A Quick Update

Thanks so much for your patience...I am behind on my updates again.  Life has been very busy since moving to Indiana three months ago.  Here is a quick update of what's been happening. 

Home:  We are happy homeowners!  Back in March we purchased our first home (besides a shared duplex during seminary) and we love it:)  It is a huge four bedroom house (Jim would say six) with a pool, volleyball court and my dream kitchen.  After years of moving around and living in apartments we feel totally spoiled.  We completely expected to buy a fixer upper, but God blessed us with our dream house on our bargain budget.  We can't wait to see what doors He will open to let us use this home to glorify Him and bless others.
     We haven't done much to the inside of the house (We even loved the paint colors already there!), but we have done extensive work on the outside.  Jim has totally transformed the front yard by putting in a drainage ditch, regrading the soil around the house, replacing all of the mulch with rock and leveling and replacing the path to our front gate.  He had a lot of help from my Dad and a little from me as well:)  It's looking great!  We also dug up and put in a garden in our backyard- I'm so looking forward to some fresh veggies this summer!

Church:  We have found an awesome church to be a part of!  It's amazing how quickly we felt at home and how much we look forward to Sundays.  The presence of God is evident and there is an excitement and energy that I haven't felt in quite a while.  We love it!  Jim and I have started helping out in the cafe Sunday evenings and I am getting involved with the greeter ministry and the worship team.

Job:  Jim is enjoying his new Chaplain placement at the prison.  He works with a great team and is really excited about the new opportunities.  Some recent projects have been going out to a lake property to cut willows for the Native Americans to build a new sweat lodge (My hubby is not your average chaplain!) and kicking off a Faith within Films- Fantasy Films class at the camp.
      I am still loving being at home- preparing for parenthood, welcoming friends and family, and working on our Indiana adoption update.   I also recently got involved with a mentoring program called Kids Hope USA- and was able to spend some quality time with a third grade boy who needed some encouragement and confidence.  He was really into learning about greek mythology so we created our own board game for him to take home and play over the summer.

Friends and Family:  We have company!  What a difference location makes.   Already in the few short months we have lived in Indiana we have had visits from our good friends Jeff and Lynda, my sister Christy and family, Jim's sisters and nieces, and my parents.  My brother is coming this weekend with our niece and nephew and more visits are in the works.  It has been so good to reconnect face to face with family and friends that we love and missed so much while in California.  Now we just need our California friends to come visit us here, hehe:) 

Adoption:    We are ALMOST finished with our homestudy update!  We had our home visit with Kathy last week which went very well.  All of our paperwork is in, except the doctor's letters, which are being worked on this week.  And I just spoke with Joanna from Our Chosen Child this morning who is going to help give a fresh look to our Dear Birthmother Letter.  Excited things are in the works and we will be back "in the books" soon!  Those of you who know us, know that we have been waiting for a long time to become parents.  It has been a hard, hard road at times, but somehow things feel different.  We both have a renewed excitement and hope that our baby will be in our arms soon! 

Well, I hope this gives you a little bit of an update on us and an explanation of why my blogging has been a bit sporadic.  Thank you so much to all of you who continue to follow our journey, encourage us, pray for us and love us!!!!  We sooooooo appreciate you:)