Life As We Know It

What have we been up to lately? Well, silly faces and wearing rollers in our hair... Being as pretty at night as we are during the day...
Grinning and laughing in a way that makes Mommy's heart happy...

Loving on each other, even with curly hair...

Having sleepovers, complete only with dress-up party time...

Beginning gymnastics...

And eating popsycles in the bathtub as to not make an utter mess everywhere...

Jason went out of town for four days for work. He is now at a store in Carrollton...we are celebrating the shorter commute and the money we will get to keep rather than paying for gas. I have been busy, busy, busy getting things ready for Gracious Legacy. My friend Jason is working on the website. We have our launch party on Sunday the 31st. The first set of gifts go to Medical City on February 2nd and the following week to Plano Presby. Today I met with a sweet woman who helps run the oncology ward at Plano Presby. I left with tears in my eyes, full of joy, and feeling a closeness to my mom.

Gracious Legacy Foundation

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

I have to admit that when I lost my mom 7 years ago to cancer, this passage of Scripture seemed hollow. I questioned deeply God's love and His graciousness, and couldn't begin to imagine that He would take something so painful and use it for good. I was only 26, a first-time mom of a 2 mos. old baby girl, and not only lost my incredible mom but my best friend that day.

Fast forward six years, and I am passing off my youngest daughter at only 10 mos. of age to an anesthesiologist to prep her for open heart surgery. By this time, I know that God is good. He is loving. He is gracious. Yet, there was still a piece of my heart that was scared to death that He would once again allow me to lose someone I loved deeply. I will never forget driving away from the hospital six days later with tears of joy and relief streaming down my face, so thankful that our precious Reese was carefully strapped in her car seat and coming home with us.

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes on our behalf with groans that words can not express." This verse precedes the one above in Romans 8. I can tell you, with both my mom's battle with cancer and with Reese's heart surgery, that there were many times that I didn't have the words. "Please help" were the only things I could utter to the Lord. Yet the Spirit, in His graciousness, prayed for me. He brought people around me to help me. He gave me comfort in both tangible and intangible ways,

I am sharing all of this with you to tell you the ways God has shaped my life, and why over the past few months, He has prodded my heart to start a non-profit. I am calling it Gracious Legacy Foundation. Gracious is in the name for many reasons. First, because in good and in bad, God is gracious. Secondly, because my mom's name, Jean, means "the graciousness of God." I can't begin to tell you how much she lived up to her name. And thirdly, because God was so gracious in sparing Reese's life just over a year ago. Legacy is also chosen because I want to live out the legacy my mom has left behind. She was compassionate, loving and gracious in every way. And like Nicole Nordeman sings, "I want to leave a legacy. How will they remember me? Did i choose to love? Did I point to you enough to leave a mark on things?" I want to take the things God has allowed in my life, both the heartache and the blessings, and use it for good, for His glory, and to honor my mom's life.

With that being said, I am excited to tell you that as of last Thursday, Gracious Legacy is an official non-profit in the state of Texas. Hopefully, in the next few days, we will be receiving our tax exemption from the IRS. The main heartbeat of Gracious Legacy is to show God's love in tangible and intangible ways to individuals or families who are facing cancer treatment or open heart surgery. We will be putting together recyclable gift bags filled with waters, snacks, note cards, decorative note pads, books, small toiletries, etc. We are already set up to take the bags down to Medical City Dallas' Chidlren's Hospital. Dr. Mendeloff, Reese's surgeon, alone does around 40 open heart surgeries on children each month. It also looks like I will be able to work with Plano Presbyterian Hospital's oncology department.

Would you pray about joining us? If you live close and would like to donate any of the items mentioned above or help put together bags that would be wonderful. If you would consider joining us financially and sharing God's love to people walking through crises we would be eternally grateful. Each bag costs around $30. In the next couple of weeks we will be putting together a website for Gracious Legacy (probably graciouslegacy.com). If you give, we would love to post who you are giving in honor or in memory of on the website. We also plan to share pretty openly about Christ on the website, as He is the true source of Comfort, Hope and Life.

Asking for finances is a pretty awkward arena for me. However, I truly believe that God has called me to share His comfort, His graciousness, His love to others in tangible ways. A little can go a long way.

If you would like to share in the mission of showing God's love please make checks payable to Gracious Legacy Foundation. Include who you are giving in honor or memory of. Please e-mail me at mills5fam@verizon.net if you need our home address to mail your gift in to. You will be given a tax deductible receipt.

"To all who grieve...He bestows a crown of beauty for ashes, gladness instead of mourning." Isaiah 61:3

Living out His dream,
Kim

Christmas

Well, it is definitely time to wrap up Christmas. I will try to keep my words to a minimum.

Christmas Eve we were blessed with a beautiful snow...probably about 3 inches. It was fun to go to the Christmas Eve service in the true snow flurry that we had. I felt like it was a special treat from the Lord to us Texans! Sorry a lot of the pictures are dark. I forgot to ask Santa for a new camera. Below is Reesie and Daddy outside sprinkling reindeer food on the snow.

Us after the Christmas Eve service.

Honestly, when all the gifts for everyone are out I get embarassed by how many there are. I mention this out loud probably every year and I always get crazy looks. Please know that we are well aware that God has been so good to us.

The girls opened their one Christmas Eve gift and lo and behold! It was matching Christmas pj's....shocker :0)! As you can tell, we were blessed to have Uncle Andy, Aunt Kelly, and Drew join us for Christmas which made it even more special.

The cookies and notes for Santa:

Look close and read Ashlyn's note to Santa. This came a week after she asked for about the 10th time about Santa's "realness." Let's suffice it to say that tears flowed and the question of why people would lie about such a thing also came. (aka: Mommy & Daddy, you teach me not to lie so why are you doing so to us). Not the fondest parental moment. I think we salvaged why the tradition of St. Nick carries on.

Our big gift to the girls was a dollhouse.

I'm sad to say that i don't have any pictures of my wonderful sister-in-law. Poor Kelly spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning puking. I didn't think it appropriate to ask someone to hold her hair back while I captured a shot!

Little britches has learned to make silly faces for the camera and will ask you to take a picture of her silly face.

She then asked for us all to make silly faces:

May you be blessed in the New Year!

I will be back soon. God has really been speaking to my heart through His Word lately and I want to share. Plus, today Gracious Legacy Foundation became official! I can't wait to share and recruit your help.