First camping trip and first ER visit!

It was an eventful weekend for our family! At 7:00 Saturday morning, we decided to go camping. I had only tent camped in the back yard growing up, and Micah hadn't been camping in years. But, we figured it couldn't be that big of an undertaking, so we threw every camping-related thing we could find in the van, drove to Cabela's and picked up our tent, and off we went. We had fun, but we would do several things differently next time. We're looking forward to our next trip so we can perfect this budget-friendly family outing.

When we got home, we were unloading our stuff, and Joel was riding his trike on the back patio. He tripped while getting off of it and landed head first on the corner of our brick doorway. Micah and I were both standing right inside, and by the time Joel stood up, things weren't looking pretty. After a call to the nurse, we headed to the ER at the childrens' hospital for what we assumed would be a quick glue job.

After we were told that the injury would require a plastic surgeon, we left the other two kids with our wonderful neighbor so Micah and I could be with Joel. Things are done very differently at the childrens' hospital than they were back home. We both actually stood by Joel's bed during the surgery. That was the strangest 15 minutes of my life. We're thankful that we could be with him, but I don't know that I would make that choice again in the future. Nonetheless, the doctors and nurses did a wonderful job and we're very blessed that Joel is as good as new now.

One of the funnier moments of our experience was when the hospital's PR person asked if they could document Joel's visit in an upcoming hospital publication. So, she and the photographer also were in the room for the surgery. When Joel woke up, he looked at the PR person and said, "you have two heads." I'm interested to see what kind of article she comes up with! She said she'd send us the pictures and the magazine for our scrapbook. I'll scan it and share it with all of you!

All in all we're thankful that the weekend turned out as well as it did. There was a high potential for disaster from start to finish, but none of us are much worse for the wear. We hope you and yours had a blessed weekend. Thanks for reading!

Family "Vacation" 2009

This past weekend was really just like any other weekend, except for the fact that it was in the 70's and gorgeous. Therefore, we thought we should take the opportunity to be tourists in our own town. By last night, I felt like we had been on vacation all weekend.

On Friday night, after our weekly BBQ we were blessed to be invited by our great new friends to attend "Godspell" at the Muny. If you're not from around here, the Muny is a huge outdoor amphitheater that seats 11,000 people. Fun show, excellent company, beautiful weather.

Saturday morning we headed out bright and early to the zoo, despite being up late the night before. We were able to see all of our favorite things before it got too crowded. Then we headed home for lunch and naps. In the afternoon we packed a picnic dinner and hopped on our bikes to try to tackle the Forest Park trail for the first time. Jonah is still getting accustomed to the big boy bike, so we thought this would be a good test for him. His little legs carried him for many miles (we're not sure how many). I was even a little stiff when we got home, but he did great. And the little kids had a riot making all kinds of mischief in the bike trailer. A beautiful day from start to finish.

On Sunday we checked out a new church, since we've been trying to take advantage of our opportunity to church hop over the summer. We enjoyed that. In the afternoon we went to Grant's Farm. I love the history of the place, the kids love the animals, and Micah loves the free beer. Afterwards we went to My Daddy's Cheesecake for my early birthday dinner. We ate outside, and again the weather was perfect. Jonah and I decided to walk home together while Micah drove the little kids. We held hands the whole way and shared very thoughtful conversation. He's a special little guy.

Aside from our dinner out, everything we did on our "vacation" was free, which fits our budget perfectly. Micah was even able to squeeze in quite a bit of studying, so I'd say it was pretty close to a perfect weekend for us.

We are finding a lot of joy in everyday ordinary things. If you are able to really immerse yourself in the moment, something as simple as a short stroll with your six year old can be extraordinary. We are so blessed that we have the time and opportunity to do that right now. We're not taking it for granted. God is so good.

Lessons Learned

Living on campus reinforces for us every day that lifelong learning is very important. Here are some of the lessons our family has learned over the last month since we arrived at our new home.

Micah: Greek lesson of the day: Aorist indicitive passive paradigm requires the temporal augment plus the present indicitive stem plus theta eta minus sigma plus the connecting vowel pattern plus the secondary active endings. (Author's note: Say what???) Micah is doing great in Greek so far. He has learned so much in four short weeks. We praise God for giving Micah wisdom and stamina to get through this challenging time.

Darci: At the moment, the lesson at the forefront of my mind is that rolling the portable dishwasher over your big toe hurts more than childbirth and ruins the pedicure. Outside of the throbbing toe, lately I have learned a lot about priorities, and what is really important. The material things that I thought I might miss, I don't. We miss our family and friends just as much as we expected we would, but the webcam, e-mail and Facebook help a lot. I have learned that my kids are amazing, each in their own way. And, I have learned that I love spending every minute of every day with them a lot more than I thought I would.

Jonah: A very exciting lesson learned was how to skilfully ride his bike without training wheels. Once he got over the fear of falling, within ten minutes he was riding standing up and trying to do jumps. This led his Dad to say "woo hoo!", and his Mom to say, "whoa!!!" Thankfully God gifts parents with complimentary skills that help keep kids safe, but entertained at the same time.

