Our first "offical" comment

Thank you so much Krista for commenting on the blog. And thank you for reading and calling and asking how I am doing. I still have this feeling of Freedom knowing that this is our blog and that we can actually write what we want to write about and that other people read it. That's why we called it the Gemstone Globe because there are truly gems from all over the world. It's like I was telling them at church this morning that we each have our part to do in the Gospel and work of His kingdom. My part right now is to stay with the kids and pray for Carter.

Update on Carter: As of our time here in the states he is getting ready to head to the airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Carter and Alex spent the last 2 days of their trip in the Mountains of Sri Lanka visiting the tea plantations and ministering in special meetings that were arranged there. They saw many born again including children and were very excited. Carter said that have spent so much time preaching and ministering. They have stayed so busy.

The kids and I are really looking forward to seeing him. He will arrive here on Tuesday. Please continue to pray for him as he travels and spends one night in Thailand and continues home to Texas.

To be Continued....

Carter is so excited right now. I love to talk to him when his energy level is like this. He is excited, he gets really inspired and has great ideas. Carter and my brother Alex kept calling me this morning. First they called me really early and woke me up, then when i was getting the kids ready for school and then they put me on a conference call with my other friend in Mali. There was so much international energy with Africa, Asia and the United States. That was really fun, but the fun ended too quickly with people running to meetings and getting things ready.

The Sri Lankans have kept Carter so busy. Everyday, they have a list of places they need to go and meetings that they need to attend. They met with the Mayor and the city council. Alex has www.isaiahinstitute.org and there you can read about all the projects that he is involved. Carter keeps telling me over and over how much he has enjoyed his time with Alex and working together on projects. Praise God. Saturday they head to the tea estates where they will minister. This is a really beautiful place in Sri Lanka with mountains, fresh tea and beautiful people eager to hear about God. The minister to many of the people that work on the tea plantations.

Where's your husband?

If you are reading this, then I have probably told you about this blog and my little list of websites that we run. And if you have asked about Carter it's because you have seen me and asked either, "where's your husband?" because you have seen me and the 3 kids or you know and asked, "how is Carter?" We appreciate all of your concern and questions and prayer. So, I was talking to someone yesterday and when I told them about all the great things that were going on with Carter while he is Sri Lanka. They said, "okay." Not even a fake "great."And it wasn't a distracted okay. It was one of those as i have heard it called crusty christian remarks. Do you think that is lukewarm? Especially from someone who is a Christian? Just something to think about, especially if we believe the Bible and believe the Great Commission.

But Praise be to God!!!! Great things are going on. So far in the few days that Carter has been there he is already been out of town to minister and is scheduled to go back. He is doing the work set out to do. Preaching in multiple church services, prayer meeting, youth meetings, minister meetings, encouraging the Christians and this weekend they Go Up Country as they call it to the mountains to hold meetings there. Please continue to pray for us. He returns next Tuesday.

Hit the ground running

After 2 and a half days of traveling Carter made it all the way to Sri Lanka. His flight kept getting delayed and he arrived middle of the night/early morning there in Sri Lanka. He said it was weird because he had adjusted to the jet lag and then he "pulled an all nighter." He met right away with one local pastors and got the schedule. Friday night they have a prayer meeting and he spoke there on Mark 9. He encouraged them in leading a life of prayer. On Sunday he will be ministering in 5 different services.
He will be making preparations at the Pastors meeting and with Pastor Tyrone to set up evangelsistic meetings next time and will get the pastors invloved. They are working together to build the churchs through winning the lost to Jesus.
I asked what was for dinner and he said Papaya. Also, check out www.faithforallnations.org

Took the kids to school this morning. When we got there, a bunch of kids were out there on the playground with older kids. There were Homecoming mums, moms and babies, cheerleaders in "green and white spirit clothes" and a line. The line. The line was getting your face painted in typical thick green and white face paint I hope. And for colored hairspray. At first they both wanted face painting and hairspray which quickly changed to just hairspray when they saw how thick the paint was. And all i had to say was i think it might make you itchy after a while. When i finally got back out there for hairspray all i needed to see was one kid in kinder. who looked like he was now grey. He was yelling, "Look, I look frosted!" Funny kid. I have no idea what happened to Samuel and I am kinda waiting for my surprise later. Isabella wanted pom poms in her hair. I didn't mind but were barely able to run the brush through her hair this morning.

