Leibster Award

Liebster is a German word which means "dearest" or "beloved". It is also used to refer to as someone's "favorite" and the idea of the Liebster Blog Award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers that deserve more recognition and encouragement.

I was nominated for this award by Joy over at Small Town Joy. Joy is a fellow blogger that I connected with a year or so ago thru another blog where the writer asked the readers to pick one of the comments and to pray for that person.  Joy's comment jumped out at me, and when I visited her blog I knew she was a kindred spirit and I have been praying for her ever since. She's a sweet heart, a foster parent, and a lover of the Lord.  Thanks Joy for the nomination!

There are certain rules that come with the Liebster Blog Award:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Hope that the people you've sent the award to forward it on to their five favorite bloggers and keep it going!


I was overwhelmed and encouraged to receive an award from another blogger, and have been sitting on the award since mid December.  At first, I tried to do a search for small blogs, which turned out to not be a very effective way to find blogs.  Then, I had an AHA! moment!  I have a lot of friends here in the D.R. that have blogs, so these blogs are of other missionaries whom I admire, respect and love.


Here's my list - in no particular order!

1. The Gray Family Blog with, well, the Gray family, a family of 9 (7 kids, count them, 7!) who made a major move from Ohio to the D.R. a year ago.  Kate, is generally the author of the blog, and she tells fun stories about their families' experiences in the D.R. as well as their piece of the mission of helping build a factory that makes water filters (aguapure.   ) LOVE them to PIECES!  And speaking of pieces, my heart is gonna break into them when this family leaves the D.R. this summer.

2. Live. Laugh. Love. with Jessica Ensing, my third grader's fabulous teacher.  Not only is she beautiful, sweet, and loves the Lord, she is totally cool because she is from Hawaii (just ask my third grader how cool this is - she'll tell you!)  She is a gift from God and I am so thankful that my children have such servant-hearted, loving, giving teachers.  I hear she's leaving, and while this makes me sad, I am so grateful for the impact that she has had on my child!  LOVE her!

3. Dominican DeYoungs with Kristin and Dave DeYoung - again teachers for my children at the school they attend, Jarabacoa Christian School.  Mrs. DeYoung has had two straight years of Sawyer children, she is a FAB - U - LOUS teacher, AND last year she led Tater man to the Lord!  So, she is UBER special to me!  And, the Mr., he is the art teacher so I'm pretty sure he gets his fill of Sawyer kids!  Earlier in the year he liberated the kids art skills by teaching them how to draw trucks and cars - they were  SOOOOOOOOO excited!  Again, I am grateful beyond belief for these people!  And, they are expecting their first baby in June and they are gonna make GUR-REEEEAAAAAAAT parents!

4. Yorks in the DR, yet another family on this crazy adventure called missions in the Dominican!  They are well into year two of their adventure, and they serve with Students International.  Lindsay has been a gift from the Lord to me and many others as she has opened her home to women missionaries for bible studies that have been so amazing!  We really hit it off with them and though the time we spend together never seems adequate, it is always a quality time when we get to hang out!

5. Taylors n DR:  okay, this family IS family AND they just joined us here in the Dominican 6 months ago!  WOOOO-HOOOOOO! Scott and I are cousins, have worked together at another ministry in the past AND now the Lord crossed our paths in a major way again!  How Awesome is that?  I grew up with sisters, but I think of Scott like my brother, and Meleah, his wife, as my sister, which is really comforting to me here in the Dominican.  So, it is uber   exciting to have them here with us!



Go by and and give these people a visit, and then tell them that I sent you over by leaving them a comment. You will bless their day, trust me!