Well HELLLOOOO!

So my attempt to keep up on my blog has... FAILED! It has almost been another 4 months since I last posted. When I posted last it was the beginning of September and the school year had just started. Now it is just about the beginning of 2010 and the school year is half over! Since we last talked...

I have been working hard on raising money for my upcoming trip to India (yardsale, selling Scentsy, and basically some angels who have graciously donated some of their hard-earned cash). I am now just about 6 weeks away from leaving and have about $300 left to pay. With it being the holidays the money has been a struggle but I know God will provide the rest. We are leaving on Valentine's Day and will be gone for 10 days~to which Mark will be in charge of the kids and the house. We have been meeting as a team to discuss the trip and I have been given the privledge to teach oral hygiene to the children at the Children's Home and to the people living in the slums. I'm so excited to be able to share with them part of what I do and how important taking care of their teeth is. God had this all in His plans...

We also took our trip to Disney World that my mom and Charlie had been planning for a long time. We left on the day after Thanksgiving and stayed for a week. When we landed, Kennedi's friend Carrie from the orphanage surprised Kennedi at the airport! The girls hadn't seen each other since leaving China. It was great to see them together again. We stayed at Old Key West at the Disney Resort and visited all 4 parks. On our visit to Animal Kingdom, Carrie and her family came and spent the whole day with us. This was a ton of fun and we enjoyed getting to know their family better. The girls were so cute together.

We returned home to do the 10th annual cookie party and get ready for Christmas. This brings us to now... finally I have some time off from school and work and can catch up on my blog reading and actually sit and do a post! Again, Facebook really takes up my time and I post things on there so I forget to post on here~it's all Facebook's fault! :) On Christmas Eve we went to our church Christmas program~Follow The Star~and then mom and Charlie took us out for tepan yaki at Edo Ya. We then finished up the evening at their house opening presents. Christmas Day we opened our presents and then hosted dinner for the first time ever. Mark's parents, grandma, and brother (plus his finance' and his son), and mom and Charlie all came over and everything turned out just fine. This week I have enjoyed my time off work and without school. I have just hung out with the kids enjoying the time with them. All this time off, Mark would say, is not a good idea because I have been caught looking at the Waiting Children's list (list of kids needing homes) on our adoption agency's website! I shouldn't even look because I want to take them all home! Bradley caught me today and reminded me that he wants a little brother, "like Kennedi's age" he said! Someday hopefully God will grant Bradley's wish!

So as the year 2009 comes to a close and 2010 is upon us... who knows what the new year will hold? I know it will hold an amazing trip to India with some amazing people. Maybe we will have some other exciting things happen. Only GOD knows the plans He has for us for 2010...

**BLESSINGS TO YOU FOR THE NEW YEAR!**

Scentsy!

I'm now selling Scentsy! One of our doctor's wife sells Scentsy and one day he brought in a plug in warmer from her with the Camu Camu scent. We all loved the smell that would come from this tiny warmer when we turned it on. What's neat about Scentsy is that there is no wick to light. This means no house you have to worry about burning down! So you can literally leave your warmer on all day and not worry. The wax also melts at a lower temperature so you don't have to worry about kids being burned either! So I decided to sign up to sell these neat candles and hopefully raise some more money for my trip to India! You can visit me at www.scentsy.com/tinasalvador and for those of you in Kerman, I will be at the Harvest Festival this coming weekend! Check it out!

**UPDATE** When seeing how this post came out, I'm disappointed that the warmer is cut off. It's a cute pumpkin warmer perfect for Halloween! If you want to see it, go to my website and click on "what's new" on the top.

God's Amazing Plans!

