Four Generations

A couple weekends ago we headed over to Norfolk, VA where Andy's dad and step mom live. Andy's grandparents were coming in to town to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. We had a great time. Now that we are only 3 hours away from his dad, we'll be able to see them more often.



Four generations

The happy couple

Pizza Dough

Toothless Gums

Joe's Trick

Rice Battle

Joe fought some rice... and lost.

Catching Up

In an effort to catch up on blogging I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures from August. Enjoy!

Joe's smile lights up a room.

Messy eater!

Joe in his frog attire.

Back from the park. Joseph is out for the count!

Samuel loves my new hair clip.

Samuel gets raisins for pooping on the toilet.

And he hates it when they are taken away.

Practicing sitting up.

Trash day is one of the highlights to our week. The guys love him!

Best Buddies.

Joseph loves grabbing Samuel's hair.

During the late afternoons if Joseph is in his jumper the sun comes right in and hits him in the eyes. Samuel noticed it one day and went and got his hat for him, and put it on him. How precious!
Mr. Drummer boy.

Joseph and sweet Lydia. Check out The Parkits for some more great pictures of the two of them.
Samuel on a business call.

We're Back

After accumulating 1143.5 miles on our car since Wednesday night, we are home! And TIRED!

I'm giving myself today to rest and then we are going to hit the road running. I've still got things to put up on the walls and to finish organizing the boys room. It's taken forever, but the end is finally in sight.

Hopefully once that's all done I can move onto some sewing, woohoo! We need curtains!!! I have some wonderful fabrics I simply cannot wait to use.

Stories and pictures to follow. My goal it be completely updated by this weekend.

My new job! (Andy)

Since so many friends and family members have been praying for us and encouraging us over the past few months during this transition time in our lives, I am very excited to share with you that I accepted a job today in Charlottesville with an organization called Christian Aid Mission.

This is an answer to prayer that rivals God's working to spare us from the separation for deployment that so recently loomed ahead of us.

If you want some background information before reading on, I refer you to Amy's May 26th blog, "This is the short version!" under the "Jobs" post topic.

As some of you may know, I have felt the Lord leading us to and preparing us for some type of work in the realm of "world missions" for at least the past 15 months, though probably, in a very subtle way, for several years. I can trace this specific calling, albeit very lightly, all the way back through my initial interest in Foreign Affairs and my decision to major in that subject as a student at UVA. Though I was not yet a Christian at the time, God knew that I would become one, and he had already sparked in me an interest in the world that was substantial enough to influence my choosing of a major.

In the years following my graduation from college, my academic interest in the world or, "foreign affairs", took a back seat to other things, and I ceased to consider that it would ever again be a part of my life.

But apparently God had not forgotten that it was he who gave me the interest, for a reason. Soon after I left the Marine Corps, he fanned the small remaining flame of interest into a passion that I became convinced he was going to use in ministry.

As Amy and I began talking about the possibility of becoming "missionaries", we felt that the Lord was encouraging us, but never toward any particular country or place. I began to consider that perhaps our calling to "missions" was more general, whatever that might mean. Not knowing exactly what to make of all that at the time, a trip to the National Missionary Convention in Cincinnati last fall provided a clue. Amy and I got acquainted with Gospel for Asia, a missions organization that supports, trains, equips, and sends natives to reach their own people for Christ in the harvest ripe nations of Asia. I read a book that the people at the Gospel for Asia booth gave me called Revolution in World Missions, by Gospel for Asia's founder and president, K.P. Yohannan. This book did exactly what Yohannan wrote it to do - it revolutionized my understanding of world missions (not that I had much understanding to speak of before that time anyway).

In any case, I became convinced of the great effectiveness of native/indigenous missionaries in taking the Gospel to their own people. After all, most restricted countries, where western missionaries are not allowed, already have native believers within their borders. These Christians have been called of the Lord to proclaim the Gospel to their countrymen and plant churches to disciple those who believe. Not only so, but they can do it for a tiny fraction of the cost of American missionaries, who often require western salaries and must spend years learning the local language and culture before they are effective. Since I learned of these realities, it has been so easy to get behind indigenous missionaries with my prayers and financial support.

For the remainder of 2007, and the first half of 2008, I persisted in praying that the Lord would invite us in some way to join him in this work of supporting indigenous missions. I soon began feeling that this was the work he had been preparing me for, and that this would be, at least in large part, our contribution to "world missions" as a family.

