A time for prayer....

Thank you everyone who has been praying for my dad. I was able to go to NC last week and be with him during his first surgery. The results came back before I had to leave and they were negative. The cancer has not spread yet. Praise the Lord!! He is now scheduled for his BIG surgery on March 3rd at 10:00 a.m. NC time. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. He will be laid up for some time afterwards. He is not allowed to lift anything over 5 lbs for 6 weeks.
I flew there on Saturday, Feb 13th and returned to Anchorage on Saturday, Feb. 20th. I was suppose to sit at the Anchorage airport for 8+ hours waiting for my commuter flight into Kenai but my wonderful & romantic husband tracked my plane from Chicago into Anchorage and planned an arrival at the same time. He flew to Anchorage and picked me up!!!! How sweet!! He and a friend from M.A.R.C. (Mike, who owns the plane) flew in and "swooped" me away! I was home by 10:30 p.m. How cool is that??? They landed at Lake Hood. Our favorite place to sit and watch the planes take off and land...off and on the water. VERY COOL!! After a 22 day, that was such a blessing!!

Other news:
Shaughn got new glasses. He loves being able to see again. :-)
Scott and the boys did well with mom gone but where very glad to have her home again. :-)
Native Musicale is next week. We are in charge of this and need your prayer coverage.
Scott and I are in the middle of our online class, please keep us in your prayers as we continue to complete the course.
We are loving having our own place again. We are very blessed to be able to live in this home and bless the owner with fixing it up. It really fits our needs. What a blessing!!

Everyone is doing well and loves it here. Bless you all and again, thank you for keeping us in your prayers.

Lela and boyz~

Shaughn has his first job!!!

Shaughn the morning of his interview.

The morning sky

The evening sky

That's right, Shaughn went for his first interview yesterday and was hired on the spot. He went today for his orientation and starts on Monday!! He will work M-F 8-4. He is excited to have the opportunity and to be able to put something on his resume. It was a little bare. He applied at a place where he wouldn't be tempted...(his favorite place is Taco Bell and he didn't apply there because he didn't want to end up not liking the place after a while)...the only temptation he will have is their milkshakes...and he gets 50% off of anything (for himself only) whether he is working or not...have you guessed it yet??? They gave him two uniforms and a hat. They are ordering his shoes which will come out of his check. Jeremiah is super excited....yep....McDONALDS!!!

He has applied at several places but being a smaller town than Brighton but bigger than Coshocton, we are excited for him. I was hoping for Walmart since it opens up in March but they said there is like 35 openings and over 700 applications (his is one of them) that we are not sure of his chances. We do know with God all things are possible but we also feel this is an answer to prayer.

Matthew is doing great driving. He is a natural. He tries to drive anytime the vehicle is about to move. Unlike Shaughn who doesn't care if he does or doesn't. LOL

Scott and I are puddeling through our on-line class and trying to prepare for our CEF State Board Retreat and CEF Staff Prayer Retreat...all this weekend. We are also doing both workshops in them. We are leading/organizing them and are very excited about it. God has shown himself so much through this process. Different people have stepped up to help out and it has been just great. I spent all day yesterday writing a book for our prayer retreat. I had one of the gals at MSE (McKinley Service & Equipment) print them out for me last night and Scott brought them home...Fun to see how God puts things together.

We are loving it here and loving what God has us doing. We do ask for your prayers as the spiritual warfare has been very active.

Also, I ask for your prayers for my dad. We found out in January that my dad has cancer. He has stage 4, aggressive prostate cancer. They have done a bone scan and a cat scan and both have come back neg. so we are praying that it has not spread. They will know more when they do surgery which is Feb. 16th. He will see the specialist on Feb 10th to find out more details regarding the surgery and what to expect. They do want him to do radiation afterwards because all of his numbers are extremely high. Everything points to it not being good, but with the prayers of God's people so far, both of the scans came back with good news. He will be laid up for some time healing from surgery and all. I am hoping to be able to go and be with mom during the surgery and help her a little afterward. I am not sure if that is going to work out or not. I am leaving it in God's hands. We were not telling many people, only immediate family, per my dad's request until the scans came back and we had more information to share. He just finished his 5 years at US Airways/Pedmont and so he is now vested with them and can have the flying benefits for life now. That was something he really wanted to accomplish. God allowed for it to happen. His anniversary is Feb 7th. The week before his surgery. I have been struggling with the news and really had a hard time processing it. I am trying to leave it in God's hands and just keep keeping on my knees for him.

We are also moving!!! We have been living with an 85 year old gentleman out in Sterling but have found a place much closer to the CEF office and church that will save us a lot in gas money. We will be moving after this crazy weekend. We have already taken some stuff there now but with school, retreats, homeschooling, work, etc...yeah...priorities baby.

Scott is going to start working at the MARC hangar next week a little to help them out. They need the help really bad as they have had a lot of new projects come in and we will be slowing down a bit after the retreat until March. So, Scott will be able to go and help them out some. He is pretty excited about that. Steve took him last week flying and Scott really loved that. It was the first time he has flown since we left OH. They practiced stalls and all kinds of stuff. He was a happy man! :-)

Well, that is most the what is going on here. We are working on getting the newsletter out too, we want to try doing it email so please make sure we have your updated emails if you have changed them recently or would like to receive them. I hope I have them but it doesn't hurt to send them to us anyways to make sure. :-)

God bless you guys~
Lela and boyz~

Look Out!!!

