Merry Christmas!! (and profuse apologies)

Hey all you lovely ladies!
This is Baylie.....ya know, the girl that has pretty much dropped off the planet (at least as far as this blog is concerned). :0) I can't believe I've gone this long without popping in to say hello...so sorry! But anyway, rest assured that I am alive and well (and still residing on the planet)!
Welllllll, let's see if I can catch you all up to speed with what's been going on with me......
This past summer was fairly relaxed.....just work and catching up on school. Speaking of edumacation, I'll be graduating in the spring!!! Yay! :0) As to what I'll be doing after that, I'm not exactly sure. Some possible opportunities have come my way, but I'm still in the "thinking and praying about" process.
How have all my sister friends been doing? I miss all of you terribly. I can't believe it's now been OVER a year since EXCEL!! Too crazy.
Currently, I am gearing up for Christmas (that's right, I'm STILL working on getting gifts together. I know. I'm terrible.) I hope you all are having a very merry Christmas season! Wouldn't it be fun some time to have a Team 2 Christmas party?! Maybe someday!
Until then, Merry Christmas to all of you! May you all be filled with the joy of the Lord as you celebrate the birth of our amazing Redeemer.
Lots of love,
Baylie

A Journey of Love

On October 24, 2011 shortly after 5:00 pm (Hawaiian time) my dear Aunty Mary passed away due to cancer. Although I am extremely sad that she's gone and I will miss her terribly, I know where she is and am happy for her. Her life was one of hardships and sorrows (just like anyone's), but also, one of love, joy, and peace as well. She lived the Bible verse 1 Cor. 13:13 "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." Everytime I saw her, she had a smile on her face, love in her heart, and faith in her soul. She and her sister (who's my Apo (Grandmother)) were always laughing each time they were together. Aunty Mary's love for everyone and anyone was contagious. It didn't matter who you were, what your story was, or what car you drove, she would accept you with the same amount of love that she showed to anyone else...and that was a lot. :)

I hope and pray that I will be able to follow in her footsteps.

I'll miss you and always love you Aunty Mary!

-Evelyn

Greetings from Anna

Hey everyone, I guess the blog still isn't agreeing with Anna, so here's the post she asked me to put up.

Dear friends,It has been a whole year, and Imust say I’m sorry for not being very good at all about staying in touch withyou all. You are truly special to me and I would never want to take back thememories we shared together. It sounds like all your lives are so busy and Ihope and pray God is blessing you all through the things you are doing.

I just have a few announcements andthoughts to share with you, my sisters: First CONGRATULATIONS to theFredricksons on the new baby…how are you all enjoying him? You all will bereally excited to know that I’m going to be having yet another niece/nephewtoo…Can’t wait. :) Then the brother just older than me is getting married in January and. BothMerrie and I are going to be brides maids so it is very exciting to be more inthe loop with planning things.

I do ask though that you all wouldpray that the Lord would grant me the strength to be content with Him, because,because this brother is the one older than me, I have been struggling withcontentment with the God given blessing of being single.

The main reason for this letter, isI really want to know how God is using you all to fulfill your “Life PurposePlanning” stuff, or if He has you on a different path, what is it?

I feel God has called me to helpthe girls in our church and church youth group who are being pulled in by theworld due to the drama of it. My hope is to encourage their growth in the Lordand that they would learn to love their families more. So It all started offreally slow, but back in May the Lord prompted me befriend and help a girl whois one of the more out-going ones in the youth group. She isn’t really a“troubled” girl but I know how important it is even when you have many friendsto have a few support team friends who you can tell things to in confidence.The two of us started getting together weekly and she is such a joy. We havebeen reading through “His Princess” and already finished Ps. 119 and are nowworking on finding the women of the Bible who we can mottle our lives around sowe have chosen Ruth for starters.

The Lord has shown me that when we do His will to serve others, and are following contentedly in the His paths,his indescribable joy follows and sustains. “Oh the Joy that fills my soul.”And also; it is all about the Lord and He is only using me as a tool to sit andlisten and help these girls.

These girls in my church are rightat that age where the decisions they are making are walking the fine linebetween establishing independent attitudes while still keeping their familyrelationships strong, Please pray for this ministry.

