tjandlily.com

 TJ and I are about to enter a new phase of our lives, this is officially our last week in Florida before we go to Missouri for 2 years. We are really looking forward to this next step, and also are anxious to see what God has in store for us. These past couple months have been some of the most trying times spiritually and emotionally. As some of you know we have been without a Pastor since the beginning of March, and our church has really been struggling. God does have a plan and a purpose, I know I can trust in that! You would think that all logic and rationality says that TJ and I should stay here in Port St. John, Florida to “see how things go” and you know sometimes we think that, but at this point in time, we KNOW that God has made it clear for us to GO, to carry on in what he has called us to, and we can trust him, and follow him today. God may ask something different of us tomorrow, and if he does we will follow him where he takes us. We are asking you to trust God with us, to pray with us that God’s will would be done in our church, that God’s will would be done in our lives, that we WILL trust him daily. I would also ask that you pray for me especially that God would give me His peace in the midst of hardship.

Phil 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

On another note, we had a dessert night last Saturday to say thank you to all the people that have been supportive of us, and invested in us in some way, or have interest in being apart of our ministry… and what an encouragement that was! Well over a hundred people came to show their support and love for us. We were able to share what’s going on with us, and that the people who are behind us… people like YOU are fundamental for us to become full-time missionaries, we can’t do this with out Jesus Christ, and We can’t do this with out God burdening people’s hearts to be apart of reaching the lost through our ministry… God’s ministry. If God has burdened us to have a part in reaching the unreached, he will burden people to join with us in this journey in reaching the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for a God who meets every need… Thanks for reading, will update soon 🙂

Penny turned 5 months on the first of August.  I love her more and more every day, I can’t get over what gifts my children are to me.  Penny LOVES to smile, she makes everyone feel special by smiling and laughing at anyone who tries just a little bit, it’s fun to watch, I hope that she continues that trait later on in life.  I can’t lay her on her back anymore without instantly turning over to her tummy, her teeth seem to be bothering her a little because she always wants to chew on something, blanket material seems to be the preferred thing.  She pulls both her feet up to her mouth to suck on her toes, she loves to be diaper-less, she is almost crawling… I guess I would call it   scooting around.  When we went to Arizona, she turned into a little celebrity, everyone wanted to hold her at one time or another.  I also love to watch Penny and Ava interact, Ava doesn’t want to ever leave Penny out, when we are praying at the dinner table and Penny is in her jumperoo next to us, Ava says “Penny Pray TOO!” so we stop and hold Penny’s hands as well, then when we’re finished, Ava says “Amen PENNY!”  When we’re all leaving the house and TJ is taking Ava out the door, she says “Coming mommy… coming Penny”  She wants to make sure we are coming as well.  Just today Ava grabbed my face looked me in the eye and serveral times said “I love you mommy”  She melts my heart… love my girls!

shopping with mama 🙂

Lily, Valerie, Ryan

breakfast… Penny seems to like Ryan 🙂

IKEA

Had Breakfast with Jon Le Flamme and old Bible School friend

LOVE this girl!

A couple weeks ago, I got the chance to visit my good friend Valerie du Mee who just got back to Arizona from being a New Tribes missionary  in Indonesia for over a year and a half.  She is entering a new phase of her life, and planning to marry an amazing man that God has prepared her for, I’m so excited for her! Just Penny came with me and we had a blast.  I did get sick for a couple days which of course got in the way of a couple of our plans, but over all it was so nice to just catch up and be together.  I have never actually visited her in her home town, so I was able to see where she is and who her friends are,  what her family is like.  I have gotten to know my best friend of 7 years even better!

It seems like there is so much going on with us.  These things are not things I can really share, but God has been testing our faith, I feel as though I have been failing at times, one moment I feel so strong in the Lord, then the next I feel a lack of trust and feel so weak.  TJ and I keep thinking how we will look back in a few years and see what God was doing, and how he had a plan all along.  Sometimes life is just hard, physically, spiritually, emotionally… for us it is spiritually, it may just be this season of life, and that God wants us to trust him every step of the way.

We are going to school in a month, 30 days to be exact.  We are leaving the 11th of August.  We bought 12 Rubbermaid boxes last week, and so I just started packing… it’s kind weird packing up our house, but also feels sort of cleansing, moving on to the next part of our lives following God to wherever he’s taking us, right now I know it’s the Missionary Training Center in Missouri woohoooo!  🙂

My girls are doing well as of right now.  Ava was sick a couple weeks ago for a week, but now she is back to her normal self  :).  She is talking so much it’s so fun to hear, she is also copying everything I say, so I am realizing how careful I have to be when talking to her, so that she learns the correct way to talk to someone.  She is also coming up with so much on her own, she is a constant entertainment for TJ and I.  Penny was 4 months on the 1st of July, she is the roll over master 😉 and can hold her head so high, she has always been a mommy’s girl, but she seems to be getting more and more particular as time goes on.  I love her laugh, it seriously warms my soul.  Ava loves her sister!  But she can also get annoyed with Penny… Penny waves her arms around quite a bit, and if Ava’s in the vicinity (reading books together) she will get hit, and then be very offended that Penny hit her, I mean how dare Penny even get near her right?!  🙂   Not too long ago we were walking in the double stroller, Ava’s feet are hanging down, and Penny’s not even leaving the seat kicking like a baby’s would.  Ava has her snacks, and sets them right in front of Penny’s feet, turns around and says “Mommy, Penny kicking NackS!” like Penny was purposely trying to get to Ava… this is just an example of the insane ideas Ava comes up with.  I love my girls!  🙂

Last weekend we took a vacation to Vero beach, it was very relaxing as it was right next to the ocean.  We just got to spend some quality time together as a family, and get a way for a couple days, I am thankful for these much needed times.

