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

We have been blessed with lots of visitors lately and so excited that the Lord has given us time to just hang out with people. We did a quick run to Bellingham on Saturday the 18th. We had our woman's activity friday night and then left at midnight in a small kingcap truck to make a birthday party for kenya and grandpa scheffer the next day.

We also needed to pick up some canning supplies we had left in Bellingham, to use for our plethera of fruit trees we have been blessed with. We had lots of fun with family and spent Satruday packing 2 trucks to bring back, As Tadd Dad was so wonderful to let us use his while the van was down. We left late saturday night and got back early sunday morning. We should have been so tired, but the Lord was so good to give us "stenghth for the day," well atleast till we got done with church and then we all crashed for 3 hours.

Then that next tuesday, we had our great friends Brent and Michelle and their family stay overnight with us as they were on their way to Creation Northwest. We were so blessed to hang out with them and be loved on.

This last weekend we had our sweet friends Ben and Brian Mouche over and apparently there is a 20 mile perimeter around our house that is prime breakdown territory. Poor Ben had just had his last day at his job, as he was planning on attending Calvary Chapel Bible College in August. He got about 20 miles from our house and blew a large hole in his engine. Needless to say he left our poor broken down astro van some company as he had to have his aunt come bring him home. We know the Lord will take care of him, but I am sure he could use your prayers.

This coming weekend, Tadd's parents and sister are coming down to visit and stock up on apricots. Here is a picture of our "baby" but not so baby bunnies, under our beautifully ripe apricot tree.

Well, the Lord is always at work and may save us from going to trial after all. The prosecuter called and asked if we wanted to offer the defense a lesser charge, if they settle out of court. We enthusiactically said yes and she is going to offer the plea to them either today or tomorrow. If they do not take the plea, then atleast they will meet us half way in Everett for the interviews. God is good and thank goodness he is taking care of all of this, because I have no desire to worry about what happens next.

We are so greatful to the Lord every day for even allowing us to be used here, we are so blessed that he takes care of us better than we could even imagine. And he is so faithful, it continually amazes us. Thank you all for your prayer and above all thanks for just lov'in on us, even though we could never deserve it.

Lots of Jars of Peanut butter

I had a good friend of mine tell me once when she had a lot of things going on in her life and wasn't sure what the Lord was going to do, she said that, " she had her hand in lots of jars of peanut butter but just was waiting to see what the Lord would do with them". I would say right now we have our hand in lots of jars of Peanut Butter and we are excited to see what the Lord will do with them, but will also be glad when a few of them are gone.

It looks like the trial for the kidnapping is going to go on after all. We were hoping that the defense would interview the kids and try to settle out of court, for some reason God has not provided that opportunity, so even though it is not the way I would have like to have ended this, I know God has a purpose in ALL He does and this of course is no exception. Please be in prayer for Kenya and Elijah and also Mom and Dad as things are pretty busy and a week away from home will be hard to do.

We did find a lawyer to help fight the neglegence charge from CPS. We are supposed to have an over the phone "Administration Hearing on Sept. 8th. Please also keep that in your prayers.

Last but definantly not least, we are told that Annecy and Isaiah might be home by the fall. That is only a couple of months away! We are excited beyond words and hoping that things will start to slow down so we can take on 2 more kids. The Lord is good and He does all things in His perfect timing. We know He will never give a more than we can handle, so we are encouraged in that.

Church is going wonderful, we have had atleast one or two new people every week and the Lord is blessing out summer BBQ's, there is nothing better than hanging out in the sun, with good friend talking about what God is doing in our lives.

We are so blessed to be serving the Lord and even though we are busy we love being busy serving and loving on God's people.

Angels among us!

We had a great week and have started with another great one. We had lots of new people on Sunday and got to spend the weekend with some great friends from Lynden, as they were down for a Fast pitch tournament. We are planning on heading back to Bellingham on Saturday to pick up a new bunny, some canning supplies and lots of berries. Not to mention have a birthday party for Kenya and Grandpa. It will be short but sweet visit. We got a new opening page on http://www.calvaryellensburg.com/ and are trying to get some pictures and messages uploaded this week.

Last night, we had yet another perfect example of how faithful our God is. Charity and the kids had taken a 3 hour drive to her brothers house in Pullman, to say high and pick up some stuff for a chuch craft project. She spent the evening there and then left at bedtime to drive home, so the kids could sleep through the drive. The drive is a long 3 hour stretch of lonely highway, with nothing but a few very small towns along the way. Because it is in the middle of no where, there is no cell service for the first hour and a half. Charity was checking her phone frequently after that hour and a half, so she could call Tadd. When a couple of bars finally appered, she called. with in 5 mintues of being back in cell service, the van started bumping and shaking and she felt like she blew a tire. She got out and checked the tires, but they were all fine. So with 2 kids asleep in the car at 11:30 at night, in no man's land, she jacked up the van to make sure the lug nuts were not loose. After jacking it up, they all seemed to be on tight. With no real explaination, Tadd set out to the rescue. Since we were still about 80 miles from Ellensburg it would take him quite a while to get there. Charity decided say a quick pleading mommy prayer and limped along until she got to the next city. Going 35 to 40 miles an hour, the lord was faithful and she finally got to Royal city about an hour and half later. She stopped at a well lite, closed gas station to wait for Tadd. When Tadd got there a few minutes later, he did the full under the car, tire inspection, checked out the engine, with no real sign of any huge problems, we decided to limp it a long with Tadd following and see if we could get it the hour home. We babied it, till we got about 20 miles out of Ellensburg and heard one quick clanking sound. Charity pulled over and Tadd crawled under to check out the wheels again. When we turned the wheels to try and see the brakes, we heard a horrible sound. When Tadd tested the car, it had no brakes and no power steering. Needless to say we left it there for the tow truck in the morning. We headed home and climbed in bed at 4:00am.

