Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Day at home. It started early with some very excited children, ready and waiting to open gifts. We enjoyed the morning sharing gifts with one another. The kids had used their own money to buy gifts for each person in our family. John and I had separately taken them to the Dollar Tree, where they carefully picked things out for each person on their list. The boys wrapped their own gifts in the privacy of their own room. John helped Brenna get her gifts for others wrapped. It warmed my heart to watch them give the gifts they had purchased. I'm praying that God will use this to help them understand that it truly is better to give than receive.

After opening gifts, I finished cooking our Christmas lunch while the kids played with some of their new things. Papa John came over and joined us for our yummy lunch. John, the boys and Brenna took turns reading the Christmas story from God's Word. That afternoon, we went outside to take a walk and let the kids ride their bikes. We ended our day with a birthday cake for Jesus that the kids decorated themselves.

Here is John with his new Ipod docking station.

Brandon and Bradley got these football suits for Christmas. Here they are showing me their best football faces!

Here is Bethany with her new baby stroller, playpen, and swing. She is a sweet little Mommy to her baby dolls.

Ms. Brenna has grown so much this year that her bike from last Christmas is too small. So, she got a new one for Christmas. We let her take it for a spin and she did really well. The next step is to get rid of the training wheels. Maybe soon!

We made a heart-shaped cake to show how much God loved us by sending His Son Jesus to be born on earth. The kids loved decorating the cake, and then blowing out the candles.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

What a Great Visit!

We had an early Christmas visit from my side of our family. My brother and his daughter Alex, flew in from Chicago. They, along with my Mom, Dad, and sister Kimmy came to our house for several days. They were here until early Christmas Eve, when they had to travel back to Dallas for my brother and neice to catch their flight home. We had lots of fun while they were here. We played games, watched movies, finished shopping, and had lots of laughs. They were all here for Brandon and Bradley's baptism too (see next two posts). We celebrated Christmas with them on Monday evening. John shared the Christmas story with everyone in a very creative way, and then we opened gifts. It was such a treat to have them all here. We are so thankful they were able to travel to our home to spend time with us. It was sad to see them leave, but we made lots of Christmas memories while they were here. Enjoy these photos from the week.

Myself with my brother (Jeff) and my sister (Kimmy). There are always lots of laughs when these two are around.

My brother and his daughter Alex (my sweet neice)

PawPaw opening his gift from Brenna (his favorite, Butterfingers). He had been teasing her the whole visit trying his best to get her to tell him what she got him for Christmas.

Mom, Dad and myself at church on Sunday.

Christmas with Family

On Sunday, the 21st, John's sister Janie and her family drove up from Houston to be here for the boys baptism (see next post). John's mom was also here with us for this special occasion. We had fun after church eating lunch and opening gifts with all of them. We're so glad they were here and enjoyed our day with them.

Here is Uncle Darren and Brenna.

John and I with our nephews Blake and Rayne, and our neice Jordan

John and his sister Janie with their Mom (Linda) and Dad (Papa John)

The grandkids with Moms and Papa John! Aren't they all so cute???

Brandon & Bradley's Baptism

Sunday, December 21st was a very special day for our family. Brandon and Bradley were baptized by their daddy! What an honor for John to be able to baptize our boys! They were able to share with our entire church family, plus grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, that they had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Their MawMaw and PawPaw, Aunt Kimmy, Uncle Jeff and cousin Alex were all there to share in this exciting event. Plus, Papa John, Moms, Uncle Darren, Aunt Janie, Cousins Blake, Rayne and Jordan were also able to be there. It meant a great deal to our family that all of you came.

After church, we had a family lunch at home and opened Christmas gifts with John's sister Janie and her family. What an exciting day!!! Here are a few pictures to share!

Bradley is looking on as Daddy gets ready!

John and the boys before their baptism.

John baptizing Bradley

John getting ready to baptize Brandon

Brandon & Bradley, your daddy and I are so proud of you for the decision you've made to follow Jesus! I pray that you will always strive to know Him more, and to love Him with your whole heart. We love you boys very much

14 Years, Wow!

December 17, 1994 was one of the best days of my life. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was my wedding day, the day I married John A. Woods, the love of my life. I remember the excitement and joy I felt that day. I wasn't nervous at all, just so excited that our day had finally arrived. I remember all our family and friends being there to share our special day with us. I remember wishing the day would never end. But, as our wedding day came to an end, our new life together as a married couple began.



