Hittin' the road....again!

The past couple of months we've put more miles on our van than any other time. Since our trip to Hawaii in September, it feels like we haven't slowed down one bit! A large part of starting a church, for us, is traveling to fellow churches, letting them know what God has called us to, and inviting them to be a part of it. Thankfully, the Lord has placed many people in our lives that have allowed us the opportunity to do just that. At the end of Sept., a couple we love, Ray and Katherine, invited us to their church to participate in their Global Awakening Conference. It highlighted several missionaries and the ministries they are a part of. We were blessed to take a beautiful drive to Pennsylvania and enjoy their fellowship(that's a separate post altogether!) Also, we were able to visit Liberty University as potential partners in their church planting network. It was more of an interview/get to know you process, and resulted in positive affirmation! We are so thankful to the Lord for the partnerships He has begun and for the Gospel, which drives everything we do.  Here are some fun pics of our latest road trips!

 The drive to Virginia was so beautiful. I'm sad that my camera couldn't capture all of the amazing colors in the mountains.

This campus, and the Thomas Road Church campus, made me speechless. Seriously, if I were contemplating colleges, I would want to go here! 

 We drove about 16 hours in 2 1/2 days. Thank the Lord for portable DVD players!! 

 The kids were great sports about all of the traveling we've done, and Nathan, did pretty great too!

 We ate out SO MUCH!! Here we are at Cici's pizza before hittin' the road again. You may notice that, "not again" face in Nathan pics.

Fall Happenings

Here are some fun things we've been up to lately!

Happy Fall, y'all

We've never really carved pumpkins before, but this year, we thought the kids would really enjoy it. Little did we know that they are still a little too young (for the most part) and it ended up being a mommy and daddy job. But, we ended up with some pretty cute pumpkins!

Joshua wanted the cross and fish, Ava of course wanted Dora. I was pretty impressed with Shawn's carving ability (with no template to go by!) 

Caleb and I worked on this one together. I thought the candle really made it look great! 

Haleigh did this one almost completely by herself! Loved the grin on this guy :)
 

I was worried using that knife. I kept telling the kids to "watch out!!" The tools we got from the store ended up being a huge waste. Ah, well, lesson learned!

Alright, get ready for some serious CUTENESS!!!
Nathan as "Boots" the monkey from "Dora the Explorer!"
I made this costume on the fly as we had just gotten home from a long trip. I think he made a pretty adorable monkey!

I 

 Ok, I had to show this...I was so proud of myself! I'm NOT artistic, but apparently, I'm pretty good with felt! Ava wanted to dress like Dora, so I used her purple backpack and went to town! I even made "Map" with a drawing on the inside to show how to get to the church from our house. Fun times!!!

Hawaii: Our new home-Part 2

While we were in Hawaii this time, I experienced a couple new things! Our sweet hosts, Harlan and Dana, and some of their family, treated us to a home-made Japanese dinner. They had thin-sliced meat, shrimp and some veggies already cut for us. We cooked them on the griddle in the middle of the table and then used dipping sauces to finish it off. I am no whizz at using chop sticks, so thankfully, Harlan fashioned some "practice chop sticks" for me and a couple others. It was so much fun! It gave us a chance to try new things and really get to know each other as we sat around the table. 

Doesn't this look amazing??

 Shawn is a pro with the chopsticks. Me....not so much :(

What's a Japanese dinner without a little football in the background?

I completely DEVOURED this meal...and then some!

The other cool thing we got to do while we were in Hawaii is visit the beach! Nathan is the first of our kids to ever see the ocean. And for the most part, he liked it! While we were there, we spotted three sea turtles. Honestly, they reminded me of Crush in "Finding Nemo". There was a large one and at least two smaller ones. They'd poke their heads out of the water, and ride the waves in. Honestly, they were so close, I could've jumped in and touched them (I didn't, by the way...do those things bite?)But it made for a neat story and sweet pics to show the kids at home. 

 Aloha! 

