JULY 4th!

We have had a great 4th of July. I have been off since last Tuesday and unfortunatly have to return tomorrow. Robbie had friday and monday off so he got a long weekend as well. We had everyone over on friday and cooked out and then had fireworks. It was so nice just hanging out with the family and everyone being healthy. God is good to us that is for sure. Rylie liked the fireworks but she had more fun with the bubbles that her and "crica" were playing with. She LOVES her bubbles. Saturday we went shopping. Rylie did so well with her potty training. SHe has had the poopy thing down we are still working on peepee. When you are out shopping it makes it a little harder because she gets busy and doesn't want to take the time to go. She did great wore the same potty pull up ALL day long. It was nice...we saw every single bath room that the stores had to offer:)
Sunday was a GREAT day at church with friends and family and then Rylie went to Gigi's and popa's and mommy and daddy had some quiet time at home;)
We actually worked on some things for Rylie's upcoming 2nd birthday party. I don't want to wait till the last minute. I want things ready to go if you know what I mean. We are doing an "elmo" theme this year. Elmo makes me smile just to look at him...I just love that little guy:) she does too.
Today was the errand day. We went for breakfast and been on the road since. Robbie went and had oil change, rotated tires and had my car washed. Then this afternoon Rylie starts her swimming lessons.
How fun...we hope she does well. Just wanted to share a couple of our pictures especially the one with Robbie doing the rain dance it actually worked.
So if you need him to do one again there will be a small nominal fee:) Just kidding man we needed that rain something fierce.
Anyway keep praying for us with the unspoken prayer request. We have not heard anything else in regards to it, so we believe no news is good news. We will share as soon as we know more about this ok....thanks ahead for the prayers
Love you all

Unspoken prayer request!

Hey guys
We just wanted to ask you to lift us up in prayer. We have a situation that has been dropped in our pathway and we need to pray for guidance with this situation. We know God has our backs but we want to do GOD's will not our will and we want our judgement not to be clouded. We want and pray for HIS guidance in this matter.
We will share as soon as we can with everyone. PLEASE pray if we have ever needed your prayers it is now:)
Thanks ahead.
Billie, Robbie and Rylie

Love one another!

Here are some pictures of our Rylie Bug to share ...she is growing way to fast for her daddy and mommy...She is a trip...she tells you "I ash a tutu laaaaaveu nost" translated " I absolutly love you most" It is so cute how she says it. Kelly she also says "soup" for bathing suit like your boys. She thinks everyday she is going to the beach or pool. I try to tell her beach days are over for awhile and pool days are only when mommy is off, but telling that to a 22 month old is fruitless...
I wanted to share some thoughts on our message at church today ...

Love one another that was our topic of discussion from Jeff today at church. Love one another and God really brought it home to me today. It is easy to tell someone that you love them. I shake people's hand ALL day long at work. I am around people ALL day when I work and it is easy to tell some people that you love them, but sometimes it is not as sincere as it needs to be. For instance at church we all have been guilty of saying how are things or how are you doing..hey love you brother/sister and then keep walking barely giving some people the time to answer. We get caught up in the world around us. However God tell us to LOVE one another
John 13: 34-35
A NEW command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this ALL men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
It is here that he instructs us to love EVERYONE no matter the color, where they are from or who they are....WHY because He commands it and also because he loved us so much that he GAVE his LIFE for us...that is how much He loved us....and if we love one another then that is how people will know that we are HIS...not by how much we attend church or how much we give all those things are of course important but it is about how we love one another.
Now that is the easy part to love...here comes the hard part for some....
Luke 6:31-32
do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? even sinners love those who love them.
Luke 6:35
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of them Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
There it is....it is so much harder to love on your enemies but that is what He commanded for us to do. There will be times whe nwe are scammed by people but that is not our worry God will take care of that for us and be our vindicator....we just must do as He commands and LOVE!!
I was just really moved by our message today and thought I would share...

check out this you tube cardboard confessions

Check this out....Thanks to Kim for sharing...This is awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ

God Bless have a great day!