This year on December 17, 2008, John and I celerated 14 years of marriage. I can't believe it has been 14 years since we said "I do", but it has. After getting the kids all to bed, John treated me to dinner and a movie right here at home. He also surprised me with 15 dozen roses. Yes, that's right, I said 15 DOZEN. I was shocked to say the least. And, they didn't cost him a thing. I'm not sure how he did that, he never would tell me. But, they were absolutely beautiful. We didn't have enough vases to fit them in, so we had to leave them in the lovely buckets they came in. He said it was one dozen for every year we had been married, plus one to grown on. I've posted pictures to prove it. It doesn't look like 180 roses, but it really is. Scouts honor!!!



Thank you John for 14 great years. I know we've had our ups and downs, but God has sustained our marriage. I'm thankful for you and your love for me and our family. Thank you for working so hard to provide for us and take care of us. I love you more and more each day and am looking forward to the next 14 years to spend with you. Hopefully it will be many more than that! God has done so many things in our marriage over the past 14 years, and I praise Him for all He's done. Thank you John, for the yummy dinner, the movie, and the beautiful roses!

Any PCD fans in the house????

Last Thursday night, my sweet husband took me to see Phillips, Craig & Dean in concert. They are one of my all time favorite Christian singing groups. They've been singing together 17 years, Wow!!! I'm beginning to feel old because I've been listening to them a long time. Anyway, we had seats on the 2nd row and it was awesome! Here are a couple of pictures below from the evening. John took them on his phone, so the quality is not the best! Thank John for a very fun evening! I loved the concert and I love you.

Christmas Concert

Tonight was a special night in our church. Our preschool, children, youth, Sr. Adult, and Adult choirs sang special concerts! Brenna and Bethany sang with the Preschool choir, and Brandon and Bradley sang with the Children's choir. Below are some pictures from the evening.

My cuties after the concert! I was desperately trying to get them to smile together!

My silly boys before singing!

Here is Bethany singing. She is supossed to be rocking baby Jesus back and forth in her arms.

Brenna and her friend Garret, singing during practice!

Awana "Happy Birthday Jesus" Party

We had our final Awana meeting for the semester yesterday morning from 10 to 12. We had a birthday celebration for Jesus, along with a live nativity for the children to enjoy! One of our student ministers dressed as a shepherd, and took the kids to the manger scene, where he told them the story of Jesus birth (Thanks Douggie!!! You did an excellent job!) The kids seemed to enjoy it. One of the funny things about the morning were the live animals. We were supossed to have some sheep, possibly a donkey, we even checked into having camels. As it turned out, none of those animals were able to join us. The only animals available were these two sweet little baby pigs. Now, I'm not sure if pigs were present when Jesus was born, but our living nativity was equipped with 2 shepherds standing watch over the pigs. Funny! The kids loved them and our morning went very well! We celebrated with birthday cake, a message from John, gifts, and of course, a visit to the manger where we were reminded about the reason we celebrate Christmas! May we not get so busy that we forget the birth our our Savior! Enjoy the photos!

Brandon, Bradley and Brenna are checking out the pigs.

Here is some of the cast of our living nativity! Thanks guys!

This picture is so funny! John was in charge of picking the pigs up and taking them back home. So, we followed him to take them home so the kids could see all the pigs at the farm. Now, pigs don't usually smell like roses, and when I opened the van door, Bethany soon learned this to be true. She said, "OOOOH, Mommy, Poop!!!" She did not let go of her nose until we left the farm. I laughed watching her hold her nose!

Thanksgiving Day

Well, John blogged about Thanksgiving several days ago, so I wanted to share a few photos with you from our wonderful day! We spent the day with my family having tons of fun, eating yummy food, riding the new go-cart that MawMaw and PawPaw bought, playing baseball, and lots of other fun things. As John posted earlier, we also remembered how thankful we are for all the blessings from the Lord. I'm thankful for my family and the time God allowed us to spend together this past week. What memories were created!

