You're More Than A Sister To Me

It's my big sisters birthday today! As I was sorting through some of my things this week in preparation for our next move I came across this poem she had written for me and given to me on my birthday in 1998. Each paragraph documents a different place in our childhood. The 1st is Senegal, Africa, the 2nd is New York and the 3rd is Florida.

You're More Than a Sister to Me

Crystal Day

2-14-98

It's raining

Let's run in the rain

And play in the mud as we used to

Think back to the times...

The times we would dress up, play house

Or pretend we were princesses

Yes, we would fight

Yet together we often made quite a sight

I remember the bike rides and climbing trees

Both things made our hair blow in the breeze

Princesses

It's snowing

Let's slide down the hill

To us this is all new

'Cause times are different

And seasons have changed

But we can enjoy the changes

If we go through them with God and each other

Though changes will be many

One thing won't change

Your my sister

And of that I am proud!

Crystal and I one Christmas in New York.

It's hot

Let's go to the beach

We can chase the waves

Later we can look for dolphins

We'll swim now

As we feed the sea gulls

We look at each other and know happiness

It's this season in our life

That I have found we can really talk

I pray and hope you truly understand

You're more than a sister to me

Sunset at Honeymoon Island.
(Crystal took this photo)

Love you Sis! Happy Birthday!

...now where did I put those tissues?

Have you had your snuggle with God today?

After dinner last night Elijah walked over to the couch and said "I'm going to lay down and show you how I was snuggling." I asked him "Who were you snuggling with?" and he answered "Nobody, just with God."

Our Seaon is Changing

"Obedience...discipline...the beauty of surrender. It's the safest, scariest thing we can ever do, relinquishing ourselves and laying down our rights, wills, and dreams before our Redeemer".

-Kelly Minter

The last year and a half here at the NTM training has been so valuable and we thank the Lord for our time here. We've been growing, changing. We can see the Lord showing us things in our hearts and lives that need some attention and we know He is growing us in the areas of family, relationships and what ministry looks like.

I have finished the course and graduated at the end of May. But at this
time we have decided in fellowship with the leadership not to continue on with
NTM. This was a huge decision for us and not one we took lightly.

It is has become clear to us that there are things in our lives that would hinder our ministry on the mission field. We desire to see these thing worked through and healed in order to be more effective in our relationships and ministry here and/or overseas.

It wasn't easy. This was the Lord asking us to lay down "our rights, will and dreams" before Him.
Our entire married life our goal has been to serve overseas in missions as a family.

So when this door was closed I'm not gonna lie, it hurt. It was confusing. It was scary.
It has been a challenge to refocus and see where God wants us to go from here. I'm excited though. I'm excited to see where the Lord leads us. Because I know He will. He's been faithful this far and I know He's not going to stop being faithful to us now.

Our desire is to be used of the Lord where ever we are and where ever He puts

us and if He wants us to stay stateside that is what we have to do. Jeremiah
10:23 reminds me that we are not the ones directing our steps and it is a comfort to know that it is the Lord who directs our way.

I wish we could tell you exactly what our plans are but we’re
not exactly what our future looks like at this point. But I can't yet.

Thankfully we know our God has it all under control and we can trust Him. Anyway it seems like we make plans and the Lord changes them every time! Not that I mind since His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts higher than my thoughts. He sees the big picture while i only see this tiny moment in time. 

 I have a hard time writing about deeply personal stuff on such a public place so that's a reason why i haven't talked about this before now. But please feel free to email me if you have questions or leave a comment and i'll be happy to answer if I can.

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” -E.S.

Seasons Change

Elijah's Newest Pet

Geoff took the boys on a hike in the woods yesterday. As they were poking around a dead log they found this guy.

It's a Grant’s rhinoceros beetle and I think he's pretty cool!
They make good pet since they don't seem to mind being held, rarely bite and are easy to house and feed since they will eat fruit and maple syrup in captivity.
Pound per pound, beetles are the strongest animal in the world. Grant’s rhinoceros beetles can lift 850 times their own weight! Wow!

Elijah just said, "God's stronger than that!"

Enrichment

Each summer NTM has a conference here at the training center for missionaries who are in the States. It's a time of refreshment and encouragement for them. Childcare is provided for the kids and I'm working in the nursery.

Elijah and Ethan are in the same rooms as they were this past year. They are enjoying the activities and being with the other kids this week.

I don't have any pictures of Ethan because he had a rare crying fit when I dropped him off yesterday. He was fine as soon as I left though.

