Newly Painted Room

Here's the progression of our room. I don't have a picture of the old wall before the fireplace. We're lovin it. I need to get some color on that wall. Time to look for some kind of pop of color. Makes me want to decorate for Christmas.

adoption update

Well, we thought we'd try to go with the BabyFold, but they were jerks, so we're sticking with Illini. We're just gonna have to get the paperwork straightened out and do the foot work to find a birth mom. We're pretty content with all that, so that's good. Perhaps we needed this little hiccup to remind us why we chose Illini in the first place.

hiccups with the Adoption Process

Well, we had some hiccups with the paperwork for the Adoption. Evidently we still have paperwork with the Baby Fold that is active and an Adopt Only License is pending. We can only be licensed with one agency and Illini is telling us we probably need to finish with Baby Fold because Illini has no birth moms (that's not a good sign). So we're trying to sort the whole mess out and figure out the easiest/best fix to this problem. We're also trying to not feel like the last seven months were wasted time in this process. We know God can use mix-ups too, this is just a little frustrating. We're not really sure what is going on and are waiting on phone calls to sort this all out.

Best case scenario... Baby Fold accepts Illini's home study (so we don't have to do that again) and finishes our "pending" license, gives us their training and puts us on a list.

Worst case scenario... we have to start all over with Baby Fold or fix things with the paper work with Illini and then be put in a drawer until they have a birth mom come through their doors.

We would appreciate some prayers for guidance in this mess.

It's been a while!

Wow. It's been a while since I blogged. It was a crazy busy summer. The last post was in June and so much has happened since then. We did a week of service in the community with the youth group, James did a week of fishing camp at little Galilee, I had two surgeries, we did VBS, went to NC for a week in August, and so much more. School started for both of us last month. James has two firefighting courses at Richland in Decatur to get his certification. (He volunteers in Wapella.) He is also starting Seminary by taking Hebrew, an intensive on Preaching the Parables, and an independant study on Jonathan Edwards/the Great Awakening. I officially passed my Thesis in August and am taking an internet class to finish my MA in Christian Education. Not my favorite thing to do.

This past week has been really busy as well. The Apple and Pork Festival was in Clinton and the church sells corn. It was rather chaotic getting all of that put together, but we made it. I started substitute teaching this year (in addition to taking care of Skye) to make some extra money. Hopefully it will pay for our new lazy-boys and our new bed. Then I'll be shopping for a new washer and dryer. So far I really like it. It's a good way to work part time doing different things and still have the flexibility to do things here at the church. So you could say that I'm back to having 3 jobs: Secretary at Church (very part time), Nanny for Skye (part time), and Substitute Teacher (part time). I also decided to do two sessions of Bible Study this fall. We have one on Monday Nights and one Tuesday Mornings. Both are going well. We are doing a study by Carol Kent (carolkent.org) entitled Becoming a Woman of Influence. So far, it's a really good study.

It may seem like we have a lot going on. We do. BUT we finally were able to hire a part time youth minister. We hired Tim Barbee just in time to start youth group stuff up. He is doing a great job and the weight of doing it all has been lifted and we feel great. It's good to be able to focus on areas we are truely gifted in. We still go to the youth events because we love the kids, but it's so nice to not have to plan everything and run everything.

Yesterday I subbed at Washington for a couple kindergarten classes. I took care of the kids, while the teachers tested their math skills. They wear me out by the end of the day. I'll do it again tomorrow. It's nice to have today to relax and catch my breath. Thursday and Friday we'll be in Rockford. Joanna and Dave are coming for a visit and we get to go see my new little niece. She'll be 1 month old on Thrusday. It's so much fun. I really can't believe my brother is a dad. Scary! We've got our homestudy done and are on a couple of waiting lists for adoption. We continue to pray for God's timing. It is perfect even when I don't understand it.

