By Abby

hi hiii ((:

as much as you enjoy my AMAZING mothers writing

its my turn.

I am Becky Russell's youngest daughter (:

I am sixteen and ALL OVER this blog :P

I want to say that my mother is the most amazing woman

EVER

i love her and her writing, her little voices, and hand gestures

SHE'S REAL CUTE

isn't she?

<333>

Abby's Pictures

Amanda and jungle man look as if they are pouting....


Remember I told you that I bought Abby a camera on ebay?
Here are a few of her pics.
She informed that if I were going to post any of her photos that I HAD to post the one below.
She thinks this piece of clover in our front yard is some of her best work.
By the way,...plant expert Janet Carson says that if you have green in your lawn, then it's from weeds. Real grass should still be brown.
Shut-up Janet.

I like this butterfly which is in the tree we planted at Jae's grave.

We go there often,..this day was a clean-up day.

Below is Carter, our grand-nephew!

Abby asked I stick my tongue out.....

Ralph's hairy daughter looks like she doesn't like her scarf

Abby's best friend Amanda is also the best dancer (front and center)

I'd post more, but it's past my bedtime!

Night!

Communion

I've been thinking and studying about Easter. (Haven't we all?)

By far, one of my favorite passages in all of scripture occurs at the "last supper".
It was the feast of the Passover when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a the back of a donkey. Then, preparations began for the Passover feast.
As He and His disciples were in the upper room and participating in the sacred ritual of remembering the Jewish people's delivery out of Egypt,...Jesus throws the 12 men a curve.
He breaks the bread and serves the drink and deviates from the traditional remembrance by telling His friends to eat His body and drink His blood.
I wonder if they all sat up and looked around incredulously and thought What in the world is He talking about? These words were no where in the age-old script of the traditional passover feast!
He was telling them that this was a powerful way to commune with Him after He was gone. (which they didn't understand His talk of death either)

I wonder how our Lord's supper is different today than it was meant to be?
Do we carry on with only a "remembrance" or is it to be "spiritual thing" as well? I think I have had fairly low expectations of the whole experience and I am fairly certain I'm not the only one.
He often said in scripture that HE was the bread of life.

I will be taking the communion,...Lord's supper this Easter morning and I am going to approach it very differently.
I have no firm answers for what I am searching for, but some spiritual things aren't explainable anyway.

Spring Inventory

What I'm doing today:
Taking some deep breaths and breaks after our fund-raising lunch last week. What a wonderful relief to have a successful event behind me.

I'm grateful for
My family. They live their life right along beside mine and take my burdens as their own.

I'm also grateful for
Abby 's best friend Amanda. It's good to have such a talented sensitive soul for a daughter's best friend.

I'm irritated at
My new flat screen TV. Why does it cut in and out so much?

I'm worried about
Casey. She went with friends to Panama City Beach late late Friday night. She is a sheep in a evil wicked environment.

The song which has spoken to me
"In Christ Alone"
One verse sings "...With life's first cry 'til dying breath, Jesus commands my destiny..."

I recently laughed hard at
myself!
I have a weird way of transposing the first letters of a pair of words. Yesterday, I was talking to Abby about singing all four parts. Unfortunately I said all pore farts.
A few months ago I yelled something to Abby and accidentally transposed the
letters to the phrase "Fun-sucker". While trying to correct myself I yelled it a second time. I almost had to pick Ralph and Abby off of the living room floor.

The scripture which has provoked thought is
Mark's account of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. He shared His heart with His friends (disciples) and told them how "His heart was breaking to the point He felt as if He would die".
It seems like such a human response.

I'm a bit worried about
My job.
Still.
I just don't know where I'm supposed to be.
Big decisions coming up soon.

I had a lot of fun
Making my first E-bay purchase.
I signed on to search for Abby a camera and found one with only 19 minutes left to bid. I had trouble signing up and signing in and by the time I finally got into the system, only 2 minutes remained to bid and the price had gone up $65!! The competition was fierce! :)
Abby now owns the camera and has shot well over 1500 photos since Wednesday.

I am ecstatic
I just made Casey's last tuition payment to University of Arkansas.
She graduates May 8th.
I can barely believe it.

March 17th is Abby's Birthday

Abby Rae.

Sixteen years old.

As she snuggled with me in bed this morning I listed

several of the reasons I am proud of her.

I could list them here, but most would sound exactly

like the reasons any mom feels regarding her child.

For the first year or so of Abby's life, I would frequently ask the rest of the family

"Can you imagine life without her?!"

Most moms know exactly where they were when their children were born, but not so with some of us adoptive moms!

That's why I am grateful for my morning of St. Patricks day 1994.
Sixteen years ago on this day, Jae, Casey and myself stood in front of our bathroom mirror and all spoke about wearing green and pinching people.
Jae was 5 years old and Casey was 4.
Pinching was the big topic of the morning.
It's always a stressful day when us moms have to send our young ones out into the world where pinching is allowed!
So as I brushed their hair we spoke of pinching etiquette.
Things like
*Don't pinch people at all.
*If you have to pinch, make sure they are wearing no green.
*Never ever pinch hard.
*Avoid bullies,..they pinch too hard and try to hurt.
etc.

Unbeknownst to us as we stood in front of that mirror, the youngest member of our family was taking her first breath somewhere miles away.

Scholarship

It's been a long time since I've been as busy as I am right now.
I'm not whining, but thought I'd share why this blog may be a bit more silent than usual.

The 3 Cheerleaders annual signature fund-raising event is one week away and I am completely overwhelmed with the amount of support given by the businesses in our community.
I am also amazed at the tireless devotion of my family to this cause that they believe in.

When we first began this scholarship, it was for selfish reasons. We did not want Jae Lynn to be forgotten. Putting her name on a educational scholarship seemed to bring some of her presence and permanency into the school hallways where she belonged.
We were crazy with pain and didn't have a clue what we were doing. We just had so much emotion and channeling it into something positive seemed like a good thing to do.
Sure. Sure.
Wait until we are ripped wide open and shattered emotionally, spiritually and physically and THEN start the biggest endeavor of our lifetime.
Who in the world does things like that?

Tens of thousands of people.
Survivors of catastrophe often feel like they have nothing to lose,..so they go for it all. They do hard things and overcome barriers that would have stopped them cold in their "old life".
Unstoppable.

My family and I miss Jae Lynn every morning that we rise and every evening that we lay our heads down. We speak daily, daily I tell ya, of how badly we wish she was still with us.

I am past feeling unstoppable.
In fact, I'm feelin pretty durn stoppable every single day.
Tonight I feel like I'm not even go-able.
If you think about us anytime during the next couple of weeks, please say a prayer of strenght for the whole big lot of us. We want this weekend's event to be a success and bring honor to our Lord at the same time.
Both are of the utmost important to all of us.

(PS: Hey! Come join us! Sherwood Forest 3/14/10, drop in around noon for lunch.)