Here are a couple of photos of our go-cart adventures. The top picture is of Bradley driving John, and the bottom picture is of Brandon driving Bethany and I around the yard. It was so cute when Brandon said as he was zooming in the go-cart, "Ain't this fun, Mommy?" And at some point during the ride, Bethany said, "Hold on tight!" So funny!

Brenna's favorite thing is for her PawPaw to pull her in the trailor behind his riding lawn mower! The faster he drives, the more they love it!

We also had the privilege of meeting my sister, Kimmy's boyfriend, Joe. We had lots of fun getting to know him and spending time with he and Kimmy!

The day after Thanksgiving, we got to visit John's MeMaw and Papaw. We had not seen them since we moved so it was a treat to get to visit with them. We also got to visit with John's mom. That's one thing I love about the holidays, is that we get to see people who we don't see very often. Here is a picture of the kids with Memaw and Papaw.

The next day, Sat., we travelled to Paris to visit some of our friends there. We had dinner with our dear friends, Mark and Meredith, and Kristi. The kids had a blast playing with their buddies Josh and Noah, while I had some time to catch up with my dear friends. Brandon and Bradley even got to spend the night with them. We love you guys! We were also able to attend our previous church in Paris and had the chance to see lots of our friends there.

I'm thankful for the time away to see family and friends. It's always good to travel, but it is also nice to be back home. Our 5 hour trip home turned into an 8 hour trip because traffic was so bad. God brought us home safely and we thank Him for it.

A Blessed Day, 1 year ago, November 27, 2007

This past Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, reminded me that one year ago, we adopted our beautiful little Bethany. We travelled out to Abilene to join 4 other families who were also experiencing the incredible gift of adoption. Five families on November 27, 2007, gave 9 children the gift of a forever family. What a glorious day it was as Bethany officially became a Woods. She has been such a joy to us, as well as, to all who know her. She is now 3 years old and has grown in so many different ways. She can sing "Jesus Loves Me" so sweetly and it makes my heart smile every time I hear it. She may not probounce all the words, but the melody is almost perfect pitch. What a blessing God has given us in this little girl. I look forward to all He has in store for her as she continues to grow. Thank you Lord for Bethany, our beautiful daughter, a gift from You! I pray she will grow up to know You, love You, and serve You with her whole heart.



I thought I would share some photos from that special day! Hope you don't mind!

One Proud Mommy!!!


Here is our family with Judge Alita Hacker. She has done all 4 of our children's adoptions.

Here is Brenna, Bethany and their cousin Mary Grace. What a sweetie!

This is my dear friend Shanna, and her precious daughter Mary Grace. We were so thrilled that they could spend our special day with us!

Thanksgiving

What a great day it has been today. Thanksgiving. Giving thanks. Today could be described with five words: fun, family, food, football, and faith. We spent the day at Jennifer's mom and dad's house along with Jennifer's sister, Kimberly and her boyfriend Jo, along with my dad and my crew of six. There was the traditional turkey and dressing with all the trimmings as well as pumpkin and chocolate pies for dessert. There was also the traditional watching of football games galore today, including two resounding victories by the Cowboys and the Longhorns! There was also the non-traditional activities of riding go-carts & taking tractor rides around the yard as well as a four-inning family-friendly game of baseball. After an overcast start to the day, the sun came out and shone brightly (in answer to our prayers this morning) and splashed our game with its presence and warmth. This day started off right with Jennifer and I having our personal quiet time with God, including time praying together. It was during that time that God reminded us in a fresh way about the meaning and importance of gratitude. I'd like to share a couple of excerpts from a book I'm reading entitled Every Day Deserves A Chance by Max Lucado. From the chapter entitled "Gratitude for Ungrateful Days", here's some good food for thought on a day when you've probably had your fill of food. Chew on this:

"Gratitude is the firstborn child of grace, the appropriate response of the blessed." (We are the blessed indeed!).

"God notices the grateful heart. Why? Does he have an ego problem? No. But we do. Gratitude lifts our eyes off the things we lack so we might see the blessings we possess."