Well, I have yet again neglected my blog, this time for a month! Summer time at work is our busy time and we work extra days so finding time to get over here and post the happenings of our family is quite difficult. I have also mentioned before that I am really obcessed with Facebook and so any free time I do have I'm usually on there chatting with someone (usually Chenecua these days!). So I need to fill you in on some things... First of all, I have to post about the amazing thing Kennedi told me last weekend. We were sitting at Applebees waiting for our food and all of the sudden, out of nowhere, Kennedi said "thanks mom". I of course had no idea what she was talking about so I asked "what for?" and she said "for coming to China to get me!" I just about started crying right then and there! How sweet is that?? Then I was teasing her (like we often do) about going back to China for a brother. She said no not China, how about Spanish? Spanish?? What's that? :) She is one cute little girl! We are amazing to have her in our lives!
So...I have been telling you about the possiblity of going to India with the next "team" from NorthPointe. Yesterday I found out that I am definitely going! Amazing, I know! It was tough because Chenecua hadn't heard anything but today she got the phone call that she will be going as well! It will be 2 pastors and 5 of us women! I'm excited and scared at the same time!! Should be an amazing opportunity! Now, I have to get busy raising the money needed to go... This is all part of God's plan for my life so I know he will provide whatever we need! I will be sure to keep updates coming via this blog as we progress! 5 months will be here before we know it!

A busy couple of weeks...

Okay so I have once again neglected my blog here and it has been another two weeks since I have written anything. The past two weeks have been eventful, some with things that were great and some with things not so great. The first of the two weeks involved the last week of Kerman Kickers for the season which meant practice for the kids every day and ended with Championships in Kerman on Saturday and Sunday. Although my kids have not been at the top (or even the middle) of their age groups, they swam better this weekend then they had all season! Katelyn swam 50 free, 50 back, 100 free (dropped like a minute off her previous time!), and 50 breast (dropped 6 seconds off her time). Bradley swam 50 free, 50 back, and 50 butterfly (dropped 8 seconds off his time). I am so proud of them for sticking it out and working hard to get their times better! We are glad the season is over and we have our Saturdays back for awhile but look forward to doing it again next season! Also for the entire week, Katelyn went with a group of pastors and kids from our church's Jr. High and High School to a little town called Armona to give them their own VBS. Katelyn went every night from 4:30 and getting home at 10:30 to give these kids something they don't get and to teach them about Jesus. I am so proud of her and her always willingness to help out in any way she can!
In the middle of this busy swim week there was a double homiside in Kerman, right behind Mark's parents house. Something that never happens in Kerman, we hadn't had a murder in 20 years. The couple was involved in some drugs and some things went wrong that morning. The kids had just returned home from swim practice at 9:30 in the morning when all this happened and the town was basically on "lockdown" as the authorities were trying to find a suspect. Needless to say, this was very nerve-racking for everyone. Authorities were searching all the houses around there (including my in-laws) with guns and dogs and so the kids were terrified. We could not get to the kids because the streets were blocked. Luckily by 4pm or so all had calmed down and we were able to get the kids home. What a scary time...
This past week was another busy week, the week of Creative Arts Camp at church! My kids always LOVE this camp and look forward to it each year! They participated in camp from 9-12 each day and tonight is their big show! Kennedi is in the K-1 program so they sing and do arts and crafts. Bradley is doing drama (of course) and percussion. Katelyn is "too old" for the camp but gets to help out so she is helping with percussion and gets to be in the performance as well. I am so thankful that our church takes the time for these kids and gives them an opportunity to showcase their talents. This year's theme is One Voice which is a theme after my own heart, bringing the whole world together as one!! I cannot wait for tonight's show! Also this week, on Thursday, I received a call from Charlie saying my mom was in the hospital having emergency surgery. They discovered her intestines were twisted and she had sepsis. She went through surgery okay but is still in ICU trying to get all the infection out and her stable. Charlie has been there every day for her and keeps me posted on her progress. Thanks to my friends for all their prayers and well wishes!
Almost forgot to mention that the same day as the double homiside in Kerman, I received a phone call from Northpointe confirming that I will be going on the next trip to India! We will be going the last two weeks in February!! I was so pre-occupied with the things going on with my kids that I couldn't really focus on the phone call but we are having a meeting in two weeks to discuss the trip details!! Needless to say, Chenecua and I are so excited! We met with Christy on Friday and are putting together some sponsorship packages for the kids in the orphanage and we are putting together items to take to them when we go! Kay Warren is coming in October to talk about orphans and we are planning on kicking this off then! I pray that Northpointe really comes through for these children and sponsors all the ones that need sponsoring. We are so excited about this opportunity! Now... gotta raise the money needed to get on the plane over there!
Please keep my mom in your prayers in these coming days and also continue to pray for my upcoming trip. I'll keep you all posted. Hopefully in the next couple days I will post some pictures of tonight's Creative Arts Perfomance.
**HUGS**

