California with a baby on my knee

In June, Joe and I boarded a plane with four month old Jacob and headed west to Pasadena California. Our plan was to spend three and a half days in an orientation program called Explore with the U.S. Center for World Mission. This was the next step in a process that would lead to a new job for us, we were excited about the possibilities but we had a tough decision to make. Joe enjoyed his work, it was challenging and he worked with incredible people. But hours are long in advertising work and the demands were hard to keep up with when you had 5 growing kids clamoring for your attention at home. After much prayer and seeking counsel we decided to jump in and see where God took us.

Friday, August 7th was Joe's last day with his agency. He had amazing talks with everyone at his job and was able to personally thank the leaders for their examples and commitment to him over the past six and a half years. His car was packed with all the books, files and awards from his desk and his phone and keys were turned in. This was it! An hour after he got home, people started to trickle in. 15 people from the USCWM crowded into our dining room with the seven of us and Joe's mom and we all celebrated with cake and punch. Our new co-workers are awesome and we are thrilled to work with all of them to mobilize people to spread God's word to those who have never heard the name of Jesus. Joe will be working as the Creative Director for the Perspectives course to develop national and international marketing campaigns for this ministry.

Tomorrow, we start the training for support raising and then we are off! We will be sending out a newsletter soon so we can let everyone know what's going on. Please pray for us as we step into these unknown waters!

Where has she been all my life?

My 3 year old daughter loves, I mean, loves to fold stuff! Last week I realized I hadn't heard her in a 30 minutes or so. Trying not to hyperventilate, I went to search for her and found her folding all the clothes in her drawer! On the left in the photo is her work and on the right is the "before" side. A few weeks ago when I picked her up from Sunday school the teacher asked me if I knew how well she could fold. Apparently, she had folded all the doll clothes and blankets. She loves to fold all the baby washcloths and what's really weird is that she sorts them into stacks according to size! No before you start gnashing your teeth and crying because none of your kids want to fold stuff, let me assure you that none of our other dear ones will fold a thing without "encouragement". Also, I have caught her many times in the kitchen emptying out my towel and napkin drawers to fold them. I am not renown for having a kitchen floor you would be able to eat off of so I wasn't too thrilled with having all my towels and napkin arranged on it. My question is how long will this folding thing last? I bet it will end just as she is old enough to do laundry!

On the occasion of our first blog post!!!

What to say...Hmmmm. Well the kids are in bed and I'm finally writing our first post on our blog. The kids are tuckered out from swimming, splashing rather, all afternoon and they aren't asleep yet but finally in bed! I've been under the weather so have been on the couch most of the day. All you mom's know how much time that actually is. So not that much exciting stuff to say, just a lazy Sunday.