The buzzing of generators surrounds me as I type, louder because the windows are open. The neighborhood is dark except for the light of the full moon overhead. All is well. Now. We have survived our first hurricane.

Three long days ago, we lived through a night full of howling 100 mph winds that ripped branches off of trees and fences from their safe places in the ground. The rain blew sideways from the northeast and then from the southwest as the hurricane passed overhead. I prayed all night long that God would protect our windows, our roof and our cars. He was so awesome and did just that. We have a dented, slightly askew mailbox, lost two of the three fences that surround our back yard, and our oak trees out front are mutilated, but we survived and God, our Shield, provided wonderfully for us. Noah slept through it all! Oh to be resilient and oblivious like children.

We have been raking and cutting up limbs, bagging leaves, and other basic cleanup for 2 days now. We have no electricity, but God brought fall early for us so that we can sleep without sweating profusely. It is actually a little chilly! He gave us wonderful neighbors who let us plug our refrigerator into their generator, and this morning we woke up to running water again. It went from a trickle to nothing in one day. We didn’t even get that much rain! It was enough to flood the streets, but after Cody and Taylor went out and cleared the storm drains of the debris blocking them, our street cleared out pretty quickly. All is well with our souls.

We fared well. People down south of us were not so lucky. From the few news reports we have heard, lots of people lost their lives or are missing. So sad! We are continuously giving thanks. We have driven around the city some and seen a lot of devastation. It is weird to see all the emergency vehicles and helicopters around. We hear reports of crime at grocery stores and gas stations because people are panicked and selfish. It is like a mob mentality, but more on the self-preservation side.

Life is a little different without electricity. I am making meals on a camp stove or the grill. We are so thankful for a gas water heater and can take hot showers now that we have water again. We also have a new addition to our family- a hurricane survivor Taylor named Evita-a baby squirrel about 7 weeks old. We are guessing her age based on Karen Lay’s research she relayed to me over the phone. Without internet it is hard to research these things, so I called her. Evita is doing well with her surrogate parents and is really cute. Even Maximus and Lucius like her and Taylor’s friend brought over a bunny to meet her as well. There was a little boy that came an hour later but he died about 20 minutes after we got him. A dog had gotten to him first. Poor little guy. I’m sure he is one of hundreds that didn’t survive Ike.

It is interesting to spend the evenings by candlelight and flashlight. We talk often about the colonial days and how that must have been. I totally understand why most folks back then went to sleep shortly after sundown and were up with the sun. There is not much else to do in the evenings with limited light. Right now, Taylor is watching a 4 inch television that her friend down the street loaned her. They have a generator so are watching their big TV. They had a tree fall through their roof right in the middle of the storm and had to go out into it to block up the holes. Not fun.

Noah seems to be oblivious except that he likes to play with the lights and they do nothing and he can’t seem to understand that. He is still his happy little self and likes to give hugs and kisses. Taylor has a job and actually went in to work today. Where she works is one of the few places opening up again since they have power. It is a catering company called Tres Market.

Well, keep praying for the victims of hurricane Ike, and give praise that we are all ok, we sure are! (I can't get pictures right now but will post them soon.)

My intentions for blogging seem to be no good. It is kind of like handing Monopoly money to the cashier at Wal-mart. It just doesn't work. For those of you that are actually interested in reading my blogs, sorry they aren't more often. I have, however, just scheduled my life on a desk calendar and plan to blog every Wednesday, so hopefully I can actually accomplish that!

My mom and sister just visited us. That was a nice treat. Of course it rained for most of the time they were here so their tour of Houston consisted mostly of our house, to and from the airport, and a cloudy view of downtown and part of Galveston before we got pelted by a squall. At least we were already in swimsuits. Always an adventure....

Well, for those of you that have been the recipients of my chocolates during the holidays might be interested to learn that I am about to start selling them here in Houston. Along with quilts and other handicrafts I make. It was an idea I had born out of the necessity to add to our income. We are slowly making less and less each month so I was trying to think of ways to help out with what abilities I have while still being mother and wife first and foremost. I was just reading about the Proverbs 31 woman and loved verses 13, 18-19, and 31 in regard to this.

