Best Friends



When I was pregnant for Grace, Kent and I were talking about our need to do some type of mission work that would most likely take us away from Bluffton. Knowing this, I began to pray for our unborn child and Grady. I prayed that they would be best friends. With the uncertainty of where we might go, the consistency of our children's friends would waver. So, I wanted my kids to be best friends. Then, no matter where we went, they would always have each other as friends.

 

I believe God has answered this prayer. Grady and Grace are very good friends. They care for each other and play very well together. There are quarrels sometimes, but for the most part they enjoy being with each other. Here are just a few of their play times together.

 

Snow Buddies: It was cold, but they did enjoy a little play time in the snow.

 

Car Buddies: This is our van packed full on the way home from Christmas break. The kids always have big smiles before we leave, but those sometimes fade on our journeys to and from NTBI.

Book Buddies: I love it that my kids love books! They can never have enough. They were enjoying just sitting and reading.

 

Play Buddies: This is the kids' campsite. They have their tents, chairs, sticks, fire, and marshmallow(which double as cotton balls).

 More playing. I think they were putting cars in the hole in the stool. Whatever they were doing they were working together and doing it quietly.

Super Buddies: There's always endless fun with Grady's super hero costumes.

Curious Buddies: They were watching the front loader remove snow from the parking lot outside our window. Grace will do about any boy adventure or game is Grady is leading the way.

What a blessing to see the two of them play together. I really do hope that forever they will be good buddies. That Grady will continue to lead Grace. And that Grace will continue to encourage Grady whenever he is down. Wherever the Lord takes us, they'll have each other, and that will be enough.

Christmas Revisited

So, as many of you know, my computer wouldn't let me upload pictures to our blog. Therefore, I was unable to do a Christmas blog. Well, we asked the IT guy here at NTBI and while he stood there, with us explaining the problem,... it started working!

Even though it's over a month late, I decided to do a Christmas blog post anyways. Here is what our time a Christmas looked like.

Present time: The kids enjoyed opening presents at the many different stops that we went to during our 4 weeks home over Christmas.

Silly Time: Grace got underwear for Christmas and wanted to put them on right way. It was very funny to see her pull them up over her tights.

 



Action Time: Grady got this new sword and was showing us some of his great moves. He does really well with a sword.

 





 

 Silly Time Revisited: Grace really is a ham and she is two so the combination results in some pretty funny saying and actions.

 

Tradition Time: After I took this picture, I realized that Kent posses every year with a bow on his head. So he was sure to keep the tradition going.

Hopeful Times: Bobbie and Aaron sent Christmas presents for everyone. This was Bobbie's favorite and couldn't wait for Kent to get it. It's a shirt with Mzungu written on it, which means rich white person. This is what the Africans call all white people. We are hopeful for next Christmas when the Howley's will get to spend Christmas with us.

One - on - One Time: Kent and Grady got to spend some time putting together a model car. Grady loved painting it and putting on the stickers.

Snow Time: There was soooo much snow during Christmas Break. Grady got to go out with Lydia and Isabelle. They didn't stay out long because of the cold.

Grady and Grace both went out when we were at the Lockwood's. The snow was so pretty and it wasn't too cold yet. They really enjoyed playing in the snow.

 

We had a very nice visit over Christmas break with all our friends and family. It was great to reconnect with the happenings of Bluffton and the events of life that just keep going while we are away. We're so blessed to have a sound support group in Bluffton that loves and cares for us. 

 

The return to Jackson was bittersweet, but as we opened our apartment door we realized once again that we are so blessed to have a support group here at NTBI as well. We returned home to pictures in our apartment, balloons, and a crockpot supper ready for us. We shared supper with three other families that night and settled in for our sophomore semester at NTBI. 





 

Back Home Again.... In Jackson

Once again I come to you with a pictureless post. For some reason my computer won't let me add photos to my blog. I haven't gotten around to figuring out what's wrong, but could not wait to share today's happenings.

So we returned to Jackson, MI yesterday afternoon. We were so blessed to have someone to watch our kids while we unloaded and five guys to carry our things upstairs. It's was a blessing to open the door to find soup in the crock pot and cookies on the counter for us. We enjoyed supper with some of our friends here and tucked the kids in. After a nice chat with my friend, and Kent watching a guy movie we retired to our glorious queen size bed.

