Great Memories of Spring 2012

The past few weeks have been full, full, full with my mom coming to Kentucky for a surprise visit, the school year ending for Keith and the kids,  my sister coming for a visit and Keith traveling to Romania/ Greece.

I am so thankful to have family come see us from so far away!  The time flies by when they are here :(  But what wonderful memories.

The kids had NO IDEA that we were going to the airport to pick up a gramma :)  We surprised them! 

Volleyball girls 

Slugger Baseball game with Gramma Ruth

Last Day of school for the kids

Ellie and Taylor were awarded the DSCS award for Christian standards- what an honour! 

Megan's dear friends Annie and Abbie

Ellie's dear friends

Happy 10th Luke

Birthday party fun!

Yes- he was thrilled!  his sisters were NOT impressed.

more fishing adventures with Hunter

saying goodbye to Daddy :(

At Churchill Downs with Karen

Frankfort, KY - Capitol Building

My dear sister! 

Red Mile Race Track

Our sweet Latesha is moving back to Hawaii soon.

Spring in Kentucky

Life has kept up a frantic pace in our house and summer is approaching quickly!  Here are a few pics of life in Kentucky at the moment.  We are certainly blessed by our church and school friends.

Luke's class trip to Frankfort, KY

Inside the Capitol Building 

Rub Abe's shoe for good luck!

sweet sisters 

Megan's Classical Art Class 

proud mommy :)

Ellie singing and playing at the SCA concert

Megan's butterfly drawing

Luke fishing with Hunter

watching U of L and UK NCAA game

Zoo day with many friends!

My dear friends from church

Spring Flowers- dogwoods

A slight change in plans and MORE....

Well....  we have finally discovered the limit for course load, family life and ministry commitments.  We're human and Keith is definitely not a super-human!  Seminary school plans have changed for us as life has become intensely busy and Keith's schooling was suffering.  We had figured that Graduation was within reach, but unfortunately he had to drop 2 courses to stay sane and keep his grades with the classes he kept.  So...  Keith will graduate in December 2012.  A bit of a disappointment for Keith, but I am thankful for a husband who puts his family first and keeps truly important things in perspective.  The Lord had really allowed these changes in our plans to be the best set of plans - God's plans!

Now- the exciting news in all of this is that Keith will be traveling to Iasi, Romania (pronounced Yosh) this summer with Training Leaders International to teach Romanian pastors a Hermeneutics course. (FYI- this means he will be teaching on Biblical Interpretation)  The team he is going with will have 10 other members of pastors and seminary trained men, who will also teach this TLI curriculum to Romanian pastors through translators.  The individual groups of Romanian pastors will hopefully be small enough so that Keith will be able to develop a relationship with them and he can benefit from learning about their years of ministry as well.  TLI is an exciting ministry that uses seminary trained men to teach pastors in unreached parts of the world while having these foreign pastors impart "real-life" experiences to the TLI teachers.

Training Leaders International trains, equips and empowers local pastors who lack access to formal theological education by mentoring, preparing and sending U.S. seminary students to serve as teachers.

 This 2012 Romanian team also has 3 women going who will be teaching on Biblical Womanhood, Life as a Pastor's Wife and Evangelism.  I had originally planned to go with the group and teach on Biblical Parenting, but the trip was going to be too long to leave the kids :(  Hopefully I will go next time!  

TLI has encouraged Keith to recruit some prayer and financial support in this endeavor.  If you feel lead to help us out with much needed PRAYER or financial assistance please contact us for the details.  I will be putting a prayer letter together and Keith will hopefully give updates from Romania on the TLI website- so let me know if you want to receive these :) 

Thank you all for your prayers and support over these past 3 years of Seminary schooling.  It has been a time of intense growth for our whole family and we certainly are trusting the Lord for the next phase! 

One more year older for Meggy

This week we celebrated Megan turning twelve!  One more year until we have 2 TEENS!  Yikes :)

Keith and I are worn out after a really fun weekend celebrating- we now know that we cannot act like teenagers without consequences.... We need a week's worth of naps and many laps of running around Seneca Park to re-adjust to normal.
But it was so much fun to spend time with dear friends in Louisville and see Megan love every moment!  We bought her a Kindle Touch so that she can read, read, read.  Her friends bought her loads of duct tape- which she is rather thrilled with- and her grandmas just spoiled her with girl stuff :)

We are truly thankful for our sweet Meg and all that she means to our family- she is growing up so fast and changing all to quickly.  We try to hug her as often as she'll let us and keep her growing in the Lord.

Here are a few pictures of this weekend- as you can see it is NOT winter here- not complaining at all!

On the Home Stretch to Graduation!

As our family begins this new semester (Keith's last sememster before graduation) there are so many things up in the air for us!  It is truly a time to grow in faith and trust the Lord with everything.  Keith has a heavy course load this term so we are trying to batten down the hatches so to speak, and get things done one day at a time.  Please pray for Keith as he leads our family, serves as an elder, leads our community group, studies hard, and (most importantly) as he seeks to glorify God in all he does!  Thank you for praying for us!

So far this Kentucky winter has been the non-winter.  In January there were 9 tornados that touched down in the area along with some stong winds.  Now that February is here my rose bushes are beginning to bud not to mention our grass that never died and it now growing again!  Today it looks as though the clouds sneezed with a light dusting of snow, but nothing major.  I am paranoid about losing my roses so they are all under cover just in case.  I'll take this kind of winter any year, but we could be in for a wild spring:)

Ellie and Luke are in the midst of basketball seasons and Megan has her Classical ART class to keep them all busy.  Ellie won a tournament All Star award this past weekend- well done.  I am making another quilt in my spare time (HA!) and keeping the house from spinning out of control.  I have been thankful for the nice weather so that I can get out and exercise often.  The most amazing thing of late is that Keith has started RUNNING!!  Yes- running.  He detests running and I have never been able to get him to like it,  BUT he has a persuasive and persistent friend who has him running 4-6 miles twice a week.  You read that right!!! CRAZY!  Now I know that pigs can fly!

The month of February is going to be a full one, but we are truly excited to see the Lord work as He answers prayers and leads us!  ONE DAY AT A TIME!  Here are a few pictures from Christmas and this "winter."

love to you all :)

Merry Christmas kids! 

Uncle Pete and the man with the pipe! 

celebrating with Pete and Katie

May the Norse be with you!

cozy Meg

sharing Christmas with the grands via Skype!

Winter Dance

our gorgeous girl :)

Her handsome date!