That should do it for now. I have posted lots of pictures to facebook of summer events. Most of you who read this are also on facebook. Be sure to check them out. I'll try and get back in the habit of updating this. It's easier to type more here, than on facebook. We'll see how it goes. Later alligators!

the surgery

Well, the surgery went well and I've been home for 2 hours. But Dr. Nord did not have good news for us. The outlook isn't too good. He said that we need to get preg in the next few months or it looks like our only other option is in vitro fertilization. The endometriosis is stage three (of 4) and Dr. Nord said my tubes are too tired from the endo and that they aren't able to get the egg into the tube to be fertilized and then into the uterus to implant. He likened it to trying to use your arm after your arm has been injured and it just doesn't work like its supposed too. He also said that eventually I'll probably end up having to have a hysterectomy after we are done having kids because the endometriosis grows so quickly. Evidently mild and endometriosis does not apply to me. He said that endometriosis really likes me. We'll see what happens in the next few months. Thanks for the prayers, keep them coming.

Cedarly Retreat

Many of you know that last week we went to a place in Wisconsin called Cedarly for a retreat. I can't count how many people have called it a vacation. It was not vacation, it was retreat. Many times we go on vacation and come home to get a break from the chaos of vacation. This was not vacation. We spent so much time in prayer and seeking God. Two things not often done on vacation. The retreat center is on lake front property and has quite a history. It's been a retreat center for ministers since the late 90s. There were five other couples there with us. All of us had such unique stories. We enjoyed every one of them. It was an amazing week of making new friends, eating fantastic food, spending time with James, and most importantly seeking out God's will. It was so peaceful. The only time we drove off the property was to make a quick run to walmart. We biked and walked. We went to a prayer service at an Episcopal Seminary that was just up the road. We canoed in the lake. I caught a couple of fish. The lake water was so clean you could see right to the bottom through most of the lake. Amazing! There was no tv, no computers, and no phones.

This is the prayer house or Wood Shed as they call it. It's a one room log cabin style house with a wood burning stove in the corner. Many pastors from the area rent it out for free most days, but there were a couple of days no one had it rented so we could use it. James and I spent most of Monday morning reading and praying in there.

Here are some pictures of the house. There was a wrap around screened in porch, sitting room, library, entryway, dinning room, and more sitting areas. The dining room had to be my favorite place. All fourteen of us sat at the table and ate most of our meals together. One meal a day (monday through friday) was prepared by a chef. He was quite a chef. Mike made us some amazing gourmet meals. Steak and Potatoes, Apricot salsa chicken, pistachio glazed salmon. I seriously gain 4 or 5 pounds last week. The other meals were served buffet style, but they were yummy and we usually ate them together as well. We didn't have to lift a finger to clean a thing. There was also a bottomless jar of "pastor power pills" (peanut m&ms) that we made sure we ate plenty off.

Most of the time we spent doing what you see here. We enjoyed the peace and quiet and came home rested and ready to go.

If I think of anything more, I'll write later. I've got to go to bed now. Been a long day. Tomorrow morning I have to have some minor surgery to clean out all that endometriosis that has probably come back. Yuck! So much for peace and quiet! I'll let you know how it goes.

piles and piles and more piles

There's not a whole lot to update this week. No drama in our lives which is a good thing. We've got dinner at one of the elder's houses tonight, a baptism tomorrow, and we're getting ready to head off to our retreat in WI Sunday afternoon. James brother is running a marathon out in San Diego on Sunday. Can't wait to hear about that. James is out on the front porch working on his sermon...at least he was until his butt fell asleep in the chair. I made bagel chips this morning and need to get off my butt and clean the house this afternoon so we can come home to a clean house next Friday. I guess I always remember Mom wanting to have a mostly clean house when we came home from a vacation. It's like getting into a nice warm clean bed at the end of a long day. Speaking of which...I need to change the sheets on the bed. I've got lots of work to do. There are piles on the kitchen and dining room tables, and more piles of clothes to be washed and folded and piles of dishes to be washed and put away. I know...me...piles...never!!! I love my piles. James hates my piles. Such is life.

Graduation

Before the day began...








So awesome... They gave Tom Ewald his doctorate.



Yep... That's my Man.