Then today we had to go to Mejier. The kids did great. I also needed to mail a package to Bobbie so we went to the post office. I didn't think it would take long, so Kent agreed to stay with the kids and the pack of Mentos.

Well, the post office took longer than I thought so as I'm walking out Kent texts me, asking if they shipped me with the package to Uganda. When I got to the van Kent hands me the Mento package, baring one lonely mento, and proceeds to tell me just what happened while I was inside...

• While listening to  "Taking Care of Business" Grady asks "Daddy, what does take it to the business mean?"
• A questionable character walks up to the trash can and starts rummaging through for pop cans. Immediately, Grady questions Kent about what he is doing.
• A man in a orange jump suit and hand cuffs walks by being escorted by two well dressed men. Grady proceeds to ask Kent what the man had done wrong.
• Another song come in the radio, "Free Falling" Grady asks, "Daddy, what's free balling."

•  Grace is sitting there this entire time just asking for more Mentos.

Needless to say I was in tears by the time Kent got done telling me these things. All this happened in this space fifteen minutes! It was a good laugh that I definitely needed.

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Here, There, and Everywhere

Wow, November 8th was a long time. Lots has taken place since then. Kent and I have finished our first semester at NTBI. We will now start on our Sophomore semester when we return in a week. During our first semester we completed Biblical Foundations, Evangelism, Pentateuch, and Old Testament History. Kent also completed Biology,  Hermeneutics, and Proverbs. These studies have grown our understanding about God's sovereignty and his faithfulness. We need to always be seeking a relationship with him.

In Old Testament History (OTH) we were required to do write ups. In these we would take a story of the Old Testament, graph it's story plot and then write about how it applies to our lives. These were very eye opening. I wrote about Luke, our foster son, a lot, about how walking with The Lord will never be an easy walk, how church is so much more than just what makes me feel good, and trusting God when we're uncertain about the steps of faith he's asking us to take. The write ups were a love-hate relationship! Yet in there end we did learn a lot from them.

 The write up that hit me the most was that God was asking me to move on from Luke, our foster son. In 1 Saumel, God asks Saumel how long he would mourn over King Saul. God told him to go and annoint David as king. November 27 was a turning point for me. I realized that I had to move on from my grief about Luke. He was gone and wasn't coming back. It was a huge relief for me. I was free from a burden that had enslaved me for eight months. Now do I still miss him? Sometimes. However, I can think about him in a rational, healthy manner without crying all over the place!

Since school has been out we've been in Bluffton, IN. We're blessed enough to stay at House of Hope while the boys were on Christmas break. Kent helped with the chores and opened and closed the store each day. We were able to have Christmas morning to ourselves, which was a special to me.

Kent has been working at Fairway Flooring since December 23. We knew that he would have a job until January 1 but we didn't think it would go past that. However, Kent proved himself to be a really hard worker and they offered him job for the entire time we were home. God totally took care of this need. Kent's working hard, and I'm so proud of him and how he's caring for our family.

On December 31, we moved all our things over to the Lockwoods. Grady was so excited to be with their daughter, Emry. This was the family that we stayed with this summer. They are such a blessing to us. They received us and all our stuff with open arms. It's always a little crazy with 5 kids and 4 adults in one house but it always seems to work out well!

I'm so thankful for the time we've had herein Bluffton. We've been visiting with friends and family. Kent and I joke that we need to go back to NTBI just to be able to rest. We've also had more down time here than in Jackson, so I found a new hobby. Arm knitting! It's a lot of fun. I've made many scarves, and would love to make a blanket. I wishing could figure something else to make but that's about all I know how to make.

We'll be headed back to NTBI next Monday. That will give us two days to get settled in before we start classes in the 15th. We're thankful for all our time here in Bluffton and look forward to catching up with all our friends in Jackson.

Grace's Funny Faces

Grace our Honey Bee (which is why we often call her Gracie Bee) makes some of the funniest faces. Here are a few....