10 A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
13 She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.
14 She is like the ships of the merchant, she brings her food from far away.
15 She rises while it is still night and provides food for her household and tasks for her servant-girls.
16 She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
17 She girds herself with strength, and makes her arms strong.
18 She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.
19 She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.
20 She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all her household are clothed in crimson.
22 She makes herself coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the city gates, taking his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them; she supplies the merchant with sashes.
25 Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.
26 She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27 She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and call her happy; her husband too, and he praises her:
29 "Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all."
30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31 Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates.


So, when you are praying next, please keep this 'business' endeavor in mind and pray for God's blessing upon it.

In other news, Taylor just started school - her Senior year! Yikes, when did she get so old? It is weird to have her sitting with Cody and discussing which universities to apply to and realizing that she only has one more year here with us before she flies away from this nest. Amazing.... She is in choir this year and is still in theater and track, so she will have a lot of extracurricular activities to attend, which will take more of her time this year. She is also trying to get a part time job and applied at a catering business close by. Pray for her in that area.

Noah is doing well. He is cutting his molars and that is not fun for any of us. He is also at that stage where he is trying to exert his will over ours. It is few and far between his usual amiable behavior. We are so blessed to have a little boy that is 98% happy and easy going. Sure makes it easier to deal with that 2% of bad attitude. He woke up this morning with a deep chest cough and runny nose with a slight fever, so keep him in prayer too. It might be related to the teething, or something else all together. He is generally pretty healthy so he should be able to fight it off well. Of course, I can't find the Tylenol anywhere in the house, so that isn't helping the situation. Poor kid. He is still happy and lovable though. Speaking of, the other day in the store he just kept reaching out and hugging me from the cart numerous times and wanted to give me a kiss. Very cute. He sits down and pats the seat next to him wanting us to sit beside him. When he accidentally hurts us, he pats it and gives kisses where it hurt. So sweet. He is a sensitive kid and fairly obedient as well.

Next time I will put some pictures with my blog. Noah is awake now and I need to feed him some lunch.

I'm Alive!

Hello everyone. I'm sure most of you have stopped even looking for my blogs, since I seem to have fallen off of the face of the earth! It has felt like that to some extent, but I feel a little more organized and back to normal. I am at least more settled here in Houston and getting into the swing of things. I still have lots of projects to do, but there is light at the end of the tunnel for me. We just hit the one year mark since our return to the States and that was an emotional time for us. In some ways it has seen like longer since a lot has occurred in that year, and other times we think, "was it only last year?"

I planted a garden. Actually, Cody did most of the work and it was my birthday present. He plotted out the layout, built it up, started the seeds, put in the drip lines and timer. A lot of the seeds didn't sprout so we ended up buying some plants, especially the herbs. I have cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, roma tomatoes and large salad tomatoes. I have 5 bell pepper plants, 2 hot pepper plants, cucumbers, pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon, spearmint, fennel, oregeno, thyme, basil, lemon basil, cilantro, chives, and rosemary. I did have radishes, carrots, lettuce, peas and zucchini but those didn't do so well so I yanked them out. I plan to start some more seeds in the fall for a winter crop. It has been fun and Noah loves picking the ripe cherry tomatoes. The squirrels like to pick ripe fruit as well, those wretched beasts! They took my little watermelon that was growing. I only had one and it was about the size of a golf ball and then it was gone. They (or birds) have gotten the first 3 tomatoes that ripened as well. So frustrating! Cody pointed out that farmers all over the world deal with pests and diseases all the time and to be thankful that I don't have to depend on what I grow. Good point.

Noah keeps me pretty busy these days. I forgot how little one can get done with a toddler afoot! He is now 16 months old and really active and still really sweet. We have two new additions to our family as well, Lucius and Maximus. They are both male kittens that are 11 weeks old. Very cute little guys. Noah loves them to death, emphasis on the to death part at times. If I am not watching when he is particularly loving, he is holding them by the neck or leaning on them trying to give them hugs. Mostly he is pretty gentle and good with them. It is fun to watch all three of my 'boys' playing and running a muck in the house.


