Missions Conference

Tonight was the last night of our First Annual Faith-Promise Missions Conference. It was such a blessing. We had good crowds out each evening and it was wonderful and stirring to hear the vision and burden of the missionaries.

We had the privilege of having Jason & Lacey MacRae, missionaries to India and Sarah Glover, missionary to New Guinea with us this week.

We also watched the dvd presentations from one of the missionaries that we support in Vietnam as well as one from an orphanage in Cambodia.

The children all were thrilled to see the missionary's tables. Jeff remembers enjoying looking at the tables of missionaries when he was a child.

This was the first introduction of the idea of faith-promise missions giving for our church folks. Well, actually for most of them. One couple that comes to our church used to attend the Peoples Church in Toronto when Oswald J. Smith was the pastor. The man was actually one of the elders there and did home repairs in the home of the Smiths. Oswald J. Smith has been called "the father of faith promise missions", so I suspect that was not a new concept to these folks.

The children are all at their grandparents tonight, so I'm hoping to sleep in tomorrow morning. We have a pancake breakfast fundraiser for the school tomorrow morning, but I want to sleep as last as possible and still not be late!

Week Two of Spring Break

Here is a picture of Jeff and the two little girls in his life.

We are all glad to have an extra week of Spring break! Luke, AJ and Victoria got to spend the night last night at my parents' house. Of course they love that! The weather has been nice - chilly, but very sunny, so I'm sure they've been outside most of the time.

Lily is now sitting up all by herself (and very happy about that!) We're working very hard to get her eating cereal and baby food. She does NOT want to make the transition from her main food being formula to baby food. The doctor said that she needs to have made that transition by the time she's 8 months old which is not very far away. Today she ate her cereal really well for the very first time! YEA! She shook her head no very emphatically when she didn't want anymore, which was just hilarious!

Luke has enjoyed watching some of the Hardy boys movies we borrrowed from the library. He is a voracious reader, especially of the Hardy boys books, so he thought it was neat that they'd made movies of some of the stories. They are SO old, though. I think they were made in 1978!!

As you saw in my last post, AJ had two teeth pulled the very first day of spring break. His gums have healed nicely and the blister that had popped out on his gums is all gone. Just amazing! It hasn't slowed him down at all. He had the flu last week. He sleeps on the top bunk and Luke is on the bottom. Well on Saturday night, he was too lazy to get out of bed, so he just leaned over and threw up over the side of his bed on the floor. Luke just barely missed getting thrown up on! So AJ and I had a big mess to clean up.

Lily was the first one to be sick. She got sick during the day on Friday but was better by Friday night. Then AJ and Victoria were sick all night long on Saturday. Jeff, Luke and I seem to have been spared - thankfully!

Victoria is such a sweetie! When we told her a few weeks back that we were going to the Missions Conference in WV, she asked me why. I said because they asked us to come. She asked me why we were going to a missions conference. So I told her that we are missionaries. She got all excited and clapped her hands and said, "Oh, I'm SO glad....I've always wanted to be a missionary!" It was priceless. She's our little princess and is so very helpful with Lily. She is always entertaining her and keeping Lily happy.

I am so thankful for the wonderful children with whom God has entrusted Jeff and me. Speaking of Jeff, he spent a couple of hours last night cleaning all the cupboards in our bathroom and sorting everything. We got a new shower curtain and it looks SO different and I love it. I worked on sorting the kitchen cupboards this morning and then when he came home from lunch Jeff helped me for another couple of hours. He had errands to run, but he took that time for me and I really appreciate it. I've got a huge pile for Goodwill and probably 6-7 white kitchen garbage bags full of garbage that we're getting rid of. I guess we're Spring Cleaning!

Well, I hear Lily - up from her nap! Gotta go.......

AJ's new look

AJ had what looked like a blood blister on his gums, so we went to the dentist to have it checked out. The dr. said that there was a space between his baby and adult teeth and there was infection in that space. The pressure built up and popped out as a blister. So the dentist yanked out his two teeth. I think he looks like he's been in a hockey fight. He is having a great attitude about all of it.

