Chickens!

Very soon we will be the proud new owners of chickens! We have been interested for awhile and prayed about whether this would be an experience that will somehow benefit our family on the mission field. We felt that it would be a good learning experience for all of us and that it it might help to prepare us for situations like watching a goat be killed and prepared at a gathering and then eating it. Yikes! We decided to get around 12-14 chickens. Most of them will be egg layers but hopefully we will keep up the nerve to butcher a couple of them. Hmm... Still yikes! We were trying to figure out what to use or how to build a chicken coop. We wanted to do it with the least amount of money possible since this will not be a permanent endeavor. As I was getting ready to search places like Craig's List for wood or for an old storage shed that we could work on and repurpose, God blessed us very unexpectedly! Adam came home from work at Amazon one day and said that they had a bunch of materials from shipments of new air conditioner units I believe, that he could bring home for us to use to build one from scratch. Free materials! We worked together to come up with the sketches and decide on a design and then Adam brought home a truckload of wood. He had all of the 2X4s we needed, all of the sheets of plywood we needed, and plenty of rubber roofing to finish the roof with! We only needed nails, hardware and paint. (I was able to find red paint at the store for half price as a return.) We already have the main fencing that we need, but we will need to buy some chicken wire also. We spent Tuesday from morning til night outside sawing and hammering and smiling! Building is one of my very very favorite things to do!!! We had a great day and Adam was so patient and encouraging with the kids. He is such a great dad! They really enjoyed helping and look forward to each having their own special chick that will be their "pet" and will only be expected to lay eggs. I will post more pictures soon. We got the wood on the roof, but still need to wall the sides, add the doors, attach the rubber roofing and then paint. We are thankful that the Lord so wonderfully blessed us with something that our family can enjoy and grow from. We feel certain that He will use this experience, to His glory, in the not so distant future. 

We spent Memorial Day weekend with my mom and brothers at my brother's apartment in Muncie. They were such wonderful hosts! We all had a great time swimming, playing Wits and Wagers, cornhole, pool, basketball, soccer.... We stayed busy. :) They very kindly treated us to steak on Memorial Day and we visited and played cornhole and  enjoyed smelling the wonderful smells coming from the grill! Yum! They are such wonderful guys. Brothers to be proud of for sure.

We are looking forward to a trip to Southern Indiana this weekend. We will be staying in an RV with friends and then going to Holiday World for a couple of days as a homeschool group. The homeschool group discount is way too good to pass up!

Please pray for us as we hear God speaking and see Him working in our lives. Our desire for our family is that our plans would be His plans! Please pray also for my headaches. I had an appointment with a natural doctor this week, (one that I have been going to for awhile - that has helped me greatly with other things), and I am trying some new things. Hopefully they will work. 

As always, we would love to hear from you: jenlhayes@gmail.com.

Blessed

     Blessed....that's how I feel tonight. God has blessed us in so many ways. One of those ways is the dear friendships that we have with some very special families. We had an absolutely wonderful day with our friends today. 4 families gathered for our last official Excellence In Writing class of the school year! The kids from early elementary to high school age did a wonderful job on their papers all year and improved in amazing ways. We are so proud of them! We met at the home of our friends, Mark and Becky, and enjoyed learning, playing, eating and fellowshipping together. It was the perfect day to admire ducks, chicks and bunnies, spend some time fishing and sitting & relaxing around a campfire!

 
     This past Tuesday, 3 of these 4 families met to learn to pan for gold on a field trip south of Cloverdale. We decided to purchase prepackaged bagged material and the children (and moms) all gathered around the sluice and learned how to use the equipment. We had a great time and bought pans so that we can pan ourselves in creeks near our home. From there we went to Cataract Falls, the largest waterfall in Indiana. It was a gorgeous day and we ate a picnic lunch near the falls in a shelter house. There is a huge old red covered bridge at the park also with picnic tables inside so we were able to have our monthly Indiana State class right inside the bridge! It was a wonderful homeschool day!

