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Hey, have you guys heard of Alex and Bret Harris? Check out the website www.therebelution.com. Challenging and incredible!

anda

and these are the days of our lives

wow. expectations. some people are totally fine with flying by the seat of their pants (like my spouse) and others (like myself) are a bit more comfortable with some sort of a plan....funny how God seems to put us opposites together. this summer has been nothing short of CRAZY so far.

I keep wishing I could remember the sequence of events of the last few weeks. I'm often getting to this point of wondering what's wrong with me (why I feel like I can't handle my life) and then I start talking about things to someone and I realize maybe I'm not so weird after all. Mowing with the Mighty Men started a few weeks ago every other day during the week, supposedly from 1 - 5 p.m. ha. expectations. My expectation was that my husband would be out mowing for 4 hours M-W-F. On Tues/Thurs they are at a nearby church doing a summer reading program, but Randy works so I figured we'd be "off" those days - ha. They start showing up at our house for mowing up to THREE HOURS early. Now you're probably thinking "Set some boundaries, Anda, tell them they can't come until such and such time." We have. And am I supposed to tell a boy who has walked quite some distance to my house that he's not allowed to come in when he calls me from his cell phone to let me know he's coming when he's ACROSS THE STREET?! On the reading days, they still show up at random times before the program starts. Yesterday we had the Tubbs (missionaries from Thailand) over for lunch and so Randy left someone else in charge of mowing day and said we were locking our front door. We did, but it didn't stop people from ringing the doorbell, knocking, or just walking in (when we forgot to lock it back) MULTIPLE times while we were visiting with the Tubbs. Their mouths just kept dropping open as they laughed at our little world. A week ago on Tuesday I had just about had it. I was so desperate to escape my house that I took ALL SIX children BY MYSELF to a free movie at the theatre and then to lunch afterwards so that no one would find me home. When we got home we discovered that one of our orphaned kittens (yes, for the SECOND time a mama cat abandoned her 2 babies who were only a couple of days old) had died while we were at the movie. McKenna insisted that I let her go inside and get some milk in a medicine dropper for the other one. I agreed and when she returned she picked up the other one and it died in her arms. So I'm sitting there in our driveway crying with my daughter and a cousin of one of the Mighty Men rides up on his bike just watching us. I explain our sadness and then he drops his bike and starts to run into our house. I quickly yell at him (kindly, of course) and explain that we're not playing today because we need to rest. I go inside (after burying the kittens) and take our little battery operated doorbell off the wall and TAKE THE BATTERIES OUT!

This is just one of many stories. Did I blog about the morning that I left at 5:45 a.m. to meet with a girl from church at Starbucks? On the way out, I passed my husband on the front porch who was sitting with some man I'd never seen before. When I came home at 7:30 a.m. that man was asleep on my couch. He was a homeless, crack-addicted, homosexual with HIV and helped us out with our chaos (before MOWING) all morning until he announced that he wanted to go turn himself in at the jail. So Randy - before MOWING - goes to the jail and watches the guy turn himself in. A little after midnight that night, let's call him "Bob" is back on our front porch explaining to Randy that he didn't have any warrants after all. WHAT?! Randy paid for him a night at the exquisite Vickery Motel. We haven't seen him much since (okay, just three times). Oh, and then there was that day (this was Friday) that the chaos before MOWING was going on at our house and Isaac slipped and fell on some water on the kitchen floor hitting his mouth on the water cooler on the way down. He bit completely through his bottom lip - that's right, all the way through. So while Dinsdale's mom is asking me to get his sister some water, I'm trying to figure out where all the blood is coming from. His lip is cut on the inside and about 2 cm on the outside. So D'Leeland (who can't stand blood) played on the computer the whole time while Isaac was surrounded on the living room floor with quite a crowd. Corey held down his legs, McKenna held down his arms, and I held his head still as Daddy (for the second time in the last month) brings out the lidocaine needle for stitches. Isaac laid there screaming "I don't like Daddy!!" Dinsdale was taking pictures of the whole event. We knew Grandma would be proud. After his lip was dead (or so we thought) we moved him to the kitchen table where Dr. Brown skillfully sewed up his lip while Dinsdale held a flashlight. The last stitch went through some flesh that probably wasn't quite deadened enough - more screaming, but Isaac survived and all the Mighty Men went on with their MOWING! ...that night we had a slumber party for the 6 mighty men who had consistently come for 2 weeks. It started when they returned from mowing, only I couldn't seem to find DR. BROWN. He was cutting down a tree over at Corey's house (you know, the one he's renting out) because a branch had fallen on a power line. Was there perhaps a better time when we could have cut down the tree branch? Rita, I know you know what I'm talking about here! ha!!

