Just Ask!

Luke 11:9---"Ask and it shall be given unto you....."

I just love my sweet hubby for so many reasons. Today I made a request. I said..."Honey....I would love some sort of a drying rack to be able to hang the mittens and gloves from. They don't stay on the wooden clothes rack, and when we put them on the hearth they are too close to the fire."...

"Okay,", says my sweetie..."I'm on the job"...and so he went outside and walked the property searching for the perfect tree that he could turn into my request. He cut it down, shaped it, and peeled all of the bark off. He brought it in and screwed it into the wall near the woodstove. And voila....here is my drying rack:

Isn't it great? I just love it! I can even use it in the summer time to dry herbs and flowers! Thank you Glenn! I love you!

Cat Nap

Just had to share this one. Maddie's kitten Selah was taking a little snooze sitting up in one of our wing back chairs. It was sooooo cute!


Oh, to be able to take a cat nap like that in the middle of the day!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Praising God!

We are all praising God. Grace's Mom, Mimose and her brother Jr. and sister Rebecca are all okay! We don't know any other details, just that they are all okay! Join us in praising the Lord!!

Grace is Featured on WMUR--News 9

http://www.wmur.com/news/22252577/detail.html



Young Girl Waits To Hear From Birth Mother In Haiti

CENTER BARNSTEAD, N.H. -- Many more families are still anxious to hear from loved ones, including some here in New Hampshire. In Center Barnstead, a Haitian adoptee is eagerly awaiting word from her birth mother.
The Winslow family of Center Barnstead adopted Grace from Haiti when she was 9, and also Jon, who was 2.
While Jon's birth family is from a part of the country left relatively untouched by the earthquake, Grace's mother, Mimose Lubin, lives in Delmas -- one of the hardest-hit areas.
She is still waiting to hear if her mother or any of her family in the country are safe.
Mary Winslow said the family is finding hope in the little things they know -- like the fact that Mimose has a one-story apartment, which might have been survivable in a collapse.


**Click on the above link to see her story!

Sweet Victory in NH for Homeschooling!

Oh the victory was so sweet today at our state house. We started the day outside at 8:30 am. It was 9 degrees, and windy. The crowd was much larger than last week and we were so encouraged. At one point the homeschool community created a "walkway" that the incoming legislators had to go through. They blocked off any alternate way to enter the building. So we were able to meet and greet many of the reps on their way in. We were cheerful and simply asked them to Vote ITL on 368 and support homeschooling. Many, many of them were so excited to see us all. Some of the reps even took pictures of the group. That was neat!

This time we were encouraged to have signs that said our district number and town on them. So that the reps could see..."oh my...there are some of my constituents here...hmmmm...I'm being held accountable!"....One woman had a sign that said: "Yes I homeschool, and Yes I vote, need I say more?!" That was good!

Some signs were simple, yet spoke volumes...like this one below. A stop sign with 368 on it. Nothing more needed there!



Then at 9:45 we went inside for the session which began at 10:00. Oh my...there was soooo much debate for the bills leading up to ours that we were very concerned. It was 12:00 noon and our bill went on the floor. A call was put out for the author of the bill...Judith Day, and she wasn't there. The vote was given. It was a roll call vote which means that each and every vote went on the record. So you can log on and see who the 34 reps were who voted against it. It was 324 in favor of the ITL and 34 against it. It was great. A huge cheer erupted in the gallery and the speaker of the house said..."now homeschoolers, here is a civics lesson for you today. we have strict rules of protocol here in the house and one of them is that there is to be no demonstrations of any kind once a vote has been made."...it was cute that we had a small civics lesson of manners in that way!

We walked out a bit lighter on our feet and encouraged in the Lord! Truly feeling that there is something to our state motto..."Live Free or Die"...at least until the next legislative session begins. Don't stop praying!

Please Pray for Haiti!

Here are some actual photos from the devastation and the digging out. The presidential palace was destroyed as pictured below.

Please pray for Haiti.
As many of you have heard, our dear Haiti was shaken by a massive 7.0 earthquake yesterday followed by a 5.9 and 5.5 after shock, causing massive devastation and panic. Our prayers go out to the people of this dear country. We have received word that Bresma 1, Bresma 2 (Grace and Jon's orphanages that they came from), are all okay, along with all of the workers and precious children. Praise the Lord!!! This is nothing short of a miracle, these orphanages are just off of Delmas, which the news says has more houses down than standing. Please pray for Grace's mother, Mimose, her brother Junior and her sister Rebecca. Their small apartment is located just off of the main road in Delmas. Communications are cut off now as all of the towers have been destroyed. So far there has been no word from Grace's Mom and her siblings. Grace's biological sister Magnalie that lives in Mass. with the Kangas family are monitoring this and trying desperately to make some connections to find out if Grace's family are okay. Of course Grace is worried and very shaken by this. She thanks you all for your prayers. Jon's family all live in Petionville which has not been affected by this that we know of.

