Settling in and pictures

Sorry this picture is sideways, and i'm too computer illiterate to fix it.
Naaman and Kyra looked cute their first day of school. They ride their scooters since
we live so close--only 0.2 miles away!


Kyra outside our house on the first day of kindergarten. she wore a dress since her first day was only 1 hour.


Kyra with her friends Natalie and Gillian at a dairy farm back in June. can you believe
we had to wear jackets?


the basement needs a paint job but has been great for hanging out with
students. I've been making lots of popcorn these days:) My mom and stepdad gave us their awesome, 25 year-old sectional sofa. love it! thanks guys!


basement guest bedroom featuring my great aunt's antique bedroom suit. can't wait to have out-of-town guests!


we love our kitchen, even if the faux granite countertops don't actually match the backsplash:)
the cabinets are beautiful and so is the new tile floor


view from the kitchen into the eat-in area, laundry closet, and soon to be office/Rudy's mom's guest room since she can't go downstairs. we're going to put up a wall and french doors for privacy in that area


our bedroom is actually smaller than the girls' room, but the bed David built for us has allowed us to be dresser-less. the closet is quite small, too, but we store all our off-season clothes in the basement. We love the floors and the cozy feel


I think this little bitty master bathroom is my favorite room. Rudy put in the vanity and cabinet, and we decorated with our stuff from Austin. It's just so cozy!


Naaman's room will eventually have a Pokemon theme. I had to place a blanket around the leg of his bed so I wouldn't stub my toe every time I walked in. His room is very small, and his bed legs angle out because it is actually the top bunk of a full-twin bunk bed set. He loves having his own space:)


We went ultra girly in the girls' room. they share the bottom bunk of the bunk bed set. The butteryfly curtains pull back to reveal pink, sheers with sequins:)


the hall bath is quite pretty, too. It actually has a bathtub.



We decided to follow the IKEA "bold, not beige" idea in the upstairs living room. Our purple couches fit in nicely with the colorful pictures and rug. The 1960's wood floors are a little creaky, stained and uneven in places, but we love them.


So we are almost all moved in--only a few boxes left inside the house. (The garage will have to wait until Rudy has more time.) Lots of you have been asking for pictures of the inside of the house, so I finally took some tonight. Too bad you can't see the windows and pretty lighting during the day, but I had to take the pictures while I had the time:) We are in love with our house! We haven't even thought much of our beloved home in Austin since we've moved in. I have to admit to being completely overwhelmed by all the unpacking and the feeling that I've been dealing with organization and boxes and renovations for 7 months. At least this house was almost all redone when we moved in. We just had to add some storage in the bathrooms, paint a few walls, pick out all the window treatments(ugh), and hang the pictures leftover from our Austin house staging to make it pretty nice. The Illinois State students have been hanging out at our house a lot to play games and stuff now that we live only a mile from campus. Last night we hosted our first home group, and it seemed to be a great success. I think we actually fit 40 people pretty comfortably in our basement before breaking down into smaller groups for discussion all over the house. I honestly don't know how the kids slept through everything, but they did. Yea God! He is answering prayers here. We think one girl even came into a relationship with Christ during home group last night.
The kids started school this week, and it's going fairly well. Kyra made friends right away, but Naaman has been struggling a little to fit in to second grade at a new school. The school is seriously overcrowded, and some of the teachers seem to have yelling issues, especially in the cafeteria. I've been going to lunch to make my presence known and to help the kids feel more comfortable. Poor Naaman has been sitting at the peanut-free table all alone despite our encouragement for him to find non-peanut eaters at other tables. I think he's just too intimidated to find somewhere to sit in that tight cafeteria where he doesn't have to be afraid of peanut exposure. It's hard to have no friends and a peanut allergy. I've been sharing my own experiences from being an Air Force brat, but my heart breaks for him. I just hope we don't have to move again anytime soon.
I received and accepted a job offer at a local hospital and am fairly excited to start back to work. Unfortunately they wouldn't hire me unless I could work 24 hours a week instead of my usual 16, but we have a good childcare arrangement. At least only Kelsie is home now. She is adorable and reminds me a lot of Naaman with her ability to strongly focus on a task at the age of 2. Tonight she actually worked on a puzzle for an hour while we watched a movie with the bigger kids! She did the cutest victory dance every time she completed it. then she'd start again. Too cute! I hope to start work in the next 2 weeks, but they haven't given me an official date yet. Let's just hope I pass the drug screen and physical:)
We hope to update again soon. Love to all!

our new house

here are few pictures from our camera of the house and yard.  I'll post more soon... more of the kids.

