While I'm Waiting on Him: JHAM & My Little Preacher Man

So, it's been a long and crazy week already! Busy, busy everywhere we turn! Had to share the funnies my little Tanner man has come up with this past week. I've decided he's going to be my little preacher man. Daddy got some tracts in the mail that he ordered that caught Tanner's attention.

Of course it caught his attention! He's six and it's a big red stop sign! :) When he saw them sitting on the table he ask me what they were. The following conversation ensued...

Tanner: Mom, what's this?

Me: They're little books about Jesus.

Tanner: Can I have one?

Me: Sure, dad won't care if you have one.

Tanner: Hmmm..... (silence for a moment)
Can I have 14 of them?

Me: I don't think you need to have that many do you? (thinking they're going to end up in the toy box) Why don't you ask dad when he gets home. Why do you need 14?

Tanner: Well, I wanna take it to school but the teacher says we can't bring anything unless we bring enough to share and I need to have one for everybody in my class. And I think Mrs. S needs one too.

Well, you know this momma is not about to tell her little man that he can't take a book to school to tell his friends about Jesus. But in the back of my mind of course I'm thinking he may end up in trouble. Separation of church and state right? Don't want to 'offend' anyone! Heaven forbid. (get off the soapbox and finish the story Renea.....)

So I called Mrs. S and explained what my Tanner wanted to do. I told her I didn't want other parents or children complaining but I wasn't about to tell him he couldn't bring them to share so I was leaving it up to her as to how she handled it.

Well, let me tell you....my boy came home from school and I ask how his day was. Fine. Always his usual one-word answers to everything. So did you pass out your books? Yes.

Ugh... one-word answers. Did you share them with everyone? Yep, I gave one to everyone in class and gave one to Mrs. S too cuz I thought she'd like to know about Jesus too.

Oh my sweet sweet boy. ♥

And I've share his funny words before. This week we've been attending the local revival so our nights have been as busy as our days. But when he came home tonight and ask where 'rebible' was he caught me off guard. "I think you left your bible in the car." "No, mom. reBIBLE. Are we going to reBIBLE tonight?" Said with his most disgusted tone that I couldn't understand him to begin with. "No, Tanner reVIVal is over." "Well darn." And away he went to play.

Oh my sweet sweet boy. ♥

So, onto JHAM. Some of you may have visited our blog on JHAM (Joint Heirs Adoption Ministry). It explains who we are and what we're all about. Long story short....advocating for the orphan and the 'least of these'. Encouraging and educating others on adoption as well as orphan care and sponsorships, etc. (excuse the crazy way the blog looks.... I'm having design issues! If someone is fluent in html I'm open to suggestions and help! I can't figure out what went wrong with it! It's awful!)

Melinda has had a few setbacks and we've been 'on hold' (for lack of a better term) for a few months, but we're back in full swing! The girls and I got together today to plan our latest event! We're going to be sponsoring a shoe drive in conjunction with Soles 4 Souls and shipping the shoes to a distribution center through their organization. Hoping we can help those in Haiti or an area in Africa. We're so excited to get details ironed out and working together again today felt so good.

Melinda & Joy (my girls ♥)

These two girls make my heart happy. And the work we do together, well, quite frankly is amazing! We decided long ago our start was fully orchestrated by God alone because we blend so well and our ideas bounce from one mind to the next and each thought is complimented by another. Alone we struggle. Together we are unstoppable! It's awesome to watch it all unfold so simply when we are together.

Me & Melinda burnin' up the phone lines!

Since we are working through Soles 4 Soles they already have some major nationwide benefits. We are involving the Girl Scout Clubs in our area as they can earn merit badges by helping us with this project! (awesomeness), and much to our surprise the local shoe store was already a participating location/store for S4S's and when folks drop off their shoes and make their contribution they will receive a coupon good for $20 off a pair of new shoes! Holy Wow! (more awesomeness) ;o) We're giving presentations in our local schools for the students to understand about abject poverty and the need for other children/adults to have shoes and putting a drop box in their schools for donations for one week.

All this shoe goodness will lead into our next big event which will be a 5K walk/run! Use those new shoes you just saved $20 on to walk for water! We'll be raising funds for Clean Water for Haiti which is the organization our missionary friends Leslie & Chris run in country. They are still providing water filters for residents of Port au Prince and other areas around Haiti which is an even greater need after the disaster than before. Lots of work to do and we want to support them any way we can! (you may want to read their blog as they just received word today that IBESR finally signed off on their adoption and O is going to officially be their little girl!!! Merci Jezi!)

Needless to say we are really excited about getting this big ball rolling and I'll keep you posted on how everything went. I encourage you to check out the S4S's website and consider doing a shoe drive in your community.

And the big bonus to us getting together (besides our advocacy and doing God's work of course...) coffee and CHOCOLATE!!! Joy hosted us today and treated us to her brownie/chocolate pudding/whipped cream ooey gooey goodness! (see that big bowl in the background of their picture!? I wasn't really taking a picture of them, I just didn't want it to be so obvious that I was snapping a pic of the chocolate to save for later! LOL) Happy Wednesday y'all!