My first born, Taylor, is keeping pretty busy these days as well. She is enjoying her summer and is gone a lot of the time. When she is here, she sleeps in and stays in her room cleaning, planning or listening to music during the day. In the evenings when she is home, we watch t.v., play games, or plan her college education. She just went to summer camp with the youth group and is heading off to Spain at the end of July on a two week trip to help with some camps there (if she raises all of her support.) She doesn't have a typical job, but does a lot of babysitting and makes pretty good money. She seems to be in demand as a babysitter too, so that should come in handy with the income she needs to make. She now has bills to pay each month since she is a car owner, and since she wrecked ours back in May and her insurance went up. Poor kid. She is a better driver for it, and God took care of her in it.

Cody is doing well at work and may be going to Tajikistan, but it isn't firmed up yet. If he does, it will be in a couple of weeks, and he will be gone for 7-10 days. The longest we've been apart is 10 days when he went to Turkey a couple of years ago. A longer trip will be the one to Iran and Afghanistan for the re-cultivation project in November. It looks like that one is coming together nicely and may actually happen. We'll see.

Well, that is all for now. I will try to keep up with this blog this time. :)

Hello everyone! I'm back! I have been so extremely busy with a new house in a new city with a new baby! I hope to spend more time blogging and sending pictures now, especially once we get our office set up and I have everything in its place again. Still living out of boxes and bags, but soon we will be set up. We love our new house and our new life here in Houston. We have made several great friends who have made us feel right at home and we have wonderful neighbors that are very friendly and welcoming. Cody really likes his work and gets along well with his colleagues.

I just got "with it" and am now on Facebook. Still have no idea what it is or how to use it yet, but I am signed up. Some day my life will get organized. So, if any of you want to connect with me there, feel free to do so.

I am loving the baby stage again and it seems like Noah gets cuter and cuter each day. He is so mobile and walks around holding onto the furniture. He just got his first tooth last week so he smiles this huge, lopsided, open-mouthed smile that just melts my heart. He laughs alot too and it is fun to watch him crack up at the squirrels chasing each other around the yard. He loves the outdoors and lying in the hammock with us. It has been really cold lately, but just warmed up today. With the drop in temperature he developed his first yucky cold but is almost over it. It didn't help that he got his immunizations on Monday and that brought a fever and grumpiness to the mix. He was up several times in the night on Monday and Tuesday and Cody was in Dallas for a conference so it was rough for us all. Even with all of that, he still was smiley most of the time. He likes to give hugs and is more cuddly too. What a doll!

Taylor is doing well in school and is in the Christmas play at church that is coming up. She will be 16 years old on Monday. When did she grow up so fast? She is driving with a permit now, which was scary at first, but isn't so bad now. She does a good job actually. She has lots of friends, of course, since she is so friendly, and is busy often. We have to make time to spend as a family now. We can sure tell that we are back in America since everyone is so busy all the time. Well, I need to watch a movie with my family and then get to bed. We are going to IHOP and then to the zoo with Tay for her birthday tomorrow.

Hope you are all doing well!

Waiting.... Still...

We are still here in Bahrain waiting for news. They said maybe today we’d hear something. It is nice to be among friends and everyone here has been so encouraging and supportive of us that we are so blessed to be back – in spite of the amazing heat and humidity!
Noah rolled over for the first time on May 31^st and we got some video of him doing so. I got a picture of him mid-roll, but it just looks like he’s on his side. Cody then took his blanket and wrapped it on his head like a turban and we took pictures of that. He thought it was pretty funny. There's one picture where he looks really shy and that is because Kate was talking to him and telling him how cute he is. He smiled and looked away. It was really cute.
He went swimming for the first time right before Taylor left for the states and has been back in the water a few times since then. He seems to really like water. We got him an inflatable tube that he can sit in and he liked that for a bit, but prefers for his Daddy to hold him and let him swim. He floats on his back when Cody holds his head and he laughs when lifted up out of the water and plunged back in. Already he is a thrill seeker.