As I said, I would Love to hear howthe Lord is using all of you to help and change other.

Fellow sister and friend,

Eraser

Balloon Fiesta!...and other news :)

Greetings my fellow Coruscaters!
As it has been quite some time since I have posted anything, I shall give an update on my life...so this will either be a very short post, or a very long one. :)

My summer was going to be quite uneventful, until my oldest sister got kicked by a horse. She is doing much better now and her strength is almost completely back. Thanks for all your prayers! My summer ended all too suddenly and then it was back to school *heavy sigh*. But from September 30 to October 9 I got a break from school. "Why?" you ask. Because of the most wonderful time of the year...Balloon Fiesta!!!!!!!!!!!!
Allow me to explain the Balloon Fiesta to you.

Beginning the first Saturday of October, Balloonists come from all over the world (obviously bringing their Hot Air Balloons with them) and fly in Albuquerque, NM for 9 days...the Balloonists that live in Albuquerque (ABQ for short) do something called ABQ Aloft the Friday prior, upon which they set-up and take off from elementary schools. So for 10 days straight I woke up long before the sun did (with the exception of the 2nd...I got to sleep in until 7am as it was a Sunday and I went to church). My uncle Stephen owns and pilots an hot air balloon, and he flew in the Fiesta. He also (as crazily wonderful as he is) wakes up 2 hours earlier to make waffles for all the volunteers, pilots, and crew members of Fiesta. Earlier this year he got hit by a car while riding his bicycle home and his left knee has been recovering ever since. So I came up with the brilliant idea that I would go with him at 4 in the morning to help make waffles in hopes that I could possibly keep him from damaging his knee all the more. There were more, really good and logical reasons to why I thought this, but as of late, I cannot remember them. So I woke up at 3am, got to bed at 10pm (if I was lucky) and so the week went...you can assume by now that by the end of Fiesta I was tired...no, exhausted. But so was the rest of our crew that came out at 5:30 to set up a balloon. So you may ask, was it all worth it? All you need to do is to come to a Balloon Fiesta to know that it is completely and utterly worth it! :)
Yes, I am still sleep deprived, but I would not trade those 10 days for anything. Watching 700+ balloons launch from one field is just so awe-inspiring, that I don't think words could ever express. So, how to wrap this up? I am really tired, but it was completely worth it. I love Balloon Fiesta! :D
So this, in short, is what has been happening in my life. If my post seems slightly disjointed, I blame it on the sleep deprivation. ;)
Miss you all tons! - Evey




















My Uncle's Balloon "Twist of Fate"

Oh Happiness!

I'm an Aunt! {'a' as in father ;) }

My sister Evangeline delivered an adorable baby *boy* on Thursday the 11th of August, at 2:20 in the morning. His name is Evin August Porter! {pronounced the same as Evan} August is for his Great-Grandpa and Evin is for Evy...plus they both really liked that name. =) It was so wonderful to have the opportunity to see him the day he was born! Praise the Lord for a safe delivery. The mid-wife thought Evy was at least three weeks overdue; so, if the baby didn't come on Thursday they were going to induce. God works everything in his time. <3 And when they measured him {7lbs 1oz; 18 in.} he was the size of a 39 - 40 week baby! So, good thing he didn't come any earlier.

<3 First Meeting <3

Our Little Treasure

Grandpa Fred

Wakey-Wakey!

Cousin + Honorary Uncle = Cuncle Anthony
{For all of you who didn't know, my cousin Anthony has been living with us for the Summer =}

Uncle Erik

We think he resembles Andrew the most =)

Tiny Toes

Winsome Eyes <3

Elated!

The Aunties

{short 'a'; I am the only one who prefers Ahnt;}

He's got a great personality! ;)

Thank you all for your prayers! The labor was only 5 1/2 hours (which still is painful; but, not as bad as some have been). I hope that everyone of you gets to meet him someday. =D
Phia <3

EXCEL Sisters

It has been a delight to be able to meet up with EXCEL 35 girls (and some who have done previous EXCELS) this year! I just thought I would share some pictures... =)

Location #1 - Heather Holdeman Jorgensen's Wedding

Rachel Freed =)

Whitney <3

Location #2 - Nashville ATI Conference

The Sisters in our official PE polos!