Our vacation to the beach

We went to Myrtle Beach this past week. We stayed in a 3BR, 2Bath full kitchen condo with Ellen and Brett (aka GiGI and Popa). We had not been to Mrytle in over 10 years and it was a nice trip. There was hardly any one there. It was nice to go to restaurants and there be no lines. The only time there was a small line was when we went to the aquarium and even then it was not that bad.
When we pulled up in parking garage we said we are here at the beach and I really think that Rylie thinks that the parking garage is the "beach" because she called the ocean "awa" (water) . Thankfully she LOVED the water, especially the heated lazy river. She got on her small float and just floated around the pool. She did so great this week. You know you worry about being away from her bed and trying to potty train, but she was a trooper she had one poopy in her little swimmers, because she didn't want to go in to the restroom. ( Rest assured she pooped out of the pool in her lil swimmers...thank God). We were so proud of her. She feed some fishes and some ducks at the aquarium.
Also the ocean aka "awa" was a tad bit cold so you should have seen all of us digging her out her own personal pool out in the sand and then filling it with water. She thought she was something else in there. Popa and Daddy was at her beck and call at the beach if she wanted more "awa" then they fetched it for her. It was funny. I have a lot more pictures to share but haven't had time to down load them as of yet. It is crazy I took SOOOO many pictures this time...she was just too funny this time around. She is getting such a personality and man it shows.
We had a great vacation, but as with all vacation they are just too short:( and of course we ate entirely too much....
Also this is a praise report for us as well. Robbie and I did the Dave Ramsey classes through our church and have been trying to budget and save as much as we can. It is a LONG process we didnt get into debt overnight and it will not go away overnight. Dave Ramsey would be proud in a way and then again not be proud of us. But we are proud of ourselves. We budgeted and paid cash for the entire vacation this year everything paid for. This is the first time we EVER paid cash for EVERYTHING....Dave would be proud of that, however he would probably had said stay at home, and not go and take that money and put on your debt...but we REALLY wanted to go somewhere for awhile. It was nice to get away for awhile and spend some QUALITY time together as a family. Kelly I know you are feeling me:)
We just pray that God continues to watch over our finances so that we can get out of debt and be able to do God's will with our money when he calls us to. We want to be able to be a blessing to others.

I take Rylie back for a follow up appt tomorrow...please pray for health and healing for Rylie she has had a rough time with that little bug she had.

A great day

I just wanted to share my day from monday. I listen to the fish while going into work in the morning and I can never get through the phone lines to weigh in on a topic. Well y were talking about this women emailing in about her feeling like a second rate citizen on mothers day because she had no children and "do women have to have children to have a complete life". The DJ Taylor was talking about her sister had adopted two children and that mother's day was the hardest day for her until the adoption of her first child. Well I thought I would try toget through and wouldnt you know I GOT THROUGH on the FIRST ring...really...I spoke to Taylor and Kevin in regards to how hard mother's day was hard and that churches sometimes don't recognize that and we celebrate mothers and forget those that are hurting to be a mother. I told them that I had asked for our small group two weeks ago to lift up the women wanting to be moms because I have been there and mother's day is EVERYWHERE on TV and in stores. It is a hard time. We talked a little about our adoption and how after our self pity party we embraced the infertility as a way of God having a different plan for us to have children. He wanted us to adopt and you all can see what a true gift from God Rylie is to us.
Well then I went to work and had a patient that was depressed and crying in the office and wanted some help. I asked what is going on in her life to try to figure somethings out and she said that her and her husband have been trying over a year to get pregnant and that they have not even went to a doctor but felt led to adopt. She said however no one had ever adopted in her family and they were scared to share the news.....I was just smiling I couldnt help myself..I had been there done that and got the t-shirt. I sat with her for a long time talking about things and got incrediably behind, but God put her in my path for a reason that day. I have always said since the adoption that I feel that God is leading me in that path somehow to help others even if it is just at work in the health field arena. Then no lie about an hour later a patient came in who just adopted in 4 weeks a baby girl by private adoption. She found out about baby started the process and 2 weeks later the baby was born and handed over to her and her husband...I asked her were you trying to adopt...get this..she said that she had a IVF baby 10 years ago and was trying to decide what to do and their prayers have been "God lead us in the way you want us to go in regards to another baby" and BAMMMM...her sister called her in regards to her knowing someone was pregant and going to put the baby over to the state...and there you have it the end to a BEAUTIFUL story...it was AMAZING day....God just showed himself to me and other all day that day....
and on a sader not though however...I would ask everyone to pray for a patient that I had last week that came in to confirm pregnancy and she said "I need to find our how far along I am so I can ge rid of this inconvience" CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!! I held my head high and talked to her for awhile about other options. I told her coming from a adoptive mother...the heart of a birthmother is the most amazing thing and ours had made our lives so much richer...That it is a hard decision but I feel it would be easier to know that my baby went to a loving family WHO wanted a baby than in the garbage can eh...it is a no brainer to me..I hate to be so callous....I was not with her because she was hurting... however that girl came in with only one solution to her problem and I gave her another...lets pray that this girl doesn't make a decision for this child that she will regret forever...

