Quick up date...

Life has been so busy around here.... I'm not quite sure why..... it might have something to do with the fact that we are moving to AFRICA in a few days. This after our whirlwind Christmas visits. Time has a way of getting away from you. I should be in bed right now.... it is 1:30, but I am SO enjoying the quiet that I just can't seem to make my self turn in.

SO in case I haven't told you lately, or in case you need reminding GOD IS AWESOME!! He works in mysterious ways!! I don't even know were to begin...... how about our house. Not or Waco house, our Uganda House.

Houses, we have been told, are EXTREMELY hard to come by in our town. There are a lot of non-government organizations that are based there, so houses are snapped up as soon as they become available. not only that they are expensive. Our budget for rent was originally $1000 - in a third world country!

In my mind, I have been prepared to live in a small 2/1 house. However, my loving husband and Kids have been praying and asking God for a nice house. Not that I haven't, but, he has really been asking God to more than we could ask or imagine!

So we received an email on Monday.... that a house was available NOW and if we wanted it we needed to send three months rent RIGHT AWAY! We thought that this was the more that you could ask or imagine house.... it had 4 bedrooms/3 baths. I didn't even know that big houses existed in our town. So we jumped on the opportunity. But with the time differences and other things, our money didn't get there fast enough, and the house was rented by someone else.

WELL, that is OK cause GOD has something better (we believe)! There is a NEW house with large bedrooms (we think there are 3) and two bathrooms and a large kitchen (which is unusual in Africa) plus it has a GARAGE and a fenced in yard!! Keep in mind that Africa "new" is probably not the same as USA "new" - in the sense that it will still probably be made from cinder block. and have cement floors, but never been lived in!

It still needs a little bit of work to be finished, and they are going to use our first 3 months rent (which is already in place) to complete it and it should be ready when we get there, if not shortly there after!! Isn't that AMAZING!!! God is so GOOD!!!!

Another blessing...... I have been praying for a new camera. Mine is over 5 years old and has taken THOUSANDS of pictures.... and was really on it's last leg. Plus my "big lens" quit working this summer. So I had a few things on a "wish list". TODAY we get an email that there is a girl in our church that has a new camera for sale, with two lenses, and a ton of other goodies. We talked about it, and decided that it was too good a deal to pass up. We got a new Camera!!! When I went to pay for it, the girl said that there were SEVEN other people that were interested in it, none felt that it was the right time. One looker even prayed about it, and felt that God told him no.

GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYER AND KNOWS THE DESIRES OF OUR HEARTS!!!!

OK one quick story. I'm not sure that I can make this should as funny as it was, but I am going to give it a try.

So Curly Sue and Snuggle Bug were smelling a candle in my room. SB was rubbing her finger on the wax, when CS said, "OH no....." At which point I look up to see what is going on. I think she is going to comment on how her sister's is going to smell like a flower or something. Instead she says "...... now it's gonna smell like finger." (referring to the candle)

Hope you gotta good smile from that one, and were encouraged by the rest!!

Goin' away party #2 - Waco crowd

Let me know if you want to come and I will send you the rest of the info..... address and such.

Here is the info for our Waco Send off

You have played a special part in the Forester family's lives. That is why you are invited to come and join us in sending them off to Uganda! We are beginning at 6:30, but are planning on praying at 8:00. Please join us for burgers and hot dogs or just come for the prayer part. Let us know when you RSVP if you'll be able to join for the meal or not.

Really hope you can come!!

This was supposed to be sent via evite, but there were too many "technical difficulties", please respond with your "Yea or Nay" so we will have enough food for all!

Thanks,Becky & Andrea

A post from Kent

This was written for a supporter update, and I thought you all might enjoy reading about God's provision!

So we spent an early Christmas with Becky's family in Lubbock. The girls absolutely enjoyed the snow storm on Christmas Eve! Well just before lunch on that day we loaded up the car and slowly made our way to my mom's in Oklahoma. That is usually a 4 hr drive in normal conditions. Because of the ice and snow it was far from normal!! We made it to Seymour, our usual halfway stopping point, in just under 4 hours. I must tell you that Becky had continually asked if we should turn around. As we slowly pulled out of Seymour it literally looked like a war-zone...abandoned vehicles and semis littered the roads and ditches. I started at that point to also wonder if we should have turned around!! It usually takes 1.5 hrs to drive into Wichita Falls from Seymour...it took us 5 hrs. It was the craziest time I can remember being on the road, but...as we inched our way around "jack-knifed semis" on two-lane roads we saw a large set of lights coming toward us. It should not surprise you to hear that a huge snow plow showed up in the middle of nowhere,and I mean nowhere, and led us practically all the way into Wichita Falls. We ate dry cereal in our hotel room (thank you Lord!) for our Christmas Eve dinner, but we were together. And we did make it to my mom's for Christmas Day lunch.

