Mixed bag

We have some sad news, Bryan's dad passed away in June.

We will miss him. It's still hard to write about.

Silas is standing and cruising now. He has really made no attempt to standing without holding onto something. We are not pushing walking. We know we need to enjoy this stage while we can.

We took Silas out for his first swim.

He really enjoyed the water, you can see him in his baby float here. We also have a life jacket for him. We hope to take him on our boat soon.

Here he is taking Mommy for a drive. He's just like his Daddy, loves to be behind the wheel.

We also took a week vacation at the end of June. We were along the South Carolina coast near Myrtle Beach and then near Charleston. Silas loves the beach. He was a little scared of the waves at first, but Daddy soon warmed him up to the idea. We had a great time.

Happy 4th of July!

Visiting Family

We drove to Greenville, SC where most of Bryan's family lives. His sister Allison had her 3 kids Baptized and the oldest had her first Holy Communion. The youngest, Caleb is just 5 months older than Silas. They played nice together, even if Silas wanted his bottle! Silas is on the bottom of the picture.

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He's Crawling!!!

Silas started crawling Sunday. He is very curious and is learning about his arms and legs everytime he uses them. He has no problem crawling out of his room, down the hall and into the office where more toys are. What a sweetie!

We have so many blessings ...

We attended a prayer counselling meeting this month. It was great, we are both really excited to see what God and this ministry has for us. The counselling is based on the book, Biblical Healing and Deliverance by Kylstra. I really like that is stresses the ancestral line and healing before moving into deliverance. By doing that, the enemy doesn't have a leg to stand on and that makes the final step easy.

We live in a military town. The fact that we are at war is not something we can forget. We often hear Ft. Bragg practicing operations, some days our windows shake from the loud noise. Every month our church has soldiers that have just returned from deployment and those going out, stand and we all pray for their safety and for their families. During worship, we have a rock'n choir on stage with the band. On occasion our worship leader has a "surprise" worship leader, where he picks one in the choir without them knowing it beforehand. Recently he chose a soldier just back from a 15 month tour. It was awesome seeing this soldier sing praises to the Lord. You just know his faith effected those soldiers around him. God is so good.

Since January, I have been praying for God to pay off our credit card and give us a boat. I know it sounds outlandish, but it doesn't hurt to ask our father for good things. Well, our credit card is nearly paid off and God gave us a boat. It's a 1982 boat with a 1968 engine, but it only cost us $500. We weren't really looking for it, but Bryan's co-worker's Dad hasn't used it in 9 years and was willing to sell it. We are having a boat mechanic look at the engine this week, hopefully it will be in the water this weekend!

This past weekend, we had our cities premiere festival "The Dogwood" festival (The dogwood tree's bloom is our state flower). There was a big hooplah about the festival this year. For year our church, and others, have had a tent at the festival and passed our free water and such "to show the love of Jesus in a practical way". This year all churches and political organizations were banned from the festival. Our pastor spoke at the town counsel meeting as a plea to allow churches into the festival. In the end, churches were not allowed. Some churches spoke of boycotting, but I am so happy our church is a church of blessing. Our pastors told us several times that we should support the festival, go out and have a good time, and pray for next year. It just shows you that Manna Church is a church of blessing, not curses.

Bryan signed autographs at his station's booth for a few hours, while Silas and I joined some friends and walked around the festival. It was a big event and we all had a good time.

This past Sunday, Bryan and I setup Silas's first swing. We have a big oak tree off our back porch, overlooking the river. It has a perfect limb for a swing. Silas laughed and laughed, then he noticed the rope in front of him and tried to get it in his mouth.

Isn't he just the cutest thing?

Phoenix Visit & Baby Teeth

We were delighted to have some of our Phoenix friends visit us earlier this month. Bryan and Caroline Newsome were in the region for a conference, and decided to drive to our part of the state for a visit. We took them to a true southern buffet, because the south is all about all you can eat! We only wish we had more time to show them around.

Silas has two teeth. He has handled the process like a champ. We have given him orajel only 4-5 times.

Right now, he is getting over a slight ear infection. He had a fever for 4 days and we finally went to the doctor. Despite trying to let his body heal the infection, after a rough morning, we started him on his first dose of antibiotics.

