Make a Smilebox postcard

Happy 1st birthday Jared

Happy birthday to our baby boy, Jared Alexander Sikorski, born 8-8-08!!!

We love you and are so grateful to God for giving us the gift of you!

Psalms 127:3
Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Happy 10th birthday Alana!

I missed Alana's birthday too.....sorry girls! On July 31, Alana turned the big ONE ZERO!!! She is now in double digits! WOW!
Happy Birthday, Alana! We love you!

Alana, a few weeks old
Alana, almost 10 years old!

Ecclesiastes 12:1
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,
while the evil days come not,
nor the years draw nigh,
when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them;

Happy 7th Birthday Bethany!

Ok, so I missed blogging Bethany's birthday. I am a little behind!

July 16, was Bethany Faith Sikorski's birthday. Click here to read about her birth. We love you Bethany.

Bethany, age 2 days

Bethany, almost 7

1 Timothy 4:12
Let no man despise thy youth;
but be thou an example of the believers,
in word,
in conversation,
in charity,
in spirit,
in faith,
in purity.

Our garden

Austin took another video of our growing garden. It has grown even more, but I have just recently been able to upload them to my computer. I thought it was a sweet video!

Genesis 2:8

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden;
and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Zacchaeus

I recently found a sweet video that Austin took of Noah. Enjoy!

Proverbs 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life;
and he that winneth souls is wise.

"Put away childish things"

We did it! With some help from a special, experienced friend, Noah has *finally* quit sucking his thumb! His desire was to get a webkinz. We told him as soon as he quit sucking his thumb for 7 days, we would go buy him one. We had to start counting over a few times because he would forget, but he finally did it! He worked so hard. I would even check on him at night, and he would be lying on his arm or have his arm under his pillow or behind his back. He was worried he would suck his thumb at night. We were able to go today and let him pick out his new webkinz! He still likes his elmers, which was one of the reasons why he picked this particular webkinz. Oh well, one thing at a time.

Congratulations to Noah for not sucking this thumb anymore!Proverbs 3:27
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due,
when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

HaPpY 11tH bIrThDaY aUsTiN!!!

It seems this has been "Austin" month on my blog, but TODAY is Austin's 11th birthday, so here is another blog focused just on Austin! :0)

• Amazing
• Useful
• Saved and surrendered
• Tender
• Important
• Noisy

These were a few words that came to mind when thinking of our son, Austin.

Austin, you are truly amazing! The fact that you are even alive is amazing. The Lord spared your life when you were very little. God has something special for your life, Austin! You are useful. You help us around the house, but you also know how to use your hands and make everything useful. You use everything to it's fullest potential. I am most grateful that you are saved and surrendered! You gave your heart to Jesus when you were younger, but just recently, you gave your whole life to Jesus. Whatever Jesus wants you to do, you said "Yes" already! That makes me very happy. I know Austin's biggest "wish" (prayer) for his birthday is that all of our family would be saved and surrendered too. Austin has trusted Jesus for his salvation and he prays daily for all of our family to do the same so one day, although we are not always together now, we will be able to spend eternity together with Jesus in Heaven. Austin, you are very tender to the leading of the Holy Spirit. You have a very tender heart for which I am sometimes very humbled by. You love every person and animal that comes along your path. I pray that you will never lose that tenderness. You are very important to the Lord and to your family. We love you very much, Austin! You are also very noisy, and I, as your mother, have NO idea where you get your mouth from! :=0

Here are some highlights from this past year.

Austin with the baby squirrel that fell out of a tree after a bad storm. We nursed "him" all night, then took him to UT the next day. UT called and said he was doing fine and was transported to a special place to prepare the squirrel to go back out in the wild.

Dollywood, May 08Austin when he smashed his finger in the nursery door. June 08

Austin found a snake (again), June 08

Austin getting his favorite hair cut, June 08

Camp, June 08

Hilton Head, June 08

Smokies baseball game, July 08

Summer baseball league, August 08

Jared Alexander Sikorski born, 8-8-08

5th grade orientation

Chattanooga, August 08

Singing @ Knoxville Remembers, September 08

Creeper Trail, Va, Sept 08

Senator Duncan Bbq, October 08

Austin with another snake, October 08

Fun fondue night with the family, november 08

Thanksgiving, November 08

Christmas with Pastor & Mrs. Sexton, December 08

Christmas @ Nonnie & Papa's, December 08

New Years Eve with the family and Derrick, Julianna, her mom and brother, Johnny

Snow in February 09Cooling off at Bounce USA, March 09Austin after the pinewood derby, March 09Bristol Speedway, March 09Easter, April 09Arrow of light ceremony, April 09

Spring baseball, April 09

We love you Austin, and hope you have a fantabulous birthday!!!!

3 John 1:4

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

I will say yes, Lord, yes!