One final thought: Today is the one-year anniversary of the adoption of our youngest child, Bethany. She is a beautiful, wonderful blessing, as are Brandon, Bradley, & Brenna. Thank you God for Thanksgiving. I am overflowing with gratefulness. posted by John (and I'm sure there will be pictures added after we return home).

Quotes

Here's a couple of good quotes to chew on:



"It is never right to do wrong; it is never wrong to do right." - Ryan Dobson (son of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and found of Kor World Ministries) www.ryandobson.com



"What you think about God is the most important thing about you." - A.W. Tozer (as quoted by James McDonald on his show Walk in the Word). http://www.walkintheword.com/

posted by John

A Date with My Husband

I actually got to go on a date with my husband tonight. This is something we don't get to do very often, so when we do, it's a real treat! Someone in our church blessed John with 2 tickets to the Lady Longhorn basketball game. Now, I'm not a big sports fan unless I'm watching my boys play baseball, or my daughter play soccer. Then I get really excited! But, I do like to watch basketball. I don't care to watch it on TV, but to see it in person is fun. John took me to the game tonight and we had a really good time watching the game and munching on popcorn! The Lady Longhorns won the game, so that made the night even better. Thanks John for a great evening!

Aunt Janie, Uncle Darren and their kiddos happened to be here this weekend for some fun BMX bike racing. Brandon and Bradley got to hang out with them at the track this afternoon, while my friend Jennith watched our girls for us. Brandon even took his 1st spin around the track and actually did pretty well! He came away with a nice scrape on his ankle, but other than that, he was ready to go again! Thanks Uncle Darren and Aunt Janie for keeping the boys this afternoon and evening! I know they had a great time!

Jennith, a great big "Thank you" to you too for keeping Brenna and Bethany! We appreciate you guys very much!

Salvation

"Salvation is found in no else; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved." Acts 4:12

Conditions or Circumstances That Will Not Get You to Heaven (i.e. - save you):

1. Being Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, or any other denomination or label of religion.
2. Being Good Enough.
3. Going to church.
4. Reading the Bible.
5. Having parents or grandparents who are Christians
6. Being baptized
7. Praying
8. Giving enough money
9. Performance or ability
10. Achievements or merit of any kind (educational, religious, social, economical, political)

The Bible states the truth clearly in John 14:6. In that passage, Jesus said, "I am the (only) way, the (only) truth, and the (only) life; no one comes to the Father except through Me." italics mine

Nothing and no one can get you to heaven. Only a personal relationship with Jesus will lead to eternal life here and now and in heaven one day. Jesus is the only way. posted by John

It's A Girl!

That's right. I was witness to the birth of a child tonight. It was a girl! Congratulations Erni family. You've been doubly blessed. You're daughter, Christine, is just beautful; and now she's a part of God's forever family. Oh by the way - just in case your wondering - the birth I refer to that I witnessed tonight was a spiritual birth, not a physical one. Nine-year old Christine Erni came to my office before church late this afternoon to visit with me about becoming a Christian. After we went through God's plan of salvation from the Bible, Christine took God at His Word and trusted Him with her life as her personal Lord & Savior. Understanding that she was a sinner, she turned from her sin and turned to Jesus alone to save her. She did what Romans 10:9-10 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made, resulting in salvation." Way to go, Christine! I am proud of you. This is the most important decision anyone can make.
On a personal note, in 19 years of ministry, having the privilege of leading a child to faith in Jesus Christ never gets old. It is always an incredible experience. I'm humbled to be one whom God would choose to use to lead & help children on the great journey - the journey of faith with Jesus.
Christine - now it's time to grow! This is just the beginning of the journey. We serve an awesome God. There's nothing like a new birth - physical or spiritual! posted by John

Flowers and Crazy Hair

Alot has happened this week. Alot happens every week in the Woods' house, but this week I thought I would post about 2 things. The first pictures I have posted are of my children on "Crazy Hair Night" at Awana. We have "Crazy Hair Night" every year in Awana and they never grow tired of it. They love wearing their hair in some kind of crazy way out of the norm. So, enjoy the crazy hair pics below.

Here, Brandon is giving his Dad the side view of his wacky hairdo!

Would you look at that mohawk? It's amazing what a hand filled of hair goop will do!!

