Finally Back Home!!!........in Florida!

I had posted in an earlier post that we were planning on wrapping up language school and heading back to Florida.  After talking with our Pastor, Don Strange, we came to the conclusion that we had a good foundation in French and that we needed to raise some more support.  I began to schedule some meetings in Florida and started filling in my calendar as we made plans to pack up our household and head back to Florida.  However, we decided to make it a surprise for Kami's family!

It wasn't easy preparing to go and keeping coming home a secret.  We technically left last Saturday (September 17th) and headed to Trois Rivieres to teach Sunday school and preach.  We loaded our U-Haul trailer and headed out for our week-long drive.  After the morning services on Sunday, I asked Kami if we had the passports, to which she replied, yes they are in the van.  I found them and counted 6 passports.  Great!  We were ready to go........except we forgot there are 7 in our family.  Poor little Callie Grace left her passport packed in our U-Haul trailer. 

Yes, we did....we had to unload almost half the trailer before we reached the box with her passport.  We then reloaded the trailer and then tried to head out on the road.....to which we realized that we had lost our car keys........ughhhhhh!   We found them after 15 minutes and finally hit the road.  

We traveled all week long and arrived yesterday (Friday) to my mom's house.  We unloaded our trailer and ate lunch.  Then we headed to Kami's dad's car-lot.  What a great surprise!  We then loaded our three older kids into his car as he went home.  He called Kami's mom to come out to the car when he pulled into the driveway, he said he had a surprise for her.  As she was looking in the trunk of the car for her surprise, the kids jumped out from the back seat.  She began to scream and we all enjoyed the surprise!

It is good to be back in the U.S. and back home in Florida.  The last time I was here was for my dad's funeral.  We are staying with my mom at her new home.  It is sad to not be at the house I grew up in, but excited for this next chapter in the life of our family and of my mom.

We are excited about being at our home church tomorrow and excited about the upcoming meetings that we have scheduled.  Keep praying for our family and the next stage in our life which brings us closer to our mission field!

Busy Last Few Days!

With the last few days being so busy, I am finally getting to post a quick family update....

I had a great time preaching last Wednesday at Eglise Baptiste de St-Augustin.  I was able to lead the singing in French...if you can call it "leading singing"!

This past Sunday, I was able to preach at Eglise Baptiste de La Foi in Trois Rivieres.  Bro. Hamby was still out of town so I had the opportunity to preach and teach Sunday school in his place.  (I do have to wonder why we lose our car keys every time we have a meeting there....no kidding.....this is the 4th time in a row that we have lost our keys!.......we do find them after a while of searching!)

Our family along with Madame Estelle and the Burdette's (another missionary family) went apple picking.  We had never been apple picking at an orchard before.  We went to Isle d'Orleans which is the big island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River.  We picked 13 lbs of apples in about 7 minutes!  It sure doesn't take long to fill a bag of apples.  We had a great time and Silas loved the little "zoo" of animals on display.  He "quacked" at the chickens and "neighed" at the goats.  Then he wanted to pet the turkeys but I don't think they really wanted to be petted.

The past couple of weeks have been very busy, but we enjoyed our day of picking apples!  We loved the adventure and loved the fresh apples!

Happy Birthday à ma belle-mère!!!.....and other news!

Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law!!!  She turns 65 today!!!!.......okay.....she's not in her sixty's.  She's a great mother-in-law (although she's the only one I have had.....thus I could say she is the worst as well!)  Happy Birthday!!!  The picture is of the cake that Elisabeth and Brenna made for her birthday.  They wanted to make a cake of her favorite hobby....quilting!!! 

Other News......
I have had the opportunity to preach several times in the past week.  Last Wednesday, I preached at St. Augustin and was able to lead singing in French.  For those of you who know that I cannot sing, just wait until you hear me sing in French!!!  Joshua was also able to lead the singing for the last song of the service and he did a great job.

This past Sunday we drove to Trois Rivieres to teach Sunday School and preach in both the AM and PM services.  Pastor Jason Hamby is out of town and I will be replacing him this coming Sunday as well.  We were able to sing a family song together and we had a great fellowship with Mrs. Amanda Hamby and 2 of the Hamby boys.   We love the Hamby's and always have a wonderful fellowship with them.

I will be preaching tonight at St. Augustin again.  (Yes, I will take another swing at leading singing again.....although is it really leading singing if you don't know what to do with the hand motion thing???)

Happy Birthday Grammy!!!......Mom!!!!

Happy Birthday to my mom....a.k.a. "Grammy"!!!

Elisabeth and Brenna spent this afternoon making this chocolate cake (Grammy's favorite) decorated with yellow roses (Grammy's favorite again!).

Although her birthday is tomorrow, September 8th, we "skyped" her this evening and showed her this special birthday cake made just for her.  We also got to see her open her birthday gift that we had mailed to her as well.  (We love Skype!) We miss you Mom and we look forward to seeing you soon.  Not only will you spoil our children with too much ice cream, but you can help us keep up with our French as well!  Thanks for being a great mom and wonderful Grammy!!!