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Orphans Minstry and India

So as you read a couple of posts earlier I mentioned how Christy had headed to India with a group from church. This was totally a trip that God intended her to be on because she had not planned on going but someone could not go at the last minute so Christy stepped in. While there she visited Mother Teresa's orphanage and also another orphanage that a man and his wife run. When his wife converted to Christianity, her family disowned (abandoned) her and so she decided to take care of the children who were also abandoned. They have basically just a roof over their heads and have currently 26 children living there. Christy said only the boys had beds and the girls sleep on the cement floor. She didn't see one toy in the whole place but she was amazed on how well behaved the kids all were. She mentioned to me that at age 12 the boys can no longer live with the girls and they will have no where to go. This orphanage needs so much help. Remember how I told you that we really had no direction on which way our ministry would go, well now we feel like God has put this trip, this orphanage, together with Northpointe so that we can help them. We have a direction! I have so many ideas for the children of this orphanage and cannot wait to get started. They need so many things, from blankets to crayons to toys. We'd like to raise money to get them another place for the boys. We'd like to find sponsors at church for each of the 26 children to help support them. So many things are happening and things are falling into place that it blows my mind! Christy has been talking with Kay Warren's assistant to bring Kay to Northpointe to speak about orphans and we're hoping to launch the ministry at that point. Another woman spoke to Christy about her willing to head up the domestic/foster side of things while we do the international side. So amazing, I know! So this brings me to another point..... I have been asked by Christy to possibly go on the next trip to India in February. At first I thought to myself "February, no way! I cannot go that quickly, that's too soon, too expensive", but after some thought and prayer I was quickly on board to go! I feel that this is what God wants me to do and honestly with me heading up the ministry I really need to see first-hand the people we will be helping. The amazing thing is that an amazing friendship between Chenecua (Katelyn's friend Dejah's mom) and myself has emerged and she will be taking the trip with me if we're able to go! We both felt the longing for a Christian friend in our lives and really feel God put us together. After talking we realized we both have the same heart for these children and she has agreed to pair with me to head up the ministry and to go on this trip with me! What a blessing! For those of you who think I am crazy, just know that I am going to be His hands and feet in a place that so desperately needs it. I trust in an amazing God that will guide us and protect us. When you have such a heart for something like this sometimes it's hard for others to understand why you would travel to such a poor foreign country and sometimes I just can't explain it. I long to help these children who have NOTHING. How can I just sit in the comfort of my own home ignoring what is going on all over the world? I have an article from Kay Warren about orphans and a part of it is exactly how I feel. "We are no longer content to just feel bad when we see a picture of an orphaned child; we have decided that God holds us responsible for the 143 million boys and girls around the world without moms and dads. We realize that we have been given much, and therefore, much is required of us." Or how about this, "Someday we will give an account to God of what each of us did in response to God's command to care for orphans. We want to be able to point to the thousands and thousands-maybe millions-of children who found a family and home through our church." And one last thought, these children have "nothing to eat, no one to hold them at night, no mother to whisper that they are beautiful, a precious child of God" and "If just one family out of every four churches would adopt, there would be no more orphans in America." That should hopefully explain to you where I'm coming from. Please pray that God shows us His plan for all of this, if we go on the trip that we can raise the majority, if not all, of the money that it takes to get us to India and that people at Northpointe are open and willing to help us on this mission to care for these children, God's children. I will keep you all posted on this exciting journey.

4th of July fun!

Zoey and Bradley sharing a snow cone

Uncle Randy relaxing in my new chair
Cousin Misty kicking back waiting for the fireworks

Katelyn and friend Dejah making snow cones for the kids

Bradley playing a game on my phone

Kennedi, Dejah, and Hayz hanging out

Zoey being cute!

Katelyn, Dejah, and Kennedi making Hayz laugh

Kerman's fireworks are always on the 3rd of July. This year we again sat in my mom's yard and had family over for a good time. We barbequed hamburgers and hotdogs and had all the fixings. We played a few games of LCR (dice game) where of course I didn't win any money. Then we all sat out under the stars and watched the fireworks from the High School. The kids had a blast! On the 4th we just went to the movies and saw Ice Age and then out to lunch. We then just hung out at home and Mark set of some fireworks in our cul-de-sac. The stars were out and the weather was beautiful, it was a great night.

