Leonard Log

Monday, November 30, 2009

Happy Birthday Nate!

We were delighted to celebrate Nate's Third Birthday! We are sad that Dave couldn't be here, but Dave was able to Skype in and join in the fun of singing Happy Birthday and watching him open the special Nate sized uniform that Dave sent...complete with his name tape and chaplain cross and the fourwheeler!

Happy Birthday Nater Tater! We are so delighted to be able to finally celebrate a birthday with you here!!!!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Our Christmas Greeting

We are kind of scattered this year, so instead of sending out cards, we wanted to share our new family portrait with you on the blog. I used a company called portrait2000.com They do the work cheap and well, but its kind of scary. They have gmail accounts and you have to trust them. I think it was worth the risk.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Checking in

We are still alive. Just terribly busy. It is hard being the only parent on island. So we are making it...with the bare minimum requirements.....thus blogging is not happening. The kids are doing well, but miss Daddy. Nate told me yesterday while we were in the car. Daddy home airplane. I told him that Daddy wasn't home and that it wouldn't be today. He said, "No Daddy back home!" He is missing Dad and wanting him home. That's a great thing. We were concerned that he may be forgotten with the long separation. There is no forgetting Nathan's Baba!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Video for Ba Ba

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Saturday, September 12, 2009

I'm a bad blogger!

Sorry! I have been busy at my parents for the last 3 weeks. We are packing up and trying to head out to California in the morning and hoping for a nice direct flight back to Guam. I'm trying to get the re-adoption paperwork filed with the attorney before I leave. Hopefully I'll be a better blogger when I make it home :)

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Meeting Papa Pat and Nanny Carol

Friday, August 28, 2009

Updated Tattoo

....Do you think Nate is liking his G&G?
Here is the updated tattoo. I added the dragonfly for Nathan.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Meeting Papa Sugar

Unfortunately I can't find the video of meeting Grandma Sugar. I am sick over it. I guess it must be user error. The girls are delighted and making themeselves at home at G&G's. Nathan is loving having a Grandma and Grandpa. He is enjoying a new Uncle Brian, Aunt Krystal and cousins Kyndall (Timmie) and Bryson.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Life's Changing

We are still busy, busy. Dave was supposed to leave early on Friday morning and the kids and I were going to try to leave as soon as we could after he did. Just 18 hrs before his flight, his itinerary changed. He was able to stay all weekend with us. It was a great birthday present. The kids and I will try to fly to CA in the morning and then drive up to Oregon. If we get out, we'll be leaving just a few hours before Dave, and if we don't get this flight, we wait until after he leaves and then we'll continue to try to get on a flight. Things are almost all packed. I'm trying to pack extra light knowing that I have three kids...one being a two year old and a carseat in tow.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Busy, Busy!

I haven't slowed down to post in a while. It has been so long, that Dave posted! We are busy getting thing ready for Dave's deployment. He leaves in 11 days. I know I'm not ready, but never will be. I've been busy with making cakes...about one a week or so. The kiddos are as cute as ever. I'll try to get more pics up soon!

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Homecoming

Friday, July 10, 2009

Happy Anniversary Air Force Style

Dave is in Australia for our 15th Annivesary. Thanks to the USAF for an all expense paid trip. However they forgot one thing....ME! I celebrated by cooking dinner for 20+ people (it's Thursday) The girls were very kind and thoughtful. They made me breakfast in bed and were extra helpful with Nathan. I received 3 new potholders (from Miranda's weaving loom) a pack of playing cards,a handpainted panda and handmade cards and no bake cookies! I have great kiddos. I'm sure he wasn't just relaxing on the beach in Australia. He is there working. He must have been busy because he called for only about 10 minutes. Dave and I will celebrate when he returns.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Happy Independance Day!

We had a wonderful Independance Day. We are so blessed to live in a free country! We are even more blessed to have a new little citizen to enjoy it with this year.

Introducing Meow!

Here is our newest addition to the Leonard Family!
As you may have guessed, Sunshine had surgery and was damaged badly enough by the car that he wasn't able to sustain life.
McKenzie has picked out this fun little white kitty that she has named "Meow" in Nathan's honor!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Sonshine is perking up

We went for a visit last night and he wasn't happy to see us and turned away when we talked to him. He had a cone on, IV, catheder. He wasn't looking good.

We went in today and Sonshine had another x-ray and was so much more energetic. He was up and exploring a little on the table. The dr said that there are several possible scenarios. If the ureter is broken, his chance of survival is minimal. It may be that he is simply swollen and the swelling needs to go down so that he can go to the bathroom. Let's continue to pray that it is the latter scenario.

Reasons to Adopt

If you were to go to Jerusalem and to climb the mount of olives you would find a mosque captured by Salidin in 1187. It was a church before that where it was believed that Jesus ascended into heaven leaving his last footprints on this earth. Many of us would question the validity of this claim, however, Jesus no doubt left mighty big footprints while he was on this earth. They are felt and experienced every day in every corner of the world. His legacy is one that is far reaching and touches every strata of income, every race, gender and color.