That night I took McKenna to a church event at 7 pm. I took her inside and realized while in mid sentence with another mom that I had left Moriah and Isaac in the car. I just sprinted away without saying goodbye (they were fine - it was only a few minutes, but still...)! The event ended at 8:30 pm. I'm sitting telling Julie Butler at 8:50 P.M. about how I forgot my younger children earlier when I realized that I have forgotten McKenna as well! She finally told someone that they should probably call us. Are any of you ready to call CPS yet? Okay, just remember there was slumber party going on at my house! A woman's brain can only handle so much input and I think mine was at capacity that day!

It was important for me to get it down, because her cable was out.--Randy

yeah, yeah.

I'm not kidding, I could tell you numerous other stories, but I've got to go to bed so that we can start all this again tomorrow! :) We are a bit tired and many days a bit stressed, but we are learning about Jesus, life, each other, and what it means to love and pick up your cross daily. I don't know if either of us has ever been more aware of our need to hear from God and just BE WITH JESUS on a moment to moment basis. Randy has really been trying to say no a lot - it's just amazing how people just keep appearing out of nowhere!! I will say that we are looking forward to our little SLNI missions retreat up in New Mexico the first week in July. It will be a MUCH needed break!

Miss you all! Are any of you going to Op Camp? Maybe we'll see a few of you there!

love,

anda

sermon

For those of you who had tried to listen to Randy's sermon, it's working now. The first 5 minutes didn't get recorded, but at least they got the rest of it!

Anda

Thanks Dad

Dear Dad,
I missed having you in the country today. I like Father's day. I always have. I am proud of you Dad. Proud of the man you are. Proud of the legacy you have handed down to me. I am proud of the name I share. I am proud for people to know I am your son. Mostly I am grateful that when God describes himself as father, that means something good and powerful to me. Not everyone can say that. I cannot know, this side of heaven, how deeply you have influenced who I am. I just count myself one of the most blessed men on the planet. Happy Father's day. It is for men like you that we celebrate fathers. I love you. Tod

Randy's first sermon

I've just got to tell you that you all would have been so proud of your son/brother today! He did an absolutely phenomenal job preaching. Mrs. Murray and her granddaughter, EIGHT of the Mighty Men and some of their families, our Op Camp intern, Terrence and his wife, and another Mighty Mentor were there to cheer him on. I could have just cried seeing almost all the MM there (except Garry and Jordan). God has been incredibly faithful to us. Hopefully, his sermon will be posted at christfellowship.org by tomorrow.

We loved our time with the Penningtons at the lake this weekend. Brent and Julie are two of our favorite people on the planet and we were again reminded of how thankful we are for the lake house - such a wonderful place to RETREAT (which we were in desperate need of) and slow down!

One more thing - Byron called me earlier in the week to see what Randy would want for Father's Day. His mom told us that he shopped and shopped for just the right thing. Sweet reminder that RB is dad to these boys. He had them all stand up in church today and they were pretty proud! :)

Happy Father's Day Dale, Tod, Cary, Ben, Alan, and James! We are blessed to have you in our lives!!

