Happy New Year.....

2014 has definately been a tough year for our family, but it has been a year of growth as well. Many things have changed for our family, but our God never changes. He is ALWAYS with us and ALWAYS will be. He never promised that life would be easy, but He promises that He will carry us through all situations. I am thankful for the challenges of 2014, but look forward to God's blessing in 2015. Praying God will richly bless each of you this new year.

 

 

New Year blessings from our family to yours.

 

 

Blessings

Give thanks always. I have shared with our girls several times lately that there is always something to be thankful for.....during the good times and bad. My family has been tremendously blessed the past week. No, I wasn't handed a wad of money....lol. Some of the blessings from this past week include: some nice, new clothes being given to our girls, jeans, which he desperately needed, being given to James, a few days at a friends camp at the lake, someone asking if they could help buy Christmas gifts for our girls, peaceful moments with my Father, and seeing God at work.

 

 Here a pics of a few other blessings.

 

We have been given a couple bags of satsumas already and today were given this basket full of satsumas. We plan to dehydrate some and juice some as well. 

 

 

The girls picked up a bag of hickory nuts at our Aunts house this evening. I am hoping to make a hickory nut cake with them around Christmas. I remember my mom making one when I was 10ish and I thought it was the best cake ever. Hoping she still has the recipe. Will share when I make it.

 

Also, we were given a deer neck, deer shoulder, and a bag of frozen dew berries.

 

These things may not seem like much to some people, but I feel blessed with by every gift of love I receive. These are amazing gifts for this country gal.....lol. I told James earlier that I feel like we are living the Little House on the Prairie.

 

Be blessed, my friends. Find something to be thankful for each day.

 

Happenings and Grattitudes:

Four weeks ago, today, I had foot surgery and have been layed up since. It has been difficult the past couple of weeks because I am feeling much better and want to be up doing something. I have  been very obedient to my doctor. I layed in bed three weeks with my foot elevated and have spent the last week in our recliner with my foot elevated. I see my doctor on Thursday to have my hard cast removed and will then start therapy and begin wearing my walking boot. Honestly, this cast can't come off soon enough. This has been very difficult for my family with my husband being down as well. I must say that he has taken such good care of me even though he is in terrible pain himself. The hardest part for me other than the first week of pain has been to see my house so messy. It is never perfectly clean, but it is usually picked up and decent. We started school a couple weeks after my surgery. It has gone well provided the circumstances.

 

Even though our life has been CRAZIER this past month, we have been blessed. I cannot express the GRATTITUDE I have for our church family. We had meals brought to our house on a daily basis for over three weeks. We have people driving James and I back and forth to doctor appointments. We have people running errands for us and picking up our girls for church. We have people grocery shopping for us. You see my point. WE ARE BLESSED!!!!!!!! But, the most important part is that I have had people praying for me and my family. That itself has been our greatest blessing.

My God Shall Supply All My Needs......

Some people just don't get it....lol....many people don't get it. I haven't always gotten it. Now, I am living it. It is so hard for people to understand that God will take care of you and meet your needs. God always makes a way where there seems to be no way.

James saw a pain management doctor today. Praise God, we are moving forward again. He will have an epidural injection in a month, along with some trigger point injections.

As we were discussing everything with the doctor, he question James' occupation. James tells him that he is a welder, but hasn't worked in almost four months. The doctor just stares at us so puzzled. He doesn't understand how we can live with no income. We told him that our church and family and friends have blessed our family. He just didn't get it.

I don't understand it, but I can tell you God has blessed the Henson family tremendously. God tells us to trust in him and he will take care of us and he has.

 

And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.   Philippians 4:19

 

Jam and Jelly Time.....

They past couple months, we have been blessed with some delicious fruits and berries.

A friend gave us some plums from his plum tree. I was beyond happy to restock our canning

pantry with some decicious red plum jelly....my absolute favorite.

Another friend picked both she and I  a gallon of blackberries and all the ingredients to make jam in exchange for me making the  jam. Yesterday, I made 16 jars of blackberry jam.....delicious.

Our neighbor gave us 3/4 of a bushel of peaches from his peach tree. I made peach jam for the first time ever......taste like candy....yummy.

I was also given a gallon of frozen mayhaw berries and two gallons of frozen blueberries. I seriously need to get busy making some mayhaw jelly and blueberry jam.

I always hope to make enough that I can skip a year on some things, but I love to give it away as gifts. I had lots of jam and jelly in my canning pantry last year and ended up with just a few jars left. I actually ran out of my favorite plum jelly.

Looking forward to refilling the jam and jelly shelves again.

 

Sharing the Good News

Our Sweet Madison turned 10 a few weeks ago. We planned a small party for family and a couple friends. Madison asked me to tell family and friends that she would like them to bring Bibles to give to foster children instead of gifts for herself. She received 4 Bibles (a couple people forgot) and mostly everyone still bought her a small gift since they were impressed with her generosity.

James and I have taken foster classes and hope to foster children as soon as he heals from surgeries. Madison asks often when we will get foster children as she is ready to have younger children in our home. She is passionate about foster children learning how much Jesus loves them and about the miracles He performed. She wants them to know that Jesus still performs miracles and that their families can experience miracles.

We delivered the four Bibles to our dear friend, Jesse, at Arrow Child and Family Ministries where Madison and our daughter, Jaelyn,  met Jesse for the first time. Jesse trains families to be liscensed foster care families. A few people saw through a facebook post what Madison had done and wanted to know if it was too late to donate Bibles. Madison called Jesse the next day to see if she could continue to collect Bibles. During that time, they launched Project Madison.  Madison shared what she felt led to do with our church last Sunday and was blessed by a wonderful love offering of $575. As of today,  the total is $640. At this point, we have ordered 48  Bibles to be given to foster children.

My mommy heart is bursting. I say we don't deserve the girls God loaned us, but I am glad he chose us to parent them. To God be the glory.  I can't wait to update soon.



This Girl....

I am so thankful for this girl. She is my firstborn, my mini me (scary). She is a strong-willed, funny personality young lady. She keeps my on my toes or on my knees. God teaches me a lesson each day through her. Lessons in love, forgiveness, patience, kindness, gentleness......lots of lessons. I am so thankful that he chose me to be Jaelyn's mom.

 

 

She was serious about this game. She didn't even know

I took the pic.

 

Children are a gift from the Lord.....