Birthdays, Ballgames and Camping Out

Here's how we've spent our last two weeks:

For some reason, it struck me that I've never had Abby sit down and color. She got a kick out of it for a little while, and then decided it was more fun to eat the crayons and the paper!


While Abby was coloring, Noah practiced his cutting and pasting skills!



There's a new minor league baseball team in town, so our fellowship team set a night aside for us to all attend. It started with a tailgate party at the church.

Then we went to the new stadium! It was the first time either of our kids have been to a big sporting event like this. They thought it was pretty cool!

The stadium is set up really well -- there's really not a bad seat in the whole place! We were only two rows up from the field!

The kids lasted about an hour and then were ready to go home. My mom happened to be visiting, so she took the kids back and Luke and I got to stay out on a real date! It was kind of weird being together.....alone.....with the other 200 people from church -- but definitely a treat to have a night out without the kids!

We've been enjoying the hot summer nights! Here are the kids on the deck!

Our little "baby" turned one on the 15th! That was a quick year! Abby has a precious personality. Just tonight someone was telling me how even tempered she it. She's very seldom crabby and gets excited so easily!

We had a little birthday party for her here. My mom was here, and we invited Emily (Noah's best friend/our ever faithful babysitter/and our friend too!) over.

Abby was thrilled to get something sweet!

Luke took Noah "camping out" in our backyard. Noah was THRILLED! As soon as Luke and Mom started setting up the tent, he started going crazy! He was running circles through the tent.

Abby had her fair share of fun before she got kicked out.....it was boy's only, you know!

Luke had been very diligently, watching for a good night to do this. Unfortunately, it ended up pouring rain on them! The tent did a good job of keeping them dry, so they made it all night, but I don't think either one of them slept very well!

In other news, our house is officially on the market!

You can check out the website: www.359gayledrive.com Mom was up for almost 2 weeks helping us finish up everything we had been putting off. She did lots of painting and purging, shopping and decorating! All the improvements make me like this house even more!

It's kind of a scary. We're not really sure what to do if we sell the house right away, or if we even hope to sell the house right away with the baby coming. It's definitely a point of faith building for us! And an area we would appreciate you all praying about! The timing of our support raising, house selling, and adding a new baby to the family are completely out of our control!

The house is nice and peaceful right now -- Luke's away with the student ministry on a mission trip, and both kids are sleeping -- I think I'll lay in bed and read which is a luxury I seldom get to enjoy anymore! Love to you all!

June Cliff Notes

Wow......is it July already? I'm so far behind on so many things. I'll give you the Cliff Notes version of our June to get you all caught up!

We've been spending an immense amount of time support raising. We've spent hours visiting and calling our friends and family, telling them our story and about Agape Flights. We've sent letters and more information to all our contacts. In addition to that, we've had several "dessert socials" and talked in two churches! It's been both tiring and inspiring!

We're happy to say we have 43% of our support raised in 6 weeks! There have been an additional 25 or so families that have said they want to support us but haven't given us or Agape a firm figure yet. We are blown away by that figure. God has worked in His mighty ways to affirm our call to missions!

We also found out we're expecting our third baby next January! This is a picture of the ultrasound (sorry, our scanner is broken!) -- with a little creativity, you can pick out the shape of a little baby.

So, on with our June update.....

We had a massive rummage sale the first weekend of June. My mom came up to help orchestrate it because she is the master rummage saler. We were very pleased with the amount of stuff we moved out of our house!

Noah visited the dentist for the first time. Luke took him, but said he did and excellent job. He was fascinated with the little sink and water cup!

(Notice the creepy alligator in the background.....is that supposed to motivate kids to brush their teeth???)

My sister and her family came up for a visit. They all went to Cedar Point one day. It was Noah's first time to really be able to go on any rides. He had a blast!

Abby's as sweet as ever! She'll be celebrating her first birthday next week! She's definitely developing a personality. She LOVES her daddy. She'll get so excited when he gets home from work, then she just wants him to hold her. She also likes to roughhouse with the boys. She always crawls back for more!

She cut her two top teeth and one on the bottom. She's starting to walk a little bit. She'll take 8 or 10 steps back and forth between people, but doesn't quite have the confidence to get up and go on her own!

She graduated up to a big car seat! Here she is waving hi! The car seat sat in the living room for a few days before it made it out to the van. She and Noah would fight about who got to sit in it -- and they always wanted to be buckled in!

We spent a week in Missouri support raising and visiting family. The kids LOVED spending time outside!

Mom and Dad got a sand and water table that Noah really enjoyed. He kept the sand and water separate for about the first 30 seconds and then they were pretty evenly mixed! Most of the pictures from outside are X rated. It was pretty hot, and as soon as we went outside, Noah would strip down to nothing. So here are a couple that are safe!

Enjoying some ice cream with Papa at the end of a long HOT day.

Recently, Noah has had a major fascination with trains, so we ran by the old Katy Depot on the way to the airport.

And finally, one day last week, Noah decided he wanted to take his nap in a box. I'm sure it's the first of many odd choices he'll make, but I had to take a picture to capture the memory!

That's all I have to share for now -- all I can think of anyway -- my mind's a little fuzzy these days! We pray you're well. Love to you all!