Hawaii, our future home Part 1

I have SO many things to write about since our last trip to Hawaii, that I'm sure it'll take more than  one post. Shawn, Nathan and I took a short (kind of) trip in the middle of September to Hawaii hoping to accomplish a lot of things. We headed out with the goal of looking at potential housing, meeting some church leaders in the area and getting Allie settled into her home for the next year. The Lord used the trip to, again, teach me that my agenda must be surrendered to Him.
     One of the things that I saw right away was that an entirely different perspective is needed when visiting a place you KNOW you will be moving to, instead of visiting with a "mission trip" mindset. Some positive things we accomplished included: finding the local library, getting a feel for the community, meeting a local pastor and worshipping at a local church that seems to be doing what we feel the Lord inviting us to do as well. Some of our frustrations were mostly involving spiritual warfare, but also were the hangups with us looking at potential housing. It rained a lot while we were there, and the challenge of meeting people and building relationships with them seemed to SLAM us in the face. That being said, Shawn and I knew this would be a GOD sized task. We knew that if everything came easy to us, that we'd likely depend more on self, less on Christ. I saw how much I'd be out of my comfort zone in Hawaii as a church planter. In the small townhouse we looked at, the Lord showed me I'd need to give up my "Ohio life" and realize that I can't pick it up and plop it in Hawaii and expect things to go on as normal. Things are very different there, like another country! Different food, housing, routines, completely different TIME ZONE!! However, God is the same. In Ohio, in Hawaii, in Uganda, He is faithful, He is good, He is all I need. I am reminded that "Faithful is He who calls you, He will also bring it to pass."1 Thess. 5:24.
     Please continue to pray for fellow laborers to come alongside us in this journey; as prayer support, financial support and a core group of believers to plant themselves in the middle of what God is doing in Hawaii.

Some familiar sights the kids were happy to see! Notice the amazing mountains in the background :)

Nathan's first trip the the ocean. He liked it, for the most part!

Our good friends, Jason and Roni (and baby Jacob, due in Nov.)

Buddy Reading

Look what I can do!

Nathan started sitting up! 

The Little Chef

Our oldest, Haleigh, is always asking if she can help me in the kitchen. Most of the time, it's a real help, but occasionally, she wants to "create" and this can end up being quite a mess! This summer, the kids participated in our library's summer reading program. Haleigh, once again, checked out a Paula Dean for kids cookbook. Last time she did this we picked a few recipes and tried them out with a success here and there. This time, Haleigh did most of the cooking all by herself. And I'll tell you, I was impressed! What a difference a year can make! This time, she tried a few out on the family and honestly, this crowd can be tough. The family favorite was homemade pizza (half pepperoni and half bacon).She also tried ambrosia salad, smoothies and homemade cupcakes with icing made from scratch. I'm sure we'll have some more recipes to share since she is taking a baking class at our home school co op this year!

I was really sad I couldn't eat this...stinkin' dairy free diet!

Haleigh ALWAYS had to wear her apron and chef's hat when she cooked!

Hold on tight...here we go!

Yep! This is what you'll see if you drive by my house, now! Honestly, I felt a little lump that started in the middle of my chest rising all the way up towards my throat. It seems that with each step we take towards our move to Hawaii, the Lord reveals something more to me about what my heart is tied to. Maybe it's because I'm a woman or maybe it's just something I struggle with on my own, but my security is often tied to things, instead of Christ. I didn't see it really, until we began this journey, and now it's something I fight against daily. So, you can imagine that this particular step in the journey has caused some stress in my life. The house has to stay tidy, the to-do list is never ending. But through all of it, the Father is teaching me, tenderly drawing me to Himself, though its sometimes through tears, I find myself more and more in need of Him. Please pray for our family. This is not an easy time for any of us, but He never said it would be! We are still so honored that the Lord would call us to join Him in the work He is doing in Hawaii. Pray I would find joy in serving Christ and all the little things that come along to do.

Man, it's hot here!

The kids and I made our yearly trek down to the surface of the sun a few weeks ago (otherwise known as Memphis). We had a great time seeing family and friends and literally squeezed fun into almost every minute of each day. I have a ton of pics, so I'll try to put a few posts up about TN just to cover it all! I'll start with the visit to Nana and Papa's. This was their first time to meet their newest grandson, Nathan. So, of course, Nathan was showered with hugs and kisses. The kids and I had a blast playing in the pool, and Ava and Joshua loved the slip and slide. One night, the kids and Papa went fishing in the pond, and Joshua actually caught a large mouth bass! He was really proud (especially since it was so hot, we figured the fish wouldn't bite). Later in the evening, we shot off leftover fireworks from the 4th of July and ate some smores :) Thanks, Nana and Papa for a fun visit!

