Merry Christmas!

We are getting excited for Christmas, and are again reminded of how incredible it is to have a Savior who came to live with us and experience every temptation of our lives - the same Jesus who now reigns victorious over all of creation! We hope your Christmas is filled with hope and joy as a result of God's gift to you of his son.

We are still staying with Matthew's Aunt Miriam in Roseville. She has been very gracious with us as lots of Naomi's stuff (stroller, Pack N Play, swing, ...) invades her living room. We have a candidating trip scheduled for Jan 10-11 for Faith Bible Church in Willows, CA, less than 2 hours from our families. Thus far we feel positive about the situation. Please praise God with us and pray for discernment for both us and the church, and also for God's workings in all the circumstances of the trip and the potential job. Meanwhile Matthew continues to work at Health Net and I am mostly enjoying raising Naomi. She just woke up happy, which is wonderful!

Below are some pictures from the past month.

Just in the past week or two Naomi doesn't have to be swaddled in order to sleep more than 10 minutes at a stretch. We enjoy watching her be peaceful (her bed is in the living room). She sleeps 9-10 hours a night now! She makes up for it by taking very short naps during the day and is often fussy - but the happy stretches are progressively increasing.

When other methods fail, Naomi ofter calms down and gets curious again when Dad makes her Superbaby.

I love how she folds her hands and curls her legs up under her for a little nap after many of her feedings.

Hooray for naked-time!

On Thanksgiving Day we stopped by Turlock to see G'G'G'ma Jessie before heading up to Stockton for my first Brooks Thanksgiving. My Great-Grandma is 96 years old, and was very excited to meet the next generation of her family.
Great-Grandma Hallsten came to Roseville the day after Thanksgiving, and she and Naomi got properly introduced.

Grandpa Keith loves his new role, and frequently takes Naomi outside for walks when she's protesting, or holds her so that Matthew and I can eat when we're over there.

The whole gang.

Naomi and I went with my parents, Peter and his girlfriend Stephanie, and Krista to get their Christmas Tree. I took Naomi on the same tree swing I went on every year as a child at Snowy Peaks Tree Farm.

Sorry the video below is a little longer than I intended - 92 seconds of Naomi cooing and kicking. Call me an obsessive first-time mom. ;-) There's no amazing finish, so feel free to stop it whenever you've had your fill. Meanwhile we'll be working on figuring out how to use our video editing software so we can give you 20 seconds next time....

Wow! Has it really been more than a month?

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. :-) And today Naomi is officially 2 months old.

I posted new pictures on Facebook in a public album, so you can all see them at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50486&l=2f173&id=692971443

This past month has been eventful! Naomi is learning how to nap - she's awake more during the day than we hear is typical for her age - she almost never sleeps more than an hour at a stretch. BUT more important, she sleeps well at night consistently! It's usually 6-7 hours, and the start time for that is getting more consistent as well, and then she goes right back down and sleeps another 3 hours or so.

Matthew started permanent status at Health Net last week, so we'll have benefits provided through his work in another month, and it was just in time to have paid holidays for Nov and Dec! Hooray. :-)

In the search for a ministry job, overall we are both encouraged - things are still happening, even as we look at December. He is preaching at a church in Willows this weekend and is turning in an app for an Assoc. position in Massachusetts by Sunday as well. Then next week there is another app due and the accreditation (towards ordination) interview for the Alliance.

Emily, meanwhile, is enjoying being able to stay caught up with chores, and to make a little progress towards moving ahead with paperwork and preparations for Christmas. This is possible in part because Matthew's Aunt Miriam returned home last week, and she has taken over care of her kitties. For now we are staying here with her and she is being very gracious in sharing her car, her kitchen, and her TV with us.

The last month we've really enjoyed watching Naomi learn. She's really started to smile at us, and will laugh when she's well-rested. Just in the past few days she's started cooing. As Grandpa Keith puts it, Naomi is very stiff - she holds up her head, and sometimes even her body, when we hold her up on one shoulder. She has a definite preference for being upright and able to use her legs. Forget rolling over or sitting up - she wishes she could stand! She's also learning about her hands, sucking on her knuckles and grasping Daddy's arm hair - but still nothing intentional. Last week she went in for her 2-month check, and she's at 10 lbs 10 oz (60th %ile) and 23 in long (75th %ile).

