House update

Work on the house is coming right along. It's getting more exciting each day. We are so looking forward to the blessing that our new space will be to our family and those who spend time in our home. Living kitchen-less and in cramped quarters has been a challenge for our larger-than-average crew, but we are surviving it so far!

The other day I was at Target and bought a bunch of Sharpies so we could "bless" our new space. We all gathered in the new kitchen and spent some time praying over our home and all the people that would come through our doors and our family and the blessing that the new space will be. Then we set the kids free to write all over the studs. Blessings. Scripture. Song lyrics. Un-readable stuff written by a 6-year-old. It was a great night.

Walls have gone up. Walls have come down. Windows have come out. New windows are in. Holes have been cut through walls. Other holes have been patched.

It's exciting to see the progress each day. Some days it is more noticeable than others, but always exciting. Some days you run 2 errands and listen to a podcast and when you get home your entire kitchen, that was there when you left home, is gone! Crazy!

A couple more months and we'll be living in and growing accustom to our new space.

CSC trip recap

No words or pictures could capture our trip. The feelings, the experiences, the people . . . it was so good and so hard and so wonderful and so emotional.

We left early on Sunday morning, December 18th. At the airport by 4 am to check all our bags and pick up coffee and get to the gate in time for our first leg of the long trip to Cebu. We flew from Minneapolis to LA. From LA to Seoul. From Seoul to Cebu. Nearly 24 hours of total time in the air between the two flights! Due to the time differences, it was early Tuesday morning, local time, when we finally arrived in Cebu. We were tired and weary, but excited to be there after the weeks and weeks of dreams and plans.

We were asked to come to help with Christmas preparations for the kids. 75 kids, give or take a couple! That's a whole lotta Christmas prep, let me tell you. We shopped. We wrapped. We wrapped some more. We "emergency" shopped for a few more things. We baked cookies. We made table decorations for Christmas dinner. We frosted cookies. We played with kids. We held precious babies. We made friends. We witness the selfless gift, purchased with money donated by orphaned and abandoned children, that would bless someone who had needs beyond any that I can wrap my brain around! We worshipped. We sweat a lot (TROPICS! We were in the tropics!). We listened. We cried. We ate A LOT of rice. We even slept a little bit.

I can't put words to the life long impact an experience like this has on a person. I'm so grateful to have been able to share it with some of my very favorite people on earth.