Look Out!! Matthew is driving!! LOL Seriously, he is doing great!! He past his test on Wednesday and they took his photo and presented him with his driver's permit. He is walking proudly now. :-)
Mom and Dad are white knuckled once again. Seems strange to have 2 kids driving. He is already looking at vehicles on Craigslist and looking hard. Please pray for him as he continues to learn the ways of the road. He needs 10 hours of each: dark, daylight, snow/ice, dry of driving time and so living in Alaska you get 2 of those for part of the year and the other 2 the other part of the year. So he turns 16 in July and has to have his permit for 6 months which has to include 40 hrs of driving in those conditions...well, you do the math. He is driving in the dark and snow now and has to cram 20 hours in before we hit the daylight season...which is coming soon.

Scott and I have started an online class with CEF and, this being our first week, have found it helpful to have the other one taking it too. We find the web site a little confusing for us but we have each other to help muddle through it. :-) LOL

Everyone is doing well. We love it here and are very busy. Please continue to pray for us as we are still adjusting to all of the changes that we have encountered in the last few months. :-)

So, that is the latest with us.
God bless you all!

Lela~

Happy New Year!!!

It is 2010!!
Hard to believe it is 2010 already. We pray that each of you had a wonderful holiday season with friends and family. Our first Christmas and New Years in Alaska was really fun. We missed our families but felt we were exactly where God has called us to be.

We desire more of our Jesus in 2010 and desire to grow into who He has created us to be both individually and as a family. We updated our photo at the top of our blog with a recent photo taken in December showing just how much the boys have grown. My sister-in-law wrote me to tell me that I now look short in our family photos, I told her yes I do but at least all of the tall guys around me are very handsome. :-)

We are working hard on getting our next newsletter out and will be finishing it up this week. We will be trying to send it out electronically via email to help cut cost. Please email us with your email and let us know if you would like to receive it this way. You can respond to this post as well whether you want it email or paper form and let us know.

We pray that you seek Jesus more in 2010 and that you fall deeper in love with our Savior. God bless you all!! Happy 2010!!

Almost Christmas !!!!

It is the last Sunday before Christmas...hard to believe it is that time already.

Since the first part of December we have had company, 2 birthdays, 3 trips to Anchorage, 1 trip to Homer, a Christmas Party Club Outreach, 3 Christmas Parties, a CEF Christmas all-nighter at a camp, sick people, a new windshield, 1 hospitalization (the gentleman that we live with was taken by ambulance yesterday morning to ER and was admitted due to dizziness and falling 2 times while experiencing black outs, I will tell you more on this in a minute), have taken between 800-900 photos (which hopefully I will get on flickr soon), attended a CEF State Board meeting, plus the normal hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping and so forth. Scott has been able to work in the office and in the hangar on CEF's plane and Lela has worked in the office some and homeschooled the boys plus we led our team meeting and led our team's club at a local elementary school. The boys have had lots of opportunities to hang with their friends. They are always having us running here or there. Shaughn took and completed a class with CSI (Career Study Institute) with the local Vo-tech people. He loved it. That was 30-40 hours of class time that helps with writing resume's, interview process, career finding, etc. He loved it. Some businesses around the area will even pay more when they see you have taken this class on your resume'.

This past Friday night we went to our CEF Christmas all-nighter at Solid Rock Camp, which is about 6-7 miles down the road, and early yesterday morning Shaughn called us to tell us that Lee had been taken by ambulance to the hospital. Shaughn had stayed home from the all-nighter due to throwing up all day Friday. He said that Lee had fallen in his bathroom and pressed his necklace button to call the ambulance. When the paramedic arrived, they could not get in because Shaughn was sleeping so hard that he did not hear them at the door. So they called the police which arrived and let them in. They were searching the house over looking for whoever called them when Shaughn came out to see all of the commotion. He explained to the officer who he was and was asked to show his drivers license. I couldn't believe this all happened the one time we were gone. Lee said he had yelled several times for Shaughn but Shaughn didn't not hear him. Scott and I went to see Lee at the hospital and his son Jim was there with him too. The doctors admitted him due to still being dizzy and they did not know why. They thought it was maybe an inner ear infection but they are not for sure. Please pray for him.

Tomorrow is suppose to be the shortest day of the year, the darkest for us. After tomorrow (the 21st) we will start gaining daylight each day until we are on the other side of this... :-) Funny. People crack me up about this, some are loving the darkness and some can't wait for the long daylight.

Well, I just wanted to update you a little. Shaughn did pretty well yesterday except for a headache. Today he is still complaining of his head pounding. Pray for him too.

December update....

This is Scott working on CEF's Cherokee 6 engine at the MARC hangar.

Lela's mom, Grace, was able to come to Alaska and spend Lela & Nathaniel's birthday with them.

Nathaniel on his big day...turning 12!!




We have really enjoyed our visit with mom. We have been able to see Moose, Eagles, fly over the glaciers, sheep, mountain goats, beautiful sunsets and sunrises, and even moose poop in the front yard. Mom has been able to meet many of our friends here and was even able to attend both our monthly club and Nathaniel's monthly club.

Everyone is doing well. Mom had to reschedule her departure flight due to being fogged in. We are driving her back to Anchorage today to catch her early morning flight out. Please pray for her safety.

Shaughn has been attending a job fair class here and really liking it. He has to put in 6 hours at Vo-Tech today.

Bless you all, just wanted to give you an update.
Lela

A Time of Worship...

Today was such a blessing at church. Shaughn played for the first time at Soldotna Bible Chapel on their worship team. He did an excellant job and was so nervous. I thought I would post a couple of photos of him.