Lazzara Life

This past Friday the girls had their annual Field Day. Each grade decorates their team shirt & participate in many events together to win top prize~ Avery’s class were “The Little Rascals”, which is fitting for that Kindergarten class! Lorin’s class was the “Crabby Crazed Coopers”, and Haley’s class were “Regnery’s Rebels”. They started off in the gym to do their Presidential Fitness events, Push Ups, Sit Ups, the sit & reach and the shuttle run. They then went outside to compete in the outside events, each grade competed against the other classes in their grade. They did the 1/4 mile run, target toss, flag tag, obstacle course and a few other events… They broke for lunch & then had snow cones as they were given their awards. Here are some pictures and video from Field Day…

Avery with a friend, getting ready to start their day~

Lorin was a machine with these push ups. She was the only girl that did full on, “man” push ups and she did 41 in 60 seconds.

Haley was really great at the sit ups. I don’t know exactly how many she did, but she did a lot!

Here’s Christian, playing flag tag with his class, the Steelers.

The kids all had a great time at Field Day!

The next day another big accomplishment was rewarded!! Our cousin Lauren got her Masters!!! She is now a certified crazy therapist! Just kidding, her degree is in Mental Health & she will be awesome at whichever path she chooses!! Congratulations Lauren!!

Happy Valentines Day! We had a great Valentine’s Day weekend despite Daddy being out-of-town at the Miami Boat Show… We first celebrated my big brother, Anthony’s 33rd birthday on Saturday night. The kids helped with the cake and I made spaghetti, salad & bread… Here’s the birthday boy & his cake!

Anthony & I are 17 months apart & have had a great relationship for 99% of our lives. He is someone I can tell anything to & trust him with my life. He’s a great big brother, always my protector. We got along great growing up, except for a few fights where I thought he was going to kill me, but I’m sure I deserved it, being the bratty younger sister! We did lots of things together, when he played football, I cheered for his team. We loved to ride our go-cart together!! My dad thought it would be a good idea to take our go-cart & drive around in the empty parking lot at my mom’s work on Saturdays go get practice in driving it. One particular Saturday we went out & Anthony was getting more “daring” as a driver, he asked which way I wanted him to turn & I said “right”, so I started to lean toward the right and he pulled to the left, throwing me out of the go-cart, without seat belts & I slid across the asphalt on my face! Yep, road rash all down the right side of my face, elbow, knee, etc. anything on the right side of my body. Luckily it healed up and didn’t scar, but I did have to wear headbands & neosporin to school for what seemed like eternity! He has always supported me in whatever I did… He was a permanent fixture at all of my beauty pageants & singing events… I’m sure it had something to do with all the other girls around & not so much me, but it was still nice of him to come I couldn’t ask for a better brother, so it’s my joy to make special birthday dinners & cakes for him year after year!

On Saturday before the party, Avery lost her 1st tooth!!

On Sunday, Valentine’s Day, we went over to Mimi’s house after church & had a really nice lunch with her, my mom & Great Grandma Lazzara. Mimi just got back from her cruise to the Mediterranean, so we had a great time looking at photos & hearing her stories. She always brings back fun gifts! She brought back authentic belly dancing costumes for the girls from Egypt.

Avery busted out in a little dance, which is pretty funny, since she’s never seen belly dancing before, I thought she did quite well!

Here are some pictures of the girls with their grandmothers & great-grandmother!

Okay, my post from earlier today dealt with surrendering something to God that you are taking hold of. My thing to surrender is the need to control EVERYTHING, especially concerning our adoption. I know very well that the Lord has Micah hand picked for us, but I’ve been trying my hardest to “help” Him along with all of the details, so that He can lead us to Micah a little quicker. I’ve been impatiently waiting on these results for our fingerprints from the FBI for just over 11 weeks & finally TODAY, I surrendered the adoption process to God. And GUESS WHAT? This afternoon the packet from the FBI was in the mail! I am NOT kidding & of course I cried at the mailbox. Why am I so emotional these days? You would think I’m pregnant for real. God is SO Good! AND I can stop STALKING my mailbox!

Haley & Lorin’s birthday is in August & they always talk about how they never get to have their birthday in class with their classmates. This year we thought we’d celebrate their 1/2 birthday with their class!! After school we made Lorin a cake & Haley cupcakes. They are SO different!!

