My daddy is in Ecuador, but I am waiting for him to come back tomorrow. I thought I would help read some of his seminary books while he is gone to help him out. But i'm having a hard time understanding.

Daddy, me and mommy miss you so much! I've been learning to color today and mommy took me to Davis Kidd to play with the Thomas the train set! then we got ice cream....but we aren't having too much fun while you are gone....hurry and come home! we love you!

GERBER DAISIES!!!

Look at these gorgeous flowers! They look fake, but aren't! My dear friend Karey gave them to me and they are blooming like crazy!! They brighten my day every morning! Wanted to share them with you. Thank you so much Karey!!!

This pot started out so green full of leaves and now a new surpise of color and beauty comes out almost every week! Man, if we could be like that in our walk with the Lord, huh?! WE CAN! And God looks on us, not for what hasn't grown yet, but what is blooming! I want my belief of Him to be as radiant everyday as these flowers! Shining to Him saying, "I believe you, I believe you!!"
I love this paragraph about believing God and thought i'd share it:

"God-will-not-fail-you! (Josh.1:5) Grab onto Him with everything you have. Cast yourself entirely upon His ability to succeed and not yours. Blind yourself to all ambition except to please Him. Walk in the shadow of the Almighty. (Psalm 91) Grab onto the hem of His garment and find the healing and grace to go where He leads. In that place you will be equipped to do the impossible. There you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. "

Stew with Donnie and Tucker..........

Donnie is the young man we met through a tutoring program....he's become a big part of our family....our "little brother" He no longer needs our "tutoring"...or maybe never needed it..=) But he hangs out with us and wesley-grant loves him to death! We are so proud of him! We love you Donnie!!

Tucker works with Stew and has a huge heart for Ecuador. He is a great cook too!

The guys came over for dinner tonight and Tucker taught donnie about cooking. It was a blast! Thanks for coming guys!

The Fig Tree Withered

"18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, (though it was not seasoned to produce fruit yet) and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away." Matthew 21:18-19




I was reading this passage and was a bit stumped by it...then as i researched more about fig trees, i understood....
Fig trees produce pre-season buds that prove that in due season they will produce fruit. Jesus was hungry and going to eat the pre-seasoned buds, but the tree had none...thus it only had beautiful leaves, but would never produce fruit. WOW! What an illustration for me....

Perhaps God is working in me now for fruit to come ahead...especially in child rearing....and do i have any buds proving that one day fruit will bare or just a bunch of "showy leaves" that may appear like i will produce fruit one day but in fact will never bare fruit....

So i am asking God to show me in my ministry where i simply have "showy leaves" and to wither them that i might grow real buds that will one day bare much fruit......that will count for His name sake......isn't that what we all want......just wanted to share......

Wesley-Grant's 1st Easter Egg Hunt

These are our dear friends, the Pinkstaffs.....after church we all went to their house for lunch and a big easter egg hunt for the kids....The pinkstaffs are moving to India this year with EMI and are in beginning stages with their support raising....they live across the steet from us and our kids have a "2nd family" in each of us.....our houses usually contains one of another in it....we love you pinkstaffs!!

We attended Christ Community Church for easter where most of the families who live in Binghampton attend....wesley-grant got to be with his friends...this is Sophia and Hannah....

EASTER MORNING! Wesley-Grant stood in front of the mirror looking at his new coat...it was hilarious! i got a brief picture of him....he was really proud!

Happy Easter! This is Wesley Grant in his first Easter production. (He's in the 1st red buggy...2nd row) Sophia, his favorite friend who lives across the street from us, is in the Easter production as well. Enjoy!

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Thought we might share this funny moment in the Stewart household with you!

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MaryGene and her fiance T.L. They will soon be Mr. and Mrs. Holt on Memorial day weekend! We love you guys and can't wait to see what God will do with you two!

MaryGene and I at her wedding shower.....she is so dear and her family has really taken us in as their own!

Wesley-Grant in his first Easter program! Hilarious!

BiG BOY BED

....or so we call it. Wesley-grant got a toddler bed last night and today he is learning to sleep in it. I say, "learning", because that is exactly what he is doing. First try was this morning for a little rest time with his books.....and down he came....so i had to train him to stay in the bed. Eventually he did. And then there was this afternoon...nap 2....and well, we didn't learn the lesson from the first nap, so down he came just like it was a game.....It only took 15 times instead of 20 times until he gave up his will and stayed on the bed.

