May-August 2010

It's been a while since I posted anything on here and soooo much has happened in the past 3 months.  I'll try to condense things as much as possible.

This year was Jae's turn for a friend birthday.  He celebrated his 12 birthday with his youth minister and friends from his Jr. high small group at our apartment.

I promised some better pictures of Daniel's baptism in my last post ...so here they are.....

The past 3 months have been full of goodbyes at Crossroads.  This picture is from one of our family picnics in the park.  We had 2 this summer and they both ended up being "goodbye" picnics.

Teri Jo was in the city interning as a stage manager at Lincoln Center.  While at Crossroads she was extremely active and helpful in several areas.  She helped with the youth ministry, substituted in the Preschool class, served on the nursery rotation and was an all--around great friend to so many of us.  Her internship ended in May and we were very sad to see her leave. 

The Langston family had been stationed on Fort Hamilton Army base for the past several years.  When they started coming to Crossroads Emily was pregnant with Brenna (the baby).  They joined our small group right away. Very soon after moving here they got involved in serving at Crossroads.  Emily served on the hospitality team and on the nursery rotation.  Ken was an Elementary small group leader.  And the 3 beautiful girls added lots of fun and energy to the Prek and nursery classes. They are now stationed in Spain.  We miss them all very much.

Nicole started coming to Crossroads about the same time as Ken and Emily.  She came to the city from upstate NY for college.  Her Crossroads family has seen her through some very hard times and have loved her and her daughter Peyton who was born last summer.  There were times when she felt like she wasn't going to be able to finish her schooling and be a mom but God used Crossroads to help her make it.  She graduated in May and is now back upstate and starting a new job this week.  Nicole served on the nursery rotation for the past 9 months.

We were finally able to close on our house in the beginning of June and moved in the following weekend.  It was a very crazy time.  We are very thankful for the strong guys of Crossroads.  In all they have helped about 6 families move this summer (not all out of the city, thankfully!)

This backyard was filled with weeds taller than me and construction materials.  My parents visited in June and my Dad cleared the jungle.  It still needs leveling and lots of other work but it's manageable for the time.  We've enjoyed lots of figs off the tree.

I'll try to upload more pictures of the house once we've painted and as work progresses on the basement.  We hope to build 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a family room down there.  We're waiting for building permits to get started.

Our good friends Ryan, Andrea and Caden Stockton (Ryan's the worship leader at Crossroads) are now our tenants and upstairs neighbors.  We're so excited to have them so close by. 

The hardest "goodbye" all summer was for our very close friends and ministry partners, the Firor family.  Josh has been on staff at Crossroads for almost 6 years.  Support had been dropping off and their family was feeling it hard to be so far away from thier extended family.  They moved back to Oklahoma the end of June.  We miss them so much.

We were able to get in a family vacation in-between visiting some supporting churches this summer.  We stayed at a Great Wolf Lodge and then a friend's boathouse on Lake Erie in Sandusky Ohio.  It was a great vacation and much needed.

Amber's baptism at Coney Island

Another very hard "goodbye" for us was to the Mack Family.  Jeremy has been coming to Crossroads for over 6 years.  He has been the drummer on our worship team, one of those to be most instrumental in the starting of the Storefront art center (he painted the art on the walls), the leader of the portrait drawing class at the storefront, help lead worship for the children's classes at church, had been in our small group and a good friend to all of us.  Paul married Jeremy and Gwen a few years ago.  Gwen taught nursery for several years and had been helping teach the preschool class recently.  Both of them are medical illustrators and Gwen was offered a job in Rochester (upstate NY) near Jeremy's family.   Crossroads misses them so much!

Other stuff:

--Daniel will be starting public school in a few weeks.  Since our move we are now zoned for one of the best public elementary schools in the neighborhood.  Although we and Daniel loved the small Lutheran school he had been attending for the past year and a half they can't offer him the occupational and physical therapy he needs.  We are hoping he will be able to recieve it during the school day at the public school. 

--Daniel also had a palate expander put in and has to wear a headgear for 15 hours a day!  We're hoping that his jaw is quickly adjusted so he won't have to wear it for long.  He will probably still need braces in a few years, though.  Jae will probably be getting his braces on soon.  God has truely blessed us with a wonderful, Christian orthodontist who is giving us a huge discount.  We are so thankful for that as dental is not a part of our health insurance.

--Our nephew was born on July 19th to Paul's sister Carey and her husband Tom.  They now have 4 boys!  In Italy!  Although we can't meet little Max anytime soon we have seen lots of pictures online and he is adorable.

--We are waiting to hear news of our first niece's birth any day now.  This will be Carisa's brother and sister-in-law's first child. We look forward to seeing pictures since we won't be able to meet her until Thanksgiving.