Photo Update

Photos from the last several months are now up on the flickr site under the link Skip's Photos to the right. We should be adding a few more recent ones over the next week or so.

Our trip to Hendersonville, NC and Anderson, SC will be around March 3rd. We'll be in NC the first couple of days and Anderson the last couple of days. Hopefully we can work out a visit with everyone. Sarah's taking a couple of days off and we are planning on bringing both boys.

More later....

Long Time

It's been months since I've posted anything.... several weeks since I feel like I'd had time to actually catch up on any of our friends blogs. I can't remember the last time I posted any pictures to my flickr pages. Seemed like September through December zipped by. The boys have definitely kept us busy but we've also been very involved with our church here in Berea. My business really took off in late August and hasn't really slowed down since. It's been great to put some of my financial knowledge to use - rather than reading ABC books, feeding babies and changing diapers. I've had a great time meeting with clients and hopefully providing service that meets their needs and will assist them in financial plans.

The boys are doing great. Benjamin is doing very well with potty training. He's now just over 2 1/2. He's been going to a "preschool" two mornings a week and really has enjoyed it. His favorite gift from Christmas has been the Lincoln Log set - bigger size pieces for under 3 yrs old. We've been building towers, bulldozers, trains, and tractors every night for 2 weeks now. Jonathan is 8 months old. He struggled with ear infections in each ear over New Years but seems to be back to his normal self. He's already pulled up and loves his new perspective on things. He loves to chase his brother around and loves to rough-house.

The other big news is that Sarah and I are going in a mission trip to Honduras this summer. I'm co leading with 2 others. Our team of 15 filled almost immediately and it's a mix of high-school youth and adults. We've had 2 team meetings so far and are kicking of a few fund-raisers starting this month. We're both excited about the trip and continue to pray that our child care plans for that week will work out. If you are interested in reading more check out the BUMC Honduras link to the right.

I'm planning a short trip to South Carolina sometime in the next couple of months. I have a meeting with a few clients and also hope to have a speaking engagement as well.

Thanks again for being patient and understanding over the last several months.

Stewardship, Missions, Visits & Photos

Me and a friend at church are currently teaching a 12 week class on Stewardship. We've chosen not to purchase any materials but to design our own as we proceed. It modeled similar to some of the Dave Ramsey and Crown Financial (Larry Burkett) materials but we're attempting to cater to our classes needs. I'm also going to a Small Group Leaders training in 2 weeks through Crown Financial to see if we'll start incorporating their materials sometime next year. Crown's approach is a little different than that of Dave Ramsey.

We have several friends who currently work in China. One family left this past Monday and our friend Camille will return in 2 weeks with their daughter. Her husband returned a couple of weeks ago so she'll be making the trip with her daughter alone. We had a chance to visit with her an her daughter Radiance on Monday night. I also received a letter about a friend of mine from Mississippi who'll spend the next 2 years. It's exciting to hear about the ways the Lord is working and be involved in some aspect.

I think we're about done with our extended visits from family and friends since school is staring back up soon. Sarah's sister and 2 nieces stayed for a week. Then my 12 cousin Blayne stayed for a week. The two of us were able to hike about 5.5 miles just outside of Berea. It was the first time he'd done much hiking especially on a mountain ridge. We also drove town to The Smokey Mountains and through Cades Cove outside of Townsend, TN. It was good to visit with everyone and we've just about got the "hosting" end of things in order. So if you haven't come for a visit yet then just shoot us an email or call. Most of the time we have room at the Little Bed and Breakfast.

I've also posted several more photos of the family under "skip's photos". Check them out for newer pictures of Jonathan and Benjamin.

The BIG 3 0 !!!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Today is Benjamin's 2 year birthday. There are days when it totally does not feel like 2 years have already come and gone but then there are days when I look at how he walks, how he talks, when I watch his sense of humor, when I am amazed at his interest in different things, when he gets so excited about learning about the world around him and when he is just absolutely sweet as he can be to his Mommy, his little brother and to our friends & family. His vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds each day. Each morning lately he's wanted to read a couple of books and play with mega-blocks for at least half an hour (sometimes much longer) before getting ready to eat breakfast. He's done really great with all the changes with having a new brother under roof and with all the various company we've had come through the last several months. I believe that the Lord has already allowed Benjamin to really deeply touch several peoples lives and I really look forward to how the Lord will continue to work in his life more in the years to come.

Thought You'd enjoy a just born picture of Benjamin and one of him about a month ago.