We learned, too, that St. Joseph's Home for boys was completely destroyed. This was a wonderful mission. We visited this mission on our first trip to Haiti. We also learned that other orphanages have sustained great damage, too. There was a hospital destroyed. The main road in Delmas that we refer to as the "crazy road" is completely destroyed. We learned that although they haven't mentioned a death toll, they are lining the bodies up on the streets. It is hard to feel so helpless to this terrible situation, but we are encouraged to know that we can pray, and trust that others will join us.

We learned today at the state house that the Hope Ship, the 1,000 bed hospital ship is enroute there. For this we are thankful.

We promise to keep you posted. If you want to keep up to date with people that are actually in Haiti, you can keep track of this on twitter at this link:

http://twitter.com/nprnews/haiti-earthquake

Please join us as we pray for Grace's family and the many, many, other people, families, and ministries that gave been so devastated. Please pray for the many details of continued food and water delivery, safety, etc.
We will continue to update you if we receive more information.

Here are some more photos:

This is Grace's family. Mimose, Grace, Jr., and Rebecca. These were taken on our first visit to Haiti in 2004.

Grace's Mom, Mimose, doing Grace's hair.

Scenes from Haiti. The first one is our driver going down Delmas, "crazy street".

Thank you Dave Menard and Menard Painting!!

Menard Painting Corp.206 Eaton Road Pittsfield, NH 03106
website: http://www.menardpainting.com/
Email: dmenard@Menardpainting.com
Tel: 603-622-3097 Fax: 603-232-9265
Check out some of Dave's other wonderful projects! His company will service ALL of your painting needs!

This past Fall, Glenn and his friend Dave Menard worked out a barter. Glenn helped Dave with his new garage, and Dave came and painted our house! It's now a beautiful new color! He did it all in one day! It was awesome! Most of you know how our house looked before. The new color is yellow and it's just beautiful!

Before:

After

It makes our home look sooooo much bigger! We just love it!

Our New Friends from the Lord---The Hess Family

As I mentioned in an earlier post, on our trip to Bennington, Vermont we met a lovely group of evangelist singers. This led to us getting together with one of those families for a weekend in Russell, Mass. The Wonderful Hess Family:

Ron and Sandra and their children.

They are a Mennonite family with 8 children. Shari, Randy, Travis, Krista, Shronda, Cynthia, Rylan and Jolyn.We saw their daughter Shari and their son Randy at the evangelical singing outreach in Bennington, VT.

Maddie and Grace have had a great desire to dress modestly, and we just love cape style dresses. All of the older girls in this photo have those style dresses on. We had purchased some cape dresses last year in Ohio Amish country from a thrift store and the girls love them! Here is a photo of one of Grace's cape dresses.

All of the girls in the choir we saw in Bennington, VT had them on, too. They are a wonderful dress with a panel across the front for modesty.

We wrote to the Hess family and asked if they'd be willing to show us how to make them. They graciously invited us to their home in Russell, MA for a weekend in order for the wife Sandra to show me and the girls how to make a dress. We came with our trusty old Singer sewing machine and fabric to make two dresses. One for each of the girls. We had a wonderful weekend with them. We even attended their church service on Sunday morning. They showed us great hospitality! Many great and lifelong friends were made! We left with one completed dress and the other far enough along that we could finish it at home and that we did. Our Christmas card photo shows the girls wearing their dresses. Didn't they come out great?

Here are some photos from the weekend. Grace even adopted a kitten from them, too. His name is Stanley. He's a great cat!

Here is Maddie and Krista. She's 13.

Grace, Maddie, Krista and Jolynn having fun!

Here's part of the gang hanging out outside. From left to right: Cynthia, Shronda, Grace, Jolyn, Maddie, Krista, and in the front is Rylan. Grace is holding Stanley, her new cat!

Here are the girls sewing. They have a beautiful sewing room. They make all of their own clothing for the girls and the Mom.

We thank God upon every rememberance of you, Hess Family!

Grace and Her biological sister Magnalie--09

In October of 2009 and then again in December we had some visits with Grace's sister Magnalie. She lives in S. Grafton, Mass. with a wonderful family that adopted her 5 years ago named the Kangas family. We love that they are so close to us, and try and get the sisters together as much as we can. Here are some photos of the October visit. Madelyn, Grace and I went down for this visit. We had a wonderful time! Magnalie took about an hour and did a wonderful set of braids in Grace's hair. Mag is a Jr. at a technical high school where she is actually being a cosmotologist 3 days a week at the schools' hair salon!

Last month we went down for an overnight as a family to Newport, Rhode Island and visited with the Kangas family at a time share they were staying at. That was super fun! Here are some shots from there! It was right on the ocean and we had a good time in the heated indoor/outdoor swimming pool and hot tubs! We also toured around Newport and were in awe of all of the mansions! This visit, Magnalie put a relaxer in Grace's hair and that turned out really well! We all enjoyed amazing fellowship and a special time of bible reading and devotions, too! Thank you Kangas Family!

Off to the State House We Go!

Today was a spontaneous field trip day. We learned two days ago that some opponents of homeschooling in NH under the current law were trying to get House Bill 368 which has been recommended to be ITL (inexpedient to legislate) last Fall, overturned, and not ITL anymore.