Then next morning when the tow truck came to drop off the car he told us that he had tried to drive it up to the truck and could not get it to stop. He wanted to know how we got it stopped without crashing it into something. He said there is no way you would get a vehicle as large as an Astro Van to stop, if it was moving down the highway, you would have to run into something. I kindly told him it was by the Grace of God that we stopped just before they went out and the credit was to him as he had Angels carry us the last 2 hours, as we limped up and down the rolling hills of highway 26.

Needless to say the Lord was so good to allow it to happen while I had cell service, hold the van together until my husband was with me and to keep the brakes until we were stopped and in no danger of risking Charity's life and the kids to a crashing stop. He is so great to know just what we need, even though we had no idea. It is so wonderful to know that if we give things up to him, "He is able to do far more than we could ask, think or even imagine." -Ephesians 3:20

My God is Mighty to save! - Isaiah 63:1

Here is what happens after staying up until 4:00 in the morning, sleeping in till 10:00 and then telling your kids that God saved them from a crash. It's totally unprompted and definantly Sweet Chicken!

Reaping what we did not sew

Happy 4th everyone. We had a great 4th, Tadd's brother and his wife came down and we went to the 4th of July celebration at the Ellensburg park. They put on a 4th, like only cow country can. They had a mecanical bull, stick horse barrel racing, lasoing a bail of hay with a fake cow head sticking out and all topped off with a rubber ducky drop from the top of fireman's ladder, last year it was dropped by helicopter, we are sorry we missed that.

We had lots of fun and then came home to get some sleep for our 2nd "Sunday in the Park. " It went great. We had lots of friends from Whatcom County to love on us and we were very blessed. It was really a blessing because most of the church was either sick or out of town so we had some seat fillers. When you love the seat fillers, it's an extra bonus.

We spent the last week picking what we did not plant as the Bible would say. We have 5 fruit trees and the cherries are abundant. We were so thankful Tadd's brother and his wife came down and picked a lot to take back home and then lots of friends were over to pick to. Still, the tree keeps giv'en.


Elijah got pretty sick last week and had a high fever, when I went to wake him up and see how he was doing, he asked me to get on the spaceship and then get the brown snake. When I asked him what he was talking about he said, "here bunny bunny bunny! After he fully woke up his brain returned to a solid and he was fine. He has really needed his naps though the last couple of days, so it has been a drop where you are and Konk out. Poor Patches has been used as a pillow much more than she would like I am sure.


We are coming up on our 1st men's activity and our first woman's get together, so please pray those who need to, will come out and be blessed. We love you guys, even more we love that you love on us and even more than that we love that you love the Lord. We will pray you keep on doing both.

Gett'in into Summer

We are just starting our summer activities and BBQ's at church. We have our second "Sunday at the park" coming up this week and we are starting our mid-week BBQ's. We drove down to Everett for their Sunday night service and were so blessed to see some of the old faces we miss so much. We had a couple from church get married over the weekend and it was so cool to see what the Lord is doing in both of their lives and in thier families. We were so blessed to help out and be able to be a part of it.

We have been having lots of fun playing outside and with new friends, but especially with our baby bunnies.


They are only about 3 weeks old, but they grow like crazy. We are able to have a little more play time now that things are up and running. So the other day Kenya and Elijah became pirates. It all started as a wrestling match with Dad, in which Elijah's shirt got pulled over his head and he decided to pull his arms out also, just like that, you have either princess hair or if tied back in a rubber band, you are a pirate. We are glad he opted for the pirate as apposed to the princess hair. Well once that part of the pirate outfit came about. It turned into a 20 minute long quest through the dress up to find the perfect pirate costume. Oh, to be a kid again.
We spoke to the director of Annecy and Isaiah's Orphanage today and she said that they are still waiting for our paperwork to come out of the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs" which is essencially the permission position before you go to passports. If all continues to go at the pace the offices are going now the kids may be home by late fall. I know I don't even need to ask for prayer in this area as we are always so blessed to hear how many people are concerned for and pray for them daily.

We are still so excited to be doing what the Lord has called us to do and are so excited to see what comes next. A wonderful person shared a great quote with me this week and I wanted to share it with you, "Look no man in the face till thou hast seen the face of God, Speak thou with none, till thou hast had speech with the most high."- Charles Spurgeon.