We're Here

Our 24 hours of traveling, and then an additional 5 1/2 hours we arrived in Swaziland.

Our family encountered a small hiccup when our flight out of Nashville was delayed 2 hours because of weather in Chicago.

As a result, we got switched to another airline and put on a totally different flight than the rest of the team to South Africa.

In the end, it all went well. Both flights arrived around the same time. We all made it through customs and EVERY BAG arrived!! That is something to celebrate!

After our drive into Swaziland today, 12 of us went to the Swazi Cultural Center to take a tour and see a show of traditional Swazi dances and songs. It was awesome!

Tomorrow, we head to church and to the Halfway House(Swazi orphanage where Isaiah and Laila are from). I can't wait to see the children and women there and show them new pictures of Isaiah and Laila. They have grown and changed so much over the last 2 years!!

Please keep us in your prayers:

1. Adjustment to the new time zone and culture for our team.

2. Pray for us as we prepare our hearts to minister this week.

Swaziland, Here We Come!!

Our 5 year anniversary trip to Swaziland, Africa will commence on Thursday! Our team of 19 people is packing, praying, and gearing up for a long journey. It's hard to believe we have been investing in our Care Point and the people of Swaziland for so long! Your gifts, school supplies, medical supplies, suits, toys, letters of encouragement, etc. will become a representation of God's love and provision. In addition we are able to bring 4 laptops to give to leaders to multiply their ministry. Thanks for sacrificing and taking the time to invest. We are hoping God will multiply what we offer to be an incredible blessing to those in need.

We will have limited internet and email. I am hoping to send out updates from our trip on this blog. In addition we will attempt to post on Facebook and send emails back. We will have to see what is available.

Please pray for our team. Pray for their hearts as they adjust to a new culture and see life experiences that will forever change them. Pray that our presence will be an encouragement to the pastors and leaders to know they are not alone. Pray that our limited, tiny efforts will be glorifying to God and be used for His Kingdom. The immediate requests related to our travels are:

1. No flight delays.

2. Easy check-in for the team at the airport(We are taking 1,000 lbs. of supplies with us!!)

3. Health for those of us traveling.

4. ALL of our luggage would arrive safely and without delay.

5. Safe travels for the people on the ground in Africa coming to pick us up at the airport.

We will arrive in Johannesburg, SA on Friday evening and drive into Swaziland on Sat., June 11.

To see how this ministry was started and what God has done, you can go to beyondsurvival.org and click on, The Dream, at the top to see a mini-documentary of the ministry of Beyond Survival.

We look forward to sharing with you as we embark on this journey as a team!!

Good Times with Grammy!

Lauren and Abby both have Birthdays in July. When I visited my mom a couple of weeks ago for her bday, we got pedicures. The place we went to had chairs for little girls. That is when we had the brilliant idea that taking the girls when we came in June would be the perfect gift for their bdays.

Today we took them to get their very first pedicures and have their fingernails painted.

Oh, so many colors to choose from!!

The decision: Abby - yellow, Lauren - glittery blue

Each chair had its very own dvd player.

Abby chose to watch Madagascar 2

Lauren chose to watch Open Season 2

I am not sure if we should be pampering them this much at such a young age!!

They might expect this more often! : )

They were very quiet during the process, but could not stop talking about it afterwards.

They both agreed their favorite part was soaking their feet in the warm swirling water.

Nail time!!

Finished Product: Abby -

You can't see in the picture that she also had a glittery finish on top of her color.

Finished Product: Lauren

Matching Nails

Thank you, Grammy!!

We followed our time out to lunch

Then, we did a little shopping. Both girls came away with new cute socks and shoes. I think it was the perfect way to celebrate their bdays with Grammy!

Recovering and Regrouping

We arrived in KY on Sat. morning.

We made the drive in record time: 18 1/2 hours. We actually only stopped 3 times.

