Update on Peru Plans

Our time to move is coming closer, but not yet! We continue to clean out, pack, organize. We are making a lot of progress - I have two suitcases completely packed, we are practicing Spanish, and all of the home school curriculum has been ordered! But it is never-ending, and I suppose it will not end until we get on the plane! At this point we have not sold our home, and Marcus is going to work until July 14. Our desire would be to leave the third week of July and start language school the first week of August. We are learning (daily!) that our desires and plans are not always God's plans, and this is about Him, not us. So we must be patient and let Him unfold the details for us.

We have also been busy visiting friends and churches to raise support, and that is coming along well. We are so thankful for the Lord's provision and our friends' generosity. We are now at about 55-60% of our need for 18 months. It is encouraging and yet another reminder the Lord is leaving the doors open for us to go!

As we have visited with people, I get very teary when I see the Peru Mission video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dm_HJ7HzP0). We are ready to be there, be part of the culture, have relationships with the people there, and attempt to serve them. I was reading someone's blog last week who is working there now, and she had written such a profound reminder of what it's all about:

http://pattycakesinperu.blogspot.com/2010/03/hope.html

Greenville, SC

As part of our planning for Peru, we were blessed to have a long trip to visit Greenville, SC in March! Marcus and I lived there for three years for his family practice residency, and we absolutely love this city! We love the people there, our church, the downtown, and the scenery. We just love it and have great memories!

On our way to Greenville we stopped to visit our special friends, Dan and Mary Hoover, in Columbia, South Carolina. They have three beautiful children and we had such an encouraging visit with them. Our kids had a ball playing with them, and Mary cooked a yummy dinner AND breakfast for us all before we moved on to Greenville!

While in Greenville we stayed with our dear friends, Jim and Shelly Nichols. We had a great time visiting with them, and I might also say Shelly was a great hostess! Every time we came in she had a load of our laundry washed and folded... now that is a true friend!!

Our crew with Jonathan, Will and Jacob Nichols

The main reason for our visit was to be a part of Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church's Missions Conference. We had a wonderful time seeing old friends, familiar faces, and meeting new people as well. It was encouraging meeting other missionaries (REAL missionaries - we don't think of ourselves as REAL ones... yet). This missions conference they have annually, and we feel played a big part in giving us a heart for missions when we lived there. We loved visiting with Elizabeth and Andy Lewis, who are good friends we met in Sunday School while there. Andy is now the pastor of Mitchell Road, and they are doing a wonderful job loving and leading the people there. We also met William Castro, who is originally from Trujillo, Peru and connected with friends of Peru Mission. He came to the US for seminary and now leads Hispanic ministry at Mitchell Road and in Greenville. I could go on and on about each person we saw and how encouraging this church is.... www.mrpca.org

Visit to the Greenville Zoo

One special treat was a visit with Mrs. Ada Chapman. She was our neighbor there and is a precious lady! We had not kept up with her, and weren't sure if of what may have happened to her. When we moved away she was in her late 80's! So when we drove by we noticed that everything at her house looked the same, so we stopped by to check. She answered the door herself, and after talking for a while I asked her age - 96!!! Isn't that wonderful??? She still lives alone, and DRIVES to church and she and her sister spend the night together two or three nights a week for fun! Katie and Rebecca and I like this idea for our old age.... :)
At the end of our trip, we also made a couple of extra stops to visit friends. We drove up towards Charlotte, NC to visit with Reagan and Alan Jones for dinner and a great visit. Marcus and Alan were good friends in medical school, and we had a great time seeing them! Then we headed back south, and on our way home stopped in Atlanta for lunch with Kristy and McKay Caston. They lived in Tupelo when we first lived here, and now are planting a church in Dahlonega, GA (north of Atlanta). What an encouragement to have a week visiting with sweet friends!

Happy 6th Birthday, Luke!

Luke celebrated his 6th birthday a little early with a few friends at Chuck E Cheese! He was really excited and had a great time, but was very shy when Chuck E came out!! His real birthday was on March 5, and we celebrated with cake and went to the zoo in Greenville, SC! Luke has grown up so much, and we love him dearly!!

MSU Basketball!

Boys watcing for Jarvis after the game, hoping for a high five!

