Treat your AWESOME mom to something special just for her!  Homemade, all natural goat’s milk soap made with essential oils and dried herbs.

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Check it out:

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some behinds the scenes shots

Families have traditions.

Big ones and little ones.  Sometimes you even make new ones.  Since living in Texas we have stumbled upon a new tradition in our family.  It happens every night at dinner, the kids ask Sean “Daddy, how many babies were saved today?”  and he always has an answer.

Today OFL reached 800 babies saved!!!!!!!!! Over 100 of those babies were just this past month in April If they keep it up at this rate with out any growth they will save 800 more this year….but if they grow every month  Man, we love math like that!!!

Now we know that the ministry at Online For Life is much more than that and it runs deeper in the lives of individuals they reach out to, but for our littlest kiddos, they don’t get counseling women in crisis, marketing, development/training of pregnancy centers, or national strategies to blanket cities in godly pregnancy centers and wipe out abortion city by city….

….they get babies.  Cute, adorable bundles of life that grow up to be brothers and sisters.  So that is what they ask Daddy-  how many babies Daddy how many today?

The Color Run is a short 5k run/ fund raiser that travels from city to city.  It’s an absolute BLAST!!!! They douce powdered color on you throughout the run.  It’s really more of a walk than a run- surely a family and friends type event. So Jill’s sister, nephew and friend came into town to join all of us Martins at the Dallas Color Run.  If you are curious you can check out their website at www.thecolorrun.com

So we set out for a good time, family bonding, opportunity to encourage and be silly as a family!!! We started clean, all white, but with each turn in the run came another color station.  The stations have color dust everywhere, as well as workers showering you with color at every moment!  We took the opportunity at a few stations to make a few “snow angels” in the dust.  Hey why not?  We HIGHLY recommend this event to every family.  It may be in a city near you soon.

The pictures tell the story best….

Sometimes God has a special gift for us.  Waiting.  We don’t even know it’s there.  Then one day, when we least expect it.  We are asking God for our daily bread, and He gives us more than we can ask or imagine.  A little bit like the fish and loaves story in scripture.

At the beginning of March we brought a special therapist to our home, Nancy Thomas.  She came here for 5 full days, 6:00 am until 10:00 pm, WOW long days!!! Nancy Thomas specializes in helping children with attachment issues and conscious development.  So most of her work is with adoptive children from challenging pasts.  Even though our children were adopted at young ages, many of our children still struggled with things.  We’ve spent their entire lives helping shape their character, bond as a family, and work hard to be overcomers in all areas of life.  No matter how much we prayed, worked, encouraged, taught, disciplined, encouraged more, taught more, etc there still seemed to be a piece of the puzzle missing. So we brought Nancy to our home to help us identify the missing pieces, see what we needed to do differently or keep the same, and most importantly- how could we help ALL of our children become God’s best in each of their lives.

Well it was a tall order in this unique house, but not for Nancy!  She has spent years rehabilitating children from extremely abusive pasts.  Helping them overcome horrific things such as childhood molestation, neglect, trauma, and more.  She helped us see that even though our kids came to us young, their long lists of infant surgeries, PICU life, foster care, and drug exposure added up to a lot.

We had spent years parenting the “fetal alcohol” and “disability” side of our kids.  She helped us turn our eyes to the heart of the matter…. attachment.  It is something that we take for granted as we parent our kids, snuggling them, kissing them, telling them stories.  But when kids spend countless days in hospitals, 9 months in the womb cringing from burning alcohol and drugs, and more— it causes ones brain to develop different.  The part of the brain that we use in bonding with others (the cause and effect part of the frontal lobe and temporal lobes) is atrophied. Brain scans show those parts of the brain look like swiss cheese.  So even though we loved on our kiddos day and night, it wasn’t enough. Even though we teach them character, it’s not enough.  There are parts of their brains that “need an extra workout” to help them attach appropriately to people and in turn, care about themselves and others. Learning how to love, really love, not just enjoy others.

Here’s how it usually works:

1) RESPECT (wow- my parents are all powerful and they meet my needs when I cry)

2) TRUST (wow- they keep meeting my needs, now I know if I cry they will help me)

3) LOVE (I bond to my parents BECAUSE I first respected then trusted them.  That bond is love)

4) CARE ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE AND THINGS (I care about things because I am cared for)

You see this developmental cycle doesn’t develop correctly in lots of adoptive children as well as children with disabilities.  We try so hard to fill them with #3, that #4 doesn’t happen. They learn to enjoy things and learn to manipulate others.  They learn how to reflect character qualities that we teach them to get what they want.  But there’s something missing.  So we start at square one.  Even though some of our kids are 10 years old, they need to start from the beginning. RESPECT 1st above all in every little thing.  Love is 3rd.  I’m sure part of you is thinking- that’s a bit extreme- shouldn’t it be a balance? OK OK it’s not that we are not loving them- of course we are still loving them!! Remember first that their brains are already out of balance- so we need to rebuild the brain and the heart.  Just imagine if you broke your leg.  When you got the cast off you would have to work extra hard to rebuild it.  It’s not that you are neglecting the rest of your body.  You are focusing hard and deep on your leg SO THAT your WHOLE body can work together BALANCED in a healthy way.  … and THAT is what are now purposing to do.  Rebuild our children’s hearts and brains in a HEALTHY way.  The end goal- that they can truly be TRANSFORMED by the Word of God in all areas of their lives, not just mimic the Word of God.