This is a long blog but worth sharing I think....We get so caught up sometimes in the bad things and forget all the blessings God has bestowed on us...EVERY where you think there are people hurting and discouraged. I just got home from CR tonight and I tell you no matter who you are we all have some type of hurt, habit or hang up that we are dealing with....if you are breathing today you have some thing that is troubling you, and until you deal with that issue God can't use you in the way that he needs you....

When We Feel Helpless
READ 2 Chronicles 20:1-4
Have you ever felt totally helpless? Can you remember facing a situation or emergency in which you were powerless? It’s a sobering experience for anyone. Even people who claim to be wholly dependent on God, still like to feel as if they have some control over their circumstances.Jehoshaphat faced a moment like that. In today’s verses, the good king was confronted with dangerous news. Three different armies had joined forces to destroy Israel. As he listened to the report, “a great multitude” of attackers were already on their way. What was the king’s response? Verse 3 tells us he was “afraid.” That makes perfect sense. He no doubt felt powerless. But, even in that moment of helplessness, he knew exactly what to do. Scripture doesn’t say, "Jehoshaphat was afraid and ran away” or “he was afraid but charged headlong into battle.” No, the Bible tells us that “Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord”. That was the perfect response to a helpless situation. The king knew this was not the time to give up, nor was it the time to take action motivated by fear. Instead, he did the only wise thing he could: he prayed. More than that, he called on others to pray. And suddenly, the entire situation changed, because God had been brought into a hopeless situation.When we feel helpless, the first word out of our mouth should be “Father.” From then on, helplessness isn’t an issue, because God will provide what we need.

Your Hope Journal
READ 2 Chronicles 20:5-12
Yesterday, we saw what King Jehoshaphat did in a seemingly hopeless situation. Today, let’s extract another principle from that story as we learn how to handle helplessness. In verses 5-12, Jehoshaphat is still focused on the Lord, which should also be our first response to fear. Yet notice what he does in this prayer. He is not looking forward, stating his fears of what might happen. Instead, he is remembering the past, recounting the times in Israel’s history when God brought them through similar “helpless” situations.How often has the Lord done a mighty work on your behalf when all seemed lost? He is actively involved in our lives today. Sadly, we frequently thank Him in the moment but then forget what He’s done for us. Later, when we are fearful again, it’s hard to remember how He has already proven Himself in our lives. This is why every believer should keep a journal, a written record of the Lord’s faithfulness. During times of helplessness, we want encouragement not just about how God has worked in history or in the world, but about how He’s worked in our own lives.It may take some time to establish the discipline of journaling, but the rewards are tremendous. You may say, “Well, I don’t have time for that.” Friend, you need to make the time. When you record blessings, you begin to view God’s work from a new perspective. You’ll start to see how He’s weaving the individual “threads” of your life to create a beautiful tapestry for His glory.