Gingerbread houses

Our boys have done gingerbread houses with the Cordells (Capps, Bugnars-in the past), every year since I can remember, so I guess really as long as they were old enough to stick candy on icing, this is a really fun time and Anna was able to participate for the first time this year.  Enjoy the pictures!

Isaiah's House

Micah's House

Anna's House

So Sammy is still to young, so he was napping, but included a pic anyway!

The kids with Cordell's decorated this old tree in the backyard!

Our Both Hands Project

We are really excited about this project with Both Hands a ministry of Lifesong for Orphans. We will be working on a widow's home here in downtown Raleigh that still has damage left from the tornadoes.
Our project will be February 4th, check out our link for more information.

http://bothhandsfoundation.org/travis-and-julie-williams.aspx

Lifesong-Giving this season

Lifesong has posted this and I thought I would share it!

Make a Difference in ONE Life!

What is your holy discontent? What is your God-given passion on this earth? You know, that one thing that MOVES you to action, that brings you to tears, and causes you to lose sleep? We have a passion, a yearning to see justice for the fatherless!

"Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." - Isaiah 1:17


2011 Gifts of Purpose from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

It's that time of year again. Holiday music rings through your speaker systems. Decorations light up your street corners. Families gather together.It's the season of love, joy and family.  

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ during this season of giving, we often forget to give to those who NEED it most! This year give differently. Give FAMILY to the 147 million orphans worldwide who dream of belonging. Give HOPE to children living on the streets whose only Christmas wish is survival.

What if, this year, your family gave a gift to those who need it most? A gift that won't fit under the tree? 

Would you consider making a difference in ONE LIFE...

•  Help a child break free from gripping poverty.

•  Give the love of Jesus through Christian mentors.

•  Give a future to an orphan's caregiver.

This year join Lifesong for Orphans in giving a gift with purpose. A gift that will speak Jesus to a child. Introducing Lifesong's 2011 Gifts of Purpose Catalog. 

NOW, for even more exciting news....

In Ethiopia, children need an education to break free from gripping poverty. Public schools are lacking, so kids are left behind without the  HOPE of an education or future. Our current Lifesong school is not only giving by teaching these children about Jesus, but also feeding 350 hungry children 2 meals each day. We currently have a need to build a 12-room expansion to our existing school... please join us to make a difference in a child's life.

As of last night, we have a generous donor that has stepped up to MATCH all donations to the Ziway and Adami Tulu Schools in Ethiopia between now and December 31st... up to $130,000!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? What a GENEROUS way to make the most of your giving and bless the children and families in these communities! Let me tell you first hand, these schools NEED to be expanded... these children NEED an education... they NEED to be fed each day... they NEED to hear about Jesus! Lets give HOPE to these precious children in Ethiopia!

Would you join us in prayer as we seek to make the need known?

MAKE A MATCHED DONATION NOW!
***You can use the link above to make a matched donation OR select any of the Hope Ethiopia options below. 

Gift of $30 cares for 2 children for 1 month.

Gift in Honor of

Gift of $525 cares for 35 children for 1 month.

Gift in Honor of

Gift of $1,500 furnishes one classroom.

Gift in Honor of

Also, don't forget that you can give a gift in honor of a loved one this holiday season!

I think I would like a squatty potty!

Well I told my friend that I may write about this one day, and it has come, potty talk.  We don't really like this kind of talk at our house, especially at the dinner table, but I thought I would share my least favorite chore of the house these days...that is despite the mountain o laundry that is always calling....so what is it, that is right cleaning the toilets.  And it is not really the toilet itself, I don't mind scrubbing toilets, it is just the energy and what I have to clean up at the toilets in my home...I'll give you a hint with three boys who don't always have perfect aim.  So what I have realized over this month of seeing more of this is that I think it would be better if you have boys to have eastern toilets for them, the squatty potty, hole in the ground.  I say this because my lament in cleaning the toilets in the bathroom is that as I get down there to clean, I look in every direction around the toilet and realize that needs cleaning too, I mean really!  So I used to have book case type things in every bathroom, yep stuff all over them, I got rid of two just so I wouldn't have one more surface to wipe pee off of.  So I am still amazed as I sit on the floor cleaning wondering how is it possible to get pee all the way on a side wall, a back wall, the sideboards of the bathroom, you name the surface I'm just amazed...then the actual toilet itself, there are just so many nooks and crannies that it is a job...so I say if you just have a hole in the ground, then I think it would be less surface to clean, yes they would still miss but their aim would be way lower.  So I'm thinking of making a movement, moms with boys need squatty pottys!  Okay if you don't like potty talk, hopefully you stopped reading at the first line.  Still thankful for my boys though! 

