October 2017

We started off the month of October by buying a new camera!  After being the camp photographer over the summer and using a pro quality camera, I realized that it was time for an upgrade for me.  I researched for months about what kind, what brand, which model, which lenses, so many options!

  We went to the camera store a couple times to try out a couple models, but all along I had one in my sights: the Fujifilm X-T10.  I bought it used since it is the previous model so it was less than half the price of the new one.  So far we love it and the pictures we are getting from it.  Especially with the wide aperture fast prime lens (50mm equivalent) the pictures are just what I've been looking for.  It is really fun to take pictures with this camera!  We are very thankful for some financial gifts that made it possible for us to buy this, God provides!

It has been so much easier to go and do things with R since she is on a consistent napping schedule and she really loves to go out and watch people.  It is such a bummer that we can't post pictures of her yet because we have so many cute ones!

My Mom and step Dad took us out to Brann's where we enjoyed a good meal.  R loved the food, she loves to eat!

We also went out to sushi with our friends Rob and Amanda.  Of course R wanted some because, well, it's food, but she's not quite ready for raw fish yet.

Right before we were going to go to Sushi Yama downtown, the power went out all over for reasons unknown.  So we went a little further out to Ju Sushi which is a little more upscale.  Both have great sushi!

We enjoyed seeing this neighborhood cat on our porch quite often.  He really liked the chair that we needed to find a new home for.  R would make purring noises when she saw him!

We went one Saturday to make applesauce with Rebecca's parents.  We had fun watching R pick out her own apple and take a bite!

We used our new food mill that Rebecca's parents got us, it is awesome! 

 After boiling the apples with the skin and cores and all, they just go through and the mill and applesauce comes out the chute and the rest comes out the end.  We have enough to last for the year hopefully, it turned out great!

R got to enjoy a to from our childhood, the Little People farm.  The door still goes "moo" when you open it, fun!

We made some Korean food when we had our friend Jay over.  All three of us love Korean food and Jay especially since he has spent much time in South Korea and enjoys ministering there.

We had the privilege of going and seeing our twin nieces be baptized.  We enjoy being an Uncle and Aunt and are so happy for my sister and brother in law.

We enjoyed the get together afterwards at my sister's house.  Here I am with her and my "little" brother.  

She loves to empty out whatever she can and enjoys climbing into whatever she can.

Here is one of her 11 month pictures, we have taken a special picture each month for her to put in her baby photo album.  It is a fun way to see the progression of her growth, it is hard to believe how big she is now!

We enjoyed seeing beautiful fall colors all around us.  While we didn't get out for a scenic color tour, we had lots of color right in our own neighborhood.

There were still quite a few nice days to take walks and we took full advantage of that.

One evening I went to a football game that one of our youth from our youth group was playing in.  It was fun to go and show support and to cheer him on.  Being able to make connections like that outside of the group is really great and I think means a lot to the students.

We also went to watch a GVSU football game, it was an away game that was shown on the big screen at GVSU.  We got to sit on the field which was pretty fun.  We went with my Dad and step mom and sister and brother in law.

We didn't do much for Halloween because I had a youth group party at church.  That was a lot of fun, in order to get the youth to come we asked them what they would like to do.  So we played video games and made snacks in the kitchen, along with having pizza for dinner.  Rebecca and R stayed home and went to visit neighbors.  It went well until our neighbor who was dressed as Chewbacca from Star Wars picked up R and she broke down crying.  Maybe she'll enjoy it more next year!

We were also able to participate in a couple prayer trainings at church.  We learned more about intercession, which is praying for others in specific and persistent ways.  As a church we recognize that all areas of ministry need people covering them in prayer, but especially the leaders.  That includes us as we are involved in leading many ministries here.  We are thankful that we have many people who are committed to praying for us.  We send out periodic emails giving prayer requests and updates about how God has answered previous requests.  If you aren't a part of that and you would like to be, please let us know.  We are trying to raise up a team of intercessors for our youth group as well so if that is something that interests you please let us know!

ArtPrize 2017

Each year we enjoy going to see what our city has in store for us at ArtPrize.  Hundreds of artists compete for having the best art piece in town, and we get the privilege of seeing them for free.  We had pretty nice weather in October so we were able to go and explore.  This was just one thing we did in October but since there are so many pictures we made it into its own post.  Look for a post with the rest of what we did in October coming soon.

Grand Rapids is a very beautiful city, the Grand River is quite majestic at this time of year.