God is Sweet!

Beth Kobes often refers to God's blessings/God's miraculous provision by saying "God is so sweet!"  My title is a nod to her phrasing.  I was starting to think we were not supposed to move to Normal, IL.  I think Rudy blogged about the air conditioner in the van breaking the day before our 20 hour drive.  The morning after we arrived in Normal the battery died in our van as well.  Most of you know the Spring was filled with difficulties and trials in preparation for our coming here.  I've been saying either God or Satan doesn't want us here.  After meeting the students on Wednesday night, I was more convinced Satan doesn't want us here.  We seem well-suited to ministry here, we seem to fit right in, and the students here are very open to the gospel.  Satan might be throwing some trials at us to make us give up hope, but we refuse to give up hope! 

Now to the "God is sweet" part...One of the very difficult parts of leaving Austin was leaving our adorable neighborhood with Naaman's school at the end of the street along with the pool and park.  We were close to everything I like to do--kids' activities, the mall, the grocery store, Target, Wal-Mart, friends, my job, etc.  Unfortunately we were 16 miles from campus, so Rudy had a long commute, and it was very difficult to get students to our house.  We started looking at houses in Normal online months ago, and it did not seem we were going to find a house close to campus with all the amenities of family life.  We also needed to find a one story with an extra room for Rudy's mom in case she needs to come live with us for a while.  Impossible, right?  No!!!  Nothing is impossible for our SWEET God!  We looked at many houses last week, including a beautiful historical home that was unfortunately in the wrong school district.  We put in an offer an a house on Friday, haggled with the owner a bit, then had our offer accepted.  Let me describe the house we found...it doesn't look like much from the outside--orange brick with very minimal landscaping, no shutters, etc.  However, it has a huge maple tree in front, and you can see Naaman and Kyra's awesome new school from the front yard.  It is actually at the end of the street, even closer than our home in Austin was to Naaman's school.  It is a ranch style home (one story) with hardwood floors throughout (another feature I REALLY desired.)  There are 3 small bedrooms and a medium-sized living room.  There are 2 bathrooms including a master bath, which is a definite bonus for a house from the 1960's.  The kitchen is small but open with brand-new cabinets, countertops, backsplash, and appliances.  By the way, the bathrooms are all remodeled as well.  There is brand new, nice tile in the kitchen with an eat-in area.  The laundry closet is off the kitchen and on the main floor ( a rarity for houses in Illinois.)  The kitchen windows face the large backyard, another necessity with small children.  And all the neighbor's yards are very well-kept on this quiet street.  There is actually a formal dining room beyond the laundry room that could be easily enclosed to make an office or a room for Rudy's mom.  Can you believe it?  God is sooo good!!!  Now for the big bonus...the basement has been beautifully finished with a HUGE family room perfect for ministry and a lovely bedroom complete with closet and egress window.  And we were able to negotiate into the price of the home the completion of the roughed in downstairs bathroom.  now when our friends from Texas or family from wherever come visit they will have their own bedroom and bathroom!  Did I mention that the house is only 1.2 miles from the Illinois State campus?  Oh, and it just happens to be very close to our good friends and fellow ministers Mike and Michelle Klunke who have 3 kids close in age to our kids.  Oh, and it is only a short distance from Veteran's Parkway--the big highway that goes through town with easy access to Target, the mall, restaurants, etc.  Oh, and it cost $20,000 less than what we sold our house for in Austin.  Now for the extra sweet part...we went to check out a Normal pool yesterday with our friends the Klunkes.  The pool pass was fairly inexpensive, and the pool is amazing (complete with water slides, a huge kids' pool, and beautiful flowers and vegetation everywhere.)  There is a huge park beside the pool with the largest playscape I have ever seen and tons of green, green grass.  We were in the pool, and Rudy said..."I think our house is right over there."  We got in the car upon leaving the pool and found out we only have to walk down our street in the opposite direction from the school, turn left and walk down another street, cross a pretty wooden bridge, and end up at the pool, park, and the kids' junior high school.  Isn't God amazing?

