Treyton

Today Treyton got his Botox injections. He had to have general anesthesia, but it only took about 5 minutes. The injections were in the Achilles and the hamstring. The doctor thought it went very well. We have to follow up in 3 weeks. If it hasn't helped quite as much as the doctor thinks it should, then there is a muscle relaxer that he can prescribe. If it really doesn't help, then Treyton would need to have surgery. The doctor would rather wait until he is 6. That way he would probably only have to have 1 more surgery. If we do the surgery too young, then he would have to have several as he grows. He has to do stretches 2 times a day, and wear the brace at least 10 hours a day, and all night if possible until we go for the follow up. The goal is to have him walking correctly until he is about 15, and then he will always walk correctly.

Praise God that Chris, who does his orthotics, recommended this!!

Staying Strong

We did it! We applied. It was a difficult trip, and we did need two days to do it. They said to check back in 6-8 weeks. Please pray that the visas are authorized! It isn't guaranteed.

I was just thinking about how tired I am of this process. Then I read this:

Staying Strong
They returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith.Acts 14:21b-22In addition to some scientific definitions of "entropy," The American Heritage Dictionary also lists these: "a measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system; inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society." If you think of your life as a "closed system," you can easily see entropy at work: If left alone, does your life get increasingly more organized or increasingly more disorganized?In short, things just naturally run downhill. A large part of our life is spent maintaining things: our health, our property, our finances, and our relationships. Without injections of energy from us, they will deteriorate rapidly. And so will our spiritual life. Shortly after establishing new believers in the faith in towns in Asia Minor, Paul and Barnabas made a return trip to strengthen their faith, exhorting them to continue.Implication? They would naturally grow weak and discontinue their faith without efforts to the contrary. And so will we.Don't resent the work it takes to stay strong in the faith. The alternative is a faith so weak as to be unattractive and undesirable.All growth that is not towards God is growing to decay.
George MacDonald
Recommended Reading: Hebrews 10:24-25

Pray for us to stay strong!

Jesus promised His disciples three things: they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.
G. K. Chesterton

Here we go...

It's 5:35 am, and we are about to leave for Chicago. Yesterday I made 154 copies to take with us. They need the originals, plus 2 copies of everything, and I made 1 copy for us to keep. Please be praying!

PTL

Praise the Lord! The papers have arrived. Tomorrow we will have them certified, and Thursday we will be on our way to Chicago.

Update

How beautiful is it out? We are enjoying the weather-longing for Brazil, but enjoying the weather.
We had a great vacation, and are now staying with my mom in Westfield. Our insurance paper was sent by Fed Ex yesterday. We'll see how Fed Ex does this time!! We did finally get the long awaited paper from Brazil, I don't' remember if I posted that. We hope to get the inusrance paper, have everything certified, and go to Chicago Thursday, God willing!
I have gotten 2 emails from Brazil in the last week or so. One is from the Brazilian evangelist, and one is from the young lady we hope will teach us Portuguese. This is exciting, because they don't go to the Internet cafe very often.
We close on the house house on Tuesday. Praise God!
We have some final paperwork and book keeping and paper work to be doing while we wait. Yuck. Not my favorite thing to do.
We hope to have a get-together before we go and would love to see you then. We'll let you know!

Mother's Day

Hey everyone! This is Maggie. I just wanted to share something about my Mommy for Mother's Day.

I have so many memories of my mommy growing up. One of my favorites and probably one of the earliest memories that I have of my mommy is waiting for her to come sometimes in the evening for what seemed like hours, just so I could hug her. One thing that I will never forget is how she smelled…I always thought that she smelled wonderful. I think that this is my first clear memory of looking at her and thinking this is my mommy, and she is beautiful.

When I started writing about what my mom meant to me, I immediately thought, what can I say? How do I even begin to describe someone so amazing, so beautiful, someone so important in my life? Someone that taught me how to read and write? Someone who has shown me God’s love since I was very young?

I could only try to describe her. My mommy is very short. So short that I think that I was taller than her by the time I was 12. She has the prettiest blue eyes and the brightest smile. She has the type of beauty that can only come from years of service to God and selfless love to her husband and children. She has the type of radiant beauty that comes from the inside out.

When my sister and I were about 2 and 3 she started going to a small Wesleyan church in Frankfort, because she wanted my sister and I to grow up in a church. It was in this church that my mom dedicated her life to Christ. It wasn’t always easy for her because my Daddy wasn’t a Christian. He said that it was OK for her to take my sister and I to church but she would have to do it on her own, because he had no interest in going to church or in God. Every Sunday she would lug my sister and I and later my brothers to church by herself, while my dad slept in or went golfing. I think that most women would have given up, but not my mom. She clung to the verse Acts 16:31, “ Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” My mom clung to this promise and prayed that my dad would someday find Christ.

I don’t think that I ever really appreciated or realized what a strong Christian my mom was when I was little. It wasn’t until I was a few years older that I realized how much my mom prayed for my family. She has this bible and inside on almost every page are the names of my Daddy, my brothers, my sister and I. She would find verses and promises in the Bible and claim them for each of us throughout the years.

After years and years of praying for my Dad he finally came to Christ and slowly one at a time after him each of us kids also came to Christ. That verse that my mom claimed and prayed about for years was finally fulfilled.

This journey has eventually brought us to where we are today. My whole family will soon be leaving to go to Brazil as missionaries. My dad who said he wanted nothing to do with God became an ordained Minster last weekend. The verse that we have claimed for our ministry is that same verse that my mom once claimed for our family. We hope and pray that we will be able to reach Obidos, Para, Brazil one family at a time.

My Mommy has faced many trials and at times I was the source of those trials. But despite these trials, my mother as remained firm in Christ. With each trial I have watched my Mommy grow stronger and more beautiful. The one thing that all this really comes down to is that I thank God for a wonderful mother. She is my hero. I am so blessed to have her as my mom and my friend. I doubt that I will ever became the women that she is, but I will never stop trying.

Lots of years have passed since I would stay up late, waiting to give her a hug. But those years have only increased my love and appreciation for her. In closing I would like to share some scripture that I have claimed for my mommy. Proverbs 31:28-29 says, “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”

Brazil papers

We have the long awaited papers from Brazil! There is a long and crazy Fed Ex story complete with a mad dash to Lafayette before closing time, and a mix up with 502 Main Ave., and 502 Main Street...but we have them. Now we just need the insurance papers.

We are staying with Jody's mom in Noblesville now. Tomorrow we leave for vacation. We are gong to Florida, and will be back on Friday. Hopefully the insurance paper will be here, and we'll be ready to close on the house. They were to appraise it today.

Seems like we're moving on!

Boa noite! Hope you are all doing well. We have had a whirlwind of activity lately. Last week we signed the purchase agreement for the house and ordered the title work. I hope we will be able to close this week. It would be wonderful to check that off the list!

Saturday Don went before the ordination council. He read his doctrinal statement and the pastors asked him questions for 2 hours. In the end, they recommended he be ordained. Sunday at North Salem with friends and family Don was ordained. We had a nice celebration afterward!

Our letters from Brazil and from the insurance company haven't come yet, so we had to cancel the trip to Chicago to apply for the visas. We hope to go next week. Believe me we will go a soon as possible! We may need to reschedule our vacation we had planned. We don't want to be gone when the papers come in!

Tomorrow Treyton turns 3!! We are having a little party for him. Cupcakes with candles.

We'll keep you updated. Thanks for your prayers.