My four darlings with their crazy do's!

You might be wondering why I've posted a picture of these beautiful flowers. My husband brought these home to the kids and I Monday evening after work. We were very surprised and immediately got a vase with water for them. He wanted to let us know how much he loved us by saying, "These roses will die, but my love for you will never die!" What an awesome picture to show myself as well as our children. John, you are an awesome husband and father and I love you very much! Thank you for giving of yourself for our family. Thank you for working so hard each day to provide for us. We notice all you do and we appreciate you! We love you! I love you! And, I thank God for you!

The Good News

Did you know that Taiwan is a country where 97% of the people are Buddhist? That means if they died today, they would do so without a relationship with Jesus Christ and would spend eternity separated from God. Franklin Graham, son of world-renown evangelist Billy Graham, has just finished preaching a festival in Taipei, Taiwan over a four-day period. In that time, 183,000 persons heard the Good News of Jesus Christ proclaimed to them by Graham. Of those people, nearly 10,000 made a commitment of their life to Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord. WOW! The Gospel is still the best news available, and people responding to it is Good News indeed! You can read and see more about the Taipei Franklin Graham Festival at www.billygraham.org posted by John

Trunk Or Treat

Last night, we had a terrific opportunity to reach out to our community, to share the love of Jesus and let them know that we love and care about them. Our church did our 1st Trunk or Treat. We had many families participate by decorating their trunks, helping with set-up and clean-up, providing candy, etc. Thank you to our great church family for making this event a huge success. We handed out many gospel tracts, booklets about knowing Jesus as your personal Savior, and candy packets with the gospel message printed on them. We also got to speak to many people who do not attend our church or any church, with words of love and encouragement. John, you did an awesome job organizing this event! Way to go, Honey!!! Also, John's secretary, Jo, was an awesome help getting all the details in order. Thank you Jo!

Our family decorated our trunk with Veggie Tales. We've always been a huge fan of Veggie Tales, and since John was showing a Veggie Tale video at the end of Trunk or Treat ("Where is God when I'm Scared?"), I thought it would be a great idea to decorate our trunk with the characters. So, I traced them on cardboard and the boys helped me color them. The kids had a blast going around to the different trunks and playing their games. Bethany had to stay close to our van so I could keep an eye on her, so she really enjoyed putting candy in other kids sacks. She was very generous too, giving out lots of candy to each child.

Papa John even came along and handed out candy to the kids.

Here is Sweet Brenna. She got the most candy of all. I don't know how many times she went around to all the trunks, but it was alot! She would say, "Mommy, I'm going around again!" I finally had to tell her she had enough when her bag was so heavy that she could barely carry it. Too funny!!

One of our trunks was actually 3 trunks put together, and they had Karioke (sp?) set up for kids to come by and sing their favorite song. Here is a cute picture of Bethany and Brandon singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Bethany and Bradley are chillin' in the back of our van enjoying a piece of their candy!

Here are my BMW's smiling one more time for their Mommy! Aren't they cute???

We pray that God will take this event, and every tract, booklet, piece of candy, etc. that was handed out last night, and use it to bring many people to know Him. Thank you Lord for allowing us to participate in this ministry.

Visit With A Dear Friend

Last Tuesday, our dear friend Kristi, from Paris, had to come to Austin for training related to her job! Lucky us, because we got to see her for a few hours. She even got to go to Brandon & Bradley's baseball game. What fun!!! We had a little bit of fun taking some pictures after the game too. You can see one of them below with our Hook'em Horns signs. Anyway, what a treat to get to spend some time with our sweet friend whom we don't get to see very often. We thank the Lord for the few hours we got to visit, laugh, and catch up on things we've missed. Friends are such treasures from the Lord. We love you Kristi and want to say "Thank You" for coming to see us! Meredith, we wish you could've come too!!! We love and miss you guys very much!

Moms Visit

This past weekend, John's mom came to visit. What a treat to have "Moms" (this is what the grandkids call her) in our home. She got to see Brenna play soccer and also got to see Brandon and Bradley play baseball. We were thrilled to have her here for a visit. Moms, please come back again really soon! We love you!!! Enjoy this picture of she and the kids!