Nepal & Merton

Last weekend we had some fellow Asburians stay with us. They have been on the mission field with Word Made Flesh since they graduated from Asbury... hmm... 10 years now. It was great to catch up with them and our hopes were that they would have some down time and a relaxing visit before the got on the road again and spoke at several churches. I was really impacted by the time I was able to share with them. At one point on Sunday evening after dinner we had 8 kids under 7 years old, two teenagers (to help with the kids) and 6 adults all running around the house. It's great to hear about how the Lord has worked in their lives and how they continue to allow Him to guide their family and ministry. You can read their blogs on the links to the right.

Although I'm a bit slow on it I finally finished reading Thomas Merton The Seven Storey Mountain. It was a good book for me to read at this point in my life. Reading this has helped me began to think again about the role of fasting, the role of being contemplative (with regard to understanding more about God), and about how we should learn from God how to be happy.

"By the gift of Faith, you touch God, you enter into contact with His very substance and reality, in darkness: because there is nothing accessable, nothing comprehensible to our senses and reason can grasp. His essence as it is in itself. But faith transcends all these limitations, and does so without labor: for it is God Who reveals Himself to us, and all that is required of us is the humility to accept His revelation, and accept it on the conditions under which it now comes to us: from the lips of men."

10 Timeless Values of Christ

Our pastor at our church has been emphasizing 10 Timeless Values of Christ over the last several months.

• Prayer
• Fasting
• Study of Scripture
• Partaking of the Lord's Supper
• Being Baptized
• Joining in Christian Fellowship
• Witnessing for Jesus Christ
• Involving yourself in Acts of Mercy
• Regular periods of Sabbath (spiritual renewal)
• Practicing Faithful Stewardship

One comment he made after he read over them one morning was to look at the list and think about the different values. Which one's do you do well at? Which ones are real struggles? Then he encouraged us to pick one or two of those we struggle at and really make an effort to make the needed changes to improve that area or areas.

So all that to say that my goal over the next couple of months is to improve my Study of Scripture - and so I've been writing a small date in my Bible next each time I've read a section and hopefully that will help remind me to keep at it and stay focused. The other area I'd like to improve dramatically is my Prayer time. Thought I'd share this with you so maybe you can shoot me an email as a small way of accountability and also so you can reflect on your own life.

WGM, Remodeling. & Father's Day

We had a missionary couple who I have known for several years stay with us on Thursday night. They work with World Gospel Mission (WGM) and have been on deputation (homeland ministry assignment) or "rest & support raising" over the last year or so. They are planning on returning back to Mexico in about 2 months. I originally met them when I took a semester off at the end of my sophomore year at Asbury to work with WGM for 6 1/2 months. They were very influential in my life at a crucial point and I have been very grateful for their support and influence during that time. This has been the first time since 1999 that I have seen them and it was great to hear more about their ministry, family, and catch up on people we had both worked with. We had a great time hosting them and also had a few of our friends in the Berea area over to have coffee & dessert to have an informal time to get to know about the work they are involved in, about some of the experiences they have had with their family, and to simply get to know them on a personal level.

On a much different note I finally finished up priming the downstairs bathroom ... still waiting for Sarah to decide on the color but at least it looks nice. I also started really working on finishing pulling the wallpaper & old paint off the walls of the upstairs bathroom. It'll be awhile before it's done but I'm enjoying the work.

Sarah allowed me and Benjamin to go to Lowes last night to pick out my Father's day gift. Good thing she wasn't with us... I think she would have been bored after 30 minutes... Benjamin did great because we talked about hammers and I let him carry a little one around while I finished up my shopping. She worked hard helping me wrap up some loose ends around the house today and I really appreciate all that she had done.

Happy Father's Day pop. Look forward to celebrating a more in years to come. Thanks for all of your help and encouragement over the years. Glad to see you enjoying your grandchildren.

4 Weeks

Four weeks since my last post. A little amazing. In the middle of May we went to my niece's graduation in Hazard, KY. She is now officially in high school. We're very proud of all of her work these last several years. The next weekend we went to visit Sarah's family in Bowling Green. The following weekend our friends Mark & Anna came for a visit. It's always great to catch up with them and they were a huge help with both the kids over the weekend. They even brought along their new dog so our golden retriever would have some company as well. Then right after they left we had a baby shower at our church and Sarah's sister and our 2 nieces came in town. They visited a couple of days. Our nieces have really grown up and did a great job playing with Benjamin and assisting with little Jonathan. Then we left a few days later to head to Madisonville, KY in western KY so we could go to a wedding and also catchup with a few of our friends who we haven't seen in almost 4 years.

