Tickets for Alaska

God is so good. He has provided even the smallest details. We have been blessed to purchase our round-trip tickets for all 6 of us to Alaska for only $289.00...total. God has blessed us through other people with them giving us their air mile points and it totaling enough for us to basically get free flights. We only had to pay for the transferring of the points on some accounts. We are leaving from Detroit, MI on January 16, 2009 to Anchorage, AK and returning on April 1, 2009 to Detroit. One of the MARC guys is driving to Anchorage to pick us up and drive us back to Soldotna. We are staying at a MARC families house that will be in the lower 48 during this time for their furlough. They have asked us to stay in their home and care for their family pets while they are gone. We have the use of their home and vehicles while we are there. God is so amazing to have worked out all of the details of the trip so far. What a huge blessing.

Upon our return to Detroit, we are going on vacation with Scott's sister and her family for a week to VA. This trip was planned before the Alaska trip. We are very excited about all of this. We will return to Ohio the middle of April. Please be praying for us during this time and check back as we will have high speed internet while we are in Alaska and on vacation and will be making more frequent updates.

I am at the hangar right now while Scott is working on the burb. We had it fixed while we were in MD which was the transfer case. That cost $2000.00. OUCH!! Now, he is working on the head gasket as it has some leaking issues. He is spending most of Thanksgiving week working on this as well as hunting. He went last night and purchased his hunting license and is all legal now.

Scott is scheduled to do his cross-country flight this Sunday...wow, that is tomorrow already. He and Paul are flying to some town south of Columbus. He is pretty excited about it. He has been spending a lot of time studying for his written test and can't wait until that part is over and this is all completed. Neither can I. LOL

We went this morning and helped a very dear family pack up their u-haul as they are moving to IN to finish raising their support. They have finished up their time here at MMS and are going to be joining JAARS in NC as soon as their support is in. They were the first family who had us over and really connected with us. They have children about the same age as Shaughn and Matthew and they all had a lot in common. Shaughn and Matthew are really going to be lost without them. They have had many nights where they have played games and hung out. They also looked out for us as we do not get a TV signal of any kind where we live and would tape our favorite shows for us as a treat, especially when Idol is on. :-) They were the ones who housed us every time we were going through town before moving here and even while we were moving here. They are like our 2nd family. This is the hard part of being in ministry...making dear friends and then saying good bye. Everyone knows this part of it coming to MMS, but it doesn't make it any easier. Thank goodness for email.

My foot...a dear supporter sent me a walking boot to wear and that has helped a lot. I fell again a week after it happened and sent me into pain heaven. I mean...OUCH!! My ankle is still somewhat swollen but not like it was. I am able to hobble around and feel much safer with the boot on. I have been told that I have to allow for the weakness in the ankle to heal and that will take about 8-10 weeks total. I am counting. Since it has starting the snowing thing and ice is out there, I am taking even more caution and holding on to others as I walk outside. Please pray for a quick recovery and for me to be patient enough for it to heal correctly. LOL

We are going to be spending Thanksgiving here with another MMS family. Actually, from what I hear there may be three families there. We are very excited about this. I love getting together with other MMS families, especially the ones that we don't get to see very often.