The other funny part of my morning was me riding around with Victoria in her carriage on the back of my bike chasing the water delivery truck. I made it but I think he thought I was weird and why was he in such a hurry?
Continue to keep us in your prayers.

Where in the world is Carter Ware?

We got Carter off to the airport on Tuesday morning. We had to fight traffic the whole way there (1 hr) across town. But all is well and from watching the schedule of flights on http://www.nwa.com/ I was able to see how all the planes landed and departed.
He spent the night in Bangkok, Thailand. He stayed at the Bangkok Christian Guest House. I like the pics of this place because of how clean it looks. Carter says it is just as clean as the pics. He also said that he woke up early and made it down first to the great breakfast where they were making fresh french toast. And for those of you who love details, he had 3 pieces, then had a peanut butter sandwich. He said all of it was great. Also, while enjoying breakfast he was able to visit with 2 men from New Zeland. They had actually been to the same church that Carter had also visited one time in Siberia. Yet, they were both in Thailand right now.
Also, Carter was able to meet up with a friend of a friend so to speak there in Thailand. Blair treated Carter to some great food and fellowship. I love how God works things out.
Carter arrived at the airport about 2 hours early to find out that the plane had been delayed 2 hours. So now he is waiting 4 hours. But the airlines treated him to a 10$ food voucher so that will help in the airport. Also, he said that like Tokyo, the Bangkok airport is brand new. I will update more later.
On the other side of the world, the kids are making it pretty easy for me. Samuel asked me to get more paper plates, he didn't want me to wash dishes. Okay, easy for me. And they wanted cereal for dinner. Oh, and this morning on the way to school, they asked me to let them stay after school for a while. Could they make it easier for me? We are staying busy and keeping active.

If Shoe Shopping solved everything

Last saturday i sat in the extra small dressing room of the smallest girls dress shop on the north side of Houston with my 2 girls who incidently were wearing black martial arts tshirts. Isabella quickly stripped off her tshirt and threw on the easiest and most accessible of the white flower girl dresses ran out and was ready. Why? She was ready to get to the flower girl/wedding shoes for girls. I promise they look just like Cinderella's glass slipper and they make as much noise as glass slippers too. On the other hand while Isabella was fast and easy, victoria not in her usually pouty look but in serious distress was having a dilema. Are the shoes worth the unwanted attention and white dress (not like cinderella's-she wore blue)?
How did it end? She didn't throw a fit, but rather sat there and contemplated the whole situation. But ya know what? She really wanted those shoes, more than anything I have ever seen her go after. She let me but the dress on her, take her out of the dressing room and modeled the dress. She clenched my arms so hard. But the satisfaction of putting on those white dressy shoes with the sparkly diamonds was so worth it to her. And the secret... even though the wedding isn't until November we let them wear the shoes the next day for church.
I wish I was that easy. Some sparkly glass slippers.
I was briefly chatting with my friend in California through email when I had this thought. We say we trust God and we believe he is in control, then when something doesn't go our way or we don't like where we are, we ask God to step in and help us. All things work together to him that love the Lord.

Labor Day or Not

Labor Day!!! Or another great day to watch High School Musical 2. All things considered we haven't even seen the first one. But we are addicted to #2. Okay, I like the songs, too. Another one for me and the kids from itunes.

So we spent the day cleaning and organizing closets. Carter even cleaned some floors for me. Samuel keeps asking to go to Palm beach for some swimming but it is raining so hard and i think the "beach" is closed.

But I did get alot done and all of my items uploaded to http://www.thegemstoneglobe.com/

check it out, let me know what you think....