Nathan meets Nana! (I think he now understands being spoiled!)

Ava preferred to just get her toes wet, and play on the slip and slide.

Caleb became very brave in the water this summer, he put his face in the water for the first time and started swimming underwater!

Joshua did some pretty impressive stuff on the slip and slide!

Father's Day

Yeah, I'm a little behind again! But I wanted to post these pics of Father's day anyway. I'll say first of all that this was the day that Shawn, Nathan and I headed off to Las Vegas for our church planting assessment. So, our celebration had to be brief! The kids and I had worked on 2 projects for Father's Day this year. Since we are downsizing for the move, I hated to buy anything for Shawn that wasn't a need. So, instead we decided to make him a video for his present. It was a kind of video interview of each of the kids done by yours truly! Shawn says often that he wants to record the kids voices because they are so cute :) I asked them questions like, "What do you love most about daddy? What's daddy's favorite food to eat? What's daddy's job?" The answers were really cute and I think Shawn really loved it. The other present was a can of goodies. I emptied out a pop top soup can by opening the bottom with a can opener. It kept the pop top in tact, and then I reattached the bottom after putting some of his favorite treats inside( Skittles, gum, etc) We decorated the can so he could use it as something to hold pencils in later.

I'm so thankful for the man God has shaped my hubby into. He is a terrific dad and the kids not only adore him, but they respect and trust him. I can't imagine doing this without him!!

Our 14th Anniversary

Fourteen years. A lot can happen in fourteen years...5 children, moving 6 times, blessings, heartache, laughter, tears, maturity, growth. June 7, 1997, I changed my name forever. I couldn't begin to describe how the Lord has done a work of grace in my life and in the life of my hubby. We are just a testimony of what the Lord can do in the life of one yielding to Him. In celebration of our marriage, Shawn took the reigns and planned our entire evening (and kept it a surprise). I was grateful for his thoughtfulness, as we had just been through a very busy couple of weeks. I didn't really have it in me to plan a romantic evening! A friend of ours came over and watched all 5 of the kids!! Shawn bought me a new dress and shoes (the shoes ended up not working) and whisked me away to a wonderful evening.

We went downtown to enjoy a dinner riverboat cruise! It was a perfect evening for it, since it had been warm all day, the cool breeze on the deck was just right. We had dinner inside and once we stuffed ourselves full, spent the rest of the evening enjoying the view and each others company. As we left the boat, the baseball team playing across the river scored a home run and the sky exploded with fireworks!! What a great way to end the ride! We then went over to the downtown square and enjoyed a walk, good atmosphere and Starbucks :) I am so blessed to have such a thoughtful and loving husband.

My handsome hunny!

We realized later that the paddles were just for show.

The boat really had engines, but it looked nice!

Such a beautiful night!

The Reds stadium...we won!

The last stop...Fountain Square!

My last Cubbie?

For the past 6 years we've been at Urbancrest, I've had a Cubbie. For those of you unfamiliar with what a Cubbie is exactly, I'll explain. AWANA(Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed) is a kids club that our church is a part of, which includes Scripture memory, games, crafts and Bible lessons. A Cubbie is a 3-5 year old child in the AWANA program. Now, like I said, I've had a Cubbie ever since we moved here in 2005. This year may be the last of the Cubbies for our family (sniffle). Ava is not old enough to be a Cubbie next year, and our move to Hawaii will likely be before the end of spring! That being said, Joshua's Cubbie graduation made me feel a little nostalgic.

Joshua loves going to Cubbies every Wednesday night and especially loves his teacher, Mrs. Marlene. He has told her how much she's going to miss him when he moves away (heehee).Joshua has learned many Bible verses this year and I love the fact that he is hiding God's Word in his heart at this age. I pray he would continue loving and treasuring God's Word his entire life.Here are some fun pictures of his last day being a Cubbie!

Joshua and Mrs Marlene

Going fishing for a goodie bag

Joshua got his award for completing Book 2!