A White Christmas!!!

We spent Christmas in Oklahoma, where we had our first white Christmas! It started Christmas eve and we got 16 inches. It was a record for this part of Oklahoma in December!

As you can see, Bauer LOVES the snow. It's like he was made for it! We could barely get him to come inside.

Notice there are no pictures of Winston playing in the snow.... He pretty much stayed inside and sat in front of the space heater the whole time!

Addison

My niece Addison....

Is the cutest.....

Little girl ever!

Christmas season has begun!

I absolutely LOVE this time of year! We decorated our tree the day after Thanksgiving. Why wait?

OKLAHOMA!

Well, we are pretty close to making a final decision. As of right now, we are pretty sure Oklahoma is where we will be moving this summer to Church plant! We are still praying and trying to do whatever we can to make sure this is where we need to be, but everything seems to be pointing us there. We are so ready to start preparing for this exciting journey!

We came up to Oklahoma this past week to start checking out different neighborhoods, meet with some pastors and Church planters, and visit family and friends. It was a great week! We can't wait to start putting down some roots, and be a part of what God is already doing here!

Noooooooooooooo!!!

It happened. My computer crashed. Yep, the computer that I do all my work on. UGHHH! Thank goodness I back up everything, and even though the computer was beyond repair they were able to recover all my files. (WHEW).

The upside? I get to get a new computer!!! Apple store here I come!

Together For Adoption

We didn't get to go to this conference, but a bunch of our friends did. We tuned in to some of it online and it was amazing! Whether you have thought about adoption or not, you should definitely check out this site! http://togetherforadoption.com/

Bats anyone?

Jeremy's brother came down for a visit this weekend, and we decided to check out the bats. Apparently Austin is home of the largest urban bat colony in america. They all stay under this one particular bridge during the day, then all at once they fly out at night. June and August are the best times to see them because they will come out while it is lighter. I was able to get a pic of the first few stragglers, but by the time they all came swarming out it was way to dark to photograph!!

East coast? West coast? Right in the middle?

We are a month into our second year here and still don't know where we will be moving next summer to Church plant! During the next few months we hope to get some guidance and clarity from God. I'm posting this to ask for your prayers as we sort through our options!

Right now we are looking at Oklahoma as one possibility. Jeremy is from there and we both love the Norman/OKC area. Another option that is just as likely is to head northwest, possibly to Boise. We just feel drawn there and are planning to take a trip out there for Church planting scouting purposes sometime this fall. And finally, the northeast is on the list of places to consider. Our trip to Boston and New York definately made us more interested in that part of the country as well!

So you can see the difficulty of deciding between so many places that are all so different, but so appealing! Please be praying for us as we begin to narrow down our options and hopefully choose a location in the next few months!

Boomer Sooner!!!

Winston and Bauer are ready for football season!

yes, we're those people. Not really, but since we don't have kids yet (see previous blogs) this is as close as we can get!

Who knew getting pregnant would be so dang hard?!!

So, many of you know we have been struggling with infertility for the past two years. As difficult as it has been, I wouldn't change a thing about what God has brought us through. Don't get me wrong, I'm ready at any time for this trial to end and for us to be blessed with a family! My desire to be a parent grows more and more every day. But I am so thankful for the closeness to God and to each other that we have expereinced through everything.

There's a verse in the Bible that says it is better to be in a house of mourning than a house of laughter. I never really started to understand that verse until this past year. Nobody wants to go through times of mourning. But think about what our lives would be like if we never had to experience anything hard. We would never grow in character, never feel like we need God, and never experience the peace and joy that comes as we draw nearer to Him, leaning on Him for strength. Going through our miscarriage last year was one of the saddest months for me, but in a wierd way also the sweetest. My marriage became stronger, my friendships deeper, and most importantly I learned to trust God more with my future, and feel His presence more in my life because of it.

