19 Years!

So, I am a day late on this, as there is not much time to blog right now. However, I can't let my wedding anniversary pass by without a special mention. Bob and I celebrated 19 years yesterday! We are so thankful that the Lord continues to bless our lives and we are looking forward to the future with great anticipation and bright hope!


We were able to go to Toronto for a night last week (thank you, Christine, for caring for the children!). We so love Toronto and it was a great opportunity to go one last time before our move.


I love you, Bob, and I love our life together! Thank you for your commitment to God and His Kingdom, to me and to our family. I cannot wait to see what God has for us in this next "book" in our lives and I am ALL in!

Cheers!

He is Faithful!

There is so much on my mind today.

One of the main things is that my wonderful dad died on this day 21 years ago. What a gift he was! And I am thinking of my loving Heavenly Father and how much He loves me and what a gift it is to love Him and know Him and live for Him. There is no greater gift!

I have been singing this song over and over the past few days...




May you know the blessings and love of the Father today! He is faithful!

A Night on the Farm

We just spent a wonderful evening with our friends, the VanderHouts! We have become friends with them through the high school co-op Emma was involved with this year, as well as the SHIRE co-op Austin has been attending. They are such a blessing to us and it was a special time with them in their home and in their greenhouses.
Thank you Jan, Nellie, David, Jonathan, Janelle and Daniel for your wonderful hospitality this evening! We had a fabulous time in your home and a fascinating time learning more about your farm and business. On the way home one of the children declared, "The VanderHouts are one of the best families EVER!" We are thankful for you!

Now, how do we get some of your delicious cucumbers shipped to Virginia!?!

Many blessings!

Lucia and Jack

Well, the fond farewells have begun.

We had the joy of seeing our friend Lucia and her son Jack today. Lucia was one of the first people we met when we came to Hamilton. She was in the MBA program at McMaster and Jack was only nine years old. They had moved here from China. We have had the privilege of seeing Lucia work hard and graduate with her master's degree and make her way to a fabulous job in a nearby city. Jack has grown up and is graduating from high school soon {how can that be possible???}. We saw Lucia go from not really knowing if there is a God to asking many crucial questions to giving her life to Him. And Bob had the honour of baptizing both Lucia and Jack five or six years ago. They are very special to us!






We love you, Lucia and Jack, and we look forward to seeing you when you visit the States!

Blessings in Jesus!

An Afternoon With Friends

We had a marvelous afternoon yesterday with our SHIRE Co-op friends at the Rock Garden.

Our friend, Kenneth, put together this video of some of the memories...




Thanks for sharing your creative video, Kenneth! It was a wonderful memory-making event on a gloriously sunny day at the stunning gardens! We are so blessed with beautiful, vivacious friends!!!

Blessings in Jesus!

P.S. I can not figure out why only half of this video is showing. The whole thing shows up in my orginal post. Anyway, go to this link to see both halves...
Kenneth's Video

Fun friends

We had a fun night tonight with our friends, Wally and Jessie (although we missed Emma terribly...she was not feeling well and stayed home)! They are Americans studying here at McMaster Divinity and we had the privilege of meeting them and getting to know them last year through a mutual friend.

They invited us for coffee and dessert tonight at their lovely new home and totally surprised me with an early birthday cake! It was delicious and the fellowship was sweet and encouraging!

Thanks so much, Wally and Jessie! You are great hosts and your home is wonderful. You guys are sweet friends and we look forward to staying in touch through the years. Many beautiful blessings!

DVHS Co-op Drama Production

Emma has been involved in a fabulous high school co-op with 30-40 other home schooled students this school year. She has taken interesting classes (Lord of the Rings, poetry, first aid/CPR and two semesters of drama) and formed many beautiful new friendships.

This semester for her drama course, she tried out for the production of Pygmalion and landed the part of Mrs. Eynsford-Hill. It was so much fun hearing her learn her lines and especially, learn to speak with a consistent British accent! This past week was "production week" and a very busy and fun week it was.

We went as a family to the Friday afternoon show and were thrilled to watch everything come together and everyone play the parts they have been studying and working so hard for in the past four or five months.

I was very impressed with everyone! Bravo!!!

Ems, we are very proud of you! You worked hard and wanted to do things with excellence and for the glory of God. We were thrilled to watch you perform the part of Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and look forward to seeing more of your acting skills in the future. We love you!