Love y'all,
Anda

the best birthday party ever

12 Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (Luke 14)

Well, it's time for one of Anda's mile-long posts!! I need to be asleep right now, but I just can't let tonight fade from our memory! Randy is preaching Luke 14 this coming Sunday and when he's reading the above passage and as we're reading Shane Claiborne at the same time, of course the question arises "why don't we try this - shouldn't we just obey?" When we started trying to figure out when, Randy eagerly received the idea that his birthday would be a good time. So tonight my husband's birthday gift was to take me, Terrence and Julie Butler, Tyler Jackson (our Op Camp/Mighty Men mentor from Baylor), and 15 other people from Como (most of whom he didn't know before tonight) to Texas de Brazil for a "feast". He literally went around in the Mighty Man van one hour before our reservation and picked up people off the street. And wow, was our group a colorful one!! (And can you even believe that I forgot my camera!!!?) Tyler took several pics on his phone for Facebook so maybe we'll have a few. Anyway, I wish I could remember all the comments, all the looks on people's faces (in and out of our group), and all the conversations that took place at that "banquet" tonight. Terrence and Tyler were helping transport people there, but in our van we had an 83-year-old man with no teeth from the Church of Christ nursing home here in Como. He walked with a cane and couldn't hear (or eat) much, but he just couldn't stop saying thank you. We had a guy who was pretty drunk all night and so didn't eat much but kept loading up his plate (I should note here that we had the wine glasses removed from the table when we got there, but some of these people drink 24/7). Ha! On the way home, Thurman (the drunk guy) asked for about the 10th time if everyone was full and the prostitute who he kept claiming as his girlfriend said, "yeah, but if you ask us again in about 30 minutes, maybe we won't be anymore!" We had another drug addicted prostitute in our car also. There were a couple of older men in their 50's who were born and raised in Como. Almost all of them had to go to the bathroom as soon as we got to the restaurant due to the all-day alcolhol consumption, so just picture us getting the MM van parked by the valet - all these people are piling out of the van while a Lexus waits behind us. We go inside and and people are wandering around looking for the bathroom and examining the salad bar. I mean, it was comical and beautiful and bizarre! I just didn't even look at people when we walked in, but I sure wish I could have been a fly on the wall!! Our waiter was wonderful and didn't even bat an eye at the questions concerning doggy bags, etc. At one point, when Randy was trying to take a pic of the whole table, one of the drug dealer guys, yelled "hang on - I've got warrants out" as he held his napkin in front of his face! Towards the end of the night, almost every one of them was pacing, etc because they were needing cigarettes or fixes - it was kind of funny. Even now, as I write this, I'm just crying because as I was standing up bouncing Malachi to sleep I looked at the long table with this group of people and I could see Jesus sitting there with them laughing (and let me tell you that they can laugh!). It's hard to put into words, but He was comfortable there. And Randy was like a little boy in a candy store - he loved every last minute of it. He told them that it was his best birthday ever (and trust me, he wasn't lying).

The Mighty Men started their summer program today which is lawn mowing M-W-F and reading "school" on T-Th. They will get to keep 20% of what they make and the remaining 80% will go towards their trip to Africa next summer. For those who don't miss a day for the next two weeks, they get to have a slumber party at our house on the 20th and for those who make it all summer, they get an ipod, a trip to the lakehouse just to play, and their families will receive $100. Seven of them came today so we'll see how many of them make it! I am loving (and freaking out) watching these boys grow up - I'm now looking UP to D'Leeland and Byron! They are becoming like sons to me (at least some of them - and those are the ones calling me "Mama Brown"). Can't wait to see what God will do with them.

Be praying for RB this Sunday. We've decided that we're glad that he doesn't preach on a regular basis and my admiration for preacher's wives has increased dramatically - we're sort of eating and breathing this sermon! We'll be at the lake with Brent and Julie Pennington this weekend and will drive in on Sunday a.m. before church. REally excited about spending time with these precious friends.

