Just before Thanksgiving we all had the flu, which lasted about a week. Yuck! We recovered just in time for Thanksgiving. Had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Camp Sherman, eating yummy food, tree hunting (getting our tree in the woods), horseback riding and hanging out. The day after we got home we came down with the stomach flu. Neva first, then Matthew, Lena, and I had a fever and was tired. I have to say I would take a head cold over stomach flu any day. It was so sad to see Neva trowing up. Needless to say Neva watched more movies in November than she has her whole life to that point! Thank goodness for the library.

Once we were all well, we started talking with CRU about what training to attend, the one in January or one in May. Since I am still up twice a night nursing and at least 5 times a day nursing we decided that January might not be realistic. So we are headed to the training in May. I am so thankful that we decided to wait, December is such a busy month, I was not really looking forward to packing up and heading to the january training in Florida. The main part of our May training is what they call Ministry Partner Development; learning CRU's philosophy for raising support and coaching us through the process. We are excited to begin raising support and look forward to interacting with CRU and the material they present. We are currently looking to raise support for the May training and hope to draft a support letter soon.

Matthew and I are eager to join CRU. While our girls are still young my participation will be limited, but I still expect to build relationships with staff and students. I love being a mom, every day is such a gift. Neva is now 2 1/2 and it is amazing how much she has grown, she knows her numbers, shapes, alphabet, she can dress herself, use the potty, participates in table conversation (mostly asking Daddy how his day was, then nodding and saying "hmmm, okay, good") she loves books, to dance, help cook, set the table, read stories to her sister, play pretend with her toys, wrestling with her Daddy. We have a mom's group we go to and a library time every week. Not sure what I would do without a library, we are there at least once a week, often twice to re-stock our books. Lena (our 4 month old) is beginning to giggle and there really is nothing better than the pure giggle of a tiny baby. I wish I could bottle it and give it to people when they are having a bad day.

We are excited to be moving to a College town (hopefully OSU, GO BEAVES!) where there are so many students working out who they are, who they want to be and where they are headed in life. It is a time in life where students are seeking information; an excellent time for conversations about God and helping people as they become who they want to be. I am thrilled to see how God uses us on a College campus.

Matthew is the kind of guy who demonstrates love to everyone he meets, from the checker at the grocery store to the teenager sitting on a bench, waiting for their parent to finish shopping. I often anticipate, when I send him for milk, that it will be 45 minutes till he returns and it isn't that far to the grocery store! We live in Sisters! He is easily accessed by so many different kinds of people and that is one of the things that I love about him. Matthew is so genuine and open that he impacts people just by spending time with them.

We are headed to Portland to see my family for Christmas and I am so excited. With two small children, I now have a deeper desire to be close to my mom. We anticipate wonderful German cooking (my mom is from Germany), and sitting around the wood stove sharing gifts and time together. This year I had a whole Advent story planned for Neva, but then as we had the stomach flu entering December, I had to modify my plan. So we are lighting candles. Neva likes to blow out the candles and asks "what's this one called" each time before she blows them out. It is so beautiful to share the meaning of Christmas with Neva. This year we have deiced not to buy gifts and instead we are having Neva make gifts. We are making some ornaments, picture frames (for pictures of the girls), and sugar scrub (for the ladies).


Leslie

So today I visited my grandmother, the doctors say she doesn't have much time, it is time to come see her if you want closure. She is so beautiful, I love her, my drinking, smoking, table dancing grandmother.


I had told my aunt Leslie that we (Matthew and I) had shared the gospel with Grandma on multiple occasions when we visited with her, so my aunt told me about her conversation with my grandmother two days ago. Grandma: I want to go home. Aunt Leslie: Mom, do you believe in God. Grandma: yes. Aunt Leslie: Do you believe in Jesus. Grandma: yes. Aunt Leslie: Do you believe Jesus is the son of God. Grandma: yes, I want to go home. Aunt Leslie: Through her tears tried to pray with Grandma. My heart smiles...


So as I was saying, I visited her today. She didn't recognize me, which was okay because as family has visited her she has gotten very emotional and worked up, so it was peaceful for her not to recognize me. I sat and held her hand quietly as she drifted in and out of consciousness, she would make mention of my grandpa (Jack) saying that they had gone out to eat and what a nice time they had. She also told me that family had visited and though it made her tired, it meant so much to her that they came. I love her.


This is the first time I have been close to someone dying, it is hard. I love her.


When I left I decided to get a coffee. Once I got to the coffee shop I stood at the counter to order and I couldn't think... I couldn't figure out what to order, my heart was interfering with my mind. The clerk looked frustrated by my indecision, and I realized that they have no idea where I just was, what was going on in my heart and they didn't care... How sad... I felt alone... I didn't try to pull myself together but I was able to order and move to the area to wait for my drink... As I waited I began to cry... I don't think anyone noticed. Then as I picked up my drink I think the lady may have noticed my watery eyes and she said I hope you have a nice day. "Thanks" I say, thinking still, I am alone in my feelings here at the coffee shop. No one knows what is going on for me. How often to I go about my business not realizing what is going on for others.


I thank my husband for being a man to stop and give someone a hug, to stop and ask if someone needs prayer, to be the person to show love to those in the world who are hurting. Thank you Matthew, my husband, the man I am blessed to spend the rest of my life with. I love you.


So now I am thinking, please be nice to others. It would have been nice to have had the clerk be patient with me, or maybe even to have given me a smile.

A tourist in my own town...