For Thanksgiving, we're heading down to Turlock in the morning to visit Emily's Great-grandma and let Naomi's Great-Great G'ma meet her, then we'll celebrate with the Brookses in Stockton for the first time as a couple.

God bless your travels and family time as you celebrate as well. We truly have an amazing God who has met our most pressing needs abundantly.

More Naomi Pictures

We have been enjoying our little girl. We still want to use this blog to update you on what is going on in our lives but right now there isn't a whole lot of new information to report. Matthew continues to work at Health Net and look for a pastoral position. Emily is embracing the challenges and joys of motherhood.

We are enjoying our daughtrer and times with friends and family and just trying to keep up with life. Maybe we'll post some of the details of the birth later but we'd rather tell you in person (or over the phone). Feel free e-mail or call or set up a time to meet up. We appreciate your love and prayers for our family. Now on to the main event: more pictures of Naomi.

We call Naomi's bouncer her "happy chair" we have it on the kitchen table under a bright warm light which she loves and she spends much of her happy awake time in it.

Here she is staring at the light.

Emily's Mom has been coming over frequently to help out, which has been much appreciated.


So far Naomi has been mostly great for her various visitors.
We were pleased that she was able to enjoy this visit from great grandma and granpa Brooks.

Naomi is growing fast but is still quite a tiny little bundle, carrying her is no burden at all.

Naomi did not enjoy her first bath.

Here Naomi enjoys some time with Grandma Brooks. She is a very loved little girl.

This is our first "family picture".

There are even more pictures on facebookfor those of you who have profiles there. Please do let us know how you are doing. We love you all and always enjoy hearing from you.

Intorducing Naomi Linda Brooks!

Our daughter was born on Friday, September 26th, 2008. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19 and 1/2 inches long. Mom and baby are home and doing great. We are so blessed to have such a beautiful healthy little girl and thank all of you who have been praying for us. We will post more details about the birth later but for now, by popular demand, here are some pictures of Naomi's first three days of life outside the womb.

Naomi likes being swaddled (the process of getting swaddled isn't always as fun) and has been sleeping great the last day and a half.

Naomi is a wide eyed little girl and likes to look at faces, here she makes eyes at mommy.

Grandpa Hallsten came by on Sunday afternoon to get acquainted.

Daddy is learning quickly how to sooth his little girl and loves holding her in his arms.

Mommy did a great job throughout labor and delivery and was feeling well enough in the hospital to be able to really enjoy her little girl.

We know that every parent think their child is as cute as they come but even Naomi's nurses went on and on about how cute she is. Just look at that face!

Maybe we shouldn't tell her too much about how cute she is. She already seems to be mugging for the camera. ("Dad, make sure you get my good side").

We are looking forward to introducing Naomi to all of her new friends and family over the coming weeks and months. So far she seems to be hitting it off with everyone she meets. Look at the smile she put on Auntie Krista's face.

We will do our best to keep this blog updated with more pictures and stories as Naomi grows. We feel blessed to have so many people who care about us to share this special joy with.

Answer to prayer

Thank you all for praying about the health insurance! We heard Tuesday that Blue Cross is going to let us go on their Portability Plan after all. The supervisor went back and listened to all my archived calls, and the portability guru agreed that we could be covered through the end of December by this plan - praise God! Basically, that means that instead of having to go on COBRA and spend $889/month, we're going to cover just me for $208/month (and then Naomi for a little more). Matthew will have a separate individual plan here for less than $100. So we'll all have good coverage, and we'll still be able to pay for gas/groceries without dipping (much) into savings.

I also had a doctor's appointment today - 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced. That's no guarantee of any time estimate for when labor will actually start, but it was encouraging enough that the doctor doesn't think I'll need to be induced, which is very good.

