Home Again!

Our family is back together again, Charity and the kids got home on Tuesday after a long 11 days away from home. It was lots of fun to be with family and the kids got to spend a lot of time with their cousins they haven't seen in a long time. The kids got a free week off of school due to Charity's brother's wedding and her Grandma's funeral, now they have to face the music and get started this week.

We went to the local nursing home tonight with our church Sunday School classes to sing and hand out cards they had made. It went great, the kids loved it and so did the people at the nursing home. It is great to get a little more involved with the community.

School starts at Central Washington University this week so we had a hord of college students come to church for the first time today, we are so excited to see what the college atmosphere add to the church, as when we started on sunday morning college had just ended for the summer.

We hear the winter comes quick here and so they say to expect snow in the next month or so. To be honest I am not sure how we are going to handle a real winter. We are used to Western Washington Winter were it snows a few days out of the winter and it melts with in a day or two. I guess the snow starts in the fall and and it dosen't go away until March or so. God was good to give us 2 all wheel drive vehicles. So we will see how our snow driving is. The kids are obviously excited to wear their snow suites more that once this winter and I am sure we will have lots of snowmen to play with.

The CPS hearing was actually a pre-trail hearing to establish witnesses and what each sides case would be. Charity was in Utah, so the Lawyer handled the hearing and the actual hearing was set for January. We will continue to pray that this time is just to soften the hearts of the people involved, God is always faithful and we know he will be in this situation too. We hope you are all doing well and have some time to settle down and spend with the Lord and loved ones as the fall sets in and things slow down a bit. Thanks for all the love.

Traveling

Well, Charity is in Utah, having lots of fun with family after attending her Grandma's funeral and then helping get ready for her brothers wedding. Kenya and Elijah have been having lots of fun with their cousins, on Tuesday we went hiking up to a waterfall with 6 kids in tow all under the age of kenya and elijah. It was a mile hike that was a little steep at times, but I think the kids out did the adults.

Then after the hike, Grandpa Davis took us to a Salt lake Bee's baseball game where they got toasted by Sacramento. It sure was a lot of fun to get sick off of baseball food though. Thanks Grandpa!

We still have 4 more days down here and boy are we missing daddy! Partially due to the fact that Elijah started a fever on Tuesday night and has been down for the count ever since. Because we don't want to get anyone else sick, we have been hunckering down at the house for the last couple of days and boy is Kenya getting cabin fever. Please pray for Elijah as we are not entirely sure what is wrong with him, so we may have to pay a strange Dr. a visit.

The hearing with CPS went well I guess, because of the family emergency, the Lawyer did all of the dirty work and she said we will find out next Tuesday if the Attorney General will make a decision on his own or if it has to go to trial. Please pray that the Lords will be done and pray for the Lawyer as she tries to put all of this together.

We are getting excited for school and fall weather as it usually means hanging out at home a lot more, we sure are ready for it. Hope you are all too. We will post some more about the remainer of the trip next week. God Bless your week.

Going South

We found out today that Charity's Grandma in Utah died last night, so she will be going to the funeral on Satruday. Then because her brother's wedding is on the next Saturday she will probablly just stay all week. So Tadd will be a bachlor again for a week. We could use your prayer as we are both away from each other and lots of stuff going on.

One of the really cool things going on is, we got an e-mail on Monday from another pastor in town who said he had seen our website and noticed we meet at the park on the first Sunday of the month. He wanted to inform us ahead of time that they had rented the same park and were doing a BBQ and outreach service and thought we should know before sunday. We checked our receipt from the park and sure enough we had it rented also. We called the Parks service and after checking their records, they were very apologetic and said they would call the other church and tell them to relocate. We really did not want to make another church try to reschedule on such short notice, so Tadd called the pastor to see what we could do. After talking they decided to do a joint service and BBQ for both churches. They are wonderful people and we are so excited to get to know them better. God is so good to make these meetings and do His work through them.

We also just finished dropping off our "Exit Baskets" to the woman's shelter. As part of the woman's ministry we decided to pair with the woman's shelter and make baskets full of kitchen and bathroom items for the woman who are moving out on their own from the shelter to an apartment. When they move out they have nothing and so the woman in our church purchased and put together beautiful baskets complete with Bible and the "Love letter from Jesus" tract. Please pray for the woman who receive them, that they would read these with an open heart. Here is a picture of the finished product.

Charity has her hearing with CPS on Tuesday the 8th and apparently will be in Utah for it. It is a phone hearing so it should work out OK. As always though we would really appreciate some prayer for that this week, that the hearts of the people involved would be softened and the Neglegence charge against her would be reversed. Also prayer for Tadd as he teaches 120 more people this sunday, than he is used to and that the Lord would bond our churches together for no other reason than that we are all a part of the Body of God. Lastly that Tadd would not have a heart attack from all of the frozen pizzas and hot pockets he will be eating while charity is gone.

Here is a picture of what the girls, do while the dad's are taking care of them during the woman's activities.

We will keep you posted on all the goings on, as we know God is in them all and they will all turn out for His glory.

Hang'in out with Chic's

We had a great week at church, here is a picture of some of the kids hanging out before church while their parents were helping set up and do worship practice. We have a great group of people.









We also had a very eventful week, we are turning into a regular farm. We got 32 baby chicks this week. Kenya and Elijah are having lots of fun with them. Not to mention all of their friends that come over.










