Video Post!

I really wanted to get some good footage of Joe's new crawling skills, but he's kinda camera shy, it seems. He does crawl in this video, but not as fast as he usually does. I got to stay home with the kids today, and Joe just followed me all around the apartment. It was so cute!

Our class took a field trip to a mosque today, but Reece has had a stomach virus since yesterday, so I stayed home with the kids. She has bee really miserable, and I was sad to miss the field trip, but I was really glad to be able to spend some time with Joe and take care of Reece.

In this one, first Reece shows me how SHE can crawl, then it's Joe's turn. This poor boy cannot hide any of his emotions. His face is so expressive!

I think Daniel has really been enjoying his extra time with the kids!

Here's some footage of Reece getting some major tickles from Daddy. She says, "That's enough!"

And, finally, Reece's exercising session.

We are really enjoying out time here. Our classes have been really good and informative. We are bonding with the others in our class and the MAF staff, too. We had a meeting last Tuesday with the candidate committee, which is the team of people who decide where our family will be assigned. The meeting went really well. We were able to share some of our thoughts on what our preferences and concerns are. We'll have our "acceptance meeting" this coming Tuesday where we'll officially be accepted to MAF and we'll receive our country assignment. We are very excited, but I'm nervous, too! I think the main two options are Indonesia or Africa (possibly Lesotho or Democratic Republic of Congo). MAF also needs people in Eurasia, so that's a possibility, as well.

Please be praying for God's hand in our placement and wisdom for the MAF staff who are making this decision.

Joe Update and MAF Update

We had a great first two days of our candidacy this week. We learned about MAF Africa, Asia and Latin America. God is doing so many amazing things that I didn't even know about in these regions through MAF. I wish I could explain all of them to you. We are also doing a neat Bible study called "Unveiled" which teaches about God's purpose for all nations coming to know Him as a theme in the entire Bible.

We continue to pray that God would give us and the MAF staff direction on where He wants us to serve. There are so many exciting things happening!

Things with Julie are going well. Joe sleeps so much, and I come back to nurse him, so he has been pretty content. I think Julie and Reece may be getting a little bored just staying in the apartment all day. I'm trying to think of some more creative things for them to do, but I'm running out of things! Anyone have ideas for thing that a 19-yr old babysitter and a 2 year old can do together at home?

Our house is not "officially" rented out, but we have some renters who are days away from signing a lease!! We have been working out all the details with them and our Realtor, so we hope things will move along with them quickly. They just sold their house and are in the process of building, so they sound like they will be easy to work with and very dependable. Please pray that they would sign a lease quickly.

I forgot to post some really neat pictures of Bryce Canyon. We dove through the national park in Utah on the way to Salt Lake City. It was really amazing and so different from the Grand Canyon. They are not really comparable since they are so different. The GC is so huge and unbelievable, but Bryce Canyon is smaller but so interesting to look at all the details.
It was still chilly there. I think the elevation was about 8-9 thousand feet!

This is a picture of our kitchen in our apartment before my camera battery died!!

This is Joe at 8 1/2 months old. He has been working on crawling for the past week, but today he really started to take off! He also started giving the sweet, open-mouthed baby kisses the other day! I can only get him to do it once and awhile. I'll say, "Joe, give me a kiss!" and I'll pucker up my lips to him and most of the time he makes this squishy face like he's just tasted something yucky... what a stinker!! :)

Here's a short video of him crawling. He's even better at it now!

These are some pictures of Reece when she was 8 months old. She is so much smaller, but much better at moving around. I watched a video of her crawling, and she is so fast and better than Joe! I think it's because she had less weight to get off the ground (At least that's Daniel's theory!)

Oh, my sweet little baby girl. I miss her being that little, but she's so fun and loving now.

SORRY!

Sorry, I can't post any pics because my camera is dead and I can't find the charger anywhere!! Looks like I'll be shopping for a new one this weekend.

We start classes tomorrow. Please pray that it would go well in class and with Julie and the kids!!

Whew..!!

