One Last Week

Since we got back from California we have been keeping busy seeing family and friends before we leave and working on wrapping everything up here. Everything has gone so smoothly and we have really enjoyed everyones company.

We had a potluck with our small group from church, it was really fun seeing everyone and playing with all the kids.

Sunday we had our commissioning at church. We got to tell about how we've come to this point and what we will be doing once we get to Romania. Then our pastor called people down to lay hands on us and pray for our journey. Many of our family and friends came which was great, they have been so supportive. Afterwards we had a get together and had a light lunch that we put on. The cake had red, blue, and yellow flowers, which are the colors of the Romanian flag.

We had buns, ham & turkey, cheese, coleslaw, watermellon, chips, and cake. It turned out to be a very nice meal. Over 100 people came to this event, wow! Thanks all for coming!

This is us with Rebecca's parents.

This is us with Mark's Dad & Stepmom.

This is us with Mark's Mom.

During the week we visited lots of people too. This is us with Mark's sister and brother-in-law.

These are our adopted parents, they live close to where we lived and we have been getting together with them regularly for a long time. They have been a very big part of our lives and we have really enjoyed getting to know them.

These are our friends Scott & Kayleen and kids Sam & Lexi. We have become great friends with them in the last few years too and will miss them a lot.

Same goes for our friends Jonah & Jes and their daughter Precious.

We will surely miss all of our family and friends and are hoping to stay in touch over e-mail and online chatting, especially with programs like skype. If you have skype you can search for us and our user name will come up.

This week we also sold both of our cars and tied up any loose ends that we could think of. Everything has gone great and we are really relieved to have everything taken care of. We are even finished packing now and are all ready to go. We will be at the Kent County airport at 3:00 today and will fly out at 4:50.

It has been quite a journey getting to this point, it seems a bit unreal that we're leaving in a few hours and we'll be gone for so long. God has been so faithful and we've just been amazed at how he has worked. Thank you all for your continued prayers, we know that they have helped and we continue to ask for them on a daily basis.

Canada, Eh!

Friday morning at 8:00 Am we left to go visit Rebecca's sister Elizabeth in Ottawa Ontario. Traffic was fine until we got to the border, where we waited for about an hour. Not too bad for crossing the border into the states but usually it is quite a bit shorter going into Canada. There was some construction but nothing major. Then we got to the Toronto area and it took over an hour to make it through, and that was in the early afternoon. We figured it was so busy because everyone was leaving from work early on a Friday. By the time we were out of that traffic mess we were fed up already, but we were in for some more fun. It didn't seem like people knew how to drive, being rude and cutting us off. One guy tried to squeeze in between us and a semi, and then was so impatient that he passed the semi on the left shoulder. We figured it was good practice for driving in Romania though, and we made it to Elizabeth's at around 8:00 Pm. We enjoyed an Indian dinner and recuperated from the long day in the car.

Rebecca had fun driving after Toronto.

Man, wish we would have taken a picture of that move!

Saturday we had brunch of bread and some tasty pastries from a local bakery. Then we headed out for a tour of the city. Ottawa is a very beautiful place, filled with classical architecture and landmarks. Being the capital of Canada there are many nice government buildings too. There are tons of ethnic restaurants too, so if we lived here we'd be spending way to much money trying them all out. For dinner we had Sri Lankan food which was out of this world!

We toured the governor general's residence where we saw traditional guards just like you see in the movies. The guard changed every hour, accompanied by bagpipe music which we enjoyed quite a bit.

Today we drove over a bridge to Quebec to see a great view of Ottawa.

We attended and enjoyed our first Orthodox church service. We have so much to learn about the Orthodox faith and the way they do things. We'll have plenty of chances once we're in Romania though as it is mainly an Orthodox country. We got to meet some of Elizabeth's Romanian friends and we talked about what to expect in Romania as we enjoyed an Ethiopian meal.

We have had a great time visiting Elizabeth and touring this city. Please continue to pray for safety in travels as we will be on the move again tomorrow.

Fun At The Big Lake

With our departure to Romania coming up fast we have been trying to get in as much time with family and friends as possible. It has been really fun seeing everyone and spending good quality time together. The weather has been beautiful for the most part lately so we have headed out to Lake Michigan for some fun times. We'll miss the lake, the beaches, and the lighthouses, but they will be nice memories for us.