Preparing for Baby Naomi's arrival

I keep stalling actually posting anything, thinking that "maybe tomorrow" I'll have time to get pictures organized to post with the news, but that's not happening so I'm just going to say something. :-)

There continues to be a lot of activity in our lives - more than I anticipated for this time period! Matthew (and others) would probably say that's just because I overestimate how much I can get done without feeling busy.

Before I go on, what you're all wanting to know: Due date is 12 days away (9/25), and doctor says she's probably not coming early. There are more contractions now, but I don't think she's really dropped yet. (A blessing - so far I have not been very uncomfortable so the waiting isn't so bad yet.)

For actual events, we go back to late August: My dad and I went out to breakfast for my birthday (family tradition) and a couple days later mom and I went shopping for my birthday - she got our family a Pack N Play and then we went to La Bou and I had soup in a bread bowl and a frappuchino-like thing. Yumm! Thanks for the lunch, Mom! And the place for Naomi to sleep.

The next day was Sunday and we were in for a surprise when we visited Grace Valley, our Davis church family. They offered the overwhelming blessing of having an 'in-lieu-of-baby-shower' donation, and we are just humbled and blessed by their support, both in prayer and in this show of their care for us. As a result, our health expenses related to the birth will be minimal. Thank you, Grace Valley!

Next, on that Thursday my Davis friends threw an actual shower and afterwards we felt like we had the practical stuff! Thermometer and nail clippers, changing pad, clothes for when she's older, sippy cups and toddler silverware/dishes, and many families' favorite books. Anna did a beautiful job decorating her backyard and we sat outside in the evening breeze - then ate rich cake! Thank you, ladies!

The next day we moved to Aunt Miriam's house to housesit for the six kitties and to have a place with more space and privacy for the time directly surrounding Naomi's birth. We have now thoroughly invaded Miriam's space. We just feel blessed - what a privilege and provision for us! It makes it even nicer that Aunt Miriam feels the same way since it means she's free to visit her daughter's family for the first time in quite a while. Thank you, Miriam!

And the next day (so far we've only gotten to last Saturday!) our home church, Hillcrest Alliance, blessed us with a baby shower. The decorations all had animals all over them - it was a happy rainbow Noah's Ark theme. Many of them got together on a group gift and supplied a beautiful, comfortable glider, a stroller, and an activity mat. Again, the women were insightful about the practical things we really need! We now have a car seat, bathtub, diapers, Boppy, etc. Thank you, Hillcrest!

That afternoon we met with our doula (=professional labor coach) and got to know each other and talk through things. My friend Angela (who got all those great Noah's Ark decorations!!) was over to look at baby stuff and catch up a little bit before she needed to get back home, as well.

Since then, I've just been doing the last shopping trips and trying to get things more organized. On Wednesday I cooked about 10 meals and put them all in the freezer so we'll have instant food when we're most sleep-deprived. My mom and I went to Babies R Us yesterday to get some of the last needed things (and a few splurge things from gift cards :-) ). Last night I packed our hospital bag and diaper bag. Today I finished making one of those Bebe Au Lait-style nursing covers (supplies: ~$6; blanket sold online: $35). If I were to make another one, I'd make a couple small changes, but overall I'm very pleased.

So, the main thing I want to say is that God is amazingly good. We have all that we need and more. Secondly, we are starting to actually feel ready for Naomi to let us see her!

One prayer request:
We got some information this week that means our insurance situation is not as straightforward as we originally thought. The insurance company is working with us (partly because I received mis-information from one of their employees), but we ask you to pray that we will have insurance that covers the end of the pregnancy and the delivery, and that it would cost less than $900/month (what they're quoting us now). Thank you!

P.S. Quick update on the job search:
Matthew continues to send out lots of resumes, and has follow up steps with a few churches right now. Overall, we are both doing well emotionally and have found that in general we are able to rest in God and enjoy the time we have here in Roseville. However, there are good days and bad days (today we got discouraging news).

