world-design-encomendas: March 2015

Getty Concert (3/28/15)

We went to an amazing concert held at our church on Saturday night called "Hymns for the Christian Life" by Keith and Kristyn Getty. It was so beautifully done. I enjoyed every second of the evening! My only regret was that I could have gotten my picture taken with Keith Getty but was too shy to speak up, so I didn't. :(

Here are some pictures. Most of them were taken by our pastor's wife. The one at the top of the post was taken from the Getty's Facebook page.

I've heard rumors that they might perform here again next year. I hope so!

photo chrstine.signature.final_zpsir0dpvxm.png

Taking Time to Stop and Find the Rosie's : Carlie's Surgery

My friend Allie's little sister Carlie is heading to Boston for a heart surgery on April 2nd. Prayers would be appreciated!

Taking Time to Stop and Find the Rosie's : Carlie's Surgery: Carlie leaves tomorrow for Boston. Oh. My. Goodness. I have known this was coming, but now it just seems so real. Like it's...

Update: Carlie's surgery went miraculously smoothly for the complexity of her heart condition. She is home now, and doing well, but her journey is far from over. Follow her family's journey at stoptofindtherosies.blogspot.com

New Blog: If We Love Him

I have had a project in the works since January. For some time, I wanted to start a blog to advocate for needy children around the world. There are so many-orphans and children living in poverty. They need people to be voices for them. My heart breaks when I view profiles of children waiting to be sponsored who are in desperate need of a sponsor and have been waiting for more than a year. And when I see the lonely faces of orphans who have given up on hoping for a family, I just know I have to do something.

And, for me, that something is to advocate for them and do what I can to raise money to help them.

For that purpose, I have created a new blog, which you can view by clicking on the image below.

Here is the Facebook page I started to go along with it.

https://www.facebook.com/ifwelovehim?_rdr

I hope you take a look and allow a special child into your heart to pray for.

Love,

On a Walk (3/22/15)

I went on a little walk on our property and in our neighborhood yesterday afternoon. I've been going at least once a day for the past week. I decided to bring my camera with me. My "camera" is really an old iPhone 3. As a result, these pictures won't be of the best quality. If you know me, you know that I almost never take pictures. Most of the pictures posted on this blog were taken by my mom. But I do want to start taking more pictures, terrible camera or not.

So here they are!

O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

I just had to take a picture of our favorite rock. I like to sit and read on it. It's been too wet lately, though.

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!

Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together
before the Lord

Psalm 98: 7-8

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard.

Psalm 19:1-3

At home again!

Our beautiful Golden Retriever, Dallas, greeted me.

My walk was beautiful and refreshing! But I was ready to enjoy another wonderful aspect of a wet day; the coziness of being indoors by the crackling fire.

Blog Design Elements Made Simple: Blog Button

I've been playing around with my blog a bit lately, as you can see. (The pin it buttons and my first blog button were made for me, though. )

Anyway, I figured out how to do a few things lately, so I thought I'd share them with you.

Today, I'll start with an easy way to get the code for your blog button. I had a really hard time with this, but recently found out how to do this through a blog I was looking at.

Step 1. If you haven't already, create your image. I usually use picmonkey.com but you can use whatever site you prefer. If you choose to use PicMonkey, here's how I do it. To use a picture for your button background, select edit image. Then, resize it to about 300 x 225, or perhaps a bit smaller. Then, go to frames and click shape cutouts. I would suggest using either the circle or square frames. After that, go ahead and add your text the way you want it, and whatever extras you want on it. Be sure that it all fits. If you don't want to use a picture, click design instead. Pick the color you want for your canvas. The rest of the steps are the same.

Step 2. Go to your blog and start a new page. Put your picture in, then click publish. (Don't worry, this page won't automatically show up for the public to see.) Click view page. Once you're there, right click on the image and click copy. This will give you a link to the image.

Step 3. Go to http://www.mycoolrealm.com/sandbox/gbgen/. There, fill in your blog title and link. Where it says image url, paste the link you got earlier.

Step 4. Play around with the formatting options until it looks like you want. You can preview this as many times as you want. Once you are happy with how it looks, click preview and then get code. Copy the code.

Step 5. To display it on your blog, add an html/java script widget and paste the code in. Or if you would rather have it in a page or post, put it in html. And there you have it!

I know I wrote this like you don't know anything about blogging, but I wanted to make it simple and hopefully leave you with no questions.

