cad garden part 2.

um guys, can i just tell you how excited i am. the garden at CAD has doubled in size. DOUBLED! so many people worked so hard to make this come to fruition & i know those kids are eternally grateful.  i don't think people realize how many opportunities we have to share the love of christ, literally everything you do in life is an opportunity to share jesus. if you stop & think about that for a moment you also think about all the opportunities that you let slip away, myself included. father help me to be present in every moment that is chance to show someone you. 

little sammy working in the garden

you might remember my first post about the starting of this garden. so thankful for clay, he sent us a list of everything that we needed & drew a picture for us to follow.  thank you so much terry, cole, daniel, beau & everyone else that put sweat into this garden. the first part that we planted last time is now filled with papaya trees, cucumbers & some sweet peppers. the second part is swischard, sweet peppers & a few tomatoes. thank you lord for making this happen for those kids, another chance to show them that YOU are their provider.

sarah - love this girl

kreesla modeling as usual

alison & her daughter maddie were incredible

wilderson working hard

all the kids helping, we were surrounded by them

first you have to remove all the weeds, which is crazy hard

mixing the concrete 

sarah holding the boards down so we can cut

the second day we went to work on the garden we split into 2 groups. 7 of us working on the garden & the rest of the group went to do vbs & distribute rice & beans to some of the displaced dominicans.
when we got to CAD the kids were getting out of school so they were hanging around the fence watching all of us work. i had alix ask wilderson if he wanted to help & you should have seen his sweet face. he put on those gloves & dug holes better than any of us could. needless to say i was so happy to see him helping. all the kids were helping. sammy (the youngest) was even helping. we were surrounded by all these children who want to be involved, who help without wanting anything in return, they just want to be included. i could cry thinking about it actually. these kids have nothing, but they really do have everything. they loves jesus & they will all say sunday is there favorite day because they get to worship. what some of our youth could take from the youngest there could be life changing.

maddie, one of the youngest in our group, she is incredible

robenson was an incredible help. love that sweet boy. 

thank the lord for alex, he helped us get the veggies & sweated helping us plant them.

wilderson & robenson- best buddies

the first part to the right is now papaya trees- these kiddos need more fruit in their diet. 

the new addition- can't wait to watch these little ones grow. 

i am so happy. just so happy. i will be taking a group in january & we will be at CAD most of the time. there are so many things i want to get done there & in order to do that i need to spend more time  making sure they do. we will be doing a music & art school in january. we will also be planting a lot of trees on the property so the kids can have a source of shade. it gets so hot & they have no escape. i cannot wait to share more about this trip- so make sure you keep up with the blog. 

bondye beni ou.

--e

saturday night with the crawfords.

one thing you will learn about me is i am a little picky when it comes to who i spend my time with. time is special & something you can never get back so i like to choose wisely when it comes to friends. the crawfords are very special to us & i feel so blessed to call them friends, but i also consider them family. they were there for cory when he really needed someone. russ married cory & i. they did our pre-marital counseling. alison has been on the other end of some really serious phone calls from me frantic & a little lost. needless to say they have been a godsend to us.

i met "abomb" when she was pregnant with her first little girl lily rain. then lyla came along & now little will. i love watching her be a mother, i love all my conversations with her kids, taking their pictures, playing with a card board box, pushing them on the swing, reading them stories or taking all the pictures they colored for me and putting them all over my fridge. it makes me excited to have these wonderful women in my life to look up too as wives & mothers.

we feel so blessed to have such special people in my life. i know if there is something i really need or someone to really talk to that will be honest with me, pray with me & for me i would call abomb. so abomb if you are reading these i hope you know how special you are to cory & i.

this past saturday we went with the ivey's to take them some dinner since they just had a  little one. we ordered chinese in case you were wondering. we blew bubbles, ronda played chase, we colored some pictures for their new cardboard box house & sat on the porch telling stories. one of them was lyla picking all these tomatoes at her grandparents house. she picked 19 ahahhaha. they were not ready yet so now they are sunbathing on the porch.

here are some pictures i took of the day. 

abomb wouldn't smile for the camera. 

the many faces of russ.

will.

lyla.

lily.

i have learned that lyla loves the camera. she loves for me to take a ton of pictures which i love. lily is a little camera shy, but every once and a while she will say, "hey look at me", & i snap the button. 

like this one.

she is the sweetest & so motherly. she was leading zeke around & showing him where the bubbles were so he could pop them. she was trying to pick him up & it was the sweetest.

we made a little window out of their cardboard box. 

it is amazing how much fun you can have with a box, scissors & sweet kiddos.

sweet lyla & her bubbles.

ronda played chase with them.

lily had some sweet time with zeke in the eno.

one in black-n-white for good measure.

that sweet little hand around him. makes me giggle.

playing hide-n-seek.

lyla and her lightening bug.

zeke & nick 

some more for good measure.

to me this past weekend is what summer is all about. being with friends & the ones you love. the weather was incredible, so much laughter, good food, relaxing & enjoying life. i am so richly blessed with friends & family & i  never want to take any of these moments for granted. i want to cherish them all. these kiddos make me excited to be a mother. 

one day i will be posting pictures of my own children & the thought of that makes my heart leap. until that moment i will have my camera ready to capture all these sweet moments.

cheers,

mrs. estes