Sunday, April 27, 2008

Moving...

So, for those of you who are interested, our moving dates have changed again. At this point does that really surprise anyone? Dale and the boys will be heading West on May 26. Yes, this is our story and we're sticking to it!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

American Idol

Okay, I am still very disappointed about last nights' results. I just knew Carly and the Davids would be in the top 3. I really, really like Brook and will probably buy some of her music one day. But she's still not as good as the other 3. And Jason, let's just face it. The fact that he is still in it is proof to me that many voters are teenage girls that don't know any better. No offense to my many young friends who are teenage girls! The only hope that I have is that Carly has gotten enough exposure now that she will be fine I'm sure. But watching American Idol from here on out will not be nearly as fun.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Wagons and Caterpillars

The last couple of days in Nashville have been beautiful! So, we've been eating a lot of meals outside on the picnic table. The girls have been enjoying the swing set with their friends, riding in the wagon, and making up stories about the many creatures they have found in the grass. Actually, Hannah makes up the stories and Kaitlyn tries to eat them, the creatures that is. She hasn't gotten anything past me recently. Although Dale informed me she had part of a snail in her mouth a few weeks ago. Ugh!!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Ed Stetzer

I don't know how many of you who read my blog know who Ed Stetzer is, but you can find out more here. He is one of the church planting gurus of our time. Dale has read a few of his books. And he happens to be the interim pastor at First Baptist Hendersonville, right down the road from us. Dale had the opportunity to meet with him last week and he was so gracious to him and served as a big encouragement at this point in our church planting journey. Since we're church hopping we decided to go hear him preach on Sunday - which was phenomenal - and I got to meet him after the service. Super nice guy! Well, he informed us that we would be showing up on his blog, and low and behold here we are on the post entitled "Sunday is for Friends". Just scroll down until you see the "Dale Braswell" heading with our picture. How amazing is that?!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Life at the Braswells

Here's the latest with...

Hannah: She is handling our church hopping rather well, especially considering the fact that she had a hard time our last week at Inglewood. I just never imagined our leaving would have such a deep affect on our 3 1/2 year old. But her little heart has been so sad about leaving her friends. We've been to 3 different churches in the last 3 weeks and today was the first time she didn't say, "But I want to go to my church." She still gets to see her 2 best buds, Ethan and Naomi, quite a bit, so that is helping.... She is growing and maturing so much it seems lately. She makes us laugh all the time with her vivid imagination and silly sense of humor. She has also begun saying the sweetest things - like, "Mom, you're the best mom in the world!" "Mom, I will never leave you.", etc. I know she has no one else to compare me to and that she will in fact leave me one day. But it's nice to relish in these words now. I need to video her at some point so I can play it back when she's 13!

Kaitlyn: Our 13 month old - She is just happy to be Kaitlyn. She is so curious and into absolutely everything.... She is cutting 2 teeth at the same time and I could have sworn I saw a couple more on the bottom about to come through. Poor thing! She's a slobbery mess!.... The funniest thing about her right now is that she loves to quack like a duck. She will point to a picture of a duck and just go to town. Except now we've got to work on other animal sounds b/c she was quacking at our friends' dog the other night.... She is developing the same love for books her sister has. I know she's ready for story time when she either points to or brings me a book saying, "gook". She is learning to keep up with Hannah quite well these days. She'll be a tough one that's for sure!

Seattle Plans: We have not sold our house yet. But, things have worked out for us to be able to be more certain about a May 20 closing on our Seattle home. So, Dale, Kevin and possibly a couple of others will head out with the trucks on May 19 and hope to arrive in Seattle by the 22nd. That should be some road trip! I and the girls will be flying to Houston that week for a few days before I fly up to meet the moving crew, leaving the girls to have some Grammie and Pawpaw time while we get things in order at the house....

So, we are making a dent with our packing, thanks to great friends who take care of our children and pack boxes with us. We have lots more to tackle in the next few week. Fun, fun! The days are passing quickly. It's been a weird time for us living in limbo-land, as we call it. We're not ready for the goodbyes of our move, but in one sense we're ready to be where God has been leading us for a year and a half. So, we pack, spend time with friends while we can and wait...

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Hallelujah....

....After a year of existence Kaitlyn is finally sleeping through the night on a consistent basis! I had to share the joy!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Things are ever changing....

Many are asking when we're moving and what's the latest with plans for Connect Church, so here ya go....

We're already learning that if you're in church planting, you must always be ready for your plans to change.... Which goes completely against my "plan ahead" nature. But God must have been conditioning me for this, because I'm not going completely crazy! We still have not sold our Nashville home. So, first and foremost, if you're reading this, please say a prayer that it will sell very soon. Because of this, we've had to adjust some things with the purchase of our Seattle home. Therefore, we don't have a definite move date yet.

This brings me to another issue. Dale and I made the decision a couple of weeks ago for him to look for a part-time job in Seattle in order to stretch out the funding we've currently received. Because we don't know how much longer we may be in Nashville, he's decided to look for a job here that will allow him to work even though we're moving soon and/or one that could transfer to Seattle when we move. So, you can also be praying that he finds such a job that will also give him the flexibility he needs to still focus much of his time on Connect Church.

We are not discouraged. We know that everything will happen in God's timing and it will turn out better than what we had planned. God continues to show us daily that His hand is upon us and that He is providing for what we need. As a good friend reminded me recently, God is faithful to provide our DAILY bread, so we need not worry about tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

March Events

Since March was so busy I didn't have much time for blogging. But there have been some very important events I want to post about. So here's a rundown........

1) We celebrated Kaitlyn's first birthday Friday night, March 14 with family and friends. All the grandparents were in town and our friends the Shrums came over.

We ate yummy ice cream cakes, which I actually made. I am no Martha Stewart, so I was quite proud of myself! One of our students' moms gave me a mini cake mold - aren't they cute?!














Here's a sweet sister moment














Kaitlyn beginning to destroy the cake and enjoying every minute of it!















2) Then the following evening we hosted a Couples Shower for our young friends Sarah and Keith who are getting married in July. It was a blast! Their wedding will be our first excuse to come back to Nashville after the move. :)

Don't they make a great couple!















3) Kaitlyn was dedicated the next day at church. She did so well! Here she is with Kevin














Us and the grandparents...














Such a sweet picture of Kaitlyn with my dad!















4) That night there was an Easter egg hunt for all the kids, including Kaitlyn. Although she was not very interested in finding eggs. She had some help putting eggs in her basket.

Hannah and the Easter Bunny















5) Our Easter was great. My sister, Tara, was able to visit for about a week, which was great. We had lots of fun with Auntie Tara!

Here are the girls before going to church.














Our beloved Auntie.. . :)














As has been our Easter tradition since moving to Nashville, we ate lunch and spent the day with the Shrum's. Here's a great picture of Hannah w/ Janet.














I couldn't resist posting the picture of our chocolate bunny massacre! Interesting things are always happening at the Shrum's. :)