Go Sis. Joanna and Dave are moving to New Hampshire in July to take a Preaching position at Londondary Christian Church. But evidently during graduation they said that Joanna was taking the preaching position, not Dave. So we had fun calling dave the preacher's wife.

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Caleb is captivated by his Uncle James. My smart man graduated Magna cum Laude. I'm so proud.



Dad and Barney... Old time college buddies.



Graduation party time. Sunday after church we had James graduation open house. My mom and Shannah stayed after to help me out and I'm so glad they did. I needed help. Dave and Jo came over about 2 and helped out as well. Just before we left to get the cake at 12:30 James and I went for one of our last rides in the truck. A guy came over from Galesburg and is buying the truck. He'll be here to pick it up on Tuesday. James pointed out later that he's always prayed for God to get him through college with that truck and that it is no coincidence that God sold the truck the day after graduation. It's a sad day. That truck holds sentimental value for me. I might have shed a tear or two. Oh well. All of this marks a new chapter in our lives.

Wowzers

In the last 3 days James brother graduated, James and Joanna graduated, we had two rockin parties, church, the last youth group of the year, and sold the truck. The last three have been nuts and the last 8 have been quite full. I will break up the posts so that they won't be so long. I have pictures to share. :) For starters. Last Sunday morning the kids planted flowers for Mother's day at the church. Gisela, this pictures for you.

I also got the garden planted. James tried to sneak up on me, but I was already done and couldn't get the tiller started again, so I just posed. That thing jerked me all over the place. I planted corn, beans, peas, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, and cantaloupe. Now we wait to see what happens. Hope it grows! James has his "play in the dirt" shirt on, but he wasn't playin in the dirt!

Busy Day

Marranda spent the night last night and James got his cuddle time in this morning. They sat and read a book about firefighters.



We went to some garage sales this morning, James friends house, James parents house, then we took Marranda home and came home so that James Mom could put up the border in the nursery for us. It looks really cute. Here are some pictures. (The border says "Now I lay me down to sleep.") We have a meeting a week from Monday with Mike from Illini. Hopefully we'll be able to get this homestudy done soon. :) Now we are off again to another friends house to talk about their wedding. I'm tired! :)

Firefighting

James got up at about 1:30 this morning to the sound of his pager going off. He ended up going to the a big fire in Clinton that made headlines in the Pantagraph this morning. You can read the story here. He even got his picture in the paper, but you can't really tell it's him. He said he could tell because of his coat.

photo ops

This is what happens when the cookie monsters requests cookies and his request is denied. He tries to do it himself, messes with my tools, and leaves a mess behind.

This is what will be the nursery. Spent the last few days painting. Now we wait on the border. Should have it up by Sunday. Don't have any new news on the baby front. Still waiting to hear from Illini.

This is James new ManCave. You may remember the one in the basement. The picture of that one was posted a few months ago. This one is much more manly.

Dreams and Blessings

There's been a lot of developments in the last few weeks since I last posted. I figured I give you guys our general update separate from the post below, so here it is.

After I blogged about selling the boat, we did a lot of looking into two different adoption agencies. We looked at the Babyfold (the agency we worked with when we had Marranda) and Illini Christian Ministries. We decided to go with Illini Christian Ministries and sent our application with the application fee. We promptly received an email with some instructions and stuff to get started on for the homestudy. I've just about got everything together that they need, but we need to wait until May to schedule a visit to do the actual home study. Oh well, I know the process takes time. A lot of people ask us if we'll still try and have kids naturally and of course we will. We just really feel like we needed to pursue adoption first. I'm not sure why God is having us go this route, but we're sure this is where He is leading so we're going to follow. I'm going to take the risk and share a dream I had last week concerning this adoption process. Now, I know everyone dreams and sometimes dreams mean things and that they come from our subconscious. But, not very often do dreams come with an immediate interpretation. It was so weird, I'll make it short and you can take it as you wish. I had been doubting this direction and had asked God to make His will for us clear. That same night I had a dream that someone gave me a stack of papers to fill out. I worked on them and then laid them down on the ground. After a short while the papers began to cry. I picked them up and began to run with them. As I ran with them they turned into a baby. I immediately woke up and understood this dream. The papers were the adoption process, me running was the process moving forward, and the stack of papers was the baby that will come into our lives. It has stuck with me clear as day. I don't think I'll ever for get that dream or what it meant. Take it how you will, but I am taking it as a sign to trust God and move forward with the adoption process. So that's where we are with that process. We wait for a meeting.

