fruit basket upset. Think about it... Most people like fruit, and then most people like looking at fruit if it's displayed nicely in a cute little basket. Wait for it. Keep waiting for it...... Ok, now, someone who obviously doesn't like fruit at all just decided to take that cute little basket and throw it all over the place - making homemade strawberry jam on the kitchen floor. So, you may be seriously scratching your head on this one, and I totally understand! My point, (yes, I have a point) is that my life this week is totally upside down, and I'm realizing that more than my kids, I can really use some routine! Isn't that funny? Because mom is the maker of the routine, so if she's off of it, everyone's off of it. Things are getting better even as I type - Husband has made a HUGE pot of coffee, boys are in bed, we have yet another Redbox movie to watch, and I'm working up the endurance to try to get some wedding favors finished just in time for our friend's wedding this weekend. Oh, and we have been working on another Extreme Nazarene project this week (which is one of the upsets in my schedule) so more to come on the progress and what it is that we are working on exactly. So - if you're reading this, and you're feeling a little sympathy pain for me I have just one note of advice to give... Stay away from the fruit basket, because you might get hit by a flying banana :)

I do on the other hand LOVE coffee, so - just in case you ever wanted to know how I like my cup o' joe - white baby! Oh yeah, heavy on the cream and the sweet stuff :)