Our kids were total rock star travelers with the typical sibling fighting intermingled into the mix.

We spent yesterday resting and getting everyone settled in at my parents' house.

The kids were greeted on their beds with pajamas and pillows that Grammy made for each of them.

It is HOT here, and truthfully, I LOVE IT!

The humidity can take your breath away.

I probably wouldn't like it every day of my life, but is such a nice break from the cold and wind of CO. (If you don't live there, you might not realize that even on our warm days lately, it has been so windy it hasn't been very enjoyable.)

My kids are not used to the heat. They are truly CO kids.

We are hearing things like, "It's so hot," "I can't breathe," and "My eyes are itching."

Their faces are red most of the time, they are glistening with sweat, and their allergies are going crazy.

Today we visited the church that I went to from the day it started. It is the church where Rick and I met a year later. It is the church where we started working in ministry. It is the church where we got married.

We have a lot of history there. We saw lots of familiar faces. We got to show off our big family. We heard, "I don't know how you do it," A LOT.

We felt old when we saw kids I babysat that have just graduated from college. Their parents felt old when they see that Cody is almost a teenager!!

The afternoon and evening were spent with Rick's side of the family.

All I need to say is 15 grandkids ranging in ages from 2-18(14 of them are ages 2-13!!). Total chaos and our kids loved every minute of it.

It has been good. We are resting and at the same time gearing up for our trip to Swaziland.

Only 4 more days!!

Don't Move!

Over the last week, everyone in the family has gotten their hair cut or redone(Laila). It hit me this afternoon, that we hadn't done Isaiah's hair. In addition to packing tonight, Rick took a break to mark that task off the checklist.

Isaiah does not like it and makes this moaning noise the whole time.

Those edges are hard to get with a squirming boy!

Rick kept saying, "Isaiah, you can't move."

Then, my favorite quote of the day came out of Isaiah's mouth,

"Dad, I'm just going to move my eyeballs."

That just made me laugh. If you haven't met Isaiah,

then you don't know how hard of a task that truly is for him.

He has to be moving some part of his body at ALL times.

In this case, he was willing to settle for his eyeballs!

Here he is as proud as can be with his new cut!

No haircut is complete without a sucker at the end!!

Who Knew?

Who knew that packing 8 people for a trip could be more complicated than packing almost 1,000 lbs. of supplies?

Who knew batteries, candy, and t-shirts weigh so much?

Who knew that we could pack almost 1,000 lbs. of stuff in only an hour?

Who knew that going to the cable office would take so much time?

Who knew that I could drink so much sweet tea in one week?

Who knew that those chocolate covered strawberries in my fridge would be such a blessing on this day? (Thanks, Hosanna!)

Who knew we could have such an amazing team of 19 people going to Swaziland?

Who knew that marking items off my to-do list could feel so good?

There have been some surprises over the last week. Even in the midst of the stress, chaos, unplanned work, and preparations for this trip, I have seen God's Hand.

He is in control.

What needs to happen will happen.

What needs to be taken to Africa will be taken.

All things work together for good.

I have experienced it over and over.

I believe it with all my heart.

Now, let's see the amazing work God is going to do.

We must get this family of ours packed and ready to go.

I have less than 24 hours to complete this task.

I plan to collapse tomorrow as we drive to KY.

Getting closer

My lists are actually getting shorter.

I am seeing a dim light at the end of the tunnel.

I had a crazy stress moment at one point today, but I stopped and watched "Secret Millionaire" with the kids and totally regained my perspective.

Tonight, we pack the supply bags for our trip. We will be taking 19 - 50lb. bags of supplies on this trip.

Tomorrow, I pack our family of 8 to trek across country and 4 of us to then go across the world.

This trip would not be possible without so much help from so many people.

There have been people shopping for me, picking up donations, contacting businesses, and a billion other things that are needed to get ready.

One week from today, we fly over the ocean.

I can't wait to see what God is going to do!!