Our Journey to Haiti: Day Two

Our day started here:

We had a restful night at the Griffin’s house in Baton Rouge, LA.  Showered, ate and did a load of laundry.  Thanks for your hospitality friends!  The church plant team had a scheduled team meeting this morning so we got to see many friends from our training program: 24:14.  Our boys loves these guys…they always get them WIRED up! =)  This pic only includes part of the team.  They prayed and encouraged us before we headed out for another long day of road tripping.

We crossed into Mississippi.

And got to enjoy true southern hospitality.  They still offer full service at gas stations like “Giterdone”.  I politely declined. =)

Next came Alabama:  the other boys were sleeping for this picture.

The boys are enjoying plenty of games on the iPad to pass the time.

And just when we think we can’t be in the car any longer we see this guy and it puts things back into perspective.  Glad we aren’t this guy!

If I wasn’t on this road trip we would be blazing past all the state lines…unfortunately for Jody and the boys this is a tradition that began in my childhood and I have a hard time not doing.  You can tell from these next pictures that enthusiasm for the pictures at the lines was waning.  But a girl has to do what a girl has to do.  Self picture for all the passerbyers to see.  No shame.

Welcome to Florida Cash Family!  Next stop, Haiti!

Our day “ended” here:  Chick-fil-a in Pensacola, Florida.  We tried to have dinner at Cracker Barrel but that was a MAJOR bust.  We did sit down and order.  But JohnEllis pretty much screamed non stop and the big boys were complete wiggle worms...I can handle the entire restaurant staring at me for only so long.  It was a mistake that was prompted by an adult craving for yummy food.  Of course, it was a bad idea to bring 3 little boys into a restaurant like that after sitting in a car for the past 2 days.  We quickly left with to-go boxes in hand and took a 20 minute detour to find this place:

Yes, that is a fake smile from Jody. And below those are real smiles from the boys.  They were happy to be out of the car in a place they could scream and jump and play.  We are just happy to be somewhere that has understanding parents that just smile and nod when they see a screaming child. 

We love Chick-fil-a!

Now, Jody is sitting in the play place with screaming kids and I am blogging using free WiFi and eating my salad from Cracker Barrel.  Yes, that is tacky but as of now, I am okay with that. The boys will hopefully be worn out and will sleep soon in the car.  Jody and I are planning on taking turns driving through the night until we land in Ft. Lauderdale, FL tomorrow morning.

PRAY for our final leg of the journey.  Tomorrow will be a full day after a night of driving shifts.  We love you and your prayers!

September 11th, 2012. A Day of Life!

September 11th now symbolizes life in our family!  This is the day Josiah chose the Kingdom of Light and received the ultimate gift:  salvation from his sins.  We are so thankful!  Since Josiah was a baby we have been praying that he would accept Jesus as his Savior at the earliest possible age, but to be honest there have been plenty of times in the past 1 1/2 years that we have put him off. in making this decision.  We wanted him to have a true understanding of the decision he was making.  Here is how it happened…

Josiah came into the living room that evening to where Jody & I were working.  He asked Jody to read to him “that thing on your phone that has a bridge”.  Jody has a “Steps to Peace with God” app on his iPhone and he used to go over it with Josiah regularly but it has been months since I have seen them look at it.  It was a bit random for Josiah to mention it out of the blue but Jody pulled it out and started reading it with him.  It discusses how we are separated from God because of our sins and even if we try to do good things, go to church, etc., nothing WE can do will bridge the gap between us and God.  The cross is the only acceptable bridge that crosses the gap between us and God.  Jesus’ death on the cross is the only way that we will be found acceptable in God’s presence.

When Jody got to the end, Josiah said, “I don’t want to be on the enemy’s side, want to be on God’s side!”  After discussing more with him, we felt peace that Josiah truly had an understanding of his sin and his need for Jesus.  He prayed to receive Jesus!  When he was done praying he started laughing and jumping and kept saying over and over, “I just have so much joy!”  It was precious because we know that the Holy Spirit visited our boy that night in a way that he hadn’t experienced before.  He not only experienced salvation through Jesus but he experienced a taste of the Holy Spirit.  And I must say, his joy was contagious!  It was a really fun experience for our whole family.  Lucas was there watching and learning and Josiah quickly ran into my parents room to tell Grandmom and Grandaddy all about his decision.

