A LOOOOOOOOOONG weekend

Today I am so thankful for friends and family. Why? LeRoy is working all weekend, so it isn't even hardly a weekend for us. He worked late last night, tonight, tomorrow (Saturday) and even on holiday Monday. Yes it is hard knowing you won't see your husband as much, but thankfully I have a few friends and a sister who are helping me with Brooklyn and helping to keep me busy. Yesterday 3 girlfriends and I went swimming in the afternoon, went for supper and then came to my place for the evening. This helps pass the time so well, and it is a little easier to take care of Brooklyn when there are other people around. Today my sister Lisa is coming over to babysit Brooklyn while I go to work, then staying the night, and watching Brooklyn while I work again tomorrow. So I guess I am thankful that I can work this weekend too, since LeRoy isn't home anyways. But I am very excited that it is my last weekend working although it feels weird knowing I will not be going back to Hull's after this next baby is born. Anyway back to the weekend thing. Sometimes it is so good to keep busy, so I don't have to think of the fact that I have Brooklyn more to myself this weekend. It's tiring running after a toddler. And I know Brooklyn will be really excited to see her daddy again tomorrow, as she hasn't seen him since Wednesday night. All in all it should still be a great weekend, because we're going to make it a great weekend. And weekends like this make me thankful for such a hard working husband as LeRoy is. We sure do love him.

As I read what I just wrote, I think I was a bit jumbled with words today. But that isn't so unusual for me, so hopefully it at least made sense. Have a great sunshiny day:)

Keep on Praying

We wanted to say thank you to all of you who prayed for us last week as we met with Uncle Ken regarding missions stuff. It went really well and our nerves settled quite quickly as we began to visit. Although we do not have 100% affirmation yet if we are accepted (we'll find out in October), we were given more affirmation that things look good. Our references need to get their papers in, and then the board of missions will discuss us, and we'll have an interview with them in October. And then we'll know 100% what our future lies. Or at least whether we are for sure going or not. What we do know pretty much for sure is that once we're accepted and have done a year of language school, we will be living somewhere in the Chihuahua State area of Mexico.

We ask that you would keep on praying along with us as we are not wanting to go alone. EMC Board of Missions really would like to send a team, but as of yet, we are the only ones who have applied for Mexico. We have been told there is some interested but still not 100% sure. We would really like to go with someone, as it would be a little less scary. So we are praying that someone will feel God calling them to Mexico with us, to serve in some way down there.

That is really all we know up to this point, so please keep us in your prayers.

The Gift of Giving

Some of you may have already heard, but last weekend Faith bought me the most extravagant gift ever. It was something that I'd had my eye on for a while, and we went and looked at it while it was on sale, but i had decided that i was okay with not buying it. It was a new camera. For one thing, I thought it was quite selfish of me to ask for a new toy, when I knew that wasn't exactly something that Faith would prefer to spend money on. AND even though it was on a great sale, it wasn't cheap. I was just telling Faith a few days earlier that I had come to terms with it, you know, we would be wiser to save the money, or spend it on more important things, not so selfishly. Personally, I sometimes struggle in this area, and maybe some of you do too, that when you set your mind on something you want to buy, or see, or do, you find a million different ways of justifying it in your own mind, even when the conscientious, or sensible side of you says otherwise.

Anyway, back to the gift. Actually no, the gift-giver. I have been marveling this week about Faith's wonderful gift of giving gifts. She loves to do things for others in this way. The way that she so unselfishly outdid herself by surprising me, well it amazes me. She wanted to see the joy in me, she said, when I saw her surprise me. You know how sometimes, or is it often, how our experiences with other people can color and change our perception of God? Well in this case this experience made me think about how unselfishly God blesses us with His gifts, some which we take for granted daily, just so that we may acknowledge Him and bring Him joy. Wow, I need to take time to be more thankful for what God has given me! It also again brought me to ask the question, "Am I an unselfish individual, willing to give of myself for others?"

And yes, on a lighter, less philosophical and theological note, I have had an awesome time taking pictures with our new camera. Faith says she was helping me fulfill a dream of mine, and yes she has.

Nerves....

I'm amazed at how nerves can control a person's day. Today I (Faith) am full of nerves about our future. I find it strange how a person can feel extremely nervous but also excited all at the same time, about the same situation. If you have no clue as to what I am refering to, I am meaning our future in missions. Tonight we are sitting down with Ken Zacharias (my uncle but also the head of EMC Missions) to find out what and how steps start to happen. I am so nervous about this meeting, but I'm not totally sure why. I guess it probably has to do with what our future exactly holds to get to the point of going on missions outside Canada. We are hoping to have some questions (we're not sure what those questions are exactly) answered, and just be informed as the progress of our application. For those of you who hadn't heard or read earlier, we handed in our application early July. So hopefully after tonight we can answer some of the questions we've been asked by others, a little more clearly. One question I think we can answer quite confidently is that we are hoping and planning to start language school at the Rio Grande Bible Insitute in Texas in August 2008.