 






















   











     Tomorrow we will go to Ethan's last regular soccer game of the season and then head on to Greenwood for an early Mother's Day meal at Thai Spice and a movie! 2 of my favorites! Sunday, we will go to church and then spend the day with my wonderful mom and my 2 little (ok, maybe not too too little!) brothers! They  will be home for the weekend and we can't wait to spend time together. I am so glad that we can all be together to celebrate MOM! It will be a special day with an extra special mom!
     We are just about ready to start support-raising, and we are so excited for the things that God has in place for our future in Ghana. He is continuing to prepare us all in big and small ways and it is humbling to know that He so desires to use us to reach our brothers and sisters across the world! Ethan and Caeley have been stretching out of their comfort zones in ways that I know are going to have them better prepared for life as missionary kids, ministering to people who we haven't yet met, but that God has so firmly placed in our hearts and who are often in our prayers! Please pray with us for the people of Ghana, God's children, that we will be blessed to live among, minister to and befriend in West Africa.
     Ethan and Caeley love to check out our feed on the sideline of our blog and see where the people who are reading our blog are from. :) Caeley told me that I should ask for people's suggestions for what they would like to hear about here and to request comments from our readers. We would love to hear from you!!! Even if it's just a quick hi! Also, we would so love and appreciate a long list of prayer warriors. If you are praying for us through our journey, we would love to know that. If you are interested in receiving specific prayer requests or newsletters from us from time to time, please leave me a comment and let me know OR email us at jenlhayes@gmail.com.
     Thank you for reading! It blesses us to know that you are interested in God's plan for our family!

 Also, if you are not tired of reading yet, I read an amazing blog post today that was quite powerful and packed with truth! Check it out at: http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2012/05/where-is-mommy-war-for-motherless-child.html.

We are official!!!

   Hello friends! The second week of March found Adam and I headed to North Carolina for our spring ACMI trustees meeting. We were blessed to be able to have Anna and Jared join us on the drive. We enjoyed fun, laughter and some great conversation! We had a great time at the conference center, visiting with ACMI's board, missionaries and Tim and Cheryl. We met with the trustees as a team and then during a group meeting we were voted in as ACMI missionaries. We are official missionaries now!

   We stayed for an extra day and a half to begin our orientation with Tim and Cheryl. It was a wonderful way to get started and begin to help us to realize ways that we need to prepare that we may not have thought through ourselves. We talked about conflict resolution and personality types quite a bit. Anna came up with multiple conflict scenarios for all of us to work through! It was pretty interesting and fun, and we learned a lot about the dynamics of our team. We also worked a bit more in depth on our budget.
   Since getting home we have finished our budget and turned it in to ACMI. It was approved by the financial board and we are just about ready to begin our support raising.
   I think that covers the highlights of March. Oh, except for the Father - Daughter Dance!!! Our church held a dance as a mission trip fundraiser for the youth. Adam made Caeley a special invitation and then the night of the dance they both got dressed up and enjoyed dinner and the dance. Caeley borrowed a long, black, formal satin dress from her friend Brittan. She wore pretty high heels and looked way too grown up! Adam knocked on her bedroom door to pick her up when we done making her hair nice and fancy and coating her in hairspray, a bit of glitter and a dusting of eyeshadow. He gave her a beautiful corsage that matched her dress and the dance colors. I took a picture of them as he was putting it on her wrist and she is smiling up at him with the utmost adoration. It is one of my favorite pictures! They had a wonderful night dining at The Final Approach at the airport and then dancing the night away. Adam said that Caeley barely gave him a break! Once they got home, she danced around the living room for almost 2 more hours! It was really sweet. :) Ethan and I went out with our friends, Blake and Tresa. We enjoyed Subway and Green Apple Frogurt and then we snuck into the balcony of the gym at the church. We spied for just a few minutes, but it was so incredibly sweet to see Adam twirling Caeley around on the dance floor, with her beautiful long hair spinning out around her in the air. I'm getting teary just remembering....
   This month we spent a few days in Illinois for Spring Break with the Odle and Botzum families. We went to Springfield to visit the Lincoln sites and had a great time. Our family and the Botzums camped at a campground that was connected to a village that was recreated on the foundations of the village that Abraham Lincoln had lived in as a young man. We also visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library, his old law office, the only home ever owned by Abraham and Mary Todd, and his tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery. We had a wonderful time learning more about a wonderfully ambitious man! We enjoyed every site that we went to, but the museum was especially impressive. It was the only place we went that had an admission fee rather than accepting donations, so it was a bit more costly, but it was worth it! God blessed us with amazing weather for the time that we were there and it was a wonderful break away from school and busy life.