Work at Health Net is going well. Matthew put in a request for a 4 10-hour day schedule and was accepted, so he'll have Thursdays off starting this week. Also, Matthew asked if they would be willing to hire him on as a permanent employee (right now he's going through a temp agency), and they said he should apply when the position is posted again. So again, we are being provided for and blessed beyond what we need. Thank you, God!

Whew! Congratulations if you read all this... sorry I'm so exuberant! May God provide for you as well in your times of struggle.

Birthday Celebrations

So August 16th we celebrated my birthday (which was actually on the 4th). My sister, Krista, was in charge of the decorations (with some help from Mom), and she did an awesome job. We ended up with leis and a flip flop "door curtain", a palm tree centerpiece and more.

After people had arrived, all the kids and many of the adults jumped in the pool. Here's me with nephew Koen.

Later, I got to hang out with his big sister, Emmaleigh and help her get warm after her dips in the pool.

My dad very kindly agreed to be grill-master for the evening, and the chicken breasts and beef shishkabobs came out great!

Our friends Edward and Mollie came, too, and their son Ben got a turn with his feet (legs?) in the water.

Add to all that great family some delicious cake and my favorite potato chips, and it was quite an affair. :-)

Just this past Monday Krista, her friend Emily, and I went to the California State Fair! For Krista's birthday (back in July), Matthew and I gave Krista a coupon to take a friend somewhere, and she chose the fair. :-) The guy at the water preservation booth convinced us to wear trout hats.

We had fun looking at all the expensive "You need this to make your life better!" sales booths, the county exhibits, the cattle and goats, and the quilting and youth art exhibits. Krista and Emily also did a few things at the Midway carnival.

And today is Matthew's mom's birthday! It's been a great two weeks.

Hallsten Family Reunion

So, last weekend (the 8th through the 10th) was the Hallsten Family Reunion (31st annual, or something crazy like that). Matthew and I hadn't gotten to attend since we were engaged, so it was fun to catch up. I think I know the family relationships better than ever after attending this year. Basically, my Grandpa Hallsten and his five siblings (four still living) and all of their children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren are invited. We gather in Kingsburg, CA, the center of all things Swedish in the state, and, they like to think, in the country. My grandpa's family came over from Sweden to Kingsburg (after living in Chicago for a little while) in 1912 (?) in a modified Model T Ford. Grandpa wasn't born yet - he's number 5 of the 6 siblings.
It was nice to get to catch up with my Uncle Mark and Aunt Kathy who live in Orlando. The two youngest of their clan of 6 kids were in attendance as well.

The next day we gathered at the family farm (the original property, now operated by one of my dad's cousins) and a traditional sibling line-up picture was taken. They are, oldest to youngest (counter-clockwise from bottom right) Eileen, Bertil (passed away), Milton, Ted, Harold (my grandpa), and Ruth.

The Harold Hallsten cousins who were in attendance also had a group photo. (Two are in Spain this summer, four more stayed in Orlando.)

After the reunion, Matthew and I got together with some of our closest friends from Portland, Luke and Virginia. We all like Starbucks. :-) Luke is a teacher and the head football coach at Emmanuel, a Christian high school in Reedley. (Reedley and Kingsburg are both outside of Fresno.)

And, on our way home, we stopped in Turlock to visit Great-grandma Jessie. She played her harmonica for us, and we dined with her (at 4:30pm!) She's doing very well physically for a 95-year-old -- her hearing and sight have gotten worse in recent years, but she still walks as fast as I can!

P.S. A special thank-you to Nick and Jody who hosted us in Fresno on this weekend! Apparently we enjoyed their company and their daughter Ashlyn's antics so much that we didn't take a single picture while we were there! We did, however, play Cranium on their Wii, watch Kiwi (the dog) and Ashlyn play tug-of-war, and sleep very soundly.

Em's Birthday, etc.

This past Monday we went to Emily's parents' house to celebrate her birthday. Krista made super yummy brownies. Mom tried to put some candles in the whole pan, but the brownies were still warm so the candles started to melt. So I had an individual brownie with a candle in it. (I'm having the last one tonight for dessert).

