Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Father's Day

We sort of missed Father's Day this year. Being 13+ hours from home we did not get to spend Father's Day with our Dads and had to resolve ourselves to just a phone call. Add to that that Matt was with 60 kids at a camp in Oklahoma and it REALLY didn't seem like Father's Day. However, I am so very thankful for my Dad and my Father-in-law who raised us in godly homes and taught us how to be parents. What better way to send out the Gospel than to raise up disciples in your own home. Once they are grown you let them go with encouragement and much prayer. Pretty neat to think that our parents raise us in Alabama but little did they know that their faithfulness to God and ministry would, through us, touch lives in St.Louis, MO, Augusta, GA, Greenwood, MS and now Wichita, KS.
Now I am so thankful for Matt who is not only a wonderful husband but a great dad. I have enjoyed this adventure being married to you, Honey. I look forward to many more years raising our kids together to love Jesus more than anything. I pray that God will bless our ministry here but also as we train up our children to go out (who knows where) and tell others of the One that means the most to them.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Our new house

We figured we should post a picture of our new house for all to see. We miss our big trees but thankfully it has not gotten too hot yet. It needs some TLC and some serious landscaping. Anyone know a landscape architect in Wichita that wants to give some free advice??? Right now we have 2 beds of lava rock, yep, lava rock. That is close to heresy to this southern girl who LOVES flowers. Problem is I just don't know where to begin (aside from getting up all the rocks). Playing in our new front yard. OK, actually we were playing in the driveway. We love sidewalk chalk!! EC went to VBS last week so Knox and I got to spend some quality time together which mainly included him getting into things and me cleaning up after him. Life with a boy.





Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Eva Bailey

Many of you have prayed with me for my Aunt Eva who has battled cancer for over 10 years. Well, her battle ended Saturday morning and she went home to be with her Savior and her mother, who we just lost a few months ago. This is very bitter sweet for my family. She suffered for so long and because of that we are glad that she is home and no longer suffering. However, we will miss her so much. She was truly a sweet precious lady. One of the things I will always remember is that when she hugged you she patted your back and there was never a faster patter. It was a thing unique to Aunt Eva and I loved it. I can even remember as a kid trying to hug and pat as fast as she did. I have so many memories of my Aunt because her daughter and I are the same age and our moms were so close that we were often together. One thing I loved about Aunt Eva is how much she was like my mom. Of course they were sisters but they just did so many things the same that I felt like she was a 2nd mother to me. She will be so missed but we have a hope that so many don't have. One day we will see her again and you better believe I can't wait to get a hug and a fast pat.

Double Rainbow

We have already experienced some crazy weather here in Wichita. Thankfully nothing severe. Our first night in our house we had marble sized hail for a few minutes but other than that we have just had a few thunderstorms and amazing temperatures. Yesterday morning was in the upper 50's. This whole week we have lows in the 60's and highs in the 80's. For this Southern girl who is use to upper 90's in June, I am loving it. Sunday night we had this amazing display out our front window. It was a huge double rainbow and it was beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. Just another reminder of God's promises to us.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Our first trip to the zoo

This morning we decided enough with the boxes, we wanted to do something fun. Some sweet friends gave us a gift card for a year membership to the zoo so we decided to go. We LOVED it. It was overcast, windy and down right pleasant outside. Perfect zoo weather. The animals must have thought so too because they were all out and putting on a show. The first picture was my favorite. This beautiful lion just sat and posed for me. I just watched The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe again and I would swear this was Aslan. He was beautiful. This is what Knox wanted to see, the giraffes.
Is there anything better than stopping to have a picnic snack at the zoo?

Matt said this was the one exhibit that actually made him nervous. This grizzly bear looked ferocious as he paced back and forth. The other one just watched from the cave.

Another favorite was the Gorilla exhibit. This is the bridge you cross to get to it. It was so neat.

We saw at least 4 huge gorillas. This one was right up next to the glass, just lounging. Quite funny. If you look real close you can see EC's reflection in the glass.

The elephants were putting on a show too. This one was standing right on the edge eating a stick. The other one was slinging mud on himself.

It was truly a delightful visit. They are working on expanding the zoo so it will just get better. I can't believe I have a pass and we can go whenever we want. Someone pinch me. We decided to wrap up our perfect morning by getting bagels to eat for the week at Panera and grabbing some lunch at Chipotle's. It was a great day after a long hard week of missing friends, missing home, EC being sick (that's another post), and making big adjustments. We're so thankful.







Wednesday, June 04, 2008

We are in Wichita

It has been a long few days but we are in our new house in Wichita. But being one that loves to tell a story I must start from the beginning. We closed on our house in Greenwood on Thursday. And I did it with no tears. Have I mentioned I loved that house. Then Friday our movers were to show up at noon. No one was there by 2:00 so we called our sales guy. He said there had been a medical emergency and they would be there at 6:00 to get started and then finish on Saturday. Well, 6:00, 7:00 8:00 etc... came and went and no movers showed up. We went to bed only to be awakened by EC at 1:30 who said she was going to throw up. You know our history, we panicked. Matt stayed up with her and I went to bed. Turns out she was OK but just didn't want to sleep so Matt only had a few hours of sleep that night. I got up bright and early thinking the movers would be there. No movers. By 10:00 we were panicking and calling other moving companies, Uhaul etc.... when we finally got a call that a 2 man crew would be there to start packing at 1:00 and 2 more men with our truck would be there that night. Keep in mind that this is Saturday and we have to leave first thing Sunday morning to drive to Wichita because we are closing at 8:00 Monday morning on our house here. Well, they finally showed up and started packing. We had lots of sweet friends come by for a last teary goodbye. Our sweet friends Keith and Tonya even brought dinner - hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, fruit and the best banana pudding you have ever put in your mouth. It was a sweet time having a picnic on the living room floor. The movers packed and loaded all they could until 11:30 when we all called it a night. They were to be back at 8:00. We had originally planned to leave at 7:00 for our trip since we didn't know exactly how long it would take but we thought we would wait until they got there. Our really REALLY sweet friend and hero for the weekend, Tonya, said she would stay at our house until everything was out so that we could go ahead and leave. No movers were there by 8:30 so Matt called and WOKE THEM UP. AUGH !! They got there by 9:00 but we couldn't leave because there was a disagreement about how they were to be paid. Come to find out that they didn't actually work for the moving company we had hired - Ultimate Van Lines. I won't even go into the 20 phone calls it took to fix that debacle. So finally we got on the road at 10:00. Bad weather, 5 toll roads and 11 hours later we were in Kansas. This is the wide open sky that greeted us as we traveled the last hour of our trip into Wichita.


We finally got there after 12 hours of travel and hit the beds hard at our friends house, the Tappans. God has truly blessed us with such great friends in Greenwood and here already. We got up early and went to close on our house at 8 am. All went well. The movers were to be here at noon but of course they didn't get here until 6:00. We unloaded and unpacked until 11:30. Exhausted we started back the next day. It is now Wednesday and the house is starting to look more like a home and less like a warehouse. Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, calls and emails. We already miss our friends in Greenwood but are thankful for what God will do through us here.

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