Faith Fourth of July Celebration

Our family really enjoyed our 1st Faith Fourth of July Celebration, which conveniently takes place right across the street from our church.  Our new friend Jorge advised us to try the Mexican food truck, so we did...and it was really good!  I ate a torta for the first time, which is a Mexican sandwich, and Tim tried an authentic Mexican taco.  It was spicy, but he could handle it.

 When we lived in Cincinnati, Christopher used to LOVE the giant slide at Coney Island.  To his and John's delight, the Faith celebration had one, too!  (Anna was not much of a fan.  She inherited her fear of heights from her mommy.)

 Anna's 1st pony ride!

But the most important thing going on at the festival for our family was the shelter where our church was handing-out Bibles, free toys for kids, and offering to pray and counsel with anyone who needed it.  Pleased to report great success!

-Kara

So blessed to have had a visit from Mom and Dad this weekend!  Thanks for coming to see our new home.  We love you!!!

-Tim, Kara & kids

One Blessed Swing Stand

Tim and I are so grateful to the Handyman Ministry of Faith Baptist Church, who built us a swing stand for our swing.  Our new porch (a) has an aluminum siding roof and (b) is higher than the average roof, making it impossible to hang our swing.  But now we're swingin' again!  Thanks, guys!

My favorite part of the swing is where they marked John 3:16 on it, which they do for all their projects.  I'll never paint over it!  In fact, the very night the swing stand was delivered and the swing was hung, a HUGE storm blew through Kannapolis.  The storm was so strong, in fact, that it blew down the portico of the Kannapolis YMCA.  During the storm, everything else on our porch blew all over the place.  But our swing stand stood perfectly still.  Perhaps it was the power of God that had been written on it?

The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch swing with, never say a word, then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation that you ever had. -Arnold H. Glasgow

Our New Home

 It's been a while since I've posted anything on my blog because we've been busy bees packing and unpacking our stuff and moving to Kannapolis.  

Whew!  It feels good to have that finished...

 Even though we had movers, my guys proved to be super helpers getting boxes where they needed to be.

 We were so incredibly blessed to get our house in Kannapolis, because rental houses are really tough to come by in this area.  The house we rented had only been on the market one day, but four people had already come to see it.  Thankfully, we were able to get our application for lease into the realtor before anyone else, and we got the lease!

 Once the movers were finished, our work really began: unpacking.  Moving can be exhausting, but we didn't mind.  We were sooooo glad to be in our new home and at our new church!

 Even one of our bathrooms was full of boxes for a few days.

However, our biggest challenge wasn't unpacking boxes, but of getting rid of the horrible smell in the house.  The lady who lived in the house before us apparently had free-range cats that did not believe in a litter box.  After she was gone, the house and the cat smell were locked-up for a year.  But thanks to Lysol, Glade Plug-Ins, odor-absorbing-beads, and bleach...I think we've finally made history of those cats.

 Thank you to Faith Baptist Church for making such awesome moving arrangements for our family.  You guys made moving as easy as moving can be!

And I'm so proud of my kiddos, who handled the move so well.  How wonderful it is to have children who joyfully follow the Lord where and when He leads.

It has only been four weeks in Kannapolis, but we love it here!  The house is just perfect for our needs, our neighbors are friendly, and the neighborhood is quiet and peaceful and close to everything we need.  We're falling in love with our new church, and I'm not sure...but I think I'm starting to feel myself growing roots.  God is so good!

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PRAYED US HOME!!!

-Kara

Happy Birthday Christopher!

I can't believe I became the mom of a teenager today!  My baby boy turned thirteen.  With a house full of moving boxes, we had to get creative about how we could celebrate such a momentous occassion.  So we drove our birthday boy over to the coast and soaked-up some sun and ate some of Christopher's favorite food.  Perk #1 to being a teenager: no longer having to order off the kids' menu!

Tim and I are often told these days that we will hate the teen years.  That we will pull our hair out parenting a teen.  That life will all-around be terrible with a teen in the house.  But we have assured Christopher that he has two choices in life now that he is a teen...to spend these years rebelling against God and pulling away from Him, or to spend these years growing to know God better and bringing glory to Him.  I like to believe that although there are certainly going to be bumps in the road (and on the face), Christopher's journey into adolescence is going to be a wonderful and exciting time of joy.

By request, Christopher's cake was VERY chocolate:  triple chocolate chunk cake, chocolate fudge icing, and chocolate sprinkles.  With Mrs. Fields Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream.  THAT'S a lot of chocolate!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY!!!

(Oops.  I mean teenage boy!)

-Mom

Happy Mother's Day

The kids and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend Mother's Day in West Virginia, and we had such a great time!  Being in the middle of a move, it felt Heavenly to step away from packing boxes and just sit on my parents' screened-in porch, cross-stitch, and REST.  No boxes, no packaging tape, no bubble wrap.  And I will admit that I took more than one nap while I was there...

And as a very special Mother's Day gift myself, I received WONDERFUL news that day.  Our realtor called to let us know that we got the house we were trying to lease!!!  It may not sound like a big deal, but in the area we are moving, rentals are tough to come by.  We had looked at many houses to no avail:  they were all either already rented by the time we saw them, they were too far from the church, or there was some other type of problem.  The one we got was our favorite of them all, and we are so incredibly excited to move-in and start ministering there...

HAPPY  MOTHER'S  DAY  TO  ALL!!!

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Washington Irving

Meet Our Family

 Welcome to our family blog!  

Hard to believe we're coming up on the 5th anniversary of our blog.  

Some of you have followed our happenings for years.  But if you've never met us before, let us introduce ourselves...

I am Kara, the keeper of the blog, the mom, the cook, the homeschool teacher, and the wife.  I like to take pictures...especially family pictures.  My wonderful husband Tim and I have been married for 17 years.  He is a pastor, an outdoor lover, and an amazing husband and father.  Tim likes to play basketball with his boys and he attempts to play dolls with Anna, although she often informs him that he doesn't play dolls right...because he is, after all, a boy. :)  Other than spending time with his family, absolutely nothing gives Tim as much joy as preparing and delivering sermons.

This is our oldest son Christopher.  He is 12 years old, but he would undoubtedly want you to know that on the 15th of May he will celebrate his 13th birthday and will finally become a TEENAGER!  Christopher loves to play video games, paint, draw, ride his bike, and do anything with technology.  He is a big fan of Baskin Robbins Ice Cream, but he has never lived near one of their stores, so he usually only gets his 31 Flavors on vacation.

This is John, who is 10.  John is very outdoorsy and loves animals.  He also likes to play basketball and to watch both college and NBA basketball.  His favorite teams are Duke and the Chicago Bulls.  And like his older brother, John also plays video games.  John enjoys talking about the Bible and listening to his dad preach.  John's favorite food is...well...anything.  John loves to eat!

And this is our daughter Anna, who is 7.  When God gave us a girl, he REALLY gave us a girl!  Anna loves anything pink, she greatly enjoys playing with dolls, and she likes to sing and hopes to begin taking voice lessons.  Anna likes to play with other girls her age and to read chapter books, her favorite of which being the Thea Stilton books.  Anna loves to eat any kind of fruit, and she is learning to cook by helping Mommy in the kitchen a lot.

In our free time together, our family loves to hike and take long walks through the woods.  We enjoy playing board games and watching movies and making homemade pizza.  The five of us have all trusted Jesus as our Savior, we feel privileged to serve Him in full-time ministry, and we are looking toward the bright and exciting future He holds for us!

We hope you won't be a stranger to our blog now that you have met us...