November Update

Things have been so busy here in the Kelley house, so here is a little update on each of us.

Aaron is hard at work writing his thesis for his master’s degree AND working full-time in the ED. We travelled to McAlisterville, PA this weekend to speak at Good News Lutheran-Brethren Church. What a privilege to share God’s work in our lives with my sister’s home church. Everyone was so welcoming, encouraging and accommodating. (I include this in his paragraph because he does all the public-speaking!)

Noah is soaking up as much knowledge about Kenya as possible. He created an African exhibit in our living room the other day. (See picture below.) In school, he is learning so much about the Bible, he’s reading really well (and getting quicker each week), and he’s always amazing me with his math skills.

Jacob also is an amazing little student. Even though he just turned 4 this summer, he read his first word today! (It is such a privilege to homeschool. Yes, it’s a lot of work and sacrifice for me, but it’s worth every difficult moment for moments like today!!) Plus, he memorizes Scripture just as well as Noah. Next time you see him, ask him to rattle off the fruits of the Spirit. He probably won’t do it because he is so shy, but he knows them all (and in order). The picture was taken today by Noah. I’m pretty sure Jacob telling Noah to stop taking his picture. 🙂

Levi is really wanting and trying to be a student. He’s been singing the alphabet and the A-a-apple song, and he’s talking more and more every day. In his never-ending attempts at being helpful, he poured an entire box of Rice Krispies onto Hannah’s tray a couple of mornings ago. Lesson learned: Put the cereal AWAY before going to the bathroom when the two youngest kids are left alone.

 

Hannah is crawling all over the place and getting into all kinds of trouble. Toys no longer interest her. She does love scavenging food from under the table and chewing on electrical cords…And eating whatever Levi puts on her tray. I’m not sure how she stays so skinny because she eats almost the entire time she’s awake during the day!

 

I am staying busy. Sometimes I get frustrated with myself for being so tired. Maybe I should blog about my kids more often…It might help to remind myself WHY I am exhausted everyday! In all seriousness, though, I am one blessed momma. I love spending my days teaching, playing with, feeding and caring for my kiddos. They make me so proud.

Please continue to uplift us in prayer. We still have so much to do to prepare for our January 29 departure and now the holidays are here to distract us. May we thoroughly enjoy this time with friends and family without loosing focus on what God has planned for us in Kenya.

Let us not become wearing in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galations 6:9

 

 

Jacob’s Spiritual Birthday

As many of you saw on our Facebook page, Jacob prayed to receive Jesus as his savior last night. I am still beaming with such pride and joy over this event that I must tell the story.

Thursday was a busy day; so busy, in fact, that no one took the time to lay Levi down for a nap. Aaron was working second shift, so I fed the kids spaghetti and quickly got them upstairs to bed. Levi couldn’t keep his eyes open as I brushed his teeth, so he passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow. Hannah was quite sleepy too. I laid her down and sighed in relief and contentment that my bedtime duties were already half over! And the older two do most of the bedtime work themselves! What a great evening!!

Noah and Jacob finished getting ready for bed and asked for a story. Unfortunately, all the books were in the dark room where Levi was sleeping or downstairs (and I was way too lazy to walk down the steps and not adventurous enough to allow either boy to do so). All the books were out of reach…except one! Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers: The Scriptures by Joey Allen just happened to be laying on the floor by my bedroom, so that was our bedtime story. (God orchestrated this whole evening so beautifully.)

About half way through the book as it was explaining the parts and authors of the Bible, Noah asked, “Momma, why isn’t the Bible continued? You know, why aren’t our stories written in other books of the Bible?” Great question, huh? Knowing my answer but not wanting to interrupt the flow of the book, I told him that I’d tell him about another book as soon as we finished reading this book. He was content with that response, but he eagerly wanted to hear about this other ‘special’ book to which I had eluded.

