Some More Pictures

Date night with Mya on her birthday.....

Just some pics of the girls (at the Pumpkin Patch again).....

Good Old Porterville

Well......we are not moving. We decided to extend our contract here in sunny Porterville for yet another 13 weeks. It was a bit unexpected as we were led to believe that the hospital could only keep Dan through the holidays. But they approached him last Friday and asked him to stay longer. So this takes us through February. After that we will be moving on to San Diego. There is a contract at the hospital that will be available for Dan at that time. Dan's recruiter gave him some time off, which will be nice...a few days in December and a few in January. We might do some traveling during that time.

We are excited to stay here longer. Especially because our church has a Christmas cantata that I hoped to be a part of. And now I can! It will be easier to be away from home over the holidays since we are in familiar surroundings. All of those things are blessings. It has been amazing, once again, to see God work out all the details right before our very eyes. Our debt continues to dwindle away and for that we are extremely grateful...and we get to explore new territory, enjoy warmer weather, and spend time with our amazing children all at the same time. All three girls are growing so fast. Mya and I do schoolwork in the afternoon during the week and she is so smart. Chloe still isn't walking yet, but she can stand by herself, and Sara is just goofy and real laid back. This time with the girls and Dan is so sweet and fun!

Direction

Please pray as we are nearing the end of a contract and need to decide if we will stay here longer or move to a new location. Dan's current contract will be up the first week of December. The timing, the contract, and the housing all have to work together to get us to a new place. We will keep the blog updated as we know more.

Princess Mya

Happy Birthday Mya!

Mya….our sweet, fun-loving, beautiful little girl turns 5 today.  It is hard to believe.  Dan and I are taking her on a date tonight.  A lady from church was kind enough to offer to keep the other girls so we could spend some time with Mya on her birthday.  She has requested pasta and shrimp for dinner so hopefully we can find an Italian restaurant for her.  Then we are taking her to buy a Barbie doll of her choice.  It should be a fun evening. 

Last night we had a princess party for her.  She invited some kids from the apartment complex and a few from church.   At one point we had around 15 people in our apartment until the husbands left to see a movie.  Then it was an apartment full of girls after that.  We ate pizza, made pasta necklaces, ate cake, opened presents and tried very hard to contain all the excitement and energy that the kids had.  At some points it was pretty crazy.  But the girls had fun and that is what matters. 

Chloe helping with the decorating

Decorations complete

Mya’s cake

Proud Papa

Sara can't wait to party too!

Waiting for the party guests to arrive

“I want pizza!”

Party guests

Making necklaces

Neighborhood boy showed up and sang to Mya

“"Happy Birthday to you"”

Sisters

Sincere Confession

Today I was cooking in the kitchen and had the girls playing on the floor by me so I could monitor their play. I observed Sara trying to open the refrigerator to get her water bottle. She was struggling to open it because Mya had her feet up against the door trying to keep her from opening the door. I stopped them both in the midst of this struggle, got down to their level and expressed my concern with Mya's heart. This was clearly a heart issue as Mya was trying to inconvenience her sister and act selfishly. I described the heart issue and had Mya ask Sara for forgiveness. Then I helped Mya pray a prayer to ask God for forgiveness for her sins. At this point she is going through the motions, but the hope is that her heart will follow these actions and in time she will realize how God would want her to respond.

Tonight at church the bible lesson validated the above scenario and stressed to me the importance of sincere confession in my life. We ask for confession from God so we can be cleansed. Our pastor gave us some history on the biblical definition of sincerity that I think is very convicting. He said that in bible times they would make clay pottery and sometimes the item would crack. To fill the cracks they would melt hot wax in them. Then they would sell the item as if it was whole and flawless. But as soon as the buyer put a candle in the clay pot and lit it, the wax in the cracks would melt and the clay pot would fall apart. This can describe our insincere confessions of our sin. We need to go to the Lord by naming our sin, calling it what it is, confessing honestly and seeing our sin from God's perspective. Then we will be cleansed, forgiven and we can have fellowship with God.

It came to light during the pastor's sermon that all sin comes from one main root or source....doubting God's goodness or questioning where God has put us. Wow...that is convicting!

Contentment

We went from having our own house, our own yard, a two car garage, and decorated walls to an apartment complex of over 100 units made up of all sorts of people...in a not so pretty city. I was thinking this morning about this when Mya was talking to me about how much white we have in the apartment. We have no decorationS. At our home in Ohio I painted every room a different color. Dan and I share a car so many days I stay home all day. I should not be happy if you look at the circumstances. I should definitely not be content. We are surrounded by different cultures, languages, and ways of living. I should long to have our things back. But I have learned a huge lesson in contentment...the way the bible tells me how to live. In Ecclesiastes 5:19 we read "If God gives a man wealth and property....he should be grateful and enjoy what he has....it is a gift from God." And so comes one of the biggest lessons I have learned here. Being content! I am happy with my wealth and property that we have right now. Having less has actually taught me to be happy. I went from being a busy "stay at home mom" to one that literally stays home most days of the week. God is teaching me how beneficial it is for the kids to have me home all day. I watch my kids, I study them, and I learn so much more about them from being home. It seems like each negative thing that we have has turned into a great lesson on contentment. I find myself looking at what I do have like a place to live, a vehicle that works well, healthy children, a husband who loves me unconditionally, a husband who works extremely hard to provide for us, a church home in Porterville, friends, money for food, and a faith in God that allows me to see my circumstances as something to be happy about no matter what. I find great pleasure in the small things like lighting a candle so it smells good when Dan gets home or helping the kids memorize a bible verse. Life has changed for us, but I can be just as content in my new surroundings and see all that God has given us.

California Pumpkin Patch

The girls and I took our neighbor to the local pumpkin patch.....which is right down the street from our apartment.  It was pretty fun!  There was so much to do for the little kids and then they each picked out a pumpkin for $1.  Cheap entertainment for the morning!

Party Day!

Chloe then....

Chloe now....

My how time flies!  I can't believe that Chloe is a year old today.  It seems like we just brought her home from the hospital.  I think this birthday is tougher for me because she is our last baby.  As she learns to walk and talk it is bittersweet.  Now all three of my girls are growing up so fast right before my eyes.  The pictures that follow are of a photo shoot that I did with the girls and then pictures from a birthday party that we had for Chloe.  CAUTION:  THERE ARE A LOT OF PHOTOS! We were grateful to have some friends from church join us to celebrate with Chloe.  I wanted to make sure I got the photos up in a timely manner so our friends and family from home could join us in the celebration.  It sure wasn't the same partying without you all!

This is sweet little Neva, one of our very good friends here in Porterville.  She has a baby brother or sister coming some time in November.

 And these are Neva's parents...Isaac and Jennifer.

All in all it was a very fun filled day!