Bringing the tent stakes down again

We are so sorry for not posting in so long, life has been so crazy trying to live in Bellingham on Mon, Tues and Wed, then drive to Ellensburg and stay Thur, Fri, Sat, to teach and look for jobs and housing, then Sundays in Everett helping out with the church there. I think we may have found a house and hopefully can put an end to all of the time spent in the car. Kenya and Elijah's worst enemy, is their car seats right now. We would ask for some prayer for our little Elijah, he has been having some anxiety issues in the last week and I am sure it has a lot to do with how schedules and routine oriented he is, but his poor routine has been thrown up in the air since we have been traveling so much and it is taking it's toll on him. Please pray that we could get settled soon and his little heart would hold out for a couple more weeks until we can return to some sort of normalcy. It sounds like all of this would wear us out, but the Lord is blessing us so much in each place, that we have nothing but enthusiasm for where our in out life right now.

Many of you already know, CPS sent us a letter last week as a result of their investigation into our family, done right after the kidnapping, The letter said, they had ruled that Charity was a "negligent parent" and that this ruling could possibly effect her working with children in a public setting and determining if she could be licensed for foster or other care of children in our home. We are not sure what that means exactly or what the repercussions of that are right now, but it is probably not a good ruling to have when you are starting a children's ministry in a new church or adopted children into your home. We know that this is just another way to try to bring down what the Lord is going to do in Ellensburg and at home, so we are prayerfully considering what to do about this ruling. Already God has been so faithful to send us numerous people who have experience with this type of thing and can guide us through it. We so much appreciate all of you who have written letters of reference for Charity, that we will be sending to CPS to vouch for her mothering skills. We are confident that God is already the victor over this, as he has been over all of the other attempts to bring discouragement to our family and friends.

We are so excited to see what the Lord is going to do in the next couple of months, as hard as the devil is fighting to distract us, we know God must have something awesome planned in the future. It is so comforting to know that our God is "Mighty to save" (Isaiah 63:1), "A Miracle Working God" (Galations 3:5), "Greater than he that is in the World" (1 John 4:4), "Never leaving us or forsaking us" (Hebrews 13:5), "Our Strength" (Philipians 4:13) and even more greatful that he says, "Surely I am coming quickly" (Revelation 22:20) God bless you so much this week that, you can't even take it in! We love ya!

Here are a couple of random photos from the last couple of weeks, the first one is Kenya, Elijah and their cousins Cade and Lakota dressing up as bible characters with the throw blankets from the sofa. I didn't even tell them to do it, beleive it or not. The next one is Kenya at her choir concert on March 19th. They did a firefighter musical. The next one is Kenya with some of her friends at a Daddy Daughter date our church had.

These are some pictures of our time we had to leave town shortly after the kids got kidnapped. We were blessed by some people who let us stay at their time share in Lake Chelan and between the pool, the fireplace and Elijah's Birthday, it was definantly a hit.

Taking up our Tent Stakes

Well, it has been a while since we posted, but we have been serious sojourners for the last couple of weeks. We have spent about 4 days at our home in Bellingham and then rest in our new home town of Ellensburg. I gotta tell ya, we sure do miss our friends in Bellingham, but Ellensburg is starting to feel like our home more and more. We came down 3 days after our kidnapping adventure to get away from interesting people at our door wanting to express their view of Charity's parenting skills. So we decided that these things usually only last untill the next thing comes along, so we will skip town untill the next thing comes along. We spent some sweet time focused on the future instead of the past adventure.

We came home for a couple of days and then the Lord blessed us with a free place to stay in what we effectionatly now call E-burg, while we look for a job, housing and a church building. We have been so blessed by the people the Lord has already brought to the fellowship and are so excited to see what He is going to do. Tadd is now regularly teaching the Thursday night bible study, which we hope to move to Sunday mornings as soon as we can make the move down here. There are already about 25 people on Thursday nights and a few more waiting until we start sundays, to jump on the band wagon. God is so amazing to provide, when we give it all up to Him. Kenya and Elijah are being troopers as the car is not there favorite place to be these days, but has become our makeshift home away from home.

