Brown Belt Testing

Stephen tested for his brown belt at test night the end of March. He was very nervous to test in front of a panel of judges. He practiced hard and did a great job. He is already working hard for his advanced brown belt.

Easter

Stephen had a great time coloring Easter Eggs and looking through his Easter Basket.

Dr. Suess's Birthday Celebration

Most of you know that Dr. Suess's Birthday was this week. In honor of his birthday, Stephen dressed up "Suess Style."

Guatemala 2008

The experience of serving in Guatemala is incredible but hard to put into words. I think each time I go, I leave a part of my heart. The feeling of walking down a street and giving a toy or piece of candy to a child and watching their entire face change to excitement or putting a brand new pair of socks and shoes that fit on a child and see them walk away with a bit of a skip to their step or looking around a room full of children that were just given the Wordless Book story and watching many, many hands go up that they had accepted Christ as their personal Savior and would be walking the streets of gold is so amazing. We had the opportunity to go to 2 different schools this year. It was so cool to introduce Playdoh to a preschool class and teach them how to use it. It was a proud moment when Stephen gave his sandals that he had been wearing to an 11 year old boy that needed shoes. In another 10-15 years, I may even be fluent at Spanish. The amazing thing is giving breaks down the language barrier. We went to the schools after we had done a VBS and many of the children remembered us and ran up to us and gave us hugs. Some held out their wrists to show us they were wearing the bracelets they had made with us the day before. Even though we just returned and am counting the days until we leave on our next trip. Please keep the people of Guatemala in your prayers.

In this video, our kids sang to the class and the class sang a song back to us. It was such an awesome experience.

I will post more photos soon.

Demo Team

Tonight at Karate, Stephen was invited to be on the Lil' Dragon's Demo Team. Only 6 students are invited to join the Demo Team and Stephen's Instructors nominated him. With excitement, he accepted the invitation. He was thrilled to find out he would be using weapons. They have nunchucks for them to use and we bought him a Bo tonight. We let him pick it out. We are very excited for him and very proud of him. The main instructor explained to him that he was chosen because he showed so much improvement in the last several months. They were also impressed by his focus and determination especially in the last tournament. We will post a picture of Stephen in his new demo team uniform with his Bo soon.

Memory Maker

While I was pregnant with Stephen, people would tell me to enjoy every moment because it goes so fast. I did not believe them after the first few sleepless nights. Seven years later and it feels like time just flew. I know that time will continue to move very quickly, so I am trying to enjoy and make lasting memories. I once read a Church's sign around Mother's Day and it read MOM (Maker of Memories). Every moment is not perfect but it's the precious moments that I hope Stephen will remember for a lifetime. I am thrilled when Stephen wants me to tuck him in and pray with me. Tonight we competed on WebKinz together. Some day he will look back and know that I took the time to play with him. Children are a wonderful gift from God and I am so thankful to God for giving us Stephen. Another memory we are about to create is our mission trip to Gautemala. We took Stephen last year and he has talked about it all year. We leave in just over a week and we are looking forward to it. It is hard to put into words the emotions of serving as a family. I was thrilled a few weeks ago when Stephen said he wanted to learn Spanish so he could be a missionary and translater. Of course, he will probably change his mind a few thousands time but at least for now I will take it.

Karate Board Breaking Tournament

Stephen has been in Karate for over a year now. He competed in his 2nd tournament a few weeks ago. This one was a board breaking tournament. Because he is an advanced purple belt he was in the highest group to compete for Little Dragons. He entered 3 events: Upper Body/Hand, Lower Body/Foot, and Combination. He went out there each time and broke every board. At the end of the tournament, he left with 2 third place trophies. We are very proud of his accomplishments especially because he only started breaking boards a week before the tournament. He loves breaking boards and I'm sure this will be the first of many board breaking tournaments that he enters.