Your LOVE never fails

Matt brought home a cd 3 weeks ago by a group called Jesus Culture. I had never heard of them, but now this cd is my favorite! The first song on the album is entitled "Your love never fails." I played this particular song over and over again and still couldn't get enough of it! Now 3 weeks later, I realize why. I am not only hearing that the love of Jesus never fails, or reading it in scripture, but I am seeing it in the life of a girl named Jenny.
Before I tell you about Jenny, I need to apologize that I haven't told you all this sooner. But when I think about the past two weeks, I cannot think of any time that I had to sit down and do this!
Jenny is an 18 year old girl who has been living with us the last two weeks. She is in our youth group and has had an extremely troubled life with little stability and much chaos. She has experienced the depths of the pit of hell. Amazingly, she has continued coming to our church through everything (totally on her own will). YOUR LOVE NEVER FAILS. She got into some trouble several months ago and was kicked out of her house. After living with others (in worse shape than her) for a while, she showed up at church 2 weeks ago with nothing but the clothes on her back. Matt and I were not asked or expected to take Jenny in, but we both knew that the Lord was calling us to. YOUR LOVE NEVER FAILS. I have had attacks of fear a few times since she has been here, afraid of her being here with all of her "stuff" in front of my kids and all. Even though I feared, God's protection over us never changed. He has lavishly covered our household with grace, given us all that we have needed for each moment. YOUR LOVE NEVER FAILS. It took only a couple of days for us to see that this was nothing more than an opportunity to express our love to Jesus by loving Jenny. I asked Him to show me how to love Jenny and he told me to show affection with physical touch by scratching her back, rubbing her hair, and giving hugs. A couple of days ago, she wrote a letter to me explaining that those very simple things "seem like everything to me because I've never been shown so much love." YOUR LOVE NEVER FAILS. Jenny has responded to this Love both by keeping up walls and clinging to old things and by being vulnerable and letting go of old things and habits. She is battling enemies on every side, but is trusting Jesus more. She is trusting His love more. YOUR LOVE NEVER FAILS. We are asking God to fulfill His promises in her, that His perfect love would drive out all fear, and that it would conquer ALL. What we have seen His love do in two weeks is proof that the love of Jesus is far-reaching; it reaches high, long, wide and deep and it has no boundaries. YOUR LOVE NEVER FAILS. I am certain that Jenny was brought into our home so that I would fall in love with Jesus all over again because I am seeing His Love and the power that it has and want to experience Him afresh and anew.

Jenny will be leaving us on February 22nd to go to Mercy Ministries in St. Louis. It has taken about a year for her to get accepted to this program. You can find out more about the program at www.mercyministries.com. Pray for Jenny continually, especially over the next 6 months to a year while she is at Mercy. I will try to keep you updated this week before she leaves us.

Matt and the girls at the beach

Daddy had a date with his girls at the beach. They loaded the wagon and strolled to the beach and spent a couple of hours building a sand castle. The girls love having an enormous, never-ending sand box just a block away!

People ask all the time if I enjoy living at the beach. I have decided that what I personally enjoy most about the beach is the sunsets. Everyday they are breathtaking and I have a great view from my kitchen window. Matt goes on and on about how beautiful the sunrises are that he sees when he runs on the beach in the morning, but I am not seeing those these days!

Granny getting a smile from Samuel.

Ava and cousin Elijah

Cousin Celia and Ava

our cousin Lucy

Em's Birthday party in Senatobia Samuel's First Christmas Ava dressed as "Fancy Nancy" Thank you Marc-Marc & Ashley for the ladybug rain boots!

I know many of you were wandering if I would ever recover...ever come back to the blogging world after missing nearly two months!! Well, I admit I didn't try until last week and after having some technical difficulties, I gave up. After looking at Tamah's blog last night, I was inspired to try again (it also helps that my mom reminds me every time we talk)!

These are photos from Emmaline's 2nd Birthday party and Christmas. We had a lovely visit with our family during Christmas. Our short visit made us miss them all even more. We spent Christmas Eve hopping from one house to the next and loved every minute of it! The girls enjoyed being with their cousins and are still talking about them.

To our family reading this, we offer our deepest gratitude for all that you did and gave to show your love for us. We love you. Thank you for giving Emmaline a second birthday party at the Fun Junction. She had fun and so did we!

You asked and it's finally here--a photo of our home in the Pass!

Fun times

Our children bring such fun times to our lives!

These are photos of Ava and Emmaline having fun with Tanya Crevier, an expert ball handler and sports evangelist. Our church brought Tanya in to minister to our schools and community and her enthusiasm and passion for Jesus was contagious and her skills were like none I've ever seen.

70's party, Ava at Ballet & Samuel is awake!

We attended the 2nd Annual youth group 70's party and had a blast! Matt showed all the youth that he knew how to have fun too as he literally tore up the dance floor in his 70's athletic gear (i think his pants were size youth small)! And yes, those are elbow pads, and sweat bands...and a fro!!

This photo of Ava is in the locker room at the ballet studio where she is taking lessons once a week. Her teacher is a woman from our church and she is incredible! When you walk into the studio, there is a gorgeous painting of a ballerina and at the bottom of the painting this scripture, "Let us praise His name with dancing" from Psalms. And that is what they do. The entire lesson, she has them dancing to praise and worship music. Ava absolutely loves it. Matt picked her up for the first time yesterday and got to watch her dance for a little bit, and as a proud dad said "she was made for this."

Samuel is awake more! We get to see his big, blue eyes and great big smile. And, what a joy it is! Anytime he is awake or making a smile or funny face, everyone in the family runs to see.

Emmaline's pigtails and sweet Samuel

Emmaline finally has enough hair for pigtails and they are super cute! You can't see them very well in this photo, but I thought this was a precious smile that would make your day! Emmaline has us laughing constantly. She has blossomed so much in the last few months so we are learning more about her and enjoying her so very much. Samuel is growing so good and sleeping well. He has learned to sleep in the middle of the living room all day, with chaos all around! Toward the end of the day, he hangs out in my sling while I cook dinner. He loves being in the sling and I had him in it so much yesterday that I am actually sore today. Our week mostly consists of staying home during the day with occasional walks and tons of playing outside. We go to the discovery center (children's museum) once a week and usually have people in and out of the house at night time for meals or just hanging out. Last week I finally started working with Ava on reading. She keeps asking me to teach her, so I started with a teaching tool that was recommended by Janet and my good friend Raeline.

The Lord is on the move here! We are experiencing Him at work all around us...in our church, in the youth, in our new friends and their families and in our family! Matt will be preaching this Sunday in church, so please pray for him. He asks for our prayers in knowing how to present what God has told him to share. The Lord has laid it heavily on his heart to challenge the church to get themselves and their families ready....ready to stand before the Lord, ready for the coming of Jesus. Thank you for praying.

Hopefully there won't be a time lapse of two weeks between my blogs like this one and my last one! I thought some of you might be interested in some recent photos of Samuel, so I wanted to give you some. Maybe in my next blog I can post some photos of our house as some of you have requested.

We just recently took a trip to Atlanta for a leadership conference along with the pastors and wives and some leaders from our church. We took Samuel with us while the girls stayed with DeeDee, Big Daddy, Papa and Grammy. We were homesick for the girls as I think they were for us and home and some normalcy in their lives. So, now we are trying to establish some sort of routine in our lives and we are now in full swing with the church, youth ministry and college/young adult ministry. Matt loves his job, we are crazy about our church family, and we already have some close friends. This doesn't mean that we don't miss all of you back home. We miss you and think of you all of the time. And, we want you to come visit!