Monday, November 14, 2011

A Fun Friday

On Friday, the eleven of us went on a picnic for lunch. We tried going to the Anderson Dance Pavilion, the place we usually have our breakfast picnics. The Pavilion has a canopy over a cemented part, and had beautiful flowers all around it. Unfortunately, the Pavilion was closed because of all the damage the flood did this summer. Instead, we decided to go to a park. We had Little Caesar's pizza (which I think is one of the best kinds of pizza!). After eating lunch, some of us went off to play on the playground, some took pictures, and others sat and talked.

Here is Alexander swinging, while attempting to play football with Mark.
Natasha and Amy were sharing the seesaw. Then, Amy got distracted by something and ran off, leaving her sister dangling.
Oksana, our little superstar :), with multiple photographers taking pictures of her at the same time.

Daria and Tatiana swinging together. Daria is reaching her hand out to grab the hand of Tatiana.
As I watched them, it seemed to me like it would be hard to hold hands while moving in opposite directions.
Tatiana making her landing after jumping off the swing.

Natasha hanging upside down on a piece of equipment that looked like a snail.

My cool, awesome, handsome, and bearded brother, Joe. 
Some of my favorite people in the world!! My sister Lissie, and brother Joe.  

We had a great time together!!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Best Daddy In The World!

I love my daddy so much!

 He's such a good example to me in everything that he does and says. I just want everyone to know that I think that I've got the BEST dad in the world! I want to list twenty things that I love about him. By the way, there are way more than twenty, but if I listed them all, you would be reading them forever!

He's the four P's:
1. Priest
2. Prophet
3. Provider
4. Protector
5. He loves Jesus with all his heart
6. He's trustworthy
7. He's very forgiving
8. He's a good listener (and when you have that many kids, you really have to be one)
9. He loves to spend time with us every night, even though he might be really tired
10. He's a good leader
11. He has a heart for the orphans
12. He has a tender heart
13. He's patient
14. He's honourable
15. He's honest
16. He loves his wife
17. Whenever he comes home from work, even though he might have had a hard time there, he ALWAYS asks what he can do to help
18. He's joyful in everything
19. He's gentle
20. And best of all, I LOVE HIS LAUGH!

Whenever I hear my dad laughing, even though I might have no idea what he's laughing about, it makes me laugh. :)

Thank you Daddy, for being an amazing dad and a Christ-like example. I don't know what I would have done without you. My life would have been so messed up if you and Mom hadn't adopted me! Thank you for being willing to welcome me into your family, and for giving me your love.

Love your,
Silly Sally :)

Monday, November 7, 2011

Fun Day of Baking!

On Saturday, my cousin Amanda and I baked a lot of banana bread. The last time we went to the grocery store, we got WAY too many bananas! That was a very big surprise for our family because we usually go through them very fast. However, we weren't able to eat them fast enough this time, so we had to find recipes that had banana in them before they went bad. So, we decided to mutiply the recipe by 6; each recipe used three bananas. So that is a lot of extra bananas :D

This is the batter of the banana bread with chocolate chips. It weighed 18 pounds :)

This is the big bowl that we used to mix all the ingredients. This is the same bowl I used to make Anna's wedding cake, which weighed 24 pounds. (Some will know what I'm taking about.)  

Amanda with the ginormous bowl. 

That's how many loaves of bread we made. 


The bread after it was done baking! Yum!
 Yes, you may have noticed that there are only six loaves of bread here :D That does happen in a large family. Before the last two loaves of bread were done, someone had gotten into one of the loaves.

This is what was left of the seventh loaf even before all of them were done!

I love being part of a large family! It's so much fun. And I love baking in large quantities. If you're going to cook or bake, why not do it in big amounts? :) I think that every one should have a big family!! :D

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

A Beautiful Evening

Two days ago, we went on our daily walk with Amanda, and I brought our family camera along with us. I attempted at taking some pictures of the beautiful evening.
 




And, to end off the day, we saw a very gorgeous sunset!




Tuesday, November 1, 2011

God Is So Amazing!

Last night, I was taking pictures of the moon. The moon was beautiful, clear and shining brighly. For the longest time, I've been trying to take a picture that was clear and that would really show the details of the moon. Well, God was so good and let me take that picture last night.

God is so amazing and so creative with everything that He makes!!

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the
heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
Praise Him, all His
angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all stars of
light!
   
 ~ Psalm 148:1-3 ~

Monday, October 31, 2011

The Prayer of Love

Here's another one of my favorite prayers from the The Valley of Vision, written by the Puritans of old.