Earlier this week James preached his second funeral. He did a good job. Unfortunately it's not gonna be his last for a while. We have a few who are getting closer to Jesus.

Two weeks ago I took a job watching a one year old 2 days a week. For a while I thought that God was going to have me doing odd baby sitting jobs to make some extra cash, but then that job fell through. So we're not sure what to do. I'm still waiting to get back the fifth chapter of my thesis so that I can turn the whole thing in and get the whole thing approved and finished. So I'm at a resting place in the thesis writing. I've got one part time "Nanny" position that pays pretty well. We can pay the bills and that's a blessing in and of itself. But we must now tackle the issue of me getting another Job. We were hoping to have kids by the time this thesis got done, but that hasn't happened and there really is no telling how long adoption will take so I'm stuck with what to do in the meantime. I've sent my resume out, but we'll pray and see what I need to do. It's not easy getting a job in this economy. So we know that adoption is next, but that's not all that's next. So what next?

James is graduating from college next month. That is an exciting milestone in our family. It will be a welcomed event. We're really looking forward to it. We're going to have a cookout here with his family and my family. Joanna is also graduating from the college. Sunday we'll have an open house for the church so that they can celebrate with us. Good times. God is good.

Easter was amazing. It was so much fun to have my parents and both my siblings and their spouses and Nana over for church and dinner. I really like having everybody together. It was the first time Nana got to hear James preach. My family rocks. James family came down to join us for dessert. We love having them around as well. We are so blessed. Once again, God is good.

I guess that will do it for now. Talk to you all later.

by the grace of God

It is only by the grace of God that we live and move and breath. It is a realization that often times hits me on the forehead. I'm not exactly sure why God chose to hit me with it today, but He did. James preached a good sermon this morning talking about what happened after the Resurrection. "Now What?" was his question. He spoke on the last few verses of Luke and the first few verses of Acts. He talked about the mission of the church and what we are to be doing and offered up a challenge he is calling "Connect4." This is the challenge to connect 4 people to Jesus by repentance and baptism in the next four months. I have to admit, it's not an easy challenge to take, but I decided to take it. James even had a sign up sheet in the back for people to sign up for the Challenge. Not too many people took the challenge so we were a little disappointed. It is after all a challenge to carry out the mission of the church, not a challenge to raise money or do something off the wall. But I guess not to many people take seriously the mission of the church. I know it's not something I have taken seriously too many times. I openly confess that. I have fallen way short when it comes to reaching people who don't know Christ.

Anyway, while James and I were talking this over, two strangers pulled up to the church and James went out to see what they needed. They said they were hungry and needed gas for the car. James invited them in for lunch. It just so happens that we had just put 4 chicken breasts on the grill and I made extra potatoes so we had plenty. They spoke very little English, but we were able to feed them and share Jesus with them. Their names were Jose and Eva. Jose looked to be about 50ish and Eva is 90. Grandma and Grandson have been in the US for about one year and he is on his way to Moline to look for work. I hope he finds what he is looking for. I know it seems like such a simple thing, but it is so awesome to see the strange ways that God works to use us to encourage them and at the same time use them to encourage us. Don't know if I can explain it, but if you've been there, you understand. I hope that some of what James shared with them took root and that Jose is able to read the English Bible James gave him. We really need to get some Spanish Bibles.

We've got some new neighbors living behind us. They don't go to church, but we've kinda hit it off with them. They've got a couple of little boys. One of them comes over after school on Wednesday's for our kids program. We need to get to know them better. Who knows, maybe they could get connected to Jesus in the next four months.

