Being His hands and feet

(This post is really just for my "baby book" memories - no pictures)
For quite a while I've been trying to figure out a way to get involved with some sort of outreach ministry with my children. Our church has a great Dream Center in a lower income area of our city and there are tons of opportunities to serve there but nothing that I felt my family could really do at this time. I've wanted to do something where my kids could really be involved and not just something I could do while they were babysat. Soooo, the Lord began to lay on my heart nursing homes. Now, let me say I know this is the Lord because I am not really an "elderly" person kind of person (whatever that means). This is not an area of ministry I have ever been involved in before. But, I began to see this is an area my children could really serve in and make a difference in someone's life - just by being their precious selves and going and smiling, talking, hugging on them. Their innocence makes this so perfect because they have no idea that some people are very uncomfortable in this arena - it's all just normal for now. We had planned to go to a local nursing home on Christmas but it didn't work out but I still wanted to do something. I want my children to know a LIFE of serving others, not just something we do on holidays. I continued to pray about it and low and behold there was a small group at our church this semester that was built around visiting a nursing home and they were especially looking for people with small children - I read it and thought - "that's me - that's us!!! we can do this!!"
My original thought was that we would go in and there would be a big meeting room where everyone would congregate and my kids could entertain, play games, etc. After talking to the small group leader I quickly learned that her heart is really for the residents that aren't able to get out of their rooms and participate in activities and many that have NO ONE to ever come and visit them. It was a little overwhelming but I knew this was where the Lord was leading so we continued on. For several weeks we had one or more kids with coughs or snotty noses and we weren't able to go but finally, today we were able to go for the first time. We have been making crafts and Valentine's for weeks to share with everyone and the kids and I had been talking about where we were going and who we would see. The reason I felt this would be so great for my kids is because they are rarely shy and will talk to anyone and I just knew they could bring a smile to a lonely man or woman - and boy did they! I was so proud of them. Many of the residents sit outside their rooms just hanging out waiting to talk to someone so we were able to walk up and down the halls and hand out our crafts, give hugs - one resident even had Martha Speaks on in her room so the kids loved that :) A couple of the men had on Alabama shirts and James would tell them "I like your Alabama shirt". I let them each bring a favorite toy with them so they would have something to talk about - John-Mark brought Woody, Gracie brought Jessie, and James brought a little football. James even tossed the ball with one man for a bit. They asked some questions - like about one man's dentures that weren't really in all the way and one woman that had oxygen but they didn't really make a big deal about any of it. They really got in to the swing of it and were hunting down people to give their Valentines to. There was one very sweet girl that is mentally handicapped that just wanted to hold them and squeeze them to death! Gracie wasn't a big fan of her but John-Mark was so sweet - she came up and just squeezed him and tried to pick him up and he just stood there with these big eyes - thankfully a nurse came to his rescue - but he never even said a word about it. I tried to "prepare" them as best I could but I wasn't even sure of how it would all go down. It was like thier little spirits just understood. I pray that the more we go we will be able to build relationships with some of these residents and be able to be something they can look forward to. And once my kids REALLY come out of their shells there will be no stopping them. I know there will be days that aren't easy and I'm sure we will eventually have to talk about death - but like I said, I know this is the Lord's leading so I know He'll take care of anything I could possibly worry about.
Oh - and of course Benjamin was the highlight for everyone! They all just wanted to hold him and pinch those sweet cheeks. And he was A MAZING! He was in the best mood and would just smile at everyone that looked at him which made them all just squeal and call everyone else over to see him. I mean, seriously, how easy is this. Some of these people have family that aren't able to come and visit them so here we are, able to be the Lord's hand and feet to show them that He loves them, cares about them, knows them, and sees them - and cares so much about them that He prompted me to bring my (His) babies to brighten their day! How awesome to get to be a part of the body of Christ. Thankful.

The 3 Amigos

How sweet are these 3!?!