Orphans and Northpointe

On another note (since I'm here), I have had orphans on the brain so much lately! Okay, more than usual. As I have probably mentioned, I was approached to start an Orphans Ministry at church by Christy. Christy works for Northpointe, her husband is the High School pastor, she runs the women's ministries, and has become a dear friend since her asking me. I was immediately willing to help out in whatever way I could but we were both unsure what avenue to take. There are so many "avenues" possible with this type of thing. I had tried the support group thing before with no such luck. Christy has not adopted or had any experience with orphans before. She just knew God was calling her to help orphans and widows. So we both agreed to pray about it. That was before Christmas and nothing has transpired since then. That was until.... someone could not go on the missions trip to India and Christy got to step in. The team left just about 2 weeks ago and just returned on Wednesday. While there Christy was able to visit Mother Teresa's orphanage (and another one I think) and fell in love with the children there. She encountered a little blind boy that would bang his head on his crib. She went over to him and sang Jesus Loves You to him and he immediately calmed. She met a little girl she wanted to bring home (thanks to Melanie-I used a couple of your pictures). NOW she has experienced orphans and has pleanty of knowledge to share! While she was gone I felt God really speaking to my heart to do more. I could not stop reading the team's blog while they were gone, received orphans information in the mail and email, read bible verses, so on and so on. It was amazing the things God was throwing in front of me during this time. I have also become good friends with Chenecua (thanks to Katelyn and her friendship with Chenecua's daughter Dejah) and she mentioned to me how touched she has been these past two weeks and how she wants to help as well. God put us two together to be HIS hands and feet, I'm sure of it! I am so excited and cannot wait until Christy is all rested and ready to start this mission of helping these children with me! Stay tuned for what God has planned!...... ***Prayers are welcomed!***

Summertime Swimming!

This week was Kennedi's first swim lessons. Last year, she would scream her head off every time she was in the pool so I wasn't sure how this week would turn out. Well, as you can see from the pictures above, she enjoyed it very much. This has been one of those crazy weeks to say the least. Monday was good, everything went according to planned. Tuesday however, I had a terrible sore throat. We made it to swim lessons but by the time I got back home I had the stomach flu. The stomach flu continued to Wednesday so I was unable to take the kids to swim lessons. Later that night Kennedi said to me "I did not like today because I wanted to go to swim lessons", she liked it that much. Yesterday I was better enough to take them back to swim lessons. Then today Bradley came down with the same thing I had so I was able to take Kennedi but Bradley had to miss out (that's why there are no pictures of Bradley). What a week. Even though, Kennedi did learn how to somewhat swim, float, jump in, but most importantly saw that she can do it and to not think she can't. Thanks to Pam and Nicole for their always great swim lessons!

As I may have mentioned before, this year is the first year for Katelyn and Bradley to swim on the city's summer competitive swim team (Kerman Kickers). In the winter Katelyn mentioned she wanted to try the swim team (unfortunately she has not had luck trying out for the sports at the Jr. High so I knew this would be great because everyone gets to be on the team). I was excited because I swam for the Kerman Kickers so it was neat that my daughter now wanted to be on the team. So we went to the parent meeting in the spring and signed up Katelyn with no intentions to have Bradley swim. He immediately said he wanted to try the team out as well. With him not being a strong swimmer yet, I didn't think he'd make it or like it. Practice came, he tried it, made it, and liked it. Katelyn was the one crying the first week of practice (don't think she realized how hard swimming practice is) and Bradley just kept on swimming. He was like Dory in Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." The coach talked to Katelyn and convinced her to just give him 2 weeks. She did, and that was 2 1/2 months ago! Both of the kids are having a good time and are getting stronger each week. They aren't the strongest ones out there but they keep trying and keep improving their times. We have about 5 weeks to go in the season. The photos above are from last weekends invitational (like a tournament) in Los Banos.

