April Update!

This picture was basically my life for the past two months. I'm excited to share with you what I did this month!! It was fantastic :)


So let's start with the pictures on my phone :) To the left we see the magical mold that I found in my house! You can't see it but the mold was all over this thing. I don't even know why this was still in my house - I found it while cleaning out a closet and it started to make me feel very sick - thus the mask on the right. I wore it around my house for a day just to make sure I wasn't still breathing in the spores. YUCK!

This is me early morning on the way to GUIDE Retreat. I don't look half bad which is surprising considering that I stayed up half the night because of sitting in the car.

Guide Retreat went really well. There were about 50 people who came to learn about the ministry of CEF and see how the Lord might be calling them. Every time that I go I am blessed and the Lord clearly speaks to my heart. While I was considering overseas missions as a future goal - I felt like the Lord closed that door. It was (at the time) devastating but now I can see how God is guiding me by closed doors. I feel like that is a difficult way to be guided, but I am willing to trust him.

 I have told the story many times of how when I was at CMI there was a plant hanging over my bed and a picture of a lady on one side of my room. For some reason when I was in CMI I never took a picture but this past trip to Missouri I was able to visit my old dorm room and it looks the same! There is the plant and the picture. It was very neat to reminisce, it also made me miss all the friends I made at CMI. I love it!

Okay there's a story with this picture. It was super late Friday night and Stephanie needs to go get groceries before our parent's came on Saturday night. So we had the brilliant plan at 9:30 at night to go with her! A group of about six girls and Patrick went to Wal-Mart. Abby was having a birthday the next day, knowing this we took her the opposite way of Stephanie and went into the toy isles. When Caitlyn saw this mask she had to try it on, "I'm basically a wrestler!" is what she kept saying. It was so great! :) But late trips to Wal-Mart are always interesting! 

Monday our family ventured out to the zoo!

 It was a really good day! Monday we also got our family pictures done :) It was a good time. It's strange to go from one person to nine in one night - Stephanie and Andrew's little apartment got very full, very fast!

 Tuesday we ventured into St. Louis and went to the City Museum. Now you hear the word Museum and you think walking through and seeing art or artifacts - it is not that kind of Museum. It is like a huge jungle gym for the whole family. Eveything is from around St. Louis and it is so much fun! This is when we took a break for lunch :)

Wednesday before we left for the Creation Museum we saw Cinderella! It was beautiful! Thank you Disney for not ruining this classic - I was really worried!

One of the last things that we did as a family was go to the Creation Museum. Answers in Genesis did a wonderful job putting together a quality museum that goes through how Creationism and the Bible fit together. I would highly suggest going if you are ever in KY! One of my favorite parts of this museum is that they have a petting zoo where you can feed animals. Emily's face was the BEST during her feeding the animals.  It was so great!

Then we drove home (which took forever!) and from that time (Sunday) to this I have done an impromptu CYIA promotional at a high school FCA, meet with Bethany Massey about the classes we are going to teach at CYIA, sent out a Newsletter to our Alumni, finished my personal newsletter and wrote a couple of blog posts. WHEW! I'm tired guys. I'm still catching up on sleep from my vacation.

The Lord has been teaching me a lot about myself and I hope to share it soon - I just don't know when I'm going to have the time and the wifi to do it. Overall though, I am doing really well and I look at myself and I think "Wow. God you took me from an emotional basket case to someone who is slightly less of an emotional basket case." I'm so thankful! I'm so grateful for his intervention in my life. I could have been left the way I was, but because he loves me he challenges me to live a life that is pleasing to him! Sigh :) That's pretty great guys!