Still here?!?!?!

Ha!  I really do love this blogging business. But. It. Is. Hard. to find time to sit down to share with all the kiddos home for the summer:/ We've had so much going on and our summer has been super fun so far. We got Lacey off to Africa where she is having a great time, Baylie has been with her cousin in Houston having a blast, Sydnie's been at the gym preparing for the upcoming gymnastics meet season, and the rest have turned into little sun kissed fish!!! We've been to a Texas Rangers game, six flags, family reunion, the river to play. We've had swimmers ear, bruises, scraps, ant bites, physicals, well-checks, MRI, upper GI, Ophthalmologist, Geneticist, GI doc and there's still more fun waiting rooms to sit in! (note sarcasm) ha! God has shown himself in so many ways here lately. We have made new friendships, spent time with old friends & new friends. We have had another mission trip yard sale to raise money for our Africa trip in December. (still recovering from that) and gotten another $1000 closer to our goal:) We are truly blessed and thankful to God for the good, the bad & the ugly. And I pray that our family will continue to bring Him glory in everything we do!!!!

Lacey on a motto in Rwanda

So far she's only gotten lost once!

Lacey & Alsion celebrating the 4th in Rawanda!

Our sweet friends with Their Babies!!!!!

The Girls! GO Rangers!!!

The Boys @ the Ranger's game:)

Six Flags!!!!

Father's Day 2012

The Little's Swimmin'

Dude!!! I LOVE swimming!!!!

Levi Excited about the horses!!!

Charlie - Hippotherapy Time!!! Yay!!!

And......... Their Off!!!!

The last few days have been amazingly spectacular. Words can not express how excited we are for what God has done & continues to do around us. This morning we sent our first born off to spend the next month in Rwanda, Africa!!! Lots of packing, rearranging and weighing bags (which were still over weight). Lacey will arrive in Kigali, Rwanda at 5:00am on Saturday morning and then make a 3 hour drive to Gisenyi where she will be spending most of her time. Please continue to pray for safety as she travels over the next two days. Thank you to Alison, Tara & Elise for letting her sleep under your roof the next month. Praying that you all have some sweet moments together and that God will use you all in amazing ways & draw each of you closer to Him!!! We love you Lacey & we are SO. PROUD. OF. YOU!!!!!!!

 And..... a midst all the flurry of getting Lacey off to Africa our dear friends received HUGE NEWS and they are on their way to Africa to meet their sweet babies!!!! SO exciting to see God bringing everything together in his time. And SO SO fun to share in the joy of two people we love becoming parents for the first time!!! We can not wait to see these precious ones redeemed by a Mommy & Daddy who already love them! Please pray for Stephen & Wynne as they travel and have court on Monday July 2nd.

Wanna help Stephen & Wynne with their final expenses to get their two little's home? 

CLICK HERE

 to order a Camp+Asher shirt!! 

Adoption. what a Beautiful thing:)

God is Good! 

He is the Master of all things & we glorify Him for who He is!!!!! 

Thank you God for first adopting us!

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. 

~Romans 8:15-16

Africa... Africa... Africa...

One of the most commonly mentioned words in our home...

Fundraising for our "Back To Africa" Mission Trip is in full swing. Our 3rd fundraising garage sale is July 6th & 7th. We are already collecting DONATED items. Please email or message me on FB if you have items BIG or small that you would like to donate. Doing summer cleaning? Have boxes to take to Goodwill, call us instead!! We also still have sweet soft blankets that you can purchase for $25 that will be donated to the baby room at the Noel Orphanage. You can Donate directly to us, to the Chip-in button on the sidebar OR for a tax-deductible donation you can donate to Visiting Orphans for the Harper Family.

In other news... Lacey leaves June 28th for Gisenyi, Rwanda. She will be gone for a full month. Please cover her in prayer as she begins to prepare. God has provided a team that she we will be able to travel with on the way over which is a huge blessing!!! Also she has her wisdom teeth out this Monday, so prayers for a quick recovery are needed. We are so excited for the new journey that God is taking our oldest child on. Prayer's for Mama while she's gone would be greatly appreciated;)

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To VISIT the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." ~James 1:27

Africa Bound!!!! Again :)

As many of you know we traveled to Rwanda & Ethiopia the day after Christmas and spent 2 weeks loving on orphans!!! The trip was amazing and Visiting Orphans was wonderful to travel with. Well, after much prayer and discussion we are headed BACK TO AFRICA!!!! December 27th we will  leave Texas with our 5 oldest children to return to visit the amazing children we ministered to last year, and we are SO EXCITED!!! (FYI: they also ministered to us) We want to encourage anyone reading this to prayerfully consider joining our team on this amazing trip. I promise your heart will be forever changed, you will fall in love with Africa, and you will be drawn closer to the face of God. Check out the Visiting Orphans site for details!!!!

