December 2016

December began with us trying to figure out and survive having two babies of slightly different ages at once.  They were on different schedules, had different needs, and were a handful and a half.  They were also super cute, which I think is a baby's most valuable asset when trying to have their needs met by super tired sleep deprived parents.

D slept pretty well at night and smiled a lot during the day, but he struggled with a gassy tummy.  R woke up constantly at night but slept most of the day.  I was able to stay at home and spend time helping while getting any work done which was absolutely necessary.  We had cared for lots of babies but never had them live with us at night, that's a game changer!  D ended up going home after about a week and a half.  We had still had lots going on, doctors appointments, foster care paperwork, not much sleep, not much sleep, not much... oh I said that already :-)  Amidst all of this, we did find time to put up Christmas decorations and have many a holiday celebration.

Rebecca decorated the tree with baby R.

Rebecca made ornaments for our family of R's footprint, so tiny!

Around Christmas we had lots of get togethers... this one with Rebecca's family.

Next one at my Dad & Julie's place...

And our last one with my Mom & Herb at our place.

The whole month I worked on directing the children at church in a play of the nativity story.  Talk about cute, these kids excel at that and did a great job in the play!

Baaaaahhhh!

Our angels all ready to jump up and say "Glory to God in the Highest!"

Lastly, for Christmas I received a new stunt kite.  It happened to be not too freezing on Christmas day so us guys went to the park to fly it.

Kevin tried it out - his first time flying a dual line stunt kite.  It was a lot of fun!  I now am always checking the weather and wind forecast, looking for more opportunities to fly this and to start to learn new tricks with it.

It seems like December just "flew" by!

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support during these last months!  We really appreciate all of you!

November 2016

Last November was a big month for us!  After finally getting our foster care license in October, we had a couple close calls where we said we would take a child but then they never came.  Those nights were a rollercoaster of emotions.  At the end of the month was when it became real.  We got a call about a baby girl who needed a place but was currently in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).  We were told that we would get more info the next day but it didn't come, then it was Thanksgiving, then the weekend, so we weren't sure what to think.  Then we got another call asking if we would be able to take a baby boy, and since our license was for up to two children and we hadn't heard back about the girl, we said yes.  A few hours later, D was in our arms, a super sweet three month old boy.  

What a change of life, but that was just the beginning - it was about to get crazy.  The next day, we got a call about R who was about ready to be discharged from the NICU.  They asked if we still wanted her, and we thought about it - we had already said we would - so we said yes.  We went and got her from the hospital and thus we were thrown right in to parenting!  That was the end of the month so stay tuned to hear what it was like in December.

We continued to have some beautiful weather in November.  We took a nice long walk at Riverside Park.

We had an early frost and we caught some of it on our still blooming mums.

We got to talk on the computer with Marius and Florin for a while, it is always good to catch up and it is a good reminder to continue praying for all of our kids in Romania.

I enjoyed a beautiful fall day by flying my kite with my friend Neil.  We went to the beach in Grand Haven, where it was really windy.  This kite would pull both of us down the beach, it was powerful!

Here is Neil flying the kite.  Toward the end I crashed and broke a small part on the kite - again.  This probably happens every other time I fly it, since it is very old.  Thankfully I found a generous kite shop that sent me some new parts!

We celebrated Thanksgiving not only with our family but with GoldRush - our middle school youth group.

We enjoyed a meal brought in by one of our church partners...

...then we talked about gratitude and how to be thankful in every situation.

I was able to make it to a couple of GVSU football games with my Dad and Brother, and one with my sister and brother-in-law.  We saw some great playoff games and it was a nice end to a very nice month.

October 2016

Hey there, let's get reacquainted! We have regrettably let our blog updates slide in the last few months.  Many of you let us know that you miss reading about what's going on with us, thank you for letting us know you care!  Over the next few weeks we will be making up for this by posting an update for each month that we've missed... it would be way too much for a single post!  Thanks again for reading and we hope you enjoy!

October was quite a beautiful and full month!  We started off with our friends Rob and Amanda's wedding, it was a nice day for an outdoor wedding!

The wedding was at a very nice nature preserve near Holland, lots of walking trails, some elk and a well done visitor center.

We took a walk on the beach on a very nice sunny day!  We love going outside and taking advantage of nice weather when we can.  

We also went to see art prize.  This piece was carved in part by the son of some friends at church.

This one was a little questionable...

Our beautiful city at dusk, one of my favorite times to take pictures!

We enjoyed lots of beautiful fall color right in our neighborhood on the WestSide of Grand Rapids.

Yes this is the view from our roof, the main projects are done but the small ones never end... I installed a new chimney cap up there.

We planted some new flowers and trimmed back the bushes.  We also planted some tulips which we hope will come up in the spring.

We visited the bog as a late anniversary (#13) excursion.  If you have a good memory then you might remember that we went here for our 5 year anniversary also and had quite a misadventure!  You can read about that here: 5 Year Anniversary.

If doctors were this affordable we'd all be very happy!  We went to the public museum with some friends to see the whale exhibit and see a show at the planetarium.

Everyone had fun riding the carousel!

Our friends Neil and Annah came over for a walk and we ended up in some very large cemeteries.  We saw some of the best color of the season!

Sometime in October we finally received our foster care license, so we eagerly awaited a call for a placement.  This was the cumulation of an almost two year process since we came back from Romania.  We praise God for his good timing and how he provided everything for us to get us to this point.

Church Block Party!

Here at Gold Avenue Church we really desire to see God's love flow out from us into our WestSide neighborhood.  We love meeting our neighbors and chatting, praying with them, and sharing about Jesus. One of our favorite ways to connect is by having a block party.

We were again blessed with a beautiful fall day to have our party.  Around 250-300 people came which was a lot more than last year!  Many people from our church were also present to help run things and to intentionally engage with neighbors.

We enjoyed a nice spread of cook out food: hamburgers, hotdogs (with chili), baked beans, potato salad, chips, and soda pop.  We are very thankful that much of it was generously donated.

We had a prayer table where several people came to be prayed for.

Face painting was a real hit with the kids!

We also had a rock painting station, craft station and a jewelry making station.

The bounce house was a highlight for many of the kids.

We had lots of other fun games too which were fun for young and old.

We even had an impromptu soccer game!

We tried something new this year and had a 50/50 raffle.  The grand prize was half of the earnings, second and third prizes were some gift cards, and fourth place was a basketball.  The rest of the earnings went to our middle school youth group for special events.  We sold $117 worth of tickets, and the winner donated their prize back to us so we got to keep the whole amount for our group!

This was a really fun time and it we are so thankful to God for how he worked during the party.  Some of the people we connected with have come to church in the following weeks and we are praying that more of our neighbors will be comfortable coming to church.  Thank you to everyone who helped and who prayed for this event!