I enjoyed this eagle which was made of metal and around the head were forks, spoons, and knives.

This was one of the grand prize winners this year, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln made entirely of pennies. 

One of my favorite pieces was this underwater scene made out of household items.

There were many amazing paintings as well like this photorealistic one of these horses.  It was one of three in a set.

This smokey looking painting was done to honor those that lost their lives on 9/11.

I almost thought that this said "Let us pray for peace," and I was excited, yeah!  Looking closer I saw that it actually says "play," but I still think it would be better saying "pray."  It is so true that in these trying times that we need to be praying for peace and for Jesus to work!

This is an intricate carved wood sculpture...

These guys were made entirely of cardboard...

And these awesome horses out of metal wire.

Anybody recognize this?  I sure got excited when I saw it!

This is made to look like oil floating on the water of the Grand River.

One last picture taken of a building reflecting in another's glass.  Depending on the angle you are at you can see different buildings reflecting.  

That's about it for ArtPrize this year, next year maybe we'll have an entry from our arts camp!

September 2017

In September we enjoyed some unseasonably warm weather, and we tried to make the most of it.  We enjoyed spending lots of time outdoors with family and friends.

We went up to my sister's cottage and enjoyed some wading, since the water is so shallow.  R enjoyed playing in the water, and had some fun floating in an inner-tube until a big wave came and splashed her in the face.  

On Labor Day we went to the beach for the annual Jasperse family pancake cookout.  It was another perfect kite flying day.  I taught Sam how to fly my new parafoil kite, it is a real blast to fly.  I also was able to fly my new kite train, I took 6 cheap kites and made the strings to tie them together so they can fly in a train.  The wind was pretty strong so they pulled a lot.  Later I took them apart so that each of our friend's kids could fly one.  It was a lot of fun!

I traveled to North Carolina again for the graduation of my year long course that I have been taking there.  A big group from our church took this course to learn how to minister healing and deliverance in Jesus' name.  We enjoyed seeing all of the other people from around the country that also took the course, and we got to present our projects to the whole group.  This is an exciting ministry and we are thankful that we have been able to pray with people often and see them experience freedom.

I always have loved the mountains!  We stayed in a mountain chalet with this view!

R continued to grow and thrive, her personality continued to come out more and more.  She enjoyed playing with other children whenever she had the chance.

She loved going on walks to the park during the day with Rebecca and seeing the geese that were there.  She also enjoyed picking apples off of our tree and biting them.

At the end if the month we decided to take an impromptu trip to Beaver Island for our 14th anniversary.  We left early Friday morning and took the ferry over.  It was really windy and rough and I think that R was the only one of us that wasn't feeling a little queasy.  

This was our first time to Beaver Island and we enjoyed it very much.  It is a very beautiful place and because we went so late in the season it was very quiet too.

We stayed at an apartment we found on AirBNB, it was very close to the ferry, right in the main town.

The owner was great, he let us borrow his car so that we could drive around and see some sights that we wouldn't have been able to on foot.  We saw lots of deer everywhere we went.

We got to explore this old lighthouse...

We saw lots of beautiful scenery...

And R was very fascinated by the deer head on the wall at the restaurant we ate dinner at.

We were able to catch a beautiful sunset...

Visit the other lighthouse on the island...

And take a nice walk along the beach, spotting some parts of an old shipwreck along the way.

All of this was in one day!  While we were there we decided we would like to stay a little longer than we would have been able to if we had taken the ferry back, so we booked a flight on a small plane in the afternoon.

This was our first time flying in such a small airplane, it was a 6 seater!  It was really fun, definitely one of the highlights of the trip.  Plus it kept our streak alive of flying at least once a year for the past 10 years.

R really enjoyed it too, she wasn't afraid at all, it figures with how adventurous she is.  She is such a great fit in our family!

At church it was a busy month too as we launched Children's Worship for our older children after being off for the summer.  Our youth group met for most of the summer so there wasn't much of a launch there but we started doing lessons again that focused on teaching some basic ways to pray.  It was a great month as we saw lots of fruit from the ministry that happened over the summer months.  

September was a nice and memorable month, we are thankful to God for the many ways he blessed us and took care of us.  We are thankful too for all of you that prayed for us and encouraged us as we continued to navigate through the uncertainties of the foster care process.  We saw God bringing fruit there as his plan seemed to be coming together, something we saw even more of in October.  That post will be coming soon!