Yesterday, November 4th, Josiah was baptized.  Here is a picture of him  being interviewed for a short video that was played just prior to his baptism at church last night.  It is him talking about his decision to accept Jesus and about why he wants to be baptized. 

This was a fun night!  We are overjoyed for our little boy to be a mighty warrior in the Kingdom.  Pray for Josiah that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit and have a deep burning passion for the Lord, for His Word and for His Church.

Good-bye, I’ll See You Later! Cash Family Gathering.

We spent last weekend with Jody’s side of the family for a “Goodbye, see you later-Autumn-Thanksgiving-Christmas” celebration before our move to Haiti.  My highlights of the weekend were:

~Seeing Sarah & Jerod’s new house.  We love it and feel blessed that they invited all of us over when they only moved in the weekend before.  There wasn’t a box in the house.  They had pictures on the wall.  Just nuts. =)

~Fantastic autumn weather.  Perfect for walks around the adorable downtown square of Van Alstyne.

~Noise of six cousins having a blast.  They didn’t stop moving all day and spent hour upon hour jumping and wrestling on the trampoline.  No naps. Chaos.  It was pure joy for them.  I loved watching it.  My heart longs for my boys to grow up near cousins and family…never mind we are moving to another country. 

~Eating Mexican food for Thanksgiving while listening to Christmas music…the weekend before Halloween.  In this family, just about anything goes!

~Hearing Jody & his dad discuss Baylor football with the game blaring on the radio in the background.  Static and all. (They were TRYING to hear it over all the noise of the kids…anyways, there probably hasn’t been a quiet Cash family gathering in all history!)

~Dressing up the boys as Mario and Luigi and Little Batman (really, REALLY homemade, no sew costumes using things we already had around the house…they are little.  I can still get away with that!)

~Walking around the square with the whole gang collecting treats from the shops and vendors set up.  It was small town goodness.

~Having the whole family gather around us before we headed home and cover us in blessings and prayers.  I felt loved. 

It really couldn’t have been a much better day.  Thankful.

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Our 1st 6 Weeks of Homeschool!

Working on our cave paintings while learning about ancient people.

The final result…lots of marker everywhere!

This is what John Ellis does during school…mostly just destroys stuff. =)

Lucas working in his preschool workbook.

Lucas learning shapes, colors, letters and strengthening his hand muscles!

John Ellis celebrates Columbus Day

(he is still loving and wearing this hat everyday!)

Columbus Day Sailors

Science Experiments!  Boys building a mini volcano.

Filling our volcano with soap, baking soda, food coloring and vinegar.

After the eruption!  John Ellis just liked sticking things in the hole.

Family time with Jesus. 

Singing, Bible reading, and Scripture memory.

Making Egyptian collars for our study of Ancient Egypt.

Mommy sang “Walk Like An Egyptian” by The Bangles

way TOO much that week!  =)

Wrapping up Lucas as a mummy.  He wouldn’t break character for anything.

No smiling allowed he said…even for pictures! 

“Because mummies don’t smile, they’re dead!”

More Ancient Egypt

Acting out Moses and Aaron and the plagues.

Daddy was Pharaoh, John Ellis the Israelites, Mommy the Narrator.

Reading is a favorite!

Homeschool Girl

Josiah on 1st day of Kindergarten

I'm pretty sure that all my older siblings remember being homeschooled. As the baby in the family, I would never have known that homeschooling was part of our lives other than seeing pictures of me as a toddler holding a United States flag and hearing stories of our homeschool days. By the time my school days began, my mom was working as a public school teacher and off to school I went, too! I know there are numerous advantages and disadvantages to either schooling option but as a child I had a very positive public school experience. I always assumed my children would be schooled the same way.

