Less than a month!

It's hard to believe we leave in less than a month! We are getting more and more excited as the time approaches. I'm packing up the house more and more everyday. It's bittersweet. It's hard to leave our first home but very exciting to make steps in the direction that God is calling us. We found ourselves getting a little overwhelmed a couple of weeks back. All of our thoughts were around what money we had raised, what money we still needed, what to pack and when and all the things that go along with a process like this.
    We quickly humbled ourselves in prayer to refocus our attention on the only thing that matters and the whole reason we're going to Colorado in the first place. We needed to put our cares, troubles and thoughts to Jesus and the call to carry His name. Even though we were thinking about our ministry, we took our eyes off of Him and giving Him continuous praise just for a moment but it was long enough to make our human selves stress out. Please pray that we continue to put Him first throughout the entire process.
Update with exciting news to share: we have completely paid for the lecture phase! $6,490! We've even got some money already going for outreach. We have until June 7 to cover the remaining balance. He will get us there! Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!

An update

Just wanted to say that YWAM has all of our necessary info, just waiting for our registration stuff! God is providing more of the necessary funding and we're always looking for more money raising ideas! If you know of any, send them our way! Thanks and much love!

Christmas Time is Here!

So i know i was going to use this to tell about our missions adventures, but i can't help it. i'd like to keep this night in the record book. We got our Christmas tree tonight! We went to Kroger, somewhere i never expected to buy a tree, and found a 7 foot Noble Fir. It's been raining all day and since this one was semi dry from being under the awning, it meant we could decorate tonight! So we took it home; i made dinner and Eric prepped it but cutting off the lowest branches and base. After we ate, we brought it in, finally made it stand straight and got to work. It smells sooo good! Reminds me of the scratch & sniff book, "The Sweet Smells of Christmas". Savannah was enthralled by the plugged in lights on the floor. She, of course, wanted to put them in her mouth, but we stopped her before she met the same fate as Aunt Bethany's cat in Christmas Vacation. It took us 3 times to get the lights to look right in the tree, but we did. My Pappy and Mom would be proud. Nothing works better than the old squinted eye trick. We store our ornaments in empty popcorn tins (you know the ones with the 3 flavors: caramel, cheddar and butter? Does anyone actually eat the butter popcorn? anyways!) and Savannah really liked just putting hers in and out of the tin. Since we figured Savy would want to pull every ornament off the tree that she could, we bought her a set of 4 plush, Winnie the Pooh ornaments. They're super cute. After watching me a couple of times she tried to put Tigger in the tree, but seeing as she didn't use the string, he fell out immediately. But hey, she tried! It was precious. She got sleepy so we put her to bed then Eric and i decorated the rest of it. i don't know if i've ever laughed harder when hanging ornaments. We had such a great time. No stress, just enjoyment. Remembering ornaments from years past and thinking about the future. We ate chocolate chip cookies and snuggled on the couch while our Christmas music mix played on the ipod. It was one of those nights that can't be planned. It's perfectly wonderful in its simplicity. This season we are praying to fully embrace and experience God in every part of the holiday. With every tradition, party, decoration and gift. None of it would be here if God hadn't decided to descend His throne and join us where we were. Thanks, Lord for being so awesome. Merry Christmas! May you be well pleased with all that we do in Your name.

A blog is born!

We started a blog for all of our friends and family to be able to follow along with us as we prepare and eventually go to Colorado and beyond! Hopefully we'll be able to keep it updated regularly so you can all see where we are and what sort of things God is doing to us and through us. Much love!