Although everything has not really hit our brains yet, today is the day that we make the big move into the realization of a dream. It was 18 years ago for Travis and about 20 years ago for Andrea that we felt God began calling us into career missions and finally, at age 29, this day has come. The thought that keeps coming to mind is...what a privilege? We don't entirely know what to expect, though in a general sense, we expect plenty of stress, plenty of discouragements and frustrations, plenty of very low times...but at the same time an undying joy and unwavering feeling of privilege to be doing what God has designed us to do. It truly is a privilege!

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend we "rented" a cabin -- actually a generous family has this cabin and wants it to be used for ministry things like youth retreats and for those involved in ministry to get away; the only fee required is to leave it as clean as we found it – hence we “rented” a cabin in northern Wisconsin and spent time with Travis' parents, two brothers, their wives and our two nieces. Though the ice on the lake kept the kayaks and canoes on shore, we enjoyed several hikes, playing lots of games, watching a family movie favorite "Trucks" (a terrible, low-budget horror flick), an Easter Egg hunt with the two girls, and we even had one "polar plunge" participant (maybe somehow it wasn't just chilling and thrilling but also significant in the perspective of the resurrection! Or maybe that's just a stretch!).

One of the highlights was “everybody plays” hide and seek. First, all 8 adults would hide and Peyton (5) and Elise (2) would search for us. This brought out our competitive natures as we tried extra hard to outsmart a 5-year-old which in turn made for some uncomfortably tight squeezes! Then we reversed the game so that Peyton (5) would hide and all 8 adults would search for her. It took a good 3-4 minutes of crazy running around all three floors of this cabin before she was located - by her grandma. It was very fun for both kids and adults! I highly recommend it for your family gathering.

We have attached a few pictures from the Easter Egg hunt which Andrea and I really enjoyed - after all, we won’t be able to participate in them with our nieces for another 4 years (if they haven't graduated beyond egg hunting by that time!). We were so happy to have had this set-aside time with family.