The dentist said that now that the baby teeth are out, the adult teeth will come in and that will care for the problem.

Lily is 7 months old!

Here is our beautiful baby Lily. Lily was 7 months old yesterday, so of course we had to take some more pictures.

I love the one of her in her exersaucer. She almost looks like she's saying "Praise the Lord!" She's such a sweetie pie.

One of the case workers from FACS (Family & Children Services) came by yesterday for the routine 30-day assessment. They come by every 30 days just to make sure everything is okay. She was very pleased with how happy, healthy and well-adjusted Lily is. She said that she could tell that Lily was doing really well with us and that she had bonded well with us. It's always a bit nerve-racking having FACS come into our home, but so far every interaction with them has been positive. We are very fortunate to have some really great case workers with children's best interests at heart! Please continue to pray for Lily and her extended family. A big family conference is in the works to form a long-term plan for both Lily and Mason. Please pray that God's Will will be evident and will be done in the lives of these precious babies!

Spring is Coming!

As I write this, I look out the window and see this big bright yellow ball in the sky. I'm really not exactly sure what it is, but I faintly remember seeing it in the sky before.....

It is a bright sunny day today and the weather is suppose to be beautiful all weekend long. Our school is off for a two-week Spring Break. The kids (and teachers) are looking forward to the time off!

Right now, Luke, AJ and Victoria are watching Scooby-Doo after having pancakes for breakfast. Sounds like a good way to start Spring Break to me! Lily is at her grandparents' home, but will be back home later today.

Today is our monthly ladies' meeting at our church. We are going to begin stuffing Easter eggs for our annual Easter egg hunt for the kids on Easter Sunday. I think the adults enjoy it almost as much as the kids do!

Please pray for my mom and dad as they are traveling to NW Indiana for Pastors' School. They left yesterday and stopped in Michigan. They'll be traveling the rest of the way today. My parents got to the Windsor, Ontario/Detroit, Michigan border and when my mom looked at the passport she had in her hand to give to the customs officer, she realized that she had my passport!!! We cross twice a month together to go shopping, so we'd accidentally had each others' passports when we crossed this past Monday. Thankfully she had her birth certificate and drivers' licence, so she was okay. But after June 1st, she wouldn't have been allowed to cross!!! Whew!!

This is a picture of Luke, AJ, Victoria, Lily and Caleb. Caleb is our kindergarten student and also Lily's cousin!

West Virginia trip

We had a really great time at the Missions Conference in West Virginia. We left on Tuesday afternoon and only drove about 4 hours. We stopped overnight in Pennsylvania. We had a relaxing evening and everyone went to bed early. We got up on Wednesday and drove the rest of the way to Martinsburg, West Virginia.

We were at the Shenandoah Bible Baptist Church, pastored by Dr. Jeff Owens. We are overwhelmed by the generosity and kindess shown to us during our time there. We were given so many thoughtful gifts that we thought we might not fit everything into the van.

The highlight for the children was getting to spend time with other children their age. Luke, AJ & Victoria all got to spend the day at Martinsburg Christian Academy. They each went to a class that was all their grade and thoroughly enjoyed it. Victoria, especially, enjoyed spending time with other little girls. This picture is of Victoria with Caitlyn Domelle and Elizabeth McDonald.

We got home yesterday and though we had an amazing trip, we were glad to sleep in our own beds again. We are grateful to our newest supporting church for their outstanding hospitality. We felt so loved by everyone there.

Going on a trip

Here is a picture of Lily with her teether "glasses". It was Victoria's idea and they were a perfect fit. We laughed so hard at how cute Lily looks.

We are all leaving tomorrow to head to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to be a part of the missions conference at Bro. Jeff Owens' church. We are looking forward to the trip as well as spending time with the folks there. Lily will be staying with her aunt and uncle who live close to here. We'll miss her, but she'll have more fun there than on a long trip! :-)

Please pray for a safe, fun trip for us and that we might be a blessing to the folks in West Virginia as we present our ministry.

Well, I'm in the midst of packing, so this will be short. The kids have worked really hard to get their Wednesday - Friday school work done before we leave. That way they won't have to catch up when we get home.