Pictures Part 1

Here are a few pictures from the house. I wanted to share pictures of the rooms that are done and I'll post the rest in a few days. This is the breakfast nook that we use for our main eating area. There is a formal dinning room in the living room but we don't want to use that right now. You can see the big backyard through the windows.




This is Kaitlyn's room. We got her a full size bed so when guests come they have a place to sleep. She loves her green walls.


This is the boys room. This was the only room we had to paint. Their room is pretty big. They have plenty of room to play in there.


This is the kitchen. You can see into the living room too. We love this kitchen. It's a nice size and sits in the middle of the house so you can see into the living room and down the hallway to the bedrooms at the same time. We plan on taking out those lights and putting in recessed lights.


So there are a few pics. I'll get some of the living room, our bedroom, and our bath up soon!

He knows my name and every thought

I don't know who benefited more from VBS, the kids or the adults. Last week Northside had their VBS (vacation bible school) from 6:30-8:40 each evening. There were around 250 adults helping (a good majority being men!) take care of a ton of kids! Total for the week was around 440 kids with the highest per night being around 375 kids! It was so cool to see so many kids there! We did "Crocodile Dock" as the theme for the week. I got to work with a special group of kids. I helped in the special needs group. I teamed up with 3 other women (2 being special needs teachers in the school our kids will go to in Coweta), and we had 6 different kids we worked with all week. They were all around 4-7 years old and having anything from autism to a seizure disorder to asbergers. It was so amazing to be with these kids and do nothing but play, love on them, and try to tell them how much God loves them.

2 boys that I worked with a lot and just stole my heart were twins, and they had a seizure disorder and thus have brain damage from it. They were hard to take around to the different rooms b/c one needed some help walking and the other wanted to just go socialize! They had to wear helmets all the time in case they fell or had seizures while we were out (and they did both!). They could sign some and understood some sign. They would look you in the eye and just melt your heart with their big ol' brown eyes! They loved to turn the lights on and off and screamed whenever the door opened. They would smile and clap when they got to go do the activities.

Another girl in our class goes to Northside. I'm not quite sure what her diagnosis is... I think she is autistic but she has some other medical needs. She is so sweet and absolutely loved doing the activities! She would just start laughing and cackling for no reason! :-) She couldn't speak and had a few signs she could do. Her mom was also working at VBS and got to come see her play and smile and laugh! Her mom just loved on her and was so proud of her daughter!

What got me was during worhsip. We took the kids in with the hundreds of other kids so they could do the opening and closing songs. One song they sang was "You are my King." I could not get through that song without choking up. The line that says: 'I'm alive and well, your spirit lives within me.' got me b/c God's spirit is in those precious babies! As much as we love those kids, His love is so much greater for them! He sees inside those kids and knows them. All week the other workers and I would talk about that one day when these children are in Heaven and free from the diseases that are in their bodies. How precious for their parents to finally get to talk to their children and know what they think and feel! We were picturing the twin boys running up to us and saying "hey do you remember that one VBS??" What hope for that day when they will be in their new bodies!

Sunday Jarod sang "He knows my name" during service right after talking about all the kids at VBS. I could not get through that song. The song says "He knows my name. He knows my every thought. He sees each tear that falls and hears me when I call." I couldn't stop picturing those sweet children and their eyes. I couldn't help but just think of their parents one day sitting down with them and talking- finally knowing what they are thinking.

Thank you Lord that you know them and love them! Thank you that one day, they will be free from their burdens! Thank you for the opportunity to work with them. I am honored to have had that chance!

We're in!

What a week! I knew it would be busy- but wow! VBS was fantastic (I'll have to blog separately about it)! We closed on our house on Tuesday and spent our free time over here fixing things, cleaning, and shampooing carpets. We brought our air mattress and the kids tent and spent the night Wednesday night "camping out" at the house! The kids had a great time doing that. We spent Jarod's day off on Thursday cleaning here. Our friend and family member, Gayla, came over and helped out. Her husband is Jarod's first cousin once removed. :-) They go to Northside, so it's fun to say we have family at church! She was such a blessing! She cleaned the whole kitchen, top to bottom for me and also the bathrooms. Then after a quick lunch she helped me paint the boys' bedroom. Friday was busy with getting the other house we had been staying in ready for the move and all cleaned up. All this was with us being at church by 6:00 every evening for VBS. So needless to say we were pretty tired by each evening.