Lorin wanted a sheet cake, blue with flowers & did not want to help. She sat on the counter & supervised my work.

Haley wanted yellow cupcakes with sprinkles & she did want to help.

As you all know, Avery is our little songbird. She LOVES to sing. LOVES musicals, Phantom of the Opera is her favorite. She has watched it twice today & I got a little video of her singing “Angel of Music” MY favorite!!

Several people have asked what’s going on with our adoption. The answer is, not much. We are still waiting for our FBI clearance before we can have our home study finalized. We got our fingerprints taken and mailed them off on Nov 9. I checked online to see how long it is supposed to take & they said 8-10 weeks. So, after the 10 week mark, I called & they said, we have them in the system, you should get your letter in a few weeks. I am stalking our mailbox and we’re waiting. As soon as we get this piece of paper we will send it to our agency & they can draw up the “final draft” of our paperwork & we will wait for our match. We are still #1 on the list for a boy under 2 years old, so it could be any time! We’re not buying anything until we know his age because it could be anywhere from several weeks old to 20 months. We have a crib picked out

but if he’s closer to 2, we will do bunk beds for he & Avery.

That’s all we have for now!!

My Hearts Cry bible study, notes from Elizabeth’s teaching.

This week we looked at Matthew 26:36-46 where Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and is asking God to take his cup. He was surrendering his burdens to the Lord and asked Him to take them because Jesus could not.

36Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 40Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41″Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” 42He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” 43When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. 45Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

The question is, “Where is God asking me to give up and let Him take over?” Here are steps in winning the battle of surrender.

1. Alone in the battle. I alone have to surrender. God is always with me spiritually, but I have to be the one to hand over whatever I am keeping control of.

2. Acknowledge Openly the Battle. This means that I have to express my sorrow in what I need to surrender. To say it out loud to someone. We had a powerful time of prayer at the end of our class. With a prayer partner, we prayed out loud what it is we are trying to keep control of and then immediately after, our prayer partner prayed for us too and vise versa.

3. Ask for Options in the Battle. God knows what we are holding onto and that it is difficult for us to let go, so pray that He would find ways for you to release. Ask God how He wants you to go about this… and be persistent. throughout the passage Jesus asks 3 times for God to take his cup, his burden. Jesus was persistent and her asked, knowing that God would help. He had full faith and trust in the Lord. Do you? Do I? Do I trust Him enough to give Him my burden?

4. Accept the Outcome of the Battle. At the end of verse 39, Jesus said “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Remember that God is able to accomplish His will through you. You may pray one thing, but if it’s not in God’s will, it’s not going to happen, so pray that you will be accepting of what God has chosen to be best. Surrender is not easy or happy.

5. Advance in the Obedience of the Battle. Accept the will of God and know that they are greater than my desires. So, when I surrender my will it assures God’s victory in my life.

And when I mess up… Every time I mess up and do things on my own… He forgives me every time. His grace is enough for me.

This weeks Life Application is:
1. To identify that battle God is asking you to address at this moment. Commit it in writing.
2. Share your battle with your inner circle of prayer partners (a friend) and ask them to pray for your willingness to surrender your desires for what God wants.
3. Go before God in prayer this week and seek Him for any other options. Remember Mark 14:36. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Verbalize those prayers that you hesitate to pray in front of others. Be real before the Lord about how you feel.
4. Pray persistently that your will can be conformed to His will as you move toward accepting the outcome of your battle. Pray, “nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done.”

Have a great week!
Melissa

Notes taken from my Tuesday morning Heart to Heart bible study, taught by Elizabeth Mahusay.

This week we learned “To Clearly Hear the Voice of God”… Sounds good already huh? We studied the passage of 1 Samuel 3:1-19 when God calls Samuel. We had 3 points to cover, 1. The Rarity of God’s Voice 2. The Recognition of God’s Voice 3. The Response to God’s Voice.

Let’s start with “The Rarity of God’s Voice”. First off, we need to ask ourself a few questions. What would make God’s voice rare in my life? What’s consuming my time? Am I prepared to hear Him? When our lives are filled with so many THINGS, there’s no room for God’s voice. As human beings, wives, husbands, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, sons, & daughters, we focus on the people of our lives. When we become busy with people and stuff, we aren’t prepared to hear from God. Samuel was prepared to hear from God. In verse 3 it says that Samuel was lying down, not asleep, but lying down. He was ready, with no distractions, he was making room. The first truth is that we must choose to make room for God’s voice in our life.

