Think You Can Hold Up?

I am totally and completely enjoying this autumn season. Our days are full..... full of places to be and things to do..... but also full of happiness. It just so happens that I have PICTURES of things that are making me happy lately. Some of these are totally random and are in no particular order...... but happy they make me.

So, I present to you: HAPPINESS.

Mary Powell is going to be Minnie Mouse for the Halloween. Can you even stand it? We still gotta get our ears together, but OHMYWORD...... HAPPINESS.....

We play outside A LOT. And we LOVE it when the boys get home from school and play outside with us. USUALLY, they are being the usual pesky big brothers and play "monkey in the middle" with the frisbee. Guess who the "monkey" is...... Yep. But she loves it! On this day, they sat down long enough for Mom to snap a few pictures! HAPPINESS......

What do you do when the boys get out of school at 11:30 and that is also your lunchtime? Have a picnic in the back of the car, of course! HAPPINESS......

Jack Powell continues to do great things on the violin. He's even preparing for a WEDDING... a first for him! What makes us most proud, I think, is that Jack so enjoys using his talent to lead in worship. Recently, the orchestra did a mini-concert...... awesome music! HAPPINESS......

For my birthday, my people gave me a PICNIC TABLE! I totally love it! Mary and I spend MUCH time outside at our new favorite spot. In the first picture, she's fussing at Buddy for trying to eat her goldfish. In the second picture, she's doing her paperwork while I clip coupons.

Mary and I do very important things during the day while the boys are at school and Joe is at work. This week, our adventures took us to the DOLLAR TREE. We had a mission: we are prepping some total cuteness for her upcoming birthday party and had to pick up a few things. Well, when we came OUT of the Dollar Tree, we noticed a little pumpkin patch across the street. Since Mary and I do all our running around VERY early in the morning and it didn't open until 10, we didn't actually GO to the pumpkin patch..... but that sure didn't stop us from getting a few cute pictures with the setup they had on the outside! HAPPINESS......

Max Powell and his Rock Quarry Jaguar football team are having a FANTASTIC season. This group of boys is SO sweet and are great friends. See the one on the end of the back row on this side? #73? He's a keeper. We only have a couple more weeks of football left..... I will miss the excitement of the games....but I WILL NOT miss washing those darn white pants. It really has turned out to be a fun season. HAPPINESS......

Seeing Mary's dolls lined up in a row on the bottom bleacher..... HAPPINESS......

Jack reading during the games..... HAPPINESS.....

A little love from Daddy..... HAPPINESS.....

Halloween gummies when the game gets long.... HAPPINESS.....

We haven't carved our jack-o-lanterns in Powellville yet, but we got this bad boy out to show Mary what one looked like. She just stands there and points at it and SQUEALS with delight. HAPPINESS.....

Max and I have decided that THIS is one of our favorite things about Fall. The Pumpkin Spice candle. And when I use my 40% off coupon at the Hobby Lobby to get one, it's HAPPINESS.......

Speaking of coupons...... one of the things I wanted to accomplish this year while I'm not busy teaching school all day is "GET GOOD AT COUPONING"..... Like, I want to be one of those people who gets stuff for NOTHING. I want the cash register person to say, "Wow! How did you do that?" I want to work the deals and WIN. Well, today was a good day....... see this stuff below? I got it all for 98 cents. That's not even a whole DOLLAR. Nevermind that we don't actually USE any of these products. Brand loyalty? Out the window, people. Cause I got TWO PENNIES back when I handed the woman a ONE DOLLAR BILL for all this stuff. She didn't mention it, but I think she was impressed. Working on my CVS deals right after I finish this blog post.... HAPPINESS......

And, lastly, for now...... SOMEBODY got her OFFICIAL paperwork that she is a United States Citizen! Mary's Certificate of Citizenship came in the mail today! Welcome to the country, baby girl..... a country where, even through government shutdowns and bad politics and uncertain futures, we have it WAY better than most folks around the world. God bless America and its newest paperwork-holding citizen. HAPPINESS........

On September 29, 2013, while standing in front of our church family, Mary Jewel Powell was officially DEDICATED to the Lord. Special services and moments like this are SO PRECIOUS and, actually, FULL of meaning......

And I almost missed it.

Oh, I was THERE. But......

Special days like "parent/child dedications" actually stress me out. There is A LOT going on in my brain on days like this.....I want everyone to look just right. I want to get the perfect pictures. I'm hoping that Mary doesn't decide to have a come apart right there on the stage. Max can't find his Sunday shoes. I totally forgot to get Mary the right shoes. Nobody eats breakfast. I left the memory card for my camera at home. I'm thinking ahead to organizing lunch for the WHOLE family. Joe and I are fussing at each other for reasons that I can't even remember. Neither one of the boys is overly enthusiastic about standing on the stage in front of the whole church. And I'm sweating.