Here are some buttons I made:

<div align="center"><br /><a href="http://everythingisblogsome.blogspot.com/" title="Everything is Blogsome" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAb9tBgWwBKNx-yvwv50Q1HrTrfx0P2LD5J7Wv0-T5wzClor1VL__U7sQYk6dAUNkPm30HXCiVP0iRx9x5lp5ycG9zUNCrMIVtZhQJPuLUU9505cwSucLS-RakFisQbUqf12TebEn6HKZa/s1600/myblogbutton.png" alt="Everything is Blogsome" style="border:none;" /></a></div><br />

The button I made for my friend, Cassie.

<div align="center"><br /><a href="http://kwantclancrafts.blogspot.com/" title="Kwant Clan Crafts"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmhdoRKu85ELhV4YDDoWYxvbiOCsrQS4UiEwe2q0-mo6LYkZuVVbD01vBfvY8PlKm_ltE3ZwpmyNAmnqHwu3uD_9mAerj0dV2P3gtpYksWJQQIR_GOVJpnfdVdCxqbB1XxdZCFkICZ-Dkl/s1600/kccblogbutton.png" alt="Kwant Clan Crafts" style="border:none;" /></a></div><br />

The button I made for my mom.

<div align="center"><a href="http://nurturingtheheart.wordpress.com/" title="Nurturing the Heart" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoh-Qb4sTkbvzf9nRltcWVHIQseP2TRYM0IRsaSJ4SOwEYSlq5y0qDQJyYGPqKXOhd0D2BoHBRPv1CdJn5fXPZ5O9SoM7mMYenn-QM1D9KBOK0QdeFs3tyqeFBiiiupOsRFWm1BwFSschJ/s1600/blogbutton.png" alt="Nurturing the Heart" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

I hope that post helped you out somewhat!

Coming soon: How to Make a Scroll to Top Button

A Cozy Afternoon

Trisomy Awareness Month: Guest Post by Cassie Kwant

Since March is Trisomy Awareness Month, I asked my wonderful friend, Cassie, to write a guest post for the blog. She sweetly agreed, and so here it is!

Hi! My name is Cassie Kwant. This month is Trisomy Awareness Month and Christine asked me if I would share with you guys a little about what that is. I’m so excited to share with you all, so here we go.

A form of Trisomy happens when a baby is formed in its mommy’s tummy. This could be a little confusing, so I'll try and be simple. When a baby is formed it receives 23 chromosomes from it's mom and 23 from it's dad with makes 46.

Here's an example.

Let's say a baby happens to have Trisomy 21. What that means is that on its 21^st chromosome there’s 3 instead of the usual 2. Now the baby has 47 instead of 46.

The result of having this extra chromosome messes up the whole body, because every single cell in the body now has an extra chromosome. The result can vary, but tends to show in birth defects, which can be quite severe.

The most common forms of Trisomy are Trisomy 21 which is known as Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18 (Edward's Syndrome), and Trisomy 13 (Patau Syndrome). The doctors say that a baby with Down Syndrome will have severe mental disabilities. They say Trisomy 13 results in many physical as well as mental delays. They also say that a baby with T18 will not live past birth and if they do they will never live to see their first birthday. But that’s not always true; I have heard of plenty of kids with T18 that have lived way past a year. Like my friend's little sister Lilly, She lived to be 17 months old. You can read Lilly’s story here.

I guess I know the most about Trisomy 18, because my sister Hannah had Trisomy 18. (And that’s perfect because today is March 18, Trisomy 18 awareness day.) Just because she had T18 doesn’t mean she was not special nor does anyone who has an extra chromosome. I think their extra chromosome makes them extra special! They are perfect just the way God made them and are meant to be loved.

My sister Hannah lived to be 64 days, totally beating the odds of not living past birth. That was a huge accomplishment! The average baby with T18 lives to be only 6 days old (or so they say.)

I learned so much from having such an amazing, awesome sister. I’m so glad God blessed me and my family with our precious Hannah even if it was only for 64 days. And even though she was only here for a short while, she left behind a lifetime of memories. We love you, Hannah Grace. We will always love you!

Love,

Thank you guys! If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.

Learn more about Hannah Grace's journey here: www.kwantfamilycorner.blogspot.com

Cassie has opened a store in honor of Hannah. Please check it out at www.kwantclancrafts.blogspot.com

**note by Christine**

For Trisomy Awareness Month on one of my favorite blogs, Teens Interceding for Orphans, we are praying and advocating for sweet Roberto with Down Syndrome to find his forever family. View the post about him here. Please consider signing up to pray for him with us!

Fandom Friday: For Narnia!

It's Fandom Friday again, and Narnia's turn for the spotlight!

Today, I will be sharing a bunch of my favorite Narnia pictures, quotes, and scenes. "Onwards! The thrill of the unknown lies ahead."

I'll start with the first movie.

The four Pevensie children. They were so young! Fun fact: I was only five when I first watched this movie. My dad had already read the book to me and two of my siblings, though.