After a year without my quilting and scrap booking stuff, my friend Allison encouraged me to buy a small book to do while here and offered the use of her stuff. Very generous offer, so I took her up on it. I am going to join her scrapping circle on Monday morning and am going to do a little album of Noah. Today I compiled a bunch of pictures of him to have printed and can’t believe how much he has changed! He is already 3 months old and so different from when he was born. He weighs 6.2 kg and loves to put his feet up in the air above his head. He started grabbing his toes the other day and it is so cute. He has a total belly laugh now which is so cute when he gets going. He has lots of dexterity now and can grip little knobs and anything he is aiming for. Very cute and fun. We are enjoying him a lot.

Cody’s birthday is on Monday as well and we are going to have dinner and then go bowling. There’s not much else to do here in Bahrain and who knew we’d be spending another of his birthdays here! God did, and we are trusting that He knows where we will be next.

For Your Own Good

We got Noah vaccinated yesterday. He cried a little at the time of the injection, but it wasn’t until a couple of hours later that the real crying set in, followed by a slight fever as his body built up immunities to the small doses of diseases he was given. It was hard to watch him go through that, but I just held him close and comforted him, rocked him and told him it was going to be ok. At times I cried along with him because I knew he was suffering. He has never cried so much until now. It got me thinking about how God allows us to experience suffering for our own good. He is bigger than we are and knows what we need even if we see it as painful, He knows it is for our own good and that a little bit of suffering now spares us from a lot of suffering later. He knows that to allow small amounts of pain now allows us to build up perseverance for bigger pains later. He also holds us and comforts us as we go through pain and suffering, loving us and letting us know that it will be ok, things are going to get better. When we choose to follow Jesus in this life, we are told in Scripture that we are to expect suffering and that when it comes we are to rejoice in it because it will build perseverance, character and hope. So while it is hard to watch Noah go through this, I know that it will pass and that he will be better because of it. As we go through this minor ‘suffering’ of being unsettled and homeless, I know that we will be better for it and that we will develop perseverance, our character will be improved, and our hope will increase. We can also be assured that He is there, holding us, comforting us and telling us that it will be ok. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

These pictures are taken on the day we sent our first born to the States by herself. That was a hard thing to do and we cried all the way home after leaving her in God's hands at the airport. Now, she is doing fine in Arizona and the difficulty has lessened. It is kind of like preparation for sending her off to college, which is only 2 years away. I have a feeling those years will fly by. Meanwhile, we will have our hands full with our youngest. We have been so blessed by our children and are thrilled that Taylor has such a heart for the Lord, and we pray that Noah will grow up love Him as well.

I was talking to someone here in Bahrain the other day and I mentioned that it has been “quite the roller coaster ride” we have been on. That got me thinking about roller coasters and carnival rides in general. There are two ways you can ride a roller coaster. One way is to buckle in, smile, put your hands up in the air on the drops, screaming in exhilaration on the rolls, completely trusting in the designer and operator of the ride. The second way is to buckle in and while doing so, think about all the ways the thing was put together and all the ways it can fall apart, not trusting in the engineer or operator, screaming in fear, completely stressed throughout the whole ride. When you get off you thought it took forever and you vow never to get back on. When I was 16, I went to Missouri with Cody and his family and there was a country carnival. For those of you that do not know what that is, it is a traveling assortment of amusement park rides, game booths, food booths, etc, that get set up for a few weeks in different towns. We had a good time until we were getting on one of the rides and the operator reeked of alcohol. This ride was completely different for me because I was aware that the operator was intoxicated and I questioned his ability to operate the ride the entire time. It didn’t help that he allowed the ride we were on to hit the tree branches nearby. There were leaves and branches flying around us and the ride seemed to last forever! I didn’t go on any more rides after that one. So, as I was thinking about this ‘ride’ we are on in our lives right now, I was wondering, “which way am I riding?” Am I free and enjoying this time with complete trust in the Engineer and Operator, or am I doubting His abilities to care for us while we ride? Am I going to get off vowing never to get on again or am I trusting my Engineer to design the best life for me with rolls, drops, twists, and loops, all taking me closer to Him, building my trust even further in Him? Do I ride with anxiety and worry, thinking of the worst possible scenarios? I really had to ponder this. I think for the most part I am trusting the Engineer and Operator, but there are times when doubt creeps in and I am anxious once more. He never said it would be easy, He only promises we’d never be alone. I am so thankful that He is here with me – the Author and Perfector of my faith.