On the same evening, we took our first "family portrait". I'm officially 33 weeks pregnant now. Baby Naomi's latest tricks involve putting pressure on my ribs and lungs. Her movements are more like pressure being increased and released than real "kicks". Tonight was the first night I could clearly identify a foot - that was fun!

This Wednesday we started childbirthing classes - we had mixed feelings about that. I have not been sleeping as well since then - my brain is turning different tasks and pieces of knowledge over and over in my head. For example: Oh yeah, my kid needs a pediatrician before she's even born! Oh shoot, how do I find a pediatrician? And they gave us more reading material - because all I need is more pages to feel guilty about not reading.

Matthew also finished training at work this week, and he's looking forward to really being on the job starting Monday. He's struggling to figure out how to balance working full time with a long commute, working hard to find a "real" job, contribute to ministry, and participate in all the family events we're surrounded by. It's a challenge! We're feeling blessed by God to have to provision we do, and that we have so much family around us. One of the main reasons we decided to move to Roseville instead of waiting it out in Portland was to have the proximity to family that we have here - we're soaking it up!

All of our nieces and nephews (except the 1-week-old) know who we are and like hanging out with us now that we've been here a month. That's been special to us.

After this weekend we're going to post some pictures of the giant Hallsten reunion. We're in the Central Valley, with friends (Nick and Jody) right now... tomorrow the whole clan gets together to celebrate being Swedish and a descendant of my great-grandpa Richard (who I never met). My grandpa and his four siblings, and all their kids, spouses, etc, meet in Kingsburg, the Swedish center of California every year. We haven't gone for four years, so I'm a little nervous about knowing everyone's names... It will be nice to see my grandparents and some of my cousins and aunts and uncles who I haven't seen for a long time!

Good night! Enjoy the Olympics. :-)

The Search Continues

On Thursday Matthew had a very positive phone interview with the search team at Peter's Creek Baptist Church for their Associate Pastor of Adult Ministries position. This morning the Sr. Pastor called to let us know that they had reached their final decision. He said that everyone was really impressed with Matthew's application, sermon samples and interviews but that ultimately they had decided to go with another candidate who had some significant experience in a similar position. He said Matthew was their 2nd choice out of 45 candidates and that the only thing that set their first choice apart was his experience which they thought would be helpful in getting up to speed quickly.

While we were excited about this possibility because of the job description and what we knew about the church trying to start a new job within a few weeks of Naomi's birth would have been quite challenging and the location was not ideal for us. So getting the call this morning was a little disappointing but not devastating. Over all it was an encouraging experience. We appreciate your continued prayers as we wait for the right time and place to begin vocational ministry. We are confident that God will provide a special opportunity in his timing but not knowing where or when can be a little hard some times.

Also a quick update on our niece Elizabeth. She is home with her adopting parents Dane and Shandela Brooks (Matthew's brother and sister-in-law) and is doing great. Please pray for the adoption to go through without any problems and also for the family's housing situation, they need to find a new place to stay now that they have 3 kids and are in a tiny 2 bedroom condo with no yard. Thanks for your prayers.

Two Quick Updates

First, we would like to welcome our new niece into the world. Elizabeth Anne Brooks was born a healthy 7 pounds 13 ounces and 18 and a half inches at 1:21am this morning. We are excited to hear that Mom and baby are both healthy but invite your continued prayers over a complex family situation and ask for a speedy and hassel free adoption.

Second, on the job search front Matthew has a phone interview with Peter's Creek Baptist Church on Thursday at 12:30pm PT. He has already answered some follow up questions in writing and we've been told he is on the "short list" (though no one has told us exactly how short that list is). It is for an Associate Pastor of Adult Ministries and the job description looks great but we've yet to receive the packet with more information on the church itself (should come tomorrow). Peter's Creek is an independent Baptist church and is located in South Park, PA (about a half an hour south of Pittsburgh. Please pray for God's clear guidance and peace as we pursue/consider this opportunity.

