2011 in Review

2011, What a year! Here's a quick "Year in Review"

January is the month my baby boy turned 2! We had a great cowboy party with a Western Village for the kids to play in. And... ...Callie and I were able to take a quick trip to Michigan to spend some quality time with my Mam-maw and Aunt Robin. It was a fabulous trip, and super cold, too!

February took Patrick and his Mom to St. Barths to try and find us a place to live and to start preparing things for our move.

March was a month full of meetings, trying to raise the rest of our support. It was also my Elisabeth's 13th birthday! And... ....we tried to squeeze in as much extra time with our family as possible!

April was a super super busy month! Our home church, Winkler Road Baptist Church, had our sending service. It was a pretty emotional time for our family, that's for sure! Here's a picture of my sweet 3 sisters and their families singing, "Bury my Heart" at our send-off service. And... ...it was also a month for packing, packing, and more packing!

May was a life changer month. This is the month we moved to St. Barthelemy. This was a day I thought would never come! My family came to drop us off at the airport. It was so hard to say good-bye! And...

...it was also Callie Grace's one year birthday! Wow! Time has flown!

June brought another birthday...my Josh turned 15! And...

...it was a month of settling in and enjoying the island of St. Barths! And...

...a shipment of our stuff really helps! :o) In July Brenna Shay turned 12! Of course we had to spend the day snorkeling!

In August we had a special surprise! Marc (Patrick's brother) came for a visit and to work for his Aunt and Uncle. It was a blessing to have him around!

September was time for some new 5 kiddo pics. It sure is hard to get that perfect one! And...

It was time for school to begin! Josh is now in 10th grade, Elisabeth in 8th and Brenna in 7th.

October was a very exciting month... My parents came to visit and we had an amazing and fun-filled week! When it was time for them to leave, I had to go back to Florida with them to renew my passport and file for my Visa. At the beginning of November there was a lot of uncertainties. Elisabeth, Silas, Callie and I were still in Florida awaiting my passport and Visa. We ran into some problems with the Consolate in Chicago for the girls paperwork. Even though we were having a great time in Florida, it was a time of testing for us to be away from Patrick, Josh and Brenna for so long. We prayed for the Lord to work all things out and let us be home for Thanksgiving. He answered our prayers and we made it home 3 days before!

December...Whew! What a busy month, and we're still recovering! We went caroling and made cookies, and decorated our tree and had a fabulous Christmas! We were excited to have a total (including our family) of 11 in services on Christmas Day!

As I look back on 2011, I see how good God has been to us! I look forward to see Him work in 2012!