Finally... the kids are in the back and I'm trying to update you all....

November 24th

Greetings to you! We are sorry that we can’t update this blog more often but the internet here at the camp has been down for 2 weeks so when we get to go to town we try to do as much ‘wireless interneting’ as possible before our kids go CRAZY in the back seat!

The Samuel’s house is at the mudding/sanding stage and Willie is finding that to be an exciting challenge. He has enjoyed working with all the different groups that have come through and working with everyones strengths and abilities to complete this home. It would be a real dream to complete it by Christmas! I went out on Friday for about an hour... the kids were both napping in the truck so I got out and helped mud some screw holes in the ceiling. Not much of a contribution but hey... you do what you can when you can...

We went to another high school football game on Friday night. The kids stayed at the Glenn’s (Luke and Sara) and they had an amazing time. It was a great date night for Willie and I and even though it was cold we enjoyed the game (until half time anyway... then we realized half time was 28 minutes... so we went to Walmart to buy Samuel his birthday gift from my mom and we went back to find our kids did not want to come with us. Again I say we’re so thankful for Jason and Leeanne and their kids.

Sunday brought us another gift! We were once again blown away by a God who loves to ‘wow’ us. We went out to a country church (and I mean country... not a whole lot but a church down this road!) All but 5 people in the congregation were in the choir and how sweet it is to hear the voice of God through a beautiful black choir!! The lady on the piano came by the camp on Thursday to bless us with her talents and now we got to experience it on a Sunday morning worship! The neatest thing about this is that they weren’t expecting us to come. She had invited us but had no clue we were all going to come (there were about 20 of us) She had woken up on Sunday morning and God told her to prepare food for us - so she called her mom and asked her to prepare chicken and all the amazing things that go with that - and for 20 people!!! How exciting it was when we walked through the door and she saw us file in to this tiny country church!!! God is so amazing! And Samuel got to meet the sweetest lady - her birthday was this week too! She turned 98!! So he got to wish her a happy birthday and she just blessed him with her sweet warm hands!! (then we had to cruise because I was standing on an ant hill but I was so caught in the moment I hadn’t noticed!!!) I love how it’s such a different ‘world’ and yet we all serve the same God - just in totally different ways!! He is glorified and He is here!!!

We are so enjoying our time and are again forever thankful for a God who has given us so much! We are however a little (or actually quite a lot more than a little) disappointed that no one has come out on a short term to see what MDS is about... we do encourage you to do it!! Just do it!!


November 25th - Samuel’s Birthday!!!
I must admit that before we left I was a little bummed because I knew we wouldn’t be able to a birthday party for Samuel at home - but wow we had a great day. We did a lot of our favorite things today... we went over to the Glenn house for ‘Birthday Pancakes’ (which were John Deere green!!), went to the library with Luke, went out to McDonalds for nuggets and fries, got some balloons, played with Luke and Sara, played with some really cute puppies and talked to Gramma, Grampa, Auntie Dewey, William & DJ on the phone, listened to Mr. Pete, Bethany and Benjamin sing Happy Birthday, had a Lightening McQueen birthday cake! WOW.

So thank you so much Pete for having the kids call that was really special - a highlight forsure! And yes Dad, Samuel instructed me to pull his ears for you and he liked that (had to do it twice).

So thank you Jesus for giving our sweet boy a great birthday day from Morning to Night. Samuel was born on American Thanksgiving day and he truly is a gift that we are thankful for daily!!! As I go to bed tonight I’m amazed that He has been so good to us and I wish I would spend more time praising Him for his goodness... always something to work on I guess!!! Goodnight.

November 26th - the Morning After

Okay now my boy is flat on his back - resting. He has said that his head hurts for the last three days but today he had no ambition and he’s doing NOTHING! I was a little concerned but thought it was just because of all the excitement of yesterday and he was tired. But then I looked in his mouth... he’s got his adult teeth coming behind his bottom baby teeth... and the baby teeth are not comin’ out anytime soon!! I’m freaking out a little but trying to stay calm. I threw the kids in the truck and went over to Leeanne’s since she’s got 4 kids and much calmer than I am... but everyone is saying it’ll be okay and that the baby teeth will fall out but yikes... it looks painful. And anyone that knows Samuel knows that he’s pretty tough - for him to say his head hurts it must be pounding! So I guess I’m asking for prayers again...
Becky if you’re reading this I know Cassidy had this but just in the past year right? And the dentist had to pull the baby teeth if I remember correctly. Let me know if you have some advice. Thanks... later.