We are so greatful for all the support we recieved during the difficulties in the last month, but another amazing way God worked in this trial, is that Tadd was out of town the night the kids were kidnapped. He was on his way back from California and had stopped to spend the night in Oregon. He went to a church service there where the pastor was talking about St. Patrick (since it was on St. Patties day) and how St. Patrick was kidnapped from England, taken to Ireland and instead of wallowing in self pitty he decided to use the experience for the Glory of the Lord. This was the message Tadd was hearing as Kenya and Elijah were being taken. The really cool parellel was the Lord definantly used the kidnapping of Kenya and Elijah to His Glory! His hand was so evident in every aspect of it, there is no way anyone could deny it. We are so thankful for all of His blessings and provisions and look forward to what He will continue to do in ours and others lives.

Please continue to pray for the work in Ellensburg. Also, we would be blessed if you could pray for a job and house for our family. God knows the perfect one, we just need prayer for patience and wisdom until He reveals it. Also, we would appreciate prayer for our adoption. Our paperwork for the kids Visa applications expires in July. If the kids passports and visas are not ready by then, we will have to have Tadd or I take a trip to Haiti in May or June to file a type of extention or pay another $800.00 to file a new application here in the states. The Lord know this of course and we know He has a plan. Please just pray Tadd and I will continue to seek the Lords wisdom in this matter instead of stess out about it and try to interfere with Gods perfect plan.

Thanks again for all of your prayer and support, we look forward to sharing more awesome things that the Lord will do. May He bless all of your socks off this week and may you feel His love more than ever.

Our Awesome God!

I am posting tonight to remind everyone what an awesome, comforting, caring, all knowing, all powerful God we have!
Tonight after Kenya and Elijah's gymnastics class, we headed home to have dinner and decided to stop by Bellingham cost cutter to turn in some glass milk bottles that Kenya and Elijah had been given from a feild trip a couple of weeks ago. The kids were still in their leotards and short and I didn't want them to freeze outside so I decided to park the van right outside the front window of the store and run in to the cashier really quick to get Kenya and Elijah's deposit money from the bottles. I jumped out of the van and told Kenya and Elijah I would be back in 2 minutes and they could see me right through the window. I left the van running and ran into the cashier. There were 2 people in line in front of me with very little to buy so I waited in line keeping my eye on the van. When I got up to the cash register, the cashier was not sure how to payout the depost, so he conversed with the other cashier quickly, when he gave me the deposit money, I looked outside and did not see the van.
I called 911 quickly and told them my car was gone with my kids in it. They dispatched 3 cars very quickly and with in minutes got a call saying the car was north bound on I-5 heading for the canadian border. After giving a descriptions to the police of both of the kids, I sat in the back of the police car calling everyone I could think of to tell them to pray. After the 2nd call my battery on my phone died. After what seemed like an eternity of praying, they said they had stopped the van shortly after passing through the canadian border, the kids were fine and the people driving the van had been arrested. They took me to the border where I was reunited with the kids who were not harmed in any way, but very happy to see mommy. We went to the police station and gave our report, then came home exhausted, but oh so blessed because of the manner in which the series of events had just unfolded. I am sure there are many more ways that I have not seen yet, but I would like to list some of the most amazing ways that the Lord was working in what seemed like a horrible experience:
1. My kids were taken by 2 older ladies who I don't beleive were really sure what they were doing. Therefore did stupid things that caught attention really fast.
2. These ladies were so pre- occupied fighting with each other, that they did not really speak to, or even touch my children in any way.
3. They were driving at speeds of over 90 miles per hour and in Kenya's word "banging into stuff" and my kids were not hurt or involved in any kind of accident.
4. Kenya and Elijah were able to remain calm and aloof through the whole experience, so the already irratic woman in the car, did not get more irratic due to upset children.
5.The availablity and response time of the police, border patrol and canadian police were so amazing. This whole process took place in less than an hour.
6. As Tadd was on his way home from being in California for a week and had stopped for the night in Oregon. He was in a church service where we could not get a hold of him until we were able tell him, his kids were safe.
7. Because the body of God is so vast and so wide we had over 100 people (probablly more I don't know about) praying for my kids in a matter of minutes.
8. God has given our family people to surrond us, support us, love us and pray for us and because of this, His peace resounds in all situations. We are blessed beyond what we could have ever imagined and we owe it all to a God who we could never deserve. Thank you so much for all of you who prayed for our family. We truly feel your prayers and are so thankful for a God who hears and answers them.

