Day 4-Sunday

Sunday Morning started with church at Blue Sky. It felt very much like Clear River, which was nice when we were so far away. I ended up getting prayer at the end of service. It was exactly what I needed. We felt we knew people there too, since we had been at the conference all weekend.

Afterwards, we headed downtown to Pike's Place. It's this huge farmer's market that also has the people who throw fish.


It was such a cool experience. Dave and I enjoyed walking up and down and seeing all the different sights and smells. We bought some souveniers for the kids among other things. Anything I say just wouldn't really do it justice. If you ever get the chance to experience it, you should go.

After checking out Mars Hill (a mega church there in Seattle) for an evening service, we headed over to Steve and Shu-hui's house for some really good chili and good company. Steve is the head pastor at Blue Sky church and also oversees the other churches in our network. It was a really fun evening. Their kids are beautiful and really well-behaved.

We then headed back to our various host houses to crash before our EARLY morning wake up call and flights back home.

Cals

So, nice picture, eh?

Callie was reading books with grandma and when trying to get down, fell off the chair. Mom noticed afterward that she wasn't using her right arm and ended up taking her in to get checked out. Five hours later, they finally were able to leave the hospital with this cast and a sling. She had hairline fractures in both her radius and ulna. Meanwhile, Dave and I were on our way back from Seattle, so we were stuck in an airport/airplane while all this was going on (talk about frustrating to be so far away when this happened). Mom did great though and I knew that Callie was in good hands, so that comforted me.

She has a follow-up appointment tomorrow. I'm glad that I'll be able to go to that one so that I can ask any questions about what the next few weeks hold. Other than that, by this evening, she was back to business as usual. Smiling, giggling, climbing...there's no stopping her. Kid's are so resilient.

Anyway, it's wonderful to be home...and get to hug and snuggle my kids a little bit. We missed them a lot. I'll blog more about our trip in the days to come. Tonight, however, I'm about ready for bed.

Please pray that God continues to heal Callie swiftly and that she continues to remain "unfazed" by her new accessory.

Leaving on a jet plane...

Don't know how much time I'll have tomorrow to write. We are leaving for Seattle, Washington on Thursday for a few days. We, meaning Dave and I. The kids are going to be in good hands with Emi and the grandparents. Dave and I are going with our pastor to help with a church in our network's fall conference. I'm really looking forward to what God's going to do and excited for my first trip ever to the West coast. I don't think I've been farther west than Kansas.

So this week has been spent with all the nitty-gritty details of what to pack, what details to leave behind for everyone who is watching the kids, and the surreal feeling that I'm leaving the kids for the longest time to date. I know they're in great hands, but still, I have my moments. When Callie woke up from nap and came out of her room, I was just so struck with how much I love her. The same with Noah when he woke up. He said, "Mommy, I love you." He's such a sweet kid. I am so richly blessed. I will definitely miss them, that's for sure.

I've got as much as I want to do tonight done, so I'm probably going to wind down for the evening. Tomorrow will be another busy day...and hopefully some play time can be added in there with my munchkins. :-)

Please pray that we all have safe travel. That God would really show up at this conference and that people's lives will be changed. Pray for spiritual renewel (both for myself and the people attending the conference). I'm trusting that God is going to move.

Dresser

In Dave's fastest project to date, he has produced a beautiful dresser for Callie. We had searched all over for a sturdy dresser that wasn't $700-$800. We weren't overly successful, so he decided to just make her one. It really turned out nice. I think Dave even surprised himself with how well it turned out. :-) So, I spent the day today reorganizing Callie's room to accomodate her big girl dresser (I was using a 3 drawer plastic dresser in her closet).

Noah's response was perhaps the best. With wide eyes, "WOW!!! Daddy that looks so nice!!!"

In the thankful mood....

So, I have another thankful shout out. Yesterday we hosted dinner for people who are interested in our new lifegroup. As it is for people who have already raised their kids, we needed to do something with ours. Our dear friend Emi, graciously offered to take our kids. She took them to Monkey Joes for 2 hours, then brought them back here (we were still meeting), got them ready for bed, read them books, and tucked them in. God bless her. Again, I am struck by the community aspect. I am so thankful that we are a part of a community who takes care of each other. I would happily return the favor for her anytime.

The meeting went well and we are on our way to having a new lifegroup started up soon.

Dave continues his work on Callie's dresser. It's coming along nicely. He's just working on the drawer fronts now, but the rest of the dresser and the drawers are all assembled. He's really pleased with his project.

