Tomorrow is moving day. We'll be loading up the U-Haul and heading North to Willows. Matthew starts work on Monday. We've been enjoying our final days in Roseville and also had a great trip to Portland. Sorry, we haven't been updating the blog. We've been busy but we are taking pictures and video of Naomi and hope to post some of the highlights soon.
Our 971 area cell phones are no longer valid. Our new contact information is as follows:
Home (until around May 1st)
857 N. Plumas St.
Willows, CA 95988
Phone # 530-934-8264
Matthew's work
Faith Bible Church
403 Vine St.
Willows, CA 95988
530-934-3259
Matthew also has a new e-mail address: FBCWillowsPastor@gmail.com
Look for highlights of our trip to Portland, our move and of our transition to Willows in the coming weeks.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Florida Pictures
Our vacation to Florida was pretty relaxed. We spent most of our time relaxing, visiting with family, sleeping in, eating great food, going for walks, etc. The only real touristy thing we did was go to the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday. It was a nice trip though. Here are some pictures.
Naomi traveled really well. If it hadn't been for our flight from Salt Lake City to Orlando getting canceled resulting in a 6+ hour delay we would've made it to our destination long before any serious fussiness set in.
Due to some thrush related diaper rash Naomi got lots of baths while in Florida. Fortunately she learned to really enjoy them and we were able to pretty much enjoy them as well.
Naomi traveled really well. If it hadn't been for our flight from Salt Lake City to Orlando getting canceled resulting in a 6+ hour delay we would've made it to our destination long before any serious fussiness set in.
Due to some thrush related diaper rash Naomi got lots of baths while in Florida. Fortunately she learned to really enjoy them and we were able to pretty much enjoy them as well.
One of the highlights of our visit was getting to see Emily's cousin Sarah and meet her family. Sarah and Emily are about the same age and were close growing up but hadn't seen each other in more than 8 years. Matthew had never met Sarah and neither of us had met her husband (Matt) or two daughters (Cameron & Natalie) prior to this visit. This is a picture of Emily and Naomi with Sarah and her youngest daughter, Natalie.
Our favorite part of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) was the 3-D I-Max movie we saw about the international space station.
Naomi got a little sleep deprived for part of our time at the KSC but she had some really happy time as well. During one of her more cheerful moments though she decided that daddy's coffee was just what she needed for an afternoon pick me up. Are we already teaching our daughter to become caffeine dependant?
Our favorite part of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) was the 3-D I-Max movie we saw about the international space station.
Naomi got a little sleep deprived for part of our time at the KSC but she had some really happy time as well. During one of her more cheerful moments though she decided that daddy's coffee was just what she needed for an afternoon pick me up. Are we already teaching our daughter to become caffeine dependant?
The shuttle launch scheduled for the end of February was still on delay so we got to see the shuttle with boosters all set up and ready to go on the launch pad.
We also saw all kinds of cool space hardware. Here Emily and Naomi pose in front of an actual engine used in multiple NASA launches.
This is the actual lunar module taken up on the Apollo 13 mission. Emily and I were both surprised by how flimsy it looked.
This is the actual lunar module taken up on the Apollo 13 mission. Emily and I were both surprised by how flimsy it looked.
We are hopeful for a less stressful travel day tomorrow than what it took to get here. Next up is a trip to Willows (leaving Wednesday returning late Sunday of next week) after that we have a few days at home before taking off to Portland, OR the following Saturday. We'll post pictures from those adventures when we can.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Crazy Times
Since getting the news about Willows our lives have been pretty hectic and the coming weeks look to be just as crazy. Most of the hecticness of life has been self induced but we've also been experiencing some of the less desirable excitement of parenting recently.
On the night of February 7th we took Naomi into urgent care because the cough and wheezing from her "cold" had gotten so bad. They checked her out, took a swab to check for RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and gave her a nebulizer treatment gave us a prescription for an ear infection she had. The next day we missed church to follow up with her pediatrician who got us our own nebulizer machine and wrote another script to help with her cough. The following week was pretty interesting as we discovered that Naomi did in fact have RSV, made yet another trip to the pediatrician and did our best to start preparing for the transition to Willows and maintain our regular responsibilities while taking care of a sick little girl.
