They Did the Mash....the Munster Mash!

As soon as the rain ended tonight, the neighborhood was bathed in immense fog. And then it happened. Munsters...everywhere!! Ghouls, Ghosts, and Gilligans (well, it couldn't all be frightening could it?) descended upon our home in massive numbers. We had planned to go to our church's celebration and trunk or treat, but were delayed a little while to hand out candy to the neighborhood children. So we recruited Lily Grace and Austin to handle the sugar distribution chores. I would have thought that some of the costumes would have frightened Lily Grace, but she was totally unimpressed by the scary creatures begging for candy on this foggy night. Oh, back to the Munsters. There is actually a Munster family in our neighborhood. Wonderful neighbors, but boy were those kids scary tonight!

We are coming to find out that our little Lily Grace does not fear anything. We took her to a festival at church that included a moon bounce and a giant slide. Of course, she's already familiar with the moon bounce thing and so it wasn't such a surprise that she decided to play extensively in there. What was a surprise was how much she loved sliding down the giant slide (either with Austin or by herself). Just like the Everready bunny, she just kept going and going and going. Oh well, better get used to a few grey hairs.

Congratulations are due to the Nails family and the Betterton family, both from Decatur, who have returned home in the past week with little blessings from God and from China. What a great joy to see these children and their families home in the good old USA! Please pray now for the Morgan family as they begin the journey soon to bring Will home from Vietnam.


Keep on praying, continuously and with passion! For prayers lifted in faith are recieved by our Lord with jubilation!

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, and Lily Grace (Lilo for the night!)

Another Jiangxi Girl Comes Home

We don't usually do short posts, but this one couldn't wait. We were very blessed today to see little miss Grace Ana Betterton arrive in Huntsville all the way from Jiangxi Province, China! Oh wow, was she a beautiful little girl! She looked as if she were at Disney World - smiling, even laughing, as she met the rest of her family and new friends. Lily Grace now has another friend from her birth country (and from the same province nonetheless) close by, as Grace Ana will live with her parents Brandon and Paige in Decatur (I think). Connie, Lily Grace, and I went to Huntsville International today to see the Bettertons arrive home (Austin had football practice and so couldn't make it). Brandon and Paige, we hope that you didn't mind us coming to see Grace, but we just simply couldn't stay away. What an awesome day this was. We truly believe that our God has something big, something huge planned for these little girls, why else would He be bringing so many of them to North Alabama. Lily Grace has so many friends now that share her Chinese heritage and we are extremely excited every time another little one comes home forever. Congratulations Brandon and Paige and welcome home Grace Ana!


Katie Lin and Lily Grace Wait for Grace Ana!

Photo courtesy of Katie Lin's Mom, Sonya (Sonya, please forgive the blatant copyright infringement. Believe it or not we went somewhere without our camera! (Bad parents, bad parents))



Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, and Lily Grace
Green, Party of Four

It Was a "Blue" Horse Day

What's a "blue" horse day you ask? Well, if you're a three year old, awesome little miracle from God, that means you and several of your friends paint your favorite horse blue on your third birthday. Lily Grace was invited to a birthday party in Florence for Karlee Jamieson and they decided it would be a good idea to paint Susie (I think that was the horse's name) blue. I assume someone asked Susie if that'd be ok. It seemed she couldn't care less what color she was, as long as everyone was petting her and loving on her. I sure hope that paint washes off! Lily Grace didn't seem too interested in the blue horse, you know -- seen one blue horse, seen 'em all. But she had a wonderful time at the party. Thanks Drew and Lori for inviting her (and us). Here's some pictures from the party, just so everyone can see what a blue horse looks like.
































Makeup! Makeup! Can We Not Do Something About This? I told her not to touch that button!

If you're a Crimson Tide fan, a "blue" horse day is when your arch enemy hammers your team and the horse they rode in on. And you have the blessed opportunity to enjoy that defeat while some of your new favorite friends and gracious hosts sing "Rocky Top, ol Rocky top, somewhere in Tennessee" (or whatever those ridiculous words are).

But, alas we got the last laugh. It seems the youngest Jamieson has quite the affection for the Crimson Tide - check out the picture. I think she even said Roll Tide a couple of times. We'll be sending that Bama cheerleader outfit right away!



If you see any blue horses today, be sure to ask them if they've been to a birthday party or a football game.

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, and Lily Grace
Green, Party of Four

Here I Go Again

A brief advisory. The following is not what you expected to read here, I'm sure, but please press on.

Sometimes God just simply gives you opportunities. He knows that you probably won't grasp the importance of the moment, but He gives you the opportunity anyway. In the first place, if you follow through, it helps His cause. Secondly, if you pass on the opportunity, well then that tells Him something about where you are in your walk too. And by the way, I find myself all too often fitting into the "secondly" category. Praise God that He doesn't give up on me.

