The Man Trip….

Clearly I was not invited on this trip, but I'm not sure I would've been able to hack it.

Benj, Josh, and his oldest son, Mason trekked through the 7 Devils Mountain Range, surviving like men!  This was the first trip Benj has been invited on and now that Mason is 15, this was his first "Man trip" in which he had to carry his own weight and was fully responsible to be part of the team.

6 days

5 Nights

44.6 miles

Elevation:  7,000-9,000 ft.

Ave. Temperature:  Highs--70's/Lows--40's

The terrain is rough with snow still on the ground in parts, but the views were amazing and the time they had in the quiet and with each other were worth it.  Benj and Josh work hard week in and week out to lead, grow, invest in, and pray for our Church and the community around it and I was so thankful that they were able to just get away in the wilderness.

Each night they would check-in with an "okay" message that Josh's wife and myself would get, so that we could know that they were still alive.  They took a SPOT device so we could see their coordinates.  Being the worry-prone person that I am, Benj decided to say right before leaving, "if we don't check in 2 nights in a row, call the ranger."  What!?  Thankfully they arrived home safe and in one piece (a day earlier than expected because of some painful knees), and I don't think I've ever smelled that kind of stink from my husband.

Enjoy the pictures that don't do them justice and give Benj a call to hear his stories!

Family Reunion….

After an entire year, we were able to make it back to Ohio to be with family!

It's a little different living so far away now that we have no immediate family nearby.  However, as we've said before, we are thankful that God has provided friends and a church that have become family to us here in Idaho.  Nevertheless, we still miss everyone.

It's rare that we all get to be in one place at one time so this trip was extra special!  Benj's family knew we were coming but we kept it a secret from Steph's parents as well as her sister and her family!  We loved seeing everyone even though it flew by too quickly.  We ate a lot of food we miss, saw so many sweet faces, held a lot of babies…a lot, stayed up late, got up early, went fishing, disc golfing, and just enjoyed a crazy week!

We loved visiting but have never been more thankful for our own bed and a quiet home.  Enjoy some pics from our trip :)

Steph and Grandpa McDonald

On our way to bowling with cade and the twins

Benj and Isaiah 

Hiking with Aunt Jan

Pool time with Shan, Lacie, and the kids of course 

We went fishing one night and of course Jason caught the biggest fish of the night in the first 5 minutes

Steph and her brother Joel

Benj and his big catch

Joel, Austin, and Benj 

Ending the fishing with a good fire and s'mores 

The newest cousins Scarlett and Annalee

Lots of time reading 

Steph's family

Playing in Grammy Litter's fountain

Loved seeing Nat and Shan 

The infamous Crunch Coated Cone

Did we mention kids…..loved seeing nieces and nephews and how much they have all grown

Schmidts in German Village is always a favorite

Steph's mom and older sisters

Couldn't get enough of these sweet babies!

Welcome to the family Samson...

Here is our last week in a nutshell….

We bought a dog!

Samson Facts:

Breed:  English Greyhound (He's retired from racing and seems to be very healthy)
Last race:  August 2013
Age:  4.5 years
Color:  Red Brindle
Height: Huge
Weight: Almost 80 lbs
Temperment:  Very calm, very affectionate, very skiddish around new things, and very stubborn (it's like pushing a cow into his kennel when we go to leave the house)

He doesn't know commands yet but is learning to "come."  And he doesn't know how to play with a ball yet either but loves to toss and wrestle with his fuzzy stuffed toys (but only for 10 minutes and then he goes back to sleep).  He sleeps up to 18 hours a day and he's finally starting to run and play when we take him to our friend's house who have 2 big dogs.  He walks really well on a leash and leans on you when you pet him.

Living in a kennel all of his life, he's never been in a home so this last week has consisted of getting him used to things and sounds and setting boundaries.  Overall, we could not have asked for a better dog!

Yet Another New Season…

Once again, the months have flown by and so much has changed!  God has been good to us and we are thankful.  He continues to provide for us and we look forward to always seeing what He has for us next.

The biggest provision that God has given us since we've been on this journey together has been family!  We have a very close and supportive family, but since college it has been a challenge to be near them or to even see them more than once a year.  As hard as it is to be away from our biological families, we have found that God gives us people in our lives that become our adopted family!  Everywhere we've lived (Virginia, Florida, and now Idaho), we have had friends along the way that are that adopted family.  They see us at our best and our worst, and though some are not so closely tied to us anymore, for that time, we needed them in our lives.  They help us grow, they give us hope, they give us opportunities to love and be loved.  And each time we have to say goodbye it just gets harder.

We better know the importance of the family structure and how beneficial it is on so many levels.  God created us to live in community.  When we decided to move to Idaho, we were excited to live near family and see our niece and nephews grow up!  As we've posted before, Benj's older brother, sister-in-law, and 3 kids have lived in Idaho for the past 8 years and invited us to come live with them for the first year that we lived here.  We then moved about 10 minutes away to have our own home but still saw them at least once a week if not more sometimes.  We are so thankful that we were able to be such a close part of Benj's family and made moving here so much easier!  A couple of months ago, however, we had to say goodbye to them because his brother got a job offer and they will be moving to Alabama.  We are so excited for them and amazed at how God provided so quickly and abundantly for them, but heartbroken to have to be far away from family once again.

But as I said above, God has always been faithful to provide an adopted family for us through the friends we have.  Even before they thought about moving, God put some amazing people in our lives to become that family unit for us.  We have come to really appreciate the relationships that only God could have put in place for us and though we already miss Nat, Shan and the kids, we feel so loved and cared for by all of these friends!  We know that, at least for now, this is right where God wants us and we are thankful for how He provides.

Our Gospel Community 

Happy Easter

Benj and Marc

Easter with Becca and Anthony

Paint balling with friends (Green and Aimee)

Bocce ball at the picnic with the guys

Easter Selfies with the ladies

Josh and Benj after the Good Friday service

A New Season...

While we are enjoying a new season of the year (Fall is our favorite: cool weather, football, campfires), we are also very excited about a new season in our lives!

This month has brought a lot of changes and all good ones.  This month, I was promoted to a Shift Supervisor at work!  I could not be more thankful for the team and leadership that I work with and look forward to the craziness of the holidays with such fun and hard working people.

Starting in November, Benj will be done traveling and will be working part time now for Valley Air.  He is going from full to part time with the company because God has provided, at just the right time, a position with our church for him to work part time!  He will be working Monday-Wednesday for Valley Air and then the rest of the week will be able to work for Trademark Church.

At the same time, we have ended another season with our church and begun another.  Our church family is changing as we say goodbye to our dear friends the Yadav's.  They have been called to Portland after leading Trademark Nampa for the last 2 years and now we will be merging with Trademark Boise to grow with them while still focusing on growing more communities in Nampa and the rest of the valley.  As a part of that Benj and I will be serving our church in different ways and we are excited to see what God has for us in all of these changes.

It seems like we have been waiting forever (or just since we arrived in Idaho), to find out where we fit and why God brought us to this place.  This past year we have been able to see God work in so many different ways and we are excited to see what He has for us in this new season of our lives!  We definitely appreciate your prayers as we move forward in this journey and here a few pictures of the new location (We will be sharing space in the Big Brothers-Big Sisters building).

These pictures were all from the first week we set up at our new location!  More pictures will be coming next week of the kids area and such :)