On Tuesday p.m.'s this month we're having homemade ice cream in our driveway for whoever wants to come. Last week was really encouraging and we met several more from our "hood." I have a feeling that we'll get to see some of our new friends here again tomorrow night! That's the cool thing - they are really becoming "friends" and not recipients of our ministry. Does that make sense? I realized the other day when someone made the comment that it would be great when the Connally's move here because we'll have some neighbors that I was offended because I have neighbors NOW! The only discouraging part about all of this is that my heart is still hopelessly selfish and self-absorbed and much of the time I wouldn't mind quitting. His grace keeps stretching, though, as He stretches me. One of the many reasons I love Shane Claiborne is that he talks about how HARD community is. Just reassuring to know that it's not supposed to be easy.

I'm sure there's more to say - you're thinking, "REALLY?!" but it's time to go feed my precious little happy baby one more time and go to bed. I'll try and post some pics later on this week. For the next post maybe I'll fill you in on how God has convicted us that He's in charge of how many children we have - no, I'm not pregnant, but I'm also not kidding....This was a quite unexpected answer to the prayer "Lord, we want to be completely surrendered to You - just show us what we need to let go of!" But that's another story (just don't be shocked if our family of 8 doesn't stay that way)!

LOVED all the Paris pictures and can't wait to hear about the trip! Randy says thanks for the cool GPS, Rita, and for your sweet words on the blog! You guys are such a blessing!

love y'all a lot,
Anda

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RANDY!!!

This is our son in whom we are well pleased. This may not be the best birthday picture--Randy helping Reagan and Ben dissect a pig, but it demonstrates just one of his many talents. We are sailing the Meditterranean right now thinking about how much we love this man!! His heart for people, especially his mighty men, is amazing. His love for his family is beautiful. His love for his Lord is awe-inspiring. His love and respect for his parents blesses us more than we can say. From the other side of the world we hope he can feel our love and respect for an incredible son who makes us proud in every way! We love you, Randy! Happy Birthday, mom and dad

Randy, best wishes for a blessed day of pondering how you are blessed and the rest of us think of how you are a blessing. Your gentle generous spirit and love for family brings me much pleasure. God bless you with a very special day. Dad

PARIS-CROATIA UPDATE

Well guys, it is Saturday afternoon, and I finally have a few minutes to blog. I started blogging pictures this morning, but had to quit to run downstairs and meet Dragica to tour Zagreb (on foot). It rained enough that she finally brought us back to the hotel so I have a few minutes alone. The guys went to another town for some graduation.

Our trip has been great. I have blogged a BUNCH of pictures, but only a few of the ones available. Hopefully they will give you a taste of what we are doing. (Some of them are out of order, but I was in a hurry this morning.) It has been just an amazing time with Tod's family and we have loved every minute with them. The kids have made us proud over and over again from eating strange and different food to soaking up the museums and history and cultural differences with enthusiam and curiosity. I think the trip has way exceeded our expectations. We have just had fun every day. Parisians were much nicer than we expected, and we have had wonderful experiences everywhere we went. Food--yummy (most of the time)

Croatia is a real change of pace from Paris. Tomorrow Tod will preach, and then we will have a fellowship dinner at the church. After lunch Marty, Terry, Dale and I will make our way to the airport to fly to Nice, France. Monday we get on the ship for our cruise. Tod and Lee Ann will stay here in Zagreb until Monday when they will head back to Paris and the USA. Lee Ann's wallet got left in the safe at the hotel in Paris, so we are trying to get the man who drove us to and from the airport to pick it up at the hotel and meet them at the airport on Monday. Hopefully that will work out.

We miss all of you. We are keeping up with Reagan's baseball team through emails from Cory, his coach. Go Rangers! The Euro Cup starts today and Croatia has great hopes for a winning team. The flags are flying out of cars on the streets of Zagreb today--fun!

We are thinking of all of you. We love each one of you and wish you could all be here to experience this with us. One thing we know for sure: people everywhere need the Lord. Please keep us in your prayers as you are in ours.

