Winter Brings Ice

So our lake finally froze over. After church this Sunday, Hannah and I decided that we would go test out the waters. It was rather cold. Here is a little video to show you how cold life has been for us lately.

Video::

Discovery Time

The last couple months have been so cold we haven't been able to take the kids outside. As a result of this they have been exstremely stir-crazy and down right driving me nuts at times. So we started taking them to a gym as often as we can. Yesterday we took them and I had taken three of the kids in my car. On the way there Elijah found a bible in the back seat and asked me what it was. Shelby and her brother were also in my car and as I told Elijah it was a Bible, shelby screams (she tends to be loud when she's excited) "That's God's Word!!!" It was a very special moment for me because Eljiah had never heard of God before and was asking me who he is and where he is and all kinds of questions that four year olds ask. One thing he remembers is that God is who made us, except he keeps asking me, "ms. Hannah, who's that who makes us again?". When we were driving back from the gym they all wanted to look at a Bible and talked about it the whole way to the center. Eljiah told me he wants one of his own. They have definitley stolen my heart, they have. Shelby and her brother Josh are coming over this weekend. I'm excited!

Winter Snow.

So yesterday I took Hannah to work and when I came back it took me more than a few times to get our car up the driveway into the garage. As I approached the house I was even slow at braking and I still drove right on by sliding on the ice. As I backed the car up and began to go up the drive way I could only find that the little train that could, really only could make 75% of the drive. So I had to back up and try and try... telling myself I think I can I think I can... and to my amazement I finally made it.

So today, we got more snow, I thought I would go outside and do some work:

Thankfully you couldn't see every time I slipped out there! I came to learn that underneath the snow was a layer of ice that I still have yet to break. Thankfully I have some friends coming over now who are bringing some goodies for me! Hopefully after I get Hannah tonight I will be able to make it up the driveway!! If not, I will be out there with a shovel breaking the ice!

One Blog.

More news....? More posting? I think so...

There will no longer be two blogs, but only one! One to hold all the life information we shall share here. We are on the road to getting back to Europe, and with that we want to start to use this site a little more to the potential that was set out from the start.

There is a new section called Missionary Status and here we are going to keep track to our upward run to raising the budget that is set out before us.

This goal is huge! We seriously need the support of our friends and family standing behind us and praying for us. Our brains are now running on creative mode to find ways of raising this support that we need. We hope to send out a letter within the next week or so updating everyone about our status.

Please use the Contact Page and Missionary Contact page to just say hi! :) You have no idea how much it means hearing from all of you. We really miss our friends and family.

early.

But the kids were really cute today with the snow coming and going. They were so excited. I've been meaning to post pictures but I never remember my camera and the other day nolan reminded me but did not remind me to get the memory card so it was a waste of reminding. Plus I will have to show you our bunny. The new joy in my life. We got a bunny for our preschool room and he is HUGE. He's called a flemming giant, and he's about the size of chunky if you've met or seen pictures of him. I'll show you, just remind me to grab the whole camera tomorrow.

church signs.

I ran across this sign on someone's myspace with the connection to Bush and how we should have reelected him.

another sign I saw around here says "Fear God, Obey his commands"

comments?

apple iphone?

Just wanted to throw this out there, seems like Apple will hit the market soon with a new iphone...

Google Photo!

belief.

Since I've known Nolan and I would be living up here in this small town I have had this assumption that finding a job would be difficult, bad pay, and probably not any fun. Since we have been here my assumptions seem to be true and only reaffirmed my idea of working in small towns. I've struggled with God about this because it's difficult and praying for his favor but really set in my mind that whatever job I could scrap up would be crappy and I'd just have to live with it for a year and survive. Kind of a contradictory prayer, asking for God's favor but not really believing it can happen. Well especially the last couple days, or ever since I got turned down for the last job, I've been so discouraged and frusterated with the idea of working and finding a job. It just doesn't feel hopeful. Then this morning as I was laying this before the Lord, complaining to him really, I was coming across and looking for things to encourage me and remind me of God's faithfulness and how he delivers us to his blessing... things like this. A while ago Jody, my new mom, had given me a book by Beth Moore, Praying God's Word, and I started reading. The section is called overcoming unbelief and she just started sharing how God had spoken to her one day about her unbelief and she wasn't even aware that she wasn't believing God for what he promised. I found myself in her words because it's not like this whole time I wasn't believing God would provide, but as she shared I recognized I wasn't believing for God's best. God did say he has my best interest in mind, so did I really believe that for what kind of job I would get? Then she shared this verse from:
Ephesians 1:18-20, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead."
and I thought wow... what if I actually believed that God wanted me to have the best job possible in this place, with all the odds against me, and I lived in that causing me to walk around with this great power, the same power he used to raise the dead, and what job would come out of that power? That's a pretty incredible God. This is my struggle... to believe, but Lord please help me overcome that unbelief.