   We are still meeting with the Odles weekly to discuss the book, When Helping Hurts. We are really enjoying the book as it really addresses the ways that we are seeking to minister in Ghana. Adam and I have had some great discussions based on the questions in the book as have the 4 of us as a team. It really shares some wonderful perspectives and approaches to ministry.
   I also want to share with you about The Secret Church. I attended a simulcast of The Secret Church with Anna and Jared at their church in Terre Haute. It was a 6 hour intensive Bible Study by David Platt (author of Radical) with concentrated times of prayer for the persecuted church. David spoke on The Cross and Suffering and he covered from Genesis to Revelations. It was phenomenal! He ended up speaking for an additional hour, making it 7 hours, going from 7pm to 2am. It went by so very quickly though. Adam was unable to go due to his work schedule so we are planning to watch it online together soon. I really want to hear it all a second time as David was speaking so very fast to cram everything in! If you are interested, check out: www.radical.com. Or more specifically: http://www.radical.net/media/schurch/series_list/?id=303. Right now they just have the study guides available but soon they will have the audio and video as well.
   Today is Ethan's first soccer game of the season. It is not looking like very good soccer playing weather outside so far!
   Please keep praying for us as we are preparing. We are excited to be in Ghana, serving where we know God has called us, but we are really enjoying time now with friends and family and are working to be as ready as possible for the things that God has in store for us. We are enjoying our time with our Grow Group at church each week. We have done some great studies this year and Adam and I just started leading the group as we have begun a study called Start Being a Good Samaritan. It has already brought about some great discussion and raised some great questions. We appreciate the support of our Grow Group and the friendship that we have there.
I hope you are all enjoying Spring!!!

January breezed right by!

     I apologize for being so bad about posting updates! I really am trying to get better, but I think I may be the worst journaler ever.
     January was a good month for us! Somehow I think it was the busiest January we've ever had. Usually the month creeps by, all cold and snowy. Instead we have had rain, rain, wind, sun, rain and wind. Where is the snow???
     We completed the next 2 really important steps in our mission preparation for ACM. We had a psychological evaluation with a doctor in Lincoln, IL and we had our physical evaluations and full bloodwork done in Indy. Both doctors cleared us for third-world missions and are sending their recommendations to ACM. We are working on our budget now and will soon be ready to present it to the Financial Board for approval. Once we have that step completed we will be ready to start fundraising. We have also met with Jared and Anna, to discuss the details of their survey trip. We will all 4 (Adam & I and Jared & Anna) be meeting with Tim, the director of ACM next week to talk everything through and will also be going to the ACM Trustees and Missionary meetings in Asheville, NC next month.
     God has blessed our family in multiple ways lately and it is reassuring to see His encouragement as we follow Him. My friend Tresa has quoted Psalm 37:4 to me several times. It says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."
     Caeley and I started a Mother/Daughter Bible study and a quilting class at church 2 weeks ago. We are really enjoying it! Ethan is getting ready to start soccer again and is excited. I am enjoying Adam's work schedule at Amazon. For the first time in years, he actually gets home at dinner time! I am happy to be able to cook dinner and have it ready for him when he gets home (or shortly after).
     Please continue to pray for us as we prepare our bodies and hearts for what God has in store for us. Neither of the kids had many of their shots as babies so they have some catching up to do!
     Adam and I are starting a Bible study that we bought at the Missionary Convention and will also be doing some studies together with Anna and Jared as well. We will be meeting more and more frequently as the time gets closer (although Anna and I and the kids all see each other really often with all of our homeschool activities). :) Please pray that God would continue to speak clearly to us as we meet and work to follow His will and direction for our families. There are so many answers that He hasn't given us yet, but I feel His peace assuring us in our obedience to Him. John 14:27 says, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." And of course, Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope, and a future."