Naomi has recovered well from the RSV and her breathing has returned to normal. Thank you all for praying. This Tuesday Emily figured out that Naomi had developed thrush (a kind of yeast infection affecting her mouth and diaper area). This meant that Emily had to get a same day appointment at the Dr. to get two more prescriptions that same day since we were leaving for Florida early the next morning (more on that in a bit). At first the thrush didn't seem to be affecting Naomi all that much but the diaper rash she has developed as a result has become very severe. It is bad enough that it is impacting Naomi's overall disposition and it doesn't seem to be healing very quickly. We would certainly appreciate your prayers for her and this pesky and now painful condition. It also makes caring for her a lot more work.
Yesterday was a marathon day for us and a milestone for Naomi. We left the house a little after 4am where Matthew's mom dropped us at the airport and we got a plane to Salt Lake City in route to Orlando, FL for a visit with Emily's and aunt and uncle and their family. We were supposed to catch a direct flight from Salt Lake City that would've had us in Orlando by 4:15 Eastern time but our flight was canceled. We fortunate enough to get rerouted the same day through Memphis but it meant that we didn't get to Orlando until after 10:30pm, we were than delayed further by the car seat we had checked not having arrived yet. We finally got to the "Florida Hallsten" home at about 11:30pm.
Naomi actually handled things very well. She was wonderful for the first two legs of our trip and for most of the time waiting at the airports. If things had gone according to plan it would've been a wonderful experience but about 20 minutes into our flight from Memphis to Orlando the fatigue and over stimulation finally caught up to Naomi and she became inconsolable. It was a very stressful flight but we suspect someone was praying because about 25 minutes before landing she calmed down again and our transition off the plane went fine. Today was spent sleeping, relaxing and visiting with family. Naomi has been a bit fussy and it is hard to know how much of that is from the thrush and how much is her recovering from yesterday but we're glad that we've still had some good stretches with our happy, smiling baby girl for our family to enjoy.
We are in Florida until Monday when we fly out early and should land (Lord willing) in Sacramento around noon. Tuesday Matthew will work and Emily will unpack and re-pack and then on Wednesday (Feb 25th) we will drive up to Willows where we will stay with the outgoing pastor and his wife (Bob and Joyce) until Sunday afternoon. We're looking forward to this time to prepare for the transition and get to know these dear people who we see as future mentors. We also plan to meet with some of the other church leaders, explore the community a bit more, get oriented for our future house sitting gig and hopefully look at some houses for sale.
Upon returning from Willows Matthew will work two more days at Health Net (extending our benefits through the end of March) and than after a few more days to rest and prepare we will get on a plane once again this time for a trip to Portland, OR. We'll be arriving in Portland the afternoon of Saturday March 7th and leaving first thing the morning of Wednesday March 11th. We're really excited about the chance to see dear friends from our three years of living in that city while Matthew was in seminary and to introducing Naomi to some of the people have loved and blessed her from before she was born.
After that trip we will have two final days to prepare before moving to Willows on March 14th. It should be a fairly move since most of our stuff will be going straight from storage in Roseville to a garage in Willows as we'll be house sitting for the first 6 weeks or more in Willows. Matthew will officially start work as pastor on Monday, March 16th and preach his first sermon on March 22nd.
As you can see our lives will be pretty full over the next few weeks but we are excited about and looking forward to almost everything on our schedule. We do hope to say some goodbyes in the Roseville area but are glad that we will be close and should be visiting frequently. We'll do our best to keep you all updated with pictures, news, etc. but may not be posting all that consistently until we get settled in Willows.
Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes. We appreciate you all.
