Happy New Year!

2008 will always be an amazingly sweet memory for us as we've become a family and had some excellent bonding time. We look forward to 2009 with anticipation! What an adventure it is to serve the King!

We only have 4 1/2 weeks left in the States and a long 'To Do' list to get through before then. We also need to get in as much homeschooling as possible since the months ahead hold interruptions in that department. The kids had some time off of school this week but their parents still had lots to do! We took a day off and went exploring outside of town a bit this week, however.

Thank you for your love and friendship in '08! May your New Year be blessed!

Our crazy kids!

Family Nights:

We've had a lot of fun recently on Sunday evenings! Steve's been very intentional in thinking of fun 'family night' activities for us to do. Two weeks ago I made 5 'courses' for our evening meal and Steve hid vouchers all over the house that the kids had to find with clues he gave them to eat each part of the meal. The last course was roasting marshmellows on the grill outside. That evening was a big hit with all of the kids'!

Last Sunday night we had a 'green' meal. We decorated the table with everything green, served green food and had everyone wear green shirts as well. Steve and I had fun walking around the grocery store finding green things to eat and anything that wasn't naturally green we turned green with food coloring. The older 3 saw the fun in it immediately. Adam, however, wasn't quite sure if he should eat his meal or not!

P.S. Our garage sale went exceptionally well! We now have a very sparsely furnished house. Everyone's gone into the 'camping out' mode and seem to be enjoying it. The boys in particular think it's a blast to be able to wrestle in the nearly empty living room and Adam's been practicing his amazing back flip on his mattress on the floor of their bedroom! And Steve and I think it's wonderful to have that huge hurdle already behind us in preparing to go! And the date that we're leaving the States is Feb. 2nd.

Tomorrow is G-day here (garage sale!). We've pulled the house apart and are hoping to sell almost everything that we don't absolutely need for the next 7 weeks until we leave, barring some pans, dishes, mattresses, and the kitchen table (we use the table for homeschooling and LIVE around it a lot!). Even in mild Phoenix January isn't a good garage sale month and the closer we get to Christmas could be less than advantageous, so we decided to go ahead and get this done now. It will make getting ready to go less stressful too.

Except for being an awful lot of work, it really hasn't been too bad overall! It's been making us more excited and mentally ready to face the experiences ahead.

There have been moments now and then that weren't too comfortable; the boys deciding what toys to keep, the girls getting rid of some things that made their bedroom feel like a haven to them. I remember hearing quiet grief in Steve's voice after he sold his quad (4-wheeler) in New Zealand before our wedding. Even though it wasn't a car, I think it felt like further severing the link to the past in motor sports that he loved. And he hasn't had to sell the Harley he's rebuilding here yet!

For me it was deciding to sell my guitar. It took me about 24 hours to get the uncomfortable feeling out of my chest after that! I was going to take it with us but when everything we own has to go into suitcases and a guitar counts as a whole suitcase......... On the way to New Zealand we'll get 2 bags at 50 lbs. (100 lbs. total) each. But for flights originating in NZ or Australia the weight allowance is usually 50 lbs. TOTAL. So we may each only get ONE bag on the way to S.E. Asia.

I guess my guitar was a mental link to many wonderful memories of fellowshiping and worshiping through music. And I'm not sure how much involvement I'll get to have in that in S.E. Asia.

But each of these things is a reminder that 'things' are only temporal. It's the experiences and memories associated with the things that make it painful to let go, not the things themselves. We look forward as a family to many rich experiences that will become memories ahead!

And the other thing I'm reminded of is that living for Him is about taking up our cross. And to take up that cross we often have to lay something else down first. But the gain always outweighs the cost!!!

Travels, Work, & Harley

Hello! Steve's in Fiji right now. The team he's currently leading is a group of about 20 photographers who are in Fiji being taught by a professional photographer how use their skills to promote 'M". Steve's enjoying the change of pace with this team. He gets home tomorrow night.

The kids and I had a busy weekend here. Our neighbor across the street is a single mom in a wheelchair with a spinal injury. I've longed to find a way to help her substantially since we met. I haven't had the resources beyond the occasional helping hand and listening ear, however.

Steve and I were asked a while back to organize service opportunities for people living in our part of town on behalf of our local body, so this Saturday we finally got to do something for our neighbor! It was a great day of getting members in the area to join together and show the our Father's love to her. We had a good group show up who did all kinds of yard work, deep cleaning on the inside, organizing her garage, etc. There's even a mechanic who's offered to do some badly needed work on her car for free if we raise funds for the parts. It was a great time of fellowship as well! I was pleased to see potential new friendships start for her. It will be nice to know that there are others in the area ready to help her after we go.

I also think that it's about time to show the progress on Steve's 1942 military Harley. Some have teased that it's the 'other woman' but Steve's good about not letting himself get TOO obsessed with the project! Plus, there have been two little boys out there trying to 'help' most of the time. Cute for me to watch and great for the boys! Probably not always easy for Steve (!), but he's been very patient to embrace it as bonding experience with them.

The bike's been totally stripped down into many parts, missing parts found on Ebay, sanded, repainted, etc. The main body is now mostly finished and Steve's moved on to the engine. And I'm sure he could explain this all WAY better than I can. He's having a ball!

Adam and Dad carving!

Our fun weekend:

We were blessed this week to have our dear friends Sammy and Tammie from Midland, TX, come through for a visit! It was great catching up with them, showing them around town, and introducing them to some Fijian and S.E. Asian foods. Tammie's such a great chef that we knew that anything we could cook that was 'American', wouldn't be better than what she could fix for herself!

Steve, Heather, Aaron, and Adam spent Sunday afternoon at the racetrack attending a NASCAR competition that included all of the top drivers in the sport. Steve commented that he was glad that that wasn't the kind of racing that he had done (just going around and around the track 312 times seemed a bit boring to him!) but we had a great time together, enjoyed the amazing skill of the drivers, and had several interesting crashes happen right in front of where we were seated much to the boys' delight especially since all of the drivers walked away from the crashes! It was a very special blessing because Steve had quietly looked online a while back at tickets and decided that they were far too pricey for our tight budget. Last week at our cell group, however, a friend who had no idea of our interest handed us 4 tickets to the finals that he had received from his office. Our Father is good at blessing his kids!

More Visitors from NZ:

We had a wonderful surprise last week as long-term friends of Steve's, Andrew and Melissa, detoured down our way for the night after seeing the Grand Canyon on their way back to Los Angeles. Andrew had been working in the States for a month and Melissa came and joined him for a bit of a holiday before he went home. They came by the house in Fiji with Steve shortly before Terry died, so I knew them a bit already as well.

We had a great time visiting together and showed them around Phoenix some the next day before the continued on their journey. They were even nice enough to watch the kids play their homeschool sports soccer matches before they left!