Happy New Year!

     We had a great night tonight celebrating the New Year with good friends, good food, games and laughter! It was wonderful to hear the sounds of our children playing and laughing together as well! Midnight took us outside for the kids to use little confetti poppers and to enjoy the neighbor's fireworks and a few paper lanterns as well! I am a sucker for paper lanterns. I've never had one myself, but they are beautiful to see. :) Then the kids stayed outside for about 40 minutes, playing tag and getting cold. They had a lot of fun playing outside, in the dark, in the middle of the night!
     We thoroughly enjoyed 2011 and can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2012. I pray that we will be ever watchful for ways that we can serve Him and that we would listen carefully for His voice and His direction in our lives. A constant prayer for me as our family prepares to experience some big changes! Tonight, I was able to sit with 2 of my best friends and see pictures of the Odle's trip to Ghana and hear more about their 2 weeks there. (We have wanted to get together with them since they got home, but we have all been busy with Christmas preparations and celebrations!) It was wonderful to see pictures that help us to better prepare for our new home! Physically and emotionally. Ghana is such a wonderful country. God is really placing us in a great place for our families. We are so anxious to be there, serving Him where He has called us, but for now will focus on serving Him here, where we are.
     The kids and I talked about New Year's Resolutions for a little bit this afternoon, and will talk about them more tomorrow. I've never really focused on them too much in the past, but this year, I really want to make some changes in my life and my family's. Mostly we all want to focus on growing closer to God, and will decide on some specific ways to make sure that we do just that in 2012.
     I am praying that God will bless each of you in this new year! Happy New Year!

Odle's Survey Trip

     Our friends and teammates, Jared and Anna Odle are leaving for Ghana today on a survey trip. The Executive Director of ACMI (the mission organization that the Odles are a part of and that we are in the process of joining), Tim Doggett, and his wife, Cheryl, are going with them. They will be gone for 2 weeks with the purpose of travelling to several places within the country that our team has the possibility of working in. They will be spending time meeting or catching up with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are already at work in these areas, and prayerfully considering where the Lord is leading our families. We have all felt God speaking to our families about our direction, but it is not always easy to discern God's red flags from Satan's arrows! We are praying that God would truly speak to the Odles, the Doggetts and to us here at home this next 2 weeks about where He is preparing a place for us in Ghana.
     The Odles sent out an email update this week. Here is their survey trip prayer request: "Please pray for our trip. We will be visiting three different places where we could work in Ghana and we are asking for the Lord to give us a clear direction in partnership. Please pray for wisdom, insight as we choose an area and finalize our budget, and good relationships to blossom from our time in Ghana. We praise God for our Executive Director Tim Doggett and his wife Cheryl, our ACMI's Office Manager, who are going with us on the trip."
     Please also be in prayer for their family as they will be away from their children for the next 2 weeks. Anna has never been away from the kids for that long! We will be watching some of their kids part of the time, their Nana will have them quite a bit and several other friends are helping out as well.
     We are excited for this trip to take place and look forward to the 2 week survey trip that Adam and I will take to Ghana in the spring. It will be an opportunity for Adam and I to see where God is calling us to live and work, and a chance to see what we need to take, what we don't need to take and what the specific needs in the area are. So much excitement!
      More catch up coming soon.....