The lighthouse in Holland.

We walked the pier with Mark's sister and brother-in-law Sandi & Jay after eating out at a Thai restaurant.

Our friends John & Karen took us sailing out of Muskegon Lake into Lake Michigan, this was quite an enjoyable and relaxing ride. They also treated us to a BBQ before and ice-cream afterwards. This was a nice way to enjoy friends and God's beautiful creation.

We spent some time with Mark's Dad & Stepmom in Ludington. It rained quite a bit that weekend but it let up so we could have a nice campfire and bike around Ludington State Park.

As much as we lament the long winters, lots of snow, and often cloudy skies, this still is a very beautiful area to live. There are so many things that nature has to offer in our state, probably more than most people usually think of.

We have really enjoyed the time we've spent with our family and friends, we'll miss you all dearly when we're in Romania, please keep in touch with us.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend has always been a special weekend for us and our families.  Usually we go camping with Rebecca's family and friends at Yankee Springs Campground.  We have camped there almost every year since we first met but this year was a lot different.  We instead filled the weekend with several different activities, all of which were very fun.  Friday we hung out with our friends Scott & Kayleen.  We played games, went to some garage sales, and watched Ocean's 11.  We had some awesome egg-rolls for dinner and brownies for dessert, mmm.

Saturday we headed up to Great Aunt Phil's cottage on Lake Michigan.  It was a little overcast but overall it was a nice day.  Rebecca's parents brought their camper and Mark helped set up.  We enjoyed some good food, usually on weekends like this there are lots of goodies and this was no exception.  We had a hamburger fry for dinner, and one of the dogs ate part of Grandma's hamburger right off her plate she was holding.  Fun times.

We went for a walk along the beach and Rebecca spotted this, a Bald Eagle.  It isn't every day that you get to see one of these so it was pretty exciting.

The cottage sits atop of the sand dune, so there are quite a few steps down to the beach.

We always enjoy seeing rays of sunshine.

There was lots of extra sand on the beach piled up because the water level is so high.  We saw many cool erosion patterns in the sand.

Sunday we took a walk, the weather was beautiful.  We relaxed the rest of the day and played some games.

Monday we went to the Essenburg get-together which happens every Memorial Day at Mark's late grandma's house.  We had a hotdog roast with potluck side dishes and enjoyed seeing lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It was another beautiful day and a nice ending to the Memorial Day weekend.

Oma's 100th Birthday Celebration

We spent the week of Christmas 2008 in Brampton, Canada celebrating our Oma's 100th birthday. December 24 was the big day so there was a big open house for lots of friends and family. All of Oma's 8 children came out to visit, which was great because one uncle lives all the way in Saskatchewan. Below is a picture of us with Oma on her birthday.

Besides the fact that she's 100 years old, the amazing thing is how sharp she still is. She remembers little details of things that happened in peoples lives years ago. She still lives on her own in an apartment and for the most part takes care of herself on her 0wn.

Oma's favorite pastime is knitting, and she is still incredibly fast. We have many slippers and blankets from her and they are all really nice.

This is a picture of the whole family with their spouses. Rebecca's parents are on the far right.

We spent the rest of the week hanging out at Oma's apartment visiting with family. For exercise we walked around the entire apartment complex, which was fun because there are several buildings connected by underground tunnels. We played hide and go seek once which was really fun. We had a great week and were sad when the vacation was over.

All The Latest Happenings

Wow, a lot has been happening with us recently, and it's been a while since the last post. Let's back up to Thanksgiving. We had a great time spending the day with our family, eating wonderful food and hanging out having some fun. We watched the classic Home Alone and played a great game of Scrabble.

On Black Friday we did something really stupid, we went shopping. This was something we had said we would never do but there was a terrific sale on a laptop computer at Best Buy, so we went with a friend at MIDNIGHT and waited to get a ticket for the computer we wanted. The whole thing was very badly managed and the first 15-20 people in line ended up getting all the best deals, so before the store even opened we left knowing that there wasn't a chance that we would get what we want. It was really frustrating, but now we know to NEVER get sucked in by what seems to be such a good deal.