There is a picture of the smoke from the rocket going up

Ava’s birthday party was GRAND… in my humble opinion  :).  Her birthday was on a Thursday (June 14th), but we didn’t do her birthday party until Saturday.  This year I decided to do a morning party because, well… children are generally more happy on a morning than afternoon.  The whole day was very fun for Ava and in turn was very fun for me.  We had been telling her about the party, so she was looking forward to it.  The night before we got her  a bouquet of balloons to play with one of them being a butterfly, she loves balloons!  On the morning of I dressed her up pretty cuz she’s a girl and she should be pretty  :).  Ava began to get more and more excited as guests arrived, it was so fun to watch.  We invited all Ava’s little cousins (on TJ’s side), her Aunts and Uncles, and a few friends.  We all started off the morning with french toast, bacon, fruit and coffee.  After everyone finished, we gathered around as Ava opened her presents.  I didn’t expect Ava to respond the way she did with the gifts,  it was fun for me to watch her be excited with every gift that she opened, even ones with clothes and shoes  :).  After gifts, everyone went outside to enjoy the kiddy pool and sprinklers… which of course she also LOVED and so did everyone else.  Since it was AVA’s birthday I couldn’t resist making a cake, so after a while we busted that out… she even blew out the candles, and everyone cheered.  It seemed to be a very enjoyable morning for all,  and I’m so thankful for Ava and the joy she has brought to my life.  I am learning so much being her mother, she is testing my patience constantly, and in that she is helping to build my character as I am trying to help her build her own character.  I hope and pray that my girls will grow up to be Godly women who love the Lord with all their hearts.

I Love you Ava,  Happy 2nd Birthday!

Drinks for sale

curls curls curls

I know it's kind of blurry, but Ava is kissing her sister :

The yard sale on Saturday went great!  Good friends from our church Al and Esther Eisler hosted the yard sale and also had the marvelous idea to have people donate stuff to sell, and then give the proceeds to our missionary school fund.  We are so grateful to everyone who helped and was apart of this.  With donations and all we made 1,435, and we still have furniture that didn’t sell that we are now selling on Craigslist.  We budgeted that we need about $35,000 during the two years that we are in school, this includes all expenses.  Right now we are at 25,500 and are still adding, so we’re not quite there but are trusting that God is going to provide for our needs.

Yard Sale! 🙂

There is a yard sale happening tomorrow in Titusville for our benefit. Lot’s of people have donated stuff to sell to help get us through the Missionary Training Center.
Come check it out!

3648 Thal Rd Titusville Fl. 32796

Just to be clear… I am wearing a dress!

not sure what she thinks about this

Sister Love!

Penny was 3 months on the first of June, she is incredible… I am so in love with her!  She has rolled over once, but no more since that one time, she coos and laughs at us now, it’s not a full belly laugh, but getting oh so close!  I am told she looks like me which is also fun.  She has such a sweet personality, I am looking forward to see how it unfolds as she gets older.
Ava is being potty trained at the moment, we have been doing poopoo on the potty but not much else, so today is the first day of true potty training so I’ll let you know how it goes.  So far today she pooped on the toilet, which I didn’t expect, but we haven’t had any peepee accidents yet… I AM expecting them  :/

I have stories!
Ava has never embarrassed me in this way before, so I figure this is the time to document it.  We went to Costco on Saturday as a family, they are only located in Orlando which is a 50 min drive for us, so we took a family trip to do a couple things including going to Costco.  After we got a large cart of goodies, we are standing in the checkout line, meanwhile Ava is walking and right next to us is a larger lady wearing shorts, Ava just sort of touched her legs with her hands.  I felt bad that Ava accidentally touched this lady’s legs, but then Ava took a step towards her once again and gently grabbed the fat on her legs… OH MY WORD!  I realize Ava thinks the fat on her legs looks kind of interesting and so she is investigating to see what this stuff really is, as I lean down to pick Ava up I start laughing, and quickly stop myself, and as I pick her up she is still looking down staring at the lady’s legs while I tell Ava to “say hi to the nice lady” and “sorry about that :/”  I quickly walk away while TJ finishes up.
  I wish I could say it was over, but as we were on our way out with our very heavy car we are approaching  the very long line of people and their carts getting their receipts checked before they leave the store… Ava is very tired, and giving TJ a hard time, and I’m dealing with Penny because I just took her out of my wrap, as I look up I see that our cart is rolling towards this woman’s large booty (no condemnation here, it’s just the facts), I yell “TJaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!”  but it was too late, the cart had run right into her bum, we both wanted to die right there, we felt really bad, TJ said “sorry… Kids!”  I don’t know if that was the right thing to say, but she definitely scowled at us, and quickly moved to the other line, I suppose I would probably do the same thing…maybe.
That’s all folks