The Elephant

Have you ever heard the expression about overlooking the elephant in the room? Well, there's an elephant in our blog that we just can't overlook any more. Many of you already know that we recently had to make a tough decision concerning our ministry in the Philippines. We were scheduled to return to the PI in late July. Unfortunately our support has been impacted by the current economic crisis and we are unable to financially return at this time. This has probably been the toughest decision Allan and I have ever had to make, much harder than deciding to move overseas. It has been a decision filled with sadness by all of our family. The kids in particular have had a hard time adjusting. Missions is what we have felt called to and planned for. We have struggled with what God has for us now. We would appreciate your prayers during this difficult time as we seek out what the future holds. I plan to keep blogging and we will keep you posted as to our future plans. I have loved blogging about our experiences in the Philippines. Thanks to all our faithful readers for sharing in our adventure with us.

NASCAR All Star Race pt 2

Well Allan and Emily's NASCAR trip on Friday and Saturday was a rousing success. Emily loved every moment at the track. I am afraid she likes NASCAR even more now. The 2 of them couldn't have asked for a better time. They kept me posted on all the exciting events by the cell phone. One of the main highlights happened Saturday afternoon. They went to a Q&A time with Emily's favorite driver, Matt Kenseth that was broadcast on the Speed Cable TV station. Emily was chosen to ask Matt a question on live TV. She was given a Kenseth shirt because of that. Afterwards, Kenseth signed her hat as he was heading out. The race itself was an thrilling nail biter. Kenseth was in the lead during the last few laps of the race, but was beat out with 2 laps to go by Tony Stewart. This made for much excitement and she was thrilled he came in 2nd. They had a great time and came home exhausted. What a precious memory for the 2 of them of their NASCAR race together.

Matt's trailer

You can hardly see it, but here is Emily in front of Kenseth

as he is about to begin his Qualifying run.

Answering Emily's Question at the Q&A Session on SpeedTV

The Question?:

"What type of tracks do you like better; long or short?"

Autographing Emily's hat

NASCAR All Star Race

If you have personally known Emily in the last few years, you will know that she has an obsession uncommon to most 14 year old girls. She is crazy about NASCAR. She developed this love while we were in the Philippines through a combination of the movies Herbie and Cars, and our neighbors the Brewers and Nelsens. Her favorite driver is......Matt Kenseth, who happens to be related to our partner Cindy Nelsen. After Kenseth won the first 2 races of the season, his website offered some $17 tickets to the All Star race in Charlotte. Emily had a birthday coming up and Charlotte just happens to be 2 hours from here. So Right now Emily and Allan are having a father/daughter weekend cheering Kenseth on at the Lowe's motor speedway. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

40!

Well it's official. I am now middle-aged!

Yesterday I turned the big 4-0.

I had a really great birthday. After lunch at Chick-fil-a, I spent the afternoon with Emily at our monthly crocheting class. We have been taking this class together for the last couple of months. This month we are making dish rags. It has been a hysterical time as we have bumbled through together. After our class, we arrived home to find that Allan had been busy decorating with the obligatory black crepe paper and sparkly streamers. We celebrated last night with my family by eating at my favorite restaurant--The Flat Rock Grill. For those of you familiar with South Carolina cuisine, I love their she-crab soup and crab stuffed shrimp. YUM! We then stuffed ourselves with cake and loaded cherry chocolate ice cream. (or Cookies n Cream for those non-cherry eaters) I now have to get back on my healthy eating plan today.

What am I doing right now?

I haven't quite joined the Twitter age or posting blogs from my cell phone about what I am doing moment by moment. To be honest, it would be really boring, but I thought this morning I would let you have a peek into my life. Right at this moment I am giving the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to a group of homeschoolers (including my 2). Once I get each section started, I have 15 to 30 minutes of silence. I am thankful for wireless internet so I can get on my laptop and check emails and such, but I should have brought a book.

Special Olympics

Last week the kids and I had the opportunity to work at the Greenville Special Olympics Spring Games. It was a really fun day and the weather was perfect. It couldn't have been nicer. Emily, Will and I were buddies for 2 atheletes. They were both 9. The hit of the day for both boys and Will was not actually the games, but climbing in some Army Hummers and talking to the soldiers who had come out for the day. Unfortunately, I thought I had left my camera at my parent's house on Easter Sunday so I didn't take any pictures myself. To be honest, I found my camera in my purse later that evening so I could have actually taken some. Someone else took the pictures of us below, but there were none of Emily.

Easter

Sunday was such a gorgeous Easter Sunday. After church, the family gathered at my parents for lunch. Mom made such delcious food; ham, sweet potato cassarole, broccoli with Hollandaise sauce, Sister Shuberts rolls, Mimi's famous Mac and Cheese, and Strawberry Cake for dessert. It was all so good!

We took a great family picture in front of the fireplace.

