Did you think I gave up on blogging?

So it's been almost 2 months, I think, since I blogged :)  In that time we had a visit from what we call "the Plague" that lasted for almost 4 weeks.  We've been busy putting up cribs and pulling out baby gear and clothes.  We painted the living room and got new couches.  We finally moved Isaac's dresser into his room and the train table out of baby's room.  And of course a few snows.  I can hardly wait for spring!!  The kids are actually sick again with runny noses and coughs.
I've been researching home school curriculum, cloth diapers, gardening stuff.  Samy has her last ballet lesson today (including a little "show" of what they've done!).  Isaac has been working hard at school.  He had a "gym show" as part of grandparents' day that we all went to.  Keith just got back from a couple days at the pastoral retreat.  And of course he's been hard at work around the house here too with the endless list of house projects and yard work.  Isaac is the cutest little helper out there!  I love looking out the kitchen window to see Isaac carrying wood, picking up leaves with his daddy or carrying food waste to the compost pile.  It's wonderful to see him learning to work hard even when it's cold outside!
I picked up a FREE Power Wheels Jeep last weekend that the kids have been driving around and around the yard.  Samy is a pretty bad driver, but is content to let Isaac drive as she rides with him :)
We're down to six weeks (actually a little less) before baby's due date and still without a boy name.  Keith and I just can't agree on a first name, though the middle name is decided.  I spent an entire day at the hospital to get my Rhogam shot (because of my blood type I have to get this shot each pregnancy so my body doesn't attack the baby as a foreign object if his/her blood type is different).  In Florida i was able to get this shot at one of my regular doctor's visits, but here in red tape Maryland, I spent an entire day registering at the hospital, getting extra blood work done, and then a wild goose chase to have a nurse give me a shot.  I'm a little scared what labor and delivery will be like :)
I've also been leading a book study of "When People are Big and God is Small" which is about fear of man.  It's been great to interact with ladies in totally different seasons of life and many of them who struggle significantly in this area.  I'm glad to be able to share what little wisdom God has given me in this area and point them to the gospel as our source of hope no matter what the sin!!
Keith is going to begin an evangelistic bible study in just a week or two with a bunch of folks who aren't sure what they believe.  We're both so excited about this opportunity for him to open up Scripture and tell them the truth about Jesus. 
Keith and our neighbor will be tilling up their large garden plot today in preparation for our joint gardening venture!  None of us know what we're doing but we're gonna give it a shot and I'll put chickens on hold for another year :)  Though the fact that they eat stink bugs sure makes me just want to throw some in our back yard!!

Hmm, I think that's most of what has happened over the last couple months.  A few pictures for your enjoyment...

The kids baking graham crackers with Samy's Christmas present

My first attempt at sourdough English muffins



One of the big snows of the year



Isaac not real happy about shoveling the driveway

Samy after her first ballet class



Freshly painted living room

New couch

Isaac's gym show (my pictures didn't turn out very good since i was far away and it was a gym)



Results of 2 blizzards and our Valentine's Day

Here are some pictures of the kids playing after the second or was it third (I've lost count) of snow and after the plows came. 3 feet of snow + snow plows = GIANT mounds of snow! Our neighbor and one of his friends made a fort out of the plow pile at the end of our street, which the kids have enjoyed for a few days. Now Isaac doesn't even want to go out. After the melted snow refroze on top of the rest of the snow, there was no more sledding b/c you just get stuck.
One plus of being stuck at home for two weeks is Samy is potty trained!! Today is day 5 in undies with no accidents so far :) She just decided one day she really wanted to wear those princess undies and that was it!
Isaac has been working hard on his reading lessons, much more out of motivation for the Cars toy he gets when he finishes the 100 lessons than out of desire to read :) Everyday he wants to do two lessons, sometimes he asks for a third. He's doing really well with it too, and i can hardly believe it when I'm listening to him read 4 sentence stories!

On a totally different note, we had a wonderful Valentine's day! I awoke to a Starbucks latte at my bedside then we went to church and were blessed to have CJ Mahaney preaching (we get him next week too!). It was phenomenal (as usual)! This is actually the first time he's preached at CLC since we've been here! He spoke on Jude, reminding us of the Father's great love for us in that we are CALLED to salvation, LOVED by God the Father and KEPT for Jesus! Keith and I have been so refreshed this week as we've continued to contemplate the amazing love of God for us in choosing to give us salvation when we were still enemies of God.
Sunday night was the Pastors College Sweethearts Banquet--what a blast! There are like 100 people who serve at this event, giving up their Valentine's evening to serve us and it was just overwhelming. Dinner and an array of skits to inspire us in romance and intimacy from poetry, to reading Song of Songs, to singing famous love songs, to singing Fiddler on the Roof's "Do you love me?" And of course there were fun surprises for the students! What an excellent way to spend Valentine's Day :)

You have to listen to this!

Give your view of God a reality check with this amazing message from Wayne Grudem at our church this morning. What a gift from God this man is!

The Greatness of God

Ultimate Man part 2

As a really funny follow-up to my post on Ultimate Man, you just have to watch this very short video!!! This is the man Keith works for :o)

The Ultimate Man

Jeff Purswell gave an astounding message yesterday at CLC on the incarnation. It was such a timely reminder at the beginning of the Christmas season to guard against the allurement of the world to a watered-down Christ. Jesus is so much more than a humble baby lying in a feeding trough--He is the living, reigning, enduring Word of God who became flesh then suffered and died for the sins of the world. But Jesus is even more than that! He is the RISEN Son of God, who has conquered death and is seated in heaven at the right hand of God the Father interceding for those who love Him!
As the December days roll by may we all be reminded that: "The incarnation is the ultimate display of God for the ultimate need of sinners. The Son of God revealed his glory and grace not only by becoming a man but also by dying on the cross for mankind."
And if you're wondering about "the ultimate man," you'll just have to listen to the message--you would never expect the explanation!

