On the road

Yes, I know it has been so long since I posted and I am sorry. We have been traveling non-stop for the last few months. It has been almost impossible to keep up with office and online stuff. We are now in Charlotte at my in laws house. Actually right now it is only me and the boys. Stu, the girls, Martin and Bonnie (Stu's parents) all went up to Canada to see Grandma Schepers (Martin's mom). She fell and broke her spin in two places, has pneumonia in both lungs and has a bowel obstruction, so she has not been doing well. They did not expect her to make it long, but so far she is hanging on. Stu and Juls are on their way back now and Martin, Bonnie and Delayna will head back in a few days. So I am happy that I don't have to spend Thanksgiving alone. :)
We have been all over the place the last few months. Me and Stu flew up to Seattle and then drove to Vancouver, BC and on to Kelowna. From there he flew to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and I flew to Winnipeg  Manitoba. We then flew all night back to Oklahoma, picked up the kids and started driving to Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland (with a few days touring Washington DC) and then here to North Carolina. We have been able to visit many friends along the way. Some from College, some from back home in Texas and we have made many new friends. We are now seeing family here in NC. My brother lives here and I got to see my nieces and nephew , two of them for the first time. I also hope to visit my aunt while we are here. The Lord has also blessed with several new churches picking us up for support. We will be heading back down to Oklahoma early in December and I get to spend Christmas with my family for the first time in many years! If we can get my brother down there, we will all be together! I am hoping to get a family picture, because this doesn't happen too often.
No funny stories to report this time, but I do have a horrifying story. Since everyone left I was left here with only my mother in law's BMW to drive.  I hated driving it because I didn't want anything to happen to it. I had to go to church and then I had to go to the store to get some things. While in it I was constantly telling the boys not to touch anything and not to move and not to breathe. :) I was driving overly cautious. So I got home from the store yesterday and pulled into the garage, shut the door, and got my stuff and the boys out. I then shut the driver's side door (not slamming it) and as I did the passenger side window exploded! I stood there horrified and shaking. The boys stood there with looks on their faces of, "I didn't do it!". I just thought, "she is going to kill me!" So I guess I will be getting coal in my stocking this year! :)

Heart Attack!

We have been staying busy traveling. We have been to Oklahoma, Texas and are now in Arkansas. We got to visit Victory Baptist in Wichita Falls, where we worked for a while before going to Canada. While there we were able to go to an MSU football game. The boys loved it! Even Delayna got into it.  Ever since then they are asking to listen to or watch football. Just wait till we take them to a hockey game, since we know those are so much more exciting. :)
The boys, or maybe it's just Jesse,  sure keep us entertained. Jesse points out every stop sign now and when it is a large sign, he yells STOP. He also points out all the "oil pumper" things (oil wells). He gets very excited anytime he sees a train and tells Stu to make sure and tell him when he sees one. He also asks, "how many more aisles (miles) until we are there?".
We were also able to be with my mom on her birthday. While we were there the boys about gave her a heart attack. I was in the room packing and I thought the boys were playing with Delayna outside. All of a sudden my mom started screaming, "SOMEONE HELP THE BOYS, HURRY!". I took off running, not sure what was wrong. What happened was that Delayna had come inside and the boys had gone up to the top of the hill and gotten in my mom's utility wagon and were riding down the hill in it (through a maze of trees with a ditch and a road at the bottom). Somehow they had stopped halfway down and Seth was about to give a push to get them going again when I got out there and stopped them. My mom was sick the rest of the day. I told her that now she knows how I feel daily. Also while we were there we were killing scorpions daily. The boys were sleeping on the floor so after finding many scorpions around where they were sleeping we decided to move them to the couch. As I was carrying their blankets to the living room, I jokingly said to Stu, "I'm not leaving a trail of scorpions behind me am I?". He looked and sure enough there was a big scorpion that had fallen out of the blanket. Praise the Lord none of us were stung while we were there.
The boys are always telling Stu, I love you more and most to try to be the one that loves the most. The other day Seth was trying to make it more and he said, "I love you more and most and 5 + 5". Stu let him win on that one. :)

I will attach a few pictures, I have several posted on Facebook if you want to see more.

Gloria's Wedding

I know it has been so long since I have posted. We made it down to Oklahoma and I got busy getting everything ready for my sister's wedding. It was such a crazy week. The rehearsal was terrible, everyone was grumpy and tired. The wedding was great. Everything was beautiful and went smooth. I will try to post a picture or two. Because I was in the wedding, I didn't get to take too many pictures. I will have more to post when we get them from the photographer.
We left my mom's house this morning and are in Plainview, Texas. We will be heading to Amarillo tomorrow and then to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Then we are going to Wichita Falls and Electra. From there we are heading up to Arkansas. We have a very busy schedule and with not having internet often, I am not able to update regularly.
Yesterday, Jesse started crying uncontrollably. When we asked him why, he told us that he wanted to go to his home in the Dominican. It's hard on all of us traveling and living out of suitcases. There are parts of it that we enjoy, but we do miss "home".
Tonight, in the motel, Seth was laying on the bed looking up at the fire sprinkler in the ceiling and said, " Don't tell me that is the fan!"  He is so used to ceiling fans, he thought that was a very small one. :)

Me and mamaw

My handsome boys!

