That Li'l Bitty

I have had a new swimming partner this summer.

Lil' Bitty........

He loves water, and I was afraid he would fall in and not be able to get out. So I have tried to teach him how to swim back to the steps

so he can get out on his own.

Lexie is just the opposite she does not like the water. Give her a ball away from the water and she fine.

Last Friday night I was babysitting the Sparks Kiddo's and we were in the pool, SS was having a blast, HGS was doing okay as long as she was close to the steps, & FS she was holding on to me for dear life.... In jumps Li'l Bitty( if you go under water he tries to save you) I'm holding on to FS trying to get HGS back to the steps and Li'l Bitty is scratching the girls trying to get to me so I can aim him back to the steps so he can get out(HGS doesn't care for dogs to much anyway). In the back of my mind I'm thinking this isn't as easy as it was when my girls were this age. So when I get to church on Sunday SS has told his parents that I seem to have had a hard time with them last night. He just doesn't know how hard it was to keep 3 kids and 1 dog above the water with just 2 hands. I had the camera with me but no extra hand to take pictures with.

32 Wonderful Years

August 31, 1975

Cindy & Rick

August 31, 2000

25 th Anniversary Love You Aways

Happy Birthday Mama!!!!!!

She had just made a hole in one, and yes, she is NUMBER ONE to us! Happy birthday Mom, your the best:)I hope you're enjoying your day. No one would even guess your 50 (Shhh....) Love Ya, Ashley

Friday Funnies

I going to copy Alyssa's Blog and write about a funny, like she does on Fridays on her blog. Last Sunday Ashley was doing the children's church lesson, and the story was about being focused on Jesus! To demonstrate this she decided to use a camera, and was taking a picture of the kids. She got all of the kids to sit close together so she could fit them all in the picture. Then, as she took the picture she turned and took the picture of the people sitting in the sanctuary. Then she asked the kids whats wrong with this picture? The whole time she was thinking they would say it's out of focus, or it's not a picture of us. However, unprompted Samuel said "Uncle Dick's in it." The whole church erupted in laughter, and Uncle Dick just raise his hands in agreement! Ashley just left well enough alone and said actually that is another sermon. Thanks Samuel for making us laugh! Let's remember to stay focused on JESUS.....

Happy Birthday

Cat, If I could pick my very own sister you would be my pick. Love Cindy

Happy 24th Birthday

This was the first birthday that I didn't wake you up with my singing of Happy Birthday, Hope you have a great day, Love you Baby Girl Mom

Celebrating America's Birthday

On Saturday and Sunday the Adult choir of Ben Avon Baptist Church presented, Welcome Home a musical celebrating the freedoms we have been given and those who have made them possible and the Freedom God gives us through His salvation. I will post pictures of the choir as soon as I can get them from Mema. Here are a few pictures made after the presentation.


On Tuesday night we all went Bethany Baptist Church and what a treat it was four of the Chaplains of the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department were there. They are calling themselves the Singing Chaplains and they were great, afterwards we had Bar-B-Q . On Wednesday the gang came to the RACKROOM for lunch and a swim.

Rick spent Thursday shopping and this is what he bought!!!
Hope Ya'll have a great weekend. I might take a road trip!!!
PS: I still have wedding photos to show but blogger is so slow tonight, I'll try later.
Cindy

She Married

Kerrie & Jerry June 23, 2007

More pictures to come.

One Year Ago Today

"> Today is a bitter sweet day for us one year ago our home was destroyed by a fire and today our baby daughter was getting married. More later gotta get to that church. Love to all Cindy

Two Sweet Girls

On most Saturday mornings I spend with my Mom, we eat breakfast together, then hit the yard sales till about mid day. Then home to spend the afternoon with hubby. Well last week we had a guest with us, we invited Alyssa to spend the morning with us ( her son Samuel left on a mission trip to Jamaica) and we were trying to keep her busy so she would not worry so much.

I do not know if it worked or not but we had such a good time looking for bargains. We found Hannah Grace and Faith a few dresses to wear this summer.

The girls spent Saturday afternoon with us so that Travis and Alyssa could go to the movie and spend some time together. While they were gone I washed the dresses and dried them so the girls could take them home .

This a picture of the girls waiting on there dresses to finish washing and drying. Cindy

WHEW!!!

The Ford's have been running in many different directions since we moved back home, buying the furniture that we need,hanging blinds & curtains, planning the House Blessing, planning Kerrie & Jerry's wedding, the bridal showers, engagement & bridal portraits, building the garage, getting the swimming pool purchased, an installation date 6-5-07, then contacting the construction crew to have the deck rebuilt and the fence put back up, getting Ashley ready for the mission trip, not counting Easter,and Mother's Day.

