He's home!!!

We were very excited to go pick up Steve! I went and grabbed the girls early from school and 

Headed to Nanaimo. We got inside just in time to see the plane pulling up and Amara was screaming "daddy! Daddy!" Everyone was chuckling, it was pretty cute. The girls watched Steve coming off the plane and I wish I could have got a picture of them attacking him as he walked in the door. All three girls hugging him so tightly it was so precious! 

Soooo good to have him home. He was pretty exhausted as it took 24 hours from the time he left the Dominican to the time he got home. Layover in Toronto and then a night in Calgary, which worked out nicely so he could spend the night at his families and see his sisters. Unfortunately his mom was in Edmonton taking a course, but he had a nice visit with Leah and Sarah. 

We had a nice evening, with a special dinner and he showed us all his photos. He had a good time, lots of hard work, and he said it was so hard to leave the kids. They were able to put up a church from foundation up and got a lot done! 

Saturday morning Steve ended up spending his morning taking Amara to the walk in clinic as last night he was giving her a piggy back and when he pulled on her arm she started crying in excruciating pain. She wouldn't move her arm all night so we thought her shoulder was dislocated or something. So we gave her Advil and she slept through the night. But in the morning she still couldn't move it, it just hung at her side. So Steve took her to the clinic and they sent her up to the hospital to have x-rays done. Steve had to hold her down and said she was so scared, crying and screaming scary. My poor baby! The X-Ray came back with nothing wrong, so the dr grabbed her arm, twisted her hand back and forth and apparently it did the trick. He said it was a tendon out of place on her elbow. My poor baby sure had a traumatic experience though, but was apparently awarded with a Popsicle that made it all better! 

When Steve got home I had been baking like crazy so there were buns with cheese and ham, homemade bread, cookies and dinner in the crockpot. And the girls and I made some fun kinetic sand we saw on Pinterest, made out of flour and baby oil. It kept the girls busy for hours today and their hands were so soft! 

We then had a few homes we wanted to check out, but thought we better drive by and see what the properties were like before we went into them. So we drove by them all and all of them were disappointing. A couple beautiful homes, but the property's wouldn't work with Steve's trailers and boat. 

One day we will find the one. But for now we are very happy and comfortable where we are... Just always looking! 

After looking Steve dropped me and Meeko off and I ran home. Running with Meeko is not fun! He was dragging his butt at the end and ran into my legs a few times... But I think I need to get him in shape with me! I was also able to squeeze my workout in after I got home as Amara was napping. 

It feels so good to run and workout... But I struggle with consistency and finding the time!! 

So good to have Steve home! He was able to relax this afternoon and catch up on some rest before his busy week ahead of him! 

One more sleep...

We get to pick up Steve tomorrow from the airport and I am so excited! I have friends who's husbands work in northern Alberta and are gone for two weeks, home for one and the cycle continues, but I truly don't know how they can do it?!? I mean I guess you just get in routine and figure it out, but I think that would be difficult! These 12 days have been long, but we have been keeping busy and the time has flown by! A little too busy I think. Adessa was a wreck today! 

This week has been especially busy with something planned daily, now that I look back on it, I should have said no to some things. 

Monday, after school drop off my girlfriend crystal dropped in and told me I was going to run 8 km and she would watch Amara. So I changed, grabbed my iPod and ran... 

From my house to herd road and made really good time! But my knee was in so much pain. And that evening I could barely walk up and down my stairs. I told this friend I was planning to run a 10 km run, so she has taken it upon herself to train me! But this was a little too hard core of a start. My upper body and breathing were totally fine and felt like I could run forever, it was just my dang knee... Sport days are catching up to me and I could probably also use a new pair of runners! 

For dinner, Joanne, mikes wife had us over for pizza. We had a nice, quick visit before I rushed home to throw the girls in bed and welcome our life group over. It is usually held at our friends the nagtegaals, but since Steve isn't home and I can't drive home a babysitter, they offered to have it at my place. Awesome night of discussion and ideas! 

Tuesday we had a nice visit at the Nagtegaal farm and then Car kept Adessa for a play date until after school. Then Chelsea and her two girls came for a play date and stayed for dinner, which I frantically was trying to find a recipe for as they are gluten free! 

Thankfully I had chicken, a crockpot, rice and veggies and dinner turned out excellent! Such a nice visit with these girls... So neat because both her girls are the same ages and grades as Danika and Adessa. 

Wednesday we did our grocery shopping, then met Mel and her girls at Wendy's house for a big play date. 

