adoption?

I spoke with a woman from "Loving Alternatives", a christian adoption agency the other day. She felt that given the situation/past with this birth mother that there were many red flags-which Calixto and I had already discussed with one another. I still have not talked with a friend who is a lawyer-they're on vacation-but she has talked with a lawyer she knows. His recommendation was to go ahead and do a private adoption since it is less expensive. But, we feel that she needs the support/information/counseling that an agency can provide. I spoke with her last night and gave her the number to call and speak with the agency. We feel she really needs to have an adoption plan before we sit down with her and talk more. There are 7 months before the baby is born and that leaves a lot of time for things to happen, or for her to re-think the emotional decision she is making now.
So, I think at this point we are going to continue to pray about this and see how God leads all of us! My thought is that we can't be her "savior" in this ordeal and I feel that is how she is viewing us. I can't even think through the situation fully, there is just so much to consider...like teaching in the fall...oh my, thank the Lord that he is in control...not me!

Adoption?

I'm posting this on this blog and not the "arces" since I don't want my friends in Longview to know about this situation just yet. (if any friends from Longview read this just don't pass along the info...thanks)
Here is the situation...I received a phone call from someone we know asking if we would adopt her baby that is due in January!! Ok, I practically fell off my chair in shock at that question. She is a 40 year old woman and has not been stable since we have known her. As a church we reached out to her and helped her through many a traumatic situation...and here she is again in another predicament. She understands that she can not take care of another child, the father wanted her to abort but, she chose to cancel the appointment. She is desperately looking for a solution and thought about us.
I told her I would make some calls, get some information and get back to her today-not with an answer but with some direction. I spoke with our friend Glennis who runs a maternity home last night and she told me to contact a lawyer and a local christian adoption agency. I'm waiting to hear back from a Lawyer friend and I did speak with someone at Loving Alternatives. The woman was very sweet and offered some wise counsel.
There are a bunch of red flags with this situation...please pray for us, the birth mom and the baby...that God's will would prevail! We certainly don't want to jump into anything that would be unwise but we also don't want to say no to something that God potentially "brought" to us.
Thanks for your prayer and I'll keep you posted on what direction we are headed.

Go Army!

Today 3 vietnam era helicopters stopped at our airport to refuel on their way back to California from DC. They had been in DC to escort the thousands of motorcycles that ride to the capital every Memorial day. There were 2 hugheys and I forget what the small one is called.
When we 1st arrived the officials at the airport had no clue they were coming and even turned people away saying they had wrong information...luckily just as we walked out the doors we heard them landing.
Several of the pilots/crew are vietnam vets and we were able to talk with them and thank them for their service to our Country!

For the bee enthusiasts...the small holes in the tree ended up turning into a big hole futher into it. When the tree men came back to cut up the trunks into smaller pieces this is what we found...

The combs were dry and brittle and ants were all over already. No honey to be found but it sure smelled of honey.

We finally got our trees removed...well, they are down anyway!

I used my maiden name for this blog and my married name for the arce blog. I figured there would be many more with the name Thompson. Try it with your name and see how many of "you" there are out there?!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1,861 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Prayer needed!

Ok, I've debated over and over if I should post this...I've come to the decision to go ahead!
Tracy is engaged to Art and they plan on getting married in June sometime. The problem is Art is not a christian...they have been going to church together...but, as far as I know he has not made a decision to follow Christ. They both have failed marriages and ex-spouses that are and will continue to make life difficult for them in relation to their children.
I'm not writing this to gossip about Tracy or Art. I'm just very concerned about this relationship (which I have expressed to Tracy), upcoming marriage and most importantly their spiritual lives.
I ask that we all pray very earnestly for them. Pray that God would get ahold of both of their hearts, that they would make biblical, wise choices for them and their children.
Remember that the prayer of a righteous man avails much!

Ahhh! The tornado sirens are going off!!!

FFHN

Click on the picture to view our new website for "For the Fame of His Name" It is finally up and running...at least the beginning stages!

Storms, storms and more storms

We awoke Sunday morning to yet another thunderstorm! Usually they pass by pretty quickly but this one stalled right over Longview and dumped over 4 inches of rain! That was on top of the rain from the night before.
I didn't realize until yesterday that the garage and maid's quarters had flooded! Eww! everything is so smelly now. I was going to have a garage sale, now I'm thinking I'll just throw it all away!
Our flowers did take a beating...the dogwood blooms are all over the ground! It looks like it is going to be a beautiful sunny day today...although humid, I'm sure!

Spring weather in Texas!

Storm #2

No tornado this time...but we have lots of hail! I have never seen this much or this big of hail before! This one Christopher is holding is 1 inch in diameter...shortly after this we found some that were 2 inches!