On the night of February 7th we took Naomi into urgent care because the cough and wheezing from her "cold" had gotten so bad. They checked her out, took a swab to check for RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and gave her a nebulizer treatment gave us a prescription for an ear infection she had. The next day we missed church to follow up with her pediatrician who got us our own nebulizer machine and wrote another script to help with her cough. The following week was pretty interesting as we discovered that Naomi did in fact have RSV, made yet another trip to the pediatrician and did our best to start preparing for the transition to Willows and maintain our regular responsibilities while taking care of a sick little girl.
Naomi has recovered well from the RSV and her breathing has returned to normal. Thank you all for praying. This Tuesday Emily figured out that Naomi had developed thrush (a kind of yeast infection affecting her mouth and diaper area). This meant that Emily had to get a same day appointment at the Dr. to get two more prescriptions that same day since we were leaving for Florida early the next morning (more on that in a bit). At first the thrush didn't seem to be affecting Naomi all that much but the diaper rash she has developed as a result has become very severe. It is bad enough that it is impacting Naomi's overall disposition and it doesn't seem to be healing very quickly. We would certainly appreciate your prayers for her and this pesky and now painful condition. It also makes caring for her a lot more work.
Yesterday was a marathon day for us and a milestone for Naomi. We left the house a little after 4am where Matthew's mom dropped us at the airport and we got a plane to Salt Lake City in route to Orlando, FL for a visit with Emily's and aunt and uncle and their family. We were supposed to catch a direct flight from Salt Lake City that would've had us in Orlando by 4:15 Eastern time but our flight was canceled. We fortunate enough to get rerouted the same day through Memphis but it meant that we didn't get to Orlando until after 10:30pm, we were than delayed further by the car seat we had checked not having arrived yet. We finally got to the "Florida Hallsten" home at about 11:30pm.
Naomi actually handled things very well. She was wonderful for the first two legs of our trip and for most of the time waiting at the airports. If things had gone according to plan it would've been a wonderful experience but about 20 minutes into our flight from Memphis to Orlando the fatigue and over stimulation finally caught up to Naomi and she became inconsolable. It was a very stressful flight but we suspect someone was praying because about 25 minutes before landing she calmed down again and our transition off the plane went fine. Today was spent sleeping, relaxing and visiting with family. Naomi has been a bit fussy and it is hard to know how much of that is from the thrush and how much is her recovering from yesterday but we're glad that we've still had some good stretches with our happy, smiling baby girl for our family to enjoy.
We are in Florida until Monday when we fly out early and should land (Lord willing) in Sacramento around noon. Tuesday Matthew will work and Emily will unpack and re-pack and then on Wednesday (Feb 25th) we will drive up to Willows where we will stay with the outgoing pastor and his wife (Bob and Joyce) until Sunday afternoon. We're looking forward to this time to prepare for the transition and get to know these dear people who we see as future mentors. We also plan to meet with some of the other church leaders, explore the community a bit more, get oriented for our future house sitting gig and hopefully look at some houses for sale.
Upon returning from Willows Matthew will work two more days at Health Net (extending our benefits through the end of March) and than after a few more days to rest and prepare we will get on a plane once again this time for a trip to Portland, OR. We'll be arriving in Portland the afternoon of Saturday March 7th and leaving first thing the morning of Wednesday March 11th. We're really excited about the chance to see dear friends from our three years of living in that city while Matthew was in seminary and to introducing Naomi to some of the people have loved and blessed her from before she was born.
After that trip we will have two final days to prepare before moving to Willows on March 14th. It should be a fairly move since most of our stuff will be going straight from storage in Roseville to a garage in Willows as we'll be house sitting for the first 6 weeks or more in Willows. Matthew will officially start work as pastor on Monday, March 16th and preach his first sermon on March 22nd.
As you can see our lives will be pretty full over the next few weeks but we are excited about and looking forward to almost everything on our schedule. We do hope to say some goodbyes in the Roseville area but are glad that we will be close and should be visiting frequently. We'll do our best to keep you all updated with pictures, news, etc. but may not be posting all that consistently until we get settled in Willows.
Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes. We appreciate you all.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
We Got the Job!!!