We finally made it to Nampa, Idaho on Monday evening. Our last day of driving was long and the kids were a little fussy, but they did SOOO well the entire week and I'm so thankful for that. We could handle a few hours of whining on the last day. We were busy reading the book Funding your Ministry the last few days of the trip. It's a really excellent book if anyone needs information on the subject.

Anyway, we arrived at our cozy apartment and are settling in well. I wanted to post pictures of it, but I'm looking around at all the exploding suitcases and full kitchen table, so I'm rethinking that and I'll try to pick up and take pictures after I post this :) Our apartment is RIGHT across from the MAF offices. I mean, like, only a few yards away. The apt's are less than a year old and very nice. They are stocked with everything you could need (I ended up leaving a lot of the stuff I brought in the trailer) and lots of fun toys and extra things for the kids. Right down the sidewalk is a small playground with sand and a big airplane and turtle for the kids to play on (I'll take a pic of that, too) There are also lots of outdoor toys for the kids. The apt is only ONE bedroom with a sleeper sofa in the living room. We put Reece and Joe in the one bedroom together and Daniel and I are sleeping on the sleeper sofa at night. It really hasn't been as bad as I thought I would be. The only thing is it's been hard for us to get all unpacked since Joe is in the bedroom so much sleeping!! :) We are very comfortable here and thankful for the nice apartments from MAF. (They are FREE for us while we are here...YEA!!) I was grumpy about the fact that we only had one bedroom because I know that there are two apts with two bedrooms UNTIL I found out that there is a family here on furlough with SEVEN kids in one of the two bedrooms!!! YIKES!! (I'm still curious about who is in the other 2 bedroom :)

Reece still isn't sleeping well, but at least she's not waking up screaming for an hour like she was a few weeks ago. She still wakes up at least two times a night and we have to go lay with her. She also has a lot of trouble getting to sleep at night. I think it might be because it's so bright out until at least 10pm. Last night we just let her lie in bed and we heard her talking to Joe and him laughing! (he was asleep when we put her in there, but I guess he woke up to her talking)

We are going to get our "notebooks" today, so I guess we'll find out more details about our time here. We are also going to talk to the girl who will be watching our kids while we are in class. Her name is Julie and she is the daughter of one of the staff at MAF who we know well, but we've never met her. Please pray for her: That she'll love our kids and be patient and kind with them. Also, that she'll do fun activities with them and that Reece will obey her and that Joe would not be fussy with her. As you can imagine, I'm not thrilled about leaving my kids all day, but I know God has the best plan for them and He is their protector. They are HIS, not mine!! :)

We are having a fun and relaxing time between our travels and before our classes start. Yesterday we hit up the shopping of Nampa (JC Penny's :) and went out to dinner. We have been over to the offices to say hi and Daniel is going out with a friend today. Reece loves the park and her "new" toys, and Joe is loving rolling around on the nice, clean carpet of our apt and working on his crawling skills!! He is SOOO cute. I'll have to include some pics of him, too, in my next picture post.

Since the kids are waking up SO early (5:45-6:00am) we decided to go on a morning jog together this morning. We hope to make it a habit considering that with the chaos of the past few weeks, we have not been exercising at all.

Please pray for our time here in MAF. These first two weeks are really important as we decide, along with MAF, what our country assignment will be. Please pray for wisdom and God's leading for us and for the staff at MAF. Also, we hope to bond with some of the other families in our candidacy class. We hear there is only one other family with children-two boys around 5 and 7 years old. But, we haven't met anyone yet.

Okay, I think that's all for now. Sorry, I'm trying to get better about posting shorter posts more frequently!! :)

Pictures to come later on today!

Road Trip Adventure Day 6

DISCLAIMER:
Becky has handed the blog over to me (Daniel) for this post. The views and opinions expressed in this posting do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the blog manager (Becky).

Random Stories From the Road
Since our last update we have spent two nights at the Grand Canyon (referred to from this point forward simply as the G.C.). So far all of our driving has gone pretty well and the kids have been cooperative. Becky is such a wonderful and patient mother and has worked so hard to keep the kids entertained and happy. She also has had some pretty awesome food on the menu (very important in the opinion of the Chauffeur). That's French for driver.

