Welcome Brinley!!

She's finally here!!!!  Our daughter, Brinley Elizabeth was born August 26th at 12:38 pm!  She is a beautiful, healthy baby and was born weighing 8 pounds 12 oz and is 21 inches long!!

We are so thankful and feel so blessed to have had such an amazing birth story!  I was able to labor for quite a while at our home and then we went to the birthing center where Brinley was later born.  It was a blessing to be at a birthing center that was completely supportive of our drug free birth plan.  Kaleb was an incredible coach during labor too and we were blessed to have such an awesome midwife!  All these things combined made for an amazing birth experience!!

Holding her Daddy's hand

We are SO happy to finally meet her!!  These last 11 days have been a whirlwind of change, excitement and getting used to less sleep ;).  They've been quite the adventure and although we aren't sleeping much, we sure have been enjoying getting to know our daughter :).  Thank you all for your many prayers throughout this time in our lives!  We are so grateful for such amazing support and encouragement!

In other news, support raising has been going good - we are so grateful to be at 44% of our monthly support right now!  We are still praying that we will be at or at least very close to 100% of our monthly in the beginning of next year.  It's a huge leap of faith, but we know that if God wants it to happen, it will!  Otherwise, we know that HIS timing is perfect and we are trying our best to rest in that :).  Starting next week Kaleb will be back to work at his part time job and we will both be back up and running with working full time on support raising.  Please keep us in your prayers as we make the big transition from just us to a family of THREE and learning to function on a bit of a different sleep schedule than what we are used to! :)  Thank you so much!!!!

Taking Brinley on her first walk at one week old.  She's going to love the outdoors, we just know it ;).  I think once she starts walking her Dad's gonna be teaching her some of his climbing skills, haha ;). 

Change of STATE!

"For I know the plans I have for you', declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'"  

Jeremiah 29:11

Suitcases, bags, boxes....ALL unpacked!  This is the first time in a year that Kaleb and I have NOT been living out of our suitcases....crazy right! ;)  I must admit that I am quite happy to have a place to hang our hats for a bit while still here in California.  We have been continually praising God for helping us find a place!!  I have thoroughly enjoyed "nesting" in our little home together.   This past month has been quite the busy one as we have been getting settled into our apartment, going about our normal work, and support raising.  We also just got back from NY a couple weeks ago where we celebrated the graduation of Kaleb's youngest brother, Ben, from West Point.  After that, we got to continue the celebration with a wedding where Ben married his long time sweetheart, Jenny.  It was a great week!  Overall a busy, busy month but what a great one!!

With all the sibs after Ben's graduation.  That's our little nephew in the front - starring in awe at his Uncle Ben ;).

CONGRATS Ben!!!

BEAUTIFUL wedding joining two wonderful people!!!

Now that we are back, we have some very exciting news to tell you!  There have been some changes within Lifelines.  Changes?  You might be thinking.  Yes, changes – and they are ones for the good that will help further the growth of the ministry (which is one of the many reasons we are so excited!).  For several weeks now, some restructuring has been in the works regarding Lifelines role and where staff are to be located.  Lifelines has been asked to now be a part of what is called the Leadership Development Team within the Campus Ministry of Cru.  This means that Lifelines staff will now not only be leading college students on trips year round, but also helping to train other Campus Staff within Cru to use the programs Lifelines uses to better reach non-Christians on their campuses (where there might not be any Lifelines staff).  To do this job better, leadership has decided to create regional hubs or headquarters for Lifelines.  Their goal is to eventually have a Lifelines hub in every region.  We have been asked to join the team in Plymouth, New Hampshire.  New Hampshire is where the Lifelines hub for the Northeast will be.  After taking some time to pray about it, we believe without a doubt this is the direction the Lord would like us to go.  Before our Vision Trip to Maine and since, we have felt continued confirmation that the Northeast is where we should be headed.

Plymouth was chosen because it is most centrally located to the most major Universities in the Northeast.  We will be closer to and able to reach more campuses, be working with a bigger team (we will still be working with the team in Maine - as they are moving to NH - as well as some of the team from Lifelines Vermont that will be moving there), and will have a vast array of outdoor activities/trips to offer to students in the town.  Plymouth is located in the foothills of the White Mountains, which are a popular destination for skiing, hiking, rock climbing and more!  This is another big plus of the relocation -in Maine staff were driving an hour or more one way for trips. The possibilities are numerous with this relocation and restructuring of Lifelines – we are very excited to see how God is working within the ministry to grow it and are even more excited that we get to be a part of that!  It's crazy how God works - I mean, if we would have been reporting this summer, or before...we would have been moving to Maine and then having to pick up again and move to New Hampshire before the fall -with a baby on the way! haha. God certainly knows what He's doing and HIS TIMING is definitely perfect!  So, the state we are headed to might have changed, but God knows best and all we can do is follow where He is leading!  Like He says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts….” (Isaiah 55:8) …what God had in mind is so much better!! 

