A life planted in our family is alot like our garden.....

These were our plants in our veggie garden the first day we planted them.....

Look at them now...huge, lucious and producing fruit...lots of healthy veggies for us to eat....So much that we have plenty to share with others even with our mega family size.....

Canteloup, tomatoes, cucumbers, egg plant, zuchinni, yellow squash , peppers and I grow parsley to attract monarch butterflies....

Seedless green grapes

Then of course there are my flowers...don't these sunflowers and black eyed susans just smile at you ?

I love the contrast of the first picture with the garden picture now...with a little care, water, fertilizer, and sevin to keep bugs away...and TLC we are reaping what we have sown.

I see the lives we have invested in sort of in the same way....Some of the children who we have adopted come from some pretty tough backgrounds...they are smaller than they should be, not very strong or healthy because of poor nutrition or not enough food, abuse and neglected...but we give them what they need to grow and blossom ...we share the knowledge of God's truth and His love with them and then we watch them as they grow into the person God created them to be. We begin to see the benefits of our daily love, and care given to them and what a blessing it is to see a life changed.Just like in our garden that was dry and barren at first and then full of the fruit of our labor and love- we reap what we have sown. Not always do we reap what we think we will sow....sometimes our veggies are bitter, or rot before we pick them and we have to not use it for a salad but it is good to fertilize the soil....God has a plan for all the lives of my children. My desire is that they all will choose the life of following Christ as believers ....that they all have the personal knowledge of knowing Him and that their relationship is real to them. Sometimes this is not on my time table and I have to relax and let God. I have lots to share about this and hope to very soon...but releasing your child to the world has been one of the hardest aches for me but I have learned so much thru these times .