Back to Blogging...

Gracie at 16 months

Gracie and Rocky getting ready to go to church

Rocky hanging out in his cushion

After a very long absence from blogging, we are attempting to get back to it. Between being pregnant and then juggling two kids, the blog sort of fell by the wayside for a while. We are happy to report that the Lord continues to be faithful, and we are enjoying life with Gracie and Rocky. Rocky was born on Christmas day, and he is growing so fast! We just had his two month doctor visit, and he is already 14 lb. 10 oz. and 25 inches long. He is smiling a lot and making all sorts of cute sounds.

Gracie started walking in January, and now she is all over the house, usually dragging a Trader Joe's bag filled with her toys (she loves to put things in bags and walk around with them). She is saying some words like "apple", "banana" (which sounds more like "belala"), "Ocky" (Rocky), and "mama" & "addy" (Daddy). She learns fast, and it is so much fun to see her learn new skills. We've been working on doing a puzzle lately.

Lou is as busy as ever with ministry, teaching through the gospel of John on Sunday mornings and 2 Thessalonians on Sunday nights. He is also teaching an evangelism class during the Sunday school hour and going through Grudem's Systematic Theology on Wednesday nights. Then, there's men's Bible study, counseling, studying, etc...it's busy! The Lord has blessed, and we've had a few new families and been encouraged to see at least one woman profess faith in Christ. We pray that the Lord would continue to use us to spread His truth.

Amy is busy at home with the kids, trying to figure out how to do things with two little ones. It's challenging at times, but God has graciously allowed her to see some progress. She continues to lead the ladies' Bible study at the church. They are currently going through Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul Tripp. This has been both an encouraging and convicting study.

We hope to keep the blog more up-to-date now. I'll try to post some more pictures soon. The ones on here now are already a few weeks old, and the kids change so fast! We need to take a new family picture, too, just as soon as we find the time...

IT'S A BOY!!!

There he is!!
Gracie's crawling around...

Gracie in the sink with her pirate duck

Praise the Lord, on Monday we had our ultrasound and found out that Gracie will soon have a little brother! We are very excited and thank God that everything seems to be developing properly. It's so amazing that we can even see the baby before it's born. Guess we'll have to do some shopping for boy clothes! =)

As you can see from the pictures, Gracie is keeping us busy with crawling and pulling up on things. My friend Cathy warned me that this is the age when they start to pull all kinds of things onto themselves, so be prepared for some cuts and scrapes! So far, Gracie is unscathed, but she is fast; we really have to watch her! She loves catalogues or magazines that she can flip through and rip out pages.

Ministry is very busy these days. We've had some people showing interest in the church and asking lots of questions about what we teach. Seems good so far; we pray that God would be glorified and that His gospel would be spread here on the Cape. Lou has been very busy with studying, the TV ministry, counseling, etc. Please keep him in prayer as he tries to manage his time for God's glory. Amy is busy with Gracie and helping Lou out at the church. She continues to lead the ladies' Bible study, and that has been a blessing.

Do You Want to Visit Yet??

Just a few shots of some of the Cape Cod beaches (and Gracie, too, of course!)

Happy 4th of July (a little late)

Gracie and her cousin Madelyn at the church's 4th of July cookout

Fun in the Sun

Just a little update on what's going on here. We're officially in summer on Cape Cod with hot, humid days and a multitude of traffic due to all the tourists. It is amazing how this place can be so dead in the winter and so jammed in the summer. Thankfully, this summer, we know the back roads!

Gracie had her first swim in the ocean last weekend. We decided to have lunch at the beach, and Lou took her in for a dip. She seemed to enjoy it, and she didn't even fuss when she accidentally got a mouthful of salt water! Praise the Lord, she's an easy-going baby. We're hoping the next one has a similar disposition. Speaking of the next one, we had our 16 week check-up today, and everything is looking good! They also scheduled our ultrasound (we only get one here unless there's a medical reason for more). That will be on July 23rd; so, hopefully, we'll have some news as to whether it's a boy or a girl. We did hear the heartbeat again today. Lou recorded it on his mp3 player; if I can figure out a way to put it on the blog, I will. (Or if any of you know how to do it, please let me know).

Things at the church are going pretty well. We've had some new visitors, some of which seem interested in staying. This would certainly be an answer to prayer. Our nursery is rapidly growing with some of these new folks which poses the wonderful problem of where to put all the little ones. Our building is designed to have a nursery in the basement, but since the basement is unfinished pending finances, we've been using Lou's office as the nursery...

As always, there are challenges in the ministry and we would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and grace as we seek to deal with these biblically. God is using these times to teach us and to help us to grow more dependant on Him.

Summer on Cape Cod

Here are some recent Gracie pictures. As you can see, Lou is trying to help her learn to crawl. She's working on it...We are enjoying another summer here on the Cape. It is so nice to be minutes away from so many beautiful beaches! Sometimes we just go and have our lunch there. Some of you should really take us up on our offer and come for a visit!!! We are all doing well. Praise the Lord, Amy has made it to her second trimester with baby number 2; we still have a few weeks before we'll (hopefully) know whether it's a boy or a girl. Lou continues to preach and shepherd the flock here on the Cape. We've had quite a few visitors, many of them vacationers but a few locals, too. We pray that the Lord might allow for some new members. We've gotten a few responses from the T.V. ministry and from a radio commercial that Lou did. We appreciate all of you who pray for our ministry here. Please pray also for our 4th of July cookout at the church. We sent out roughly 250 invitations to our church neighbors, and we hope some of them will come and find out what we're all about.

Our friend Diane was just here for a little over a week; that was a blessing and a lot of fun. She and Amy were helping Joanna, one of the girls in our church, with her wedding decorations. Speaking of which, Lou performed his first wedding ceremony for Joanna and Tim. We were glad, as up until that point he had only done funerals!

P.S. Thanks to those of you who posted comments; sometimes you wonder if anyone is reading this....=)

Beach Baby

Gracie is enjoying her first summer on Cape Cod. She loves digging her toes in the sand!!