For those of you that need a visual of where New Hampshire is ....yes, we had to look it up too ;) haha.

The White Mountains in New Hampshire. 

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  

Isaiah 55:8-9

In other news, we have taken a leap of faith and signed a lease with our apartment here through the end of January.  We are not sure how much longer we will be here and how much longer we will be raising support (we are presently 40% of our monthly), but we are praying that by the end of January we will be at 100% of our monthly support or very close to it!  We know that God has a plan and that He knows when He wants us there...so we shall see what He does!

We will leave you with some more pics....we took a few snap shots the other day - our baby girl is definitely growing a ton, as you can see by my bulging belly ;).  I am now almost 31 weeks pregnant!!!!  We SO cannot wait to meet our little girl!!! 

Until next time......... :)

Beautiful MAINE!

We are back in Cali now and are so excited to share with you about our time in Maine!!  We have been so thankful that we had that time up there!  It was great to get to spend more time with the team members there we had already met and then the ones we hadn't met yet!  There are presently 2 other families and one intern who work with Lifelines at the University of Maine.

Well, we got into Boston Wednesday afternoon -picked up our rental car and hit the road for our 4 hour drive north!  It's crazy how quickly you can drive into another state in the Northeast!  We got outside Boston and before we knew it, we were in New Hampshire!  I feel like I looked down for a few seconds and then we see a sign that we are in Maine! lol ;).  Another thing that we noticed is that Dunkin' Donuts are like Starbucks up there!!  I stopped counting at 6 Dunkin' Donuts about 30 min outside of Boston, haha!  There is seriously one on almost every corner - actually at one point we past 2 across the street from each other!  Guess they love their Dunkin' Donuts in the Northeast :).

About an hour or so before reaching our destination, it started to snow!!!  I was very excited, I had prayed it would snow while we were there, haha.  Kaleb was driving as the snow came down and I got SO excited and stated, "oh my GOSH, it's pouring!!"  He laughed and said, "Um, this isn't much at all" haha....apparently it wasn't, but to me - being from good ole Georgia, it looked like a pretty good "snow storm" LOL.  They ended up getting about 3 inches (that's a lot of snow for Georgia! haha) but nothing to even blink at in Maine.  It was fun to be welcomed by a bit of snow though :).  

While there we got to stay with one of the staff families (Ryan, Steph and their son, Jack) and had such a great time getting to know them more and hanging out with their little boy who is just over one :).  We both got to sort of "shadow" them on the Thursday and Friday we were there.  Kaleb got to go with Ryan when he worked on campus and I went with Steph.  It was great to see what a day on campus looks like for each of them!  Kaleb was also excited for some "man time" with the staff and students while there.   We both got a little tour of the University as well.

On Saturday, we got to participate in a Lifelines hiking trip the staff had set up.  We were both SO excited to see the area they usually do trips at, and well, just to get outdoors in Maine :).  They do most of their trips at Acadia National Park, which is just over an hour from them on the coast.  One of the main towns in the park area is actually Bar Harbor....so as you can imagine (for those that know Bar Harbor), it's beautiful!!  On the hike (which was in the snow by the way!  So fun!) we got to see how the staff (Joe -our director for Lifelines at UMaine, Ryan, and Rebecca -who is interning right now but joining staff this summer, YAY :) ) led the trip.  They used one of their programs to talk about relationships and how we are not meant to live in isolation.  At the beginning of the hike, they had each of us hike for a mile of the trail alone.  We were all staggered far apart and then met back together at the end of the mile.   Later, we all talked about what were there thinking and how we were feeling during that mile and how we would have felt to be completely alone for the whole time, our lives, etc.  It brought up some good points and good topics to discuss.  Towards the end of the hike, we stopped for a debrief.  Joe led the discussion and talked about some of the different points discussed throughout the day.  Everyone got to share if they wanted and Joe shared about how God has created us for relationship with Him and with one another.  Once the hike was completely over, the students had the opportunity to fill out their information and if they would like the staff to follow up with them and or meet with them.  We have known how the trips were done for a while now, but it was just SO great to actually BE at one!

The guys at the start of the hike on the nice wide trail (it got a lot more narrow later).

We passed tons of icicles.

Now on to my favorite part of the trail!  Through the woods in more snow!

Loved stomping in the snow :)

One of the many beautiful views we got to see on the trail!

At the top!  Hiked from sea level to an astounding 1,373 ft!  As Kaleb likes to remind me, they are "hills" on the east coast, not mountains ;) - I still say they are mountains - but yes, nothing compared to the ones out west ;).  Still a good hike and we both really enjoyed it!!

One of the views from the top, gorgeous!

A pic of all of us that went on the hike - such a fun day!!

After the hike, Rebecca, Joe, Kaleb and I drove to another spot in the park so that they could climb for a while.  It was neat to see some of the other areas in the park where they have done trips.  We all hiked up to another area where the guys and Rebecca got to climb -it was a gorgeous setting and the view where they climbed looked out to the Atlantic Ocean.  I, of course, did not climb ;) but was excited to watch and take pictures.  We left to hike that morning just before 8 and got back just after 8 that night.  It was a GREAT day!!