The rest of the long weekend was fun, we went hot-tubing with a friend, Mark went to the Grand Valley football game (unfortunately they lost, it was a really bad game), and we had dinner and played Wii with some other friends.

We haven't heard anything from the last people that looked at our house, so we are still praying that they will buy it even though they said they would start deciding last week. We are still trusting that God has a plan so even if they don't buy the house someone else will come along at the right time. We had our meeting with the RCA about partnering with them in our mission, and that went well. There is still a lot to figure out there but we are praying that God will open the doors for this to work as well. Our fund raising started by sending out our support letters to friends and family. God is in control of sll three of these areas and we continue to ask for your prayers.

The kitties helped Rebecca decorate recently. They also had fun helping un-decorate by constantly playing with the decorations and pulling down the blankets and tablecloth.

They also liked playing in the snow on the deck.

Rebecca took some great closeup shots of snowflakes.

The snow is really beautiful, just don't ask how fun it is to drive in it.

Wrapping Things Up

The last few weeks have been very busy for us. Since we are leaving tomorrow and we will be gone for 5 weeks, we have been trying to get together with our family and friends, so we've been on the go a lot and have had a lot of people over. We have really enjoyed seeing everyone, and we're going to miss everyone when we're gone. We are so appreciative of all the support we've received, and we know that we will continue to feel that while we're away.

Sam and Jaden playing together in our basement

We also completed the basement work so that Dave and Holly would have everything they needed while we are gone. The main thing that was left was the bathroom, so we tackled that and finished it not too long ago (you can read about the beginning of the bathroom finishing in a previous post). Our friend Dan came over and we installed the vanity, counter top, and toilet. Dave and helped but left the plumbing up to him since he used to do that as a living. Dave and I hung the towel bars and then Rebecca helped me put up the big 48" X 30" mirror.

Dan and Dave working on the plumbing of to the sink

Me working on helping the vanity to fit by taking off some baseboard

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Dave was so happy to finally have a finished bathroom that he hugged the toilet! Actually he was installing the tank, but hey

Dan and I standing in the finished bathroom, minus the towel bars and mirror which were put up later

It feels great to have all that done, and it is so nice for Dave, Holly & Jaden. The basement is now mostly done and all of the important things are finished. So we can have the peace of mind of not leaving any big projects behind.

Sandi & Jay's Wedding

My sister Sandi just got married. Wow. Sandi is my younger sister and I am so proud of her. She married Jay, a great Christian guy from Wisconsin, who I'm sure is going to do a great job of being her husband. They were married on Saturday, at Sandi's church, and Rebecca and I were honored to stand up in the wedding party. The day couldn't have been more perfect, from the weather to how everything came together. Our friend Rodd, who is the campus minister of His House Christian Fellowship, did a great job officiating the wedding. I was really impressed by the depth of the message and how faith in God was mentioned several times as the cornerstone of a great marriage.

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Sandi was beautiful in her wedding gown, and Jay was handsome as ever. They took advantage of the nice weather and church landscaping to have some nice pictures taken outside, both before and after the wedding. Sandi and Jay didn't see each other before the ceremony, so they took separate pictures before the wedding.


Here is Sandi with all the bridesmaids. They all looked very pretty, especially the second one from the left :-)


That's me and Sandi shortly before the wedding started.

Here I am with Sandi and my younger brother Kevin. I thought a black and white photo would be cool, and I think it turned out great.

Rebecca and I had a great time standing up in the wedding, although we'll have to watch the video because we couldn't see much of Sandi and Jay. We were the first ones in and the last ones out, so we were on the lowest steps of the altar.

Sandi and Jay came out to lots of bubbles, very fun!

After the wedding we went to downtown Grand Rapids for some more pictures. It was a great time as we could tell how much fun Sandi and Jay were having. We did meet an interesting person who made a lame hit on Sandi, but oh well, it was pretty funny. The reception was a lot of fun too, the food was great and Sandi's mashed potato bar was a big hit. Sandi and Jay honored our Uncle Carl and Aunt Joyce for their 40th wedding anniversary which was that day. Now they are on their honeymoon in the smoky mountains so we all hope they are having a great time.