Amara always runs in and wants the fireman outfit put on and she sits and turns on the light and pretends to drive the truck, then quickly rips that off and runs to he next thing... 

This bouncy horse inspired my Christmas present to Amara this year as she loves it! So I ordered one for Christmas, a purple one and she will not play with it! But whenever we visit Wendy's house she bounces on it between each station and drags it around with her! It's crazy! 

The past few times I have been to Wendy's house, after about an hour Amara books it for the door, puts on her boots, attempts to put on her coat and tries to get out the door saying, "all done!" This girl sure knows what she wants in life!!  

Got home, put Amara down for her nap and cleaned out Steve's truck... Big job! Also got some tidying done around the outside of the house I've been wanting to do since we moved in! 

Then off to pick up the girls from school, Danika went for a play date to her best friends house, Lize and I took the younger girls to Charlene's for a play date and dinner. 

Miriam and Amara are only 3 months apart, but they seem years apart! Amara is such a tiny little thing, but that doesn't slow her down... She is usually running laps around her friends... Literally! 

Keith and Charlene own a vet clinic in Duncan andare both veterinarians, so they have a ton of pets. Birds, lizards, fish, frogs, bunnies, cats and dogs. When I go over Meeko also gets a play date... He acts like a puppy in their back yard though and spent a lot of his time splashing in and out of heir drinking dish! 

The girls have been sleeping so good... Mainly from exhaustion. My friends have been so amazing and supportive while Steve has been gone we have been busier than ever! 

Today the girls had skating, and since it was Adessas day off, if she wanted to join the class then I had to go with her, so I dropped Amara off at Joanne's and took the girls. What a gong show! The girls hung off me quite a bit and cried a lot out of frustration... Which I understand, skating is not easy! But I think it was amplified because I was there. Then at the end I finally got rid the girls going on their own and decided to take a lap alone, and ended up having kids go in front of me and me fall down and take them all out! I was mortified to say the least... Made sure everyone was ok and jetted off that ice as quickly as I could! 

Hoping Steve can help next week for an hour, or else I'll just help tie skates! 

Tomorrow I will have my hubby home! So looking forward to it!!! 

Sunday!

Documenting our sleepovers... They have been loving falling asleep together in my bed! Then one gets booted down to the floor. Hopefully the adjustment isn't too hard when Steve gets home! 

Church was awesome this morning! Since our life group read the book radical and two of the guys in our group are on the leadership team at our church- they decided to do it together as a team and it is so exciting! 

Our church has been hurting in the fact that ever since we have been going it has been "seeker-friendly" keep everything light so that no one is offended and you can reach more people. We had secular music to open up the service, lots of jokes and only fluffy stuff spoken at church to make you feel good about the way your living. I understand why people want to do it... But Jesus was not seeker friendly. He spoke the truth, he offended and he called people out living in sin! The church is a place to learn and grow in your faith and to be challenged. We have missed that deep teaching we enjoyed at our previous church in Calgary. So all that to say- our leadership team is starting radical and they are excited about it! Our pastor spoke a challenging message on giving and spoke from Malachi in the Old Testament. He was saying that if you aren't giving your best to God why even bother? And giving is one of the only things that God says to test him on.

"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!" Malachi 3:10

I love this... It gets me excited because we have seen Gods hand move time and time again in regards to our tithe. When you give even when it hurts and when you give the firsts of your fruits and not the leftovers to God. I love the story in

Mark 12:41-44"41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

When Steve went to bible school in Germany, he had amazing teaching on tithing and I remember when we were first married this was his conviction. We had nothing, literally nothing. Married at 18, baby at 19, Steve scraping by trying to find work. We lived in a tiny basement suite with no windows in the back of it and my grocery bill was $25 per week. Each month Steve would take his 10% of whatever he earned and we would bring it to church with me fighting it saying we needed diapers or food or gas money. But he would always give it. Eventually I gave up fighting and at the end of that first year we had more savings then we could believe and we only made $18,000 that year and lived off that paying $850 a month in rent. God is good... I was taught a big lesson that year as the numbers did not add up! 

Again when Steve received his settlement from his accident and we were living in crofton, working at camp and scraping by trying to find a bigger house. He received a large chunk of money and said he had to tithe his 10% I was shocked! We needed to buy a house, or a new vehicle or, or, or!!! But he gave and we prayed over it and that week our pastor called us saying a couple in our church had a house they needed to move out of ASAP. We looked at, knew it was perfect, agreed to buy it and then they called and told us they wanted to sell it to us for $45,000 less then they bought it for two years earlier! All praise be to God! 