He is getting closer and closer to crawling. At the moment, he is rocking on his legs. Our house is mostly baby-proofed, or so we think.

All of our trees are green again and our grass/weeds are really taking off. Bryan tilled the garden this weekend, so we are looking forward to planting this week (that is if it does not frost tonight). Our weather has been back and forth from mid-70s to mid-50s or lower. The dogwood trees and azalea bushes are in full bloom.

We are leading a cell group next cycle. We are going to adopt a street (2 miles) in the city of Fayetteville and pick up the litter once a month. It's a baby step in the cell leadership realm, but it's a step forward none the less.

Bryan and I are attending a class this weekend in preparation for prayer counselling. I'm excited to find out what God has in store for us next.

Half Way to the River!

My brother came up this weekend and helped us dig out stairs in our bank. The drop is about 30 feet and it took 23 steps. Once you get down to the plateau, it's another 30 foot straight drop. We don't have a cost effective idea on how to actually get down to the river.

The pic on the right is halfway down the stairs. The pic on the left if from the bottom of the stairs to the top. You can see we dug out the dirt then used 2*8 treated wood and rebar to hold the dirt. Then gravel on top. We next plan to put in a rope railing.

Below is the view from the plateau. We plan on some form of comfortable chairs, picnic table, or some sort.

Lumber River Walk

On March 2, we took a daytrip to the Lumber River. Despite the region being in a bad drought, the river was way up.

We enjoy seeing the spanish moss and the swampy area.








Silas enjoys playing with us.

We have also noticed that our 4 pawed family member is very smart. She came from a home with kids, and as soon as she saw a kid in the highchair, she knew where to park herself. Silas is not throwing food yet, but she is ready!

Global Impact Celebration

Our church just had our Global Impact Celebration, or GIC. It's a time where the church brings in several of the missionaries we support. The goal of GIC is to get everyone in the church involved in the mission field in some way. To light a fire in the hearts of the people here in Fayetteville and be a part of God's great plan. That can be done through praying for our missionaries, serving, giving, or going yourself. We heard stories from the missionaries and celebrate what has been accomplished and pray for their future goals.

We heard about local ministires - prayer counseling inside the church, regional - a ministry that collects, processes, and ships humanitarian aid based in NC, and international - missions in South and North Korea.

It was a great time, and in the 5 day event, they were able to raise more than their goal of $300,000. I am excited to be a part of a church with a "Vision to change the world". We are in 30-40 countries already.

Bryan and I hope to get involved in prayer counseling. We need to take a few classes first, we will probably finish the classes in 6 months or so.

I want to link you to Pastor Micheal's message on Feb. 24, the last day of GIC. Goto our church website http://www.mannachurch.org/ click the bottom left "Resources" button, then find the 2/24/08 "Mission Possible" message.

Going in and coming out!

Going In ... We have started Silas on solid foods. We gave him oatmeal cereal this Saturday, Feb. 16. He really liked it and grabbed the spoon from me. It's only natural to want to put everything in his mouth, this time it was what he was supposed to do!

Coming out ... His diapers are getting smellier. I had Silas on my lap Monday and before I knew it, he had mess all over himself -- nearly up to his armpits, back and front!! He is known to defy gravity with his poop, but this was rediculous! Never before had it come out of his diaper with such force. (It's all in the gas.) Since it was all over him, I decided to wipe down what I could and keep him in the crib until I could get his bath ready. (I needed to change the crib sheet anyway.) While I was gone, he peed and spit up in the crib. I'm glad he got it all out at once.

Cold and cut

Well, we did get a good dusting of snow. It came mostly at night, so I don't have a great picture. This is the beginning of the snow fall. It's from our backyard overlooking the river.

Here is Silas ready for cold weather.

He has his first cut. It happened while he was in his car seat. Must have been a fingernail!

What's going on with us ...

We had a wonderful trip to Phoenix. We saw so many of our friends - family really. God has blessed us with such a wonderful network of friends.

While we were there, we had Silas dedicated at Desert Breeze Community Church.

Since our trip, Silas has learned to roll over from his back to his tummy. He doesn't yet know how to go back, so he gets frustrated. It will not be long before he is crawling!

Oh Yes, we might have a pianist among us:)

It just started snowing here, so maybe it will stick and I'll get a picture.

Silas had a good Christmas.