Parental Visit

Matthew's Mom (Kathy), Dad (Tim) and Emily at the Rose Test Garden overlooking downtown Portland

We were delighted to host Matthew's parents (Tim and Kathy Brooks) recently for a relaxing week of fun and celebration. Emily's family has been able to come up and visit twice since we've been in Portland but this was the first time that any of Matthew's family has been able to come up for a visit. They arrived on Tuesday May 13th in time to attend Matthew's ordination council interview and stayed through Monday May 19th so they were able to come with us to Emily's ultrasound appointment and see little Naomi on the Doctor's screen.

Right: Mom, Dad and Emily at the mouth of the Columbia river in Atoria.

Left: Emily flying our two-string kite on Cannon Beach

In addition to being great company they were very generous with us, taking us out to eat several times and treating us to beautiful day on the Oregon coast on Saturday May 17th when the wheather turned unusually warm. We had a great time introducing them to Tillamook ice cream, Burgerville, Powells City of Books, and many of the other wonderful traits of the Portland area. Most importantly we enjoyed good times of visiting, play games and just being together. Thanks Mom and Dad for such a great time.

Dad takes his turn with the kite with Haystack rock in the background.

Matthew watches as Mom flys the kite, she said it was the first time she'd ever been able to keep a kite in the air.

Emily and Matthew got their turns too. Here Emily flys while Mom takes a rest.

Graduation

Well, it's been more than a week so it is past time that we acknowledge Matthew's graduation from Seminary here on the blog. Matthew graduated on May 16th with Masters of Divinity degree from Multnomah Biblical Seminary. It was a special celebration because so many of our good friends from our time here in Portland were all graduating together. It was also neat that Matthew's parents were able to come up from California to visit during this time and so were able to be here for the ceremony.

Graduation day began with Baccalaureate chapel which featured a message given by our good friend Ford Jordan (he did an awesome job). Afterward there was a group photo taken of the seminary graduates and faculty (see below) and an informal reception.

Although Emily had to work Baccalaureate was a good time for Matthew and his folks to celebrate graduation with some of his classmates (many of whom were never found in the crowd after the graduation ceremony that evening). Here (from left) are proud graduates Milan Homola (holding daughter Arianna), Ford Jordan, Matthew and Paul Kwok.

That evening Matthew and many of his friends got to walk across the stage and receive their hoods as they graduated with Masters Degrees. Here Matthew receives his hood from Seminary Dean Dr. Brake. The combined graduation featured all of the Seminary classes as well as the undergrads at Multnomah Bible College. It didn't start until 7:30pm and featured a lengthy address (everyone I talked to agreed that Ford's was better) so it was pretty late when it finished up. The crowd afterward combined with the late hour and the presence of family and friends made it difficult to track down everyone we would have liked to see that evening and limited the celebration for that evening (although it would carry over to the coming days). We were able to track down some of our best friends for a few group photos at the end though.

Here Luke Thomas (MDiv), Zach Banker (MA), Mike Pace (MDiv) and Dave Searight (MDiv) stand left to right with Matthew on the end. This group of guys has studied, played, laughed, discussed theology, eaten, and done just about everything else together over the past three years of study together.

Although our wives (with the exception of Virginia Thomas who earned her Graduate Certificate) didn't get to walk across the stage this graduation was just as much for them as their accomplishment of supporting (financially and otherwise) their husbands as they earned their degrees. Above are the so called "Sugar Mamas" (from left) Virginia Thomas, Amanda Banker, Mellisa Pace, Erin Searight and Emily who celebrated earning their PHTs (putting hubby through) degrees with equal gusto.

We were blessed that Matthew's parents were willing and able to take valuable vacation time to come up for a week long visit that included graduation (check back for more on their visit). Here are Matthew and Emily with Matthew's parents Kathy and Tim Brooks on the big night.

Meet Naomi Linda

Yep, it's a girl! The ultrasound we had on Monday confirmed that and also that she is healthy and developing just fine. Our revised due date is September 29th. Above is our favorite of the pictures we got from the appointment. You can see her spine and the sillouette of her head with her lips slightly parted as well as her left arm raised up near her face. We can't wait to meet her!



