I was here...

... only two days ago:-).

...

This is a post that I wrote not long after we moved to the farm...

It is truly amazing to me just how the Lord provides for our EVERY need. As we were preparing to come to Va. I began feeling very anxious about leaving the kids, them going to school ALL day, and how well they would adjust, make friends, etc… I tried to give it over to the Lord every time it came to mind but ,man, it came to mind a lot! Our Lord cares about the details! Our children have made many friends, have loved going to school, have completely enjoyed living “with” their friends, having church in our house, and are thriving! God is good!!!! The only part they have complained about is getting out of bed too earlyJ. I can live with that! We feel the same as they do, everything has been great here, we are really enjoying our time so far. It has been slam packed with things to do, assignments to fulfill, meetings to go to, but the Lord is using this time to work on us and we are extremely grateful. Other than that what can I say… it is beautiful here, we love the people we are with, we love the food that they prepare for us (no grocery shopping or meal planning, yahoo!!).

Judah, I think, has had the hardest time adjusting. We really didn’t expect it to be that rough for him so we have been a little shocked at his behavior, but not totally. He likes school, but doesn’t like to be dropped off… umm yeah, that creates a problem. Please pray for him to begin enjoying it and getting use to it, this will be his life for the next year! He likes his class, his friends, his teacher… he just doesn’t like to be left! So, just keep him in mind please.

Here is a Psalm we looked at this morning… I hope it blesses you!

Make a joyful noise to the Lord,

all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into His presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, He is God!

It is He who made us, and we are His;

We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter Hi gates with thanksgiving

And His courts with praise!

Give thanks to Him;bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

His steadfast love endures forever,

And His faithfulness to all generations.

            Psalm 100

*Judah has, since I wrote this post about 6 weeks ago, grown to LOVE school:-). The Lord is good...

Family Photos

Our sweet friends the Marshmans, whom you may remember from the Peter Pan photoshoot, have done a fabulous job with our family photos! Here are a few … aren’t they wonderful?!?! They did this before we left L'ville... Thanks Marshman familyJ! 

Well, we are off to Va. on Monday to begin our training... please continue to pray for us!We are very excited!!This has been a wonderful couple of weeks spent with friends and family, we are so happy the the Lord has enabled us to have this time with them! What a blessing it has been:-)

Rollin'

We’ve been travelling so much lately that we’ve been inspired with an idea for a new game. It’s called “Where in the World are the Tiemans?”.

We think it will be a big success;-).

Seriously, we have been making the rounds… Saying the “see ya laters”… and definitely seeing new sites. We have been blessed to be able to go see sweet friends as well as family. What a blessed, joyful, sad time! It is such a transitional time in our lives, we love it and are saddened by it all at once.

As for the sites we’ve seen… whoa! We went to Chicago from Ky and there are not too many things to see on that trek, but when we started heading even farther north… we were pleasantly surprised. Beautiful countryside! We can now boast that we’ve been as far north as Minnesota, though James still didn’t get to see a moose! What a trip… we have loved every momentJ. We are currently heading down south, Texas to be precise! We are excited to see more friends and family, get a little fishing in, visit a few more churches, and hang out at the beach for a week! Woohoo!!! Bring it on!

Update:

Due to the lack of internet access I am just now getting to post this! Here are a few photos from our travels, hope you enjoy!!

Windthings in Illinois 

 

Friends in Chicago

Friends in Minnesota 

Texas,Oh Texas

 

More to come...

Rub a Dub

a

little man

in a

sink?

Yep. This is what we do for cheap entertainment folks:-).

Whew!

 

I have had a long couple of weeks! They have been good though...

 We are now "official"! We were appointed as missionaries to Ecuador on March 3rd!

We came home and began to pack, because our stuff is being crated on the 19th:-).

In the midst of it all (packing/sorting, that is) the kids have had some sort of really nasty stomach bug, YUCK!

So, we have also been trying to disinfect everything as we go... it keeps things interesting to be sure:-).

Here is a photo of our family members that were able to make it to the service, you'll notice that the kids were not there. They were sick at that time too! Pray for no one else in our family to become sick!

Anyway, the service (and actually, the whole appt. week) was very good and it was a blessing to be there. 

I will post our proposed schedule a little later, right now it is always changing:-). 

Favorite Quote of the Week

As we were sitting down for dinner...

Piper~ " I don't know why people think six (children) is too much. It doesn't seems like that many to me... Sometimes it doesn't feel like enough!"

I love that girl, she cracks me up!

Why Big Families Are Easier

* This was taken from another site(MckMamma) who took it from another site(not sure:-). But when I read it I LOVED it and thought it was completely true and wanted to share.Hope you enjoy it!


Why big families are easier:

Patience. I never have to teach patience. My children know that I can’t drop everything for them if I have a baby in my arms.

Work Ethic. My children have learned to work because there are always chores to do in a small house packed with little messy lunatics. And they all learn quickly that sometimes they have to clean up a mess even though they didn’t make it.

Humility. My children have learned it’s not always their turn. They’ve accepted they can’t always get their way because other people have to get their way sometimes. They’ve learned that some children are better at certain things than they are.

