A week-end full of blessings...

This past week-end was one full of blessings and encouragement for us! Just wanted to share a little bit about it...

We have been waiting for this week-end for several months because some dear friends were coming to visit. We met Aaron & Joanna and their family 2+ years ago when we were all taking a Chronological Bible Storying class together. Sometimes God puts people in our lives that we connect with easily and become friends- that happened for us. Much has happened in 2 years... they have finished seminary, moved to a new city and are now in training to prepare for the mission field. We have moved many times and gone from a family of 3 to a family of 5!

Aaron & Joanna arrived Friday afternoon after a long drive. They had come to visit us for the week-end and be guest speakers for our missions week-end. We headed out for a walk and to the park to let everyone stretch their legs and play...






Saturday we spent the morning at the church but the afternoon catching up. It was so encouraging for Shawn and I to watch this family together. To hear their heart and passion for lost people around the world and their willingness to say "yes" to the Lord and go where He has ask them to go and serve. We had a great time playing cards, talking, and picking the last of Lenna's pumpkins and painting them!




Sunday morning, Aaron and Joanna shared from thier heart about the work that God has called them to (Bible Translation), the road they've been on to get there, etc. The reality of the number of people groups/languages groups without scripture in their own language is astounding! We are blessed to have Aaron and Joanna and their family as friends. Sunday afternoon we said good-bye and see you later as they hit the road home. Lenna was very sad that her friends were leaving and has remebered them in her prayers each night, hopefully we can get together again before they head to the field!



Sunday evening, we attended a concert- Big Daddy Weave and Mark Schultz! Wow!!! This was another blessing of the week-end. Talk about two groups that can truely bring you into worship of our Heavenly Father!

Mark Schultz's new album, "Broken and Beautiful" (www.markschultzmusic.com) is a wonderful project! He is such a "story teller" as he writes. 2 songs on this project really struck me during the concert. The first is a song titled "She Was Watching", it's about a little girl who watches her daddy as he prays, goes about daily life serving the Lord, etc. It's about faith and the impact our lives have on people who are always watching...

The second song is "Everything to Me", which Mark wrote to his birth mother, whom he has never met (he was adopted at 2 weeks of age). Yet this song has so much love and respect for her and the choices she made to give him life. It brought me to tears as I listened and thought about Abigayl's birth mother so far away. I often think of her and the love she had for our daugther, enough love to give her life and a chance to grow up. Her birth family was in a difficult situation, but they made the best decisions they could and I will always love them and respect them for giving our daugther life! I pray that we can raise Abigayl to have this type of love and respect for her own birth family as well as a love for her Heavenly Father! It's beautiful beyond words!

We also received news this week-end that friends of ours from residency welcomed a sweet little girl into their family! They have spent several months going through the process to adoption and we rejoice with them that God has blessed them with Rebekah! Shawn and I are thankful that God called us to adoption and feel it is a matter that is very close to the heart of God. WE are currentlt co-leading a Home Builders Bible Study on adoption. Many times in scripture, adoption is mentioned. Our own adoption by Him as well as the importance of caring for orphans and widows. We now see all the blessings we would have missed out on if we had not been open to adoption! I'll share more on this another time!

So many blessings this week-end. Thank you Lord for your love you have poured out for us...

Big noses...

I didn't know that a 50 cent toy could be so much fun!

Picking & painting pumpkins...

It feels like fall is finally arriving. The last few mornings have been chilly but beautiful. Today, we picked a few of our pumpkins from Lenna's pumpkin patch and let the kids paint them! Enjoy the pictures

In the front yard today...


Instead of carving pumpkins, we like to let the kids paint them...

Abigayl the artist.

Lenna hard at work.


Today was Eli's first painting experience. It started out nice and neat...

Thankfully it was washable, non-toxic paint!

He had a blast and we headed straight to the tub when he was done!

We had a great afternoon, Papa and Grandma came to visit and we went out to dinner for daddy's birthday tonight.

Nebraska baby quilt update:)

This is finally coming together! Just thought I'd show you a picture of it laid out with all the blocks completed! I have the sashing ready (it's laying on top here) so hopefully tonight after the kids are in bed, I can complete the top. A friend is going to quilt it on her machine for me so it is ready for the baby shower in a few weeks.

Moon Cakes!

Last Thursday evening we spent with friends learning how to make moon cakes- a tradition in China to celebrate the Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival (it varies with the Lunar Calendar but was celebrated on Friday the 6th this year.)We had a great afternoon and evening together. We have discovered there are many types of Moon Cakes- some are very cake like with interesting "surprises" inside such as a whole egg yoke or meat & fruit. Others are more cookie like and are made using a wooden mold to form them and some are made from "sticky rice." This all varies depending on where in China you are. Ye was teaching us to make ones with sticky rice, these are the ones his family always makes to celebrate this holiday. While we made them, he told us about how his family would celebrate in China as well are stories about the holiday. Here are some pictures....



Our friend,Laura, steamed 4 pounds of sticky rice,then Ye and Daddy "mashed it" until it was the consistancy of bread dough!


Abigayl was very fasicinated by this and kept asking to eat it! Here she is watching Ye and Daddy mash the rice.


When the "dough" was ready, Ye showed us how to make the cakes into shapes and dusted them with rice flour. We enjoyed eating them by dipping them in sugar. Abigayl especially. She and her friend, Chloe, kept asking for more!


Abigayl & Chloe in their matching tea party shirts:)We had a great evening with friends!

Butter is a main dish!!!

When it gets really quiet, I know I need to see what my kids are up too... Last night, it got really quiet. I found Abigayl sitting at the kitchen table. As I walked in she dipped her finger in the butter, licked it off and looked up and said,"Yummy, mommy, yummy!"

Trip to the "Wind Farm"

Let's just say that it is ALWAYS windy where we live! About 40 minutes from our house is a "wind farm." Sunday afternoon, we stopped for a visit on our way to a muesum that was displaying the "Ground Zero" Quilt. It was a great afternoon adventure... we'll just share a few pictures to tell about our trip! The ground zero quilt we do not have pictures of but it is amazing as well, you can see pictures at the website:http://www.gzquilt.com/ It is humbling to stand before it with the faces of so many who lost their lives that day. What a great memorial to them as well.


This wind farm has 170 mills that are approximately 30 stories high! Each blade is 77 feet long, and the farm covers 20 square miles!

You can see a long row of mills and get an idea of how tall they are in this picture!

This is daddy with Lenna and Eli in the wind! Abigayl was sound asleep in her carseat when we stopped and I never wake a sleeping baby if possible:)

I am often ask about the vehicle I drive with 3 carseats in the back... it is a Chevy, extended cab pickup (one of the 3 door models:) This is what I often see in my rearview mirror! Often the quietest moment of my day is right here:)