A farm in Mocksville, NC

Our last stop on our trip was to visit our new friends, the Whittaker family in NC. They live on a beautiful farm so we got the full tour of the animals, machinery, special barns, the lake, and even got to stop to feed some horses and help out with some barn chores!

Isaac loved shoveling the sawdust into the horses' stalls. What a hard worker!

Isaac wasn't afraid to feed Hershey a few treats from his hand.

Evan liked how soft Hershey's nose was!

Lots of tractors to climb on!

The Hot Air Balloon Festival in Ohio

In Canton, Ohio, while we visited our friends, James and Tiffanie Ferguson, we got to go to a fun Hot Air Balloon Festival. We got to watch two groups of sky divers jump out of planes above us and land on targets on the field. Then more than 20 hot air balloons filled and took off right there as we watched! It was so exciting for all of us since we hadn't seen anything like this before! The kids were enamored. Notice a few special shapes? There was a balloon in the shape of a giant ladybug and one was a huge birthday cake.

The Train Museum, PA

In Hollidaysburg, we also got to visit the train museum. It was an old train yard where they used to first build trains. The boys had a great time exploring old engines and train cars.

All Aboard!

The Candy Store in Hollidaysburg

We had a wonderful visit in Hollidaysburg, PA. We stayed with Philip and Deb Miller, family friends, and enjoyed a fabulous dinner with special supporters from First Presbyterian Church. That evening Eli and I shared about our three years in Sudan and were so encouraged by everyone's interest and good questions.
The next day we went to visit McIntyre's Candy Store where Deb Miller works. She gave us a fabulous tour of the factory where the chocolates and candy are made. She even let the boys make their own chocolate covered pretzels to take with us!

The chocolate and candy machines are fascinating. The boys' engineering minds were working double time!

Visiting the Omas

In Pittsburgh, we spent 3 days with both of Eli's grandmas. One day Oma Fader took all of us to Shannepin, her club. We swam and then had a lovely lunch outside while we watched the golfers play.
The boys enjoyed the swing at Oma Fader's house
One night we had a delicious dinner at Oma Fader's house with Oma Pinkerton. Eli's Aunt Linda cooked some amazing food - pork tenderloin, eggplant casserole, tomato/feta salad, and a vidalian onion casserole!

Somewhere in Pennsylvania

Here we are back on the road on our way to Ohio. We spent 3 wonderful days in Pittsburgh with Eli's grandmothers. We've been able to see so many special people and it is so good to catch up with each other. The boys are definitely getting tired of driving but they have been such good sports. We will be in Massilon Ohio all weekend and Eli will preach on Sunday at Ekklesia church, a church planted by friends we went to Moody
with. Thank you for praying for us. The Lord has protected us every mile we drive. We're so thankful for such a dependable car!

On the Road Again

This morning we start our trip to Virginia. We're going to stop in Wilson, NC to see some friends and then continue on to Franklin. Please pray for safe trips, happy kids, and good nights' rest. :) We will try to update you on the road...
Let me give you our itinerary again:
July 23 - Drive to Franklin, VA
July 24 - BBQ at River of Life Baptist Church
July 25 - Speak at River of Life Church
July 26 - Drive to Hollidaysburg, PA and meet with the missions committee at First Presbyterian Church.
July 27 - Drive to Pittsburgh, PA to spend a few days with Eli's grandmothers and uncle and aunt.
July 30 - Drive to Ohio
August 1 - Share at Ekklesia Church
August 2 - Drive back to Columbia, SC
August 6&7 - Eli attends and speaks at a Youth Mens Retreat in SC

We are so grateful for your prayer coverage. We can't do this without it! THANK YOU!

Isaac's 6th Birthday

We had such a blast celebrating Isaac's 6th birthday today! After blueberry coffee cake with candles in it at breakfast, we went to a great place called Saluda Shoals. We took the boys' bikes along since there are tons of beautiful trails through the woods and along the river. Since it was a hot day, we had to rotate - bike/hike for a while, then play in the water at the splash pad, then bike again. We also packed a picnic and found a nice quiet place to enjoy it.

Around 3 p.m. we packed up and headed to the theater to watch "Despicable Me" one of the new kids movies out. We got popcorn and Icees and had a great time. Even Josh sat through the whole movie!

Since we were out having so much fun all day, I didn't get a chance to bake him a cake but he was perfectly happy to have a candle in his ice cream cone after supper! Oh Isaac, I am so totally thankful that God brought you into our family 6 years ago! What a joy that we get to spend these years watching you grow up into such a sweet young guy.

Joshua's 2nd birthday

Chocolate cupcakes for Joshua's birthday

The day before his birthday we asked Josh how old he was going to be and without hesitating he yelled, "Twenty!" Then here at his birthday celebration we asked him how old he was and he forgot and said "One!"

Blueberry picking

Blueberry picking was so much fun last weekend. We went with our friend Jess Carr and picked 5 gallons between all of us! Yes, we've got TONS of berries!

It was fun to taste them along the way.

Evan was having a great time until the fire ants found him. Then he decided to hide out on the roof of our car for the rest of the berry excursion!

We are so so thankful for our lifetime friend, Jessica Carr! What a HUGE blessing to live in the same city as Jess for these 8 months.

