We Made It!!!!!!!

Well, it took some doing but we made it back to South Carolina. It was 72 when we got here, man what a bummer. We will miss the snow, just a little bit. It has been great seeing everybody here. We do miss Wheaton and all our friends there. We are getting settled in and unpacking. Wow, it amazes me every time we move how much stuff we accumulate and how disorganized it can all be after it comes back off the truck. The picture at the top is of all the kids and their two cousins: Moses and Ellie. We are Going to be going to Orlando late this month for our initial training we are getting very excited. We hope to be able to talk to everyone soon.

Winter has Arrived

Winter pays no attention to the calender apparently. We had our first good snow of the year the other day and its snowing now. It is exciting to see it again. The kids are having a great time playing in it with their friend in the neighborhood. Everything else is going well. I finished my comprehensive exams. I have already heard back and I passed all of them. All is well with Wycliffe too; we are going to be in Orlando from Jan. 17-31 for our initial training. We are also looking forward to being home (in Spartanburg) for a little while before we go. There was a commissioning service at school today for all the people graduating this semester . There are 16 of us if you count the TESOL people too. As you can see from the picture we have also put up our little Christmas tree. Silas is very interested in the ornaments. I hope the new wears off soon.

Great News

Hey, everyone I just wanted to tell you that we heard from Wycliffe last night and we have been accepted. It looks like we will be going to Papua New Guinea. We are very excited and look forward to talking to all of you about it. We miss everyone very much. We will be moving back to Spartanburg for a while after I graduate in December. We are planing to visit everybody and renew some old friendships. Thank you for all your prayers. Please feel free to call us we would love to hear from you. I will keep you up to date with details as they become available to us. Again I just want to say thank you.

Mattica Lives On

Carrying on in the tradition of his father Matthew has had an extended birthday. He started the past saturday with a party in Wheaton. It had a pirate theme. He had a good many of his friends there. today was his actual birthday and we went to eat at a missionaries house here in Waxhaw. They knew that it was his birthday and they made him a cake and gave him a present. It was very nice and also very unexpected. We are going to see Nana and Papa on our way back up Friday in Charolette and I think they are going to have something for him there. And I also suspect that Grandma and Grandpa have sent him something that will be waiting for him when we get home. In adition to all this we have not given him his present from us yet either. It must be great to be 5. He has realy been a great sport about all the caious around his birthday. We are enjoying the sunny weather here in NC. All is going well with our interviews and working with them. They are great people. I have also built a sset of stairs for them since I have been here. Tomorow and thursday I will be working in a house helping to finish a kitchen.

Moving Forward

Everything seems to be going well with our application to Wycliffe. We had a phone interview with them earlier this week, that went well. We are also going to their Jaars facility, in Waxhaw, NC, next week for further evaluation and assessment. We are looking forward to being in NC again. I will be taking tests and working with some of their staff there. It is amazing how fast the process is moving. It can only be attributed to the hand of God. I am excited about meeting more Wycliffe folks and seeing the Jaars facility. Please pray that we make the trip safely and without incident and that everything goes smoothly while we are there. We will keep you posted.

Its Not 2001 Space Odyssey But it is an Adventure

Well, surprise everybody. It sure was to us. Number five is on the way. We went to the midwife today. We are not sure about how far along Tiff is but she could be as much as 10 weeks. The due date right now is April 16. That is subject to change. We are going for an ultrasound next week to get a better date. We have known for a couple of weeks sorry to keep it a secret from you but we have been trying to get our minds around it. We are starting to get excited now. The rest of our big news is that we are applying with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We have had two meeting with them so far. We are starting the application process. There is a training session in January that we are trying to make it into so we are really having to push hard in the application process. On top of this new news and my regular school and comprehensive exams that will be coming up. There is never a dull moment around here. Give us a call.

Silas' 1st birthday

Silas' first birthday was this Past Saturday. Grandma and grandpa came up to celebrate it with us. We had tacos for lunch and yellow cake with chocolate icing for desert. Silas was as interested in beating the cake as he was eating it but he finally got the hang of it and picked the cake up and bit it. He didn't have much trouble figuring out how to open presents. The problem we are having is that ever since then he has been tearing up every piece of paper he comes in contact with. His two favorite presents are a microphone that makes your voice echo that Mae gave him and a walker from everybody. He had shown no real interest in walking until he got the walker.

He is going all over the house now. We continued his birthday on Sunday with a visit to Chicago. We rode the train down and took the free trolley to Millennium Park. We took in all the modern art there. From there we walked to Navy Pier along the lakefront. It was a nice walk and something that we had not done before. It was a long day and everyone was exhausted by the time we got home. Matthew is going back to the doctor Thursday. They will be taking off his cast and removing the pins from his arm. He will get a short cast that will be waterproof. He is really excited about that. Isaac has started a new job as a cricket rancher. He and I built a cricket cage and caught some crickets in the yard. He disappears periodically and we find him in the garage staring at the crickets. Mae has started school again and I am amazed at how well she can read and spell. Hopefully she will follow in Tiff's footsteps in that respect.