This basketball season we were able to go to few home games, and it was a lot of fun! We are a bit sentimental, and so the last game we were able to go to, we took all four kids even though it was a Wed night at 8:00! We must be crazy! But it was fun, and the kids enjoy being at MSU, and Sam says "Mississippi State" the cutest way when we drive on campus. They also love the ice cream, and are sad there won't be MSU ice cream in Peru. It was a fun night, with some NCAA records broken!!

Happy 60th Birthday, DoDad!

Sweet DoDad, my dad, celebrated his 60th birthday on February 17th! We got to have a night out with my parents, Rebecca and Justin, and Katie and Talmadge, and celebrated together in Oxford for dinner. We love DoDad so much, and appreciate all that he has done for all of us. He is a wonderful person, and has been a great father and grandfather!

Happy Birthday, Sarah Caroline!

Sarah Caroline turned 9 on Valentine's Day, and it is hard to believe she is so grown up!! It seems like yesterday we brought her home from the hospital, but now she seems so big! She had a fun weekend, and the highlight was getting her ears pierced! She was very excited when I told her we could go get them pierced for her birthday!! Our plan was to wait until she was ten, but we found out it wouldn't be a good idea to have them pierced in Peru, so we went ahead and let her do it a little early. Well, now Marcus says I decided this, and he was kind of sad, and feels like she really to grown up looking! But she is loving it and had a fun birthday!

Swim Meet

Ben and Luke have been swimming this fall and winter, and participated in their first meet! Ben wasn't excited about being in this picture, but he was excited about swimming! We have been impressed with how much progress they have made since August, and it is amazing to us how they can learn the strokes so well at such a young age! It was fun watching them, and wish they could keep swimming! Maybe they can start back when we come back to the U.S.!

Luke's First Lost Tooth!

Luke lost his first tooth last week! It had been loose since Christmas, and so we had wondered if the Tooth Fairy and Santa would come on the same day. But he was hesitant to pull it, and waited until it was falling out. We aren't sure why he lost a top tooth first, except that a lot of wrestling had been going on that encouraged it to loosen up! Well, yes, one day it was bleeding just a little after the boys were playing! Well, anyway, he is proud! And the funniest part is the Sarah Caroline (aka "Sissy" or "Sisso") pulled it!! She was so patient and said, "I'll pull it! Just tell me if it starts to hurt and I"ll stop. Well, she just hung on to that tooth until it was gone.

Now I am going to go ahead and admit one more tale about Luke, only because I am sure in ten years it will be funny. Last Wednesday night Sam and I walked in the door from church and had a call from my friend Allen, "Did you leave a child at church?" "Well, no, I don't think so", I replied. About this time Marcus walks in with Ben and Sarah Caroline and I don't see Luke. "Ummm, well, maybe I did??" She said she had him and would be glad to bring him home. Ben and Sarah Caroline had convinced Marcus that I had gotten Luke, although our agreement was that I would get Sam and he would bring home the older three. Thank goodness we hadn't been at the mall or somewhere dangerous!!! My poor Luke got home and forgave us! Hopefully this won't happen again, although you just never know! Yet another sign our family is big enough!

Ben's 7th Birthday

On January 7th, Ben turned 7! It is so hard to imagine how my sweet baby boy has turned into this big boy who seems so grown up! He is still sweet and sensitive and kind, but in a big boy way! When he was a baby he was so easy and laid back, and never fussed! He is so precious to us and we are so thankful that God has blessed us with Ben!

He had a fun sports themed party and had a "ball"!! Marcus took over the planning of the activities, so this party was easy for me! Except that I did get a little nervous with the boys swinging the bat at the pinata! Happy Birthday, Ben!

Christmas Fun!

Christmas this year was really a fun (and busy) time, but very special as we anticipate a break from our traditions next year. Throughout the season, here were a few of our favorite moments:

-Choosing our tree and decorating it together. We always go to Marvin's (really cheap trees) and get our tree, and then we go eat breakfast together. It is usually supper time, but always breakfast food. Now I will say that last year we had a small glitch in our tradition, because we went to Huddle House, and they were out of waffle mix. We would have left but we had already ordered our drinks. Thankfully this was a time when our children were very self controlled and chose something else on the menu with no tears shed. Anyway, then we go home and start the process of lights, ornaments, etc. NEVER is there any arguing! (ha ha!)