We are finally done with the wait!

We finally feel we have received a firm direction from the Lord! As you know the Lord has put outreach very heavily on our hearts. We had originally felt that the outreach He had for us, was mission work in Haiti. But after several encouragements and also some setbacks, He suddenly opened another door, we would never have seen, had we not been following His leading to Haiti. We have been so blessed by the outpouring of love that all of you have shown the Lord and to us with your support and prayers.

During these tough economic times, we have been so amazed by the monetary blessings that those of you who were able, have provided. As we will feel the Lord has opened a new door for missions in Ellensburg and closed the one to Haiti, we would humbly ask, that with your permission, you would consider allowing us to use the resources to help in the new mission field the Lord has put on our hearts.

To explain a little more about the new adventure the Lord is taking us on, I will tell you about how he brought us to it .

In early February, a friend who had been staying with us to rent the house while we were in Haiti, had matter of factly told us, that some people very dear to her in Ellensburg were looking to find a Pastor, for a group of people desiring to transform their Bible Study into a church. “Pastor Tony” from Yakima, had been helping them to find the right person to shepherd them. He happened to be a friend of our Pastor in Everett. Our Pastor encouraged Tadd to talk to Tony. Tadd gave him a call and He asked if he could come and teach on February 5th. We went down and were so blessed by the people and what the Lord was doing there. Tony called and asked us to come back on March 5th and teach again. We were even more blessed and after the teaching, Pastor Tony came and told us they would like to have us come down and Pastor their group! We were so blessed, overwhelmed, scared, humbled and excited, but very comforted by the fact that the Lord is capable, even though we are not.

We are now in the process of looking for a house to rent in Ellensburg, a job for Tadd (as the Church is just starting out, this is currently not a paid position). We are so thankful for those of you would were able to support us and would be so grateful if you would consider allowing your support to be used to relocate our family and aide in the start of this fresh new work that the Lord is doing in Ellensburg. We of course would understand if you had intended the finances to be used for missions abroad in Haiti. We would love to direct you to viable ministries in Haiti or if you have a different ministry you would like to support, we would be happy to return your check to you. We would very much appreciate a timely response, as we are anxious begin the new work the Lord has laid in front of us. You may contact us by phone at 360-398-7112 or e-mail at tncscheffer@hotmail.com also snail mail at 5556 Guide Meridian, Bellingham WA 98226. As always you can stay updated about what the Lord is doing in our lives, by going to www.gracecasechronicles.blogspot.com Thank you so much for your willingness to serve the Lord and be tools for His work.

In Him,

Tadd and Charity Scheffer

Looking forward

Well, after our last post, we had some great friend call and say they would be willing to provide the rest of the air fare we would need to get to Haiti. The Lord is so Amazing! Since we commited to teach in Ellensburg, prior to the Lord providing the money to move to Haiti, we will honor that commitment and see what the Lord does. If we have learned anything over the last six months, it's to leave all our options open and let the Lord direct us where He will. If Ellensburg is not what He has for us right now, we will head toward Haiti, as that is where his provision seems to be for now.

