One Wild Week!

This past week has been chock full! Last Monday, we were in NC, where we celebrated Abby’s 13th birthday. Ryan’s parents were at my parent’s house so that both of our mom’s could fly to Phoenix with us for our appointment service the next day. All 11 of us shared a dinner of finger foods, which was Abby’s choice menu. Then, we had an ice cream cake and sang. It is the first store bought birthday cake I have purchased for one of my children since Abby’s 2nd birthday. She wasn’t thrilled, but she understood what a crazy week we were dealing with and agreed to be a good sport about it. It’s hard to believe that my first born is a teenager. Time truly does fly!

Happy 13th birthday Abby!

Tuesday morning, we headed to Phoenix. It was a whirlwind three days, full of emotion. It was an honor to be appointed at the Southern Baptist Convention, with so many pastors and leaders there. We continue to be overwhelmed and humbled by the calling that God has place on our lives. We cannot believe that we have made it through the process and that God is going to allow us this amazing opportunity. We do not take our appointment lightly and we feel an overwhelming responsibility to be good stewards of our time and the financial resources that are going to be entrusted to our ministry. We realized that many people sacrifice to fund missions, and we do not take that lightly.

This picture was taken just after our appointment service. We were so relieved that we made it on and off the stage and to and from the mic without any falls, forgetting words, or other mishaps!

Here we are with the other 2 apprentice couples from our appointment group. We have already enjoyed getting to know them and we're excited to spend 8 weeks training with them in VA.

The convention also allowed us to experience some other fun things. We got to spend some more time with others who will be training with us for 8 weeks this fall. These are some amazing people! We also got to sneak preview the movie Courageous, which will be out in theaters Sept. 30- go see it! We were laughing one minute and crying the next, so good! Also, we got to hear some amazing preaching by David Platt. Ryan also managed to snag a free Liberty t-shirt in the exhibit hall, which made his day. Then, we got to share breakfast with Ryan’s cousin who lives in Tucson, and we had a great time catching up. We ladies also fell in love with Charming Charlies, an accessory store inwhich every girl would find something to drool over. Poor Ryan, he was such a good sport as we spent 90 minutes wandering from color scheme to color scheme. So fun!

Here is Ryan in his freebie Liberty T. The beautiful gal in the middle is his cousin Monica.

Here is Abby trying on a great hat at Charming Charilies.

We all fell for it, what can I say? Bracelets don't take up much room in a suitcase, do they? Notice, Nana's bag is by far the biggest. No surprise there!

We flew in late Thursday night, got to bed about 3 AM and then hit the road for DC about 10:00 Friday AM. Our family, along with all four grandparents, have spent the last 4 days exploring the nation’s capital. Needless to say, we are worn out! I honestly think a person could stay here for a month and barely scratch the surface of what there is to see. I'll update about those adventures soon!