Saturday, October 24, 2009

Brazil Update and a Week with Grandma

The Brazil update is that we got our tickets and we will be leaving on December 9th, 2009!

We just enjoyed a fabulous week with my sweet Grandma Nita who came in on the train. We got some great time with the fam, and a *perfect* day to go to the zoo! Thank you for coming, Grandma! We love you!











Saturday, October 17, 2009

A Day with the Cousins

Johann turned ONE year old, a month ago tomorrow! So, this is taking me a long time to get up, but better late than never, right?

We had had a mini celebration with him on my birthday, but on the actual day of his birthday my brother and his family came over for lunch and the kids had a wonderful time playing in the yard. Good thing we took advantage of the weather when we could! Little did we know winter would hit us in October this year!






(You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. Unless you are reading this through facebook. You have to actually come to my blog to get that effect. :)


The Boys













They cant help but be goofy!













Gabriel Creed


















What a great smile!


















Tree Huggers?


















Avianna and Daddy


















Isnt that just the sweetest??


















Moriah pushing Johann. She thinks he is a toy dolly. :)












Way too cute for her own good.... Moriah Sage. =)














































Avianna Marie who just has the best smile in the world


















We found these matching dresses for the girls LAST summer and they fit them both perfectly now. They just love them, and they love matching, and they loved dancing in the yard with them, especially after it started to rain!













































































































































While the girls twirled, the boys engaged in a more manly activity. Not sure what you would call it exactly, but they had a great time creating this conglomeration:















And this is kinda random for this post, but since I am finally posting, I thought I would add that Johann is walking now and thinks he is really hot stuff!

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Brazil.... here we come!

Well......... this is not news to all of you, but probably for many of you! We are going to Brazil!

Hmmm.... where to begin and still keep this brief?

We have been praying for well over a year about where the Lord wants us to be. We have felt Him "shaking" things up in our lives and in our hearts, and we believed that it was nearing the time for us to move on.

Over the past more-than-a-year, we have prayed and waited and sought counsel and prayed some more, done much seeking and knocking, and more waiting and praying.... and at last we have become convinced that the Lord is leading us to a season in Brazil.

At this point, we are planning to leave around the last of November or first of December, and for now we are planning to spend about five or six months -- to "spy out" the land (like Caleb and Joshua) and bring back a report. :) We are in faith that the Lord has already gone before us, preparing the way, and that this time will be a fruitful one.

And what will we do after that? Frankly, we are not sure. There are several possibilities, but nothing definite yet. We have been talking with our church leaders and making some contacts in Brazil, which we will be able to do better once we are there. But even though we don't know all of the specifics, we are sure that the Lord is leading and that HE knows!

It has not been an easy decision for us to come to. Besides the fact that we have four small children, we also have an extremely comfortable life in the USA. The only thing we have never had much of is money (lol), but here it is just pretty easy to have plenty of "stuff", and live very well, besides our family, church family and friends, and all of the other connections that make this a wonderful place to live.....

But ultimately, we want more than anything else to be where the Lord wants us to be, and we are excited about what He may do in our future! Please pray with us and for us as we finalize the preparations for our trip.

Updates to come.....