The End of October

We've come to the end of October. Thanks for your prayers this month!

Our family celebrated Christmas this last weekend, and it was wonderful! We actually took the top of the tree that fell on our house the week before, and used it for our Christmas Tree. Josiah had to work that morning, so we had "Christmas Morning" in the afternoon, and it was a wonderful family time. Then we had The Big Breakfast, which is part of our tradition, and we invited teenage friends with us to go play Frisbee Golf at the Highways Department buildings near the capitol building. And rather than having a big turkey dinner, we had a Mediterranean Pizza for dinner.

Corrie leaves for Germany on Monday. Yikes. And it's on a one-way ticket. Yikes again! She believes that Germany is where God is calling her, and she's holding out for a job (and a work visa) over there; please pray to that end: we don't want her to be gone, but if she's hearing God say this, we want to support her in it! If you'd like to be on her monthly mailing list, you can email her at angelschild77@hotmail.com.

I need to either fly to California and drive a vehicle back, or pay to have it delivered. Looking for wisdom here. This would not replace another trip later, of course. Sigh. I'm getting to meet (by phone) some of Charlie's ("Chuck" as he was known in California) friends in California. Neat folks.

Sue's mom is back home; I said that last time, didn't I? She has 24/7 in-home care, which means we're facing some substantial financial mountains, though we have confidence that God has a plan for that. There are regular visits to the doctors, of course. Please pray for relationships: between Sue, her mother, and the caregivers. As you might imagine, the issues there are significant enough that tension wants to creep in.

We finally got the tree cut off the stump: it's bigger than my dad's pro-grade chainsaw. We're still cutting it up. We need folks to help work on the tree, and we need the use of a pretty hefty chipper for the limbs. We think we have a home for the firewood, but if you know someone who may want some of the compost from the chipper, please let us know.

Sue & I are stretched pretty thin. Frankly, we have a lot to cope with. We're trying to let go of most everything else and focus on our family right now: that and work, and not much else. Your prayers are the difference between coping and not coping. Thank you!