National Missionary Convention 2011

So much has happened the last 2 months! I have been terrible about posting on our blog during this time and therefore have much to catch up on!!! We are in Atlanta this week attending the National Missionary Convention and are enjoying this time of worship, fellowship, prayer, workshops, and the opportunity to meet so many wonderful Christian brothers and sisters that are serving God all over the world! Sometimes this big world is a really small place. It's amazing how many people know people that we know all over the world. This morning at the Pre-Convention for missionaries we ran into a man named Mike, from Mexico City. Adam and the other guys on our trip to Mexico City stayed at his home in Huehuetoca last September. Anyway, Caeley is getting ready to get out of the pool and head up to our hotel room to shower. We had a 5 hr break this afternoon and the enormous exhibit hall opens at 5:00pm so I should get going. Please pray for us as we work to listen to God's voice and to continue to follow His will. We are thankful for this time as a family and with fellow missionaries and are excited to be preparing for the field! I will post a better update very very soon!

Prayer Support :)

     Today was a wonderful day! It started with sunshine and a great morning at church. Our family went forward this morning so that the missions minister could announce our intentions for full term ministry to the congregation. It is a blessing to know that our church family will be praying for us as we continue on this journey! Poor Caeley had quite the case of stage fright during the 1st service and cried the entire time. Once the service was over, Adam walked and talked with her and she felt better prepared for 2nd service, realizing that it wasn't nearly as scary as she thought it would be. She did great during the 2nd service. I was so glad for her!
     We spent the afternoon with Adam's family, visiting, playing cards and eating. Adam's dad had cooked a cow tongue in the crockpot, amongst other food on the grill, so we all tried some. The kids ate more than Adam or I! It tasted fine, but the texture was....well.....mush. A little hard to deal with. But, we had a fun afternoon!
     Then, Adam headed to work and the kids and I headed back to church. I had been asked to speak to the group that Caeley is in. It is called, Girls of Prayer, and is for girls from grades 3-5. I brought activities from an interactive missions booth that I had put together for a church-wide missions event Saturday evening. We played a game, made cards and bookmarks to send to our church's missionaries, and had 5 snacks that I had made with recipes from countries that our missionaries serve in. Then Caeley and I had the opportunity to share with the girls about our steps into full time ministry. We took a map in and Caeley excitedly showed them where Ghana is, and Accra, and she showed them where our plane will fly to take us there. It was so very sweet to see and hear Caeley sharing this with her friends, her prayer group. They asked several questions and then I shared some prayer requests we have that they wrote in their prayer journals, and we sat in a circle and each sweet little girl prayed for us before we left. I was so happy and thankful for Caeley to have the opportunity to share with her friends and answer their questions. I am just in awe of the way that God has been at work in her!!!
     These are the prayer requests that I shared with the girls: 1) Prayer as we make decisions and work to follow God's will for our family, 2) Prayer as we prepare for the 1st of several garage sales. It is hard to part with things we love!, 3) That we would not be too anxious as we get our appointments for all of our shots lined up, and go to get them - ouch, 4) That God would already be at work in the hearts of the people in Ghana that He will have us working with, and that He would be preparing some wonderful friends for us there.
     Thank you so much, Mrs. Patty and Mrs. Debbie, for your hand in raising up some wonderful Girls of Prayer. I have no doubt that God will do AMAZING things with each of the little hearts that you are helping to mold!
     We have been busy lately, preparing for this missions weekend at GCC, doing school, and unfortunately for me - having migraines. I have gotten stuck in a terrible cycle again and have had almost daily migraines for 2 weeks. I started some new medication for them a week ago, but it takes weeks or even months to have an effect on migraines. In the meantime, it is supposed to make them worse for awhile. I will try to be patient, as I have tried EVERYTHING else. But, I would love to have these figured out/taken care of, before it's time for us to go.
     One last thing, and I will stop typing, or maybe 2 things.... I am hoping to take CHE training classes (Community Health Evangelism) in November. We will have a busy month in November! First, I will have CHE training for a week here in Indiana, then we will have meetings with the trustee's of ACMI in Illinois, then the third week, we are attending the National Missionary Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. It rotates to different locations, and we have attended in Indianapolis, IN; Peoria, IL; and Lexington, KY. It is my favorite event of the year. It is just amazing and inspiring to see what the hands and feet of Jesus are doing ALL over the world!
     Ok, the last thing. For school 2 weeks ago, we made passports. We will stamp them as we "travel" around the world this year studying many countries from a missions perspective. As we started to make them, Ethan looked at me a bit funny. Once I noticed, he said, "Um, mom, isn't making your own passports illegal?" I laughed of course and told him, "Only if we try to use them to leave the country. Then I'd probably get arrested." Caeley added her spin on things, "Well, wouldn't that be ok mom? Then you could just tell people in jail about Jesus!"

