and the adventure begins...

Early yesterday morning, we left Snyder, beginning step one of our adventure! We've spent the weekend visiting family on our route to Houston, where the Lord willing, we will fly out from this coming Wednesday. I'm REALLY glad to be finished packing. :) This being the Lord's Day, we drove to Austin and broke bread with some of the saints there, including my sister, Michelle and her husband, Brendan. It was fun to be their first house guests! The kids LOVED watching the trains go by in front of their flat and even Nate was big enough to enjoy swinging at the park with them. We're excited to see what the Lord has planned for us in the coming weeks; His ways are perfect and His heart is kind! I'll try to get pictures up soon, but it won't be tonight because I am sleepy and don't feel like unpacking the camera cord...it will have to wait till tomorrow! :)

Next stop: Honduras

Plans have changed: We have our flights booked and will be leaving Snyder around Feb. 4th and returning in early August (Brenden and Michelle will be staying at our house while we are gone). More details about our trip coming soon...

For those in Snyder, call Alesha and let's get together at least once more before we leave! Our schedule is filling up fast, so make your reservations now! Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Go, go, go!!!

;-)

Enjoy!

Taylor

Firsts at our house...

We've had some big firsts this week! Mainly, Glory FINALLY lost her loose tooth and Nate is mobile! Yes, the same boy that can't sit up by himself can s-c-o-o-n-t-c-h across the living room carpet just fine. Kids are weird... And we like them... A lot.

Back to Normal...Whatever That is...

Thursday was the last of our holiday festivities that began back on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

We have already commented about our trip to Canada. After Canada, we went to Houston for my family's Christmas activities. The trip was brief yet enjoyable. After that we had an exciting week with Granmom and Grandad Key as guests and helping get ready for Brenden and Michelle's wedding on a Friday. The following Sunday, there was another wedding in which Alesha sang and I gave a brief gospel message over 1st John 4:10. (And the fun keeps on going...) That same evening we brought guests home who are from Argentina; I had met them previously on my trip down south in April (and I learned from our guests that I am still remembered in City Bell, Argentina as the guy who fixed the coffee pot...go figure!). From Sunday through Thursday we had a grand time practicing our Spanish. Though Alesha learned a lot more than I did that week (it was one of my busiest weeks at work) we still had lots of fun. But now Friday and Saturday have been...well, almost boring compared to our last 7 weeks of adventure.

I think we should try another adventure later this year! (hint hint)

Enjoy!

Taylor

Remembering Canada

Our December has been a whirlwind, but I figured that I should post something of the trip to Canada and my brother's wedding, before any more excitement happens and it never gets written about!

For those want the two sentence version: We left our house two days before Thanksgiving and didn't get back until Dec. 9 .We had a great time; the kids were amazingly patient with the long driving days and we really enjoyed the time to be together.

For those who actually care where we went and what happened there: The first day, we only drove as far as Oklahoma City, where we stayed with the Kerrs. Glory really enjoyed playing in the fall leaves. Next we made the long drive to Ohio, where we were able to spend Thanksgiving with my Aunt and Uncle, which was a sweet treat for me...I love swapping songs with Aunt Debbie!! :) After spending a few days, we headed North to Ontario, where we would spend the week with the Mittons. We had a really pleasant week, and Taylor was able to work from the house, meaning that it cost us very little vacation. We were really challenged by their hospitality; I hope that we can do as well someday. Saturday, Dec. 4, my brother Jeremy married Liz Kuhn. We enjoyed getting to spend some time hanging out with Liz' family the day before the wedding. The ceremony was simple and elegant ...and little Nate slept through it so that I actually got to be in the same room...it was great! Welcome, welcome, Liz! I can't wait to get to know you better. :)

I can't tell about our trip to Canada without spelling out at least one adventure in detail...On the way back home we got stuck in a snow squall just outside of London, Ont. We pulled over for gas not even able to see what the gas station looked like for the snow. As the Lord had planned it, it was a truck stop with a restaurant, so we went in to eat and find out what we could about the storm. About that time, drivers from the other direction started coming in saying that they were closing the road. The waitresses were really kind and gave the kids coloring books and candy; they gave us free access to the WiFi, so we were able to check on the storm. Just as we were thinking to drive back the way we had come in search of a place to spend the night, the waitress came up to us and said, "there are hotel rooms upstairs. It's not the Hilton, but they're ok". We knew the Lord was taking care of us, when He directed us to the gas station, but now this! What gas station has hotel rooms? At this point, I didn't even mind the storm, I was just so excited to be cared for by such a God! We did spend the night. Taylor went to sleep really early; he was exhausted after driving in the snow...and my man being my man, that meant that he woke up at like 2:00 am. :/ So he checked the weather and watched the traffic crawl forward on the now re-opened road. It seemed that the storm was not going to pass for several days and that the road, at least temporarily, was pretty good. As soon as he saw the snowplows coming the opposite direction, we woke up the kids, bought coffee and banana bread down stairs and got ready to head out as soon as the snowplow came back our way. It was less than an hour before we were past the storm and on our way to the border.

On the trip home, we stopped by the Investortools office in Illinois, where we met up with friends from Taylor's work for a couple of days. One day while Taylor was working, I made a day trip with the kids to visit the Benders, who lived a couple hours off our route. We all made the drive back to Texas without much adventure...and had a whole 6 days before we left to celebrate Christmas with Taylor's family in Houston. :P Right now we are getting ready for my sister's wedding here in Snyder on Dec. 31. Exciting times! :)

To everything there is a season...

As I look at this picture of our biggest and our littlest, I'm kind of dumbstruck at how God is growing them up. After all, it wasn't too long ago that Glory was a little toothless snugglebug like Nate! I realize that here lately we have been doing a lot of thinking and a lot of praying about how God is growing us up as a family...and NO BLOGGING AT ALL. Sorry! So, for those who only keep up with us via what gets posted here, I better scoot WAY back and start at the very beginning (a very good place to start :) ... Ever since Taylor and I have been married, we have been working on learning Spanish. We used to visit a friend who did gospel work on the Texas/Mexico border, but we have not been in recent years due to the drug cartel activity in that area. We've looked for other opportunities to practice Spanish and continued to pray about someday living in a Spanish-speaking country. As we saw how readily our kids were picking up the minimal Spanish we exposed them to, we thought more and more about moving while they were young enough to absorb language so easily. Early this year, we realized that thanks to Taylor's extremely flexible/portable job, and the money the Lord has allowed him to make, the only thing keeping us from traveling was our milk cow...so in May, we sold her. We are prayerfully considering moving to Trujillo, Peru, for six months of next year. (That is as long as we can legally stay on a tourist visa). Though we are making plans in that direction, we certainly do not have tickets bought...and are waiting for the Lord to continue opening doors for us. We're really excited to get to experience such a different culture, and worship with brothers and sisters we've never met. :D We are not "Becoming Missionaries"; we are CONTINUING to be Christians, speaking about the Lord's loving-kindness as He gives us opportunity. We pray that the Lord uses our time there for His glory and covet your prayers that we would make decisions with His wisdom!

Presenting...a new school year!!!!!

OK, so the first picture probably sums up how this year will go. ;) Today, Glory started First Grade, and Levi joined the school in earnest. We go crazy sometimes, and we are disorganized a LOT of times. Sometimes I don't think it can get any crazier, but today, I wish everybody had a job as awesome as mine! :D I love these bugs!