My 25 cents worth

I realized tonight just how extremely blessed I am.  I went "back home" for two days and spent them surrounded by family.  I was blessed to see my dad, a loving step-mother, one of my two sisters and her husband.  I am beyond blessed to still have both of my paternal grandparents and to have them in relatively good health.  While my mom and her parents all passed away many years ago, I have my precious Aunt Nancy and her family.  We were able to celebrate my Uncle Tim's 50th birthday with a surprise celebration that only Nancy could've pulled off.  I was already a little emotional when we arrived, but I was taken by surprise when we started to eat dinner.  Nancy had catered in a delicious meal of barbeque pork, ribs, chicken and all the fixin's.  The smell was everywhere and the taste was there to match it.  I have to say, in all honesty though, that it was the chicken that made me cry.  My "Big Daddy", my mom's dad, was the king of barbeque chicken.  It was his specialty.  No one else had ever made it like he did...until tonight.  I took one bite and as the taste filled my senses, the memories flooded my mind.  I was taken back to dinners around his table.  Watching him clean a chicken leg like a pro, and I cried.  I cried in part, because I miss him...I miss all of them, and in part because I realized, in light of our current journey, just how blessed I've been.

You see, most of these children that we are praying for have never had a Big Daddy to cook for them.  They don't have an Aunt Nancy to go out of her way to make them feel special.  Many of them have never known a loving daddy and step-mom, an aunt that dotes on them or a Granny and Pawpaw that have shown them what family is.  I've had all of that and so much more.  I think that is part of what makes this Ranch so important to me.  I want those precious kids to know it too.

Many of you know that Frank and his brother and sister came out of an orphange scenario.  They were blessed to be able to stay in touch with their other siblings and Frank and Dale were doubly blessed to be adopted by two people that understood the importance of family, both old and new.  His desire is like mine, to be able to be the hands and heart of Jesus in the lives of children who, through no fault of their own, have had their lives torn apart.

Our vision is not just to have homes for them, but to have grandparents, aunts and uncles as well.  To have people come in and "adopt" them, spend time with them, take them shopping or fishing or to come to their special events and cheer them on.  Do you remember looking into the audience and seeing your parents there for you?  How cool would it be for them to look out and see you, or someone like you, smiling, nodding and clapping their approval as they do their best?

What about teaching them skills like how to change the oil in a car?  How to tend a garden and can what you grow?  What about teaching them to build things with their own two hands or how to play piano or guitar?  We want these kids to do everything they've ever dreamed about and to grow up to be everything God Himself dreamed they would be.

That can't happen without you.  Please be in prayer for each of them.  We don't know their names... we haven't seen their faces... but we have heard their stories for years.  Please pray for those who will come to nurture them.  Pray for us as we continue to seek His design for this Ranch.  We have continued to feel confirmed in this endeavor.  We have met people in the last two weeks that could be instrumental in helping us move forward.

Continue to pray for a team of advisors, for our location, for the finances and for wisdom and patience.  We don't want to take control, we just want to follow His lead.

If you haven't already, please take a moment to click the "Follow Me" tab on the left side of this page so that our updates will come to you automatically.  We truly covet your prayers as we move forward.