Oh so April...what will be this May....

The girls love to clean! Who would have known! they are my little helpers for sure!

Trip to Chicago to visit friends! Had a blast!!

Creativity of children..."karis can be the swing!"
Trampoline is making us the popular ones in the neighborhood!!!
Karis is now in the Princess club!!
Never-ending Princesses!!
Bubble Times

Happy Easter

Easter girls
We had students over from saudi arabia, africa and kazakstan to share the easter story over greek food. this is the 3rd year we have done this and every year it gets better!
Kids joined us everywhere...i believe there were 15 kids along with the 25 adults...crazy good easter lunch!!
the men and women ate separately which is comfortable for those cultures..

In the AM the kids woke up to find the tomb empty...then they had to whisper to each other that Jesus was alive and go on a hunt for Jesus...they found him and we read the story over scones and chocolate milk...it was a great morning, i have to say!!

Yesterday we held our first easter egg hunt in our backyard....it was so easy and fun for all!! Especially the maze that stew mowed in the grass...so fun!

March gives a new season!

gardening has been fun...we have been outside almost everyday and enjoying new projects around the house....we are enjoying it before the hot summer hits...it has been so relaxing and a relaxing enjoyment for stew and i both...

strawberries!
lettuce and spinach
lots of spring time flowers coming back from last year!

fun picnics with dear friends who have returned to austin!

we have been praying for 2 yrs for families to come into our neighborhood...and slowly, but surely we are meeting neighboring families and dear friends are moving on our very street! we are so thankful and hope to make fridays, family time with all!!

one of the greatest and newest things is a date night co-op we are doing with dear friends....we get a free date every monday night and every monday night our kids get to play in their pj's with their friends...and once a month we get to keep all of them....it is fun times...so thankful for these families and friends for our kiddos!

new seasons....new things....new ways of learning and growing....we continue to be thankful for what God continues to do in our midst!

This year so far...

Verge Conference!!
Visiting old friends in Atlanta! Ainsley, sally and karis! love you wendi!!
Visiting family in Atlanta! Sally and Gracie!
Tea parties and baby showers with sally!!
Celebrating birthdays with dear friends! Love you Kim!
Sarah and Savannah moved out...we miss them, but love seeing how God continues to lead them!
The Haitian Earthquake really has touched our hearts...especially sally...i found her with her babies...telling me that she is helping these babies from haiti b/c their home was broken...
Enjoying the garden still...the girls will only eat broccoli like this out of the garden and if they are outside...it works!
Still burning things...i.e. the christmas tree here...


New friends moved to Austin!! and we've had a blast with the Kovacs family!
New Year's with rich friends!

Praying for My Children

I would like to write about how I pray for my children and attempt to tell you how to do it yourself...but let me remind you as i have said before, anything I do well all started out as a failure. So this post is not about how well I pray for my children and an attempt to teach you how. It is an honest glimpse into what I have been learning, yet again, from failure in my life.

"Until you are convinced that you can't change your child's heart, you will not take prayer seriously." Paul E. Miller from "A praying life"

This statement hit me hard a few weeks ago. Perhaps that is why "parenting" hasn't seemed so fun the last few months for me. I have sought God over and over to help me be gracious, patient, kind, wise and discerning when it comes to my kiddos. But I have never asked Him for a sense of helplessness or desperation when it comes to my kids. I have never been a kid myself to my Father asking for help in parenting my children. I have never asked Him to change my kid. I have not prayed for my children in regards to their heart issues.

But God is making me into that helpless and desperate child who needs Jesus to work in the heart of my kids. I would always tell you that "only Jesus can change my kids and i was simply curbing evil until then"...but my actions over the last few years have not looked as such. I have trusted more in my instruction and discipline than in my LORD to change my children. Let me give an example:

WesleyGrant has begun to love StarWars and his toys to an obsessive level...so much that he is constantly fighting with his sisters over them. I continue to tell him that God tells us to love one another and not the things of this world. That Sally is truly more important than Luke Skywalker! =) But through my instruction i have honestly not seen any change...any humility to those instructions or the disciplines. Well, the last few weeks, paul miller has been pointing me to Jesus...the only one who can change my child's heart. It is no parenting book, but the Lord has been teaching me about coming to God like a child..trusting him with the things i can not change, i.e, my child's heart! So, I realized that I was not praying for WesleyGrant in this area. I trusted more in my instruction and abilities than in the work of Jesus! So I still instruct, but I am learning to pray for my children and take them to the Lord regarding the issues I see. I pray I John 2:15-16 over him. And because I am speaking to the Father about my son's heart, I can relax in the face of his sin rather than get discouraged from my work. God is working in Him and I can trust Him with my children. They are His children.

Parenting is not about my self-will, carving a home in my image. It is about God, carving me and my family in his Son's image. So I am praying for my children now...thankful for failures that God is redeeming.....

A New Year

A New Year...I am always full of emotions this time of year...right after Christmas Day ends, reflection begins for a week until the new year. This year's reflection was simply, "I could have never imagined this year". I remember last year anticipating the new year and I could have never imagined the year we had. I am amazed!

New friends, new dreams, many blessed interruptions.... anniversaries-mother's death, birthdays, marriage, home, holidays....many living in our home....many visiting our home....extremely joyful times and extremely sorrowful times....full sanity...full insanity....milestones for the kids....milestones in our hearts....the gospel clearer than before...orphans, widows, the forgotten weaving in our hearts......summer across america...drugs on our street....mugging in India...new neighbors....dear friends leaving...and all in all in the end, we come again to JESUS. He is the one who makes us, revives us and makes us work again....He is our breath with each new day.

I read that "growing up is just thousands of feelings in thousands of days"....so we've added another year to our first thousand days here in Austin....it has given us many feelings with many experiences...and truly we look back and can say we are growing....

So, we enter another new year....knowing we cant even imagine what He has in store for us! But we will trust and pray it all for Him! To you God, Our King...who numbers all our days...we shall live them to and by you!

Happy New Year!!

Love, The Stewarts

Catch up on December

The Kids got to give some gifts to our favorite neighbor...Mr. Powell....even Karis comes and gets us calling his name when he comes to the door.
Fun times with Sarah and Savannah who have lived with us since September!
Sally is always the life of fun in our home!!
Pa and Gammy came to visit with the coolest gifts!!
Smore's and more smore's! can't count how many outings in our backyard for these we have had and are still having!
The Superheros!
Hanging out with moms in the city of Austin! I belive 15 children just between us pictured!!
Cutest Karis! In her Christmas PJ's eating her favorite thing...cereal!
Wesleygrant's love language comes through gift giving...he picked out a special necklace for sally this year all on his own...it was the sweetest ever to see them give each other gifts!
Famous Zilker Trail of Lights with friends, funnel cakes, Kettle Pop Corn and coldness!
This was one of the best Christmas's we have had with the kids and all of our traditions!

We had a staff Christmas party at our home for Stew's staff....it was so much fun!
Wesleygrant had a preschool program...he goes 4 days a week and is loving it!
We had a send off for our dearest friend, Jackie! It was so hard to say goodbye, but we are so proud of her and all she is headed to do in DC!! Love you so much, Jaclyn!!

Christmas has a lot of cooking and the girls did it all with me! it was so fun! and funny!!
So, despite the disaster last christmas at the tree farm, we tried it again and it was so fun!! Our tree fit, so we didnt have to cut half of it off! Elgin Tree Farms is a keeper!!
Celebrated 6 Year anniversary!! And i got a new camera!!! SO much has been given and happened in the last 6 yrs!! looking forward to another year!!