Gracie loves her brothers and they love her. I tell people all the time I think she sometimes thinks she's a 3 year old boy because she wants to be just like them! Don't get me wrong, she loves her baby dolls and playing dress up but most of the time she follows these two around like a little puppy. The boys are learning what the word "example" means because I have to tell them all the time to be careful of what "example" they are setting for their little sister because they know she always does what they do. Sometimes she'll be doing something she's not supposed to like climbing on furniture or jumping off of something and I'll ask James, "why is she doing that?" and he'll respond, "Because I did it and she does what I do" Gotta love all the teachable moments with little ones :)

James thought it would be fun to dress Gracie up in one of her princess costumes and then dance around the house! LOVE :)

Eventually John-Mark joined in the fun :)

Just to keep it real - I get this look A LOT lately with an "I not playing with you" or "I not your friend anymore" to add to it. But to be fair - she learned this from another little Allen

So, it's not a girl thing but I do think she has it mastered much better than John-Mark - could be because she does use it MUCH more than he does :) (What's funny is John-Mark was pouting about something so I told him I was going to take his pouting face picture then I asked Grace to show me her pouting face picture and she knew exactly what I was asking!)
Last week we took the older three kids to the circus. At one point when these martial arts guys were jumping through fire hoops and bending steel with their bodies I said to Jeremy, "this may not be the best idea for our boys to be watching". Sure enough a couple of nights ago I looked out and they had taken their shirts off (like the guys at the circus) and they told me they were pretending to be in the Circus. Thankfully they were unable to get thier hands on fire or steel beams - they made it work with sticks :)

And ofcourse we can't forget this sweet boy! One night while I was making dinner I turned around and he was passed out in his exersaucer - now that is one pooped baby :)

Benjamin is now just a little over 4 months and recently he has started blowing bubbles a ton and continues to "talk" all the time. Is it possible we are going to have 4 talkative kids?!? I don't see how any one will ever get a word in around here! He's also rolling over now. When we put him on his activity mat he rolls until he can't roll anymore! Also, now that he's able to roll from his front to his back he has become a full tummy sleeper. He still isn't in to the paci and while we've caught him sucking his thumb once or twice he's not doing it all the time yet.

Sometimes I hesitate to blog unless I have stories to share about all the kids because I want everyone to be represented evenly but sometimes it's hard. Inevitably one or two kids have more "blog worthy" things going on. Here are a couple updates on James and John-Mark.

This past month both boys went to the dentist for the first time (J has the pics on his iphone). They did great and had no cavities! We read a Dr. Suess book called "The Tooth Book" so I knew James would talk about that the whole time! The dentist told James if he quit sucking his thumb they would throw him a party! He has a friend that stopped sucking his thumb at 5 and since James is pretty influenced by his friends I told him about this and he is now saying he will "probably" stop when he's 5 (I like how he's leaving himself an out)

The month of January our church always does 21 days of prayer and fasting. Every morning from 6-7 we have corporate prayer at our church and now you can join on line. It was a great time and I loved the discipline of getting up every morning and knowing so many other believers were all praying at the same time. On the last Saturday I was able to actually make it to the church and I decided to take James so he could experience it. I LOVE our church and the children's ministry but sometimes I want my kids to see what the grown ups are doing too. He did a great job. He loved the worship and the last song we sang was one of his favorites "If our God is for us, then who could ever stop us" and he sang his little heart out! Precious! He was a little confused at the end and told me he never saw our Pastor take out one of the Christmas cards. We pray over a Christmas card every day with the kids and when I told him we were going to a prayer meeting he obviously assumed they did the same thing :) sweet boy!

Finally John-Mark. Good grief this boy is beautiful. He can be the sweetest little boy ever. Every night he tells me "hey mom, tomorrow it's going to be your birthday and I'm going to get you a prize" and I say "great! I can't wait!" He loves to hold my hand which is super sweet but can cause a problem seeing as I only have two of them and I am usually holding a baby with one and then only have 1 to share with 3 :) As I've said before he continues to show us that he is much more independent than his older brother. Especially when we go to a friends house. People always comment how well behaved he is because he gets lost in his own little world playing with new toys!

Recently we were at church and a sweet friend asked him if he would like to meet a friend of hers to which he quickly replied "sure Mrs. Nikki" then proceeded to walk over and shake her hand and say "hi, I'm John-Mark!" as handsome as could be! As much as I know James is a little extrovert he can sometimes get this shy thing going - so far John-Mark hasn't shown that side yet. It may come with age but he seems pretty comfortable in his own skin right now :)