The wedding plans are on track just a few little things left to do. All the Thank yous are in the mail. The engagement will be published in the paper this weekend I hope, should have been in last Sundays paper. I really think Kerrie is getting nervous about the wedding, it has all been fun up till now and now that we are a few weeks away, she is stressing out on me. With this being the first wedding we have had to plan I do not have all the answers to the questions she is asking so I am depending on books and friends for the answers.

Ashley is in Jamaica as I write this post I talked to her a few minutes this morning everything seems to be going great. She said it had rained everyday and the insects were bad this year because of the rain. She went to the school this morning had a devotion with the students in the school, she is amazed that it okay to tell about Jesus in the schools there and how she would get in trouble if she share Jesus with her students back at home. The mission team will be arriving back to Charlotte around 6:30 PM on Thursday, please pray for a safe trip home and that the team members can get the rest they need before they return to their normal every day lives next week. I am sure that Ashley will be posting about her days in Jamaica when she returns so check back next week for her post.

Building Again

We are building again you would think with all the building we have just completed we would not be tackling this project right now, wrong. We need a place for Papa's tools, right now they are stored in a storage unit and when we need something we have to stop what we are working on drive to the storage unit and plunder till we find the object we needed. Also the rent on the storage units for the last 17 months is a little costly. The Garage should be finished in a couple of weeks.

Home Sweet Home

I know it has been a while since I have updated the blog, but with the move back home, Easter and planning for Kerrie's upcoming wedding I have not had a lot of spare time on my hands.We are finally getting settled here at home and it is beginning to feel like home again, we made a few changes in the floor plans when the house was rebuilt. We made the bathrooms bigger and the kitchen smaller by removing a wall and replaced it with an island so the living space and kitchen is one big room. I was worried that the kitchen would seem small but with the wall gone but it doesn't.

We had a great time at our house blessing at the end of March . Friends and family really liked the changes that we made, the picture is in the living area the day after the fire, picture was made during the House Blessing. A big change in the 254 days we were away. I still need to find pictures, rugs, and the little extras you add to a room to make it ours again.

We are waiting on the contractor to start installing the pool. Hopefully by mid summer all the building will be complete and we will be able to enjoy the end of summer relaxing by the pool.

The plans for Kerrie's wedding (June 23 one year to the day of the house fire) are coming together. She has her dress, I have my dress, bride maids have their dresses, Rick has been fitted for his tux, cake ordered, flowers ordered, photographer, invitations are ready to be mailed and her bridal showers have begun. Her Sunday School class hosted a shower for her last Sunday. She received some great gifts that she needed.

Hopefully Ashley will slow down and update what she has been up to the last few weeks, the school year is winding down so maybe she will have more time to keep the blog updated. She is going back to Jamaica in May, Kerrie's wedding in June and two of her friends are getting married in July and she will be in their weddings. So with weddings and showers for the brides I do not think she will have but a couple of free weekends.

The pictures below were made Easter Sunday.

Have a great week end!!!

Cindy

We are HOME

I know it has been for ever since we have updated the blog. I just do not remember it taking this long or being this hard to make a house a home. I guess the mama in me just wants everything to be perfect for the girls and hubby. We have made all the furniture purchases and everything has been delivered, and set up. I still do not have any pictures or whatnot's or little things like that to sit around but Hubby says I am starting to accumulate things again so maybe things are getting back to normal whatever normal is. On March 24th we had a Home Dedication Service, Pastor Tommy did a great job, friends and family seemed to enjoy seeing the house and the few changes that we made during the rebuilding stage. This is Pastor Tommy's dedication service " To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." Many times I have wondered why God allows things to happen. Why would god allow this family to lose their home and some possessions that could never be replaced at any cost? Why would He allow this to happen at a time when they were still recovering from another tragedy only months earlier? As their family, their friend, and their Pastor, I did not know the answers. It may be to test their faith. It may be to teach them some valuable lesson. It may be to let the world see the response. It may be none of the above. Have they allowed the world to see a Christians' reaction to a crisis? Even though the answer to all these questions would be yes, it still doesn't explain the question "why?"I do know that know God is in control. They saw how God used their dog to wake them up. They saw how God had friends and family in place to meet their needs. today the have invited all of us to see how God has taken their tragedy and given them a better house, and a better testimony to His grace and provision. Because of that, they have asked that their new home be dedicated to the Lord, and asked for the Lord to bless their new home.What is a home? Webster defines a home as:"a residence; a place where one's domestic affections are centered; or a refuge or place of retreat. "It's a safe place. It's a place of love. It's a place you can go when there is no other place to go.What does it mean to dedicate? Webster defines dedicated as: "to set apart and consecrate to a deity or for a sacred purpose; to formally offer something to a person or for a cause; or to set aside for a specific function, task, or purpose. today this family is offering their home to God to use for any purpose He see fit.To that end, I want to remind them of two points about the home that are emphasized in the Scriptures. I. God Places A Priority On The Home. He placed a priority on the home, before He place a priority on the church building. Real ministry begins at home.