A New Adventure

Well, God sold the boat tonight. I've got 3500 cash sitting next to me right now. I wanna explain that God part. As I was sitting down to look for a ski boat online...cause that was the plan all along. Sell the boat and get a new one. Well, when James came back inside he had a look on his face and said we needed to have a family meeting. Well he dropped a bomb shell in my lap. He said that he'd been praying and God has really laid adoption on his heart. That was not new news, but what shocked me was when he said he didn't want to get another boat and that he wanted to sell the truck as well. Instant tears filled my eyes, but I gotta admit I couldn't quite figure out if it was cause I was sad tht we were selling our only toys or because of the way I could feel God at work in this situation, I think it was for both reasons. Wow. I never thought James would agree to sell the truck and not get another boat or truck. Well, off we go toward the unknown. God is good.

friends, overnighters, and copiers

We had a fun weekend around here. On Friday I got some much needed hang out time with 3 of my friends from Lincoln. We met at Medici's in Normal for dinner and then came back home to play Euchre. I miss haning out with friends like that. There aren't too many people we can just let lose with and have fun with around here with James being the preacher and all. For some reason most people don't think we're real people who sin and have our own issues...even if they know it in their heads they don't act like they know it. I wish they wouldn't feel funny around us...hopefully all in good time. Then there's the rest of the people who think we're in a totally different generational age range who think we don't want to go out with them cause we're young so they never ask us to do anything. ugghhh! Who would have thought friendships in ministry would be so difficult. blah. oh well, enough about that.

We had Marranda come over and spend the night with us on Saturday and go to church with us yesterday. We had so much fun with her, she didn't act weird and she slept all night long without any problems. She was also a very well behaved little girl. Perhaps she remembers that there are rules in this house. Everyone at church was so glad to see her. She's talking very well and growing very fast. She will be getting tubes in her ears in a couple of weeks. Hopefully that will help her speech even more. We hope to be able to have her over more often now that we know everything will go alright. We were pretty nervous about how she would sleep when she stayed over. Yeah for fun cuddly Marranda.

After a long weekend we finally got the newsletter out this morning. The lightbulb in the copier broke halfway through printing them this morning, so we had to use a crazy copier that was in the basement. It got done and all is well, but the copier that broke is 15 years old and they don't service it anymore. The guy told us that it would cost $2-300 to fix it if they could find a replacement bulb. James said no and went and got his drill. The copier is now disassembled and the bulb is removed. James found a replacement bulb online for $40. We'll see if it works. Hopefully its just that simple. Leave it to my husband to take apart the top of the copier... oh well, we got the truck fixed, now we've moved on to the copier. Fun times on a Monday morning at Wapella Christian Church. Now my handyman is asleep in his lazy-boy. We sure act like old folks much of the time...and we're not even old. Sometimes it's just sad. ;-)

Seminary, Trucks, and Retreats

Well, not much is new with us. I've got one more chapter to complete for my thesis and it will be done, except for a final go through after my professors read and critique it. It feels good to have it almost behind me. I registered for two seminary classes for next fall. One is an internet class and the other is greek. I'm not to thrilled about either, oh well, what am I gonna do... James has to go through orientation before he can register, but he's planning on taking greek with me. Hopefully that'll be a good thing.

Last week we gave the truck a tune-up...and when I say we, I mean we. Here's a couple of pictures. I may be smiling in this picture, but neither of us were smiling much as we worked on the truck. This was the first time I've ever crawled under a truck or under the hood of a truck to actually do anything productive. I had to crawl under cause James couldn't get to what he needed to in order to remove the old spark plugs. I have now decided that I never ever want to be a mechanic, but I did enjoy helping James with the truck. We like to fix things together. He did a good job at holding his temper. He tends to get really angry when he's trying to fix something and it's not working right. I don't like it when he does that and would have quit and gone inside and that's no fun either. So I'm glad we avoided that and I'm glad the truck still runs.

