A wagon ride probably doesn't sound too exciting, but don't you think it does when it means that the weather is finally good enough to go outside?!
Carter got this wagon for his first birthday from my parents. He's getting kind of big for it now, but I will NEVER tell him that. I don't want him to be too big for it! I don't want him to be big at all--probably because I'm already sad that he'll be starting kindergarden in the fall.
Marley was sleeping when we first went outside, but then she woke up and took her turn in the wagon too!
She loved it! I was thinking while we were outside that this is her first spring. It's so exciting every year when spring arrives, but what if you had never experienced it before? Even more exciting!
There aren't any shoulder straps in the wagon, just lap straps, so a few times she slid over to the side. But she didn't seem to mind!
And then of course they all had to get in at the same time! Carter pulled his legs in and I pulled them around the circle--but just once. All together they weigh almost 80 pounds!
And I just LOVE it that starting tomorrow it will stay light outside for longer each day! Happy Spring! (I know it doesn't officially start until March 20th, but we did already have Spring Break, so to me, it's already here!)
Have I mentioned lately how much I love my job with Parental Care Ministries? (If you don't know that I work for them, you can start by reading that post here.)
Have I also mentioned that Justin is leaving the student ministry job he's had for 10 years to come work for PCM too?!
As we come to the end of one chapter and begin the next one, we are finding that the summary of our whole experience can be found in Psalm 126:3:
The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
In the last ten years while we have been ministering to students, many things have happened:
We got engaged and married
A student swallowed a live goldfish at the student center (I promise this will not happen to your children if you send them there...)
In addition to camps, retreats, and local and national mission trips, we went to Nicaragua and Guatemala together; Justin went to Thailand, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Belize; I went to Argentina and Mexico
We bought and sold our first house and bought the one we live in now (I purchased this one while Justin was in New Orleans on a mission trip just weeks before Hurricane Katrina, faxing the 18 page contract back and forth several times!)
Those houses have been wrapped many times
We got our dog, Bear
We had Carter, London, and Marley
Justin dyed his hair pink and then quickly dyed it back in time for London's birth
Justin gave our children "the talk" for all the students to see
We made lifelong friends through the student staff and volunteers, and formed wonderful relationships with many, many students
We have trusted God to show us when it was time to move on, and that time has come.
Several months ago, even though we were still enjoying our time at Green Acres and with the students, we started feeling God calling us away from student ministry. It wasn't all at once, we just slowly felt our hearts changing. We still loved students (and always will), we just felt the Spirit stirring things up. I can't explain what an exciting time it has been for us to know He was moving and leading and guiding and that we were just along for the ride!
We continued to seek God as we were feeling this way, and we allowed Him to guide us through each step. Since January, through none of our own strength, He has opened doors--and opened them WIDE--for us to take this step to work together for PCM.
He has also solidified our family's friendship with the Barret family, making this ministry partnership feel like it is exactly what He had planned all along. Although the PCM Board of Directors just met at the beginning of this year and put a Director of Operations in their 5 year plan, since then God has made it clear to them and to us that this position was in His 3 month plan instead. :-) Justin will finish his student ministry job in early April and will leave for Uganda soon after that for a two week trip. PCM is a ministry to Ugandan orphans and pastors, so Justin and I will both be traveling there as often as we can. We can't wait to bring our family with us one day too!
Many of you know how much Justin and I both love international missions. I asked him when we were dating how he felt about missions...because if he wasn't willing to do missions, I wasn't going to marry him. God had made it very clear to me that this kind of ministry would be a part of my life, and I knew he wouldn't have me marry someone who didn't feel the same way! Over the years, we have been involved in missions in different ways. Now God is calling us to this full time missions ministry, and we are THRILLED! It is a bittersweet time as we leave the student ministry, which feels like home, but we are so glad to be staying at Green Acres and to have their support in our new ministry as well. (And can you believe that we are going to be "normal" members of GABC? That after 8 years of going to Sunday School by myself, Justin is going to go with me? I'll believe it when I see it!) The Parental Care office will be located at the GABC Outreach Center, where Good Sam is located. Justin will work there most of the time, and I will too when I need to get work done without three little munchkins at my heels.
We would love for you to check out what our new ministry is all about. The website is www.pcmonline.org. We would also love to talk to you about it anytime! (We're excited about it, can you tell?)
We do want to apologize for making our announcement this way...we just told the students this morning, and although we wish we could have told each of you in person, the most important thing was for the students to hear this news from Justin.
We would love for you to join us in praising God for this amazing thing He has done in our lives! We pray that each of you would also seek His direction in your life and allow Him to bless you in ways you couldn't even imagine, too! Even though I've had many sleepless nights lately--some because of a precious baby girl, some from worrying a little, but mainly from pure excitement!-- I wouldn't trade a single minute of this abundant life He has given us.
That's what Justin said when Marley turned 9 months a few weeks ago. It's a sad time for me to see her growing up, but an exciting time too to see her doing new things and joining into the family fun!
Here she is enjoying her first snow in February:
I snapped so many cute pictures of her! I didn't have to use the flash so I was able to just keep clicking away! I finally stopped and turned around to help Carter with his gloves, and when I turned back around, this is what I saw...
Marley eating snow! I shouldn't have been surprised because this girl puts EVERYTHING in her mouth! She loved it, can you tell? I ran inside to get some socks to put over her hands and a jacket for her, and she stayed outside and had a great time with the rest of us.