That's it for now. Emily has had plenty of activities to fill up her days while Matthew has been working but has been getting things crossed off her to do list. Keeping this blog updated remains on that list and we hope to soon be posting some pictures from the past month and some more details about our time here in Roseville.

In transition...

Hey all,

So we've been in Roseville for over three weeks now, and as Matthew has recently started a temp job that's full time, it is now up to me to keep you up to date. I have failed! Sorry...

This past week and most of this coming week we're housesitting for Matthew's great-aunt who lives in Sun City Roseville. She has not been able to travel much recently for various reasons, so she's excited to get away to see friends. And we are quasi-homeless, so it's been kinda nice to "have our own place" for awhile. Matthew's aunt has 6 cats, so we're caring for Tommy (the people-friendly fat one), Puss (the oldest and the biggest wuss), Norman (the punk) and Ethel (the one who loves ice water), and Bonnie (who stays in her closet) and Clyde (the playful one). Matthew's aunt used to foster litters of kittens when they needed to be bottle-fed, so when not all the cats of the litter were adopted out, she ended up with the others. So Norman and Ethel are from the same litter, as are Bonnie and Clyde. As you may be able to tell, I'm enjoying having pets, even though I wouldn't choose to have 6 of my own! It's really neat to see how all of them are cats and behave like cats, but each has his/her own unique personality too. God is cool that there is so much diversity among creatures that are so easily stereotyped! I guess that's true of humans, too.

So anyway, aside from life with cats, I put together a dresser/changing table that got delivered to Matthew's parents' house this past week. If you're ever looking, I recommend going straight to WalMart or Target, and if you like what's in stock, buy there. It's cheaper than anywhere else. But if you make the "mistake" of looking online at Target first, you might get into trouble and become perfectionistic like I did. Target won't order something they have in their catalog for you to be delivered to the store, and for furniture they charge $95 for shipping. Babies R Us is about the same, but has a bigger selection and slightly higher prices. So I went with JC Penney, because they had a pretty good selection and only charged $27.50 for shipping. The whole process ended up being way more dramatic than I had anticipated, but I'm excited to have a place to put our clothes now (our armoire is in storage), and baby Naomi's stuff when she arrives.

Matthew and I have also joined a gym, and so far I've been successful in going to water aerobics classes three times a week. I can tell they're going to make a difference in my overall strength and condition by the end of the pregnancy, and it's nice to be able to work out pretty hard without my entire abdomen getting sore and tired! I went for a walk with Matthew last night, and I had to walk crazy slow so as to maintain a certain level of comfort.

Aside from all that, I spend most of my time catching up on little projects I never got done while we were in Portland, doing little projects to help out Matthew's parents (like re-attaching handles that have fallen off of various drawers), watching DVR recordings of Law and Order, and reading/napping. It's a hard life. ;-)

This weekend in particular, Matthew and I went to Roseville Sugarbears champs to watch my siblings, Peter and Krista, swim as fast as they could. Yesterday was also Krista's 12th birthday, so we went out for dinner and then returned to my parents' to eat cake while Krista opened presents. She got lots of clothes, and was very excited about that!! She must be a pre-teen. Or maybe she's just a completely different creature from me... that's highly plausible! The two of us are hanging out for a few hours each Tuesday afternoon for bonding time. This week she's starting a game of Civilization, meeting the six kitties, and we might make some cookies. :-)

Well, I'm having issues getting to a "good" ending place, so I think I'll just stop blabbering instead. (Sorry no pics this time.) Happy Sunday!

We made it!

We have arrived at Matthew's parent home in Roseville, CA and are settling in nicely.


Yesterday was a long day. We did the final check out from our apartment a little after 8am, put the car on the car carrier and got on the road by about 8:45am. It was a long drive. We had to go about 15 MPH slower than normal with the truck and trailer and tried to stop about every two hours to stretch our muscles, etc. On top of that we had to slow way down going up steep hills (especially the Siskiyou pass at the boarder) because the truck engine was getting too hot so it took us a little over 14 hours with us arriving around 11:15pm last night. It was a long day with a stressful ending (a mishap with unhooking the trailer from the truck) but we got good rest last night and today has been much more relaxing.