Worth Every Second

Recently I have been thinking about my life and what God has already done with it, but more importantly what He still has planned for it. We are so blessed to have so many things, but all of these "things" are just that.... "things" and items that will not matter when we leave this world. What will matter is the impact we had on this world and how we followed the road God has paved out for us. It's a choice you have to make and one that is sometimes not easily made. If you do decide to follow God's will for your life you will be a changed person because of it. I learned this 3 years ago (on the 17th to be exact) when I heard God telling me His plan of adoption for us. Adoption was not even a word in our vocabulary but we decided to follow Him. Boy am I glad we did! It was a tough road at times and definitely not a road that has come to an end for sure, but all worth it. Just recently I was reminded of God's reasons for all of this to happen to us and to Kennedi. Kennedi has been talking about "good dreams" and "bad dreams" a lot and last weekend when I put her to bed she said she was probably going to have a bad dream. I told her to "think of good things and she'll have a good dream". The next day we were sitting at the movie theater and I asked her if she had a good dream or a bad dream. She said she had a good dream because she prayed to God. Just those four words "I prayed to God" put tears into my eyes! To think that God placed this little precious girl into our hands to be able to love, but more importantly to show her the love of God and how she can pray to Him for help when she came from a country where that is not allowed what so ever, is worth every second we've been on this road. I also just finished the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and it has made me realize that we are here all for Him. I have been thinking about the group of Northpointe staff that will be leaving this Sunday for India to help at Mother Theresa's place and at an orphanage and how I would love to be on that trip. I've been thinking about my friend Julie who adopted Nicholas almost two years ago and how they just received travel plans to leave next week to bring home his new brother from China. I've also been thinking about starting our orphans ministry at Northpointe and how we can help the children who have absolutely nothing, not even a parent to love them. Wherever the road God has us on leads, we will follow and know that it will all be worth every second.

End Of The School Year Festivities

Today was filled with fun activities for Kennedi and Bradley for their last day of school. It started first thing in the morning with the awards ceremony and then off to Kennedi's classroom for her Kindergarten Graduation. Shortly after we headed over to Bradley's class for his pizza and ice cream party. The school year went by super fast but the kids are glad summer is here!

Bradley pretending to be a chicken with his bandana

Bradley with two of the girls, Jeanine and Brielle

Bradley and one of his favorite friends Brielle

Wrapping his gift for dad for Father's Day

Bradley and Annie

Kennedi and her class saying their Onto First Grade Poem

Kennedi getting her diploma from Mrs. Newman

Kennedi received an Almond "JOY" from Mrs. Newman because she said she is always full of JOY, always smiling! :)

Kennedi and her class friends

Kennedi receiving her Citizenship Award

Bradley received many awards. The one he is holding is perfect attendance for the whole school year. He also won Principal's Honor Roll and BUG Award (Bring Up Grades)

This is a video of the kids in Kennedi's class reciting their Onto First Grade Poem. She has grown so much in just the one year of being in school. Next year she will be attending public school to hopefully get her more help with her English learning. She will miss Kerman Christian very much. For now, she is glad it is summer time and no school! She has swim lessons coming up which she is NOT looking forward to, Vacation Bible School, and Creative Arts Camp so she'll be busy with some fun things. Katelyn's last day is coming up on Friday and she cannot wait. She will then be the King (or I should say, Queen) of the school, a big 8th grader! It seems like I was just stressing out about her going into Jr. High and now we're getting close to High School! Friday she is having a mud rally so maybe I can get some pictures of that. Until then..... {HUGS}

Rodrigues Family Reunion

My cousin Mandi's little girls (Madalynn above and Ashlynn below)

Kennedi relaxing on the swing

Katelyn on Red

My cousin Marcie's little girl Zoey

Kennedi playing fetch with Tootie the dog

Marcie's little boy Hayz (sun in his eyes!)

Bradley on Red

Kennedi on Red

Today we headed out to my aunt and uncle's home in Chowchilla for our Rodrigues Family Reunion (my mom's side of the family, the Portuguese side!). We don't have reunions often but just recently my mom's uncle passed away so they decided to get the family together. There were about 120 people at the house today and everyone had a great time. We had barbecue tri-tip, chicken, and pork, and all the side dishes! The weather was nice, not too terribly hot and definitely nice in the shade. The kids all had a blast in the bounce house and my uncle John (my mom's oldest brother) brought out his pony Red for them to ride. It was nice to get the family all together. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!