Dee!

Anna <3

Brooke, Hannah, Anna, Olivia, Amanda!

Location #3 - Michelle's House

Yay! Rachel stopped in for a visit. =)

Michelle, Rachel, Me, Sarah <3

Location #4 - My House

Bethany and her family stopped in for a visit on their way up to canada!=D

Michael, Bethany, Marissa, Belinda =)

Belinda and Bethany <3

We met up with Sarah and Michelle =)

Sarah, Bethany, Michelle, Me <3

These have all been such special times...and who knows, I may be able to see the rest of you all sometime this year as well (I really hope so!) <3

{Evy still hasn't had Baby and Andrew is feeling much better...he doesn't have blood poisoning, Praise the Lord! Thank you for your prayers <3}

News from Lindsay

Hey everyone! It's been way too long since I posted, so I intend to update you all on what I've been doing, and share some random photos from this spring/summer. First of all, Analee Carol was born on March 24th. She is such a happy little girl and just loves Aunt Lindsay =)

A couple of us at Easter, Joel (who decided to dress up for once), me, Erin, and Alyssa. You can't really tell here, but Erin is expecting September 5th, and we're getting pretty excited =)

Our house has been full of company all summer, so I've been kept pretty busy. I got to go on a retreat to Mackinac Island at the end of June, which was awesome. All my siblings were home the whole month of June, but they've all left once again, and it's just me here until December. My next challenge is taking on dual-enrollment with Verity this next school semester. Needless to say, I'm spending the rest of my summer very carefully, sleeping in, swimming, reading, playing the piano, and lazily getting ahead on a couple school courses. It's been a good, if too short, summer. I shall endeavor to post more pictures soon. Love you all!

~Lindsay

Ever Learning

Hello Girls,

I just wanted to share some things God has been teaching me.

Recently in the past two months, I have experienced more of a struggle in responding with ready and willing attitudes when it comes to being asked to do something. =/ Now, this isn't necessarily a new deal with me...when asking someone how I behaved as a child, I received the reply, "Welllll, you weren't grumpy...you were just...willful." Sinful from birth I tell ya. *shakes head* But, that's the consequence of disobedience to a Holy God. Gratefully, He is just and merciful; thus, my willful soul has hope. The other evening, I was working on a project {http://simpledelights-phia.blogspot.com} and was rather excitedly occupied. Then my dad asks me if I "want to go out in the garden and help pick produce?" *blank expression - blinks eyes twice* Hmm...do I want to go out in the humid 97 degree weather, bend over plants picking produce, with mosquitoes feasting on me, when I could be enjoying the very-much-appreciated ac, while I'm having fun with my new blog? Initial thought: no. The Holy Spirit immediately checks me. I know I should respond with a cheerfully willing attitude. [Dad goes to get ready...returns] Holy Spirit, give me the grace to be cheerful. *smiles* "Sure, I'll join you." =) *happy sigh* I instantly feel excited about suffering heat, back aches, and mosquitoes if it means being able to spend quality time with my dad and obeying the Lord's promptings. I go out and pick beans, lettuce, kale, raspberries, beets, kohlrabi, cherry tomatoes, and Zinnia flowers. =) It was warm; yet, not sun-parched. And I got one mosquito bite the entire time. Also, no back ache. To top it off, I was able to spend quality time with my favorite dad. =)

A Result of Picking Produce =)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news:

My sister, Evy, is due the 21st! Prayers would be appreciated for a safe delivery and healthy baby. =)

{yes, he does act crazy}

My older brother, Andrew, is back from SE Asia! I am one happy girl. =) Sadly, he has contracted some sort of illness he picked up over there. He will be having blood work done tomorrow. Prayer for his recovery would be greatly appreciated!

