Friday Favorites

I'm in denial that it's already Friday of this week.  I cannot believe how fast it's gone by, and that tomorrow my oldest boys will be on a plane to Guatemala.  I am linking up with Momfessionals for this post.

This week has been insane!  It was birthday week, for one thing, so that made it a little more hectic than normal.  Here are some of my favorites from this week.

One.

One of my favorite moments from this week was celebrating these guys!  I still can't believe they're twelve now.  Time, please slow down.  Please?

Two.

On their birthday, Tuesday, we had Impact Visitation at church.  This is one of my favorite things to do!  It is a set aside time to write cards to my girls in our Bible Fellowship class.  Another favorite about that is this picture~these girls straightened Drew's hair.  It's kinda disturbing, isn't it?  One last favorite about this night is that my kids did NOT want to miss it.  This happens every month at church.  They feed us dinner, usually Chick Fil A or Lenny's, then the youth either call people or write cards and then they hang out in the offices and goof off.  I love these teenagers, and not only do I love my church family, I thank God for them.

Three.

This guy turned sixteen on Wednesday!  This was definitely a favorite from this week.  He had a ten o'clock appointment in Whiteville to get his license.  A funny story about that~on my phone and on Graham's phone, on our Waze app, the map changed the location from Whiteville to Grand Junction without us knowing!  So we ended up being totally in the wrong place.  We called Todd, panicking, because we couldn't miss his time slot.  He sent me another map to the correct location and we took off.  I might have seriously exceeded the speed limit, and according to Graham, I have mad driving skills.  We should not have made it in time, but thanks to those things mentioned above, we were at the desk in Whiteville at ten oh two.

But we will never talk of this again.

A not-so-favorite:

I stood in the driveway and bawled like a baby watching him drive away.  But I'm okay now.  :)  Thanks to the prayers of my friends.

Four.

On Wednesday night of this week I received an email from Jen Hatmaker's publicity team, telling me that I had been chosen to be on the launch team of her new book coming out in August!  The books is called, For The Love.  I was beyond excited.  Because I love her and because out of over five thousand people who applied, I was one of the ten percent chosen.  !!!!!  I am almost done with the book.  :/  It's amazing!  Another exciting thing about this is that she asked us to write endorsements for the inside cover.  Just because I write one doesn't mean that they will use mine, but of course I am hoping that it gets picked.  How cool would that be?!

Seriously.  I feel so fortunate to be a part of this, and I feel like God is using me in a really big way right now.  I am so thankful for that, because that's always one of my prayers~for Him to use me as a vessel.  I never have any idea what that looks like, but I am thankful for any opportunity He gives me and I pray that I always bring Him glory and honor.  I think of some verses from second Corinthians that I memorized back in January that remind me of this.

"Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.  For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends."  2 Cor. 10:17-18

Five.

I saved the best for last.  Wednesday night at church, the youth paired off in groups and prayed over the team leaving for Guatemala tomorrow morning.  I love this group of teenagers, people!  I know I say that all the time, but looking at this picture, now do you see why?  Because they love each other.  They support each other.  They pray for one another and they admonish one another.  I got really teary when I saw them hug like this and I couldn't even close my eyes, because if I had, the tears would have flowed and would not have stopped.  So I took this picture.  That's my boy in the blue jacket on the right.  I am so proud of my boys and of our youth at church!  I know they would love your prayers for them as they travel tomorrow (Saturday the 14th) through the next Saturday.  Please pray specifically for the Lord to use them in a way that they can't even imagine, for safety as they travel and for health as they're there.  Please pray for the kids at the orphanage, that they would get a glimpse of Jesus in these kids and that they would tangibly feel His love, and for the team returning home tomorrow that was there this week.  Thank you!

Well.  I must stop writing and get to helping them pack for their trip.  Thanks for reading this, and thanks for the comment love lately!  Love to all.