I think so much about all of our family and friend who are praying for us and supporting us and imagining how crazy this must be for you as you aren't sure what is going on in our lives until we talk to you or post. Usually by the time we do that, things have turned into a whole different picture than the last time. We want to thank you so much for your patience and compasion as this ride may be more crazy for you than us, as we see every step that the Lord is taking to get us where He wants, but when you are a Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, close friend or part of our church body. It is hard to get used to the idea of having your loved ones move far away to a foreign country, then get used to the possibility of them maybe not going, then throwing a whole other option into the mix.

Our lives go through very stable times and then crazy times. I think the Lord just wants to make sure we don't get to comfortable and forget we need to be willing to do whatever he calls us to, whenever he needs us to. We do understand, that as an on looker it can be very frustrating. We hope that God has given you the patience He has given us and that it has been a growing experience for you also.

God is so good to use the hard times to help us lean on Him and then He use that special time with Him, to teach us and comfort us. We pray that you have seen His amazing compasion and love, as we have over the last couple months and we will continue to see as long as we turn our faces to Him. May God bless your day and week.

We don't know the destination, but we've got a great travel agent!

Well, for any of you who love to be scheduled, have "all of your ducks in a row" and have a "back up plan". You should not read this post, it could make you immensly frustrated.

It has been a couple of weeks since we were blessed with enough money to go Haiti for 3 months, but we just needed enough money for the three extra plane tickets there and back for the extra 2 kids and parent. Our whole Haiti experience for the last 6 months has been a roller coaster of just trusting the Lord and seeing what he brings with each new day.

We first started our Haiti quest hoping to leave by last September. Then Tadd's brother got engaged and set a date for the end of November. We decided to stay for that and leave in Mid-December.

By end of December we did not have enough money to go and no one to rent our house. After a couple of weeks of waiting to see if we would be blessed with the funds to go, we decided no new funds had come in and so we needed to make a decision. We decided that since we had not seen the Lord's provision in the last couple of weeks, we would start making a move to stay hear and seek employment again. The next day our missionary friends we would be renting an apartment from in Haiti, called and said some missionary friends of theirs were taking a year off and wanted to store their furniture and let us rent it very cheaply. This cut a lot of the costs of moving to Haiti, so we thought maybe the Lord was telling us we needed to hold on a little longer and see what He would do, since He had helped us with this big break through.

A couple more weeks went by and no new funds came in and still we had no one to rent our house. We had thought that the furniture thing may have just been a coinsidence and maybe the Lord was telling us to move away from the idea of missions in Haiti. The next day someone told us they wanted to rent the house. So we felt maybe the Lord was telling us we gave up too soon and He possibly just wanted us to wait on him a litte longer and He would provide the money now that we had a renter. We waited another 2 or 3 weeks and still nothing. No more funds had come, so we decided to start getting used to the idea of staying here. The next day we had a huge financial blessing from some wonderful friends came in and that gave us enough money to secure a 3 month stay. We were back in the waiting, and figuring the Lord must have again, been trying to tell us to stay patient, He had provided the money to live there and He was definantly capable of providing the plane fare.

We waited another few weeks and in those weeks the Lord brought this Ellensburg opportunity to us and last Friday the Pastor that is helping the Ellensburg group out, called and said the group really enjoyed Tadd's teaching and enjoyed getting to know us better at the Pot Luck. They invited him back to teach on March 5th. They wanted Tony, (the pastor helping them out) to meet us, since he was in Israel when we went last time. The next day (of course) Tadd and I were talking and decided that the Lord must be taking us out of the direction of Haiti, as we have not gotten any further toward purchasing our plane tickets and He had possibly brought another opportunity in Ellensburg. Wouldn't you know it,Sunday evening some very Godly people blessed us with 1/2 of the money for our plane tickets to Haiti. God is amazingly good at providing for us and building our faith by showing us, we need to stop thinking and keep trusting.

Needless to say we are taking everything day by day and trusting that even though we don't know what lies ahead for us. The Lord does and as long as we hang with him, we will be where He is and that is the only place we want to be. I feel bad for Tadd and the kids as I am the one in our family who has always been so scheduled and such a planner. I need to know the plan and schedule what ever is coming up next. So I am so thankful to the Lord that he has used this whole experience to loosen my control on what I think I need to know and to build my trust in His provision and plan. I am just sorry Tadd and the kids had to go through my teaching time.

