Layna on Display

Here's Layna yesterday showing off all her tricks. Enjoy

Passports have arrived!

I realize these are pics from Feb, but I know most of you don't care if I am sharing out of order. We had some warm days and the girls got to play outside some. They LOVE our little sandbox. They played so well together with it. I was very impressed. Another day they decided to do some gardening. And then I just put in a pic of Layna with her baby. I think she looks like a Precious Moments doll with her big sad eyes in that pic. She loves taking care of her baby dolls.



And a few fun pics of Layna playing in her rocking chair with her favorite hat. She is a funny girl. I am enjoying her more and more as she begins to show more of her personality. Her favorite words lately are "hallelujah" and "hi-YAH". She loves to play outside and give hugs and kisses :).



So, like the post title says, all of our passports have arrived! It's kind of crazy seeing Layna and Braelyn's pictures in a passport. This desire to "go" and share the gospel in a foreign land has been our plan for so long, but it has always been going to happen "in the future." NOW, the "future" has arrived and we are really going to do this! There are so many emotions, so many thoughts, and so many things to do that are always swirling around in my head. I struggle daily most of the time with not getting overwhelmed with "life". I am realizing how desperately I need to bring myself before the Lord each morning and confess my need of Him and ask Him to fill me up with His Spirit. One thing the Lord has been showing me lately is that some of my reactions and attitudes are not pleasing to Him. I think I justify my frustrations and my bad attitudes in a lot of different ways, but ultimately they are not pleasing to Him and therefore they are sin. I want to learn how to truly live and walk in HIS SPIRIT, and I know that should look much different. It doesn't matter if we go to another continent to be missionaries if I go in my own strength and let my "old self" control me. But if I can learn to crucify my "old self", my flesh, and let Christ live in and through me in the little details and big details of my everyday living......then it doesn't matter where I am in this world, or what I am doing, because I will be pleasing to Him and bringing glory to His name.
I realize learning how to live and walk by His Spirit is a lifelong process, and a daily, minute by minute process as well. But I want the Lord to teach me. Right now I am quoting Galatians 2:20 a lot and praying it. One thing the Lord has taught me is that there is power in His Word.

Well, on a lighter note....Aaron won 2nd place in the Chili cookoff at our church tonight! Woohoo :). We had a fun weekend of fellowship with our sunday school class saturday night and then the chili dinner tonight. We love our church family and are so thankful for them. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I got to talk with both of the missionary women from Kapsowar this past week! It was really nice getting to talk with them and learn more about what our life will be like and just more ideas on what to pack. I will try to put a post up soon just summarizing some of the things that I learned. I am trying to make a habit of updating the blog on Sunday nights, so maybe next week. Hope everyone has a good week!

March Madness!

Being silly!
Knee pads and tutus....that's how we roll in the Jones house :)

Braelyn (aka "Supergirl") and Daddy rockin' out to some live music!

Thanks Mamaw for the cute dresses!


It wouldn't be March without a blog post of "March Madness!" Aaron and I noticed while looking back through the blog that each year we had a March Madness post, so now it has become a tradition :). My spotlight this year will be the last few days of which I have been working like a crazy woman trying to organize, sort, pack, and clean!! All in preparation for moving at the end of June and ultimately moving to Kenya at the end of August. Aaron's mom took the girls for a few days and the madness began :). In a good way.
I was happy to be able to pack up a whole van load of the girls' clothes (sizes not being worn), Christmas stuff, baby gear, and other random things. I felt like PROGRESS had occurred! Woohoo! Then Saturday I spent the whole day trying to CLEAN. I mean really clean. Unfortunately I did not achieve all my goals, but the house looked much better and my kitchen is the cleanest it has been in over a year!