Our schedule (for those interested)

Some of you have asked for our itinerary to see what our next few weeks of traveling will entail. I hope these details might help you to pray for us while we're on the road and also please pray that our passion for God and Sudan would be evident in everything we share.
July 18 - give our Sudan presentation at our home church in SC - evening service
July 23-25 - Franklin, VA - share at River of Life Baptist Church that Sunday.
July 26-27 - Hollidaysburg, PA - visit supporters and missions committee at supporting church.
July 28-30 - Pittsburgh, PA - visit both of Eli's grandmothers
July 30-Aug. 1 - stay with friends from Moody Bible Institute in Ohio and share at Ekklesia.
Aug. 2 - Drive home to Columbia, SC
Aug. 5 & 6 - Eli will be the speaker at our church's youth guys retreat.

Isaac's creative way of helping

I just had to post this! Today I asked Isaac to take the recycling out and when I looked out the kitchen window, I saw that he had rigged a contraption to help carry it out. He is so funny but also so very helpful!

Myrtle Beach

We had an AMAZING time at Myrtle Beach this week. We spent two days with Jeff, Alyssa, and their three wonderful boys. (Alyssa is Eli's sister if you can't tell in the pictures) Short but sweet.

The Atlantic ocean is definitely colder than the Indian ocean, but we all still enjoyed the waves.

Our nephew Jordan couldn't keep his hands off his Uncle Eli. Absence indeed makes the heart grow fonder!

There was so much fun to be had - a complete paradise/wonderland for children AND adults!

Isaac and Evan were both very brave to try the tallest waterslide. By the 2nd day, they both went about 15 times!

Uncle Jeff helped catch the boys at the end of the slide since the pool was deep.

Here we are as a group: Jeff, Isaac, Keegan, Alyssa, Bryson, Bethany, Joshua, Jordan, Evan, and Eli! What a bunch! Thank you Lord for the gift of being with family again!

Summer fun

With Eli deeply immersed in his seminary class the past two weeks, the kids and I have been keeping busy. When Eli's home and needs some quiet to read and study, the boys and I go on adventures. We looked through every book the library had on trucks, motorcycles, and airplanes, played on the train set at Barnes and Nobles, played at the playground, rode around the neighborhood on bikes, and their favorite thing so far - our pool.

An afternoon in the library

To keep life even more exciting, Joshua started potty training this week.

Highlight of the Week

Evan is happy as a clam in Lake Murray

The Fun continues...

The ultimate highlight of our week was going out on a pontoon boat all afternoon on Monday! We went with our long lifetime friend Jessica Carr and some new friends. We took food to grill and ate out on the boat and jumped off the boat, swimming in the lake to cool off. It was so perfect. We all had a great time and definitely wore ourselves out.

I attended my first homeschooling conference!

I spent all Friday and Saturday at a wonderful Christian homeschooling convention. The main speaker was Paul Tripp who was phenomal and spoke on parenting a child's heart. His brother, Ted Tripp wrote the great book called "Shepherding a Child's Heart". Each day we had several sessions with the main speaker, several workshops to pick from and a vendor hall full of different curriculums and books with their representatives.
I attended workshops like:
1. Seven steps to picking the right curriculum for your children.
2. Help! I'm a new homeschooler!
3. How to plan your whole school year in advance.
4. Have fun homeschooling
I made a few new friends and got to listen to different styles of teaching. It was helpful for me to realize what kind of a teacher I am and what teaching styles I feel comfortable with and I'm in the process of figuring out what Isaac and Evan's learning styles are.
I'm really excited about the Sonlight Curriculum. As I talked to Sonlight's representative, she explained that Sonlight was designed with missionaries in mind. So you can buy "packages" that contain all the needed books and supplies and the fun thing is that I can do most subjects with both boys together and then just do math and language arts separately.
I'm definitely learning a lot. The conference was a good boost to my confidence and very encouraging for me to find something that fits our family and situation well. I'm also very encouraged and freshly inspired in my parenting. The Lord convicted me in several areas so I'm praying I can begin to put into practice what Paul Tripp taught us.
If any of you would like to hear more about this conference or how you can possibly attend one in your state, email me, or google "Christian Homeschooling Conference" and your state. That's how I found this one!

More fun...

We are really enjoying our time here! We are definitely getting rest but we have at least one fun thing every day. The best part has been seeing friends again and spending time together and giving the kids opportunities to get reacquainted with their friends.
The South Carolinian summer is here so the weather is in the 90's every day. It feels comfortable to us (we're not even using our air conditioning in the house) while everyone else is complaining about how hot it is. We've found fun ways to keep cool: the sprinkler, a new pool, and the slip'n'slide. We also live close to a community playground so we cut through the woods on a fun trail to get there. I'm telling you, our neighborhood is perfect and we're loving it!
We are heading to Tennessee this weekend to visit friends. This will be our first road trip so we'll see how it goes!

A picnic we had today in our backyard!

Settling in

Welcome to our new home: 1325 Noble Avenue, Columbia, SC 29203
Spacious house, great yard, and in a neighborhood full of other families with young children
One of our first major purchases: bikes and helmets for Isaac and Evan. Joshua's borrowing his bike from a friend.
The back yard has a perfect slope for a slip'and'slide so that is a regular afternoon activity. We are all enjoying the perks of life back in America.

Internet is coming to our home soon!

We just want to ask you to be patient for a few more days. We'll be getting internet in our home this Friday and then we can show you new pictures and update you more regularly. For now, I just want to report that we're all happy and having a great time in the States. Evan, joshua, and Bethany all came down with colds over the weekend. I guess we have to adjust to the American germs. But otherwise we're really enjoying reconnecting with friends and catching up on three years away!