Morning Face

 

Cowgirl Face

 

 

I'm Not a Baby anymore Face

Serious Working Face

 



 

 Cuddle Face

 

I am absolutely terrified of Ronald McDonald Face!

 

I'm a cutie Face



 

 

Bedtime Snack Face

 

Long Car Ride Face

 



 

 Oh Our Honey Bee brings us lots of laughs, hugs and kisses!

Grady

Kent and I have been noticing that Grady says the funniest things. Here are some of them...

*When Griffin came over for Grady's birthday, Grady said, "This is our closet. This is our bathroom in case you need to go pee."

*When we were talking about Kate and me running the 5K, Grady asked, " Is Rilla's mommy going to try and beat you?" " No honey we're on the same team." "Oh, I know we can throw Rilla's mommy in the pond so you could beat her." ... Yikes we had to talk about that one.

*Grady and I were discussing marriage and he asked who he would marry. I told him he would have to pray about that. So he proceeds to lay down close his eyes wait a second or two and then tells me "There's a different Grace at the Philippines that I am going to marry." I guess time will tell.

*This week someone asked Grady where belly buttons came from and Grady quickly replied,
"California!"

*For some reason, Grady was licking our globe, not idea why, and Kent told him to stop because it was nasty and old. Grady asked how old. Kent said 10 to 15 years. To which Grady asked "Is that when the dinosaurs came?"

Some of his other funny sayings are, "Will that be a good idea." I'm going to throw this away."

I know these don't sound funny written out, but hilarious when he's saying them.

Blessings

Blessing come in all different ways. Twoish weeks ago I ask God to show me the blessings in our life. Here are a few....

• Grady and Grace being friends. I prayed when I was pregnant for Grace that Grady and the baby would be best friends. I desired that so that Grady would always have a friend wherever we went. God is working on them both to love and enjoy each other more.

• All of this food was given to us by Union Gospel Church, a church of about 30 members pastored by a teacher at NTBI. The crazy thing, this much food was given to 12 other families here by just 30 members!! It was a huge blessing.

• Our two healthy children that are developing. It's such a blessing to see our children sitting at the table making real pictures.

• Friends to eat Baked Goods - Since coming to NTBI, my baking has increased at least 60 fold. I love to bake, but we don't need to eat everything I make. So it's a blessing to have friends that we can take our baked goods too, so we can turn around and make more.

• Birthday Parties!! We're so blessed to be able to have other children here that Grady and Grace can celebrate their birthdays with them.

• Amazing Teachers - We're so blessed to have a variety of teachers with a variety of teaching styles. They all know the word so well and teach it in amazing ways. It's always sad to be done with one teacher, but then it never fails, another great one is always to follow.

• Goodwill..... I needed a new pair of dress shoes for Grace and I found them at the Goodwill that's 10 minutes from our house. They were a huge blessing!

• Packages from Bluffton - Yesterday we go a card and package from Bluffton. When Grady saw it on the counter he asked who it was for. He was so excited to open it. Inside were coloring books, stickers, candy, and markers. The card had a gas card and a Pizza Hut card in it. What a blessing to have friends that know what we need and know what we like best. Thanks Michelle.

• Support - We're so blessed to be supported monthly by Hope Missionary Church. It's also always a blessing when people from home support us with prayers, gifts, and their love.

• Company - We love to have people at our house. We're thankful that we get to invest in the lives of other married students.



 

We are truly blessed.

Grady's Birthday Week

Grady's birthday week was full of all kinds of events. It's hard to believe that his 5th birthday has come and gone. It's weird to say that I have a 5 year old.... Am I really that old? Apparently so.

Last weekend we went home to help with the Helping Hand Benefit, which I think went really well. Brandy, my sister, did an outstanding job of speaking truth about the needs in the  community. Since we were home, Grady was able to see a few of his Grandparents, and ended up with this...

 

He was super excited, and we had to start building right away. We built legos all week, and now have all 5 boxes put together. I must say that I really enjoyed putting them together. It was a great time of just sitting and working with Grady while Grace was napping.

 

On Tuesday of Grady's birthday week, Grady got to go on a field trip to a farm. While he was there he picked a pumpkin, saw a baby lamb, went on a hayride, and ate donuts. He really seemed to enjoy his first field trip.