The Weltons are back online!

You may have been wondering if the Weltons had wandered right of the face of the earth on their way to Maryland it's been so long since I blogged, but we in fact were just without Internet :o) But I'm finally up and running again today and thought I'd give you a quick catch up on the last two weeks and hopefully pictures will follow sometime this weekend.

So we packed up in Sanford two weeks ago today with the help of our wonderful friends and home group and were on the road after a quick lunch. Saying goodbye didn't feel like goodbye since we were driving to the beach for a week before getting up to Maryland, it just felt like vacation with a U-Haul :o)

We had a great time with the Pfaller clan at the beach in South Carolina, though the cooler wet weather only allowed for about two days of playing on the beach. We had a blast playing games and of course all us girls went shopping.

Bright and early (actually it was still dark) Friday morning--5:40 AM to be precise--the Weltons and my parents headed for Maryland. According to mapquest, it was a 9 hour 35 minute trek, but mapquest obviously doesn't have small children and a U-Haul :o) we arrived at 5:15 PM with two very wound up kids and some stiff legs. [I just saw a chipmunk in our backyard! How cool is that!!] After a quick walk through with the realtor and a fabulous dinner brought over by Aaron and Crystal, our moving crew arrived and had us unloaded in less than an hour with all of the beds put together! There must have been 20 people here. We were welcomed with bags of groceries to stock our shelves from some friends from Knoxville who are at the PC and a bouquet of flowers from Matt and Siobhan Slack. Jeff (Keith's boss) and Julie Purswell came by with a big basket of goodies and more beautiful flowers to welcome us. Julie brought by some Krispy Kreme doughnuts Sunday evening, just after we finished our second delivered meal. Another family we don't know brought dinner on Tuesday, and another family brought by an apple pie Wednesday! I can't tell you how very welcomed we feel!! We are just overwhelmed at God's kindness to us in all that He has provided in getting us here and now that we are here! And I'm not finished telling you everything :o)
We went to Covenant Life Church Sunday morning for their first service at 9 (which is great b/c we're home in time for naps) and the kids greatly enjoyed class while we greatly enjoyed worshipping without them vying for our attention :o) Jeff Purswell taught and we both were very encouraged and convicted by the message. And they just finished painting the children's minstry hallways with beautiful murals of bible stories. It is really cool!!
And there have been so many little things that I just thank God for b/c He didn't have to give them to us (not that He had to give us any of this!), but He is so kind even in the smallest details! For instance, the kids bathroom is totally wallpapered with jungle animals which is fun and all but I thought sure I would have to buy yet another shower curtain to match something in there, but when I went to put the purple one I have up so my parents could use the shower, I noticed that most of the leaves in the wallpaper are the exact same shade of purple as my curtain! I know it might sound silly, but it was such a reminder to me of how God is caring for me even in the smallest details of my life.

Sorry for being so long, just one more thing for today...I got sick with a flu thing Wednesday afternoon (just a little 24 hour thing). But as I laid in bed with a fever, God brought to mind a word Darin Slack had given us about 5 years ago that has described our journey over the last 6 years to a tee. The Lord reminded me how very precisely He had worked out what He had spoken to us through Darin 5 years ago. It wasn't amazing that Darin had relayed this vision so well (though thank you Darin for being faithful to share it with us!)--no, what amazed me was how God knew the end from the beginning. How He had ordained our steps these last 5 years (well, really our whole lives) when it seemed like our prayers were hitting the ceiling. How tenderly He was caring for us when circumstantially it didn't seem like it. Us desiring to move to Atlanta and putting our house up for sale, us selling our house in this very rough market, then finding out about this job just weeks afterwards was no coincidence. Keith getting a seminary degree then getting a job he really didn't like was no stroke of bad luck. It was all the working of our Sovereign God!! We didn't understand it while we "wandered" about, but God was at work and still is, and I can't wait to see what He does next :o)
Love to all and we miss everyone!

The priveledge of serving

A little girl Isaac's age from our home group was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in April. Little Sarah has been having chemo and radiation since then and in and out of the hospital a few times. I have had the absolute priveledge of serving this family by organizing meals and laundry during their stays at the hospital. I've gotten to see first hand the MANY, MANY people serving this family with such joy--giving up their time, resources, money, and energy. Moms with lots of young children taking the time to make meals and add a few more loads of laundry to their day. Men spending their Saturday morning mowing their lawn so Greg doesn't have to do it. I got a call yesterday from someone wanting to give them tickets to Universal Studios so Greg or Alisha could just have a special day with their older son. I've been handed money on more than one occassion and asked to pass it along and not tell them who it is from. Alisha will tell me how they find out about another added expense only to receive a check in the mail the next day to cover the cost. Oh, it is just amazing to see our gracious God work through His Body!! And I can't believe I get to be part of it! I was just reading in James yesterday:
James 2:14-17 "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
What faith I have seen these last few months in our church! Not just those who are good friends with this family, but people they don't even know. People walking out their faith, caring for those in need because in our greatest need God cared for us by providing a Savior! You all inspire me--thank you for serving this family and more importantly for serving our God!