The book ended, and I started explaining the Lamb’s Book of Life. I told them that God writes our names in a book in heaven when we receive Jesus as our Savior and then He records all our stories. Noah was quite excited to hear that his name was already written in that book. Jacob said, “Mine too! Mine too!” But I corrected him. I explained that he never asked God to write his name in the book or asked Jesus to be his Savior. A little disappointed but eager to make things right, Jacob said, “Momma, can you ask God to write my name in the book?” I said, “No, Jacob. Only you can ask God to do it,” and I told them how God has a special relationship with each of His children and He only takes people to heaven if they want to go.

I’m not sure how eloquent I was, but my answers satisfied him. He kind of closed his eyes and then said that he talked to God in his head. However, I guess that wasn’t quite good enough in his mind. He asked Noah and I to leave him alone so that he could talk to God without us hearing him. We gave him some privacy and then he very proudly bounced into the room to announce, “I did it, Momma! I did it!” We ended the evening by talking about how all of heaven rejoices and throws a party every time someone becomes a Christian. Then, I announced that we would celebrate his spiritual birthday somewhat like we celebrate his regular birthday…He requested a cake and balloons.

Aaron was off today, so he took Jacob to the store. They came back with a cake, a helium tank, balloons, tons of snacks, and an Iron Man toy. (I guess I forgot to inform Aaron that gifts were NOT part of the spiritual birthday celebrations.) The boys played with the balloons all day and we ate his special birthday cake for dessert tonight.

Here is my new Brother in Christ, Jacob, with his cake. (Not sure what Sissy is thinking in the background.)

 

Rejoice with us and all of heaven!

 

P.S.

There are 4 books in the Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers collection. I mentioned them on the recommended resources page, and I say that they’re on sale through the Answers in Genesis website.

Halloween in the Dark

There are two events that Noah and Jacob were anticipating this October: Kandy Kingdom and the Candy Carnival. Both events are sponsored by local churches, and we prefer to do that over going door-to-door. However, both events weren’t continued this year! Oh, the disappointment that overtook those sweet faces when they learned that they had no opportunities to dress up and get candy….Until I promised our very own Kandy Kingdom! (What was I thinking???)
Well, I was thinking that they would dress up in their costumes, and I would set up a game in each room of the house. They’d play games. I’d give them candy. It would be a great day of school, right? That’s what kids do on Halloween in public schools, isn’t it?
Regardless, this was my plan until Hurricane Sandy stole our electricity. We resorted to sitting by windows and doing school by the sunlight, playing ball with a balloon, and napping. It was fun, but how was I going to pull off Kandy Kingdom in the dark all by myself. (Aaron worked every day we were without power!) Not to mention that during my last-minute trip to the grocery store, I forgot about our private Kandy Kingdom and didn’t buy Halloween candy!
We Kelleys can not be discouraged that easily! 🙂 Noah and Jacob decided that no electricity was quite festive, and we called our event Spooky Kandy Kingdom. We devised three games, I raided the cabinets for candy, and we set up our Halloween festivities. I made them ‘nap’ again. (What else do you do when the afternoon is dark?) As soon as Levi woke up, they got their costumes on. Noah is a spooky knight. Jacob is Superman. And Levi is a thumb-sucking dragon. What a crew! 🙂

 

And just as we were about to play our first game, the electricity came on! We were a little disappointed that our Kandy Kingdom was no longer spooky, but we were happy for lights, heat and the movie that followed our event.

Our first game was the Lollipop Pick game. The one where you pick a lollipop and see if you win a prize by the color on the stick. Noah won a candy bar, and Levi won a Tootsie Pop. Jacob just got to keep his little lollipops. (Thank you to all the banks who hand out Dumdums…and to myself for being a mean mom who never allows her kids to eat the lollipops we get at the bank!)

 

The next game was made mostly by Noah. It was a fishing game. He drew and cut out 6 fish that were marked with the numbers 0, 1, 4, 6, 9, and 10. He decided that you needed to have two fish that added to 10 in order to win candy. (He’s so scholarly.) I made a fishing pole, and they LOVED fishing for matches…and getting candy of course!

 

The third and final game was a ball toss game. I have no pictures of this one. I set up 3 buckets and they got candy for getting pingpong balls into the buckets. Nothing fancy, but the boys had a great time playing the games and loading up on sugar. As they watched the movie, I ran around the house getting things back to normal. It was a Halloween to remember for sure!