This is the room i'm working in.

Snack time...

I'm loving having new subject for my pictures! =)

I hope you're enjoying your week!

summer activities

I don't know about you but i'm looking for fun and educational activities for my boys and I this summer. We have to find something to keep them busy and I would like it to be a learning time for them not just something to pass the time.

You know we are big readers around here. We've signed the boys up for the library summer reading program. We have to read 30 books to get a prize (already done!) and then 30 more books for another prize and then 30 MORE books for the last prize! Thankfully i can read a book to both boys and it counts for both of them. If I run out of books at home or the library I could always check out these classic children's books on ebeanstock.com.

My Mom reading to the boys when she was here visiting at the beginning of the month.

This is a website i really like that has so many educational things for kids. Like this nature walk kit I know Elijah would LOVE. He's all into catching bugs right now and when I ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he says "a bug catcher!"

I like how they've done a lot of research and organized the toys by age appropriate groups. It makes searching for the right toy easy.

We've done some long family car trips and maybe for our next one I'll look at their travel toys for kids. Even some of the arts and craft sticker books would be good for our long car rides this summer.

What are you doing to entertain and teach your kids this summer?

Whoo's Out at Night

Saturday night Elijah and I spent some time just the two of us. We went to a near by state park and learned about Missouri's owls.

From left to right is the screech owl, the barred owl and the great horned owl.

They look real don't they! But they aren't, they're just stuffed. But still fun to see and really interesting to learn about.

One thing I learned was that an owls ears not where I always pictured them. The left is low on the cheek and the right is above the right eye! Since owls eyes are fixed and they have to turn their whole heads to look around having the ears move in the same direction and off set like that really helps them pin point their dinner!

At the end we watched the park ranger call in a barred owl. We didn't get to see him since it was dark and he didn't fly over but we did get to hear him calling back. It was really neat.

June 18th

	DON'T THINK NOW, TAKE THE ROAD
"And Peter . . . walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid." Matthew 14:29-30 "The wind was actually boisterous, the waves were actually high, but Peter did not see them at first. He did not reckon with them, he simply recognized his Lord and stepped out in recognition of Him, and walked on the water. Then he began to reckon with the actual things, and down he went instantly. Why could not our Lord have enabled him to walk at the bottom of the waves as well as on the top of them? Neither could be done saving by recognition of the Lord Jesus. We step right out on God over some things, then self-consideration enters in and down we go. If you are recognizing your Lord, you have no business with where He engineers your circumstances. The actual things are, but immediately you look at them you are overwhelmed, you cannot recognize Jesus, and the rebuke comes: "Wherefore didst thou doubt?" Let actual circumstances be what they may, keep recognizing Jesus, maintain complete reliance on Him. If you debate for a second when God has spoken, it is all up. Never begin to say - "Well, I wonder if He did speak?" Be reckless immediately, fling it all out on Him. You do not know when His voice will come, but whenever the realization of God comes in the faintest way imaginable, recklessly abandon. It is only by abandon that you recognize Him. You will only realize His voice more clearly by recklessness." - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

Review

Love Sac Alternative Furniture Co. sent me a pair of slippers to review.

They sent me the Créme Slippers in Medium.

They arrived packaged in a pretty box and tied with a brown ribbon.

My new slippers!

Isn't this owl cute?

At first I was thinking that summer was not a good time to wear slippers but with our house being all chilly tiles and wood floors and the fact that my hubby likes to keep the house pretty cool in the summer it's actually been great!

No more complaining that my feet are cold, they are all nice and comfortable in these...

With different slippers in the past I've noticed that my feet get too hot and sweaty in them but these slippers aren't like that.

Now if i can just keep them looking this nice and white. =)

Thankfully they can be machine washed and line dried.

You can find more than just slippers on their site. There's pillows, blankets and some really comfortable looking furniture.

Miner Mikes in pictures...

Have kids who need worn out?

Take them to Miner Mikes...

This boy melts my heart with his smile.

These two are such goobers, they started throwing balls at me about this point!

Joy is such a good mommy and climbed up with the kids!

How many people are coming down the slide? Can you count four? Poor Joy is under that pile of kids!

Snack time! All that playing makes a body hungry!

time to ride the train

Ethan's my little trill seeker and he's the one with his hands in the air!

We rode bumper cars too but my camera batteries died so no pictures of that.

What a fun afternoon for the kids and I enjoyed some time with my friend Joy.