Mission Retreat

    We spent this last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in Illinois at a retreat with ACMI (the Alliance of Christian Missions International). We had a wonderful time getting to know everyone there. We had filled out an interest form and emailed it to the director awhile ago, and this was a chance for us to meet most of the organization that is currently in the states. Adam and I met with the trustees and answered questions that they had for us. Adam did such a great job of speaking from the heart. That is definitely something that is out of his comfort zone with people he barely knows! I was so proud of him! It has been neat to see the many ways that God has been and is expanding our comfort zones. Anyway, we felt that the meeting went well and look forward to gathering together again in November. We have been familiar with ACMI for a long time. Our church supports several of their missionaries, and our friends, the Odles, that we are planning to team up with have been part of this organization for several years. We felt right at home while we were there. Everyone was so kind, welcoming and encouraging. We had the wonderful opportunity to meet several missionaries who are leaving for their fields very soon. We are excited to have had the chance to meet and talk with them, as it is so nice to put a face and a person to a name. We look forward to their updates!
       We also had the opportunity to Skype during some of our meetings with some of the missionaries that weren't able to make it to the retreat. We heard from and talked with families from: the Philippines, Kenya and Tanzania. That was a great experience, their voices were so clear, it is a blessing to know that technology like this is so easily available! It won't be the same as face to face, but it sure beats waiting weeks and weeks for letters to arrive, like so many missionaries did not so long ago!
    Ethan and Caeley had a wonderful time at the retreat! They were excited to hear that our meeting with the trustees went well and enjoyed meeting everyone. They had a great time with the Odle kids and made some new friends too, that we should get to Skype with at the meeting in November as they will leave for their field in about 3 weeks. The kids were able to enjoy: basketball, an obstacle course, mini golf, archery, ping pong, pool, a swimming pool, and the lake. The lake had a blob ( a long inflated pillow-like thing that one kid would scoot to the end of and then another would jump onto it and blast the 1st kid into the air and into the water), an iceberg (a huge inflated rock wall in the water), a waterslide, a zipline into the lake, paddle boats and canoes! They stayed busy, made us tired, and had so much fun!
    We have so much to do to prepare for all of this. Paperwork, interview, classes, sorting, purging, packing (although that is a bit down the road), the kids need passports, we need visas, shots..... Wow! I am so excited to have this adventure moving though, I just want to power through everything so we are READY! (Well except for the shots.) I am working hard at practicing patience though, and know that it will all get done in the right amount of time.
    Right now our focus is purging. We have a family room and 2 car garage filled with boxes! We are working to get everything unpacked and sorted. We are having a joint garage sale with the Odles on Labor Day weekend. We will set that money aside for whatever we need to get closer to Africa! I am actually enjoying sorting things and getting rid of lots, but some of it is not so easy... However, Matthew 6:19-20 says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Prayer