Oh and by the way we celebrated my father's birthday on Sunday. I've attached a picture of him and my Grandmother who is now over 90 years old. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I even got Benjamin to sort'a say Happy Birthday to him.

A Whirlwind of a week or so

Thank you for being patient while life resumed to a semi-normal status. The last week and a half have been a whirlwind. You might think that most of this is due to the arrival of Jonathan but that is really just a portion of it. Seems like the ole stomach virus setup residence in our house a few days before Jonathan decided to show up. First is was Benjamin. Then a day or so later was Sarah. Then Sarah finally figured realized that she was having full blown contractions instead of just a rumbling GI issue. Then in a flash (almost literally) little Jonathan was here. We checked into the hospital on Wednesday at 8 cm at 10:30 and Jonathan was in Sarah's arms before 12:30. Then Wednesday evening I came down with the GI bug and didn't really get over it until after lunch on Sunday. We were back at home from the hospital with Sarah and Jonthan by 3 pm on Thursday. We had various family members at our house from Wednesday night through this afternoon. We also friends stop by for short visits and to give us food :-) Then we've been to the Drs office for Jonathan 4 times to check his weight. Seemed it dropped down and so we had to make an adjustment to his eating to help him out a little. Sarah is really working hard to not bottle feed this round. It's been challenging but I've very proud of her effort. It's great to see her bond with Jonathan and trying to figure out just what his little needs are. Benjamin is adjusting to being a little brother. In the next week or so we'll resume working on potty training.

If you'd like to see more photos check out the link to "Skip's Photos" on the right. It's a flickr sight. Hope you enjoy ... more to come.

Jonathan Haddock Little

Born: Wednesday May 2 at 12:24 PM

Lenght: 20 1/2 inches

Weight: 7 lbs. 15 oz

Mom and baby are doing great.

More to come later.

Outreach

I recently finished reading Bedside Manor: One Doctor's Family written by R.Schaeffer who served with her husband at Red Bird Mission in rural Eastern Kentucky for almost 50 years. I always enjoy reading biographical accounts of people who have served in ministry especially when I've had a chance to talk with them in person. They are currently in their 90's and still have an amazing and active impact on their community. They have become special to our family just in the short time we've known them. I definately include them in my list of people who I consider Hero's of the Faith.

On a more humanitarian level I was wondering if anyone has heard about or had any experience with KIVA... their website is www.kiva.org. It's an intersting concept and I've become more interested in it since watching a segment on Public TV about a month ago. We're not currently participating but are considering. If you have any thoughts or insights I'd love to hear them.

Community

"There can be no maturity in the spiritual life, no obedience in following Jesus no wholeness in the Christian life apart from immersion and embrace of community. I am not myself by myself. Community, not the highly vaunted individualism of our culture, is the setting in which Christ is at play."

Eugene H Peterson

Highlights

We've been working on "final" preparations for the new little one. It could be any day but despite all the planning and preperation I'm sure there will be something that we forget and then remember in retrospect. Regardless ... the delivery, the excitement of caring for a new baby and sharing the new moments with our friends and family should help ease any major worries we have.

We spent last weekend visiting the area where Sarah went to High School. It was my second trip to the area in 7 years. We have a couple who we went to college with who now work at that school... so I had a great time catching up with them and getting to know their kids. We also had a chance to meet other staff and it seems they have a really wonderful community to work at and to raise their children.

I'm now working on potty training Benjamin. It's great to watch him when everything goes well and a bit challenging for me when it doesn't. He's also enjoyed playing in the little plastic outdoor pool the last day or two. We let him play for about a week with no water so he really thinks the water is pretty fun. His vocabulary is really picking up. His newest phrases or words are "I'm sorry" "Giraffe" and "Jellyfish". He is really interested in one Spanish-English bilingual DVD we checked out from the library here. The title is Professor Parrot ... and I guess we'll have to buy it soon so other people at the library will have a chance to watch it.

Last week we had a family from church over for dinner. It was great to see Benjamin interact with their children - one who is older by a couple of years and one who is younger. Sarah and I enjoyed visiting and sharing with another couple who are close to us in age and in life.

(Nursery To Be) Before & After Shots

preparation

Sarah and I spent most of today working on the "nursery". I say it like that only because our intention is to actually use the room as a guest bedroom in a year or so. In the mean time Sarah has done a really nice job decorating. I'll post a before (ie. pink) and after (ie. cafe mocha) picture in the next couple of days. (I've also posted a few pictures of our family under "Skip's Photos".

Sarah is feeling the aches of the last month of pregnancy. She is holding up well and has actually progressed more than she did with Benjamin in the same period of time.

