Back to School

School is back in session! We are trying to get ourselves adjusted to being back to the school routine. Summer sure wrecked that - none of this get out the door or you're gonna miss the bus; you better run like the wind she's waiting! :) Javin loves his new teacher and enjoys being a 2nd grader. His favorite special activity is gym, his favorite subjects are math and science, his favorite thing to do at recess is play tag, and his favorite non-learning activity is lunch.

Kailyn is gearing up for her first full session of preschool on Tuesday. She is excited to go and most importantly to wear her new pink backpack. She goes Tuesday and Thursday morning for 2 hours or so.

We had a fun day today at the Coshocton Water park with some of our friends. It was the last day of operation and we had a beautiful day to enjoy it all. Tomorrow we are planning a day of hiking in Mohican State Park.

My past week or so has been consumed with researching new compact SUV's. I came up with a broad list of possibilities and began narrowing it down based on mpg, size and reviews. And the winner is Honda CR-V, America's number 1 compact SUV. Okay so that was one reason it began fairly low on the list to start out, because "everyone" has one (no offense to all you CR-V owners out there who are reading this). That drives me nuts, but what can I say? It has the right mpg, the right size, a great track record on reliability and looks sporty. The models that almost made it were: Nissan Rogue, Mitsubishi Outlander and Saturn Vue. Which one would you vote for? Someday soon I will be joining the masses as a CR-V owner. I haven't bought one yet, but I am relieved to have finally decided on what I want to get. I'll keep ya posted.

New Mexico

After the Mexican heat had zapped all our energy and robbed us of our sleep, we headed north to air conditioning and swimming pools - New Mexico. We had a wonderful time hanging out with the Carignan family. The kids swam in the pool everyday, several times a day - not much else to do outside in New Mexico. We learned very quickly what the "smell of money" was - they are surrounded by mega diary farms that put off quite a stench but are very prosperous. Josie and I got to do all the fun girl stuff - go shopping, drink coffee, get pedicures in a massage chair. Ahh vacation! Brad got to go to work and babysit for us! HeeHee! The kids played and played. Kailyn and Jordana were the absolute cutest little girlfriends. They played together nonstop!

We made it home through 3 layovers almost without a hitch. Well... it happened in Denver. We had a 34 minute layover which I was kinda nervous about. Every airline person assured me that was enough time and it would have been. However, I didn't get my boarding passes until the flight before and the plane was already booked up so we didn't have seats together. We arrived in Denver with a few minutes to spare but had to wait while a very harried airline lady tried to swap seats around for us and 3 other groups who wanted to sit together. Finally she handed us our passes and boarding begins. By this time I have had to go to the bathroom for awhile so, I decided to sneak away thinking we have some time while they board. Well Kailyn turned ultra-friendly with every lady in the bathroom commenting on how nice their shoes were and taking a very long time washing her hands. Needless to say we got back to our gate and the only people left were just getting on. Close call!! After telling my life group this story they gave me a hard time about the whole "hand washing thing". Their advise: next time skip the handing washing and make sure I get on the flight and honestly the kids won't die from the germs! Truthfully, I didn't think it was going to be that close. Oh well we made it.

Mexico adventure

I have been trying to find the time to write about our trip to Mexico and it has been hard to come by. So here I am at last! I am so glad I was able to expose my kids to another culture and way of life. It was a wonderful trip of sharing the love of Jesus is such simple ways.

We spent our mornings helping with chapel for the kids. We had a children's pastor along who did a wonderful job teaching the kids. I even got to pray with the ones who wanted to receive Christ in their hearts!! After that we played with the kids in whatever way we could (Uno, jump ropes, playground equipment). We even had a princess party for the girls and painted their nails and gave them flowers. One night we grilled hot dogs and made smores for a special treat. I was able to share a little lesson with flashlights for each kid.

It was so hot that during the day they stayed inside most of the time. One afternoon we set up our travel DVD player and drew quite a crowd to watch a movie. On the last day we bought 3 swimming pools and had them filled with water for the kids. The sheer excitement and joy that was on their faces was priceless. What a simple way to make some one's day a little brighter!

When we got there the pantry and freezer were empty and they had not had meat for the kids for a week. So we headed right out to buy groceries and get them stocked up for awhile. Thanks to everyone who donated school supplies. They were thrilled with them and will put them to good use when school starts up again.

