Kick off went great!

Well, we kicked of the 1st sunday at Calvary Chapel Everett on Sunday. We were so blessed to see how the Lord provides. There were quite a few people who showed up, many who were very familiar with Calvary Chapel and some who had no idea, but were willing to come in and take a gander. Lots of people were prayed with and people we never thought would have been impacted by the service, gave us some very encouraging words after the service. Everything worked out wonderfully and we are excited to see what God does and who he brings next week. Unfortunatly we forgot our camera so you will have to wait for pictures until next week.

All is going well on the home front. Tadd was able to attend the Lake Stevens Men's conference last Saturday and then the Seattle Pastors Conference on Monday and Tuesday. He was very blessed and Charity was able to get some much needed housework done.

We have not heard any updates on our adoption yet but are hoping to hear with in the next week or so. Please pray that the Lord will do an amazing work in Haiti and our adoption will be pushed through the paperwork pile up. Thanks so much for your continued prayer. I was reading in Daniel a few days ago and it was talking about when the King Cyrus said all the Jews that had been taken captive in Babylon could go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the city. Only a small portion of the Jews wanted to go back and it greeved Daniel so much he started to pray and fast for the people. On the 24th day of his fast an Angel came to him and said that he had tried to come the first day that Daniel had humbled his heart and set his heart to understanding God, but the Devil had intercepted him and he fought with him for 21 days until Michael the Arch Angel came to help him. It really helped me to realize what a spiritual battle we are in every day. I wonder what would have happened if Daniel would have given up praying after a day, a week or a few weeks. As God helped me to see how important prayer is, it made me so thankful for all of you who pray for us and our kids consistantly. Thank you agian so much.

Start'en up

Well this is the weekend we are helping to start up the Calvary Chapel Everett church. Please pray that God would bring lots of people who need to hear of His love and that we would be receptive to the needs of the people that God brings. We are starting out with Pastor Ken and his family, our family and a worship leader, as far as I am aware of. There may be some people coming from the Calvary Lake Stevens to support this church plant also. We are so excited to see what the Lord is going to do.



Also, please pray for direction as to how to use the building that God has given us as it is small, but perfect for an Adult Bible Study. Unfortunatly, not a lot of room for kids. But this is what God has provided, so I am sure he will work it out. Here is a picture of the building and here is the web site again if you didn't get it last time we posted. http://www.calvaryeverett.com/



Lastly, Please keep in prayer the people affected by the hurricanes. Charity has a sister in Texas and obviously children in Haiti so we have heard stories and have seen pictures first hand of the horrible damage it has done. Many people we know in Haiti had family members die and all that they have (which isn't much) was washed away.

Creative or Crazy?

Well, Kenya and Elijah have started school and they are loving it with an occational whimper of I can't do this. Over all it is going good. The curriculum we are using is very helpful to get Mom out of her box, instead of the same ol same ol. Mom is enjoying homeschooling a lot more this year as the History part is a lot of reading out loud. So we have taken our books to the lawn at the park. We get to snuggle on a blanket and read while we still have some sunny days left. We are still working out some glitches but once Mom figures out what she is supposed to be doing. I am sure things will run smoothly. Elijah and Daddy got hair cuts the other night and Elijah expressed he really wanted a mohock (one of his friend had gotten one earlier in the year) So Dad decided, what the heck, he's homeschooled, we can let him sport it for a couple of days. Now my little sweetheart is looking more like a little punk. I guess I can handle it for a couple of days. The smile just doesn't go with the hair. Here they are writing their spelling words in paint.