Austin said yes to Jesus.

A few months back, Austin was crying during an invitation and I asked him if Jesus was talking to him. Austin said that He was. I asked Austin what Jesus was saying. Austin said he didn't know. I told Austin to keep praying and ask Jesus to make it clear to him what He was saying. I explained to Austin that Jesus doesn't hide his will from us. He just shook his head and hugged me. After church, Austin went and told Pastor that God was talking to him but he didn't know what He was saying. Pastor encouraged him to keep praying about it and God will make it clear to him.

A few weeks ago, around the dinner table, we all picked 2 preachers to pray for daily that would be preaching at the Bible Conference and that the Lord would use those preachers specifically to speak to our hearts. Austin picked Bob Bevington and Tom Sexton. Like the rest of us, Austin sent cards to these preachers telling them that he was praying for them every day and he was so excited about the upcoming Bible Conference.

Wednesday night, April 15th, Tom Sexton preached on "Seperation unto the Gospel". The devil was fighting Austin from the beginning of the service. However, the devil did NOT win! At the invitation, Austin was crying again. I pulled him close to me and asked him if Jesus was talking to him. He told me He was. I explained to Austin that Jesus wants him to say "yes" before He will tell Austin anything more. Jesus wants us to say we are willing to do whatever He has for us to do. After we tell the Lord we are willing, He will tell us more specifically what He has for us to do. Austin asked if he could pray right then. I asked him to wait until after the service, so we could talk to Daddy and make sure Austin understood what I had explained. As soon as the service was done, we sat in the pew and made sure Austin understood what we were saying about surrendering. He said he understood. He wanted to pray but first asked if there was a certain thing he was supposed to pray. I told him there wasn't a certain way to pray, just like when one gets saved, but that he was telling Jesus "Yes, I will serve You for the rest of my life".

SIDE NOTE:
~~~The next morning, Brian Green was preaching about our High Priest. He used this analogy about our prayers to God. He said it's just like when a little child brings his hand picked flowers to his mother. The mother picks out the weeds, adds some flowers of her own and puts them on display. He said that we bring our prayers to Jesus, our High Priest, and He picks out the "weeds" and adds what He knows we needed to say, and presents our prayers to The Father. After Mr. Green told this example, Austin looks up at me with a great big smile on his face and said "Just like last night, when I surrendered". I smiled back (my heart was beaming) and agreed with him.~~~

After the service, he told Pastor what he had done and Pastor encouraged him to come forward the next night and tell the church family of his decision, which we did. Austin was also able to tell Tom Sexton and Dr. Keen.

At our afternoon church service at our Assisted Living Home, Austin gave his testimony and sang a special called "Here is Love". Over lunch, I explained to Austin that he had told Jesus "yes" today by giving his testimony and singing a special. He was surprised. Every day, we all have the option to either say yes or no to the Lord, and Austin said yes.

Thank you, Lord for this blessing of a boy, Austin. We have known for a very long time that Jesus has something special for him. Austin had a rare blood disease that gave him a sickness at a very young age (approx 5 months) that almost took his life. The Lord raised him up, healed him of his blood disease and is using Austin for His glory. We pray he will always choose to serve the Lord. We are striving to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and to shield him from all worldly influences that would hinder his growth for the Lord.

1 John 2:28
And now, little children, abide in him;
that, when he shall appear,
we may have confidence,
and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

Arrow of Light

Austin did it! He has passed from cubscouts to boyscouts tonight by earning his Arrow of Light badge. This is the only award that you can carry over to boy scouts. Congratulations Austin!! Thank you Mr. Newby!

Psalms 91:5
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night;
nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Jared is a big boy

Jared did his first crawl yesterday while at the Assisted Living church service.
He has been up on all fours rocking, for quite some time now,
but he finally moved a knee and a hand yesterday! Yay!
All the kids and I were so excited.....I think we disrupted the church service a little bit! Hehehe!

Today, Jared decided to pull himself up in the crib. Ski put him in the crib to play, and next thing I know, he is standing up! I ran for the camera and Ski grabbed the video. He was so cute!

We also had family come to visit last week which was a real treat! Ski's oldest sister (2.5 years older) came to visit with her husband and 2 grand daughters that they were babysitting. They live in Minnesota but were babysitting in Atlanta. We really enjoyed their visit, but think it was too short and are hoping they come back again real soon! Their baby grand daughter was born on the same day as Jared. We think that's kind of humorous!
Her grand was born the same day as Ski's son!!! LOL!

On a side note, this is a picture from the most recent time that Jared's ear drum ruptured. He will be getting tubes on April 16th. This is the 5th time this has happened! It's pretty gross and I heard it is terrible pain, although he only gets a little crabby.

Psalm 51:8
Make me to hear joy and gladness;