Twenty Years and MANY KIDS later…

This weekend I got feeling a little nostalgic, as I do every so often as I look back over the years and all the precious memories they hold! When I was 17, I thought life would last forever… but now…I'm realizing that time goes faster than you think. 

This first picture above was a family picture taken twenty years ago amidst the rapids of a wild river in Minnesota! Aren't my little brothers adorable? They aren't sooo little anymore though… LOL!

It's funny how life goes! When I was a senior in high-school everyone, including my own classmates, called me "Mother Mel." I think it's because I always gravitated towards kids, and I used to boast about the fact that when I got married, I was going to have a dozen kids! (Little did I know…LOL!) 

Well, I'm all grown up now…and I'm not married, but God has given me MORE than dozens! ;-)

"Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven!"

The pictures above are from my adopted kids in Bangladesh. However, there's two little girls that have especially captured my heart. They call me Mom and I'm going to spend Christmas with them this year. Their names are Melony and Savannah and they also live at this Orphanage in Bangladesh. 

However, there's another SEVEN that I don't have to travel far to see! They call me "Auntie Mel" and they've been living with our family for two years now. I just threw a birthday party for all of them this weekend. Since I've been gone so much and missing all their birthdays, I decided we'd have the party of the year. We had such a fun time.

LOVE THEM so much!!!

So…these past 20 years haven't gone quite like I expected, but in all honesty, I feel like they've gone much better!!!! Not only has God given me MANY kids to love, but I've gotten to travel the world (almost 25 countries now) serving the Lord in ministry, and I get to spend my time working with some of my FAVORITE PEOPLE in the whole world, people who have become my best friends. 

And there's nothing more fulfilling than knowing you are right where God intended that you should be, changing lives for eternity.

God is sooo good!!!!