Tadd has been working for one of his friends doing construction and it is working out well for them both, as right when we got home from vacation, one of his full time employees went back to college. Still keeping our sites on Haiti as we try to get a couple of big issues worked out. Praying that the Lord will open doors if this is His will. We definantly don't want to be in Haiti with out Him. Please pray that He will open doors where they are closed or steer us to the one that He has opened already. Also, that we will abide in Him daily and seek His plan. Instead of trying to plan it all out on our own , before He shows us what He wants. Charity is a planner and that always makes stepping out in faith very hard. We were waiting till November to leave hoping we could stick around for Tadd's brother's Wedding but it looks like that due to some paperwork with his Fiance in Mexico they may have to push the Wedding off until December. We would really hate to miss it, so we are seeking the Lord's direction on the matter. No word on the adoption, the kids were safe through all the hurricanes. They are on higher ground, so the worst case senario was that they would not be able to get supplies as roads may get washed out. Some of the roads they use were washed out, but they were able to find alternate routes. Please pray for all of those involved in the hurricanes, as after hurricanes there is a greater risk for sickness and infections (especially in Haiti) as all of the garbage and waste has been spread. Thanks agian, Here is a 2 week old picture of our cuties that another mom took while she was there.

Obviously the one in in blue flowers right up front signing "I love you" is out sweet and sassy little girl.

The cutie with the big smile in the plaid shirt is our boy.

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We miss them so much and when we talked to them on Tuesday we learned the sentaments are returned. We are so excited to see them soon.

A Happy Family Again!

Well Tadd is home and had lots of fun. Other than missing him a whole lot, we survived with no major catastrophes. We got all of our homeschool stuff in the mail the day before he left, so that kept mom busy organizing and reading while he was gone.

Kenya and Elijah were troopers, they did lots of fun stuff together to let mommy have some time to look through homeschool stuff. Beleive it or not Kenya and Elijah are actually excited to start school next week. They were outside yesterday washing off the little desks that they use and Kenya wanted to do a whole years worth of art curriculum in one day. We are having lots of fun and feeling very blessed that we have so much time to spend together.

Kenya and Eljah showing off the sock puppets and pottery they made to surprise Daddy when he got home.

Geared up for School

We are trying to have as much fun as we can with our rainy, gray days until school sets in and our days will be filled with forced fun. :-) We got spoiled with nice hot sunshine on vacation and thought we were ready for some rain. Oh we got our rain and apparently are never content, as we are wishing for a little sunshiny vacation again. Needless to say, we've been playing lots of board games and doing lots of cheap crafts.

Tadd leaves tomorrow for California and we are trying to get back into some routine so getting up for school is not such a shock. Kenya and Elijah have been real troopers at getting back into chores and helping mom and dad around the house, now that we are off our extended vacation. Most of their time has been spent playing with and caring for the new puppy that Daddy just couldn't resist bringing home. He's hoping that who ever house sits for us for 6 months is O.K. with taking care of a pure bread Border Collie who is sweet as pie. There was a sign down the road for boarder collies $350.00 Then one day the $350.00 turned to free, which happens to be in our price range. I guess the pups were 6 months old and he just wanted to get rid of them and start fresh with the next litter. The kids were obviously ecstatic.

Tadd has been working a lot for friends and will probablly be working for one of them full time until we leave. Jennifer and Jarod have been doing lots of work getting our downstairs apartment ready in Haiti, most of that includes getting all of their stuff moved and constructed upstairs. We are working on getting all of the technical details worked out here in the states, so we can go forward with the move. Please continue to pray for the adoption as our papers that were lost are now "supposed" to be done by the end of August. We just sent off a package for Annecy's 8th birthday on September 1st. Time flies. Thanks for your continued prayers, it is the most effective and also the only tool we have in this neverending battle. God is so good to give us this tool, we just need to learn to pull it out of the tool box more often then we do. This adoption has been so good to teach Kenya and Elijah, and also Mommy and Daddy how we don't always know why God does what He does, but we do know He always does what is best for us and if we are continually praying and seeking Him, He will give us the peace to get through, until our prayers are answered.

Please Pray

We are back in full swing. Kenya and Elijah have been making a little extra cash by picking blackberries and selling them to mommy. Apparently blackberries have really gone up in price over the years. I guess that is the price you pay if you don't want to go pick them yourself. Unfortunatly, Elijah thinks picking them and then giving the profits to someone else, whether it comes with money or not is a cheap alternative to just stationing yourself at the bush and eating them until your sick.