Luke 10:25-37 (NRSV)
25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”
27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
woman lay dying on a Calcutta pavement. Her feet were half eaten away by rats and ants. She had been lying there for days and no one had taken any notice of her.
Then a nun came along. She was a tiny woman, dressed in a white sari which hung loosely about her and covered her head. She walked quickly, for she was always in a hurry. Her name was Mother Teresa.
When she saw the woman on the pavement she stopped. Full of pity, she picked her up and carried her into a nearby hospital for treatment. They told her there that the woman was too ill and poor to bother about. Besides, they had no room. Mother Teresa pleaded with them, but they said there was nothing they could do for her. However, she would not leave her patient, and set off for another hospital. But it was in vain. The woman died.
This was not the only person Mother Teresa found dying on the streets. There were many of them. There was an old man who was so thin he looked like a child. It was pouring with rain when Mother Teresa found him lying dead under a tree in a mess of sickness and blood. He was outside a hospital but no one had taken him in.
I think the world today is upside-down, and is suffering so much, because there is so very little love in the homes and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other. If we could only bring back into our lives the life that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in Nazareth, if we could make our homes another Nazareth, I think that peace and joy would reign in the world.

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat" - Mother Teresa"Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired" - Mother Teresa

And thereafter, she got engrossed with the task of serving the poor and sick people of Calcutta. The coming years witnessed the setting up of a charity organization called the Missionaries of Charity. In 1950, her source of concern was the care of lepers, the people discarded by society.Missionary of Charity opened its branches in almost every country to assist the poor, elderly, blind and people suffering from deadly disease like AIDS. For the bright future of children, she opened up schools. In 1979, she was awarded with Nobel Prize for the services that she had rendered to the society.

32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
On U2's last tour in 2005, which sold out more than 100 arenas worldwide, Bono gave his fans what they wanted to hear. For two hours, he belted out songs from the band's new album and sang old classics.
He also gave his fans what he wanted them to hear.
He took the opportunity to reach and inform roughly 20,000 people a night about his other job, of trying to eradicate poverty and slow the spread of AIDS in Africa. Through the band's music and his own words, Bono dedicated a portion of the show to bring attention to DATA, the organization he co-founded with Bobby Shriver and Jamie Drummond in 2002.
Bono went on to become a high-profile champion of Africa, as an artist, diplomat, lobbyist and negotiator. His eloquence, celebrity and Irish "moxie" enabled him to confront the rich and powerful from a mountain top in Davos to the General Assembly of the UN, from an outhouse in the bush of an impoverished African country to The White House and Congress, not to mention the stage of his sold out concerts and on every TV network. He has pushed, persuaded, cajoled, charmed and maneuvered the likes of Bill Gates. George Bush, and even Jesse Helms, to support debt relief and the fight against AIDS. He is a passionate campaigner. No one can say no to him
Bono was awarded the Liberty Medal on Thursday for his global work with DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) during a ceremony held on the front lawn of the National Constitution Center.

33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.

34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’

BRIGHTON, Iowa - If you sometimes get the feeling kids today only care about themselves, then maybe you should take a road trip to Brighton, Iowa, where a few nights each month dozens of children, heck, even teenagers, roll up their sleeves, don hair nets and go to work making meals for for hungry children thousands of miles away.
"It's changing them on the inside," says Don Fields. "Every one of these kids will want to come back and do this again."
Don Fields launched this operation two years ago, after a mission trip with his wife to Honduras. It's part of a national Christian program called Kids Against Hunger.
The Iowa kids have shipped container-loads of meals to places like Guatemala, Romania and Ethiopia.
"It helps them so they won't die," says 7-year-old volunteer Noah.
"I like doing it," adds 15-year-old Brianna. "It's really fun to know you are making a difference in the world."
And they are making a difference. To date, the kids have sent some 200,000 specially formulated meals overseas. Nationwide, Kids Against Hunger has prepared and shipped nearly 30 million meals.

36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Karen Daniels, a 31-year-old nurse from British Columbia who heard God calling her to minister through her medical skills in wartorn Sudan, where temperatures often reach 115 degrees and the only "bathrooms" are pit latrines dug in the ground.
Marianne Morton, who donated a kidney to a neighbor she barely knew, a Jewish man who was being kept alive only through daily dialysis

Projected number of orphans worldwide will reach 44 million by 2010

AIDS is taking lives in Sub-Saharan Africa, swallowing families, communities, hopes. So far 17 million have died. At least 25 million may follow. An intimate look at a modern curse.

Number of Christians 2.1 billiion

What can one person Do? What would God have me do?

He is a newborn baby in a third world country. He lives in a room filled with crying babies that no one picks up and no one cradles. He is fed just enough to live, changed on rare occasion. He will most likely never crawl, never play with his own toy, and never be spoken to one to one by an adult. He doesn’t know what it feels like to be full or what its like to be loved.

I don’t know his birth name-but he’s my son. He’s one of my footprints and that is what God has called me to do. What will God speak into your life? Where will he send you? What will be the difference that you make in this world?

Who then is your neighbor? Your neighbor is the person that you see who needs something that they can’t do for themselves. Your neighbor may not know the name of Jesus, the love of God or the feeling of being full.

What can one person do? It was one person who elevated the condition of the poor in India. It was one person who ended slavery in England after a lifetime of fighting it. It was one person who taught children to read on Sundays so that they wouldn’t be destined to lives of mining coal. It was one person who shared Jesus with you and changed your life.

What will you one person, do with one life to leave your footprints on this world before you go?
What is God speaking to your heart? Obey, dream big dreams, take chances, and don’t give up. God is faithful. God gave you the desires of his heart. God designed you for his purposes and you will never be satisfied until you are living the dream that God birthed within you and equipped you to do. Go now and make a difference.