Cue the backpacks, lunch boxes, school picture day, field trips, summer break and field day!

Well...I've been learning a new equation lately: Haiti = Homeschool

Six weeks ago, I became a homeschool girl. Sort of. Josiah started his first day of homeschool kindergarten the first monday in September (no labor day for us)! In the midst of prepping for Haiti we got our school year started with the understanding that there will be a break once we actually move and take some time in Haiti to get settled and figure out life.

After the first week, I was pretty sure that I would never shower again. Being a mommy of 3 and pregnant with a 4th is one thing...being an intentional homeschool momma was a whole new ball game. I am happy to report that we are getting in a groove and I do get to shower with some regularity. (Key word: SOME) :)

Josiah is a great student! He is usually attentive, asks great questions and enjoys learning. I am thankful to have a child and student that wants to learn. Our biggest stuggle so far has been dealing with his disappointment. He has been so pumped about Kindergarten and all the new things he was looking forward to learning that he was bummed the 1st week to learn that we wouldn't be learning it all at once. There are worse problems out there! I am thankful.

We are using Sonlight Curriculum (www.Sonlight.com) and really enjoy it! It is a bit pricey but we used it last year with Josiah's preschool and I think it is well worth the investment. Pretty much everything is laid out for me so there is minimal prep time for the basics, which means I get to spend my time coming up with creative extras that will be educational and fun for the boys. The materials they have picked are excellent, too! I enjoy it and am learning just as much as the boys.

Our prayer is that if we ever want our boys to be in either public or private school someday, then they will be able to jump right in with their peers and be right on course. This has always weighed heavy on me as I anticipated schooling the boys overseas. Will I be able to teach them well? How will I manage life in Haiti with 4 little ones under 5 years AND homeschool well?? Now that I am in the midst of homeschooling, I feel peace from God that he is with us in every part of this journey, even in our schooling. We are not in Haiti yet as we had hoped BUT I am thankful that God has given me time to get some homeschooling experience under my belt prior to having to learn an entire new way of life in addition. His timing is perfect and I am learning to trust it.



Resurrection Rolls

I want to be a mom who lets my boys explore, learn and do things themselves...it doesn't come natural to me. I am having to be intentional to bring them into things instead of always doing everything myself. Does this cause more messes for me to clean up? You betcha! But I am daily learning to relax and just enjoy and I see the boys thrive when that happens. They are boys, BUT they love to be creative and do crafts, make art, and cook with me.
We made resurrection rolls at Easter last year, too, but this year I let the boys do most of the "baking". They did a great job despite uncontrollable finger licking!

The "Jesus" marshmellow annointed in oils and spices (aka butter, cinammon and sugar) then wrapped in linen (cresent rolls) and put in the oven tomb. After 10 minutes(3 days) the Jesus marshmellow is risen and only the linen is left!

Enjoying the fruits of their labor.

Easter Joy

Our Easter Joy started 12 days before Easter Sunday with an idea I got from Pintrest (ofcourse.)! Each day the boys took turns picking the next egg in our 12 day count down to Easter. Inside was a "clue" and scripture that explained how this clue was part of the Easter story. We really enjoyed this and will include it as part of our Easter traditions because it brought light to some of the small details of Jesus' death and resurrection. I tried to be as detailed (and age appropriate) as possible on what Jesus endured out of His love for us and His Father. Lucas would regularly interrupt with, "that's so sad!". Which is true, but God regularly turns mourning into dancing and His power is perfected in times of weakness. Thank you, Lord.

The boys with our 12 day countdown to Easter eggs.

Josiah with our "Jesus" that was wrapped in white linen (strip of paper towel)...one of the last clues.

Lucas wrapping up Lego Jesus in white linen.

Then the boys put Jesus in the tomb that Lucas made at Highland and put the stone in front. Jesus had risen on Easter morning!

Josiah & Lucas helped boil and dye Easter eggs this year and wanted to stay and watch while the eggs were cooking...I told them it would take a while and to go play. It is true that a watched pot never boils!

The finished products!