For our anniversary we decided to get a hotel in Downtown Portland. I spent the last week in Portland visiting family and after work Matthew joined me and we headed to downtown. It was a wonderful weekend.

First we went on a walking tour, "the underground tour" from Portland Walking tours. It was an informative walk, we learned a lot about Portland history. We learned that Shanghai was legal in Portland. The tunnels in Portland were initially used for moving goods from the river inland, and later used as speakeasies, for gambling, and as opium dens. Also being naked in Downtown Portland is legal, hence the naked bike ride.

Old Town Pizza has a great Pesto Pizza, which is where we ate after the tour. Also on the back of the menu there is a story about a ghost who hangs around the restaurant (the former Merchant Hotel). Next we did a little window shopping, at Powell’s Books, and Buffalo Exchange.

The Hotel we stayed at is located on the water front so we had a wonderful stroll along the shops and restaurants on the South waterfront and sat on some rocks down by the water to drink our Henry's Root beers. It was a beautiful night.

The next morning we slept in. Our first night without Neva sleeping on a bed warranted some sleeping in. Then we wandered downstairs to eat the continental breakfast, which was amazing. You could get anything you wanted Eggs, potatoes, waffles, French toast, yoghurt, granola, donuts, bagels, fruit and multiple beverage options. We thoroughly enjoyed our late breakfast.

At 11:00 we had an appointment to paddle on the Willamette. Though it would have been a much nicer paddle early in the morning (less power boat traffic), we felt that sleeping in was worth it. Next time though, I think we would sign up for a sunset or an early morning kayak.

So a short post.

While at lifelines training we got to experience programs that are used to teach about boundries, adulthood, grace and truth, and worldview.


There was a program we did about grace and truth which I found really impactful.

We were told (a small group of us) that we needed to pick an issue to discuss, the issues included; alcoholism, pornography, gambling, and a couple others I cannot remeber.

Another part of the group was out waiting for us to discuss our issues. We spoke to three different people about our issues while walking back and forth accross a sports court. Each of the people we talked to were perscribed a task of either speaking just grace, just truth, or grace and truth. Wow, it was interesting to see how I responded to each interaction. I wanted to keep talking with the person who spoke grace and truth, I really felt as if they were interested and wanted to help me. I felt encouraged to continue in my issue by the all grace person, but I also felt alone, because the premise is that we were discussing a desire to change. Well and the all truth person I was about ready to yell at and I just wanted to get away. Hmmmmmm. Where do I land in Grace and truth...

Okay, so I (Leslie) have learned that updating a blog is not something that comes naturally to me, it is however something Matthew and I appointed to me. I am much better at short updates, thanks to the encouragement of Uncle John I will try not to feel pressure to write long updates. So here is goes...

While at lifelines training, which seems like ages ago now, I was amazed at how much I learned about myself. I went to the training hoping to gain tools to use to evangelize to College students, which I did, but there was so much more.

I was unable to participate in all of the sessions, being a mom and all, but the ones I did were refreshing. It was refreshing to be with people who are discussing living life for Christ, the good, bad, and the ugly. It was refreshing to hear people be real. It truly happens so rarely. In fact I feel I am often not as real as I could be. I wonder the growth I am missing out on by not being real...

Well, being real. One of the times I didn't make it so a session, I was reading through the handbook and the question was posed: What do you Subjectively believe about yourself? Wow, my list was awful. Here is it; you are not smart enough, not athletic enough, not outdoorsy enough, not fun enough, not a good mom, not a good wife, and God has nothing special planned for your life!! Oh my!

Now what... Well I don't know that I know what to do now, but it was eye opening to realize what was going on in my internal monologue. I am not even sure where all that came from, I know I haven't always believed it, so when did it creep in?

So I shared with Matthew what I learned and ended up having a great discussion about how the lies I believe have recently been impacted our marriage. Though we couldn't put our finger on it before we now realize that I have been living hopeless, what a sad impact that has had.

This post is just for the fun of it...

On our drive these are the things we saw:

Eagle
Bobcat (dead)
Marmot
Wild turkey
Yack (in someones pasture)
Antelope

So the lady at DMV says "Some people drink, some people eat, others get mad and then there are some that laugh". So Matthew laughs. This was said after we learned that somehow the car we bought in Washington with a clean title, was registered in Oregon as a reconstructed title... Um... How does that happen!!

Not much we could do before leaving for Colorado since we found this out the day before we were to leave! So we packed up and left.

On the way to Colorado the sun roof stopped working (bummer!), the drivers side rear door stopped opening from the inside (Leslie got stuck in the back), the passengers side rear window wouldn't roll down all the way... All cosmetic issues so they didn't bother us much. Well except the sun roof!

On the way home from Colorado. About an hour into our 21 hour drive we heard an aweful noise and the oil pressure gauge kept dropping!! NO GOOD!! So we stopped got some oil and dinner and gas and started texting people to pray for our car. Thank you for your prayers.

As we continued to drive we joked about how the last "long trip" we took our other car died and left us stranded and maybe we would find ourself in a similar situation this time. What did the lady at DMV say... We laughed. Here's to adventure!

Matthew figured out that the noise was our brakes and as we continued to drive it got a little better. Though the oil pressure gauge continued to have issues. We still don't know if it is the gauges problem or a problem with the engine itself.

As the noise from the breaks died down it was replaced with a new more disturbing noise. So we prayed, and prayed, and prayed... 21 miles later we are home!! Praise the Lord!!

Though we haven't taken the car in to figure out all that happened to it on our 3,000 mile journey, we made it home and for that we are thankful!