On the outside, I'm smiling and telling Mary to wave. On the inside, YUCK. I think I even made the comment to someone questioning why it was even necessary for the actual CHILD to be on the stage at all.... can't we just show the pictures?? STRESS.

We made it through without too much excitement (except for when Mary was kinda done and decided to start crawling up the steps towards the choir..... and when she tried to throw her new Bible at the congregation..... and when she hiked up her beautiful dress that one time).... but other than that, it went beautifully.... and then it was over. I was so relieved, I didn't even give it a second thought. Parent/Child Dedication service: CHECK. Thank goodness.

Then, today, I took Mary BACK to the church in her dress so I could get the pictures that I didn't get on Sunday. Both of us were WAY more relaxed and it was sunny and quiet as I snapped pictures of my girl on the steps of the chapel and in front of the church sign and in the grass..... and I started thinking about what happened on Sunday. Not all the CRAZY stuff, but the DEDICATION part.

Webster's dictionary defines DEDICATION as - the act of officially saying that something was created for a particular purpose.

THE ACT OF OFFICIALLY SAYING: did I even pay attention to what we were really SAYING as we dedicated our daughter to God? I said, "We will" when I was supposed to say it, but "We will" WHAT?? I said it. What did I say?

I'm thankful that the Lord paused the busyness in my mind this morning and showed me that WE WILL says A LOT.

We will raise our children up in church.

We will teach our children who is Lord.

We will pray with our children.

We will teach our children what the Bible says.

We will show our children how to worship.

We will help our children hide His word in their hearts.

We will be models of service to our children.

We will involve our children in ministering to others.

Lord, WE WILL!! ..... we have OFFICIALLY SAID it.

THAT SOMETHING: or someone! Mary Jewel Powell..... on your dedication day, we officially said that YOU......

WERE CREATED FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE: Oh, my. This baby girl (who at this exact moment is taking a nap right next to me) was created for a particular purpose. Her brothers, Jack and Max, were created for a particular purpose. It is not our job as parents to choose that purpose for them. It is our job to guide them as they develop a relationship with the ONE who CREATED THEM and their PURPOSE. It is our job to encourage them as they seek their purpose, help them when they struggle along the way, and praise them when they fulfill what the Lord has called them to. It is our job to TALK with them and LOVE on them and SET EXAMPLES for them. The Lord already knows Jack, Max, and Mary Powell.....and He knows the particular purpose for which He created them.

Mary's verse that we chose for her dedication Sunday was Jeremiah 29:11..... "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

DEDICATION: We, Joe and Mikki Powell, stand before our God and our church and officially say that Mary Jewel Powell was created BY God and FOR God. ONLY GOD has been with her EVERY DAY of her life..... her birthmother has not, we have not.... BUT THE LORD HAS. He has watched over her, smiled at her, whispered in her ear, enjoyed her smile..... He has brought her into our lives and created a forever family that now brings her back to HIM. For this child we have prayed..... but she's not really ours.... she is HIS..... and we dedicate her PRECIOUS LIFE to HIM and HIS SERVICE.

Cause that's her PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

That's ALL of our particular purpose.

To love God and serve Him.

Dedication, indeed.

Now. PICTURE TIME!

My usually blogging position. I can't imagine why this is the only time that I can THINK enough to write? Bless it.

So. Here are the pictures from the actual dedication.

I am stressed in every one of these. Even the ones I'm not in.

Before the service. I was so stressed about not having my memory card for my camera that I only took two pictures here. Don't even know where my other children ARE at this point.

Mary's dress was handmade by a dear friend, Melissa Jacobs. It is incredibly gorgeous! It also came with this precious bonnet. Could you just die?

Service is about to start..... here we are lined up with the other sweet families who probably aren't stressed out at all. I"m clapping here.... not sure why, but probably because I"m excited that this is about to be over.

And, here were are.... getting all dedicated! See her little picture on the screen? It also gave her birthday and her adoption day!

And.... here's where it starts to get a little bit interesting. See how excited the boys look? See Joe trying to keep Mary still? See Mary trying to get down? See me? Yep. There you go.

A little eating and shopping at Mr. Chen's after the service.

And a few pictures from today. Well, maybe more than a FEW.......

She discovered the picture of Jesus in the stained glass of the chapel and started waving to him. I almost fell backwards down the steps from laughter. It ain't easy laughing and taking pictures at the same time.... She was waving and squealing!!