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!

Summer Update

This week it has been two years since we have been back in the States from Romania.  While we could not understate how much we still miss our kids in Romania, we are thankful that God has given us this new call to serve in Grand Rapids.  A huge plus is that we are surrounded by great friends and family, and God has blessed us with a wonderful church family and wonderful leaders.  

Summer always seems to be a busy time especially for children and youth ministry because of camps, VBS, and other special things that are harder to pull off during the school year.  Our last post was of our Create! Arts Camp, which was our biggest event of the year so far with 50 kids participating.  This post is going to cover everything since then and up until now, including things we were involved with in ministry and things we have been blessed to do personally.

We have really been enjoying being able to pick fresh fruit here in Michigan.  It was something we missed while we were in Romania.

Blueberries are one of our favorites, and it's more fun picking with friends!

At the end of July we had a "camp" for our middle school youth group.  We called it Upward Challenge and it was based on another camp that is run in North Carolina and Alaska by PRMI.  

We had our youth come for a couple hours each evening and started off with a game each time.  We did lots of challenges and team games.

After games we had dinner and then spent some time in worship. It is great to hear middle schoolers praising God!

We had two special teachers come, who also happen to be our good friends Jay and Stephanie.  They were both at the longer Upward Challenge in North Carolina.  We learned about the spiritual reality that we live in and how God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit each work in our lives.

We finished up the week with a fun pool party at one of our volunteer's house.

Everyone loved the pool party!

We also had a bonfire and then we gathered around some of our volunteers to pray for them as they were about to move on to another place of ministry.  This was a wonderful week and we felt like we saw lots of growth in our group.

In August both our Children's Worship and GoldRush ministries took a break so that we and our other volunteers could rest up before starting again in the fall.  We started off by visiting Mark's Mom for her birthday.

 We were able to take a couple long weekends away to get some R&R.  The first was to Ludington to stay with Mark's Dad & Step Mom at their trailer there.

We stopped in Manistee first and spent a nice day exploring and having a wonderful dinner together.

In addition to biking around the state park and playing games at the trailer, we explored the area and found some unique things, like this Alpaca farm.

Our second mini getaway was to the family cabin with Rebecca's parents.  It had been many years since we were there.

The cabin is in the upper peninsula, near Tahquamenon Falls.  The grass was very long!

This is the cabin - it has no electric or running water - very rustic!  We love the setting there though, it is very peaceful and quiet.

We hiked around the woods looking for bogs and beaver ponds.  Thankfully it was sunny so we could find our way back to the cabin without getting lost!

We took a short trip to the falls on a gorgeous day!

Here we are with Rebecca's parents.

On Labor Day we got together with a group of friends at Grand Haven for a pancake breakfast.  The wind was great so Mark got out his kite and flew it for quite a while.  It looks small in the picture but it is 8 feet across and it pulls a lot in high winds.  It is very fun!

The kids brought their kite and enjoyed flying it too.

In between these long weekends and holiday week, Mark was very busy getting things ready for our programs to start back up in the fall.  We added another classroom in Children's Worship for the youngest kids, some of whom will be transitioning in from Nursery this year.  Both ministries needed new curriculum and were short on volunteers, so it was quite a lot to do and honestly quite stressful.  It was made a little harder because I (Mark) was going to be gone the week of the launch so I had to get everything ready to be launched in my absence.

With God's help, everything went well!  I (Mark) left to go on a week long ministry training in the area of Healing and Deliverance Ministry.  A large group from our church traveled to North Carolina to take part in this course.  Over this year we will read many books, work on a project, and go back to NC two more times.  We hope to form a team that will be able to start ministering at our church.

This was the view out of my window, mountains are beautiful!

There were lots of flowers and butterflies flitting around so I took the opportunity to get some great shots!

I enjoyed getting to know Brad, the Executive Director of the ministry and teacher of the course.  He has such a wealth of experience and God has used him in mighty ways.  We practiced what we were taught in small groups throughout the week.  We all prayed for each other and experienced inner healing and freedom.  Inner healing is part of the process of sanctification; allowing Jesus to heal deep hurts in our lives. It was such a great time!

The last day of the conference we went to the HQ of the ministry: The Community of the Cross.

I hiked to the top of the mountain with my carpool group.  We had a good time riding together for the 12 hour drive.

In addition to all of this, we are still waiting for our license to be processed for Foster Care.  It is taking nearly twice as long as expected which makes it really hard to know how to plan for anything.  Waiting is a hard thing for anything, but it seems especially so for this.  Would you please pray for us during this challenging waiting period?  

Thanks for taking the time to read about what we've been up to this summer/early fall.  It is exciting to see the ways God is working in all the things that are going on.  Thank you for your prayers!