I don't know if I have ever been so full of different emotions all at once, with the exception of waiting for Brooklyn to be born. Fear, nervousness, excitement, anxiousness, clueless, etc. These make me think back to when I first felt "called" to be a part of missions. It was before LeRoy was in the picture, back in my second year of college. It happened quite quickly, one morning. I woke up after a short night of sleep, and I was all of a sudden extremely excited to get out of Canada to spread the Good News. I started looking for orphanage's who needed help, Haiti was my dream. That dream ended once LeRoy came into the picture, but he also had a huge heart for missions. So together after years of pondering, praying, thinking, thinking, thinking, we felt that God wanted us somewhere else. A new dream. To live somewhere outside Canada, using our gifts to minister to the Spanish. So our journey and adventure has begun.

I am terrified to bring our little family to a place we've never been, to leave our family and friends, but at the same time extremely excited to begin a new adventure in a new land. To give what we've been giving here, to people out there. We've been shown over and over again that God takes care of our every need, and because of that fact I know God will be with us every step of the way, before we even ask for His help.

Please pray for us as we continue on this journey.

Memories

It's amazing how much time passes by since the last time LeRoy and I have just sat and talked. Yah we talk everyday, but the deeper stuff only comes out once in a while. Thursday was that day. LeRoy decided we were going to sit by the fire once Brooklyn was in bed, with some hot chocolate and catch up with how each other was doing. Well of course that type of situation makes a person talk. So we talked and talked and got a better understanding of where we were at individually and as a couple. We definitely need to make it more of an effort in the future.
Saturday was fun filled day of harvest time helping my parents. LeRoy drove the graintruck all day, back and forth from the field, while us girls hung out in the house, and joined the guys for supper on the field, a harvest time tradition. Here is a couple pics of Brooklyn enjoying the time on the field.




Yesterday was another great day with my family. The guys (Dad, LeRoy, AJ) went to Teulon to enjoy the tractor pull. LeRoy had never been which is foreign to our family as we use to go every year. Us girls took in an afternoon of shopping and supper. It's great to be able to make memories with family, to go out and do stuff, instead of always just sitting around visiting. It was a nice change.
We hope you are all doing well enjoying your summers as much as we are.

Camping

I (Faith) now know I hate setting up camp for only one night. That is what we did this last weekend, but it was not planned that way. This last weekend was our annual SBC camping trip, for whoever is around from our classes to come. The plan was to go to Birds Hill on Friday evening but because of a huge storm that went through there the night before, they had to close the park till Saturday. We were so dissapointed as we were almost out the door. Understandable though as trees were uprooted and they had a huge mess to clean up. Saturday morning came, and they almost didn't open then either, but finally decided to let us come. So we left late morning and got there shortly after 12 to make the most of the day. It ended up being an excellent weekend with friends, hanging out and just having fun. Brooklyn did so well (this was our first time camping this summer, so we weren't sure how she'd handle it) we are hoping to go at least one more time yet this summer by ourselves.
This week is just another week, hanging out at home. With the exception that I get to go shopping tomorrow with a friend. YAY:) A much needed outing for me.

Miracle

Yesterday we heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time. It was so exciting to finally hear it, to know there really is a baby in there. Thankfully the heartbeat sounded healthy and strong, along with some kicks. I first felt baby kick Monday night, and now every evening I can feel he/she do a dance for us. What a miracle babies are. Even after having Brooklyn, this baby feels just as much a miracle. To think that God created this human being, using me in the process to give it a home, and in 9 months a baby is formed and ready to enter this terrifying world. Amazing.

Pickles and other sour things

It has been quite a week, almost a sour week, that being the reason we haven't written. When you come back from holidays you hope for a quiet week, full of nothings at home. That was not the case for us. Brooklyn got sick with some kind of viral mouth infection which also came with a fever. She was miserable all week, and finally today is back to herself. She had canker like sores all over her mouth, inside and out. This made her feel horrible as it was painful to eat anything. She also had a hard time sleeping, the pain kept waking her up. Through all this she is also teething all four of her eye teeth. I am so thankful for health and glad this last week is over. This week was harder than when she had the chicken pox.
On a more cheerful note, I was so proud of myself last week. I canned pickles and peaches for the first time ever using LeRoy's great-grandma's recipe. It is so quick and easy that I had 4 jars of pickles canned in half an hour. Yes that is from start to finish. For those of you who have no idea why that is impressive, it is known to take hours. And yes they taste great.
Yesterday (Sunday) LeRoy and I went on a long overdue date. We went to see Bourne Ultimatum. What an awesome movie. We loved the first two, and this one was even better. For me it made the first two movies make a lot more sense.
I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend as much as we did, and have a Blessed week.