Worshipping The Lord With Song!

This is a post by Ben's mom (with his permission, of course). I just really wanted to share a very special moment in the car last week with any other parent that wonders if their 'special' child can truly worship or grasp the essence of Christianity.

We were traveling the almost 2 hour drive to the dentist and since one of Ben's favorite things to do is listen to music and sing I grabbed some music we could both enjoy-if you get my drift.... One of the CD's we were listening to was Michael W Smith's Worship and we were on our second time through it, both of us in our own little world, singing our hearts out. (isn't the car wonderful for that?)

However, I noticed that periodically during his heart felt singing, he would remove his glasses and wipe his eyes and then put them back on and continue singing. Since this is something I rarely see him do, after noticing this unusual (for Ben) act for the third time I asked him if his eyes were bothering him. Ben will rarely confess to pain, annoyance or anything whatsoever bothering him and answered with his typical "I'm fine, mom".

The CD was on it's third time around now, and Ben was not losing energy in his singing from the heart. He did continue to take his glasses off periodically and wipe tears from his eyes. Now you need to know one thing about Ben - he rarely cries, but one of the few times tears flooded his eyes was when he accepted Jesus as his personal savior several years ago. So when I asked him for the last time why he kept wiping his eyes, he answered, "I dunno, I just love singing to Jesus!"

When I realized that it was the Spirit of God in him worshiping, tears came to my eyes.


When I asked him for his camera and snapped it the next time he wiped his eyes, he really didn't understand why it meant something to me. Guess it was just another one of those 'mom moments' that I wanted to share with you.

John 4:23-24
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Cats For Dad

This post is for my dad, because he missses our cats. They really miss him, I know.


Can you see Fatsy's arm (paw) hugging Snuffy? Cute.




And...a video of Ben and Snuffy...





and...a video of Fatsy (mom woke him up for this...)





...and last, but NOT least, Ben saying Hi to Dad....(and James)

Signing For Si

I've been learning sign language and Josiah knows alot of sign language too. That's why we made a video of us signing to Josiah. This is our practice video, but mom told my sister that we would post it yesterday (oops). We'll replace the old ones with the new one when it's done. So here goes:

Pray For Josiah

This is Josiah today, he is swollen from the medicine and he doesn't feel good. Below are pictures of Josiah a couple years ago and one of him feeling pretty good in the hospital last week. See the difference?


Today is a day to pray for Josiah. He has done really good so far, but today he needs much more prayer. I know God is hearing everyone's prayer, so please, pray more! Thanks.

Snow!

These are my pictures from Feb 1st, one of the first real snows we have had this year in TN. Nothing like my sister and nieces and nephews have seen in Minnesota, but it was pretty cool since we don't see it much.

Of course, it was my job to clean the snow off the back steps so it didn't freeze and someone slip and fall. It wasn't really shoveling, it was more like sweeping.



This is a picture of my feet. I don't know why mom thinks it was weird that I was playing basketball in the snow in my sandals. Moms. Oh well.

Missing Our Family Times Together!

Today was a big day for my nephews, James and Josiah. James gave his bone marrow and Josiah got it and it all went well. We prayed that all went well. I really miss them all!

We used to get together every other Sunday and they have been gone since Dec 26th! Here's a video (very short) of the last time we were together:

Saying "HI!" To Josiah!

Last night my brother Nathanael and his wife, Kendra and Josh and Lindsey were here with mom and I for dinner. They brought pizzas from Little Caesar's - mmmmmmmmmmmm. We all watched the video of Josiah saying "Hi!" (for the first time!). You can watch it here:

http://thejourneyofjosiah.blogspot.com/2010/01/5-and-si-says-hi.html

Here are my brothers and (sisters) saying "hi!" to Josiah:




Here's me (Ben) saying hi to Josiah:

Stopping at the Cresup's House

We are now in Monticello, IL to visit the Cresups. I'm glad they just happen to be almost exactly half way between Minneapolis, MN and Hartsville, TN.

Here's pictures from our visit to the Cresups.


This is Lindsey, who will be my sister when she gets married to my brother Josh in July. We arrived at her parent's house just in time to get in another car to drive to Abigail's birthday party. Abigail is Lindsey's little sister.

This is their barn where they keep all the animals, like horses!

This is Abigail, it's her birthday today!

This is Abigail's older brother, Mason, in the van on the way to her party.


Here's Abigail and I in their driveway. Look at all the snow! Not as much as there was in Minnesota, tho.


Here is Lindsey and Josh and that's Lindsey's dad between them. He's really cool, too.


Here's Josh with his future Father-In-Law!


Here's Lindsey's mom. She was really nice. I think that's Abigail next to her.

Josh, and more people at the party.


Now we are back at Lindsey's house. That's Mr. Cresup eating chili with me. Mmmmm, chili!


This is Lindsey and Abigail's room.


Here I am being cool. I'm playing the drums in Mason's room.


This is Mason's room, he has drums and a keyboard and lots of music stuff. I love his room, it's so cool!

This is really, really cool, too. Their basement is so full of really fun things to do.


In their basement they have fixed up a way to make this a big screen to watch movies and play Wii on. I love it!! That's me next to it so you can see how big it is.


These are blue ribbons that Abigail has won with her horses.


This is part of their home school room.

Here is the other end of their homeschool room. We left on Monday morning, and this is them doing their school with their dad. I was glad I didn't have school today, but it would be fun at their house!

It's been a fun, but fast trip from Hartsville to Minnesota and back. We left at 3 am Sat morning, and were at the Ronald McDonald House in Minnesota by late night time on Saturday. We left MN again really early Sunday morning, and arrived in Monticello, IL just in time to go to Abigail's birthday party. Cool, huh? We were home for dinner on Monday. It was so much fun! The best part was spending time with my big brother, Josh.

The Ronald McDonald House in Minneapolis

This is the hallway we went down to get to the room that my sister, Rachael and my nieces and nephews and Jim are staying in while Josiah is in the hospital.


Now we are inside! That's my brother Josh.


This is Jim and Rachael in the kitchen part of the room.

Rachael, Josh and Jim in one of the bedrooms.

There's Josiah! He's in the main living area.


This is a kitchen that anyone that is living here can use. It's by the cafeteria, it's NOT in their room.


Here is the main eating area, or the cafeteria. They serve dinner to everyone every night here. I guess there's alot of spaghetti dishes served! Mmmmmm....spaghetti!


There's even a workout room for the adults. Kids aren't allowed in here to keep them safe, but you can watch them play in the next room thru the window.


That's my back looking at the pool room (not the kind you can swim in :((oh, well. )
Here they have machines you can buy pop and juice for a quarter. That's my dad stocking up (ha ha)

Here's Sara, and Hannah on the right, in the eating room. Everyone says she's grown a few inches already. She must like spaghetti!


More pictures of the cafeteria area. That's Hannah and Sara.


There's Josh with his feet on the sofa, mom's not happy about that! That's me sitting next to my Dad on the couch in their room.


They even have a big gym to play games and basketball. The hoops even adjust for little people!


There's Leah playing one of the video games that are free in the play area.


There's my Dad and Josh in their kitchen. It's all really one big room, but they call it the kitchen.

That's all, folks! That's me in the car, we are off! Next stop, Monticello, IL to spend the night at the Cresup's, then back home to Mom. The Cresaps are Josh's fiancee's family. See ya there!

Oops, one more thing-if you want to see a video tour of this house (not by me) that my mom found on YouTube, you can learn lots more about the Ronald McDonald house in Minneapolis, it's pretty good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGQz2tDq1Gg