-Lawndale Girls' Tea: Evidently, this has been a longstanding tradition for many years at our church. It was my honor last year and this year to have it in our home, although I am very thankful for Mrs. Judy Taylor, Mrs. Ann Benson (Annie) and Mrs. Lee Jones (ChiChi) to plan the details and make it happen. We had some fun snacks for the girls, a craft (they made a cute necklace this year), and Allen Bradford shared what Christmas is like in Peru. They also sing Christmas carols and have the opportunity to play their own song on the piano. Fun and sweet memories for these little (and big) girls!!

-"Elf-is" appeared: once he had flown into the chandelier hooks, he was found hanging upside down, and was also found riding the rooster and decorative elf!

-Christmas parade. I will say this year was a little on the down side as far as parade watching goes, but we do usually make a big deal of this. We aren't sure why it just wasn't quite the same this year, but it was still fun and we have good memories of watching the parade with all of our buddies!

-Choosing our tree and decorating it together. We always go to Marvin's (really cheap trees) and get our tree, and then we go eat breakfast together. It is usually supper time, but always breakfast food. Now I will say that last year we had a small glitch in our tradition, because we went to Huddle House, and they were out of waffle mix. We would have left but we had already ordered our drinks. Thankfully this was a time when our children were very self controlled and chose something else on the menu with no tears shed. Anyway, then we go home and start the process of lights, ornaments, etc. NEVER is there any arguing! (ha ha!)

-This year we had a fun night of going to see the lights at Cottonplant with Justin, Rebecca, and Graham. Mia Katherine also joined in on the fun. We did the complete walk-through, had hot chocolate, and visited with Santa Claus!

-This year we started something new, that I think was the most fun thing we have ever done! On the 23rd we went to the dollar store, and each child had ten dollars to spend. This all started when Sarah Caroline had heard about Dirty Santa, and wanted us to buy gifts for us to play that with our family. Then they decided to also buy gifts for each other and Marcus and me. First of all, this gave us an hour of entertainment in shopping. Also, it made them focus on someone else and the act of giving, not receiving. Another good thing about this was it took another hour or two for them to wrap all of these gifts. One more reason - it added to their pile of gifts on Christmas morning without spending much more money. (They only get three gifts from us). But the best part - it was hilarious!! We loved seeing what they bought for each other and us! I was given a monkey loofah for the shower, a card with a dollar, and some matches. Priceless and precious!!

-We had a great family day on Christmas Eve, complete with Dirty Santa, stockings from Mimi, and lots and lots of fun presents! And a lot of food! Yummy brunch food - cheese grits, pineapple casserole, cream cheese braids, yum!

-Christmas Eve night we went to our church service, which is so wonderful to get us focused on Christ. It seems no matter how hard we try to focus on His birth it is so easy to get distracted!! We went back to my parents for more food then home to get the kids ready for bed. We read some sweet books (my favorite Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown) and Twas the Night Before Christmas. We have this beautiful large copy of it with a beautiful font and pictures, and we actually have had it since I was expecting Sarah Caroline.

-Sarah Caroline is quite a night owl, and doesn't sleep late either. Particularly this Christmas she was very excited, and had trouble sleeping! She woke up at 3am and could not go back to sleep, then Sam woke up at 3:30 coughing, and I got in bed with him. Then about 4am she proceeded to come "check" on me and Sam in his bed, and woke him up again. We moved downstairs to try to go back to sleep in my bed, and saw that she had also woken up Luke, who had also moved to my bed. She then convinced us that Ben also was awake (as she went and woke him up!). Marcus ordered them to stay in her room and play until 6, but finally by 4:45 I was so awake I convinced him for us just to go ahead and get up too. What a sleepless night!! (We had been up until 12.) Sarah Caroline said her excitement was because she saw Santa outside her window five times!!!

-The kids were very excited!! What fun times to have four precious children all still young enough to jump up and down with joy!! We also always have a birthday cake for Jesus, and this year we realized we didn't have any candles. Hence the matches on the cake. But Luke had just given me matches for a gift, so they were already coming in handy!!

-The day after Christmas we headed to Forest to enjoy more holidays with Mamaw and Jim. And more gifts! And lots of rest for me! I get pretty spoiled not having to cook or do laundry!