Korah Village - Ethiopia

Gisenyi, Rwanda

"Is there ever the "perfect" time to take a risk? Probably not. But there's a perfect God in whom we can risk, imperfectly."

Seeking Loving Family

We are advocating for a sweet boy who is in need of an immediate family preferably in Texas so he can keep in touch with siblings. D is 8 years old and has been in a foster home where he was to be adopted. D's foster family is now unable to proceed because the Dad is ill. Here is a little info about D followed by his sweet sweet pictures.Please share this info & contact me at wah3@hotmail.com for more details. Let's get this little guy a home ASAP!

Dustin is 8 years old.  He loves riding bicycles, playing with hot wheels and other cars.  He enjoys building things with building blocks/logs and Legos and loves playing with other kids.  He is an extremely affectionate, loving little boy and loves hugs! Dustin has been in foster care most of his life.  He had a forever home with his most recent foster parents until the father became very ill and they were unable to complete the adoption process. He currently lives in Midland. We are looking for a very special home that can offer plenty of care and attention, as Dustin has some learning disabilities and is being tested for autism. 

Agachupa!!!!!

The words that still ring in my ears as I think of the bumpy road that took us to and from Imbambazi Orphanage. Children came from everywhere lining the roads, chasing the bus, yelling the hopeful words...Agachupa!!!! What were the precious children begging for???? You guessed it!

 EMPTY WATER BOTTLES!!!! 

Amazingly enough we had been saving all of our water bottles to put beads in them for the children to use as instruments, little did we know that a single water bottle would hold so much value. We tossed a few out the windows on the way into the orphanage and marveled at the excitement of the children who caught one and were saddened by those that did not. Such a huge privilege to have a plastic container to refill with water to carry with them to school, or to fill with cooking oil for their parents. After spending sweet time with the beautiful older orphans at Imbambazi we headed back down the same bumpy road, grateful that it was not muddy, only to see that more people had gathered to see the bus travel through their little community. This time we tossed every Agachupa we could find and watched as the children gathered them with shouts of excitement and joy! I will NEVER look at another empty water bottle in the same way again. I am still amazed at how something that we toss in a trash can daily could be life changing for someone across the world!

Recycle People!!!

Agachupa! Agachupa! Agachupa!!!!!!!!

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart' will

 flow rivers of living water. ~John 7:38

Ca-Ray-Z

 And Lovin every minuite of it!!! Seriously, I'm not really sure what my life would be like without the 9 kids that God has blessed us with so far. Never a dull moment. Days filled with joy, frustration, laughter, irritation, love and impatience:) Every day I drop off, pick up, deliver, clean, change, wipe, instruct, correct, laugh at with the little people that live in our house. The past weeks have been filled with the normal school activities, baseball, soccer, dance, gymnastics, bible studies, PT, OT,  & speech... Somewhere instating the ONE activity per kid rule seemed logical, but unless I were to morph into TWO people at some point that will become impossible. Ha! I absolute hate missing ANYTHING!!! But I have resolved to the fact that with 5 of the 9 doing some kind of activity, I will go in one direction and the hubs will go the other and at some point we WILL see each other again:) JK... The good news is summer is around the corner & I am one of those weird moms that loves my kids home in the summer & wishes it could last longer, but i realize they DO need an education:) lol

God continues to bless us abundantly and we remain overwhelmed by his love for us! 

Our two newest family members:)

*Mothergrand*

We were not only blessed with a new dependable van, but with a new friendship with the Patterson family. Can't wait to get our 20 kids together!! LOL

Tobias Sheppard Harper

*Toby*

Tobias means the Lord is good. Toby will be training to be a service dog for Charlie & Levi. Our prayer is that he will love the boys and assist in minimizing wandering and keeping the boys out of trouble ;) He is already learning to sit, lay & stay along with walking with boys to and from the bus. He's a little clueless at 8 weeks old but Oh so cute!!

And of course some quick pics from the last few weeks:)

New braces & new glasses!!

Baylie & Landri - 2nd place!!!

Father with his GREAT Grandchildren!!

Prom!!! Beautiful girls:)

Spring Choir Concert!

Jojo - Ready to get a Hit!

Sydnie  = Pretzel girl

Charlie & Levi @ the ZOO

Emerson - Future Model:)

Levi - Ready for the West Texas Beach!!!

Pony Parade

Hayden with Pop after 14hr surgery
Thank You God for making this possible:)

The Boys!!

Alex - My nephew visiting from Saudi. LOVE!

Sydnie's Bottle fed cottontail

Kenlie & Michal - Cutie Patootie's

Peace Dude!

Man!! I Luv my new cousin!!

OUR 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 yr olds

One of 30 pics on my phone! Never leave your phone unattended at my casa

Parade of Parks! Fun:)

The verse I have prayed over my children the past 2 months. Love, Love, Love it!

"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way." ~Col 1:9-12