We will keep you updated as to what the Lord is doing, but know that if you feel left out of the loop, it is usually because we have no idea what the future holds either and the Lord has been faithful to help us be OK with that. Just last night I was driving home thinking if the Lord had allowed us to go to Haiti in September, like we had origianally planned or even December. For the origianl 6 months we had planned. We would have been coming home this month or in April. We would have had to leave with out our kids. It would have broken all of our hearts to have had them live with us like a family in Haiti for 6 months and then put them back in the orphanage and head home. I love how the Lord shows me these kinds of things, as if to say, "See I do know what I am doing, my plans are not your plans and mine are always better. I am so blessed to have such a great God who cares so much for me, there is no end to how many times a day he shows me.

Tadd though it would be a good idea to go a little old school with the pictures this time and show you our babies, as babies, for those of you who have not had the pleasure. I thought it was a great idea! Love you all! Enjoy!

Isaiah was mad at us (in the one below) for taking away his sunglasses to take a picture.

Can you have "God is Good" as your blog title, too much?

Our family was so blessed this weekend. We traveled to Ellensburg on Thursday and on the way down noticed Kenya was starting a fever. We debated about wether we should just turn around and leave Charity and the kids at home, since with Kenya sick, they would just be spending the whole weekend in the condo we were staying at. We decided against turning around because of time limitations and pressed on to the condo. Charity had been sick a week or two ago and it started the same way as Kenya's fever did, so we figured Kenya was in for the same week long illness. Charity was pretty bummed she would miss Tadd's teaching Thursday night and then the Potluck scheduled for friday night, then all this to just turn around and head back without meeting anyone down there. Needless to say we did lots of praying and when Tadd told people in Ellensburg that Kenya was sick, they prayed too. By 9:00 that night, her fever was gone and Kenya was running around the condo playing "doggy" with Elijah. (proof God is Good #1).

Friday we spent the day in Ellensburg with our friends Tonia and Trenton looking around the town and catching up. Then friday night we went to Paul and Suzie's house for a Potluck with some people from the church. We got ther at 6:00 and didn't leave till 10:30 feeling like we had just spent the evening with people we had been friends with forever. (God is Good #2).

We drove home and spent Saturday unpacking and getting ready for Sunday Children's Ministry at Calvary Everett. Sunday morning we drove to Everett and had a wonderful AM service with the kids, followed by the PM service at 6:00. Pastor Ken was out of town and had asked Tadd and our friend Nick (who is in ministry there also) to give their testimonies. Tadd shared about how he came to have a relationship with the Lord, and then he shared a little about our adoption journey. I was back in children's ministry, when a mom came back and said, "I am so sorry you have been through so much with your adoption, we are also adopting from Haiti". She went on to tell me about their amazing adoption story, it was so encouraging to hear that someone has gone through the same things we have and how the Lord has been so faithful to them also. (God is Good #3) Please pray for them also, their names are Chris and Kirsten Brady and they have been in the adoption process for a year and a half. Adopting 3, 3 year olds!!!

Thier blog is fireballbrady.blogspot.com if you wanna check out their adoption journey.

The Lord continually amazes us with how he specifically puts people in our path to encourage and love on us. He has blessed us this weekend with so many new friends that we have so much in common with. It is hard to understand how you can meet people with so many of the same experiences and know that it could only be God, bringing you together to encourage one another. Even though He does not have to give us those people, He loves us so much, He know it will bring joy to our heart to share with others and so miraclously, he brings your paths together. Thank you Lord for knowing what our hearts need and blessing us, by meeting those needs.

Here are couple of random pictures of Elijah in his new Gymnastics class, which he loves. Yes that is Elijah trying to get out of the foam cubes pit.

Also a couple, of the kids shooting hoops and playing soccer with Dad.