Also, wanted to catch you up on our financial situation. Whoever has been praying...please continue! Since our last update we have seen over $20,000 come into our "one-time" needs. That means we only need about $6,000 more to meet all of our projected "one-time" needs! It has been all God. I mean that. None of those finances that have come in were from our potential resources. The Lord has again reminded us He has called us into this and He is planning to provide for us. I hope to learn that once for all, but praise God He has been long-suffering with me until then. We hope to gain another 5 families for our monthly support team, so please keep praying with us.

Be Blessed!!

Send off - #1

OK.... You are all invited to our Lubbock, TX "send off". Here are the details:

Trinity Church Chapel

7002 Canton Ave

(University & Loop 289)

Sunday, January 10th

3:00pm - 5:00pm

Light snacks

a few tears

and tons of hugs!

We would love to see you there!!

Lub....

No Lub is not an abbreviation for the Hub city, it is Snuggle Bug's way to say love.

Most mommies have to start the "I love you" banter. You, know... you pick them up, give your little someone a big hug, whisper "I love you" and hope that you can catch the last few snippets of their response before they leap from you arms and rush back to what ever they were doing.

NOT so with Snuggle Bug. She initiates saying "I lub you" more than I remember the other girls doing. When I pick her up (at her request) she throws her arms around my neck and says, "I lub you mommy." If that doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what will!!

The down side to this cute lovableness, is when she is in trouble.....

Last night, on our way home from Petersburg, Kent had baned all talking in the car. This is something that he does often when it is past the girls normal bedtime. Somehow the silence calms their excitement, and sometimes (depending on the length of the drive) it puts them to sleep.

This was not the case on the way home last night......

I am sitting and enjoying a bottle of water (and the silence) when all of a sudden there is a sharp whistle from the back seat. Thinking it was an accident, I continue to enjoy my bottle of water. Again, another sharp whistle from the back seat. So I turn to silence the noise maker.

As soon as I turn around, Snuggle Bug very quickly informs me that she is thirsty. I cracked up! This may be one of those "you had to be there" stories, but even now it makes me laugh.

Knowing that she was baned from talking, and yet knowing that she HAD to have some of my water, she made the only other sound she could. A whistle!

Whistling is a talent that most 3 yr olds, that I know at least, can't do. AND one that she worked VERY hard at until she had mastered it. (and we were all super glad when she did, cause before she could whistle she would run around shreeching at the top of her lungs thinking she was whistling, yes we were extremely glad when she made the switch!)

There was nothing else I could do, except laugh and pass my water bottle back. Kent didn't think it was as funny, something about obedience....... you can see now how it is hard when Snuggle Bug is in trouble!!

PTL Story #1

OK I want to be faithful to share all the cool things that happens as we continue on this journey.

One of the biggest praises that we have so far is that our airfare will be significantly cheaper than we thought!!!! We were budgeting around $12,000 to get us all to Uganda. Yes, $12,000. You would be surprised at what it costs to fly a family of six half way around the world. HOWEVER, in talking with our travel agent, who has helped us purchase our tickets the last few times we have visited, she heard that we were MOVING there and WHY we were moving there, and she connected us to an agent that specializes in missionary airfare. (i think that could qualify as a run-on sentence)

Our new estimated budget for airfare is closer to $4500. Yes I said $4,500...... total! Plus we get and extra bag for each person as well. So we can take 18 bags instead of just 12. Only, I don't think that we have enough stuff to fit in to 18 suitcases.

So yea GOD!!!! He is not only increasing what has been given, but he is decreasing what is needed as well!! Continue LORD!!

ONE TIME SUPPORT-o-METER

So to help keep every one up on the progress of our one time needs I put up my brother put this cool thermometer on our blog! (Thanks Dave!!) Our one time expenses are what we need before we can actually leave for UGANDA!

Please be praying with us while we wait for God to open the storehouse! Keep checking back to read some of the cool testimonies that I know we will have to share as the progress continues!

People have asked for the address so here it is:

If you want to help..... Mail a check to:

AMI

505 N. 20th st.

Waco, TX 76706

Just add a note with our names, but don't put our names on the check.

THE Pumpkin Pictures!!

Here are the much anticipated pumpkin pictures!! ENJOY! They will probably be the last you will see of my girls for a while!

Embarrassed

I am really embarrassed!

I worked really hard on our latest news letter... picked out the perfect pictures, adjusted them to just the right size, sent the test letter, didn't check it, proceeded to send out 159 letters only to discover that the pictures were HORRIBLY WARPED in the sending process.

I'm not sure how it all works, but somehow our beautiful family picture taken in the Sunflower field was streched WAY to thin. So here for you viewing pleasure is the picture in it's correct form:

Randomness.

We are on the tail end of a whirl-wind traveling extravaganza! We have been in Lubbock, Waco, Gulf Shores - AL, Canun - Mexico, back to Lubbock were we currently are residing. On Sunday, however, we will return to the big city of Waco, for a few weeks of R&R or at least less traveling!