Saturday we had about 11 people help us move. We started around 9 and were all done by 1:00. Our connection group (small group) was very helpful in the move. Our friend Michelle, who lives a block from us now, watched our kids for us while we moved which was soo nice. We are so thankful for all the help and for our church family! We had a homemade dinner delivered to us that evening, and we spent the rest of the day starting to move things around and put away. Ugh. So many boxes!

I can't tell you how nice it is to be in a place of our own again! We have all our stuff in one place; Ali is back with us; we have internet again!; we have tivo again!; and we have 3 bedrooms again! Kaitlyn is enjoying having her own room again, and I think the boys are enjoying Kaitlyn having her own room too! We are just so thankful for this place and pray it can be used for ministry. As we get rooms done I will take pictures of them and post them later. Thanks for all the prayers in this whole process! We really appreciate it!

Not much to say

Hey! I haven't blogged b/c I don't have a whole lot going on right now. Next week, yes but not this week. We move into the house a week from Saturday!! We are super excited! How nice will it be to settle into our own place after 6 months of waiting!?
Next week Northside is having VBS. They are expecting 500 kids! I get to help with the special needs class, and I'm excited for that. It's been about 7 years since I worked with special needs kids, and I love those kids dearly. I also get to work with a good friend who is helping lead up the class. It will be a great week- our kids are excited for VBS too.
So with VBS and closing on our house next week will be crazy!! But I can't wait!

Here and there

So we only have 2 weeks till we close on our house here! We are super excited! We have a count down for the kids at home. Each day they get to take a paper down and see how many more days till we get the house. 13 days as of today!! We've been busy running all over signing papers, setting up utilities, getting insurance quotes, and getting a few things for the house. It's a crazy but great time!

We get to close on our house in KC the end of July. It's a good thing because we won't be paying a double mortgage (always good!). So as I look back at this whole process I'm just amazed at God's provision and His wisdom. We were blessed with a place to stay when we moved here so we didn't have to live with someone (a hard thing to do with 3 kiddos!). Jarod and I prayed for wisdom on what to do as the time drew closer to leave this house, and the whole time I felt God saying to just wait. We did and it all fell so perfectly into place- every last detail. We're excited for our own place, but we pray it will be a tool to reach others. We are so thankful for the way God takes care of us. He's taken care of me my whole life and has proven His faithfulness over and over in good times and bad. Thank you Lord!

Backstage pass

Today was so much fun! Thanks to a gift from the Redways, we have season passes for the aquarium in Jenks (it's like 10 minutes from here). I know I've posted about this place before- but it's really cool. An elder in our church (his name is Chip) is a vet and has his own office in Jenks but he also works for the aquarium. He offered to take us back behind the exhibits and let us watch them feed the sharks. Uh cool! So we went today and met him there just before feeding time. He took us back to the top of the shark tank, and we were 2 feet from the edge of the tank while they fed the sharks!! We could see the sharks come and grab the food off the poles and see their fins sticking up out of the water. So neat! He walked around with us at the aquarium and told the kids all about the different animals, and he was so patient, answering all their questions (and they had a lot of them!). After that he took us to another building and we got to see some holding tanks that had some sharks that were too small to go in the large tank yet. Their were also sting rays, alligators(that jumped up the side of his pool while we looked down at him :-) he was 10 feet below us though!), and the coolest of the day were the sea turtles! They had 2 large sea turtles that came right up to the window and looked at us and splashed us from above! We went up to the top of the tank and they came right too us! We were just inches from these amazing animals! We got to watch them be fed and also the alligators. It was so amazing to be so close to these animals! What an incredibly creative God we serve! The kids had a great time and so did Jarod and I. It was great to spend that time with Chip, too.

This evening we watched our friends kids (ages 4 and 2). They were a lot of fun and had fun swimming in our little pool. We grilled them some hot dogs and had popsicles for dessert! It was a busy but great day!