Joel: Within days of our arrival, Joel had conquered the baby diapers once and for all. He's strictly a big boy pants guy now, and we couldn't be more pleased. Praise God for potty training!

Maci: With all of our opportunities to play outside, Maci has developed a hilarious wobbly run. She was merely a fast walker before, but now she's almost able to keep up with the boys. She's also learning new words every day, and showing off her personality more and more all the time.

We're all learning to make new friends, and about the blessings of being in the center of the Lord's will. Our prayer is that we won't merely rest on the fact that we left everything we knew behind to follow Him, but that we'll learn and grow in new ways all the time as we continue to seek His face.

Thanks for reading. Blessings to you and yours!

These are a few of our favorite things...

It's been three weeks since we moved to our new home. I'm the kind that jumps in with both feet and gets familiar with the surroundings right away. Therefore, we've had more than our share of fun in the past few weeks. I thought I would highlight (with pictures even!) some of our favorite adventures so far.

Maci: Anywhere that she can find chocolate, she's happy. Needless to say, she's ecstatic here. We have started a tradition of going outside after naps to have a popsicle for snack. We made some homemade chocolate pudding popsicles one day. It ended up even worse than it looks.

Joel: "The bells," hands down. Each Tuesday evening in June, the campus offers concerts on their carillon, or bell tower. The highlight of the evening for Joel is that after the concert, there is a tour of the tower where you can climb to the top and even help ring the biggest bell. We have

been to the top of the tower five times so far (including during two campus tours), with our sixth and last visit for a while scheduled for this Tuesday.

Jonah: The Science Center was fun, and we all love that it's free. It's near Forest Park, very close to campus. Forest Park also houses the zoo, several museums, Turtle Park, great walking trails, etc. It's a great spot. Also, during our first bell tower concert, we had our first Ted Drewes frozen custard experience. Jonah quickly became a fan.

Darci: We live in a park. What more do I need to say? We explore as much of the 80 acres as we can every day. One of the many favorite places the kids like to visit is the fountain. We've also been enjoying our new shark pool. I'm so thankful to have so much time to spend together.

Micah: His favorite, least favorite, and everything in between is learning Greek, because that's all he does. He's doing great at it, so the time has been well spent. He does make sure to leave at least a little time for snuggling with us, though.

We're looking forward to see what new adventures are waiting around the bend for us. Although our lives are very different than they were a few short weeks ago, we feel so blessed to be on this journey. God is good, all the time.

Blessed Beyond Measure

"My life is a dream," Jonah announced at dinner tonight, while eating his favorite tater tot casserole. Here we are, unemployed, living on a shoestring, we can't get our house to close, we miss our friends and family like crazy, and we'll hardly see Micah for the next ten weeks, but nonetheless, I have to agree with Jonah. Our last nine days here have been nothing short of amazing.

We have met so many incredible people here who jump at the chance to open their hearts and homes to us. Our neighbors have shared their possessions with us, befriended our children, and become our new community in every sense of the word. We have benefitted from the generosity of others through donations of food, and we were able to treat the kids to a shopping spree at the campus second hand store for a grand total of $2.75.

Our kitchen cabinets are piled high, our closets contain enough hand-me-downs to last for years, our gas tanks are full, and our cups runneth over. We truly are blessed to overflowing. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. We really can feel the prayers. Many blessings from our family to yours.

Where to begin...

I'm a little too tired mentally and physically to be terribly eloquent here, but I'll touch on a few highlights of our first few days in our new home. The actual travel went well. The kids were angels. The unloading was a little rougher than expected, but not too bad. We have spent the last two days trying to balance the need to unpack and organize with the need to get the kids accustomed to their new surroundings. So, we've done some sightseeing, played outside a lot, and met lots of neighbors.

We're doing pretty well with getting settled. We still have a long way to go to get everything put where we want it, but we're very comfortable for now. We like our place, and we're having fun in our new hometown. Tomorrow we have our first play date with other seminary families, and we're going to a concert on the campus grounds. As long as the weather holds out it should be a fun day.

Blessings to you and yours!

Goodbye 2542

It's been a very productive Memorial Day weekend for us, thanks in large part to Grandma and Grandpa and Ash and Coley letting us loan out the kids for a while. We put a lot more stuff than we expected into storage, and took another big load up to my sister's for the garage sale. (Thanks Che Che and U.N.!) We have several boxes packed, and things are starting to look a little empty here at 2542.

We finally were notified of the actual unit number of our new home. Being able to picture where we'll actually be has really motivated me to get things going. The move is only 12 days away now. My checklist now has more things crossed off than are left to do. There are still some decisions to be made about what to take, store, sell, and buy when we get there. I'm praying for wisdom for that.

I'm also praying that we'll get some sleep around here. On Friday night, Joely decided to revert back to the sleep schedule he kept for his first two years - none. I can't even count how many times we had to take him back to his bed the last three nights. He knows something is up with us, but can't quite process what it is. I pray for peace and understanding for him.

We wish you a very happy Memorial Day. Blessings to you and yours.