Benjamin has slept on his toddler bed several times over the last few days. He's done well at nap time in early afternoon but has struggled a bit during bedtime. He really likes his new bed and has enjoyed showing it off to a few of our friends who have stopped by. We still have the crib up in his room as a backup ... but hopefully by the time the new baby arrives we can totally switch him over.

Our friends Camille & Roger who have worked with unreached in China are now back in the US preparing for their new arrival. Their due date is about 2 weeks ahead of ours.

Related but not along the same lines... I was in church this morning and began to think about how interesting the relationship between Jesus as a child and his parent's must have been. (Max Lucado wrote a piece similiar in one of his books several years ago) Below are some thoughts I had:

• When Joseph and Jesus (as a child) talked about the Old Testament scriptures... did Jesus have to teach his Dad... did he talked about it like he had experienced it first-hand?
• When they played games together did Jesus have a twinkle in his eyes when he let his parent's win?
• Was Mary the envy of the other Hebrew mothers because she had the "perfect" child?
• Did Jesus always do what Mary and Joseph asked?
• When Jesus worked with Joseph as a Carpenter was his craftsmanship better than Joseph's?
• Did raising Jesus make it more challenging to raise is siblings?
• What was his sense of humor like as a child?
• Did Joseph and Jesus ever go fishing together?
• What was it like for Jesus to pray?
• Did Jesus ever talk about what he wanted to be when he "grew up"?

My Mother's Birthday

Before you start to wonder... this is a picture of my mother holding Benjamin just after he was born a little over 21 months ago. Tomorrow is her birthday and I was having a difficult time deciding just which picture to post. Since we have a new baby coming in a few weeks I thought this one of Benjamin would be appropriate. I won't tell you her age for fear of being dis-owned. She's young at heart and does a wonderful job with her grandson.

Happy Birthday Mom from all of us here at this Little House. Hope you have many more ahead of you. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for being my mother. Thank you for being there for me... and thank you for being forgiving when I've be late remembering your birthday in the past and when you haven't recieved a birthday present for a month or longer. Hope someone special in you life does something special for you on your birthday.

Why I enjoy Blogs

I was thinking this evening about why I enjoy both posting and reading other blogs. I would consider myself a highly relational person. So in thinking about blogs I believe that blogs help me keep connected to friends who I may not talk to on a regular basis. Blogs also help keep me reminded that the world is so much larger than the day to day issues or distractions that are really overall fairly petty. I also enjoy reading blogs because they help me remember or help me to see some exciting events that are happening in my friends families and lives. To me this is way more refreshing after a long day than turning on the TV or reading news via the Internet. I can look at photos, check out a video, laugh at someone's humor, reflect over someone's photos and most importantly I can share a little of my life when I choose to do so. I can "connect" to someone who lives in my immediate community... I can "connect" to someone who lives multiple states away... and I can "connect" with others who live on the other side of the globe. Finally I think that the blogs I read regularly help remind me just how many ways that God is working in the world.

Four to Six Weeks and Counting

We're getting closer each day to the "official" due date for our little one's arrival. I finally finished up the painting and will be moving the furniture in the room this week sometime. I'm hoping to have most everything done and in place at least 2 weeks before due date in case he decides to show up a little early. We went to a child birth class on Saturday morning. It was good and we were able to really focus on the things we hope to do a little different from the last round when Benjamin was born.

We planted a couple of apple trees in the yard. Seems that our yard is already planted with a variety of trees and shrubs that we had mostly forgotten about since we moved in back in August. It's been great to see all the different flowers pop up this spring. The apple trees will add a little new dimension because to our knowledge they will be the first real fruit bearing trees we have.

We also picked up a couple of nice solid wood unfinished furniture pieces. I think this past month was the first time we have acutually bought more than one piece of furniture since we have been married. We went with solid wood unfinished pieces to give up better quality that should last much longer. I should be able to get them finished in the next month or two. I'm looking foward to getting to work on them.

Sarah's doing well but having those third trimester aches and pains and lack of sleep. We're really considering switching from using an Ob-gyn to a midwife. We'll plan on deciding prior to our next Dr appointment in a little over a week.

What Every Father Needs to Know

"So let me say this as clearly as I can: You, Dad, are the most powerful man in the world...at least in their (your child's) world. Your children are looking to you to answer the deepest question of their lives. How you handle their hearts will shape them for the rest of their lives. Never forget that no one is as powerful as you are in the lives of your sons and daughters."

from: You Have What It Takes by John Eldredge