     It's interesting how many avenues that God has used to speak to me about prayer lately. It seems that I am being bombarded from every direction! I have been praying that God would use this time, this time when my heart is aching, crying out, to be on the field, to be serving Him where He has called me and my family to serve, to prepare us for the things that we will encounter in a third world country. That He would strengthen us and ready us for the changes, the heart break, the difficulties. It is easy to picture dealing with serving Him in such a hands on manner each and every day. Besides the births of my children, the best times of my life have been mission trips, where serving and worshiping Him is my main concentration. But I am striving to not just concentrate on those things, but to face the reality of the hard stuff. Praying this way is dangerous! It is like praying for patience, it is not fun to do. When you pray for patience, God grants you plenty of opportunities in which your patience can be tested and stretched. Utter aggravation. But it works! This is similar and I just know that satan loves it. God is at work stretching us in difficult areas, giving us the chance to make God-honoring decisions over and over. Sometimes I make the good choice and other times, unfortunately, the bad. But I am grateful that our God is faithful in answering my prayers. I desire for our family to be so strong, for our marriage to be so strong and for our relationship with Him to be so strong, that there would be less and less room for the devil to work! 

     In the sermon we heard this morning, the pastor urged us to pray solutions - not problems. He gave several examples, including The Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer says, "Give us this day our daily bread...," not, "We don't have bread." I think of the ways that praying like this could have a positive impact on my life, my prayer life and everyday. I think that would help me to be that much more positive with day to day things, if that was the way that my prayer time was spent. I would like for my mind to identify solutions immediately, rather that dwell on the problems. 

     We have had a very nice summer so far. We haven't been near as busy as usual and have had a lot of relaxing family time. That has been wonderful. However as the summer stretches to an end, I can see, and hear, that Ethan and Caeley are ready for school to start again. Whether they want to admit it or not, they need a schedule again and specific things to do. Like, stuff to keep them occupied and not arguing..... :) On the subject of school, I have been searching for the right curriculum for our family since March. Everything that I have settled on has been ok. Not great, not just what I was looking for, but ok. Then 2 nights ago I found exactly what I have been wanting. Online, for free!!! I have it all printed out and can't wait to get started. We have separate Math, Spelling, Science, History and Writing curriculum, but the base of our schooling will come from Ann Dunagan's,Teaching With God's Heart for the World. This is the write up about it that they had on their website: While your kids are young, (during a year when most of your children are older elementary age), devote a year of your homeschooling commitment to establishing a life-long foundational family commitment to God's Great Commission. This one (or two) year study presents a whirlwind tour all-throughout-history and all-around-the-world. You will learn the importance of developing a personal devotional life with the Lord and how to develop more of God's heart for the world and the lost. "Impart God's Heart . . . for the World!" Here is a link to their site, where this curriculum can be printed for free, and they have other freebies, more resources listed and much more: www.harvestministry.org. Just send me an email if you have any questions. Anyway, this is exactly what I was hoping for. I read many reviews and it is so good for so many different situations, not just homeschooling, but it is especially great for families who are going into full-time missions. Perfect!

     One last thing, and I will stop yammering on. Ethan wanted me to share this. This last Tuesday, I was getting ready for the day and stopped a minute, looking at my two bracelets. Let me back up... When Adam and I went to Mexico on a mission trip for the first time about 5 years ago, it was to serve with Casas Por Cristo, building a home for a family in Juarez. I had such a hard time coming home. I missed the kids so much, but felt like I was leaving my heart behind in Mexico. I put on one of those stretchy silicone bracelets from Casas while I was there, and have never taken it off. Then once we started to feel God's call to Africa, I bought some threaded bracelets that were black, red, green and yellow to represent Africa, and have had one of those on the same wrist also. Well anyway, that day last week I was looking at both bracelets and decided to pray another one of those "give me clarity" prayers. I prayed that God would clearly tell me if He was indeed leading us to Africa. I want to be sure that we are walking within His will, and not solely within ours. Then at our friend's house later that evening, Caeley has holding my hand, toying with my bracelets, like she often does, and SNAP! Off pops the Casas bracelet! How's that for clarity after hanging around for 5 years??? Caeley was upset, because she was afraid I would be mad. It was fun to explain to them later, after I let it soak in, that it was just an answer to a prayer I had just prayed. Anyway, goodnight! I can't believe tomorrow is August 1st!