We got a pretty good start and thanks to some help from our dads and Emily's mom were able to unload the truck into our storage unit in about 90 minutes. Since then we've done a little unpacking and a lot of relaxing. We're excited to be home near family and old friends. Thanks to all of you who prayed for safe travels and a smooth transition, thanks also for all the well wishes and goodbyes from our Portland friends and the good wishes and

The Truck is Loaded!

This will likely be our last blog post for a bit but I wanted to give everyone an update. We finished loading the truck at about 4:30pm thanks to help from our friends Jason, Gary, and Ford. We had quite a bit of extra space but don't think things will tumble around too much. We still have some cleaning to do but will have the help of our friend Virginia with that. We should be done by 7 or 8pm. We'll be staying the night at our pastor's home and then coming back for the final check out from our apartment at 8am tomorrow. That should put us on the road by about 8:30. We figure we will take it nice and slow (since we're towing the car too) with plenty of stops so it should take between 12 and 14 hours but we should be able to get into Roseville in time for a good night's sleep there. Then on Thursday morning we'll unload most of our stuff into storage and start to settle in as guests with my parents. A busy couple of days but we're excited to be coming home!

Peninsula Baptist Update

We had a good time visiting Peninsula Baptist Church (PBC) this weekend. God gave us some beautiful weather and we were able to explore Long Beach and a fair bit of the greater peninsula on Saturday before enjoying an evening of good fellowship with the church's pastor and his wife, daughter and son-in-law. We stayed the night with them and attended church the next morning "under the radar" then went back to the pastor's home for a Father's Day BBQ and US Open viewing get together with several other couples from the church.

While we enjoyed our time and see a lot of potential and positives in this situation some of the traits of the community itself (demographics, culture, climate, isolation, distance from family, etc.) are dampening our enthusiasm about the prospects of raising a family in that area. We have advised PBC that at least for now we are not able to commit to coming there if they offer us a position. While we don't want to shut the door we have informed them that with our move and the baby coming we will not be able to continue to pursue the process at this time. We expect them to continue their search. If after a few months in California they are still interested in us we may try to make another visit and take a closer look but for now we will be continuing our search and we will be perfectly content (and happy for the wonderful people we met) if God raises up someone else to fill this position.

Penninsula Baptist Church

Thursday Matthew made the 2 and half hour drive from our home in Portland out to Ocean Park, Washington for an interview with the search committee of Penninsula Baptist Church. PBC is an independant Baptist church. They run about 150 on a Sunday and currently only have 1 pastor. They are looking for an Associate to assist with general pastoral ministry (preaching, visitation, etc.) and to help develop lay leaders for and oversee ministry to families and youth.

Matthew has had several opportunities to dialogoue with the pastor, Kerry Stroupe, and they seem to have a good rapport. The church is located on the Long Beach Penninsula in Southwest Washington about 40 minutes north of Astoria, OR near HWY 101. The Penninsula is a beautiful area. It is a popular tuourist destination during the summer and has one of the world's largest beaches but it is fairly isolated area and gets about twice as much rain as Portland so there are definitely some cons to go with the pros.

So far the interaction has been positive. We are planning to go out together next weekend (June 14 & 15) to check out the area a little more and visit the church "incognito" to see what we think. This will also serve as a mini-vacation to celebrate the end of Emily's teaching year (June 13 is her last day with students). We would appreciate your continued prayers for God's clear guidance as we consider this possability.

Interview

Matthew has an interview with the search committee at Penninsula Baptist Church in Ocean Park, WA. They are smallish church on the coast of Southwest Washington (near Long Beach, WA north of Astoria, OR) looking for an Associate Pastor to assist their senior pastor in various asspects of ministry.

So far Matthew has had a brief phone interview and a lunch meeting with the pastor. Those have gone well enough that Matthew plans to spend most of tomorrow (Tuesday) with him at a conference in Salem, OR before driving out to Ocean Park for the interview on Thursday. While the pastor seems like a great guy we really don't know that much about the job description, church or community yet. We would appreciate your prayers for God's guidance as we consider this opportunity. Thanks!

