More Family Time

This past week Rob's sister Lona and her family were in town.  They normally work in Kazakhstan, but they have been home since July to visit family and have their twins!  It was a fun week with them here.  This will be there last trip here to Leo before returning to K-stan on the 27th.  They left Leo yesterday.

Then this morning at around 9am I looked out the window and saw a Subaru coming down the driveway.  I thought  I don't know anyone with a Subaru around here so I thought it was for my in-laws.  Then I realized the car looked just like Ginger's car and I thought I would look again.  As I looked outside I realized it was my Dad surprising us!  I was so shocked!  What a great surprise.  I was just telling Rob the other day that I wished we lived close enough to my family that my Dad could just drop in sometime the way he does with my sister who still lives in NY.  So this really blessed me.  He is going to be here through the weekend.

Baseball Time

My sister Liz told me I needed to update my blog - so now that Abraham had his first day of Baseball I feel like I have something to talk about - here it goes....

He is on the Red's team. He did really well and seems to have a good baseball sense.  Maybe it's because Rob and I have been teaching him the game since he was about 18 months - we're not overbearing though!  :)

Since it's tee ball they all hit and they rotate positions.  He started at 2nd and a lefty got up and hit right to Abraham.  He fielded the grounder and threw it to first.  Then he was on the pitchers mound.  At one point he went for the ball which probably should have been the short-stops, but then again just about the entire infield was going for the ball.  He stopped the ball but then for some reason could not remember what to do - so he left it there and another kid picked it up and threw it to first.  Then he proceeded to cry - Rob was out on the field helping so he calmed him down and he did great the rest of the game.

All in all he did really well - it was fun watching all those kids trying to figure out this game!  

I am playing softball on Monday nights and Rob is going to play on Sunday afternoons.  So that means we will have games for our family from Sat

urday until Monday!  Fun times!

Celebrating Christ Resurrection

While Lona and her family were in town we planned an Easter egg hunt with the kids as well as egg coloring.  We had the two youngest look for eggs first in the front lawn, the eggs were not hid very well.  The older kids were so funny as they watched the little ones.  You could tell they were itching to go - and they were yelling out where the eggs were.  Once the little ones were done we had the older kids eggs hid in the back side of the barn.  So they had to climb hay and straw bales to find the eggs.  It was fun!  Out of the 93 eggs we had only one egg went missing.  Rich will probably find it sometime once the hay is all gone.

After the egg hunt we went in the house to die eggs.  Again a fun time for all! 

Sunday - Lynda's family came over and we had a day of eating and spending time together.  It was a nice time with the family.

While at the church service I realized I was not enjoying my time and I kept thinking - this is the day we are to celebrate Christ's resurrection what is my problem.  At the end of the service I realized what was wrong.  I was going through one of those cultural adjustments - once again! The church was more than packed and the whole thing felt so commercial to me.  Everyone showing up for church just because it's Easter and it's the thing to do.  I was thinking back to last Easter when we were in China and we celebrated with our small group with a meal and worship and prayer together.  I know it's not fair to look back and compare the past to the present but that is what I found myself doing.  Really when it comes down to it - it was just another moment of adjustment in being back in America.

Fun with Cousins!

This week we got a new computer which is wonderful and I can finally post some pictures.  Also Rob's sister Lona is in town with her 6 children.  There oldest is 8 and the two youngest (twins) are 5 months.  Abraham has so much fun when they are in town.  And because we live above Rich and Lynda as soon as breakfast is over in the morning he can go downstairs to play.

We went to the park today and here are some pictures of our time.

More Changes!!!

Well our computer has been down for about 3 weeks so updating my blog has been slow. We are hoping to get it back soon. We have also decided to buy a new one now rather than waiting until our current laptop totally dies and we are in a position to have to buy quickly.
This week has been filled with so many ups and downs and changes. A few weeks back we talked about buying a second house if we came across a really good deal. We figured we would move into that home and keep our current home as a rental property. We thought we were going to buy our friend's Mom house for a really cheap price. Then after our friend talked to his Mom again she decided she did not want to sell. Then we met with our friend Carl who is a financial advisor with his own practice. He invests, sells life insurance.... he asked Rob if he would like to come along with him and learn the business. Carl has been doing this for some time now and their business is very successful and they are getting to the point where they will not be able to handle all of their clients. Rob has always said that if we returned from the mission field he wanted to sell insurance.
Carl will pay for Rob to take the 5 day class in Indianapolis and then to take his test in order to get licensed. We feel like this is such an answer to prayer. We have known that Rob could not continue at the bakery since his body is taking a beating and he is in pain all the time. This new position does not feel like a "job" but something he could make into a career. He will continue to trade stocks and work on building that.
I'm ready for Rob to put his two week notice in at the bakery today - but we need to wait and be patient. The next class for his license is not until May 4th. So looks like he will have about 3 weeks or so at the bakery. We are putting buying a house on hold for now as well. We will see what God has in store......

Life....

We have been back in the US just over 6 months. I can't believe it has been that long already. There are times I feel like we just got back. Rob continues to work hard at the cookie factory. It is the most physically demanding job he has ever had. It's hard to see him be in physical pain because of how hard he is working every night. This week he will go another 7 days in row just to start off another week on Monday with another 7 days possibly.
I signed Abraham up for school yesterday. I am excited for him to start Kindergarten but as I was reading through the material they gave me I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. I guess it's that feeeling that my little guy is growing up and will be going to school. Then as I read the list of what I can do to help him prepare for Kindergarten I felt stressed. It seems as though the things he needs to know to prepare for Kindergarten are the things I thought he would learn in Kindergarten. Oh my! I'm sure I am worrying and he will be just fine. He is doing good with writing and recognizing the sounds of almost all the letters. He just does not know the names of most of the letters since I was emphazing the sounds and not the names. Again I am sure he will do fine but I want him to do great and have confidence in school.

His basketball season is about up. I'm glad he had this opportunity as it's been good for him to make friends and to interact with other adults. The other day in practice the coaches were sharing the gospel with the kids and they said a prayer that they told the kids if they wanted to day the prayer in their heart they could. After practice Abraham told me he said the prayer in his heart! He was really excited! I asked him if any of the other kids did and he said "I don't know I was not paying attention to them!" So I thought it was neat that he just chose to do that on his own without the pressure of Mom and Dad telling him to or the pressure of seeing other kids do it. Rob and I pray this is the beginning of a life following Jesus for him. He such a special kid.....

Ants in my Pants!!!

I have titled this post 'Ants in my Pants' because lately that is how I feel.  I have been having this "itch" to get into our house and into our own space.  I'm looking forward to painting and decorating and all those things you get to do when you move into a new place.  However, our renter is still at the house and even though she does not have a signed lease she has been a friend and we don't just want to throw her out.  She has 3 children....  So I spoke with her the other day about her plans and she would like to buy a house, however she needs to wait on a few things before that can happen.  So at this point we have decided that by June she will have a more concrete idea of what is happening and then she will either commit and sign another lease or she will be moving out. 

So for us it looks like we could possibly be moving (at the earliest) this fall.  This does not help my "itch" at all.  However, I know the Lord's timing is best and once again I am having to learn patience.

Patience takes forever!!!  As my niece Gabrielle said at the age of 5.