She's Off!

 Alyssa left at 3:30 a.m. this morning. She flew to Memphis to see her Grandparents for a week and then will board the plane next Wednesday, on her 15th birthday, to meet her mission team in Texas. From Texas, she will fly to Nepal for three weeks of ministry to girls that have been rescued from the se* slave industry. After that, she will fly to India to hike into unreached villages and minister at leper colonies. Once she completes her six weeks in Asia, she will fly back to Texas before coming home. She will not be back home until August 1st. Please pray for her when she comes to mind - this trip will be spiritually, emotionally and physically exhausting. We are so proud of her, she worked very hard to raise the almost $7,000 that this ministry trip cost. I thank each and every person who supported her in many, many ways! We are already feeling the emptiness of her being gone!

  
We are going to have two children overseas this summer, as Gabriel is only days away from his military deployment. He will fly to HI in the next few days and will then deploy on three different ships over the ocean until Christmas. We are praying for him and Alayna as they are apart for this first long deployment of their marriage. 

Our lives back at home aren't quite as exciting. We wrapped up soccer yesterday and are at the pool every afternoon for swim team. We had a small surprise dinner for Alyssa (that I did not take one picture off - hate it when I do that!) and have some out of town company coming tomorrow. In the meantime, JD is working on the chicken enclosure -

 And Kenny is back to wire the fence to keep escaping goats in and predators out -

The goats love the pasture grass/weed combination