Isaac's School

  

Let me start by saying that Isaac has never been in school before!  The only school type experience he had had was the church nursery or MOPS nursery.  So when we dropped him off at a strange place with strange teachers and kids he didn’t know, he was not the least bit impressed!  He cried and cried for the first week when we dropped him off, maybe even two weeks!  Slowly but surely he began to not mind school so much, in fact, he LOVED it!  He now runs in every morning and we have to beg for a hug and kiss :)  

He has learned so much in school!  They have a new theme every week!  One week was colors, one was transportation, animals, countries, and a few more but I can’t remember them all :)  They also learned a new Bible story every week, they learned about Noah, Jonah, Jesus feeding the 5,000, Moses, and this week is Zacchaeus.

He has learned so many new songs and enjoyed songs he already knew!  Two of his favorites are Zacchaeus (you know....Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he...), and 5 Little Monkeys. 

He has made so many friends and loves his teachers!!   

We have had so much fun watching him grow and learn over the last two months, it’s amazing the amount of information that his little brain can hold onto :)  he seems to remember everything!!!

Here are a few of the pictures that they have taken in school along with one of Isaac ready to head out to school!

Washington D.C. Visit

On Saturday we were able to visit Washington D.C. for the day.  Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Isaac's First Metro Ride

White House

Isaac sleeping on the job too :-0

World War II Memorial

Washington Memorial from WWII Memorial

Isaac at Vietnam Memorial

In Front of Lincoln Memorial

Inside Lincoln Memorial

Our home...for now.

We are coming up on the mid point of our time in Virginia and thought we would share what our home is like.  We share a building (quad) with living quarters for four families.  We all share a great room.  Our apartment includes two bedrooms, bathroom, dining area, and a kitchen.  The property we are on is around 250 acres with a lake and some great areas to walk around.  Everything we need is located here.  We attend all of our classes in a building that is about a 2 minute walk from our home.  Isaac's school and cafeteria take about 5 minutes to walk to.  All of our meals are provided for us and our schedule seems to revolve around meals.  Breakfast at 7am, lunch at 12pm, and dinner at 5pm.  Everything else is in between.  Isaac and our school is normally between 8am-3pm.  

In front of our Quad (Home)

Isaac's Room

Our room.  We had to push two twin beds together.

Our dining room with bulletin board full of Isaac's art and cards from home.

Shared living room.  Can you tell that two 2 year olds live here?

Kitchen

Playground closest to our quad.  There are a total of 5 playgrounds and a gym to play at.

Isaac on the slide.

Overlooking part of the property.  

Farm on the property.

Be Still...

When was the last time you were given permission to do nothing for 3 hours but be still and listen?  Listen to whatever God wanted to tell you....no agenda, no kids, no T.V., no radio, no friends, no phone calls, no texting, no internet...

If your anything like me it’s probably been a while.  In the busyness of our world and our culture how many times do we just listen and remain still?  

Yesterday we were given the opportunity to do just that.  Be still!  It was me, my lunch, my Bible, Journal and note cards.  What an amazing time to rest in the stillness of the Lord.  There was no traffic noise, no little boy needing something from me, just me and God.  

While it took a while to actually be ok with doing nothing and being needed my no one, the reward of stillness is hearing, realizing, seeing or meeting God in a place where he desperately wants to pour into you.  

What a joy it is to be given the privilege to be who God created me to be, in His image, for His purpose, to fulfill His plan for my life and to impact the lives of those He allows me to reach.

Psalm 19:14

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord my Rock and Redeemer.

Packing

The last week has been full of packing.  One of the most common questions we are asked is: What are you doing with all your stuff?  Are you shipping it to Thailand?  No, we are not shipping anything to Thailand.  Our plan is to take six suitcases that contain clothes and some items to make our Thai home feel like home.  The rest of our belongings are being stored in a room at Nate's mom's house.  We have been hoping and praying for this opportunity to serve overseas and have designed our life accordingly if such an opportunity happened.  One of the ways we planned was by selling things we did not need and downsizing pieces of furniture to allow moving and storage to be as easy as possible.


Little did we know how difficult it would still be to pack for this new adventure.  We have not only had to pack up our home but we had to make decisions about what to pack for Virginia and what to pack for Thailand.  Below is a picture of trying to put this puzzle together.

The war room.  What goes where? It got much worse after this picture.

We took a picture of the storage room but that camera was a last minute cut from making the Virginia trip.


Thankfully we finished packing up our home and packed for Virginia.  After a long day of flying we arrived in Virginia and will check-in for our two month training on Monday.

Sunday's are changing

Today was our last "normal" Sunday.  For the last 24 years Stephanie has spent her Sunday mornings attending Foothills.  Nathan has been attending for the last 10 years.  Foothills is where Steph was baptized, where we were married, where Isaac was dedicated, and today where we were commissioned to serve with the International Missions Board.


Sunday's may never be the same.  What has been a constant part of our weekly life is now an unknown.  So many questions fill our minds.  What will Sunday's be like in Virginia the next couple of months?  What will church and Sunday mornings be like in Thailand?


With the passing of this Sunday our final week begins.  Thank you for all of your prayers.  Since our last post Isaac's leg is doing better and our car has sold.  Please pray for strength this week as we pack and move everything out of our home.  Also pray for God's comfort as we say goodbye to our friends and family.

4 More Weeks!

As most of you know we will be embarking on a new journey in 4 weeks!!  We will be moving to Chiang Mai, Thailand, but first we will begin our journey in Richmond, Va for training.  We will be there for 8 weeks, then a quick jaunt back to CO before we head out to Thailand.  We are so excited for this next step in our journey.  

We have a few things that we would like to ask you to join us in praying for:

*For our car to sell
*This past weekend Isaac fell and has a Spiral Fracture in his left leg, please pray for continued healing
*For all of our travels
*That God would continue to prepare our hearts for what He has for us
*For health for our family


Our goal is to continue to update this blog with new information and new adventures that we have.  This will be the best place to keep up to date on what's going on in our life and journey!  We are so excited to update you as our journey unfolds!!