My Nieces

Allow me to first explain and tell you that they are not my biological nieces (as none of my sisters are married yet), but we have people that are so close to my biological family, that we've joined them into our family. After that lengthy explanation :), I shall now continue.
Today at 1:15ish, I got to visit the two premies that were born while we were all at EXCEL. Their names are Eva and Abigail. They were born about 3 months prematurely (I thought it was just two and a half, my bad) and for the past 7 months, have been secluded to their house, only to be seen by their mother, father, and grandparents (although only the Grandpa's weren't allowed to hold them until just last month). I am happy to say that I have now not only gotten to meet them in person, but hold them as well! Eva is about 10 lbs, with Abigail trailing behind at 9 lbs. They are getting healthier and stronger each day, and Eva is starting to stand/hold her head up without help, and Abigail isn't too far behind. They've been off of their oxygen tanks for quite a while, and they're finally holding their food down...for the most part. Over all, my little nieces are doing better each day, and I have decided that I as the Aunt will get next to first dibs on being the babysitter. :)
RSV (the common cold) season is over now, so the twins (along with their mother) have finally been able to get out...well, by get out I mean once or twice, as we (Albuquerque, NM) are experiencing sunny with a chance of smoke, courtesy of Arizona's fire and wind gusts. And as you can imagine, smoke doesn't quite sit right with the twins...well, with anyone here. :/ But I refuse to let the weather dampen my joy right now. Words cannot express how happy I am right now.

I would have posted pictures along with this post, however, we ran into a slight problem. I managed to remember to bring the camera with us on our visit over, but not only did I accidentally forget to bring the camera home with us, I forgot to take pictures. :| So, I beg for forgiveness and patience as I will try to remember to take pictures next time I visit, upon which, pictures will hopefully be available. :)

Love you and miss you all!
IKM, Evey

So it's been a long time...

...since I've posted on this blog. I've been crazy busy and out of the loop for several months. :) But don't worry - I have lots of thoughts and memories to share with you all! I had an amazing time in Iowa! I learned so many lessons, made so many memories, and did so many new things. I feel like I've changed so much during my three months away from home. Looking back now, I'm even more convinced than I was before that God wanted me there!

Sooooo.... for your enjoyment and edification, here are a few of the highlights! :)

First off, here I am with the other two interns: Emily Long (left) and Kristin Youngblood (middle).

This is Mrs. Mally, Sarah, and Grace. I know we all look awful. :) This picture was taken late at night after a conference (think: exhausted, sleep deprived) because I was freaking out at the last minute because of my lack of pictures!
This is my little corner of the Bright Lights office. :) Really, it wasn't always THAT messy!

This adorable young lady is Alicia Groothuis, my 4:12 girl. 4:12 is a one-on-one discipleship group that's part of Bright Lights. It's really neat because it pairs up a younger girl with an older girl for eight weeks of Bible study, Scripture memory, and accountability. It was such a joy to get to know Alicia, as well as her sweet family. She has thirteen siblings, nine or so of which were adopted from Liberia. The Groothuis family is one of the most amazing, neatest, Christ-centered families I've ever met. They are INCREDIBLE, no joke!

On my birthday Sarah, Grace, Kristin, Emily, and some of the girls from the office took me out to lunch and threw me a party. It was such a sweet surprise, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship!
A significant highlight of the internship was discovering THE cutest, funnest coffee shop IN the whole world: Witte's End! Each room in the house is full of comfy chairs and couches and other loveliness. :) In the providence of God, Witte's End was conveniently located just behind the office where I worked. :)

It was the perfect place to come to catch my breath in the middle of a busy day! There were lots of fun memories made here. :)

I fell in love with chocolate chai, which is just about the best drink in the world I believe. I spent way to much money there. 'Nuff said. :)
The last week of April we did two conferences in Rogers, Arkansas. Here's the entryway of the church we were at. We all LOVED the globe; it was so beautiful! We were told that it's the largest globe of its kind in the world!

This is Augusta Fernando, a precious woman I met at the church I attended there in Iowa. Augusta is the sweetest, neatest, most Godly lady ever. She is the biggest prayer warrior I've ever met in my life. She became a spiritual mother to me....I'm so grateful that God brought her into my life! I SO wish you all could meet her.....you would absolutely LOVE her!!