It's tempting to want everything to go my way all the time in my future. I want my family, job, finances, and whatever else to be just how I plan. But even more than I want all these things, I want God's best for me, and if God's best for me means struggling with infertility than that's what I wan't. He is good and I can trust Him, even if I can't see or understand why things happen the way they do. To aviod the trials in life would be to turn my back on experiencing God, and He is worth walking through this for.

Dominican Republic!!!

We had the amazing opportunity to lead a mission trip to the Dominican Republic a few weeks ago! We spent the week prepping and painting a new edition to a school called Makarios. It's a school for kids in poverty who can't afford to go to public school. (Public school is not free in the DR, leaving many kids without the chance to get any education!) For more information on Makarios, click here.

Here are some pics of the week!

Jeremy painting away!

Laura loving on one of the kids

We did a lot of painting and sanding cement walls

Here's the whole group.

Riley, Jeremy, Nicole, Laura, Cara, Bradley, Katelyn, Graham, and Grace

Boston & New York.... possible church plant destinations?

So we just got back from a trip to the northeast to check out some possible cities to Church plant in. We went with another couple who is interested in Church planting, as well as a few students who wanted to check out grad schools.

First we went to Boston for three days... we walked A LOT and saw about as much of the city as possible!

Then we took a bus to New York and stayed there three days also. Again, a lot of walking!

Aside from the usual tourist attractions, we made it a point to walk around the different nieghborhoods and areas of each city, getting a feel for what life is like for the locals.

We also got to meet with church planters in each city. It was great, we got a lot of advice and perspective on the challenges that come along with planting in the northeast. We still don't know if that is where we will end up... but it is definitely an option!

Surgery!!!

Many of you know that we have been trying to start a family for almost two years now. We started to suspect endometriosis as the problem, so I (Nicole) had a minor surgery about a week and a half ago to check things out. They ended up finding quite a bit of endometriosis, and a large cyst, and were able to remove it all. They can't say for sure if this was the cause of our fertility problems, but they do think our chances will be improved now that it is removed!

Please be praying for us in this area. Endometriosis grows back, so our best chances are in the next six months. We will keep you all updated!

Learning in Washington at SOMA!!

We recently got to go to an amazing conference in Tacoma, Washington put on by Soma, a local Church. It was so great and really inspiring! They really know how to live in community centered on the gospel, something that we seem to let slip all too often! Here are a few of the things we learned:

*First, the lost art of story telling. Our culture, like most cultures, connects with stories. So why do we primarily teach the Bible with an outline and bullet points? We got to experience hearing the full story of God, from beginning to end. At first we were skeptical, thinking we already know all the stories, but it was amazing and humbling how much the Lord taught us through it.

*And second, how to really create and live in community centered on the gospel. Most of us have settled for a shallow version, but when we truly become family with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and invite others into that family, it's pretty incredible!

These will definitely be a big part of our vision in the years ahead, so stay tuned for more writing on these topics!

*Awesome pic by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashishmalgi/2694301620/

It's about time...

Ok, so we have been meaning to start a blog for the longest time, but for some reason writing that first post always seemed so intimidating! Well, we've been in Austin for about six months now, and I've decided that it's now or never. So here goes!

For those of you who don't know our story, we moved to Austin for a two year residency to get some training in church planting. (Basically, starting a church from scratch). This means that in another year and a half, we will leave Austin and go wherever we feel the Lord leading us, hopefully with a team to work together with, and start a church. It will look very different then you may think, probably starting in our house and then spreading to other homes as it grows. It's a long, difficult process that absolutely requires tons of prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which is why we want to start this blog. We want you to all be in the loop on what the Lord is doing while we are here, so that you can be praying for us and helping us as we set out on this scary but exiting journey! So I, well we, will be doing our best to post as often as we can!

As of right now we have no idea where we are going to go when we plant, so that is a definite prayer need! Please pray that the Lord will let us know where He wants us and that we will have no doubts in our minds that we are going to the right city! We will keep you all posted on our progress!

Thanks for your prayers!!

[image by: noel zia lee]