Calixto is in the attic trying to catch the leaks! Unbelievable how loud the hail, rain and wind were just a few minutes ago. It smells strongly of pine in the air...so there must be a tree or trees down...we did hear some cracking sounds earlier. Ok, I'm off to find towels to dry up the puddles from the leaks in the window sills.

Elizabeth and Larry

Here they are for those of you who asked for a clear picture. Awww aren't they cute.

Signs of Spring...

Catholic Good Friday Procession in Mx

Update on Connie

Thank you for praying for Connie Puryear and her family. Yesterday she went to Dallas for a biopsy of the spot on her lung, the following was written last night...

Dear Warriors, Johnny and I arrived home this afternoon around 4:00 pm. This morning we arrived at Baylor at 6:00 am and were meet with kind nurses and staff. The Doctor informed us that he was not 100% sure he could reach the spot that they had in question. My prayer that morning was that he could indeed reach the spot to avoid another procedure. Anxiety took over me from about 6:30-6:50. I could not stop crying and a friend had prepared my MP3 player with worship music and I began to sing and focus my heart. I quickly found my place of peace again. Right before they wheeled me downstairs Johnny and I again prayed. "This is yours, you can have this spot, and this lung. We will love you no less and will continue to praise you the same." God's goodness and presence were not absent. I remembered dreaming and hearing someone say..."Connie, you are okay." I did not know if it was my conscience that held all the worry or if God was speaking to me in this long dream. I awoke three hours later with Johnny at my side as always. The Doctor came in and repeated - YOU ARE OKAY! He had a pathologist with him during the surgery. He was able to reach the spot and the lymph gland. There was NO cancer!!!!! He said he will continue to check the spot in months to come, but felt confident in the cells that he found. His nurse began to kiss my head, I cried, Johnny cried and the doctor held my hand. Some good news. We needed some encouragement. The surgery for the abdomen still is place, but this keeps things uncomplicated. There are still waters to walk through, but we have been given a hug breath in this storm. The ride home was great. I felt just as good coming home as I did going yesterday. I have not been sick at all...I FEEL GREAT!!!! Praise the Lord with us - today is a great celebration and we are still singing.

Easter

Prayer Request

Our Head Administrator at school, a woman I've known for at least 14 years, is battling cancer. Over 20 years ago she beat ovarian cancer and now she is fighting this awful disease once again. She has been doing chemo treatments for the past several months. She has been doing extremely well, is still working and looks wonderful. She received some unsettling news this week after some tests were run to check the chemo's effectiveness. Here is what she wrote on her blog:

"Well, I can't say this is one of my favorite days, in fact I have given myself permission to just dedicate this as a, "I am tired of this crap (excuse me...) day. It has been such an emotional week for me. My armor is thin, thin during these evaluation intervals. I'm not hard to spot...give me one little poke and I just spill over. I have tried real hard this week to stay positive, hang on to truths, and expect the best. Well, I simply am all used up. So I am going to sit on my porch and simply have my time.
Today we got good news and sobering news. The good news is my blood work that measures the cancer in my body have gone down 33%. The doctor is thrilled because it means my body is responding to the chemo. The fluid is not returning and my weekly blood work continues to come in strong. My body is also staying strong throughout this war. The disappointing news is they can now see the mass in the lining of my stomach, which they could not see the source of the cancer cells before. The new news is that they also saw a spot in my lung. It is a small spot, but one to watch for sure.
So, I declare this my official crap day and then tomorrow I will get up and start over!"

She is usually very upbeat and positive and sweet but, obviously she had a breakdown after hearing this news. Please pray for Connie-for healing and for strength to endure this painful journey! (She and her husband, Johnnie, have 2 adopted children in Jr high and highschool.)

Dishwasher soap

After making homemade laundry soap I decided to make some dishwasher soap as well. I did one load last night...the results were great! I thought the glasses might be spotty but they weren't. Here is a glass for proof. Hopefully, it will continue to work as well as the first load. There were several recipes to choose from online-I tried the following:

2 Cups of Borax
2 Cups of Baking Soda
4 Packages of unsweetened lemonade Kool-aid or store brand (or 1/2 Cup citric acid)
Mix that together and put in your dishwasher...about 1 TBS or so-whatever fills up your dispenser.

Now I'm going to make liquid hand soap...

For the Fame of His Name

Please pray for Calixto this week-he left this morning for Mexico-he's taking a small team from Grace Comm Church in Glen Rose, Tx. You can pray for us too as we stay home. There always seems to be some kind of problem situation that arises when he is gone! Thanks! Below is a map showing where Tamazunchale is. They will primarily be working in the remote village of Jalpa which is about 2-3 hours from Tamaz...way up in the mountains.

March is full of birthdays!!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Wade turned 12
Victoria, Alexia and John turned 10
Tracy turned "29" again!!!

I couldn't find any other pictures of the kids...this is from Cat's birthday in '05! How sad is that?! I guess the past few times I went home I didn't take any pictures!