Once I get the back to Waco and have access to my memory card reader, I will post pictures of all our adventures! My most recent and exciting photo session was of the girls in the pumpkin patch. It was a bitter sweet moment for me. Hubby and I sold pumpkins for NINE years. I have more pictures of my kids in orange than any thing else. So after not selling pumpkins for the past two years, I was really excited to add to my photo collection. I was especially excited about snapping a few pics of Snuggle Bug, since she was only two months old the last time we had the chance to capture pumpkin memories. That was the sweet part.

The bitter part .... well it was a harsh reminder that we are about to embark on an adventure that will keep us away from friends, loved ones and all things as we know it for at least three years. Don't get me wrong I am ready, and excited to experience all that God has for us in Uganda. but there is always that tiny part of you that knows you are going to miss home.

All this traveling and moving around, as hard as it has been, has been beneficial in some ways.
1. We have gotten rid of TONS of stuff!
2. It has increased my desire to settle down, even if it is in Africa.
3. It has helped decrease my attachment to friends, and increase my attachment to Jesus!

Matthew 10:36-38 (New International Version)
37"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

S's Birthday

Yes.... I am behind, but better late than never, right?? H & S's b-days are two days apart. That usually means lots of parting in the Forester house!! Curly Sue's birthday is first. She lost her first tooth on her 5th birthday! I don't know if you can see it.... but she already had her new tooth coming in behind her baby one, so we were all eager to get the baby out of the way.Big Sister lovingly volunteered her many years of tooth pulling experience to help out the tooth situation. However..... even with her patient wrapped in a blanket, her delicate fingers just weren't strong enough to get the job done, so in the end Daddy had to do the "dirty" work.

OK every one can Ooo and Ahh over those gorgeous curls. let me answer a few questions that most of you are probably wanting to ask..... 1. Yes is is natural. 2. We think that Kent's granddad might have had curly hair, only he kept it so short and slick that no one knows for sure just HOW curly it really was. 3. Yes it is very easy to take care of: wet, comb, condition and we are done. 4. You might be able to touch it if you ask nicely AND Curly is in a good mood.

I say all that because I LOVE this picture of her hair, it shows off the curls well, AND those are the answers to the questions I get asked AT LEAST 4-5 times a day. Only, most people don't ask if they can feel her hair, they just do. I digress....... Here Curly is opening up her presents.

OK so now for my sob story...... S (or Curly's) big day fell on a Friday this year, that meant that H's (name to soon follow) fell on Sunday. SO we planned a big party for both of them for the Saturday in between, PERFECT, right?

Well it would have been if I hadn't gotten sick. I started feeling puny when I woke up that morning, but knowing that I had two girls eagerly awaiting their cakes, I put my illness aside and started decorating the cakeS. I started shortly after breakfast, and didn't get finished until 3:30. Sadly enough this wasn't because I was creating a birthday masterpiece, if was simply because every thing took SO much effort!

When I was finished I CRASHED, and I never go back up. Here is were I award Kent and his friends the Father of the Year award. You see of the two other families that were coming, one mom had just gotten out of the hospital, and the other mom decided not to come when she heard that I was sick. So Kent, and two daddies had a birthday party with 10 kids + a few other adult friends.

I have never had to miss one of my children's birthday parties before. (I came close when Curly was born, we just postponed the party a few weeks, but I didn't MISS it). It was heart wrenching!! I cried when I heard them start singing "Happy Birthday" to take the cakes out. The girls however were SO sweet and understanding. They are very precious.

Needless to say, I didn't get very many pics of the party, I didn't snap a picture of the cakes, and I never really took any pictures of H opening her presents the next day either. =( So sad!

TRI-WACO

Kent has become quite the athlete since we have moved to Waco. You may remember my post about Kent's race last year in Lubbock (Lubbock Tri).......... Well he had been at it again. Granted it was back in July, but he did it none the less, and I wanted to share the highlights with you.

So it starts with a .92 mile swim! As the swimmers get started, the water is crazy. I wonder how people don't drown in the first few minuets. I'm not sure which swimmer is Kent.... it was kinda hard to find him from on the bridge. It took him 41 min to complete the swimming portion of the race. The girls and I were there to cheer him out of the water, but I don't think he heard us. Once he was all the way out, we ran our own little race to see him off on his bike.
What an Athlete........... the bike portion was 26 miles, normally that would have been a piece of cake, especially considering the fact that he had just ridden 600 miles to FL!! However, after swimming for nearly an hour, he was a little tuckered!While we waited for Daddy to get back, we all went down under the bridge and looked around. I took the opportunity to get in a few cool snapshots in front of the awesome brick wall!

Here he comes!! He was racing his good friend, and his friend had JUST passed him in the transition area when I snapped this picture. He was a good sport about it though.

Almost there........ the finish line was across the bridge. Cool huh?? We sat and waited along time for them to come running up the path by the river. When the girls saw him coming they all jumped up and started running with him!! E and I had to hurry and catch up after snapping a few pictures.There he is.... after his 6.4 mile run! The accomplished athlete, finishing his first Olympic distance triathlon. It took him 3 hours and 4 min. He missed his goal by 4 min, not BAD.