Faith Bible Church in Willows, CA held their vote tonight and officially invited Matthew to be their new pastor. We happily accepted and look forward to putting down roots and investing in a new community. We are very excited about the future and can't wait to see what God has in store for us and for the people of Faith Bible Church.
We still have to nail down the details but right now our target move date is March 14th with Matthew starting work on the 16th. We have a lot to do between now and then. We want to spend a few days up in Willows in February with the outgoing pastor and his wife to get to know them better and help prepare for the transition. We already had a trip to Florida scheduled to visit family and we're hoping to squeeze in a short trip to Portland while we still have limited Sunday obligations.
We'll try to keep you all updated on the details as we transition into the next phase of life. Thank you all for all of your encouragement and prayers during this period of uncertainty and searching out God's will. Thanks especially to Aunt Miriam and Mom & Dad Brooks for providing us with free housing and to all of you who have provided for us and for Naomi in countless ways.
We were told when we started this process that it takes a year on average to find a pastorate. Matthew started sending out Resumes on February 1st of 2008 so that is just about what it was for us. The eight and a half months between graduating and getting tonight's news have actually been quite wonderful but we are glad to have some direction for the future and look forward to having our own home again.
Blessings, Matthew and Emily
P.S. Emily wanted to title this post "Matthew is Jobful!" but Matthew wouldn't let her.
We still have to nail down the details but right now our target move date is March 14th with Matthew starting work on the 16th. We have a lot to do between now and then. We want to spend a few days up in Willows in February with the outgoing pastor and his wife to get to know them better and help prepare for the transition. We already had a trip to Florida scheduled to visit family and we're hoping to squeeze in a short trip to Portland while we still have limited Sunday obligations.
We'll try to keep you all updated on the details as we transition into the next phase of life. Thank you all for all of your encouragement and prayers during this period of uncertainty and searching out God's will. Thanks especially to Aunt Miriam and Mom & Dad Brooks for providing us with free housing and to all of you who have provided for us and for Naomi in countless ways.
We were told when we started this process that it takes a year on average to find a pastorate. Matthew started sending out Resumes on February 1st of 2008 so that is just about what it was for us. The eight and a half months between graduating and getting tonight's news have actually been quite wonderful but we are glad to have some direction for the future and look forward to having our own home again.
Blessings, Matthew and Emily
P.S. Emily wanted to title this post "Matthew is Jobful!" but Matthew wouldn't let her.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Naomi 4 months
Here are a few more baby pics. Naomi is officially 4 months old as of this past Monday. She loves going on walks, or hanging around the house, in the Baby Bjorn front carrier. She can watch her mobile for as long as we're willing to wind it up for her (but we're absolutely sick of the song!). She's just starting to think about maybe working on rolling over, but sitting and standing (with help) are great fun. And she's making noises more and more of the time.
Grandma Kathy and Naomi get along great. Grandma knows how to please Naomi - let her stand up! Naomi is staying with Grandma and Grandpa tonight while Matthew takes me away to some surprise location for an overnight.
Here she is showing off her ladybug hat (Thanks Hilary!) and her cool onesie (Thanks Tanjocos!) She's getting bigger - Monday for her 4 month check-up she weighed in at 13 lbs., 13 ozs. (That's about the 50%ile for us baby non-experts)
Great-Grandma Brooks saw Naomi at her house last week, and they got along very well!
This is Naomi's newest cousin, Nathanael Lewis. We finally saw him when he was 2 weeks old.
Below, we couldn't resist putting up a couple videos - one is her learning how to use the jumper. The grunting she does here is her new favorite form of communication - imagine a constant stream of gutteral noises for 30 min! It makes Aunt Miriam afraid she's going to permanently damage her vocal cords. :-)
This captures my all-time favorite moment with Naomi so far in her short life. Since she was born, I have been longing for the day I could actually do something that would regularly cause her to laugh like this.
Grandma Kathy and Naomi get along great. Grandma knows how to please Naomi - let her stand up! Naomi is staying with Grandma and Grandpa tonight while Matthew takes me away to some surprise location for an overnight.