GRACIOUS LORD,

Thy name is love,
   in love receive my prayer.
My sins are more than the wide sea's sand,
  but where sin abounds,
  there is grace more abundant.
Look to the cross of thy beloved Son,
  and view the preciousness of His atoning blood;
Listen to His never-failing intercession,
  and whisper to my heart, 'Thy sins are forgiven,
    be of good cheer, lie down in peace.'
Grace cataracts from heaven and flows forever,
  and mercy never wearies in bestowing benefits.
Grant me more and more
  to prize the privilege of prayer,
  to come to thee as a sin-soiled sinner,
  to find pardon in thee,
  to converse with thee;
  to know thee in prayer as
      the path in which my feet tread,
      the latch upon the door of my lips,
      the light that shines through my eyes,
      the music of my ears,
      the marrow of my understanding,
      the strength of my will,
      the power of my affection,
      the sweetmess of my memory.
May the matter of my prayer be always
  wise, humble, submissive,
  obedient, scriptural, Christ-like.
Give me unwavering faith
  that supplications are never in vain,
  that if I seem not to obtain my petitions
    I shall have larger, richer answers,
    surpassing all that I ask or think.
Unsought, thou hast given me
  the greatest gift, the person of thy Son,
  and in Him thou wilt give me all I need.

        ~The Valley of Vision~

Monday, October 24, 2011

Happy 14th Birthday!

I wanted to post this on Tatiana's birthday but it didn't work out, so I'm going to do it now.
On Friday the 21st, Tatiana turned 14 years old. She's growing up so fast! It seems like just a little while ago she was our little seven year old. Now, she's double that age.

I love her so much. I'm so glad God led us to adopt her and to bring her into our family. I can't imagine life without her. She is such a good friend to me. I feel so blessed to have her as a sister.

Tatiana has grown up in so many ways. She's matured so much and actually carries herself like a fourteen year old. She's such a huge help around the house. Whenever she's asked to help with anything, she does it with a happy heart. Even though she is three years younger than me, I still love being around her. She's also a very good listener. I know that I can share anything with her.

Another thing that I love about her is her imagination. She's so good at making things up and being goofy. Sometimes she says things that only Tatiana would say. I love her uniqueness! I don't think that there is anyone like her in the world.

She's grown up to be a very beautiful young woman.
Happy Birthday Tatiana!!

Your loving big sis,
~Cassandra

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

I Love My Cousin!!

Two and a half weeks ago, my beloved cousin Amanda came to spend some time with us.

She is such a great example of Christ to me. Even when going through hard times, she still shines for Him. You can never tell when she is hurting. She never complains and is so grateful for everything! She also has a gentle and quiet spirit, which is a great witness of Who lives in her. She also has a spirit of joy and never seems to be sad.

On the other hand, she does have a very exuberant  side to her! During our "rest times", 50% of the time, she and I have a lot of fun goofing off, and the other 50% we spend sleeping. When we talk, we talk about both very funny and serious subjects.

Just to put in plain words, "I LOVE BEING WITH MY COUSIN!!!"


My model pose ;)






Thanks Kristen for taking the pictures!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Water Everywhere!

On September 26th, we had the worst water accident I think that we have ever had!! It happened as we were getting ready to read the Bible after cleaning up breakfast. Kristen, who is our home school helper, had just come in to have Bible time with us. Lissie, Mark, and I were in the kitchen when we heard a rushing noise. We looked over at the sink, and we saw water gushing out from under the cupboard doors. We opened the doors and the water was rushing out like a fountain. It poured for about five minutes at the same rate. We used practically every towel in the house.


 
All the towels after they were washed!


Walking among the towels was like being in a marsh, because everything was so soaked! Then, Mark saw a knob under the sink, which he turned. Thankfully, it stopped the water.

We realized the water wasn’t just pouring upstairs, but it was also seeping into the basement.





(And no we're not cooking dinner :D)
We used every pot and pan in the house, and even plastic boxes!!


We found out later that a pipe had burst underneath the sink. Apparently, the cleaning chemicals had eaten away at the pipes. Mom called our plumber, and he came within ten minutes. The plumber didn’t know if we would need to cut some of the ceiling in order to dry, so he called our contractor who has worked for us for a long time, and knows our house well.

While we were waiting to for the man to come, Joe got on a ladder and dried a lot of the water that was still in the ceiling.
 When the contractor came, he said that it would dry on its own.
Thank God we didn't need to do anything further with the ceiling!
What a way to start of the week!!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Praise Him With:

I took this picture of my flute a while ago and have finally decided to use it.