Gettin' ready for a climb.

Repelling down....

Joe setting up the next climb.

Off they go!

Climbing the crack....

And repelling back down again.

On Monday, our last full day there, we got to attend their staff meeting and then that night we all went out to dinner before saying our goodbyes.  It was a really great time!!!  We were SO happy to be able to finally see first hand how trips are done and what a typical day might look like for us once we have reported.  We have known, of course, for a while what we'd be doing - but it's always nice to have a visual :).

Thank you for all your prayers for our time there!!  God definitely used that time to confirm to us both even more so that this is where we should be headed and we are even more excited (if that's possible) to be apart of such a great ministry!!  The Vision Trip definitely gave us more "vision" as it should have ;) and helped us to receive better knowledge about what a ministry day will look like for us once we report full time.  Overall, a great, GREAT trip!! :)

Boy or Girl??

Today was a big day for us!  TODAY we got to find out if God has blessed us with a baby boy or girl!!!  We were both way too curious to wait and decided a while back that we definitely wanted to find out.  Well folks, we are SUPER excited to announce that we will be having GIRL!!!!! 

Nope, nothing there to indicate boy....must definitely be a GIRL ;).

She seemed to like to stay nice and curled up ;) - if you look to the right you'll see her head and then one of her hands up there by it.

Ok....so I think our baby might have some long legs! haha....during the ultrasound she decided to stretch her legs and the tech got this pic of one of them!  So crazy.

Curled up in a ball again :) - head to the right with her hands by her face, love it.

We made a stop here, in Phoenix, on our way back from Maine so we could have our last appointment with our midwife down here (we will be switching to one in Cali).  Tomorrow we leave in the a.m. to fly back to California.  What a great week it’s been….Maine, finding out what our baby is, getting a healthy check up….Thank you God for such an awesome week!

We are VERY excited to share about our Vision Trip to Maine with you all and will be posting about that soon once we are back to Cali!!  For right now though, we were just too excited to wait to share this tid bit of news with you ;).

Thank you for all of you who continue to pray for us and for the health and safety of our baby!!!  It was so exciting to hear her heartbeat today again and see her moving around in the ultrasound.  We feel so very blessed!

While we are on the subject of the baby, we had a thought the other day that - there are probably a few of you that have been wondering if having a baby will change any of our plans or the direction we are headed.  We wanted to let you all know that we are still moving forward and nothing about our plans have changed – except that we will have a little baby in tow ;) (which makes it even better!).  We are still raising support full time and Kaleb is also working part time at another job.  Once we have reached 100% of our monthly support we will be moving and working full time with Lifelines (yay! :) )!  We did make the decision recently to stay in California for the rest of the time we will be support raising.  There will be a few trips here and there, but we will be making our semi-permanent home for the time being, in Northern Cali.  We have such a peace about this and have seen since getting back to that area how the Lord continues to confirm to us both that for right now, this is where we should be.     

We feel SO incredibly blessed to even be having this baby and know how much of a God thing it is!!  His timing is always perfect and He knows what He is doing.  We are very much looking forward to being parents and bringing our child with us into full time ministry with Lifelines!  I have a feeling our little girl is going to learn to start climbing like her Daddy at a very young age ;) haha.

20 and a half weeks!!

Northeast, here we come!

Its been a crazy busy last week and a half for us!  Our church had a missions conference this week that we attended and volunteered at (that was so fun and the conference was great!) and then Kaleb's parents have been in town from Ireland.  They were in town for the conference and it was so great to get to spend some time with them!  On top of that was our normal busyness with working on support raising - needless to say, our week was full :).  And now we are down to the night before we leave for our Vision Trip to Maine - so excited!  We are really looking forward to seeing the area, the campus, and being with the rest of the Lifelines team there.  Besides a day in Boston (literally the day, haha), both Kaleb and I have never spent time in the Northeast - it will be nice to finally see and experience the area.

Just to give you a visual, this is where we are headed!  Orono, Maine.

If you could please pray we would have safe travels to and from Maine, it would be so appreciated!  Also, if you could please pray for Kaleb, mine and the baby's health - it seems on top of this week we've had some run ins with health stuff.  We are all fine now - although, I'm still on antibiotics for an infection- but prayers for continued protection over the baby and our health in general is always good :) - THANK YOU!! 

We cannot wait to update you all about how our trip to Maine goes!!!  We will be back to California April 6th and I'm sure will give an update soon after that :). 

Thank you all in advance for you prayers!!  Prayer is so important and it means a great deal to us to know we have so many people partnering with us in this way!  We pray for YOU too!!

Well, I am off to finish our packing (our flight leaves bright and early at 7 a.m.!) ....until next time!

I wonder if we'll see any of these bad boys while there, haha ;) - apparently there are A LOT of moose in Maine!