We got another round of support letters sent out. Still have another round or two to go, but that's progress! I wanted to share a little bit about ways to support us and some benefits of supporting us as "monthly supporters" versus giving a one time donation. Of course, we are grateful and appreciate all gifts, but some of our friends have asked us if we prefer a monthly donation or a one time gift, or some other way. So, there are a few people who have already committed to become "monthly supporters" and each month when we get an update of donations/donors those people's names are always on there. And it GREATLY ENCOURAGES MY HEART to see those people's names and to know that they care so much about us and the ministry that God has called us to. It just gives a tremendous feeling of PARTNERSHIP and fellowship which blesses my heart. I feel like we are not going alone. It is a monthly reminder of God's faithfulness through YOUR giving. So, if you are debating about one or the other, I encourage you to become a monthly supporter and PARTNER with us. Another friend of mine has offered to supply us with things we need AFTER we get there, and this is encouraging as well. I am hoping to create a prayer team of people who will commit to praying for us on certain days of the week. I know that PRAYER is POWERFUL! And we want God to use us in a powerful way for HIS GLORY, so we are making prayer a priority, even now. Please don't underestimate how God might want to use YOU to make a difference in this ministry and these people that we are going to be serving. And if you are praying for us, please feel free to share that with us because it is SO ENCOURAGING to know that people are praying. This is the Lord's plan, the Lord's ministry.....we are just following Him.
Thanks for keeping up with us!

Progress

My Pretty Ballerinas!



Just wanted to give an update on how things are going around here at the Jones household. We are thankful that everyone seems to be healthy now. We had a long month of sickness that was quite exhausting for everyone, but the Lord was good to see us through it.
Layna has been quite the fussy girl lately and we are hoping that she is just teething and this is a phase that will pass soon. You know it's bad when her older sister is pleading with her to "be quiet and stop crying!" I struggle with patience. I know the Lord is trying to teach me how to turn my cares over to Him and not be so frustrated. Anyway....she is learning to feed herself with a spoon really well. I think she is very coordinated for her age. She tries to talk some. She can definitely communicate when she doesn't like something :).
Braelyn is very entertaining these days....well, most all time. She encourages my heart when she is kind to Layna and tries to cheer her up. She is a very loving big sister....most of the time. We have a few bible verses we are working on memorizing. I love to hear her say them. She really LOVES to sing and dance. Almost anytime we are in the car she is requesting specific songs on the CDs we have. She likes to do things by herself, which is fine with me most of the time.
Aaron is finishing up his last few months of residency. I am so thankful for him. He works so hard to take care of his family and he is such a GOOD daddy! And a wonderful husband as well! I am looking forward to being able to see him care for patients at the mission hospital. To see him at work :) Sometimes it is hard for me to understand what his day is like as a doctor because I have only seen him "doctoring" one time. That was when we went on a medical mission trip to Kenya in medical school and it was so amazing to watch him care for those people. I am very, very proud of him and give the Lord all the glory for the wonderful doctor he has become.
As for me......I stay busy taking care of the girls and trying to keep our house in some type of order :). I haven't been able to do the precepts bible study this session and I have missed it a lot. I am starting to clean out drawers and closets bit by bit. Trying to pull out all the stuff I can haul off to our local thrift store. We are trying to make decisions on everything, whether to get rid of it, store it, sell it, or take it with us!Lots of decisions to be made. I was excited to send a corner shelf back to my mom's house the other day with her. Felt like a step in the right direction :). If you think of us, a good prayer we always need is for WISDOM from God in all the decisions we have to make.

Some good news is that we finally got all our paperwork and pictures put together for our passports! We sent it all off in the mail this past Friday!! Another step in the right direction :)

And I wanted to let everyone know that we added a little feature to our blog so that you can follow us through your email. Just type your email into the box in the upper right corner of our blog and then you will receive an email each time we add a new post. We really appreciate those of you who are keeping up with us and supporting us through your prayers and encouraging words. They really do mean SO MUCH to us.

Feel free to leave questions for us in the comment box if you have any or feel free to email us. I am working on compiling a list of emails for people who want to get email updates from us.

On a random note.....Braelyn just came downstairs and said "William Carey", so of course I started asking her who that was....she proceeded to tell us that he went to "India" and he was a "missionary"! she got a little confused at times and said he got swallowed by a huge fish :) but overall, we were VERY encouraged to hear that she learned about a missionary at church this morning! although when asked if she wanted to be a missionary she replied, "No, I don't think so, I just want to be a friend."