You cannot out give God!!! 

Anyways, I am very excited to see what God has in store for our church and the community of crofton. So far since the study one couple in our life group has felt led to adopt siblings from Haiti, they also gave away their car to a struggling family in desperate need of one. Steve felt called to the Dominican and went, another couple is starting to downsize and sell what they don't need, another couple has started having youth in croftom to their homes every Sunday after church for lunch and a bible study. Already 25 youth from crofton are going and only 3 are from church going families. 

I highly recommend reading the book "radical" and studying it with friends or a group... It is a man who has humbled himself before God and is reading His word and living it out... Something we should all be doing! 

Anyways after that huge rant- onto some pictures of our fun Sunday! 

Took the girls to subway for lunch and then followed by going to the pet store across the street to pick Meeko a new squeaky toy. He loved his pig we bought him so much he chewed the head off! Amara carries her own diaper bag everywhere we go... She is pretty cute! 

My favourite... Amara loves her big sisters soooo much! Danika is so good with her and always looks out for her best interest. Sometimes I still feel like Danika is more of a mom than me! The other night at dinner Amara didn't finish her food and the girls were getting dessert, and I got Amara some and Danika looks at me and says "mom she needs to finish her food first," and proceeded to feed her her dinner!

There was a huge wind storm Sunday morning that knocked off huge branches off our trees. So we spent some of the gorgeous afternoon making a big burn pile of branches.

My girls... They all rock! I am totally blessed to be privileged enough to be their mommy and to call them my daughters. They are each so unique, with such wonderful personalities and I pray we can raise them into woman of integrity who love Jesus!!! 

My dolly... 

Friday and Saturday!

Friday was gorgeous weather! Our beautiful sun was shining and felt warm again! So after drop off and tidying the house a bit I texted my friend crystal asking if she wanted to walk. Apparently she had just dropped her daughter off in Duncan at day care and was about to pass my house, so she stopped in and we went for a nice long walk. So good to catch up... Crystal always has so much going on in her head- so many big questions and always awesome talks about our God. Our topic of discussion was prayer- why bother if God has already predestined things. But our discussion was good and we both talked about how prayer moves the hand of God and we have both seen that in our own lives and the bible has so many examples! God wanted to destroy the Israelites so.many.times but Moses pleaded with him. And I was sharing how the dr's told Steve's family that he would never be able to eat, or talk again and had permantly put in a feeding tube in his side. But his dad came, placed hands on Steve's neck and prayed for healing and he whispered... A miracle with no explanation from the doctors. I get pretty excited talking about prayer as I have felt God and witnessed Him do some amazing things through His people praying! 

The girls only had a half day so I left to pick them up early and my awesome friend Sharon texted to meet me to meet her atHome hardware as I was complaining I didn't know how to start a fire in our fireplace. So as I pulled up to HH she told me to park in front and come pay... She had picked me up fire starters and a lighter and gave me a quick run down how to start it... Awesome, efficient friend hey?! 

I was right on time picking up the girls and then we went home to get ready for our big sleepover! 

The Nagtegaal girls came for the night. We made pizzas, then watched dolphin tale 2... A wee bit cheesy, but the girls loved it. Amara was all over Caroline and lize and refused to come to me or Danika! Little monkey! She sure loves them! 

The girls all slept in one room and Caroline and I had an awesome night of visiting... Such a dear friend with such a heart of God. So neat to live this life together with our girls being the same ages and realizing life isn't so hard when their is one journeying through the same struggles with their kids! 

I slept like a log... Just knowing another adult is in the house! 

In the morning we ate yummy breakfast, I had to wake Amara up at 8:45... That girl is such an amazing sleeper! 

They left around 10 am and then the girls and I had the day to ourselves... A very long day! We tried some science experiments like making a tornado in a jar... Cool, but not as cool as the pictures we saw. Then made some "snow" out of baking soda and water... Also cool, but messy. We melted beads into flowers and the girls tried writing their own books. They both did a great job! 

We were able to FaceTime with Steve for a bit again today... Such a scary day for him. 