A. God's Word speaks to the home. The Ten Commandments were given in context of the home and neighborhood. They are to be obeyed first at home.

B. God's love is revealed in the home. In the beginning He created a home environment. Our relationships in the home are used by God to tell the world how He cares for us.

C. God's church thrives in the home. The church was born in the upper room of some one's home. The early church grew from house to house. People had church meetings in their homes. In most of the world today, that is how new churches begin. Though you will probably never have a church meeting in your home, things that are a priority in the church should be a priority in your home. There should be prayer. There should be Bible reading and Bible study. you should invite people here to encourage, comfort, and support them.

The Lord has many priorities for the home. he also has something else.

II God Has A Purpose For Every Home.

A. Christian education happens at home. Remember how faith was handed down from Lois to Eunice To Timothy?Deuteronomy 6:6-7, "These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. you shall teach them to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up."

It doesn't matter whether you have young children or grandchildren, you still have a special place of influence to nieces, nephews, and friends. It's never to late to teach older people about walking with the Lord.

B. Christian charity begins at home. 1st Timothy 5:8, "If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." Taking care of your family in time of need is Biblical and it is a great witness to others.

Conclusion: God has priorities and purposes for the home. The ministries that He has set for the home are the ministries that are most needed today. If you practice these things, you will find that your home will be blessed by god and god will bring ministry opportunities to your door. "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven."

We still do not know the "Why", but we do know that God has and will continue to provide what ever we need.

Thank You

We Love You

Rick, Cindy, Ashley & Kerrie

We're Going Home

It's finally time to go home. After seven and half months here in the rental house we are moments away from moving home. Yes, I said moments away not days, weeks, or months, but mear moments. Everything here is packed up and ready to be transported to the 156 house. I'm talking I only kept out a couple pair of shoes, so for those of you who know me well you know how close we are to moving in. After all I sometimes need two pairs of shoes to get me through one day. That does in fact make me a little obsessive compulsive, but let a girl have her quirks OK. I have posted a picture to give you a glance of the new and improved kitchen in our house. As you can tell we have made some changes. I think we are going to like the white cabinets and tan colored walls and island. If the house passes final inspection tomorrow we will have approval to sleep there for the first time since the fire. I can not wait to just be back home with my things in my house with my mama and daddy and the puppies of course! So we're signing off at Price Street......I hope to have new pictures and stories for you sometime next week!

Love,

~The Ford's

Clean Bill of Health

It is with a joyful heart that I'm posting tonight. I wanted to let all of our family and friends know that Dad got a clean bill of health today, or at least nothing a pill a day won't cure. I thank you all for your cards, calls, and visits wishing him well and checking up on him today. I am so amazed by God in times like these. I am in awe of how he knows what we need before we even know that we need it. How great is our God? I have prayed about this for many weeks and I thank all of you who have joined me in prayer for I do believe that where two or more are gather in His name there He is also. So, tonight I'll close with a simple bedtime prayer thanking him for another great day to live as a christian. Dear Lord, I come to you now thanking you for being with Dad today and giving him that peace that I prayed about this morning that only you can give. It has been evident in our conversations tonight that he knew You were there. I also said that You Lord would be given the honor and glory for the great things You would do. Jesus I just bow before you now thanking You for the wonderful answer to many prayers today. I thank You for allowing us to use even this as an addition to our testimony as a family returning to You Father. I praise You and have chills when I thank that today the Lord On High attended to my needs and the needs of my family. I am once again humbled to witness the love you have for your children. I am thankful that I worship and have a relationship with a God who is never too busy for me because I know at times Lord I don't make time for you because I'm too busy. I love you because You first loved me and you know that I can't ever be like you. You love me knowing you don't need me, but you would be delighted to use me in Your perfect plan. Heavenly Father thank you for giving me the strength to believe in You today. I thank you for taking care of my Earthly Daddy (even better than I could have) and giving me the faith to trust You with him. Lord I ask for your forgiveness and help to align my priorities every day with Yours, and to make decisions that bring honor and glory to You through how I live my life. Please show me what I need to change in order to walk in Your will for my life at this time. I love You Lord.