The bill had been on the consent calendar for today, their first day back in session for the new year. That meant that it would be voted with a big bunch of ITL bills all at once and be not an issue. Well...some folks decided that they wanted to get it on the regular calendar for individual voting because it was a 14-6 vote and not unanimous. And...they were able to do just that. So...there was a call put out to homeschoolers to go and meet and greet legislators on their way in to the hall by holding signs outside the state house. We decided to take up the call and go!

I announced at breakfast this morning that we were doing a service project today. The kids were VERY excited! We set about making signs and headed on our way to Concord to brave the cold and wind.

Brrrrrr......the kids were troopers as we braved the cold!

This was a wonderful experience for the kids. We had attended the hearing last year where over 1,200 homeschool families attended. That was incredible! You could have heard a pin drop. We were able to meet a wonderful homeschool friendly representative from Carroll County district 5 named Dino Scala. He spent a long time talking with us all outside and even came back out to tell us that the bill had been separated out and would be taken up by itself. Thank you Dino! You were an answer to our prayers!

The kids with Rep. Dino Scala. Thank you soooo much!

So...at 10:00 we got a reprieve from the cold and went into the hall to hear some of the session. The kids thought it was really interesting! To see the voting and see the votes light up in green for yes votes and red for no votes. At one point Maddie and Grace said..."Mom...why can't everyone just agree and get along?"...Hmmm...good question girls!

So...they didn't get to our bill today. It will be voted on next Wednesday, January 13th. We hope to try and go again and see how it all turns out! Please pray for it to remain ITL! We'll keep you posted! Being able to go to these is another wonderful benefit of homeschooling! We love to be hands on!

It was another full house today!

Praising God for the Newest Member to our Home Church Family!!

Hello Everyone! I would like to tell you all that I have a new baby brother! Ya!!!!! His Name Is Nathan Wayne Collomy he is 10lb 5oz 21.3in long he was born today at 12:51 this afternoon. Keep them in your prayers, mom is doing well but the baby is in the NICU due to low sugar. Also pray for me and jo we have a big job with the lil ones. Thanks much love you all, Taylor and the gang

Happy 20th Birthday Brittany!!

What were you doing 20 years ago today?? Me...I was in labor with our precious daughter Brittany. We would finally meet her after 36 hours of intense labor at 3:39 in the afternoon, 20 years ago, today!

George Bush Sr. was our President.
Judd Gregg was NH's governor.
Dances with Wolves was the #1 movie.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev won the Noble peace prize.
Glenn and Mary Winslow started their family with their 9lb beautiful daughter, Brittany!

We love you Bip!!

Oh My...Has It Really Been OVER one year?????

Wow..I can hardly believe that it's been over one year since I last posted to my blog! Oh my goodness. What a year 2009 has been. It's been one of the hardest, if not the hardest years for us as a family, but God has remained faithful throughout it and we are so thankful for that! We trust in Him fully and we know that He who has begun a good work in us will follow it through until completion. For this we remain greatly encouraged! We know that He has a plan for us, and we are already seeing parts of it in this new year!

Happy 2010!!!!

Here are some photos from 2009 in no particular order:

We enjoyed a wonderful day at Wells beach in Maine with some of our dear friends from church. Oh how we love them!

Where are those crabs Grace?

We went camping in Vermont this past September at Winhall Brook Campground in Londonderry, VT. It is a core of engineer's campground and it's just beautiful! Here are some scenes from a man made water slide on the river! Good clean fun!

Here Glenn is multi tasking on the way to the brook! There were wonderful bike and hiking trails there. The campsites were flat and each had lush green grass! Sooooo nice!

We started the 1st annual Winslow Fishing Derby at our favorite fishing spot in VT...Gale Meadows Pond. The derby was held over 2 days!

During the first day of the derby, Grace caught her first ever fish! Go Grace! On day one we fished with live bait. On day two, Glenn was crowned the fishing derby champion. He switched to his favorite lure and caught two very good sized bass. They made a tasty addition to our camp supper that night! Hooray Glenn!

Maddie and Grace found a dead tree in the middle of the pond to swim out to and pose on! Nice girls!

We spent a few days at my brother's house in Springfield, VT. This is the gang of kiddos there! Maddie, Kasi, Grace, Maxwell, Katie, Maggie and Jon, and our dog Levi. We had a fun time there!

On 9/9/09 --Jonnie learned to ride his two wheeler without training wheels while we were camping! Go Jon, go! There was no stopping him. He kept asking us..."Are you sure I'm going to be able to remember how to do this forever?"

September 10th, 2009, while camping, Glenn and I and the kiddos celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary with a day trip to Bennington, VT. It was beautiful there. The kids loved the moose on display. Each one was painted with a theme and designed by area businesses.

Here we spotted an evangelistic Mennonite group singing. That was awesome! This is where a new friendship would begin! That is a whole other blog entry, however!

Here we are at the Ball Dam in Vt. What a beautiful view from the top!

We had a wonderful time camping in Vermont! Thank you Glenn for taking us!