We made some friends with genuine modern day hippies at the G.C. They bought a trailer on craigslist and left Clearwater FL on June 1st with a final destination of California. We enjoyed our chats with Chip and Michael (there were three more but we didn't meet them) and were sad to see them go.

If we got a dollar for every 1-800-RV4Rent camper we saw we would have chartered Air Force One (complete with F-16 fighter jet escorts) to take us the rest of the way. In all seriousness those things are more abundant than rabbits during springtime. If you would like more information you can visit them online at www.CruiseAmerica.com.

My beautiful family. Reece wanted to sit on her "own rock." She also had to walk on the rocks that lined the trail. This made for some slow going but it made Reece so happy.

My beautiful little girl. She was more interested in climbing on the rocks, going up and down the stairs, and exploring the "jungles" (any tree or bush) than she was in the G.C.

The author and his Herculean son.

Reece running down the path to the G.C. on our first day there.

It was a long way down from where we were standing. We're not as close to the edge as we look. Would you like a fabulous family photo like this one? Follow these simple steps:

1. Find appropriate spot for photo.

2. Find appropriate rock to rest the camera on while taking photo.

4. Have your wife stand in the appropriate spot while you get the camera angled "just right."

5. Set the automatic timer on your camera and make a mad dash to get into place.

6. Wait 30-45 seconds for 10 second timer to go off.

7. Go back to the camera and repeat steps 4-6.

8. Say thank you to the kind stranger who offered to take the picture for you.

The whole family looking super fly.

Becky living life on the edge.

This was taken only moments after Reece's first glimpse of the G.C. (if you are not sure what the "G.C." is please see above and read a little more carefully. You miss priceless stories if you only look at the pictures). She was EXTREMELY disappointed when she found out we couldn't go to the bottom.

Well, that about sums up the last few days. We're spending tonight (Saturday) at the K.A.O .(Where Kamping is Kool) in Panguitch Utah and will be in Salt Lake City tomorrow night. We plan to arrive in Nampa on Monday. Thank you all for your prayers. We miss you guys!

Road Trip Adventure Day 3

It is starting to rain, so I have to make this quick. Today went so great with about 6 hours of driving and everyone was happy. Reece is loving the treats that some of our friends gave us for our road trip (The glitter pens and the little doggie were a big hit today). We are in Holsbrook (I think) AZ and tomorrow only have a 177 mile drive to the grand canyon (which Reece thinks is "a big hole")
Thanks for the prayers, setting up the camper/dinner time/bed time went much smoother tonight!)
Gotta go-computer getting wet!!

Road Trip Adventure Day 2

Today we drove from Ft. Worth to Tucumcari, New Mexico. It took about 7 or 8 hours, all of which were pretty relaxed and uneventful. We stopped at a nice rest stop for lunch for almost an hour to picnic and let Reece play on the playground. The last 45 minutes or so of the trip were the only time where the kids were fussy...they just were ready to get out of the car. So, here we are sitting in our lawn chairs in the Tucumcari KOA watching the lightening in the distance and wearing our long sleeves because we are COLD! :) We got here about 6:30 Houston time (we're an hour earlier here now) and set up the pop-up without too much trouble while I played with the kids on the playground. Reece (as usual) is thrilled about all the "park" stops we get to make along the way. We did have a stressful moment right after dinner because we had a mess to clean up, two very tired and fussy babies, and too much stuff to move around and figure out what our sleeping arraignments should be. So, hopefully we'll get in a little earlier tomorrow so we can get a better routine down. (If any one has tips on sleeping in a pop-up trailer with two kids with early bed-times, we would love them!)
Yesterday we left pretty late after packing up our ENTIRE house and packing the car and trailer, so we pulled into Ft. Worth at about 11pm with the kids asleep in the car. We decided to go with a hotel that night since we were so late and our first night was the only night we didn't have a reservation somewhere. Thankfully, we all slept really well :)
Well, it's time to tip-toe into the trailer and try to get some sleep. Again, we can't tell you how thankful we are for all your prayers, support, encouragement and generosity!! Daniel and I just can't stop talking about all our wonderful friends and family.
Good night! :)