Apparently the travels aren't over for my sweet husband.

Our previous pastor (Pastor Ken)

who I am sure is extatic that I used this picture, called and asked Tadd to help him out. Tadd had worked with Ken at our church until Ken moved to Costa Mesa, California and is now moving back to Washington to start a Calvary Chapel in Everett. Everett is about an hour south of us, by Seattle. Tadd will be helping him get the church in Everett started until we leave for Haiti in November. We are picking up his wonderful wife Lynn and their 3 kids from the airport next week and then at the end of the week Tadd will fly down to Cali and take a week to help Ken drive back up here. With a short pit stop in Jacksonville, OR of course as Ken is also a fan of Jon Courson, but I am sure not half as big as Tadd.

All of that said, we could really use some prayer for safety for Tadd and Ken as they drive back and also for protection and sanity for both of their wives and kids. If you could also really commit the church in Everett to prayer. The web address is www.calvaryeverett.com check it out and keep it in prayer.

Drained from Drifting

Well, we are finally home for awhile. We have visited and vacationed to our little hearts desire and we are now trying to cram our life into a box and head to Haiti. We are targeting the first of November as our departure date. We will be commiting to 6 months there and depending on how our adoption goes we will be back to show off our kids. Then we will seek the Lord and re-evaluate weither he takes us back to Haiti or in a different direction. We are just storing all of our thing now, so that we can use them when we come back to introduce Annecy and Isaiah to everyone and we will make a decision from there weither to continue to store or get rid of it all. We are so excited to go to Haiti and be with our kids, work with the Ebenhaaks and be a part of the amazing things God has going there. We will posting soon with more details and more direction. So stay tuned.

Meanwhile, we had a long, but fun 3 week vacation to say goodbye to family and friends. We started out in Idaho with Charity's family reunion which I'm sure you have already ooggled at that on our previous post, but hears a little follow up

mia and aunt charity

The sista's (4 outta 7 that is)

Sanfords & Scheffers @ museum

Next on to Saint George for lots of very Hot family fun.

Kenya and Elijah riding the kiddie go karts, they are not amuzed as the power wheels they have goes much faster.

So daddy let them ride on his go cart, much more amuzing, Dad hit the Lady in front of Him and make her do a 360 on the track.





The nice thing is the heat really wears the kids out.


We celebrated Kenya's 7th birthday on July 29th. Daddy took her on a date while Elijah and Mom stayed home to suprise her with cake and decor. It apparently worked and we got a snap shot as she walked in the door. She got to take a big bite right out of the cake, and then Elijah felt justified in doing the same.

Then off to Indio California to hang out with the Wheelers before they go off to Brazil.

We were afraid with 6 kids between both families we wouldn't get enough adult time together. We figured that out pretty quick and were able to go out with out the kids a couple of times.


The first night we just put them in front of the TV and told them not to make to much noise.


Then we took them to the beach and burried them in the sand, until we got back from surfing.



We had lots of fun at the beach and all the kids and guys got to go to the Pendleton Marine base in Oceanside. Since Billy is a Marine they got some special treatment when playing with the tanks. Then back home for some sweet snuggle time.



It seems that was the pattern for the whole vacation was, lots of play, lots of fun, then complete exhaustion.



Finally, we said good bye to the Wheeler's and on to our last stop in Jacksonville, OR for some borderline stalking of Jon Courson (a very gifted pastor that we love to listen to online). The reason I say borderline stalking is because every vacation we take, we end up stopping by to attend a service there and the kids love the kids museum and the camping spot we stay at.
We took a slight detour into the Oregon Vortex and found out that Kenya and Elijah are closer in height depending on where they stand. After satifying our obsessions, we limped our way home with excitement and exhaustion. Poor Elijah who was regularly deprived of his much needed naps was totally spent.


Thanks for keeping up with us and most of all keeping us in your prayers. We will try to post a little more frequently, now that we are a little more stationary. Love you all and we'll talk to you soon.