We have been studying Hebrews in bible study and just went through chapter 12 about discipline...which actually means training, not punishment. Heb. 12:5-6 says: "......My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves....."

I think wesley-grant and I both are learning about that today....and eventually with loving discipline, he will be a big boy and learn to sleep in his big boy bed....one day down.....

Wesley-Grant got a new table and chairs!! Although he has found other uses for it....i sense a new training session coming on......=P Melissa, didn't you go through this with Claire? HELP! =)

TORNADOS in TENNESSEE

We are all doing fine. We've had a few tornado warnings, but things are staying still. Hail and hard rain is all.

Thank you to all of you who have called and who are concerned....and to our family we appreciate your checkin in on us! Just wanted you to all know we are doing okay. If it changes we will keep you posted................

Believing God....Applying the Gospel....
........Living on the Branch that can never be cut from under ME

So, i'm beginning to believe what God has been gently showing me in the last year and a half...the gospel heals everything.......

Ephesians 6:16
"....in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."

A year ago i went through a bible study called "Believing God" put together by Beth Moore. It really opened my eyes to my unbelief....that may sound simple, but really it opens up huge things in the heart! God's word began to show me more of who He was and what He said....and many times it contradicted with how i thought and lived.

So i tucked away many verses and thoughts i got as seeds in that study and tried to apply what i could. With a new baby and many changes it was easy to find opportunity, but also hard in that i would get very distracted and i found myself in unbelieving cycles again.

i am now 6 mos. pregnant with our second child and as wesley-grant gets older, things aren't as distracting and i've found myself in a new season of looking at "old lessons". I'm reading the book on believing God and walking through it with a girl who lives in our neighborhood. And in a bible study on Hebrews. I am finding myself refreshed looking back at some victories and renewed by reapproaching old lessons i have not yet applied.

"Our toughest battles will invariably concern matters of faith-times when we're tempted to think God's Word and His ways won't work for us, that He has abandoned us, let us down, or failed to come through for us." -Moore

Like Eve i find myself taking satan's spade of deceit and sowing doubt about God, myself and life....then i find myself, as Moore describes, "crippled, my doubt contagious, and losing the ground God has placed under my feet".

Who do i say the Son of Man is? (Matthew 16:13)

My belief goes back to the gospel....the place where i first believed, but don't i know that the gospel is not about salvation from hell only, but salvation for this life? salvation from all the built up lies in my life? To walk in freedom is to apply the gospel in all things.....too often i recreate an image of God that makes me feel better.

So, lately me and my friends around me have been challenged to apply the gospel whether about moving with our children to another country, being a single wanting to be married or a mom who wants to leave a real legacy that counts to her children.

My insecurities that are rooted from fears sprung from unbelief are beginning to change as I apply the truth of God's Word and Who He really is. The grace of the Gospel is so real and springs up from a real God, my savior. I am praying for it to wash over my heart in a new way these months. As spring comes and Easter approaches, it is a sweet reminder all around of the gospel. I want to believe more, and keep exposing myself more, keep offering my all. I want to go as far out on the limb of grace God has me on as I can. Christ is the branch that no one can cut out from under me....and the branch i am living on...now i am trying to apply that and live.

Our friends Matt and Laura had a garage sale this weekend and we had a blast! The weather was beautiful. The Pinkstaffs are going to India for 3 years with EMI. This is their first attempt to get rid of the things they won't take with them. They have 2 little girls, Hannah and Sophia.

Sweetest thing at the garage sale!! Hannah Ruth Pinkstaff!!!

This is Anna and Asha....they are so precious and a picture of the gospel to us! Their parents adopted them...anna from china and asha from India....beautiful girls!!!

Wesley-Grant chillin in the swing....man, that's the way to relax!

Sophia and wesley-grant take a ride for a break from the garage sale....there is doctor stewart again! =)

Doctor Stewart


okay, now he's into the stethescope around his neck wherever he goes....the hat is an old thing....hmmm will he be a baseball player or a doctor....=)