Candid shots

Paul enjoying the beautiful sunshine

Craig LOVES hats and sometimes will not leave the house without one on...doesn't matter which one. Here he is sporting an old hat that I bought a couple of years ago for the winter months. You can see it wears his precious marks of ownership. :-)

Hmmm...sorry about that weird angle. We'll have a better one of James here in the next post. :-) He's growing like a weed and is looking forward to "being a dad" one day.

As you can tell these are random snapshots...in motion.

Aha! SOME body has been eating all the strawberries.

Dove Awards

Yesterday (Wednesday) Mom and I went to Nashville to help behind the scenes with the Dove Awards show at the Grand Ole Opry. We brought my friend Jane Goatley to help as well. We had a busy but wonderful time! In the morning from 11am until 3pm we worked as stand-ins for the show rehearsals.
Here Jane and I are sitting in the "audience" as we watched artists rehearse.

My friend, Jaclyn North happened to be there too! She is pursuing a career as a country artist.

We snapped a photo as Charlie Daniel's was rehearsing with a saxophone player, The Isaacs and Mac from Third Day. It was GREAT! I think the rehearsals are so much better than the actual performance. It's a small setting, nobody's putting on a show, they're just getting into it 'cause they love the music!

In the evening during the show we worked during the commercials pulling artists from the audience to backstage so they could get ready for their performance. This is the great team we were a part of. Mom was taking the photo, but she was in her element with this type of work. We all looked like a bunch of pro's running around with a mission! :-)
It was special to have a little one on one time talking with artists on the way backstage. Artists such as Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Point of Grace, Mac from Third Day, etc.

And finally...at 11pm CT we are standing in the parking lot...getting ready to go! It was fun, but we all admitted to being tired at the end of the day. :-)

Nashville Trip

(L-R) Judy LaFritz, Mabel Stuart & Deanna

On Wednesday Judy LaFritz picked me up from the airport because mom was at an art class with the children. We went bike riding with Mrs. Mabel Stuart at a park about an hour from our house and then took me home. I talked to the family for a little bit, went to bed, and left for Nashville with mom at 7:30am. I forgot to bring the camera with me so I don't have pictures, but it was busy!
I had a 1/2 voice lesson at 10am, a 2 hour meeting with my consultant at 11am, a 2 hour harp performance at 2pm, another 2 hour harp performance at 5:30pm and then went to see a friend play at 9:00pm. This is how mom values time. We get a lot accomplished in two days!
We got back on Saturday morning at 4:00am, slept a little and played for a wedding at 3:00pm.
It's been a BUSY week!!! :-)

Last minute Chicago Trip

On Friday (March 28) my friend Rachel Johnson from Chicago, IL and her friend Rachel Delacath stopped in for a visit. Here we are posing at the Osage Orange Tree in Harrodsburg, KY

In the past when I've gone to Chicago, IL to visit friends at IBLP Headquarters I have worked in the kitchen under Mrs. Stearn. Well Rachel told me that Mrs. Stearn felt the Lord directing her to leave headquarters and move to Washington state to serve at a ministry there. Her going away party was to be on Tuesday night.
Mom booked me a flight to go to Chicago on Monday and stay until Wednesday. Rachel and I finished the apron that we had been working on for Mrs. Stearn and presented it to her at the party! Here we are!!!

It's a reversible apron! No visible seams!!!

Here I am with (L-R) Anna Cook, Mandy Graham and Shelly Stearn (Mrs. Stearn's daughter).

Saying goodbye to Mrs. Stearn in the kitchen

Random Photos

The children take turns making lunch on different days. Lydia chose to make octopus on seaweed on her "lunch day". Doesn't that sound delicious?

Up close now...

And there's all the octopuses just waiting to be devoured.

When we got back from MX a friend came over and brought their rabbit for the children to see.

These are pretty random photo's and topics but that explains our life. :-) There's more a-comin'!

Bucerius Orphanage

Here we were at the Bucerius orphanage. It is a much smaller orphanage with more of a home atmosphere. We are excited about this because it is run by Christians whereas the others are Catholic and we are limited in what we can share with them.

They are looking to expand their facility and are breaking ground right now. This should house around 36 children while still keeping a comfortable setting. They hope to have this finished sometime in September.

One of the men popped up out of his trench for a photo.

All along the way we would share tracts with people on the buses, along the sidewalks, etc. The people loved the tracts not only for the message, but they are clever too! This really captured what happens almost every time we handed them out! We even had people coming asking for more so they could give them to their friends!

This is what these men do for a living...balance rocks by the ocean.

Rodolfo

There were a couple days when Rodolfo came and joined us for lunch or chose to spend the day with us. Here we were standing in front of the house of the family that he stays with.

Rodolfo had taken us on the roof of the house and as we were looking out we saw his neighbor with a donkey. We went down and asked to take pictures with his donkey. The man was more than happy! :-)

Here we are one evening on the rocks by the beach. We are praying for him. We know him from last year and he says he's a Christian, but it doesn't seem like he has any desire to go to church or to minister as a Christian would.

Here we are saying goodbye at the airport.

There were only a couple people that still worked at the hotel who we knew from last year. It was very special to see them again.