Part 2 is, “The Recognition of God’s Voice”. In verse 4, God calls to Samuel and Samuel said, “Here I am.” In recognizing God’s voice we must be aware of the hinderances in recognizing Gods voice and the Helpful hints or habits in recognizing His voice.

Our hinderances are when we are quick to run to people we know better… People we know better than GOD. Our relationship should be so strong with the Lord that we KNOW Him better than we know our best friend. Do you know Him like that? I don’t. But I want to. So that means staying the the Word & learning more about WHO HE IS. Another hinderance is our lack of obedience to what He has already revealed. God called Samuel 3 times before Eli realized it was God calling him. If you read all 19 verses you will see that God is calling Samuel and Samuel thinks it’s his father Eli calling to him & each time, Eli says, no son, it wasn’t me who called you. Now, Eli was the high priest of that time & this shows that he was ignoring what was going on with his son. So finally Eli tells Samuel, it is the Lord who is calling you, go back & lay down & wait for Him to call you again. If we choose to ignore Him, we are not in obedience to Him. The last hinderance is the lack of knowledge of Him. Here again, we have to get in the Word & I am so guilty of not being in the Word daily, so my prayer is that I will develop a hunger for Him and His Word.

Helpful hints & habits in recognizing God’s voice. 1. Be in the Word, replace the bible with any other reading materials (for entertainment) 2. Listen for God’s relentlessness! in vs. 4 He called, in vs. 6 He called, in vs. 8 He called & in vs. 10, He called & stood, He was not messing around. He will pursue you for you to hear Him!! Has there been a particular person or situation that KEEPS coming to mind? That’s Him. Listen. 3. Cultivate a desire to OBEY the voice of God. Sometimes we don’t listen because we don’t want to hear what He has to say ( to reveal sin) Samuel was obedient to the call of his name and he was prepared to listen. 4. Know God’s voice better than competing voices. This is a hard one for me!! I have made entire situations come about because it’s what I thought I heard. What I was hearing was MYSELF & I was wrong! The best way to hear him is through His Word. Just read through some passages, some familiar texts & see what “jumps off the page”, that’s when you know He is speaking. Also by being still and waiting. Praying continuously. See His work in your circumstances. The Truth in this section is “don’t go voice hunting more than God hunting”.

The last section is “The Response to God’s Voice”.
1. Anticipate God to speak. Listen.
2. Head God’s word or words.
3. Speak His truth no matter what the earthly consequences.
4. Guard against complacency.

With all of these teachings, we must believe that God can render change when we think change is impossible! Choose to be obedient when He is speaking. ANY disobedience will hinder me hearing God’s voice.

Our Life Application for this week is to 1. Complete our reading in our “Praying with a Purpose” book, which we started Monday, Feb 1 and it’s every day for 28 days… 2. Schedule to commit to pray 3 times a day, morning, noon & evening. 3. During one of those 3 prayer times, write your prayer out to the Lord rather than just saying your prayer. Leave space to go back & record any scriptures that came to mind, if there is was any sin revealed & if anything happened in your circumstance where you saw God working.

Okay, that’s it! Have a great prayerful week!
Melissa

This weekend Avery had a birthday party for a fellow classmate at a really cute little petting farm in our area. There was a covered area with picnic tables, a big open play area for the kids, animals for petting, like goats, llama’s and even some turkeys! They finished off with cupcakes & a hayride, what a day!

We think Avery’s new favorite animal is a Llama. This cutie just sat there & Avery pet and pet to her little hearts content…

Then this crazy little goat kept escaping the pins & would walk around the kids play area. It was very sweet, but had these really spooky eyes.

Here’s a photo of a mama llama, smiling for me & her 2 week old baby llama.

They fed the animals soft tortillas and corn tortilla chips. Avery was taking her time in making sure all the goats got some chips & then got tired of it & dumped the entire bag into their pin.

Here she is playing with her friends & the birthday girl. This thing is just like the tea cups at Disney, it made me queasy just watching them!

Then the little goat came over & wanted to play too!

Avery’s favorite part of any party is the cake… Any kind as long as there’s plenty to go around.