So this Daily Bread turned into overflowing baskets of fish and loaves.  More than we could ask or imagine.  It’s a lot of work when God gives you more than you can imagine. A lot of work.  But sometimes that is part of the deal.  Surely when all those people got tons of fish and loaves on the hillside there with Jesus, they had to pass it out, clean it up, and cook it before they could enjoy it.  Part of the deal.  So right now we feel like we are holding 12 baskets full.  Full of more than we could imagine.  Everyday we ask for grace and wisdom to parent God’s children well.  God, in His sovereignty, knew that some of our kids would have these obstacles in their past, and He knew this day, Today, would come too.

We share this with you so you can SEE God at work in the lives of children with broken pasts.  So that you will SEE that God can do more than man can imagine.  Sometimes, people are afraid to adopt.  They hear stories or hard times and struggles with kids.  Yes that is true sometimes.  But NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING is impossible for God!!!! Adopting an older kid with a broken past-  HA! God says- HA!  I’ve totally got that covered! Stop fearing and start believing— It’s the same with our relationship with God…

1) Respect

2) Trust

3) Love

4) Care- that transformational work in and through us.

One last food for thought…. over 400,00 children are in Foster Case in the United States alone.  Over 53,000 are already legally freed for adoption and just waiting for homes.

53,000

53,000

53,000 !!!

The moment we arrived at our rental home in Farmersville, TX, our neighbors were there to greet us with a smile, some squash, and a tractor!  Life in the country of Texas is a little bit different than New England

Now, there was no way for us to move in “discretely” since we pulled up with our bus, big red van, trailer of goats, dogs and a moving truck.  We TOTALLY stood out!  Mr. Allen & Mr. Poplin were there before we blinked with loads of fresh veggies from their gardens and an offer to plow the paddock and reseed it for us with their equipment so “you can feed your animals something better than weeds” he said.  So we bought a 4 part seed blend, recommended by them, and off they went.  The kids had a blast learning about disk harrows, tines, tillers, and seed drills.  And….. Texas mud.  In the east of Dallas, where our rental home was, they had black clay.  From a distance it looked like dark rich soil…..not so much.  That stuff is like glue!  Heavy duty, God-made, cement that sticks to your boots and EVERYTHING else!

In addition to the farmers welcome crew, we had a bunch of fine furry (and not so furry) friends greet us.  First to arive on the scene was the argiope spider. That thing is HUMONGOUS!!!!!!! We jumped back at its sight, perched by our front door greeting us.  I, Jill, contemplated for a moment to place my hand by the spider for size comparison, but I chickened out.  Hey- what if it was poisonous?  It was for the safety of the whole family (wink, wink).  About a week later, we opened up our home schooling box to find our next Wisdom Book, and who was on the cover… The Argiope Spider!!!!.  The subtitle of the WB, “Self Control” and “Lust- is a deadly trap”.  Don’t you just love when God gives you such great “life classrooms”, He always does, we just have to keep our eyes open!

hmmmmmmm now we HAD to figure out this new neighbor- friend or foe?

Friend.  Commonly know in Texas as the Garden Spider, Mr Poplin promptly told us “Don’t smoosh it! That thing eats all the bad bugs!”.  Then he made a comment about us being city folk afraid of spiders to which we explained that bugs DIE in New England with the snow and are MUCH MUCH smaller than these Texas size bugs.  He didn’t buy it.

We learned that the Argiope Spider has one of the strongest and thickest webs.  Catching massive grasshoppers, secadas, moths and more.  It creates a large zipper in it’s web that reflects moon light and early morning sun!!!  The light draws the moths in and BLAM they are stuck and it shoots (Texas draw style) some massive amounts of silk in a flat spray to hold that bug down.  In the day time the bright yellow pattern on the bug draws in all other creatures who think they are finding pollen or something else yummy.  AMAZING.   They lay 2000 eggs in the fall.  Hatch in the spring.  So if you find one in your garden or barn, keep it safe, it’s a great neighbor to have!  Also, if you have children, they are great entertainment.  My boys kept catching grasshoppers and throwing them into the webs just to watch that thing in action….ha! and people waste their money on TVs.  This spider was free and VERY cool!

Next on the list of neighbors was our fine furry dog friend, Bear, from next door.  Bear lived on a farm with lots and lots of creatures.  Somehow, our chaos seemed more appealing to him!  He was a family favorite.  They kids all miss him once we moved into our permanent home north of the city.

Though our time in our rental home was short lived, we made some great friends that we wouldn’t know today if we hadn’t have moved there.  We met our new church family (full of adoptive families), we met friends at the Farmers Market (whose eldest daughter now tutors our Jamie in reading) and so much more!

A short while later, we moved again!  This created a lot of work and boxing and long, long days, BUT now we got to meet more neighbors!  Ahhh now THAT’s twice as nice!

On our way to Texas we stopped at two families homes.  First the Hallbach’s in VA, and wouldn’t you know we didn’t take pictures!  Seriously, every time we are at their house we forget to take pictures!  Granted, this visit was a whirlwind, but we still love the Hallbach’s dearly!!! They are so wonderful and we had a great time.  Next pitstop was the Whiddon’s in GA. Since we were there a few more days we actually have a couple pictures

Then we arrived in our rental home in Farmersville, TX.  Where we kicked off our first sunday there with a GREAT little church full of adoptive families.  On the way to church, never a dull moment, we found puppies on the side of the highway. So what did we do? Stop of course!  Next thing we knew, a few days into Texas, and we’ve ended up with 3 puppies.  Turns out they were part pitbull, so we found them OTHER homes to live in.  But it was such a JOYOUS to rescue puppies and love on them for a few weeks.

And while in our rental, short lived as it was, we were able to see some GORGEOUS sunrises and sunsets.  Ahhhh big sky beauty of Texas!

Stay tuned for more of our Journey to Texas….. up next…. our new neighbors both furry & friendly