Back when Allan was in medical school, my mom had an Easter egg hunt for Emily and Will one year. I think the kids were 2 and 4. It was such a big hit that she began to do it every year. Sometimes my brother's kids would also be there. As we began our year long walk down memory lane, it was one of things Em and Will were excited about. They have mentioned it quite a few times since last Easter. My mom had no choice, but to plan another hunt. (like she would have ever told the grandkids no) Since she hadn't done one in 3 years and this might be the last one, she went all out and had 18 dozen eggs filled with all kinds of goodies. After lunch, the "kids" hid the eggs for the "grandkids". My brother set the rules: at this age, the eggs had to be hidden well, but at least part of the egg had to be able to be seen. I was in charge of hiding 12 golden eggs that each had a gold dollar inside. That responsibility included remembering where they were hidden. Well at last count, there were still 15-20 eggs hidden in the yard, including one of the gold eggs. I can't remember where I hid it. I have even offered a reward to the kid who finds it, but it is no where to be found. Maybe 30 years from now some child will make a wonderful discovery. Of course if they discover one of the ones with chocolate inside, I wouldn't recommend eating it.

The kids getting ready to hunt eggs.

They decorated these bags when they spent the night with Mimi and Pop the week before.

They needed large ones for 18 dozen eggs

Will on the hunt

Revelation

It's late and my mind seems to be racing with all the thoughts running through my head that I can't seem to turn off. As we anguish over the decision laid before us, once again a song seems to express my feelings and emotions better that I can. If only I were eloquent enough to explain what is in my heart tonight. The Christian group, Third Day, says it much better:

My life has led me down the road that' so uncertain...

This time, I know you are holding all the answers...

My life has led me down this path that's ever winding
Through every twist and turn I'm always finding....

Give me a revelation
Show me what to do
Cause I've been tryin' to find my way,
I haven't got a clue
Tell me should I stay here,
Or do I need to move
Give me a Revelation
I've got nothing without You
I've got nothing without You

I don’t know where I can turn
Tell me when will I learn
Won't You show me where I need to go
Let me follow Your lead,
I know that it's the only way I can get back home

Give me a revelation,

Show me what to do

Cause I’ve been tryin’ to find my way,

I haven’t got a clue

Tell me should I stay here,

Or do I need to move

Give me a revelation

I’ve got nothing without You

I’ve got nothing without You

Revelation by Third Day

14!

Emily turned 14 today!

It is hard to believe she is so grown up. She has become such a beautiful young woman.

On Saturday, we celebrated at our house with the family. Emily chose to have fried chicken and a Matt Kenseth cake.

She is a huge NASCAR fan and has enjoyed being able to watch it this year.

Allan and I are learning to like it.Afterwards, we went go-karting per Emily's request. She has always had a need for speed and she drives around the track pedal to the metal. I might need to be scared of her turning 16.

Here is a final picture of Emily this morning after breakfast ready to open presents

God of This City

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head? Usually when that happens to me, it drives me crazy. Often it is some bizarre song that I don’t even really like. In the last few weeks I have had the song “God of This City” by Chris Tomlin suck in my head. This time, it is driving Will crazy. You see there aren’t too many words to this song and I tend to sing the same 3 lines over and over. On the other hand, I have liked having this song playing over and over in my brain. The Lord has really used it as a great reminder of why we are serving in the Philippines. As we struggle to raise enough support to return to the Philippines, it helps me remember that He isn’t done with Manila yet regardless of what our future holds. There is Hope among the poor and hopeless of Manila. Please pray with us that we will be able to return to the Philippines in late July and share His Love, Grace and Mercy there.

Below are the lyrics to this song along with some pictures of things that flash through my mind as I hear it. You can hear this song at http://www.last.fm/music/Chris+Tomlin/_/God+Of+This+City?autostart It will start playing automatically.

God of this City

by Chris Tomlin You’re the God of this City
You’re the King of these People
You’re the Lord of this Nation
You Are

You’re the Light in this darkness
You’re Hope to the hopeless
You’re the Peace to the restless
You Are
There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God
For Greater things have yet to come
and greater things are still to be done in this city
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
We believe, we believe in you God

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

SNOW!

Since December the kids have hoped and prayed for some of that white stuff and yesterday those prayers were answered. The heavy rains began changing over to snow around 3pm and it snowed constantly until almost midnight. We received 6.5"! (Ok for those of you in places like Chicago, I realize that is almost nothing, but for South Carolina it's a big deal) The kids are thrilled and so thankful to be able to trek back in forth through the woods to their cousins'. We lost power about 11:30 last night, but it was restored about 4am. My brother is still without so everyone converged upon our house for lunch. The afternoon temps are expected to reach 40 so the kids are busy trying to get their fill of snowball fights, sledding, and snowmen before then. Here are a few pictures we took this morning. Some of them were taken in the woods behind our house. We headed out for a walk back there around 8:30 this morning. It was so beautiful and we loved trudging through the deep untouched snow. Thankfully the kids have some old snow pants to wear so they aren't too wet or cold and can stay out all day. I've never taken a snow day in homeschooling before, but sometimes you got to stop and throw a snowball or 2.

Pelting Dad with snowballs

Yesterday around 5pm

Today around 9:30am

We took a gorgeous walk through these woods this morning

A Bridge down in the woods behind our house

Will's 12th Birthday!

On January 17th, Will turned 12. We celebrated by spending a day at the lake. Will wanted to have a party with just his cousins. They are all a little obsessed with the movie Prince Caspian. They often play Narnia in the woods behind our house. Last fall they all made swords with scraps of wood from my brother's house. We upgraded everyone with new nerf swords. It was the coldest day in the past 3 or 4 years, but the kids braved the biting wind for a little while. Afterwards, they came in and warmed up with hot chocolate and video games on my parents big screen tv.

The King and Queens of Narnia

Chasing down Dad

Video time!