Tuesday Tour

Last Tuesday I decided to document our journey to take the diapers out. We try to do this five days a week.

Taking Out the Diapers with Tadeo

Also, the two puppies in the video were strays at the time, but have now been adopted and reside at our house. The tan one named Daisy belongs to Yerania and the blackish one named Maddy Jane belongs to Yaneli.

Tuesday afternoon, I captured this video of Tori while visiting their pets. So cute! It's so much fun to hear her learning to talk.

Please pray for the Indianapolis team who is here this week and for the summer staff (a couple more arrived yesterday.) We have three more days of school before summer vacation, so pray for our transition into the summer schedule. I plan to be teaching two sewing classes during the Expo classes in July, one with three younger students and another with four older students. Each is four days for about three hours. I will also be accompanying Tadeo in his horse classes some afternoons and trying to keep up with some of his therapy. If I haven't mentioned here yet, the plan is for me to teach a preschool class in the fall and I also need to prepare for that. I don't know exactly how busy I'll be, but pray that I can rest in God and not become overly stressed.

Gift of the Week: Air-conditioning and ice! All last week was in the 100 degrees and the coolest water you can get from a faucet is lukewarm, so ice has become precious and we are very grateful for air-conditioning in our house. :)

Hellos and Goodbyes

So after the wedding Mom and Gary left on their honeymoon. After a couple days in northern Illinois and Wisconsin, they returned to Peoria for a little time alone on the farm before the rest of the crew arrived on Thursday with all of the "stuff." 

Monday and Tuesday, we packed.

And packed.

And packed. :) 

You never realize how much is in a house until you have to put it all in boxes.

Monday and Tuesday, Emily made trips to Peoria with animals and belongings. Wednesday morning, we took apart beds, mowed, and had a picnic at the pond.  Having decided to do something fun after all the work, some of us rode our bikes to the park in Fairbury and after meeting up with the rest, went out to Kilgus' Farmstead for ice cream. It was a fun afternoon.

Thursday the house began emptying as the truck was loaded.

(The upside-down flowers are from the reception and were hung up to dry.) :)

Karl and Bethany Edelman, drove the box truck to Peoria for us.

Goodbye.

Hello.

The boys room. Excuse the mess, we were still unpacking.

The kitchen sink which doesn't have a window, but which now has the beautiful view of a yellow flower and Deuteronomy 31:8, a verse that is special to Mom. 

"And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee, he will be with thee; he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed."

The newly arranged living room.

I love the view from Megan's window which looks out towards the front yard and the lane.

The dining room and kitchen. Once again, excuse the mess.

I was thankful to be there and see them somewhat settled in. After much unpacking and eating a family supper with Gary, Mom, Matt, Megan, Justin, and Timi, I went to Emily's for the night. 

Bright and early, Friday morning...or actually not so bright since it was before 5 AM, Emily drove me to the airport where I boarded my plane. Due to heavy fog, we sat on the Peoria runway for about two hours. I napped, played with the toddler in the seat in front of me, and visited with the nice lady sitting beside me, all of which made the time go faster. When I arrived in Houston, Texas, I had missed my connection and had to make a decision: whether to wait for about 7 hours for the next flight to Tucson or board a plane for Los Angeles where I would take another plane to Tucson and in the end arrive about an hour earlier. For better or worse, I decided to fly to LA instead of waiting in Houston. At LA I had to switch airlines which made things interesting because I needed to get to another terminal. I walked a long way through underground hallways, some of them under construction, and at the end even got to take a shuttle bus. Meanwhile I was watching out so that I didn't accidentally walk out of security, which I almost did. :) Once at my gate, I finally got some downtime. Then we flew a couple hours to Tucson where I was delighted to find Nicole and Melody waiting for me. My original ride had to return to CVE so they had driven up to get me. I was not so delighted to find that my bag was on the flight arriving from Houston about 45 minutes later, but that turned out okay because we just went to eat and shop and returned for it later. Instead of arriving at 10:00 AM, I had arrived at 5 PM. However, I had never had the experience of missing a connection, so I guess I know what to do now.

Safe back here at CVE today, I showed Kendra, Pau, and Marce wedding pictures, cleaned and watched some softball. It was very exciting to walk into Tadeo's room this morning and get him up. 

Please pray that I would adjust smoothly to CVE life again and also for all the upcoming summer events.  Summer staff and interns are due to arrive soon. Please pray that they would have a wonderful summer, learn a lot, not get too homesick, and especially grow in their walk with God. 

Gift of the Week: One year ago today, June 6, I arrived here at CVE for the summer. I guess looking back it is amazing to think of what a year can bring that you never expected. I am so thankful and grateful to God for leading me and for all that He has taught me and is teaching me. I am so thankful for His patience and grace. Sometimes I don't feel like praising God, but when I stop to think about life, I am amazed by the evidence of His hand working in it all. Praise God that He opens the doors and then carries us through. Praise God that He loves us. Praise God that He cares about the little details of our lives. 

The Wedding

Wedding Photos from last Saturday. 

These are not the official pictures, just shots from my own camera. We also had photos taken with the Unsicker family and the Ricketts family on Sunday, but I didn't take any.

Two cute groomsmen.

Left to right: Mom's parents, Ken and Janice Steffen, Gary and Mom, and my dad's parents, Nick and Jean Ricketts.

The happy couple.

My family (Left to right): Megan, Emily, Matthew, Justin, Philip, I, Timothy

Mom and Gary

My grandparents, Ken and Janice, with their fifteen grandchildren.

The bride and her bridesmaids

My cousin, Jehu Ramsier.

It was a rainy day, but it stopped soon before we were going to take pictures. Just as we finished, it started again! So thank God for that.

Also, thanks to everyone who prayed for me and my family in the last two weeks. We were blessed and I am thankful, but it didn't come without its hard moments or emotional times. Please continue to pray that we can adjust and that God would use our lives for His glory!