Email he sent... 

 today is so hot!!! It has been really challenging. I have been put in charge of building a huge beam that will wrap around the top of the building to hold it all together. However as I was working in the hot sun today my body overheated. My face was pulsing and I couldn't cool down, not even laying in the shade. I got chills but I was sweating hot and not cooling down. So I rode home in an air-conditioned suv and had a cold shower when I got back to the hotel. Dad had the same sort of thing happen on day 2 and not as severe but again today he was getting dizzy and couldn't cool down.                               Mike has been holding up good. He has not overheated yet, but he told me before we left that he has no problems working in extreme heat. He is a blessing to have along with us and I appreciate him allot.                         Right now Dad is sleeping and I'm just enjoying the shade and quiet of our room. I miss you like crazy!! Even tho it has been very challenging to be away from you and our beautiful girls I really am feeling like this is the right thing to do. And even tho it was majorly disappointing that we didn't get to build a home it feels like we are doing the right thing by building the church. I love the kids hear and my heart breaks when I see some of them. I want to take them home with me. The little girl name Josie loves me. She is six and she feels very comfortable with me. She grabs my hand and pulls me around to show me things. And if she is playing with the other kids she hides behind me. She is the pastora's grand daughter. Josie's mom works in the city and the husband has left their family.                                              The dominican does not feel safe at all. All of the resorts are surrounded with barbed wire with razors attached to it. And some of the guys were telling me that the group before had people walk up and steal there necklaces in broad daylight.                    

I was going to tell you was that I shared my faith with one of the non christian guys in our group. I don't know how he felt in the end about it, but the seed is planted.                          

    I think I'm also going to share my story at Church on Sunday if I'm feeling better. (please pray that I don't get sick as I really want to go to the church)                                                       

  Words can express how much I love you and miss you!!!.     Good chat today! Love you!!!!

I love hearing my hubby's heart and have been praying a lot today! The heat is so scary, especially working in it! 

The girls and I ended our day with a hot tub, a movie and popcorn and then a bath to wash hair. It was a super low key day that I had extra energy to burn and spent the entire evening cleaning and organizing Steve's office... Felt so good to do that while listening to worship music. Hopefully he appreciates it and didn't have some rhyme or reason to his mess!!! 

Thursday

Finally made it over to my friends Charlene's for a visit with the girls. Had a really nice catch up visit and then headed home to put Amara for a nap. Caroline came and picked Adessa up for a play date so I could do some cleaning up of my house for my ladies night this evening. 

After school we came home and I attempted to give the girls hair cuts and do the big lice check. Danika was up first. Here is her hair pre-haircut...

I didn't bother with an after post because it was the most painful experience ever and it looks exactly the same!! 

She is so obsessed with her long hair that she was crying and way over reacting at my cutting skills. Anyways I ended up taking off two inches but you cannot tell!! It was also my first time cutting hair... But after shelling out money to hairdressers who take an inch or less off this mane of hers I figured how hard could it be?! 

Adessa was next- she is so sweet. She was very excited and very encouraging of my skills and wanted a whole new look. She was hoping for bangs "up to here" ( holding hand in line with the top of her forehead) and shorter hair so people could tell. But I started trimming and just couldn't do anymore. So hers also looks the same!  

Amara was a little pruney at this point and wanting out of the bath! 

For dinner Joanne, who is Mike's wife... Who is travelling with Steve to the Dominican brought us dinner. It was so lovely! She brought us a thing of sloppy joe meat, homemade buns, homemade loaf of bread, homemade cookies and a bag of carrots and chocolate! She spoiled us! 

We have been utterly blessed by our church family! 

In the evening Steve called us on FaceTime and it was so wonderful to see his face and hear his voice! He was able to figure out wifi but apparently it isn't super reliable. 

They are doing well. Not sleeping great, but working hard in the hot sauna like conditions. Everyone has been safe and healthy so that was a good update! 

They got off work a bit early and were able to go out snorkelling for a bit. I guess a few young guys in the group took Steve to a reef about 20 minutes from shore and they were out snorkelling for about 2 hours without stopping... With no life jackets! A little terrifying. Apparently they had floating Pepsi bottles full of bread though and they sprayed it out and thousands of fish would swim under them. 

I guess when they were swimming up to the reef, there was a charter boat and the man in the boat was yelling "shark! Shark!" And Steve said he has never been more terrified! But the guys with him said he was just trying to scare them off... Thankfully!!! 

The girls were so excited to talk to daddy and had lots of questions. Where Steve is building the church there is a little girl who is 8 years old and Steve says she is always around. I guess they have a special hand shake that they like to do! And the girls wanted him to give her the baseball gloves they sent along. I guess Steve is the only one down there with any framing knowledge, so he has been busy building the trusses for the building. So proud of my hubby! 

