Adventures in Our Home & Hearts: Celebrating Grandma Opal's, Grandma Keith's, & Noah's Lives ~ February 2017

*I recently switched up my blogging gameplay. For now, I am simplifying my posts with the hope that I can return to my more detailed posts in the future. Since I am still catching up, I am writing as if it was during that month. Hopefully, I will be able to blog in the present again soon!

Giving God Glory

God is Our Protector

One of our friends' mom personally experienced the Lord's sovereign protection. In her words ~ "A tree fell on the house. Luckily it split on the fall and only this piece came through the bedroom wall. Not sure about the roof yet. It grazed the deck." The verse on the decor plaque is:

Matthew 28:20 ~ ...Behold, I am with you always...

Marriage Memories

We thank the Lord for giving us unity and direction for where He may be leading us to serve at our church. I had been very excited about a children's outreach ministry ~ weekly Bible club that our church does at a public elementary school. Wes and I had planned on not taking on any additional commitments for a year after we moved in order to get settled and to get a feel for Wes' schedule at Heartland, so I hadn't mentioned anything to him about it. When it came up in our conversation of where each of us would like to serve "down the road after it has been a year," Wes went first and said that the Bible club stood out to him, which I excitedly shared, "Me too!" The Lord ended up orchestrating and opening up the opportunity to begin serving as a family in Bible club this month, so sometimes - often ;) - our timing is not always the Lord's timing. We're very thankful for the privilege to be involved as a family in sharing the gospel with children who have not heard much, if at all, about Jesus and the good news of the gospel.

Family Fun

Fam all loaded up at the Columbus Zoo * Enjoying the variety of animals & exhibits

Wes teaching our boys Heartland's "Nibbledy Bibbles" game (similar to "Simon Says")

Valentine's gift bags with "5 Love Languages" gifts

Celebrating friendship too on Valentine's Day with a cheesecake from family friends of ours... Yum!

Wes' Grandma Opal passed away unexpectedly, and we are grateful to live closer to Wisconsin so our whole family could go to her memorial service.

We enjoyed getting to see Grandma Keith near her 90th birthday while we were there.

Noah & cousins (Joey & Abby) excited for Noah's requested birthday breakfast of donuts & bacon * Samuel diggin' his donut

Noah's birthday party with friends got postponed since we were in Wisconsin the weekend of Noah's birthday. We were grateful for family (thank you, especially Kim!) making Noah's birthday special in all kinds of ways. :)

Making slime with the cousins

Birthday boy!

Noah News

8 years old!!!

Continued prayer that the Lord would graciously save Noah at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will.
We thank the Lord for blessing us with 8 years of life with our spunky, energetic, observant, hardworking, and adventurous son!

Josiah Joys

4 years old

Continued prayer that the Lord would graciously save Josiah at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will.

Praise for Josiah's spiritually tender heart continuing. - ex.

One of Josiah's favorite things to say lately is "I hate Satan!" since we had a conversation about how "hate" is a very strong word that we don't say to our brothers or friends and only use in reference to certain things such as hating sin, Satan, etc. I respond to Josiah with agreement - "I hate Satan too!" and with asking him, "Who do we love?" which we both agree - "We love Jesus!" Please continue to pray that Josiah's spiritually tender heart would continue and that we would help him have an age-appropriate understanding of the spiritual battle that exists (Ephesians 6:10-20).

Samuel Sentiments

22 months

Continued prayer that the Lord would graciously save Samuel at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will.

Praise for Samuel overall responding well when those teachable moments come ~ where we are seeking to help him learn how to honor and obey the Lord by honoring and obeying us. Please pray that Samuel would continue to respond well as we teach him about obedience to the Lord and us (Ephesians 6:1-3).

Bro Bonding