Friday, June 24, 2011

Urgent Prayer Request

Please be much in prayer about our French Paperwork. We need to hear back from France VERY SOON!
Patrick posted more on the situation on our family blog

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers for our family as we try to reach the people on the island of St. Barthelemy!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Packages, Phone, School, and Bible Study

I just wanted to post a quick update on few things from our side of the world.





Packages: We received our first package in the mail yesterday! Actually it was two! (I love love love mail, by the way ;o) Brenna loves being the one to be able to go and check our mailbox each morning. Our mail usually comes about 9:30am. I've been joking with Brenna that she's not allowed to come back inside unless she has mail! As I watched her from the window, I noticed she checked the mail and started running back inside with a huge smile on her face! Yay! Good news! She was so excited to pull out two large manilla envelopes from my Mom. The bad news? Patrick wasn't home, he was at Mariane and Georges working on his french Bible Study. The kiddos weren't too thrilled to have to wait until noon when Patrick would come home to open the packages. But, we managed to wait. When he came home he found a letter in the driveway (Jonathan's Graduation Announcement--Thanks Keela!) Brenna must have been so excited about the package that she didn't see the letter and dropped it in the driveway. Oops! It takes quite a while for mail here. We're noticing an average of 3-4 weeks. Wow! Although, we received a birthday card for Josh from one of our supporting churches in Michigan and it arrived in record time---2 Weeks! So, if you want to send us something, go to Michigan to mail it :o)



Phone-STILL NO PHONE. Which means no internet. Hhhhmmm. Is the Lord wanting to teach me patience? I talked to the phone company last week and they said the cables are being laid now. It should be anyday, but they didn't want to give me an exact day. We are very thankful to have Mariane and Georges. They have been so sweet to let us drop by anytime of the day (or night) to check our mail, for a coke, and sometimes a wonderful meal. (They are both amazing cooks!) So, even though we don't have a home phone, we're able to use our Vonage at their house to call our family. I love keeping in touch!







School- Will it ever end? Eventually I think we will be caught up and ready for our summer. I guess I should rephrase that. We are definitely ready for summer, our school work isn't. The kids are working hard to get finished for the year, and I think we should be done by mid July.



Bible Study- We had one lady come to our Bible Study Sunday! Yay! We had Bible Study at 10:30 and lunch together afterwards. Please keep praying with us for next Sunday. We're praying for 3 people to come.



Thanks everyone for praying and for your sweet messages during our transition time moving to St. Barths. God has been so good and is so faithful!

Monday, June 13, 2011

A Cheery Fix

I am loving my new kitchen! I love the counter space and I love that the counters are tile. It makes them so durable and easy to clean. Well, as I was making this space more my own, I noticed a slight problem:




I showed my girls this empty space and we all thought some nice flowers would quickly fix our problem. Our yard is truly a beautiful garden with so many tropical flowers blooming. It wouldn't hurt to pick a few, right? So, I sent the girls out to cut some fresh flowers for our vase. I felt just like my Mam-maw! I remember doing this many times for her and coming back in with a bouquet of beautiful Zinnias! They cut and arranged and made a beautiful bouquet!









Problem Solved!









Monday, June 6, 2011

A Visitor





We have enjoyed seeing some different types of animals and birds in our yard. We hear all kinds of birds and animals. For the first two weeks Silas thought for sure we had monkeys, elephants, and tigers in our yard! Well, I wasn't counting on having this little visitor in our yard.



Yes, it's a rat. Oh dear.


Saturday, June 4, 2011

My Birthday



I know I brag on my family a lot, but they did it again! They made me feel so special on my birthday. They made me one of my favorite breakfasts....Yogurt Parfaits. And it was served on the Special Plate! Yay for the Special Plate! Then, we had a butter cake they had made for me frosted with my new favorite color. It was so pretty, that I almost hated to eat it! Almost. They gave sweet gifts. Patrick knew I'd been dying to finish a series of fiction books by that I had started last month. He ordered the last two for me on Ebay, put them in his suitcase, and gave them to me. I read most of the day! It was great! Elisabeth picked out a beautiful Sign of the poem Footprints at Cracker Barrell and stuck it in her suitcase. Josh gave me 10 Euros! And Brenna made a really cool Scavenger Hunt for me. It was such a wonderful day and made turning 35 all the more better...Did I just say 35? Oh Wow! I'm old.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Mother's Day 2011




I know I'm very behind in posting, but we still have no phone here, so I can only post when we go to Mariane's. 4 days after we arrived here, it was Mother's Day. My family is so sweet and thoughtful, and they treat me so well! First thing in the morning, they all lined up on the wall (they looked a little suspicous!) and then they brought me their cards and gifts. It was so sweet!








Elisabeth made me this beautiful blue bracelet. She's starting to get into beading and having a great time with it! I love the benefits of her hobby!



I received several wonderful gifts, but some of my most prized possessions are the thoughtful cards and notes. Praise God for such a wonderful family!