After I got the girlies tucked into bed, 5 of my girl friends came over for a hot tub and a movie. So much fun! Hung out in the hot tub for an hour and then came in to pop popcorn and we watched 'moms night out,' super cute film! We laughed our heads off as we can all relate!!! 

I went to bed feeling very content, and so blessed by all God has placed in my life! 

And thankful that I did NOT find any bugs in my girls hair... *huge sigh of relief* 

Today was another busy one! Woke up at the crack of dawn to get ready for the day... Had to wake up 2 out of the three girls for breakfast... Adessa is always my early riser, so we get some morning snuggles and she gets a bit of iPad time while I get ready. 

After I dropped the girls at school, we did our grocery shop then met some friends at Wendy's house for another play date. 

Amara just loves it- she runs from room to room playing with everything and not caring where I am so I can sit and visit wih my coffee! 

We went home for naps I attempted to clean my microsuede sofa for her entire nap... Looks a bit better but not much! 

During that intense cleaning time I got a phone call from Steve. Soooo good to hear his voice even though it has only been 2 days. It's funny how you take things like his voice and his cuddles for granted when you have them all the time!

He said they are doing well. They hadn't slept much- first night they were traveling on a jam packed plane and then the second there were no alarm clocks in the hotel room so him and his dad slowly waking up throughout the night thinking it was time to get up. He said the hotel is pretty ran down, the food is decent and they were told to make sure mosquitoes don't come near them! ( they brought deet spray) but apparently when they went into their room there were a bunch of mosquitoes in there! Quite the adventure already I would say! 

They did there first work day today in +35 shovelling gravel and lifting bricks and were all dead tired. Day 1 out of 7 down. Praying lots for them and their team! It was a quick phone call because apparently it cost $1.50 per minute and the wifi isn't working at the hotel! 

The girls have been pretty bummed that they can't talk to daddy... But we just make sure to pray for him lots! 

After school amara insisted on carrying our friend, Ava's booster seat out to the car even though it probably weighed as much as her! She is one determined little chick. I love that about her... She also insists on wearing her own backpack so she carries her own diapers and changes of clothes! 

We were invited to a friends in crofton for dinner- the ways who have two darling little girls ages 4 and almost 2. The girls played wonderfully... Except the youngest two who kept fighting over toys! 

I now have all girls tucked in bed and am warming up in the hot tub... Hoping I don't drop my cell phone! 😊

Goodbye My Love

Tonight we dropped Steve off at the airport... And my heart hurts. This trip was planned quickly and came so quickly and now he is gone. I have total peace about him leaving, but as I lay in my bed, with both girls here (sleeping with me because I can't sleep alone!) and no hubby I am kind of sad. I have been the one to take off on trips- when I went to El Salvador a couple of years ago, Las Vegas for my sis in laws bachelorette, every summer driving back to Alberta. Never have I been the one left behind. He always told me how hard it was because I am a terrible communicator when away, and now he doesn't have a phone but I will hopefully be able to connect once a day through Skype, as he brought his laptop. 

Our church family has been so generous and have donated $2200 towards the trip that will cover the costs of the three compassions suitcases Steve, mike and his dad are able to bring down. They filled them over full (like 75lbs) full of hammers, nails, hundreds of socks and undies for the children in the school,Steve's suppliers donated some new tools, vitamins, bags of prescription and reading glasses, and sports equipment. It was amazing! The girls both have baseball gloves and put them in Steve's suitcase as well as they were excited to be able to give something. 

 Today I helped Steve pack up his last minute things, he had a bunch of emails to write and he dropped his phone off with one of his guys so they could run the business while he was away. After the girls were done school we went for dinner at white spot for our best family meal out in a long time! Amara actually sat and didn't scream... Too loudly! 

Steve wasn't sure how he was feeling  as he has been so busy with work and life, he hadn't really thought of the trip too much- it just came! He was a little nervous of working in the hot heat- so lots of prayers for strength and health are needed. 

I am excited for my husband and excited to see what God will do in His life. God wants us to live a radical life and to tell others about Him and "to go and make disciples of all the nations." Matthew 28:19 

I am thankful he heard Gods calling and took the challenge! It will be a long couple of weeks but I am also interested to see how I can do without him. The week is already filling up with things to do, so I'm sure time will pass quickly! 

Quick photo with dad before we say goodbye! Amara said bye and then ran for the doors... Which open automatically... Not cool with a runaway child! I got the girls in the van and they cried their eyes out for most of the trip home. Thankfully Steve flew out of Nanaimo so it wasn't too bad! We will miss you my love!!!