On June 15th, the evening I arrived in Charlottesville from Indiana, I was alone, having made the 10 hour drive a week before we were to move as a family. I was going to work the next morning at my new Marine Corps job in Lynchburg, but I couldn't resist spending the night in the town we had been excited to move to for so long. Of course I made several wrong turns as I came into town, not having even visited for at least three years. In the course of making these wrong turns, I drove right by the sign on 5th street extension for Christian Aid. I had never heard of Christian Aid and I didn't know what it was, but I asked the lady at my hotel that night about it and she found the website for me.

After devouring a good portion of the website, I was convinced that God had been preparing me for some time, at least vocationally, to come alongside the work he is doing through this organization.

I contacted Christian Aid and informed them of my tremendous interest, as well as my need for employment. They responded, but did not have any job openings. Over the course of the next two months I kept in touch with a particular staff member, who encouraged me to pursue my interest in the organization, despite the fact that no jobs were being offered. Finally, on Thursday August 8th, I got an email offering an opportunity to volunteer. Since I felt like I had already applied to every reasonable job in Charlottesville, and I could do little more than wait on some return phone calls, I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer and learn about Christian Aid from the inside.

And nine days of volunteering later, I have a job!!!

I will start on Monday, and we are so excited!

Amy and I want to thank everyone who has prayed for us during our transition here, and also those who have encouraged us with phone calls, emails and other forms of support. We know that God answers prayers, because we have seen him answer so many in the last several years. This was a particularly exciting one to have answered, because it is very certainly the realization of a dream I have had since college for my vocation to be an expression of who the Lord has made me to be. God is God, and in the future we will go wherever he calls us. But we rejoice now in a peace and contentment that comes only from knowing we are right where he wants us to be.

I encourage you to check out Christian Aid's website (see link above). They are certainly not the only organization in America dedicated to supporting the indigenous missions movement, but they are typically considered the first, the pioneers in the western world of this "reformed" or "revolutionary" outlook on world missions.

By the way, my job will be in the Donor Relations department, and I'll be doing a lot of different things. I'll obviously learn more in the weeks to come about exactly what my job will entail.

That's all for now. Good night!

Tastes Like Chicken

Get it? Frog legs? Chicken... I crack myself up.

Off the Cuff

We were unloading the troops for a hike when we realized we didn't have any form of carrier for Joseph. We always keep the baby bjorn in the car for quick trips, but this time it was not in there. We had to improvise. Andy took off his shirt and I made a sling for Joseph to sit in while we hikes. It worked perfectly. He even fell asleep on the hike.

Solid Foods

Joseph has shown an intense interest in food lately. Due to some research, I had wanted to postpone him eating solids for as long as possible, but this was as long as I possibly could hold him off. He would scream when we were eating in front of him. It seemed like a good time to start, since we don't enjoy eating with such nonsense going on! So, here he is eating away on some Japanese rice! We started out with some rice cereal and oatmeal, but he wasn't interested. We then moved onto bananas and avocados. He's found two very best friends so far. I'm sure he'll have more in the coming weeks. Next week's food is sweet potatoes.

Flowers

These flowers just came up a few weeks ago, and more just kept coming up. I've had a total of 4 bouquets around the house over the last month. It's been wonderful!

The first picture is from our back door looking out onto our patio. It's after I had already cut a ton of flowers. Someone was an avid gardener here and we are sure grateful they were. There were also some great glads that bloomed earlier in the summer. I just love flowers. And having them around for free is pretty great too.

Too Cute

I just had to put this up.

Rolie Polie

Joseph is hardly ever put down. It's just a fact. Since we've gotten the jumper, he is either in my arms or in that most of the day. He just simply does not like life away from Mama.

In an effort to make him a little more independent, we've started just putting him on the floor so him and Samuel can play together. He's starting to realize that life isn't so bad away from Mama anymore. He is actually starting to like it.

And to celebrate, he's now rolling over in all directions like a champ.

Joe Jumper

The weekend after Sam's birthday, Nana came to visit. She was only here for a couple days, but it was a wonderful trip. While she was here she stocked Joseph up with some goodies, a mattress for his big boy crib and a jumper. He loves the jumper! He's in there all the time!

The new mattress he hasn't tried out yet, but we all know he's going to hate it. Since we are going to go at his pace with transitioning him into his own bed I am envisioning it could take years.

We probably should have gotten a double mattress, since he'll be 14 before he actually uses it!

Mimi

Here are the boys with their great grandma, Mimi. This was the first time Mimi met Joseph. She gave him a GORGEOUS cross stitch she made for him that had his birthday, his birth weight and had an adorable bear with balloons on it. She's in her late 80's and can still cross stitch with the best of them, she's amazing!

A Trip to the Park

While I'm MD we went for a walk around a lake nearby and fed the ducks. It was about 100 degrees, but that didn't seem to phase the boys.

Sand Storm