Holding Down the Fort

It's Saturday and the kids and I are enjoying a mellow day at home.  It's been raining all day with intermittent thunder storms.  Our pool is nearly overflowing and I am thankful I don't have to water my newly planted flower pots.

Marko left Tuesday with Josh and Jussara to travel to IHOP (International House of Prayer) in Kansas City with whom i2 Ministries is partnering.  IHOP is opening an i2 Missions to Muslims training school as a supplement to their curriculum.  This partnership is very strategic and an enormous blessing and honor for i2.  The purpose of this trip was to finalize the details of the partnership as well to introduce Josh and Jussara and pray for their ministry. 

Sadly, the timing of this important event coincided with my 44th birthday and Marko's and my 20th Wedding Anniversary.  It was hard for Marko to leave the day before both of these events, but we agreed that he needed to be at IHOP to help represent i2.  Marko made sure that the kids took good care of me on my birthday though which was very sweet considering I don't have any friends or family in Florida to celebrate with me. Actually, we have become friends with our neighbor, Nicole, but I made Marko promise he wouldn't tell her it was my birthday!

The kids made me a wonderful scrambled egg breakfast complete with goat cheese, salsa, and spinach (my daily breakfast of choice).  They also had handmade cards and a big banner waiting for me and they insisted that I relax and not do any work that day.  Me, myself, and I voted unanimously they must be the most thoughtful children in the world!

Noah ended up sick and stayed home on my birthday/Anniversary (yes, we got married on my birthday)!  He was my little birthday buddy so I wasn't entirely alone.  I also enjoyed cards, texts, and emails from various family and friends.  Thank you for that.

I am thrilled to report that my boys both decided to play soccer with their sister! I was shocked when they said they wanted to play and even more shocked that they actually enjoy it! Neither of our boys have been big fans of team sports.  They tend to learn towards individual sports which is fine with us.  We have always hoped they would experience some team sports, however, and the benefits that go along with them.  The coach tells us they both have natural talent and could be great soccer players should they decide to continue with the sport.  The league they are with is pretty casual and non competitive, however,we know that most other teams at their age will have highly experienced players.  Hopefully this will not intimidate them and they will decide to continue playing.... 

The ministry paid for me to take a Grant Writing Course this week.  I enjoyed learning about how to write grants and hope that I can use this new knowledge to help raise money for i2 and perhaps other ministries as well.  I had no idea what went into writing grants.  Apparently it takes between 80-120 hours just to write one grant and they are often turned down due to high demand.

There is not much else to report.  I am going to leave you with some photos of the kids from their first week of school, soccer, as well as various other photos, including our neighborhood iguanas.  In Washington we photographed sweet little bunny rabbits and deer grazing in our fields.  In Florida we photograph reptiles sunning on our dock. One guy was about four feet long and had enough spikes to rival a porcupine!