This past week was also spirit week at NTBI. This past weekend was Tribal Cup, which is a competition between NTBI Jackson and NTBI Waukesha (which is the campus in Wisconsin). Tuesday we dressed with our twins the Godsey's...

Wednesday, Grace dress wacky for Wacky Wednesday. Grady did not want to dress wacky for school.

 

For Formal Friday, Kent and I dress up as well. It was fun taking out our fancy clothes.



 

Ok, so we're going to go back to Grady's birthday celebrations. Wednesday, Grady had his first birthday party with friends. Samuel and Griffen came over for lunch. Grady picked out the menu, so they had box macaroni and chesse, hot dogs, apple sauce, juice and cupcakes. I didn't have any problems getting them to eat that lunch!

After a birthday lunch, they played legos for awhile, ok really it was like 3 hours. They did really well together, and Grady really enjoyed having them over.

Finally, Thursday had arrived and Grady's actual 5th Birthday was here. Since it was his birthday, and food is very important to me, Grady got to pick out his breakfast meal. Which ended up being pop tarts!

 

 

 

After school and a wonderful lunch of potato soup, which Grady also picked, we opened presents. 

 





 

My favorite present was the world blanket that he got. About 4 weeks ago he picked out the fabric with the world map on it and then I turned it into a blanket. I love that Grady loves to look at maps. I believe he knows more about where things are in the world, at the age of 5 than I did at the age of 28.

 

Later that afternoon, Grady and I went to check the mailbox and Grady had two packages. One from his grandm, Lala, and one from his babysitter in Bluffton, Madison.

I'm pretty sure that I was more excited than he was. The bottle was so cool. All of these things were stuffed inside the bottle and the bottle came in the mail just like any other package. I love getting the mail here at NTBI. Mostly it just brings junk mail and bills, but every once in awhile it brings really cool packages like these.

Later still that afternoon, Kent and I had ran out to get a winter coat for Grace. We hadn't been out for 15 minutes and Kent's dad calls. He was at NTBI! He had drove 2.5 hours to surprise Grady for his birthday with 4 pizzas and 4 2-liters of pop. It was wonderful. So we ate supper at 3:45 that after noon.

And then we had cake with Grandpa Rockwell. He is such a blessing to our family. We're so thankful that he came up to surprise us and share Grady's special day.

Now, in case you've lost track of the day, we're still on Thursday, Grady's actual birthday. After Grandpa Rockwell left, we headed out to a trout farm in Jackson. It was pretty cold so we had to bundle up. Grace barrowed a snowsuit from Rilla, and we headed out.

While we were there, we road a hay ride, saw lots of trout and ate donuts. Grady also got to play with his friend Gavin. It was a great ending to his birthday!

To finish the week, my friend, Kate, and I ran the 5K for the Tribal Cup. We were going to run a 5K last weekend, but decided to run this one since it was free! We knew that we would not do well, but I didn't expect to come in last by 5 minutes! My goal was to run it without walking, but that didn't happen either. It was definitely humbling. But we did finish and it was something that we can say we did together! Here is our before picture.....

And our after picture. It was exhausting but still a good experience.

Kent did his part as well for the Tribal Cup. He went with his friend Ray to play football. Despite their hard effort, the Jackson football team fell short of the winning. But they put forth a good effort none the less. However, over all Jackson did win the Trial Cup!

The week was full of lots of exciting events, but as always life keeps moving on. We have an Exodus test tomorrow and need to read the rest of Leviticus by Monday.

In the mists of all this God is working on molding us to be more like him. This week he's ask me to slow down. To focus on my marriage and training my children. I can have tons of people over, have my house picked up, the laundry done, supper on the table, my homework done, and get all A's and B's but none of that will matter when we move on from here. It will matter that in spite of busy weeks like this, I keep going in him. In spite of my busy week, it will matter that I loved my husband and cared about his needs. In spite of busy weeks like this, it will matter that I still made time to train my children and read books to them. Funny how God always allows for things to get done when our priorities are straight and he's the center focus of what we're doing.