I love this verse because it shows that He has given us musical instruments to do something very specific with them. We are to praise Him with ALL our instruments, including: violins, cellos, flutes, horns, trumpets, guitars, drums, pianos, you name it! There are so many instruments in the world that I can't possibly list all of them. Wow! It is amazing that all of us can praise Him, each in our own way.  So if you play any instruments, I would encourage you to worship Him through it.

Praise Him!!!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Ten Years of Being an American

Last Monday was the ten year anniversary of Mark, Jaynie, and I being adopted. If anyone wants to know about my life in Russia, you can go to www.untohimwelive.blogspot.com, and find the first post in September 2010. I wrote this post in honor of our nine year anniversary.

I've always been the kind of person who needed someone in my life. Coming home with my new family really filled that empty space. When my mom and dad came to take us home, I don't remember being scared at all. I just have a memory of being really happy and excited because I was getting a family. A family that would actually take care of me, love me, and care about me. I'm so blessed to be in the family that I'm in now. It was a very hard adjustment, but God helped us cooperate and learn those first few years. The biggest changes were getting used to being PART of a family, having parents, having three more siblings, having a dog (which didn't take very long), learning a new language, learning the rules, and all those things that go along with becoming a new family.

When we first got home, Lisse brought me up to the room I was going to be sharing with her and showed it to me. I was very amazed that I was going to have a room of "my own". It really felt like mine because in Russia I had to share a room with four other girls. Lisse also showed me her hair clips, and I thought they were some of the coolest things in the world! I decorated Lisse's and Anna's hair with all the clips. That was a really good icebreaker.

In those early days, I shared a room with Lisse, and Jaynie and Anna's room was right beside ours. One of the most fun and secretive things about our room was that our closets shared a very thin wall. While we were supposed to be resting, we would go into the closets and talk to each other through the wall. Sometimes, Mark, Jaynie, and I would go into one of the closets, and play with some of our favorite toys, Buzz Lightyear and Woody.

I have loved being part of my BIG family and living in America!!! All I can say is that I am VERY happy and blessed! I am extremely proud to be an American :)


Whenever I hear this song by Lee Greenwood, it ALWAYS gives me the goosebumps.

Thank you to all of you for being a part of my life!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Jesus My Glory

I read this prayer this morning from a wonderful little book of prayers the Puritans wrote called, The Valley of Vision. I thought it was amazing! These writings by men of old all seem to be new every time I read them.

O LORD GOD,

Thou hast commanded me to believe in Jesus;
  and I would flee to no other refuge,
  wash in on other fountain,
  build on no other foundation,
  receive from no other fullness,
  rest in no other relief.
His water and blood were not severed
  in their flow at the cross,
  may they never be separated in my creed
    and experiences;
May I be equally convinced of the guilt
    and pollution sin,
  feel my need of a prince and saviour,
  implore of him repentance as well as forgiveness,
  love holiness, and be pure in heart,
  have the mind of Jesus, and tread in his steps.
Let me not be at my own disposal,
  but rejoice that I am under the care of one
  who is too wise to err,
    too kind to injure,
    too tender to crush.
May I scandalize none by my temper and conduct,
    but recommend and endear Christ to all around,
    bestow good on every one as circumstances
        permit,
   and decline no opportunity of usefulness.
Grant that I may value my substance,
   not as the medium of pride and luxury,
   but as the means of my support and stewardship.
Help me to guide my affections with discretion,
  to owe no man anything,
  to be able to give to him that needeth,
  to feel it my duty and pleasure to be merciful
    and forgiving,
  to show to the world the likeness of Jesus.

               ~The Valley of Vision~

Sunday, September 25, 2011

For Jaynie: Our Goofy Sunshine

A few days ago, I was getting ready for bed and our dog, Sunshine came into my room. I took off the vest I was wearing and put it on her. I thought it fit her quite nicely. :)


 While the poor thing was wearing my vest, she started walking around with the hood hanging over her face. She ended up walking right into my bed, and then immediately turned around and bumped into another bed! Then my sister, Tatiana, picked her up and tried to comfort her.


Later, after I brushed my teeth, I came back into my room and found that Sunshine had invited herself onto my bed.


I thought this was a great picture of her looking at my computer like she was interested in it. Sunshine is such a character!
Jaynie, I miss you so much!!! I miss how you make me laugh!

~Cassandra