Charity and the kids are getting ready for a road trip to Utah for Charity's brother's wedding on September 12th. It should be a quick one, but it will be good to see family. Tadd will have to stay home to hold down the fort and bring home the bacon. Then it's back home to start up the school year once again.

The infamous Ellensburg Rodeo is coming up on Labor Day Weekend so the town is turning into a cowboy haven. We love to see all the excitement and are hoping we can catch some of the festivities before we head out of town.

Tadd and the Pastor from Calvary Yakima are going to look at the church that we found out was vacant and possibly for sale, when we first moved down here. They have finally cleaned it out and are ready to put it on the market. They are looking at it with the owners on Monday night. If you could pray that the Lord's will would be done we would really appreciate that.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer, we are looking forward to sharing more wonderful new of what the Lord is doing.

Officially Podcasted

As of today Our Calvary Ellensburg Website @ http://www.calvaryellensburg.com/ has been uploaded with podcasts (recordings) of sunday services. Hopefully this week we will have some photos on there too. Check it out. We had about 40 wonderful adults at church on sunday and too many kids to count.

We are back to being a 2 car family. I can't help but feel guilty about how good the Lord is to us. He gave us two wonderful friends that came down and took literally all day Saturday, to pull our whole van apart and fix the 5 major things wrong with it. Not only did they fix those, but they went the extra mile and made sure it was it tip top shape. Thanks guys!

Then on friday we drove to Yakima to get our fingerprints re-taken for the adoption and picked up the car that was gifted to us by a wonderful woman, after it had been given a TOTAL overhall and detail.

It really is amazing how wonderful our God is. Just when you think you can't be more blessed. He sneaks one up on ya!

Charity has been sick for the last couple of days, so the kids have had to get real creative about spending their time, since they have had a lot of it to themselves.

They have been wonderful at taking care of her and keeping occupied. Thanks for the balloons Uncle Marky!

Thanks for all your prayer and support, we are so blessed at all the lov'in that keeps com'in our way.

Down time!

This week we had lots of down time, had fun playing uno, war, farkel and doing fun stuff with the kids.

We had our wonderful friends The Wiedenaars down for the weekend and also The Shutts. We are so blessed by all of the friends that come down to love on us.

We had a great Sunday with lots of people, who brought lots of friend and our sunday school classes were overflowing. If this keeps up we will have to rethink our space. It is so exciting to see people excited about what God is doing at Calvary Ellensburg and wanting to share it with others.

If you have been following our blog you know that our van has been in the graveyard for a while and we have had a couple of good friends trying to help us bring it back into the land of the living. In order to do this Tadd has had to spend a little time under it getting part information. Fixing vehicles is not one of the gifts Tadd has been blessed with, so it is a frustrating process. We are so blessed by the help we are getting though, he figures it is a small price to pay. Since he really didn't know what he was doing under there and he was getting frustrated, we came up with a equal solution.

We are headed down to Yakima on Friday to get our fingerprints redone for the adoption process. We are looking forward (as sad as it is) to a "date day" between the drive down, the waiting room and the drive back. We spoke with the adoption director yesterday and she said it is looking more like end of October or November that the kids would be coming home. We are praying it will be by Christmas, as it is hard every year when we say, "Maybe next Christmas." It is all in God's timing and we wouldn't want them home a second before.

Still praying for the hearing with CPS on Sept. 8th. I know the Lord will be there and so it dosn't matter what else happens, we know he is in it. We would still covet your prayers.

We are also starting up a woman's ministry with the shelter in town. They are so excited and I think we are even more. We are doing baskets full of kitchen items for them to give to woman when they move out of the shelter into an apartment. Then doing a bible class for the kids, once a month and letting the mom's have some time to do errands or job searching. We are excited to bring the kids in the church to play with them and give the kids a chance to do some mission work also. Please pray for this ministry, that we would remember our job is just to love on people with His Agape love and He will do the rest.

Thanks so much for being a part of what the Lord is doing here in E-burg and being prayer partners with us to cover all the people and things going on.

The verdict is........

We had some wonderful news today! The prosecutors office called to say, that both woman in the kidnapping case have pleaded Guilty in order to recieve a lesser sentance. Which means, no defense interviews, no trial and nothing more to do with this trial. God has been so good to us. My kids will never have to be interviewed or set foot in a courtroom to rehash the whole experience. Thank you so much for all of your prayers, I know this could not have happened with out them.

We are having a great week, Tadd's parents are down from Sunday to Wednesday and they brought cousin Lakota. Here are some pictures of them at the park after they found all the geese feathers.

This weekend is our 11th Anniversary on August 8th. It seems like only yesterday. We are going to wenatchee to stay with some good friends of ours and have some fun. Then our wonderful friends The Shutts are coming to visit Sunday and we are going to be so blessed to hang out with them.

Kenya had a bunch of friends over to swim in the pool for her "friends" birthday party and then we had a great "Sunday at the park". It was very hot and Tadd had mercy on the children's ministy workers and cut the message a little short. It was still a wonderful time of fellowship and the word. We are getting geared up for our men's and woman's ministry activities this month. The woman are starting an on going ministy with the woman's shelter in town and the guys are doing some hiking and boating over the next few week. We love it!

If you could all still be in prayer for the hearing with CPS on September 8th and pray that the Lawyer is given lots of wisdom and discernment and that CPS finally will let this neglegence ruling be overturned. Also please pray for the adoption as we have not heard yet that we are out of the office we were supposed to be by now. Thanks