We decided on the name for a girl within a few weeks of finding out Emily was pregnant. We like that Naomi isn't too common (outside of the top 100 girls names) but is still known enough as to not throw people off too bad with spelling or pronunciation. We also really like how it sounds and it's meaning (sweet/pleasant/beautiful) as well as it's biblical origins. The Naomi of the bible (Ruth's mother-in-law) is a beautiful example of the grace God shows through family relationships. Our prayer is that we would be that kind of channel of grace to our daughter. Linda was Emily's birth mother's name and we wanted to honor her memory. We like that our daughter's middle name will have a meaningful story behind it as well as a pleasant sound.



Sorry it took so long to get this posted. I had some difficulty finding a scanner and then getting the scanned images uploaded. Thanks for all of your prayers. We will keep updating this blog with relevant news and photos including updates about our coming move, Naomi's continuing development (and it's impact on Emily) and Matthew's ongoing job search. We hope to have some photos from Matthew's graduation and our visit with his parents later this week.



We will leave you with an image of Naomi's tiny little foot (sorry it got scanned crooked)

Big Week!

So it has been more than a week since we updated this blog and a lot has happened in that time. It has been one of the biggest weeks of our lives. We've enjoyed good times with friends and family and personal milestones. It is going to take a few days to catch up a little with all the exciting things that have been going on in our lives so keep checking back over the next week or so. We'll have news and photos posting rapidly for the next few days.

Good Times

Matthew finished his last Seminary class last Tuesday. It's been a good week since then with a mix of productivity and fun. Emily still has to go to work but has been able to get in on some of the fun as well. Here is a brief review of what we've been up to.

Wednesday - Matthew celebrated academic freedom with breakfast with friends followed by a couple of hour playing Nintendo Wii before hitting the Internet again to resume the job search.

Thursday - Matthew sent out 14 new resumes and had a phone interview with a church in Indiana. In the evening we both enjoyed good times with friends and good food at our friend Mike Pace's birthday party.

Emily and our friend Virginia Thomas hamming it up during a game of shuffle board at Saturday's Masters Class Retreat at Canby Grove.

Friday - Matthew finally crashed and spent most of the day resting in some capacity. We enjoyed a quiet evening at home and went to bed early.

Our friends Erin Searight, Luke Thomas, Ford Jordan & Virginia Thomas at Masters Retreat

Saturday - After getting some chores done in the morning we headed off to the Multnomah Master's class retreat where we ate large amounts of good food and had good relaxing fellowship with many of our friends from school. We enjoyed visiting and playing mini-golf, Foosball, shuffle board, etc. The day was capped off with a time of singing around a campfire.

Sunday - Yesterday we enjoyed a rare Sunday with no afternoon or evening scheduled activities. We took a long afternoon nap, had time to visit and pray together, Emily cut Matthew's hair and we got to call out mothers. Our neighbors the Thomases also hosted us for dinner feeding us yummy homemade pizza.

We're looking forward to the coming week as well. Matthew's parents will be visiting from California (arriving Tuesday evening). We are looking forward to spending time with them and to Matthew's ordination interview (Tuesday), Graduation (Friday), and our Dr. and Ultrasound appointment (Monday) among other things. Check back next week for more updates.

One Day Left

Sorry I haven't been very good about keeping up with the blog lately. It's been a hectic finish to the semester the last couple of weeks but we are doing well. Tomorrow is my last day of classes at Seminary. Next week my parents are coming up to visit and will be here for my graduation on May 16th. We're looking forward to having some time over the next few weeks to celebrate the completion of my seminary degree and spend some time with friends who will be starting to go their seperate ways soon.

I should be able to do a better job of keeping things updated during the next couple of months. I'll keep busy enough looking for a job and preparing for our transition but I'll still have some time to relax and hopefully stay in touch a little better.

In the mean time I wanted to let you all know that I have a phone interview with a church in Crawfordsville, IN on Thursday. I don't know a whole lot about the church or job yet but it is still good to see things moving along. We'd appreciate your prayers. Thanks!