We Can't Be Everywhere!

But God can!
Just had to share this daily devotion on my calendar today. It's soooo true:

2/24/10
"We can't be everywhere. But God can. We can't see everything. But God can. We can't know everything. But God can. No matter what age our children are, releasing them into God's hands is a sign of our faith and trust in Him, and is the first step toward making a difference in their lives. Prayer for our children begins there."

"When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

And through the rivers,

they shall not overflow you.

When you walk through the fire,

you shall not be burned,

Nor shall the flame scorch you."

Isaiah 43:2

Ahhhh...one of the first signs of Spring coming....tree tappin' fun!

Well...it's official...the trees are all tapped at the Winslow farm! We will have increased syrup production, too, this year. Glenn and the kids asked for permission to tap some of our closest neighbors sugar maples and he said yes! Yippee! I just love this time of year. So now...the prayer is...for days over 40 and nights below freezing and let the sap run!

Glenn and Jon started the tapping on Saturday morning and then Maddie and our friend helped to finish it early Monday morning.

Another Glenn invention is below....It's to help collect the sap. It's some plastic crates and they are mounted to an old pair of cross country skis! You gotta love my hubby....his mind is always at work with some new and improved way to do things!

Of course this post wouldn't be complete without a photo of our gift from great Aunt Frances last year. My uncle Earl's sap stove that he built and welded together 50 years ago! It has totally improved our maple syrup quality! It's all ready to go for another great year! Thank you A. Frances...we love you!

Oh Happy Day----When Daddy is working at home!

Oh how I love the fruits of when Glenn is working at home! It's such a blessing! There are two wonderful projects that Glenn completed yesterday while at home. One is a closet in the girls room, and the other is a wonderful custom shelf in the living room. Here are some photos! My hubby is what I call a "carpenter genius"...He is truly working in the field that God has greatly gifted him in! He knew since he was a young boy that this is what he wanted to do for work, and God has blessed him greatly! He creates such beautiful things, it never ceases to amaze me! Here are some before and after photos!

What do you get when you have three girls living in one bedroom with a tiny closet? A HUGE mess. After brainstorming about it, Glenn decided a better use of the space would be to eliminate hanging items and go to a custom made cubby system. Each girl will have one row of 5 cubbies to "neatly" fold their clothes and items in. So Glenn set about making the custom cubbies last week and was able to finish them and install them yesterday!

Before:

After! Glenn is going to order a door for the cubby closet and cut it down to fit. The girls were super excited!

Isn't is beautiful? We love it! I'll take another photo and post it once they get all of their stuff in there!

The "after shots" are in! Isn't it great! Three girls worth of stuff neatly in their cubbies! Maddie in the middle, Elisha has the left and Grace has the right.

Whoo--Hoo..this makes for a VERY happy Mama!! Yippee!

Now...another question.....

What do you get when you have an opening between the kitchen and living room? A very small shelf that I love to put things on! Like my entire Christmas village! Glenn decided that he'd like to give me a custom oak T-shelf here. I can't wait until next year to put up my village! It's going to be great!
Before:

After: Isn't it beautiful? I just love it!




Thank you Glenn! I love you, too! You are the best! Another happy customer of Glenn Winslow---"genius carpenter extraordinaire"!! :) :)

What do you do with a shorted out crock pot element and a 1/2 bushel of free apples?

Why make applesauce the old fashioned way, of course!




I've been so very blessed by free produce of all kinds from the food ministry that we go to weekly, and an item they have each week is cases of apples. I have kept my family in applesauce during these cold winter months for the last 6 weeks! It's been wonderful. I set out to make some the other day, only to find that my beloved crock pot had finally died. But what about all of those wonderful apples? Well...I threw away the outer metal element of the crock pot, but kept the crock part and the cover and then it dawned on me yesterday....make applesauce on the woodstove!

We have kept a fire going each day, and so the apples have been slowly cooking down on the woodstove since yesterday. They'll be ready for the food mill later on today. It fills the house with a wonderful aroma! It makes me feel a bit like little house on the prairie, too!

Nolie's Hair Design---Has her first customer!

Grace opened her hair salon today in the kitchen. The prices were right and her little brother desparately needed a hair cut. Grace named her salon Nolie's. Nolie is a nickname we call her. One of her middle names is Inolan, which is her Haitian father's first name.

We'd love to say her first customer enjoyed his "salon" experience, but well....you decide....as pictures are worth 1,000 words!

Here is his before picture. If you can look closely...he has a tear in his left eye! Sigh.

Things just kept getting a bit worse!

Oh...the pain and agony of it!

The finished haircut, though....priceless! Just priceless! Can you see the relief?
Such a handsome young man of almost 7!

The Man of the House (when Daddy is gone)

We take great comfort in knowing that we are protected so well each day when Daddy goes to work.

Gun in hand and holster and horse ready, Jonathan protects us very well from all manner of things during the day. Mama can breathe a welcome sigh of relief!

ahhhhhhhhhhh.....

Thank you Jon!

In Whom Do I Trust?

I had to share this. Yesterday, I was under a huge attack, and I was scared and fearful. The Lord brought me to the home of an 80 year old prayer warrior named Belle. She prayed with me, and shared with me from God's word. She encouraged me greatly. This is one of the verses she told me to look up, and commit to memory.

Psalm 56:3-4

When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to me?

David cried this out to God when he was under great attack from his enemies. This is what I need to do, too!

Here is Matthew Henry's commentary on these verses:

Be merciful unto me, O God. This petition includes all of the good for which we come to the throne of grace. If we obtain mercy there, we need NO more to make us happy. It implies likewise our best plea, not our merit, but God's mercy, his free, rich mercy. We may flee to, and trust the mercy of God, when surrounded on all sides by difficulties and dangers. His enemies were too hard for him, if God did not help him. He resolves to make God's promises the matter of his praises, and so we have reason to make them. As we must NOT trust an arm of flesh when engaged for us, so we must NOT be afraid of an arm of flesh when stretched out against us. The sin of sinners will NEVER be their security. Who knows the power of God's anger, how high it can reach, how forcibly it can strike?

Thank you Lord for the truth of your word, and thank you that you used Belle to comfort me with your word! Incredible, Awesome Lord I serve, I thank you!

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!