Foreign language skills. You can learn a lot of Spanish by watching ten years of Dora the Explorer that you just can’t pick up in two. And now with the Diego spin off I’m practically fluent.

Laughter. The children have learned to laugh at the insane non sequiturs of younger siblings. They’ve learned that laughing just feels better when seven people are doing it along with you.

Competition. Do I really need to go into this? Everything is a competition in big families. The children compete over who reads faster, who drinks their milk faster, who gets to the bathroom first…etc. Everything is a competition and they’re all keeping score.

Balance. The floor of the front room of my home is a minefield of toys and childhood paraphernalia. Just walking through the room requires great skill and balance. I’m absolutely convinced my two year old will be a favorite for Gold on the balance beam in the 2016 Olympics. (She might have to lay off the cookies a little but I’ll deal with that later.)

Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you just give it to the baby because you want a little quiet. Not all the time. But sometimes.

Just say “No.” Being able to say “no” may be the most undervalued skill in this world. The need to be liked is pervasive. The need to be cool even more so. Having brothers and sisters teaches children to say “no” about 143 times a day. It’s a good skill.

Praying. They learn that nothing beats praying together as a family.

Nature/Nurture. Having many children has taught me that nature has a lot more to do with who my kids are than nurture. This is helpful, especially when your children misbehave you don’t have to feel bad about it. Just say “Stupid nature!!!” and blame your spouse’s genes.

Namecalling. You can occasionally call your child by the wrong name and still not be considered a terrible parent. They know who you mean just from your tone. Sometimes if you need something done you can call the wrong name and someone will still show up. That helps.

Spying. My children have learned that they can’t get away with anything. I have spies who look a lot like them who are willing to drop the dime on them for anything. Even at school I’ve got a child in just about every grade. If they do something I’ll hear. That keeps them nervous. And I like keeping my kids a little nervous.

Friendship. The children have many friends. They’ve got girly friends, crying friends, fun loving friends, consoling friends, and crazy friends. And they all have the same last name. And they’ll be there forever for each other. No matter what.

Love. I think my children have learned to love because there are others around them to love and who love them. I honestly can think of no better way to teach children to love than siblings.

Leaving the Country Update

Whew, THAT was a long title! I really didn't know what else to call it though and as I stated in my previous post, I am tired:-). Some of you have been following along every step of the way and some have given up long ago. Well, who could blame them! We have been trying to get overseas permanently for about 7 years now:-).
Things are looking up though:-). We are scheduled to be appointed as missionaries in March. Two weeks later James will pack his stuff and say goodbye to his co-workers... then we get to the fun stuff. Crating. Oh, crating. I have spent hours thinking of what we should take and what we should leave. Have made many lists. Have lost much sleep. Okay, maybe not missed much sleep but it really feels like I could:-). I think I have it worked out and have made the "final draft" of the list. Now, we have a section of the living room marked off in order to see if the things we want to take will actually fit into the space we are allotted. Oh the joy! Really, though, this is a joy I could do without! Though I am thankful they let us take some things, I wish they would just decide and pack it for me:-). Wouldn't that be nice!
Back to the schedule. IF everything goes according to plan(how often does that really happen?) then we will leave KY in the middle of March to visit friends and family! Then, at the end of April we will be going to orientation/training for 8 weeks in Va. After that, we head out to Costa Rica for a year in language school. Then, we will finally be ready to go to Ecuador! Yes, you saw correctly... I said Ecuador. See what I mean about "plans". They have changed our job and actually we couldn't be more thrilled about it. The area we will be going to is one that we visited while we where in Ecuador almost two years ago. When we were there we both thought how we'd love to go to that area, but there was no work going on there at that time. But isn't God's timing amazing! There are so many incredible things that have fallen into place in the last few weeks that I don't have time to list them all, but perhaps one day...
Until then... be encouraged,God knows every detail of every situation you may find yourself in. He knows your worries even before you do... He also knows how things can best be worked out so that in the end He will receive the glory for it. May it be so in your life, through exciting times... and not so exciting times. May you continually give Him praise, and honor, and glory!!

~Heather

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. Psalm 7.17

NB

Why must I be so behind in the updates? I really do think about updating more than once a month but then my head hits the pillow and I am OUT! I have NO good excuse... I sleep all night(most nights), not pregnant, not nursing, just tired:(. If there is anything that i don't like it's being tired. It's not fun, it drags me down. I think it is the lack of sunshine here... really, isn't that strange? I feel totally unmotivated when I don't see the sun. It's a terrible way to be... especially when you live in an area of the world where the sun does not seem to show itself often. Oh well, enough of that! Here are a few more photos from our TX trip...

It is tradition to hike the canyon down to the park and feed the ducks:-). So we did this about three times while we were in NB. Loved every minute!

















That lovely tree with all of the big birds on it is part of what they call " Vulture Island"... there also happen to be a large colony of water rats living there at the park(nasty vermin). My father-in-law feeds them... they eat right out of his HAND!!! Just can't bring myself to try that!















Look at that sun shining on the water... oh, that I could see it now...:-).





But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. Proverbs 4.18