James and I are both looking foward to summer. James found a place that hosts retreats for ministers and their wives for free up in Cedarly, WI. Check it out here. There will be 5 other ministry couples there at the same time. It lasts 5 days and they provide meals and everything. They take care of everything. It's going to be a lot of fun to get away and not have to worry about anything. We have another retreat to go to in August, but that will be more like a vacation than a retreat. James really wanted to get away after graduation before summer really gets going. It's going to be another full summer, but a really good summer.

Sheep

Skye and her mom raise sheep and right now the sheep are having babies. Skye and I had our first overnight last night and we had to go out to the barn to give the sheep water. When we went into one of the pens we found two little surprises waiting for us. The mother sheep had just given birth to two lambs within the last hour. As a courtesy I cut out the gross stuff for you. :) It was pretty cool. I'd never seen a lamb before, let alone two less than an hour old. I wish I had some profound spiritual analogy for you, but all my profoundness is being used up in my thesis... It's coming along... almost done with chapter four. I'm on page 30 and still typing... I'm hopeful that it will be done tomorrow.

Bathrooms and Timeshares

I've been working on my thesis this morning, but thought I'd take a break to introduce you to our new bathroom floor. I know you're probably not as excited about it as I am, but I don't care. It's pretty stinkin awesome. After a year and a half we finally have a bathroom we'll let people use when they come over. When we first moved in the bathroom in the parsonage had a painted black floor. Over the past couple of years the paint has chipped and has been impossible to clean. Well, this week it finally got replaced. Yeah for clean looking bathrooms. Here is a before and after shot.

On another note, James thought it would be fun to drag me to a timeshare presentation yesterday morning. He said he was getting even for me making him go to a pots and pans presentation for a free vacation (that we never actually took) before we got married. This was the same deal, we had to go listen and take a tour and get hammered with all kinds of numbers, half of which made no sense, all so we could get a free trip to Orlando, $40 cash and some goofy gas voucher thing. We drove 3 hours round trip for this thing. He claimed he was doing it to get more sermon illustrations out of it....we better have kids soon, just so he'll have sermon illustrations besides me and the stupid stuff we do together...anyway. We used to forty bucks to get gas, lunch, and for me to go to Flat Top last night with Kassi, so it wasn't a total loss. The lady who gave us the tour was goofy. She didn't normally do it and I think she was nervous or something cause she said over and over... "i know, right" in a stereotypical "blondish" sort of way. Poor girl was preaching about that resort in vain. What was funniest was when she was trying to tell us what we'd spend in 20 years vacationing in hotels. We told her that we normally try and spend 500-700/year on hotel type vacations and somehow that ended up being $140,000.00 over the course of 20 years... No idea where she got that number. Cracked me up. By the time we were done wheeling and dealing we had them down from a 3000 down payment and 450/month to 500 down and 100/month for some ghetto deal and then we left. It was kind of fun to see how much they were willing to deal.

Oh well, if we had extra $$ right now it would go into the savings account and not into a timeshare. What crazy things preachers will do when they want to get out of the office.

So goes life in Wapella.

the man cave

James has taken to calling our little section of the basement his "Man Cave." Here's a picture of the "man cave"...you can see why its in quotes and I'm being sarcastic. It's about as far away from a "man cave" as a man can get. At least its not pink and purple. But there is laundry and a broken washer that we don't know what to do with and a rack full of "stuff." So it goes. He is trying to make railing for the boat and since it's cold outside he has moved to the basement. I'm not sure what's going on down there. I just know I better stay out of the way. I don't care what he does as long as it doesn't look ghetto. He wants to try and sell the boat so that we can get a fish and ski. I don't know how well that will go over, but it's his project for the spring, so in the words of my mother I say "hey, you go man." Mom usually says "hey, you go girl" when i've got something to do. The older I get the more I sould like my mom, but that's not a bad thing.

By the way, I'm done with half of chapter 4 of my thesis. It helps that I've been thinking about chapters 4 and 5 throughout this process. They should go by without losing too many brain cells.

It's been a couple days since I wrote the draft of this blog. We've got the boat done and listed on ebay, the tradin post, and craigslist. We'll see what happens.