It was sometime in early 2001 when I first met David. He had begun 'visiting' our church, where his wife had been faithfully attending and serving for several years. David's wife, Jill, was Austin's puppet ministry leader and children's church teacher at the time. Austin really liked Jill and participated in every puppet ministry activity he could. David, however, was new to this church thing and trying to figure out how to fit in. He had alot of 'stuff' haunting him that many of us didn't even know until later. I didn't know that much about David, but tried to be polite when our paths occasionally crossed at church. By the way, as a Christian, I have since learned that our paths with brothers and sisters at church should not cross only by occassional sequences of events. Rather, we should seek out our brothers and sisters and lift them up in the name of the Lord.

Anyway, David had been attending church for several months, when one evening at our monthly family night dinner, he approached me and asked if I would pray with him and for him. "Yes, I would," I said and filed the thought away in the back of my mind. What happened next surprised me. You see, David had been reading God's word and was about to put it into practice.

James 5:14-16 says "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confes your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

David, in his struggles with addiction was desperately searching the Bible for something that would help him when God revealed this passage to him. Aha! That's it. David had spent the first 40 or so years of his life, deep in substance abuse and living on the edge. Jill patiently endured David's lifestyle, counting fully on the faith she was building up in serving the various ministries at church. And now, David had finally come to church, but apparently still struggled with his transgressions, occassionally succumbing to the desires and the addictive nature of his abuses.

Fortunately, and by the grace of God, David's path had not caused unspeakable calamity in the lives of anyone else --- yet. Again, Jill (and undoubtedly others in David's family) had endured his misdeeds, but so far, no one had lost their life. I don't know what happened, but suddenly on this particular family night in the fall of 2001, David had come to the point of calling God's bluff. He realized he couldn't beat his addictions and was apparently afraid that if he didn't do something drastic, something bad was about to happen (or maybe had already). That's why he called several of us together and read James 5:14-16 to us and said "Let's do it." Not this week sometime, now! It should be noted that at this point, I was what I would consider a very immature Christian, still not partaking of the solid foods, to use the analogy Jesus often uses.

So it was that several of us met in one of the Sunday school rooms and took turns laying hands on David and praying for him. When my turn came, I had no idea what to pray, so I laid my hands on David's shoulders and God provided the words that needed to be said. I don't even remember what I prayed. I didn't realize at the time what an honor it would be to be in the room that night praying for David. And to a certain extent, still didn't realize it until this week.

You see, David passed away Sunday night at the young age of 47 and in the course of his eulogy, David's pastor related the story of that night to the mourners at David's funeral. Seems David has been telling anyone and everyone about that night as often as he could. After that night, David did more effective and powerful witnessing than anyone I've ever met. He often told us how important that night was to him and that he had felt the Holy Spirit descend upon him the minute we laid hands on him. His life was changed that night by a miracle of God and through the exercising of God's word in faith. How funny, a miracle happened, and I was too immature to know it for what it was. Seems that's been happening to God's people since the days of Bethlehem.

David spent the last five years of his life in constant prayer for his friends, acquaintances, and even people he didn't know. He had a real, God-inspired desire to see people saved and he lived every day like it was his last. He certainly didn't want to miss an opportunity or to fall in the the "secondly" category that many of us find ourselves in all too often. He asked the pastor to appoint him as prayer minister, a job he took as serious as one could possibly do. He kept a journal of prayer requests, praises, and answered prayers and would often drive by one of our houses just to stop and pray for us - what a humbling thing to learn of.

I say all that to say this. When a brother or sister in Christ asks you to pray with them, stop and do it then. Don't wait. Don't give the standard "I'll put you on the prayer list." Hold their hand and pray with them and for them immediately. First, you don't know whether or not you'll get another opportunity and secondly, you have no idea how many lives may be saved for His glory by simple obedience, faith, and exercising God's word. David has taught me that lesson this week.

If you like contemporary Christian music, there's a song by Casting Crowns called "Here I Go Again" that captures very well the struggles that we as Christians face in praying for someone. Listen to the song and see if you find yourself in it - I did. And if you really want to know the story behind the song, check out the book "LifeStories" by Casting Crowns' Mark Hall - absolutely chilling, the story behind this song.

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, and Lily Grace
Green, Party of Four

Moon Festivals, Birthdays, Ballgames, ...

OK. OK. I'm a little late to the party with this blog - there, I said it! Blog, blog, blog. I hereby make a commitment to blog once every few days, even if there's nothing much to report. Uh oh, some boring blogs coming up. Lori, you might really, really want to get that cup of java now. Go ahead and paint the fence, you might want to watch it dry.


Our Athens FCC group recently celebrated the moon festival with a moon bounce and dinner at Isom's Chapel UMC. What a lot of fun that was. We weren't sure how Lily Grace would react to the moon bounce, but she climbed right in and began her career as a daredevil, completely unconcerned with injury or embarrasment! She really goes after life with everything she has (a nice way of saying "Boy, is she really independent!" Several of our good friends in the Athens FCC came to the event and we were very happy to see every one of them. We even had yet another new family to come celebrate with us. Clint and Diana will be making the journey to China in a few short months to get their little angel. Please pray for them.