Here she is showing off her ladybug hat (Thanks Hilary!) and her cool onesie (Thanks Tanjocos!) She's getting bigger - Monday for her 4 month check-up she weighed in at 13 lbs., 13 ozs. (That's about the 50%ile for us baby non-experts)
Great-Grandma Brooks saw Naomi at her house last week, and they got along very well!
This is Naomi's newest cousin, Nathanael Lewis. We finally saw him when he was 2 weeks old.
His mommy, Matthew's sister Christy, is recovering much better from her 2nd pregnancy than the first, and has really enjoyed Nathanael's newborn stage.
Below, we couldn't resist putting up a couple videos - one is her learning how to use the jumper. The grunting she does here is her new favorite form of communication - imagine a constant stream of gutteral noises for 30 min! It makes Aunt Miriam afraid she's going to permanently damage her vocal cords. :-)This captures my all-time favorite moment with Naomi so far in her short life. Since she was born, I have been longing for the day I could actually do something that would regularly cause her to laugh like this.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Waiting Game
For those that may have been wondering our second visit to Faith Bible Church in Willows went very well. We got to know some more of the church members and Matthew's preaching was again well we received. We continue to be optimistic about this opportunity and barring some major unforeseen revelation are confident that we would accept the position if offered.
For now we are waiting. The congregation votes 2 weeks from tonight and we expect to hear something by the next day. It is hard to not start planning our lives in Willows but we are trying to be patient and continue to pray that God will close this door if this is not the right place for us to enter into ministry. Thank you for some continued prayers.
In other news Naomi has entered a new growth spurt and has been eating like crazy the past couple of days. She has also figured out how to make loud happy squealing noises (very high pitched) whenever she wants to. For now it is still very cute. We hope to get some more recent pictures of her up in the next week or so.
For now we are waiting. The congregation votes 2 weeks from tonight and we expect to hear something by the next day. It is hard to not start planning our lives in Willows but we are trying to be patient and continue to pray that God will close this door if this is not the right place for us to enter into ministry. Thank you for some continued prayers.
In other news Naomi has entered a new growth spurt and has been eating like crazy the past couple of days. She has also figured out how to make loud happy squealing noises (very high pitched) whenever she wants to. For now it is still very cute. We hope to get some more recent pictures of her up in the next week or so.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Willows Update
Just wanted to give you all a quick update on our visit to Willows, CA this past weekend. It went really well!
We drove up Saturday morning and Matthew spent more than two hours having brunch with about 15 men from the church, telling his story and answering all manner of questions. Emily got to know some of the ladies in the church at a tea hosted that afternoon while Matthew sat down with the outgoing pastor to get his perspective on the church and vision for the future transition of leadership. This was truly encouraging!
Saturday night the head of the pulpit committee and his wife took us out to dinner along with the retiring pastor and his wife. We had a great time!
On Sunday Matthew preached (at both preaching services) and was well received then we enjoyed an all church potluck where we got to visit informally with more of the people in the congregation. We got a little rest back at the house we were staying at (the home of a wonderful retired missionary named Prudence) then we drove around and explored the town (which didn't take long) before heading home.
At this point we are feeling very positive about this opportunity. The church seems fundamentally healthy and ready to be challenged to grow and change. The people are friendly and really seem to love the Lord, and the leadership seems capable and excited about what God wants to do in their church. We also found out that they are able to offer a salary that would be livable as a single income and got to know what seems like a really neat little town a little better. There would be a lot of adjustments if we went but we are excited about the possibilities.
We will be returning this weekend. Perhaps for part of Saturday but at least for the bulk of the day on Sunday. Matthew will speak again and we will try to get to give more people a chance to get to know us a little better. The congregation will vote on whether or not to extend the call to us on February 4th (their by-laws require a two week interval).
We appreciate all of your prayers and will update you when we hear in February. Please continue to pray for God's guidance for us and the people of Faith Bible Church and that we would guard our hearts and trust Him to know what is best for us.
Willows from the air.
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