Video of Sammy

So I have never been able to get video to post, I think its primarily because at home our internet is too slow and it just never loads, so since I'm not at home thought I'd give it a try.  Hope you enjoy this of Sammy at the fair riding the monster trucks.

Lifesong for Orphan

Well we were approved for the fundraiser both hands with Lifesong for Orphans, and we are really excited about this.  So now we have to get to work on this project.  It is called both hands because it says one hand for the orphan and one for the widow, sure you can guess this is right out of the bible:

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

So now we get 10 people who will commit to do two things:
1.  Send out sponsorship letters.
2.  Work one day on a widow's home.

So the way this works is when we get the ten people who are willing to work on a widow's home we pick a day and then send out letters as kind of a work-a-thon, people sponsor the work by sending donations.  The cool thing is they send them directly to Lifesong, so they get a tax deduction and lifesong deals with all the finances...then in the end we receive funds toward our adoption...so please
pray with us that we can gather 10 people to help us take on this project!
Check out their website
http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/

NC State Fair

Well the State Fair is going on right now, which means a lot of things for our family.  Primarily it means Travis has a little more work than usual as the Chaplain of the fair, but also a lot of fun things
that go along with it.  For instance we are able to go as a family, which is a lot of fun, we usually go on Senior Citizen day as it is less crowded and get there early to ensure that...
Our schedule is :
1.  Go by Campers on Mission-this is one of the arms of the fair that serves the workers of the fair with free food, clothing, haircuts, blood pressure and the good news of Jesus everyday.
2.  Go by and see all the animals.
3.  Ride on the rides.
4.  Eat our snack lunch if you want to call it that:) (some of its contents are kettle corn, fried candy bar, caramel apple, cotton candy)-so not our healthiest lunch-but apples are good for you:)
5.  Go home for naps

Isaiah, Anna, Sammy at PBS Booth with Cat in the Hat

Kids in a hummer at the Army Reserves area, checking out where they shoot from.

Anna and Sammy(barely seen) on hot air balloon ride

Sammy on horse, this was his favorite but he LOVED all the rides.

Anna on carousel.

Look closely Sammy riding in back of the green jeep!

Adoption Update and Life

Well this was a really eventful week for us, we mailed our dossier off on Monday to our agency in Tennessee, this is the packet of paperwork that they will send to China for them to approve us for adoption and refer us to our little girl, so this is very exciting.  This means now that the only paperwork we are working on are grant and fund raising applications, so while this is still paperwork the logistical part of our adoption paperwork is complete for now.  Breathe, more to come we are sure.  We also mailed off a grant application for Lifesong for Orphan which does a ministry to widows and orphans, so we look forward to seeing if we get approved for this program and what God will provide through it.  So we are praying for our little girl wherever she is and for all that is needed on our end to bring her home. 

Then on Thursday we celebrated our 10th anniversary, was kind of low key this year, dinner and a movie and that is what we need this year, so we are thankful to God for 10 wonderful years of marriage.  It has flown by so fast, can't wait to see what the next 10 hold!

Anna started school

Well this is late too, what can I say life has been a little more hectic than even the usual and I couldn't find the cord for our camera until tonight, so wanted to add pictures as well...So Anna started Oak City Academy in August and loves it.  She loves going to school everyday and other than being a little more tired and whiny when she gets home it is going well.  Her class has about 11 students and she says they are all her friends.  She loves to be a helper and to do her works.  We do miss her during the day, but homeschool is going really well this year with the boys so that is a blessing.  Enjoy the pics below of the first day and then some of Anna's soccer as well, she is doing better at going after the ball this year. 

Breakfast before first day of school!

Getting ready to go in to class.

Greeted with a hug, by faithful friend Charissa!

Putting her pink-luggage pull bag down, that she had to have:)

The Classroom, amazing!

Pick up at the end of first day, hugging with some friends.

Close up of first tooth lost!

Anna in soccer, she is actually dribbling the ball here, you go girl!

Just so you can see her face!

Football is Here-Go Gators!

Micah and Anna-Twins!

Our kids are growing up

I know we all hear so often, enjoy your children while their little, they grow up so fast, Yes they do!!