He gave me everything I wanted and everything I hoped for.  If you want to see pictures, get on realtor.com and search for 402 Centennial, Normal, Il.  The pictures might still be up.

Please pray for us as we continue to make new friends.  We had dinner with a very sweet couple last night who have a 2 month old baby.  We desperately miss our friends in Austin and still cry every day just a little, but God is so sweet.  I know He will provide comfort and continued blessings.

Keep Austin Weird-Moving to Normal

It has been a long year getting us to Normal, Illinois!  We are finally here, and I must say, Normal is anything but.  We are not used to things here, and it all feels very weird.  The heat is about the same as home, but we are not home.  The people are just as friendly, but they are not the people we are most friendly with.  The town is small enough to get across in 10 minutes.  It was taking us longer to get off of City Park Rd and to church in Austin.  I hope to find our camera soon so you can see what I am talking about here.  For now, just remember us.  

We met many new people tonight at a weekly BBQ and small group.  It was a good time where Brook met every girl there and a few of the guys.  I got a chance to talk with some about dreams for the ministry and Live the Music, Freedom Bags.  I reconnected with a girl, Hannah, who i could not get out of my head this past year in Austin.  She was a reason for moving here... her heart for missions and the needy in the world was evident to me in my Fall visit, but I also remember her not knowing what to do with that heart.  She is now trying to get on staff with International Justice Mission in Washington DC.  She will find out more next week, but it was nice to see her and catch up on her heart for the world.  Please pray for Hannah, the other students here, and our new church family.  Please also pray for us... we are missing all of you, looking forward to getting more settled in, expecting good things here, and getting ready to start our new life in the mission field of Illinois.  we love you all... grace and peace!

turning the other cheek

so I've been thinking a lot about turning the other cheek.  Matthew 5:39  What a privilege to suffer for Christ though our suffering is so little.  Momentary and light!  I look forward to having another opportunity to turn my face for another slap.  Perhaps I should say, the first slap since I tend to resist offering either cheek for punishment.

So we sold our house... actually closed and sold and all.  It took a very long time, but we are out of 11470 Bristle Oak Trail.  We loved that house, the neighbors, the neighborhood, and all things Anderson Mill.  David Brown was talking with me the other day about the first house you buy and how sentimental you are towards the house.  I found it to be true for us!  We loved our house... but may the Lord grant us a better house than before.  Heb 13:14.  Look out Normal.  Here we come!

wanting to write

I have much to say and no time as the present to say it.  For now, I thought I'd give an update on my day today.  I'll try to write my thoughts later today as I prepare for a night of hanging out with friends(around American Idol), painting, phone calling, and dinner.  (not it that order)

I'm off now to see one of our ministry partners who was one of the first to partner with us in our effort to minister to college students.  He's been a faithful giver and support to us, and we're about to have lunch.  I will then come home to work on our next update letter and a few other pieces of material as we prepare to make our annual changes.  I will at some point stop all of that and play with the kids and then move into the evening.  Check back later for more thoughts on above!

amazing friends

It seems like I'm on a cause case recently in the previous two posts.  Hang in there with me...

just wanted to finally post regarding my friend's amazing trip around the world.  

eyestosee2009.wordpress.com

You've got to check out their blog and keep up with them if you are interested.  Give if you can/desire/feel led by God.  Read the blog for inspiration and to be moved to compassion.  I'm trying to get more readers to their blog.  If you're already reading then spread the word and if not then I hope you gain interest.  These two friends of mine are great friends.  I think the trip will make a huge difference in my life and in the lives of others.  May the Lord give them speed!