Cain Family Open House

As many of you know, each year our family hosts an open house for our church. It is a tradition we have grown to love...everyone gets in on the preparation. What a blessing to be able to celebrate the gift of Jesus with our church family who we love so much!

Sunday School Class Christmas Party and Christmas Musicals

Wow...God is so good! This is a pic of the adults who were at a joint Christmas party of the young and middle adults Sunday school classes...three years ago, neither of these classes existed! I'm so grateful for all these precious friends the Lord has blessed us with! We had so much fun fellowshipping and had a great time during our ornament exchange. Thanks so much to the Cooks for opening up their home for this group of 50 or more!

Also, this same weekend I had the blessing of playing in the Christmas musical at FBC Martin where my uncle is music minister. It was overwhelming to think how the Lord has blessed me with opportunities to play my French horn in these types of musicals for over 17 years now! He has been so good to provide me not only with the satisfaction of being able to use the talent He has given me for His glory, but also the extra income it provides at Christmas time. He is so good about knowing our needs and our hearts longings and filling them in a way that only He can do!

Christmas with Family at Patti's!

One of the things I love about Christmas is the time we get to spend with family! This year, we got to celebrate with Corey's extended family at Patti's...it was so yummy, and the time together was wonderful! I am so grateful for the blessing of family! We love you all!

Mrs. Kay's Retirement Reception

Our precious church secretary of 43 years is retiring. She has truly been a blessing to Maplewood and to many others through her faithfulness and spiritual guidance. We are so blessed to have had such a wonderful lady with such a sweet servant spirit as our secretary all these years! Mrs. Kay, we are praying for you as you begin this next stage in your life journey.

Corey's Marathon

Well, this was the big day that Corey has been training for so very hard and with such dedication...the St. Jude Marathon! 26.2 miles...what goes into preparing for that? Well, running through an Achilles injury, squeezing in runs on lots of days when you'd rather just rest, and around 250 miles of training runs that took over 40 hours. Yes, it's a lot...and I'm so proud of him! He ran the marathon in 5 hours and 3 minutes and was able to raise $565 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Thank you to all who supported him...way to go, Corey!

Fred and Corey before the race...
Around mile 3...
Halfway there...Mile 13
And then we took a break with yummy peppermint hot chocolate!
Waiting inside Auto Zone Park for the guys to finish...
Entering the stadium...
At the finish line!

Lady in Waiting

This Fall, I had the blessing of leading this amazing group of girls in a study of the book, Lady in Waiting, by Jackie Kendall. Carol has so kindly hosted our studies the past two times, and I'm so glad for her partnership in this ministry. This was our last night, and we were missing a couple of the girls, but my life is richer for knowing each one of them...I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for these incredible young ladies!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we reflect upon the blessings the Lord has given to us over this past year, we are quite overwhelmed. We have wonderful family, precious friends, an amazing church, all that we need and more. We are also very grateful that we are in our new church facilities this year...we were working hard this time last year praying that we'd be in by the spring. And we are also so grateful that the process of our adoption is coming along fairly quickly! Most of all, we are thankful for the salvation that is ours because of the amazing love of our Savior, Jesus Christ! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! A few pics of the Foropoulos family...I am glad my mom and sister like to get big family pics as much as I do, because otherwise I wouldn't have them. We had such a fun time with all our family, but as you can see I don't have pics from the others. We're so grateful for our families...they are such a blessing to us! Not to mention lots of fun!

Thanksgiving at Joyland!

On the first Thanksgiving, there were Pilgrims, Indians, and a feast, but I'm pretty sure they weren't this adorable! Bennett and his Joyland friends reminded us all of God's provisions and blessings not just for early Americans, but also for us today! One blessing we are very grateful for is Joyland...it has been such a great place for both our boys to learn educational foundations as well as learn more about God's goodness!

Decorating for Christmas!!!

This year we decided to decorate for Christmas earlier than usual...this made me very happy :) I love this time of year! We wanted to come back from our Thanksgiving travels and be able to enjoy an already decorated home...so, we fired up the Christmas music and got to work! I put on my 147 Million Orphans shirt so that when our little girl looks back at pictures in the years to come, she'll know we were thinking of her. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this time of year?!

Honduras Chili Supper and Silent Auction

Our Honduras Mission Team hosted a chili supper and auction to raise funds for our 2011 trip. Items were donated and tickets sold for the dinner, and in the end after all expenses, we raised around $2500! Way to go team, and thanks to all who supported us! We're hoping to take around 18 this year!!!