Besides snow, Marley has also started eating all real food--no more baby food! I thought I would feed her baby food longer than I had the other two kids, just to make sure she was getting enough fruits and vegetables, but she would have none of it! She wants to be just like everyone else.
She stuffs her waffle in just like her brother and sister used to!
When we go in to her room when she's waking up, she's always pulling the bumper down on her bed and peeking out at us. It's like her own personal window, and it's so cute!
We love you, sweet Marley!
**Notice the poll on the side of my blog! Cast your vote!
How could two precious little girls bring such a terrible stomach bug into our house? We don't know where they got it, but they have shared it with TOO MANY people!
London started saying her tummy hurt around 8:30 Monday night, and we knew she was serious when she said she didn't want a snack before bed. This girl never turns down a snack! Thirty minutes later it was confirmed, and we have the stained pink carpet to show for it. She threw up ten times that night and the next morning, and Marley woke up during the night with it too. We thought the rest of us were in the clear but we were wrong--Justin, Carter, and I all got it on Wednesday. My mom had been here for the weekend and she got it on Tuesday morning, and Wes came down with it early this morning. He'll probably blame it on us even though we haven't seen him since last Wednesday!
We are all finally getting our strength back and are all in real clothes and eating real food for the first time in days. In our 5 1/2 years of having children, we have never experienced this kind of super-bug that flies from person to person with lightning speed, and we hope to never experience it again!
There were times we just had to laugh during this whole thing, because it was either laugh or cry. We laughed at 4 in the morning when all 5 of us were in our bedroom and Justin said it was like we were on vacation! (Is that a vacation any of you want to sign up for?) When London and I went on a ride today, she asked why Carter couldn't come, and I said it was because we needed to make sure he was completely well before he rode in the car. She said: "He could bring his bowl." This made me laugh because we've had bowls all around the house just in case someone didn't make it to the bathroom in time. I guess she thinks the bowls are part of life now. And today I'm laughing with joy that God has healed us and we've made some fun (and not-so-fun) memories over the last few days.
Hoping you all stay well and that the super-bug stays far from your house!
I don't know about your family, but we celebrated Valentine's Day all week! Monday was of course our special dinner (see post below) and on Tuesday, the kids had Special Friends Day at their school. We let them choose who they would ask to be their special friends.
Carter chose Miss Monica...
and London chose Sissy.
They had a great time decorating and eating cookies and making crafts. Thank you, Monica and Shelly! You both ARE very special friends!
Friday night Justin and I went out to the movies for our Valentine's date. We only go to the movies once or twice a year, so we really enjoyed it! The kids had a great time too...click here to go to Shelly's blog to see what they did!
Sunday night, Justin and London went on a Valentine's date. London had already had chicken nuggets and fries for lunch, and since she's so picky, I thought he would have a hard time finding a place she would eat. But I shouldn't have underestimated him--he remembered that she loves pizza too!
After dinner they headed to the grocery store and did some Valentine's shopping. They came home with a small rose bush and some Valentine's cupcakes to share. I know it made London's day to be a little mommy with her shopping cart, and to have her daddy all to herself!
We have a china cabinet in our dining area where I have some of our china and crystal displayed. Last week, Carter asked me if we ever use those dishes. I told him that we do sometimes, but when he really pressed me for details, I admitted that the last time we had used them was before he was born. He asked if we could use them sometime, and I figured, why not? So I let Carter and London plan the "fancy dinner" on the "fancy dishes." Monday night was the big night. Here is what they planned:
Macaroni and cheese and 'tea without caffeine' (as Carter calls it)--and yes, I am very aware that that gravy boat is not a tea pitcher, but like I said, I let the kids plan the whole thing!
Links and hot dogs--is it really allowed to serve links on china?!
Lots of fruit (and Rudy's barbecue sauce, of course!)
Pretty flowers
Valentine cookies
Daddy lighting the candles
the kiddos ready for the big dinner!
our whole family ready to eat!
London drinking her milk out of a china cup (what a big girl!); she decided she didn't want tea
Marley isn't quite old enough to be trusted with china, but she did try the macaroni and cheese. Right here she's looking at us as if to say, "Why didn't you let me have some of this sooner?"
The fancy dinner was a big hit and the kids are already asking when we can do it again!
Most of you live around here and know that we had a LOT of snow last night! So much fun! When we all got home and it was snowing, Justin, Carter, and London went outside and built a very tall snowman. Here is a picture of their creation:
And for those of you who have expressed concern about London's lack of pants, shoes, jacket, hat, etc...she was completely bundled up while they were building it. She had shed all her layers when Justin decided we needed to take a picture, so he just carried her out there really fast and then brought her right back in! Here's the proof:
So after we took the picture, Justin decided to issue a challenge to some friends and youth workers. Here is what the e-mail said: "Okay the challenge has been set. Check out my photo. Can you build a snowman taller than 6 feet?" I, as a girl, thought that people would look at the picture, read the e-mail, laugh, and then forget about it. I think I completely underestimated the reaction of men to a challenge! Here are the entries:
Humphrey family snowman
Bush family snowmen--the parents (notice the mommy is pregnant!)
...and the Bush kids
the whole Bush family
the Barret family Are we sure this picture was taken in Tyler? You guys look like you just stepped off the ski lift in Colorado!
the Gibson family--oh my goodness!
real dedication
9' 4" without the hat!
Jason Smith and his neighbor
the Robb family--good job, Caleb!
Shelly, Wes, and Hannah (that's Shelly in the bikini!)
So...I think the Gibson family obviously won for the tallest snowman! What about most creative? Who gets your vote?