Tonya shows Lily Grace the finer points of pouncing and bouncing!

Hello? Nehow? Who is this? Just hurry up and get here, the party's in full swing!


It's amazing how fast time gets away from us, even when we're trying our best to slow down. Lily Grace and Sarah have now both celebrated their 2nd birthdays in their new homes with their new families and bestest best friends. It was really cool watching them hug at Sarah's b'day party last weekend. The sincerity with which they embraced one another was something that us adults could take a lesson from
(poor English, I know, but you get the point).

We certainly were upset that little Kate hurt her foot, but Kate was really a trooper about it. She looks cute with her cast. As a matter of interest, these little girls seem pretty durable and don't mind a little pain. Lily Grace fell today and hit her head on the wooden part of Memaw's couch and we all thought oh no, there 's going to be some serious bleeding and knot forming here. However, neither came to pass, praise God, and after just a few minutes our little daredevil was running relentlessly again.









After the b'day party at Sarah's house, we decided to go to Tuscaloosa to take Lily Grace to her first Alabama game. I'm not a very good sport when it comes to Alabama football, but I figured "We're playing Duke, we should be good to go (no offense to Duke, who played a very good game!)." Oh well, Drew, you warned us not to go. But Lily had a great time singing Roll Tide and hitting anyone within arm's reach with her pom poms. She was dressed as an Alabama cheerleader and drew so much attention it was hard to get into the stadium. We did get an opportunity to get Austin in a picture with the greatest coach ever, of all time, to coach in collegiate football. [Yes, I dwell in the past, but these days I have to hang on to something!]

Austin's birthday is next up and we're looking forward to that. See the upcoming post!

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, and Lily Grace
Green, Party of Four

Birthday Girls

Hey Everyone,

Wow! Another birthday already! No, no, Lily's not turning three just yet, Connie's turning .... uh, scratch that. October 5th is another special day around here. We will celebrate Connie's birthday quietly as we did Lily Grace's. No fanfare, no bands, no parades, just some good ol' family time together. Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday, Dear Connie, God Real-ly Loves You .... Wow, see Austin, I can sing really good! Don't laugh, you're next. I think I'll join the church choir!

We probably won't eat as much cake as we did for Lily's birthday (we're still eating Sunday's cake! Sorry Morgans and Jamiesons, it wouln't keep till we could see you again). Lily Grace was so funny when we gave her her birthday cake Sunday. I don't think she knew what it was. She just kept looking at it and then back at us as if to say "What do you want me to do with this?" Then we all ate some and she was right in the middle of it. Notice the reflection skirt in the picture - looks like she's wearing her cake!

It's been a little difficult lately to get time to think, much less write (I just can't say 'blog' - it's not in my dictionary! See, if it were, it would probably say - keep it short, Jerry. And I simply can't do that). We have started our Upward Basketball and Cheerleading ministry at Isom's Chapel and we're really busy with that. Maybe I'll start a blog, I mean web log, for that? We're struggling with Upward a little, with many things going wrong. Participation is way down this year. So I prayed and asked God to give me a Word of encouragement. I then opened my "One Minute Pocket Bible for Men" (if you don't have one of these, get one as soon as you can!) and to my surprise the page I opened to was about opposition. The catch phrase was "Opposition is really the proof of progress." Many verses of scripture were there to encourage me. I asked for a word, and God gave me a Book of a million words! Where we think small, He thinks big!

Austin has been busy with church (he helps with Upward and plays drums in the praise band), schoolwork (he's doing really good work and is very diligent), and football season (hard to believe half the regular season games have already been played). His Beta Club is busy planning their spring trip to New York and Washington, DC. Connie's really looking forward to the Big Apple. I'm excited about DC - I go there often on business, but don't usually get to see anything but the inside of the Metro and a few buildings downtown. Austin's probably more excited about DC too, since he likes history so much.

Lily Grace has just been chillin' out with Memaw. You know, vacuuming, sweeping, washing clothes, cooking. No, not Lily, Memaw - that's a toy vacuum cleaner from Ms. Amanda, Emily, and Will. But it actually does work a little. It's wonderful to have Memaw here every day, my clean sock drawer runneth over and the roast beef is awesome! I hope she's enjoying it as much as we are. Lily's had a cold this week (doctor said give her Robitussin). She's getting better, but ... great, first thing she learns to share is a cold, now Connie has it!









I pray each of you are blessed with His grace as much as we have been with the addition of Lily Grace to our family. She absolutely melts our hearts and re-forms them each day with her smiles, kisses, and the little mischievious things she does. Watching her learn something new each day is a miracle from God, Himself. I pray also that God would bless Lily's birth parents with other children and that they are able to be a family together, that they too might know the joys of walking among His many blessings.

Love,
Jerry, Connie (Birthday Girl), Austin, and Lily Grace,
Green, Party of Four