Hosanna - "a cry of adoration to our God"

Today the 'boys' are enjoying some time together and we 'girls' are enjoying some time together.  Tony and James left early this morning to join the Promise 139 field trip to our former stomping ground - New Orleans!  I avoided the temptation of tagging along knowing James needed some Papa time.   Praising God for opportunities to have "Papa" time and "Mama" time...

Tony sent the following pictures...Manly breakfast - Chicken!

French Quarter...

Cafe Du Monde...

Mississippi River...

Meanwhile, the girls dressed themselves up and asked, "Mama!  Musica!"  Their favorite song:

"Hosanna!  Hosanna!  Hosanna in the highest!"

(Hillsongs of Australia)

Dancing around while I checked email...

"Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.  Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness....  The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.  May the LORD give strength to his people!  May the LORD bless his people with peace!"  (Psalm 29:1-2, 10-11)

We give thanks to the Lord today for His steadfast love, constant provision and sovereign grace!  

We join in celebrating the news of the Hodge's new family of six ability to travel home tomorrow!  May the Lord grant them safe, timely and sweet flights tomorrow!

Celebrate America

Sunday was a special day at church... a day celebrating the grace of God in establishing  our great country... a place where we are free to worship the Sovereign Creator...  May we never take our freedoms for granted!  It was extra special to have our children experience this.  As we watched them wave American flags we thought to ourselves, "They have no idea yet the implications of what it means to now be an American!"  May they grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!  May they take His Name to the nations!

The Mayor of Hattiesburg presented Tony with a proclamation, which was very special...
The girls loved Ms. Joy's puppy named Lucy...




The kids loved the fireworks and fun.  :)

After we put the kids to bed, we started the HBO miniseries "John Adams" for our patriotic enjoyment this week.  If you haven't read the book or seen the series, it is fabulous! 

Rewards...

This morning the girls came down close to 9 AM with giant smiles beckoning me to follow them back upstairs.  They wanted to show off their clean rooms...

After much praise, hugs and kisses they started chanting, "Stickers!  Money!"  :)  Too cute.  So, I rewarded their productive week of good work.  They were ecstatic and loved the sound of jingle in their brand new piggy banks.  We skyped Papa and they showed off their "bling, bling"...  Meanwhile, we are all looking forward to Tony's return from two weeks of X-Fuge Camp tonight.  Yay!!!

Promise 139 Orphan Hosting...

This morning felt a little like Saturday.  We stayed in our pajamas until almost 10 AM!  Then we enjoyed fellowship with friends for lunch... Cara & Allison Slusher, Jonathon & Ansley Brent... followed by a trip to get snow balls.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.  Allison snapped a few cute pics on her cell phone and will upload later, so stay tuned for our first snow balls...

Naptime...

Following our afternoon retreat from the heat it was off to join up with Promise 139 for a birthday bash.  SIX children from an orphanage in Ukraine are visiting for two weeks.  It was neat to be able to join in on the fun with multiple other Russian speakers, not to mention the fact that of all in attendance EIGHT have already been adopted from Ukraine!  Our four, two Mortons, two Jordans... and then two from Russia and two from here!  Great food and much laughter had by all...

James played photographer for awhile...

Then it was my turn to snap a few ...

Happy Birthday, Candice!

The Balloon Drop was awesome!

All of this fun took place at the Phillips' campground.  Aren't they sweet?!.  :)

Then it was organized chaos...

Silly String!!!

To conclude the evening's festivities for us, the kids chased and captured baby ducks... everyone of my four were carrying them around proud of their accomplishment and wanting to keep them...

On the drive home, the kids were laughing and telling stories about the evening (in Russian, of course)... I enjoyed listening to their joyful recap...