Moving Preparation

A week ago we helped our good friend Luke Thomas load up for the move down to California. Yesterday Matthew helped our neighbors Travis and Cheryl Wavrin with their move. Our little housing complex is starting to get pretty quiet with all the summer moves that have been taking place and all of this serves to remind us that we too will be leaving our wonderful home here in Portland very soon.

Our last day at Central Bible Church is June 22nd and our plan is to take Monday the 23rd to finish packing up our stuff, pick-up the moving truck on Tuesday the 24th and load the truck and do our final apartment cleaning on that day. Then on June 25th we will drive south to California where we will unload most of our belongings into storage and move in temporarily with Matthew's parents while we wait for Naomi to be born and continue to look for a long term ministry job.

Over the next few weeks we have a lot to do to get prepared. We have already begun to collect empty boxes (see above left). Fortunately as the yearbooks at Beaverton High are distributed Emily is able to collect as many of the empty boxes as she can fit in our car each day. We're also beginning to pack up some of our things that we won't be needing before the move (see below) and of course we hope to get rid of a lot of our stuff before we move.

How valuable something is can be significantly altered by the knowledge that we'll be loading it into a truck, unloading it into storage, storing it for months, loading it back into a truck, driving it to wherever we end up and unloading it again before we get any more use out of it (not to mention that we'll be paying for the privilege of moving and storing).

Matthew signed up for a Craigs List account today and we're hoping to sell some of our furniture in the next couple of weeks. We also are planning to give a bunch of stuff away before we leave. If you are in the Portland area keep an eye out for a "Free Stuff" post coming soon. Also if any of you local Portlanders are available on June 24th we'll be looking for help that day. Don't worry though we'll almost certainly contact you directly to beg ;-).

Baby Shower

This past Saturday the ladies of Central Bible Church put on a baby shower for Emily. It was a special time and we really felt incredibly loved by our church family. We also ended up with a ton of great stuff to get us started on our way as parents.

Emily admiring the two "cakes" made for her shower.

Jennie Wymore, a friend from church and Life Group who is from Honduras had a beautiful cake made for Emily in the authentic Latin American style. With dual blessings written on it in English and Spanish for our coming baby girl. Connie Clayton made us a "diaper cake", a decorative sculpture of diapers, toys and baby products assembled to look like multi-layered wedding cake.

A close up of the eatable cake.

Emily was showered with a wonderful variety of gifts including clothing, blankets, books and toys for Naomi to enjoy throughout her first year or so of life. Our generous friends also kindly took into account our coming move and avoided giving us bulky items, instead chipping in on some gift cards for a group gift.

Emily preparing to open her many wonderful gifts as the Clayton daughters offer to help.



Emily showing off the lovely "Sunbonnet Sue" quilt that Donna Gurney made for us.

Emily enjoying the love showered on her with gifts, words, and fellowship.

In addition to the gifts the ladies showed their love by throwing a great party with food, games and good fellowship and with kind words spoken and written on many cards. A special treat was a book they assembled for Emily with each woman writing their own page sharing their words of personal love, encouragement and wisdom for the mother-to-be.

Kay Ramsey, Shelley Price and Rachel and Tia Clayton at the shower.

Sarah Clark, Lori Wolpert, Mary Lister, and Karen Dunbar with Emily at the shower.

Unfortunately, the timing of the shower was bad for some of Emily's closest friends from Multnomah who were not able to attend. However, these girls didn't want to miss out on the fun so they threw Emily a "private baby shower" on Sunday after church. Erin Searight, Virginia Thomas and Mellisa Pace took Emily out for lunch (and of course dessert, too) at the Cheesecake Factory. The four of them enjoyed some good "girl time" and Emily received even more adorable gifts for baby Naomi.

Emily, Erin Searight, Mellisa Pace & Virginia Thomas at the "private shower" at the Cheesecake Factory.