We went and cheered on our friend Sarah this morning for her swim meet. It brought me back a little bit. I swam backstroke in highschool...and that's what Sarah mostly swam today. We were really proud of her. She did a great job...and the kids were so well behaved. I was worried they would want to jump in the pool or run around. Nope. They sat there so nicely, with Noah holding his, "We love u Sarah" sign. Callie did great until Sarah came by to say "hi" during a break and held Callie. When she had to give Callie back to me, Callie pouted. Aside from that, they were little angels...it was glorious.

We're probably going to do family night tonight. Since Dave and I are leaving for Seattle next Thursday, I'm really looking forward to a fun night out with the kids. And that's about all for now.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for my friend Allyson. She is one of the women that I regularly pray with. She is a wonderful mom and has a beautiful family. She has such a sweet spirit about her.

This morning she called me up and asked me what I had planned for dinner. I mentioned nothing yet, but that a friend was coming by in the evening. For those of you who know our family, deciding what we will have and executing it are for some reason ridiculously hard things to do in this house. So, her next statement came as a surprise. She said, "I want to make you dinner tonight." It was so wonderfully random. We didn't "need" it. We aren't sick (beyond colds), we didn't just have a baby or any other reason that people normally bring a meal to someone. It's just a random Thursday. A random Thursday that I now did not have to cook a meal. What a welcome thought. We had recently had this awesome chicken dish at our last Clear Vision. She wanted to make it for us since she knew how much we liked it.

So, all day today I have been thinking about community. How thankful I am for Allyson and her understanding of being a part of a community. She blessed us so fully tonight...and it really inspired me to "Pay it Forward" so to speak. I really like the idea of taking care of each other in the community and this is just a nice, fairly easy, practical way to love on others.

So, thanks Allyson. It was AWESOME...I mean that...it really tasted good. It felt so good to put a nice meal on the table tonight. I'm so glad God put you in my life.

Wordless Wednesday- Silly Faces

Life

So, I've been slightly incommunicado this week. I've thought about blogging, but really wasn't sure what to write. It's been a week of trying to make big decisions and not wanting to do the wrong thing...but not sure what the right thing is either.

Recently we've had a deaf woman attend our church. It's been exciting and frankly frightening for me. I feel inept at signing and the burden of trying to interpret really began wearing on me. We had our church's Fall Conference this weekend, which was really good and much needed. The timing couldn't have been more perfect as I really needed to pray through what this may or may not look like in our church. Both our pastor and Dave said that ultimately the decision to continue or not continue this ministry rested on me (which made sense because I was the only one who could sign) As conference went on, I began to realize that it has been a long time since I've received prayer. It was not intentional, it just hadn't happened. So, a lot of the feelings of being overwhelmed with the possibility of adding another ministry onto my plate and being the only one to do it at that, was my breaking point. I just sobbed through the last prayer session. During that time, I felt God free me from expectation and fears. I decided to wait and see what this morning brought (although I was leaning towards not continuing at all). I interpreted this morning and it went much better than last week (I had the sermon ahead of time and was able to prep a little better). I also found out two more people that sign and one of whom has a HUGE heart for the deaf...so she is interpreting for this woman next week. God provided. To be honest, I'm still not sure what the future will hold. It's exciting to have this as a possibility, but I'm still unsure of the execution or whether now is the time. This woman is also plugged into another church and is only coming to ours because we have "interpreters". hahaha. She is so sweet and incredibly nice. It's been a good experience in many ways: Forcing me to practice my signs, giving me abilities to use sign, but also...learning my balance and boundaries and trusting God to take care of me (by providing another person..or two...to help carry the load).

So, that's what this last week has been for me. Beyond that, things with the kids are good. Noah's loving preschool. Callie loves Noah being in preschool, because she can play in the house without being tormented. Dave is building Callie a dresser, since we haven't found anything we have liked that isn't WAY expensive. He's loving his new project. I stayed for second service to help with prayer and to go to worship, since I missed that this morning while chatting with this woman. I came home to a wonderfully clean house, vacuumed, kitchen clean, dishwasher running, and two napping children. My husband is INCREDIBLE. I was dreading going home knowing that the house was a mess (we were all exhausted after conference last night) and this morning we were rushing to get to church. I didn't want to have to deal with the house when I got home from a long morning...and my wonderful husband totally blessed me by cleaning up for me. He's pretty fantastic.

And that's how I'll end this terribly long post...