Michael (the groom) with the "most entertaining" of the wedding party

The beautiful bride

We are so blessed!

We finally have internet again, at least for now. We have been so busy seeing family and friends that I probably wouldn't have had time to post anyways. Next week we will all be at camp all week, Stu is preaching, so I am not sure if I will be online then either.
We had a blessing today, we were getting gas and when we were done the guy behind us asked Stu to come back to his car for a minute. He was going to pay for our gas, but couldn't since we had paid at the pump. He owns a local pita place, and gave us coupons for free pitas. He is a Christian and just wanted to be a blessing. On the back of the van we are using it says, Baptist Missionary Transportation Ministry, that's how he knew we were missionaries. What a blessing. We talked to him again at the restaurant and found out he knows some of the same people as us, he grew up near where Stu grew up.
The churches we have been to so far have really treated us good too! They have gone above and beyond. The kids got spoiled with money at the last church. We also got a big bag of snacks, which the kids liked. A family let us use their house here while they were on vacation, that was a blessing. We have been well taken care of!
We are staying in a prophet's room right now and the boys think it is so cool to sleep in a church. Pastor Brett showed them the baptistery, so in the car Jesse wanted to know if he could swim in the pool when we got back. I kept saying there is no pool, and Seth said "No, he wants to be baptized!".
What an adventure furlough is going to be!

Canada!

We crossed the border into Canada and the kids went wild. They are so excited to be back here, after 4 years, and see all their friends and family. We have such a short time here to catch up with everyone. We have already had Tim Hortons and Swiss Chalet and visited with some friends. We are staying at a house in the country and we aren't used to that. Stu laughs at me because my ears are hurting me (they are ringing) because it is soooo quiet. Jesse is going down the country roads looking for Frank (the tractor off of the movie Cars). The girls wanted to play in the corn field, so Stu let them go in one, then he went in and scared them. I don't think they will be going back in it. :)
Stu was playing golf out in the yard with the boys and hit Jesse right on the top of the head with the ball. Another thing the boys have found to entertain them is to talk to each other through the air conditioning vents.  We don't have those in the DR, so it is another new thing for them. We sure are having fun!

Travelling with Jesse

Well, if I thought keeping up with Jesse at home was a challenge, it only gets worse as we travel. He has so much energy and being in the car for 6 or more hours a day, doesn't help! He does like to help though, Every time the GPS gives a command, he repeats it to Stu. He acts like Stu can't hear it at all! Juls was getting frustrated with him repeating it all the time and kept asking him to stop. So he got to where after it gave a command he would be quiet for a minute acting like he wanted to repeat it and then say, "Juls will you get mad at me if I say it?" Then he would ask me to say it.
Then we were at our first meeting at a supporting church. I was talking to the Pastor's wife, who was very pregnant, and Jesse almost punched her in the stomach. I told him not to do that and said that she had a baby in there so he needed to be careful. He squatted down and looked up under her shirt, then stood up and said, "She does not have a baby in there!". I was trying not to crack up!
My boys have discovered drinking fountains and are fascinated by them. Every time they see one, they want to go get a drink. It is such a new thing for them. It's also weird seeing toilets with seats, cars staying in their own lanes, stores with sale racks outside and no one watching them! I could go on, but I won't.
We will be crossing over into Canada tomorrow. The girls get to go to camp and see lots of their old friends. They are very excited! We are also excited about seeing friends and family and our "baby" Lighthouse Baptist Church in Alliston.
I am off to try to get some sleep. I have not caught up since we left at 5 am on Monday. Good Night!

We have arrived!

We made it to the States safe and mostly sound! We left our house at 5 am on Monday morning. We had a fairly smooth day with no major problems. Our team worked together well! The girls each had a boy to help watch out for. We made it through security and customs without any problems. We made all of our flights without having to run. We did sit on our second plane for an hour while they fixed something before we left. Thankfully Jesse slept the entire time! When we arrived in Kansas City, we did have to wait an hour for our ride and then drive another hour to where we were going. Then Stu had to get all the instructions for the van. We were all sitting on the couch like zombies. Seth was falling asleep. So the wife took me and the kids to the motel while Stu finished up. I got the kids to bed at 10:30 (which would be 11:30 Dominican time). We all slept good and unfortunately woke up early (because someone called Stu's phone at 6 am). We went down and had a great breakfast there at the motel. Biscuits and gravy, fresh waffles, fruit, yogurt, cereal, donuts! YUM! Then we loaded up and drove to Pekin, IL. We will be here until in the morning when we start driving to Canada. We will be visiting Mapleton Baptist Church tonight. They have been supporting us for years. We are off to do a little shopping today. Me and the girls need to find some shoes for my sisters wedding. We did make it to Walmart last night, although I was almost too tired to enjoy it!
Thanks for your prayers as we travel!