Things are that are currently making me more aware of this, in no particular order:

1.  Anna lost her first tooth today, our baby girl is growing up.
2.  She is also moving up in the classes at church, she will no longer be in Ms. Nicole's class, this makes me very sad, I feel like she's been there forever, she is too little to be in the 5-7 year old class even if she is five:)
3.  And yes she is starting school, not homeschool she has been doing that for awhile she is going to go to kindergarten at OCA, a school here in downtown that some members of our church are starting.  She starts next week, will send pictures of this.  We have gotten some school supplies, how fun! 
**You may be thinking what are we doing putting Anna in school and not the boys, who knows:))
Seriously, this school is new so the boys weren't an option, they start at pre-K and K and add a grade a year.  We thought this would be a good year to try this with Anna to not add anything more to our plate with schooling, and give her a wonderful learning opportunity.  As always we take all their education one year at a time, so that's the story for this year.
4.  Sammy is potty-training:)  Day one today, I'm exhausted!  I think he can pretty much make pee come at any moment, we are full force into underwear except naptime of course, and break time for everyone else in the house.  Wow this may be the first time in 8 years that we will not have a child in diapers(again except bedtime, still have some bedwetters:) 
5.  If you think we will save $ by not buying diapers, think again.  I've always been told when your boys get older they will double, triple your grocery budget, I'm sure that will be true one day.  But I can see glimpses of this already.  When we sit down for dinner with a nice GALLON pitcher of crystal light(trying to do less sugar), when everyone's glasses are poured there may be a little left in the pitcher, basically we can drink it in one sitting.  When we eat waffles, gone are the days of one box, we eat two at one meal...and on and on it goes. 
6.  Micah is going to be in first grade, and his soccer team has moved up to where he now has games on saturdays too!
7.  Isaiah is going into third grade, his soccer team now has a goalie, he will be taking a writing class for 3-5 graders this year from someone other than his parents, and he will try his hat at flag football something he has been wanting to do for over a year.

Well I'll stop there for tonight, have another day of potty training tomorrow!

Adoption Update

Not sure we've ever officially posted much about our adoption, other than we are in the process and the sidebar that tells where we are.  We are so busy with all that life has for us right now, that sometimes these thoughts take a back seat, but we do know there is a little girl out there who will one day be a Williams kid and that is exciting!!  We did get approval from the US government and just had an AMAZING fund raiser given to us by our church family.  It was such an overwhelming display of love and it came at just the right time to send off our dossier to our agency, so hopefully that will be in the mail soon!  The dinner was a taco bar which was so yummy, there were games for the kids they bought tickets to play each game and then there was a silent auction of some amazing items that people made bids on and of course the highest bid won the item.  I have to admit that I wanted to bid on a lot of the items myself, but realized that wouldn't be appropriate.
It was a HUGE success and we were so amazed, and it was a good reminder for us of why we are doing this.  It was decorated with pictures from China and facts about China.  So we are pressing on in the adoption and will keep you posted.

Had to add this picture, this was from the fundraiser,they also had a photo booth!!

 

These pictures below are from our first trip to China to one of the homes there, this was the first tug at us:)

Anna's 5th Birthday

Our Anna Lucia turned 5 this past Sunday, we are thankful to God for her precious gift of life to us.  She is all girl and yet is tough enough to hang with her three brothers, full of energy, full of talking,
full of imagination and great joy. Here are some pictures from her birthday festivities that happened to span over three days here(not intentionally). We had a party for her on Saturday and was a treat to have Uncle Herschel and Grandma Donna here to help decorate and get things ready. 

Anna came down dressed as mama and papa, my hat Travis's shirt and shoes.

Splash party in the backyard!!

Getting ready to play a game!

Throwing balloons at their parents, Anna seemed ready to go.

Her pool cake

Blowing out the candle

Birthday girl!

Our traditional chocolate chip pancake breakfast had to wait until Monday,

And they were worth the wait!!

Vacation in Tennessee

We left from Florida to an already planned trip to spend a week in Tennessee with Travis' family, so we have had some good time in the car:)  Thankfully the kids travel great for their ages.  This was tiring after having just left all of the emotional hardness of Florida, but it was a fun time!  See the pictures below and
enjoy!

All the cousins at Uncle Steve's friends amazing pool!  Yes Anna is the only girl:)

Sammy loved this little hottub/small pool, the dogs he liked okay.

The kids at Cades Cove in one of the old cabins.

Cades Cove fence-We saw one deer running and two bear cubs!

Anna in one of the big fields.

Sammy trying to follow his siblings to climb this tree.

Isaiah climbed really high and then caught the branch and swung down, it was pretty cool.

Picnic in the woods, keeping our eyes out for bears.

Knoxville zoo, had to get a picture of the GATOR!

Camel rides, what fun.

Giraffe was pretty close though hard to tell in pic.

We had a great time with Granna and Grandpa at their house, playing with all their toys.