In Christ Name, Amen

Pray For Daddy

Dear Jesus, I come to your throne of grace this morning to thank you for all your many blessings, but specifically for your unconditional love that you have showed for my family and I time and time again. I am amazed at your willingness to forgive and love your children again and again even through you have already given us so much! I would like to ask for forgivness in not loving others with that love that you love us with all the time, and it's being revealed to me, through your word, that sometimes I'm quick to judge. I am so human and you know my heart dear Lord better than anyone else. I am growing closer to you all the time and I feel that I'm at my best when I'm right in the palm of your hand Father. Jesus, as I pray to you today as my Heavenly Father please be with my Earthly Daddy today. I pray with all my might, and all the sincerity that I can bring to you as a person to hold him close today. Lord Jesus, pull him so close to you today that he would feel your peace and be comforted no matter what these test show. Remind us that you are in control and nothing surprises you or catches you off guard. Lord Jesus in Heaven keep my daddy safe and healthy today is my prayer to you. Father, I am asking and believing you today for these requests. I'll talk to you later. I love you Lord. Amen ~Ashley

Going Home "MAYBE"

Hopefully we should be able to move back home around the middle of the week. We have called and have all the appointments line up for the utility companies to come out and run the wiring to the house, the wiring on the inside was installed during the rebuilding. There are only a few things left to be completed { screen door needs to be installed which we had to order and it will take 2 weeks to get here} gutters { the man that installs the gutters fell off a ladder and doesn't know when he will be able to come back to work, so the contractor is going to fine another company to install the gutters}. So if the house passes the final inspection and the contractor has the cleaning crew come in and do their thing we are going home.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday My Sweet Girl Love you Mom

Still Believing God

Thanks for those of you who are hanging with me while the story is unfolding. I left you last time with the great joy in my heart for the people of Jamaica. That mission trip not only taught me about the difference between a retreat and a mission trip, but it also taught me a lot about myself. I came back on that "spiritual high" that some of you have experienced and I wanted to tell everyone about my experiences. Then, tragedy struck again. On Friday, June 23, 2006 my family lost our home. Most of you reading this have probably seen enough fire pictures to last you for a while, but just in case I missed some here they are. This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog After the fire I found myself questioning everything. The BIGGEST question was why. I wanted and felt I deserved an answer from God telling me why this happened to me and my family. After all we had already been through so much. Why would He allow something like this to happen to a family who was returning to him and finally giving him the glory for the things in our lives. Why? Why? Why? That is what I ate, slept, thought, and talked, for four months. Guess What? I'm still not sure why, but this is what I do know. I know that it was on my heart to get involved in a bible study. I decided that I would be a part of the first ever teacher's bible study at Wellford. We all got together and prayed about what the Lord would have us to do and decided on Beth Moore's Believing God. In the introduction of the bible study Beth talks about being at a point in her life where she felt God challenging her. She says it was like he was challenging her with questions like "Are you going to believe me on this or not?" or "Who and what will you choose to believe?" This of course hit home because I sometimes felt that God was asking me the same questions. I went into the nine week bible study with a heavy heart and needed some revelations in my life. I desperately needed what Beth calls a GODSTOP! Yep, that is anyway that God discloses himself to you. Every day in the homework for nine weeks there were Godstops. My Godstops were completed at night based on Psalm 63:6 "On my bed I remember you." To close out the story after looking back over all my Godstops and studying Hebrews 11 I feel that God is calling me to use these events as my testimony and give the glory to Him. I was believing him that I wouldn't be just a 26 year old with a sad story. I was believing him for more. I want to have the faith that God is who He says He is and my life has not shocked or surprised Him. I want to have the Hebrews 11 kind of faith. I want to have the faith of "Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family." Hebrews 11:7. I want to have the faith of Abraham, who by faith went to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 I want Jacob's faith, "When he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on top of his staff." Hebrews 11:21 Not forgetting that "By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days." Hebrews 11:30, and "by faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient." Hebrews 11:31 On the last day of the bible study we were challenged to be creating a Hebrews 11:41 in our own lives, which should read, By faith Ashley...... My Lord and savior Jesus Christ has already started using this to draw others to him. I had the unnerving privilege of speaking at the Candlelight Service for the Healing With Hope Support Group. It was not easy, but I felt called to do it. I felt like that is what I was believing God for. I was believing him for him to use me so that if it was His will other's might be brought closer to Him. I have also been asked about speaking at a Ladies Night Out here at a local church this spring, and I'm still in prayer about that. As well as praying about going back to Jamaica this year. Please join me in prayer about these upcoming events as I believe God for what He can and is going to do! Believing God, ~Ashley