Love, grandma

TRIP TO PARIS HAS WILD START

As we arrived at the airport for our 6 am flight, we realized Reagan had forgotten his ball and glove so he and his dad could stay in practice for baseball in case he got back for a game. Tod dropped us off and headed back home to get the glove. He made it back, but by the time they got us all checked in and through security, they had given away our seats. The guys went downstairs to make arrangements for another flight to Dallas. They barely managed to get us on a Southwest 6:45 flight to Love Field (last flight available out of Midland that would allow us to catch our noon flight to NYC.) They were threatening to close the door and Dale was running through the airport in his sock feet. Upon arrival in Dallas we had to take a taxi to DFW and hope our luggage was still en route to Paris. The wheel had come off of Dale's brand new rollaboard in Midland, so we spent our time looking for a new suitcase in DFW. We finally boarded our flight to JFK. Whew!

We finally made it to DFW to make our flight to NYC and Paris. I would travel with this family anywhere. They have all been so fun to be with.

Walking on the streets of Paris and getting the first glimpse of Eiffel Tower is a night we won't soon forget.

One of the first things we did (after some serious napping) was walk to the famous Eiffel Tower--truly amazing and impressive. We felt like we were really in Paris at last.

Waiting for our guide to begin our bike tour of Paris on our first night.

Marty and Terry trying to look excited as they await the "Fat Tire Bike Tour" through the streets of Paris.

Grandma and Bailey trying our bikes out for size before we left. I hope no one can see the terror churning in my insides. Bailey doesn't look all that confident. We both hated those little poles you can see in the background. Going around a corner and through poles like that together is how I had my first wipeout. The tight skinny places with lots of people is when I tended to panic.

One of our stops was for ice cream--some of the best we ever had. The kids liked the melon flavor. I am still a vanilla gal.

The whole gang at one of the stops on our bike tour with Notre Dam in the background. So far, so good. We are all still smiling. This tour was about 9 miles of biking. (They didn't tell you that before we started.) Terry fairly quickly decided that they would take a bus to Versailles on Friday instead of another scheduled bike tour. We all had a blast and laughed a lot.

Grandpa, waiting to cross the street on his bike. He did great!

Here I am ready for the Fat Tire Bicycle Tour. Smiling but terrified. What I won't do to be with my grandkids!!

It would be hard to overestimate the terror I felt in the middle of Paris traffic on my little, shaky bicycle. You can see Tod, Bailey (in white coat) and Reagan here. The rest of our group did great. Reagan was so fun. I only crash landed twice--once into Bailey and once into an American Airlines pilot. It was an humbling experience to say the least. Just bruised knee and tailbone, but I am alive and still laughing about it.

Marty and Terry did great on our bike adventure, but decided quickly that they would opt out of the next bike tour to Versailles on Friday.

The Eiffel Tower is simply stunning at night. This is the view as we rode down the Seine river on a boat in the middle of our bike tour.

We spent an afternoon in the Louvre--not nearly long enough. Do you recognize the famous painting in the background?

Sunday morning worship in the garden of our hotel.

One of our favorite meals was eating at Altitude 95 in the Eiffel Tower. Beautiful setting and great food.

Our beautiful Bailey did most of the planning for our Paris trip including this restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.

Isn't this a good looking guy? His Grandma thinks he is amazing and wonderful!

After our wonderful dinner at a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower. It is quite a sight.

Our visit to Normandy was sobering. This is Reagan looking at one of the thousands of white marble crosses marking those who gave their lives to gain freedom for France and the rest of the world. This is one of the "unknowns" with the marking, "Here lies in honored glory a Comrade in Arms known but to God." All I could think is that it marks the grave of some mother's boy.

These are places where the machine guns were to gun down our American soldiers as they landed on the beaches of Normandy and tried to scale these cliffs to free France.

We visited the bombed bunkers on top of the cliffs where the Germans hid as they gunned our soldiers down on D Day. It is a very eirie feeling. It was pouring down rain so we don't have too many great pictures.

One of the stops after Normandy was this old farm built in 900 in rural France. We passed lots of them.