We packed a lot into 2 days. Including Brad and his new sidekick, Javin, who filmed a documentary on the orphanage. Javin was so intrigued with the cameras and all that was going on. He wants to be a camera man when he grows up now. Kailyn did so well and jumped right in and played with the kids in the midst of the 100 degree weather. It was a good trip and we were honored to be able to share the love of Jesus with these kids who live just 10 miles from the US border. Thanks to all who prayed for us!

We are so excited! It is finally time for our mission trip to Mexico!! The bags are packed and we are raring to go. A BIG thank you to everyone who donated school supplies for the children. I have 2 suitcases full of stuff to take along. How much fun is that!!

We will be at the orphanage for 3 days, where we will be teaching the kids, playing games with them and just spending time together. In the evening we will be at 2 different churches. We are going with friends or ours, Brad and Josie and their kids, their children's pastor and a film crew.

Please pray for us:

· Pray for us to truly show the love of Jesus to these kids.
· Pray for God to transform their hearts and ours too.
· Pray for divine appointments.
· Pray for us to persevere and not get discouraged in the midst of heat and challenges.
· Pray for grace to adjust to a different culture.
· Pray for protection against any attacks from the enemy.

Tenting

We went tenting this week! You see, it wasn't really camping because we were in the yard right behind the house. So I could hardly call that camping. But we had the tent set up and we had a fire. So we will call it tenting! We all slept out one night and the kids attempted to sleep out there one their own the next night. Kailyn kept coming back into the house every few minutes, then they finally settled down. Then at 1:30 I heard her banging around and trying to get in the house again. So she had to go to the bathroom and it was so dark that she got scared and didn't want to go back out. Javin was quite disappointed that she didn't stay. He would have gladly helped her in and out with a light if she would have woke him. He says next time he is going to lock her in the tent so she has to wake him up. That is his way of saying that he wanted to help her. It was cute.

We also set up the swimming pool this week. That was just what we needed on this hot week. They played and played in it. We had friends over one day and that filled up the pool. They soon headed off to the slide for some water sliding action. Kailyn is still working on her swimming and getting better and better. She can swim a little ways on her own. With some practice she will be on her way!

Heaven Sent

Well we returned from our trip this weekend. It went pretty good. As good as can be expected from kids with short attention spans. :)

We headed south on Thursday afternoon loaded down in Marlin and Paula's van. The kids did great on the long 5 hour drive. When we arrived we got settled into our rooms. We were staying at an old school building. So the Pecks had a whole classroom to ourselves. And to our surprise we got the tricycle room! Wheee! The school used to house a head start preschool program which left behind some stuff.

Friday we descended upon a retired pastor's house, which the youth had been working on all week. Our job was to finish scrapping the old paint off and put 2 coats of paint on it. The kids worked for about an hour or so before the heat was too much and the novelty of painting wore off. Arielle and crew to the rescue. They took charge all the kids - 9, I think, while the parents kept on working.

After lunch we switched gears and went to the food packaging office. We assembled food packets that are distributed to disaster victims, orphanages, and poor across the world. Each kid had a job either measuring out food, weighing or sorting bags. We kept at it and packaged up 20 boxes of food. Way to go guys!

On to the next adventure - downtown ministry. We set up at a downtown park and began handing out hot dog dinners and making friends. We were able to feed quite a few people and encourage them as well.

On the way home I noticed the Kailyn was hot with fever so that began a bit of a "detour" for us. She ran a fever for a few hours that night and then slept really late. The next morning was painting again so Javin headed off with the crew and I stayed home with Kailyn. After her afternoon nap she seemed to be better.


In the afternoon we helped with a kid's outreach. A local church brought in a van load of kids and we played games and held a mini carnival for them. At the end we did a little program with them and fed them. Javin and I got to teach the kids dance. It all went good.

That evening we were scheduled to have group time at the school but that got rearranged as little Ben had an accident on the merry-go-round and broke his leg. He went to the hospital and had surgery to have it set that night. (They just got home today and are doing as good as can be expected.)

Sunday morning we packed everything up and headed in to town for church, then hit the road for the return trip. I must say, the trip was trying at times. Keeping track of both kids and dealing with their meltdowns and excitement was challenging. But overall they did okay and had a good experience.

Outreach Weekend coming up

Pray for us this weekend as we heading out for an outreach in WV. The kids are both going along. I am praying for a memorable experience for them in serving others. It should be pretty interesting! :) I hear we get to sleep in an old school. We will be doing some work projects and an outreach. Check back next week to see how it went!


On another note, look me up on facebook. I have finally joined the club! What fun connecting with friends from way, way back.