Connect Church on the Web

Connect Church has a new website, thanks to the generosity and skills of a friend in TX! Visit us at www.connect-church.com. It is a work in progress still, so be sure and continue to check it out as it is developed!

Transforming Worship

This post won't be about what you think.... Today I had to laugh when I heard my 4-yr old little girl singing a combination of the Transformers theme and "Shout to the Lord". Only in our house!

Camping

This past weekend we were able to get away for a few days and go camping. It was great! Just us, a tent and the great outdoors.... very refreshing! Especially because the weather was perfect. I did feel bad that we were enjoying the weather so much while family and friends in Houston were busy escaping the weather...

We went to Kayak Point, a park our friends, the Corbins, recommended to us. It's right on a bay of the Puget Sound and all the campground trails lead to the beach. So, every day we'd hike down and spend a few hours playing in the water, which was super clear and ice cold... so most of our playing was in the sand and on the many logs that were down there. I'm warning you, I was quite camera happy and there were SO many good pictures, it was hard to decide what to post. Here are a few of my favorites........




























Hannah called this "the fort" and had to play on it every day.














They also like to play IN it...














One of Kaitlyn's favorite things to do was gathering rocks in her pail and dumping them out. The water was so clear that when we looked down in it from the pier we could see fish swimming and crabs crawling on the bay floor.




























Hiking...






































































You can't go camping without S'mores.....














...and Hannah agreed!




























The park had a large and very unique playground that we all had fun playing on, as you can see!














Our goofy Hannah! Or is it Erkle?

Hannah's Big Week

Hannah has had a week of firsts here. Monday she went to her first gymnastics class. She's been asking about getting to do gymnastics for months now. We told her we'd look into it once we moved to Seattle, and boy, she didn't let us forget about that! She LOVED her class and I had so much fun watching her. I was so proud of how well she listened and followed the coaches' instructions.














Unfortunately I was not in a good place to get many good action shots and between keeping Kaitlyn occupied and watching Hannah this was the best I got! It's kind of dark, but she said one of her favorite things about the day was swinging on the rope and jumping into the foam pit. She also really liked the trampoline, pretending to be different kinds of animals as they walked like those animals across the gym floor, and swinging on the bar while using her legs to climb up the wall. This pretty much covers most of what they did in the class and they were all her "favorite", so I'd say she likes it!














Then Tuesday she went to her first day of preschool. The morning started out with smiles.....














....but unfortunately it ended in tears, for both of us.... This program is a lot different from Parkway's Kingdom Kids. And apparently the differences at preschool stirred up all the emotion of how different everything is here for her. She didn't want me to leave and would not interact with any of the other kids, which is unlike our social bug. I stayed for the first 30 minutes of class (there were still parents there when I left, so apparently they're pretty lenient about that the first day), and finally she was okay enough to tell me goodbye. We have not had a bout of homesickness for Nashville since early July until this week. And it's hit her hard. Fortunately, this preschool program is only 2 days a week. So, we try it again tomorrow. It may take a little time, but I think she'll like it if she's willing to give it a chance. At least tomorrow we've given her something special to look forward to. Once we pick her up from preschool we're heading out on a 3-day camping trip, and we're ALL excited about that!

Birth of a Church

The last day of August marked significance for our infant church. This past Sunday night all of our starting core group members gathered under one roof for the very first time! It was surreal for us, after spending months and months planning. In getting here, each of these families has faced their share of obstacles. I wish I could share their stories here because they're amazing. Their faith has been tested in tremendous ways. But the assurance of God's calling for them has pushed them forward into the unknown, allowing them to persevere through doubts, fears and unanswered questions. And this has encouraged us beyond words. When Dale and I first began talking about the possibility of starting a church in the Seattle area, in Jan. 2007, we could not have dreamed that He would put together such a team of people to join us. But He has done just that - we certainly had nothing to do with it! And we are thankful.

Look closely....... these are the faces of Connect Church. Our prayer is that there will be many more to come.