Happy Birthday, Eric!

Tuesday was Eric's birthday but we worked until 5:30 and then went to enjoy dinner with some friends. On Wednesday we had a small celebration with his favorite ice cream from Coldstone. I bought him a pair of our very own ice cream dishes shaped like cones. He also has a poster coming in the mail with a dragon on it.


Thank you to all of you who were praying for our last respite. We made it through with 9 kids and no major incidents or problems. It was hot for sure but they have a pool at the house which we enjoyed. If God lays it on your heart you could pray for two teenage girls at Splash 1 who got into a fight with each other at a different group home and have now ended up living in GAP together. Eric talked to one of the girls a little bit about forgiveness and reconciliation. Both girls want to go back to living with their moms but they need to be succesful where they are at so pray for their situation and for wisdom for their house parents.

Another major point of prayer for us right now is the idea of buying a house. One of our friends at church prompted us to think about the idea based on where we are financially and where the housing market is. This would obviously be a huge decision so pray for us to think wisely about it and to be led to the right people who could help us out.

Prayers: We are headed to our 2nd respite of the month this afternoon with another 9 kids. As always, we appreciate your prayers and recognize that we are totally reliant on God's grace to carry us through the task before us. Pray for opportunities to build God's kingdom and for the Holy Spirit's guidance and power for the task.

Praises: Eric was able to have Bible bedtime stories and share the gospel each night with four boys at the house we were at. He also got to share about forgiveness with a girl who is angry and bitter about life and other people. At church on Sunday we listened to a sermon about the servanthood of Christ based on John 13 and how His sacrifice makes it possible for us to serve in even the dirtiest or most humbling places. This truth cut through to me and carried me through the rest of the week of washing dishes and cleaning up after kids messes.

New House - 10 Kids

Bethany and I are heading into another week of respite and feeling intimidated. We are at a new house and there could be as many as 10 kids and 1 kid who has a parole officer! Needless to say we ask you to approach the throne of our Father in heaven to lift us up. We need wisdom. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us, sustain us, and teach us when and what to say. We need to know how to be Godly parents and let the Lord's love shine through us. We pray for God to reach out to these kids with his love and use us. Pray for us not to just see the intimidation of new relationships, crazy kids, and negative influences. But pray for us to trust the work God can do, ask Him to do it, and walk forward in hope and obedience. Most of all pray for us to be reminded and know more about the truth of the gospel so we could live out these hard situations with gratitude to our savior and a message of hope for those we are in contact with.

Your prayers make all the difference. Thank you for praying for us.

Praises: God helped me to fix a computer I was working on for probably 12 hours!

Precious Moments

On Father's Day we were working at a house and we took the kids to church with us. They created Father's Day cards in their Sunday School classes. Here is the one that Eric received from a 7 year old boy that we work with regularly. So precious!

We have lived in Arizona for almost a year and last night for the first time we saw a real live moving tarantula in the parking lot of our apartment complex. Yuck!


My wonderful husband bought me some daisys to brighten up our kitchen table. It makes it cheery inside where we spend most of our time because it's too hot to go out!

Vancouver, B.C.

Last year when we were planning our wedding and honeymoon, I thought it would be great to go to Vancouver, B.C. because I had heard that it was so beautiful there with fun outdoor activities. The cost, however, seemed higher than our budget would allow so instead we chose the east coast of Canada and went to Nova Scotia. That's when this blog began! God, in His wisdom and generosity, knew that we would get the chance to go to Vancouver to celebrate our first anniversary instead and so this year we once again found ourselves in Canada at the end of June only this time it was on the opposite coast.

We flew up to Vancouver via the graciousness of Eric's parents. His dad had a business meeting up there and then rented a vacation home for a few days. Check out his companies website here. Eric's mom and older brother, Dan, also joined us for the stay. Our activities included roller blading around a beautiful park overlooking the ocean, kayaking up a fjiord, taking a ferry ride, walking through beautiful woods and hiking to the top of a mountain in the snow while wearing t-shirts and shorts. As you can see from the pictures below, Vancouver is one of the most beautiful places in the world, especially if you like to be outside. Our weather was perfect and every day was full of adventure. It was a great way to mark one year of marriage and it was cool how the activities we did reminded us of the same things we did on our honeymoon, including celebrating Canada Day! (To refresh yourself on our honeymoon, refer to the beginning of this blog).

We are very grateful to Eric's parents for giving us such a great vacation!

Celebrating our anniversary with fine seafood.

At a place called "Skookumchuck" which means "strong water".

Kayaking around the fjords. Double kayaks are called "divorce boats".

Ladies and Gentleman, I present the Dragon Fruit!

Canadians don't have Homeland security. They just have this scary bird that can see into your soul.

The family looking tough in our kayak skirts.

My older brother Dan gave a beautiful toast and prayer to our marriage.

The moment Dan was done my dad changed the subject to urinals which gave all of us a little chuckle.

We were on a budget in Vancouver because things there were quite expensize. The Canadians taught us that when you pay half as much you get half as much.

This was the view rewarded to us after a hike through the snow and swarms of bugs. (That's why I have my hood on.)