Augusta is from India, but has been living in the States the last few years doing cancer research and trying to discover a way to cure deafness. She's a Ph.D....majorly intelligent person, but she is one of the most humble people I've been around. She also cooks the best Indian food on the planet! She totally spoiled me food wise. :) One night she went to our house while we were still at work and cooked dinner for us....just to be a blessing. That's how neat she is!

Okay, so this is what I woke up to the day before I left for Arkansas. NOT MORE SNOW!!!!!!!
The last stop for me was Big Sandy (yay!). It was so good to see some of ya'll there! This is my COMMIT team....I had such a wonderful time with these sweet young women!

The Bright Lights Internship was an amazing experience, but it was not what I was expecting it to be. There were many challenges and difficulties that really caused me to have to trust God and have faith in His plan (which is a good thing!). Three days into the internship I got sick and had to stay in bed for two days. Then, a week later I was in a car accident. No one in each of the three cars was hurt, but it was still a pretty traumatic experience. That same week I was also taking a computer class that I was barely surviving! I couldn't believe that all this crazy stuff was happening. I firmly believed that I was right where God wanted me to be and that gave me such strength and joy, but I was quickly coming to see that His plans for this experience were definitely different than my own! :) Another really hard thing was that one of the interns had to go back home after only three weeks. I had grown especially close to this girl, so the parting was very painful. However, I later came to see that God had removed her from my life for a reason. He wanted me to be totally focused on drawing close to Him!

There were several times I was really forced to step out of my comfort zone to do what God was calling me to do. Helping to teach Bright Lights, hence public speaking, was stretching, but I really came to love it! It came in handy gaining confidence on a smaller level when I had to speak in front of over four hundred people at the conference! Another thing that really pushed me to grow was passing out tracts at the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Cedar Rapids. I was really scared and intimidated at first (there were some somewhat creepy people), but God gave me such confidence! I actually discovered that I CAN walk up to a group of tough, intimidating-looking guys and offer them a tract!

All this to say, God used this experience in a mighty way in my life! He taught me so much about prayer, surrender, and ministry.

I love you all LOTS!

Baylie

Anna's Post

Hey y'all! I'm posting for Anna.

So I am sending this through my dearly trusted Evelyn :D, because my computer is really annoying. And the picture is one that my family sent out as a Christmas card this past year. The picture is the middle is of everyone except Tatiana who was born four months latter.

Good news first: On January 3, 2011 a niece was born, Tatiana Lisette. She is a beautiful blessing. She was born via cesarean section but both mommy and Baby were healthy.

Now on to the slightly less joyful news: back in March I had a gymnastics accident. I was doing a skill I’ve known how to do for about a year now. It was a round-off-back-handspring, (if you want to know what it is, look it up on youtube) which is a power packed and fast skill. I was the only student and there were three coaches present. There was something I just wasn’t getting right, so they were trouble-shooting for. Well, I must have had an information overload, because as I started to do it again, I did the round-off right but as I went backward something happened and I landed very hard on my neck. I stayed there, on my neck, for about two seconds before gravity pulled me down to lie on the ground. So the pain grew and reached its climax within about 30 sec. before it began to cool down. As any crazy, hardcore, gymnast, I got back up and did a bunch of back flips before I called it a day. And then it was about three weeks before I even went to a chiropractor (I haven’t been to the doctor yet), and he said he doesn’t know how I could have continued taking classes for three weeks before I went to he. He said I had a slipped vertebra. So I was getting adjustments for about two weeks and then stopped because it felt better, but I still don’t think it is healed all the way. I praise God when He allows me a few days without pain, but then there are the days when I feel it still. It’s not like a really hard pain, but a small nagging pain that get annoying. I am pleased to announce that this week has been among one of the better weeks and I feel great, but I would love your prayers for complete healing. And yet I feel as though this injury will put me out of gymnastics by the end of summer.

Ireland recap!

Greetings! My brain is finally over jet lag, however is now clogged up from allergies :/, so I will try and make sense, but it I don't, I blame on the weather. ;)
I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing Ireland was. God taught me so much about trusting Him, having peace in Him, and WAY more!!! Here's the link to JUBALation's (the band that I'm in) blog. We posted throughout our trip and we have even more pictures there.
jubalation.wordpress.com
Love you and miss you all! Hope y'all are doing great!
-Evey