Come one, come all!

Saddle-up Riding Club is hosting their annual Spooky Barn Benefit. Please tell everyone you know! We want to do all that we can to support this amazing organization. They provide therapeutic horseback riding to children, adults, veterans...

According to Little C...he is a "Rider", no other sport will do. Just look at the contentment on his face!

 I love that he loves this...please check them out!

With Love,

The Amateur Mama

Happy Birthday Daddy!

This is a tribute to Daddy...

Big C said it best in his card to you..."thank you for being there for me during the bad times and for never giving up on me." The tears went unchecked when I read these words to Daddy this morning. 

How many times have I said that to God? Goodness, more than I can count. Earthly fathers are a mirror...they show us what to expect from our Heavenly Father. 

Thank you Daddy for doing your best to show us what unconditional love really means. Happy 41st birthday! We love you!

xoxo- Mama, Big C and Little C

Great news!

An update, thank you Dawn for posting this for us! This is why it is so important to stand for the voiceless!

For those of you who signed... Posted: 21 Oct 2011 12:23 PM PDT Son of God Orphanage closed, more details to follow posted by Tom Davis | 2:18pm Friday October 21, 2011 An official statement is forthcoming… This type of change is impossible without your voice and the voice of thousands. Over 10,000 voices joined together on behalf of the children of the Son of God orphanage. The government has acted to close the orphanage (see the AP report below confirming this). READ MORE....

A call to immediate action!

I am reposting this from my dear friend Dawn's blog... www.prayingthemhome.blogspot.com

I warn you that the links are difficult to process...you cannot imagine the cruelty that goes on in this world. I am so burdened...I can not even begin to put into words how this makes me feel...

Help.... Posted: 19 Oct 2011 12:46 PM PDT I read this today and was horrified. Please, please repost this and spread the word. Something MUST be done... "Help us be their voice"..."There are over 75 children in Son of God orphanage in Carrefour, Haiti. This orphanage is full of abuse, physical, sexual, emotional. Full, FULL of trafficking. Child trafficking (which one of the directors of the orphanage is now in jail for) and organ trafficking. Yes, ORGAN trafficking. Officials have been able to track organs back to this orphanage. Children’s organs...." "A call to close Son of God orphanage"...."After continued visits to the Son of God Orphanage in Carrefour, Haiti, six charitable organizations (Adventures in Missions, Bridgeway Church, Timberline Church, Children's HopeChest, Journey Community Church, and Respire Haiti) have challenged the global community to force the hands of international leaders in the closure and investigation of the facility....." Sad. Devastating. Disgusting. Please do what you can to help these children.

By the root...

We have been dealing with these annoying vines in our backyard. I admit they are lovely, they bloom with a bright yellow flower and then a sort of mini pumpkin-like seed pod. Yet in no time, they will completely cover everything around. I noticed them first on the back of the fence, and in the matter of weeks they spread to cover the mini palms and bougainvillea. A month later, they were literally everywhere. They now covered our entire fence, all the foliage and were creeping onto the back patio area. Enough was enough, something had to be done.


Thankfully I was in a super foul mood. Nothing like wrestling it out with a bunch of stinkin' vines. I attacked them with a vengeance. I have removed them before, what I learned the first time was this- you have to pull them out by the root, or they will absolutely come back. As I attacked the vines yesterday morning, I began speaking to the Lord. I was begging him to be clear with me on a number of issues. As I worked, He worked on my heart- revealing to me that I needed to first deal with my own sin areas. Ugh, thanks a lot God. How humbling is that???


Over the next hour and a half, He continued to show me what He meant. The weedy vines represent sin, and if I didn't do something about my sin, it would quickly overcome my life- the same way the vines were overcoming the backyard. There is something so interesting about this particular vine. Its root was green all the way down, then as it got close to the dirt- it became brown, as if to camouflage itself. You have to look very carefully to find it. Hmmm...doesn't our sin masquerade that way as well? It camouflages itself as justification. We have a  right to be angry, to be vengeful....etc.etc, I am sure you get my point. Sin is the little lies we tell ourselves, to justify our angry feelings- our ________ feelings, easy to fill in the blanks with any number of deceptive emotions.


So I began to visualize pulling out my own sin areas as I pulled out those irritating roots. An amazing thing happened over that hour or two...I began to release my frustrations towards others and deal with my own foul self. With every root, I began to experience more and more freedom. In the end, I felt completely released and relieved. As Big C and I carted those vines to the alley can, I visualized throwing those selfish areas of my life away. I realize that the Lord used the situation to free me. I felt immensely grateful.


Now today, I have a few war wounds...scratches on my arms and literally about 15 splinters (darn those bougainvillea!). What a reminder though of what sin can do to us- it is damaging and it hurts. I realize that my sin hurts me, then spills over to hurt others in my life- taking over exactly as that vine does.


I face today with a renewed perspective, attitude and spirit. I praise God that he is gentle enough to show me, and loves me enough to humble me when necessary. Now I soldier on...doing my darndest to love those in my life the way Christ loves me.

     And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and      honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all that you learned and received from me- everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. 
                                                                                                                         Phillipians 4:8-9


May the God of peace be with you as well...

--The Amateur Mama