Last days

Jerod and Alex at the Toby Mac concert

Me and Greg at the Toby Mac concert.

New shirts

Annie and her "favorite person," Mrs. Sorensen. She gave her a necklace that they both wear that says love on one side and amor on the other. Annie loved it!

Annie and Ila Mims

Me and Fair Mims, friends forevah!

Greg and Tom Mims

Annie saying one last good-bye to her teacher.

Jerod and Alex with Pierce, Brice, and Shane Mims

Me and my friend, Amy

J, A and A with Amy's children, Virginia and James

Me with my favorite Haitian niece, Daphca

Mks, by chance, friends by choice! Cousins....forever!

This is Lorenda, I figure if her kids call me Aunt Missy, she has to call me sista!

Jerod and Alex with their buddies, Josh and David

Annie with her class and their siblings on a field trip.

Annie being loved on!

Annie and Isabella

Annie feeding a horse, not too sure about it either.

Horseshoe souvenirs

I have taken a class on hair cutting and this was my final exam! Poor Jerod!

Annie liking horseback riding!

Saying good-bye to our pastor's wife, Kelly

Good-bye to our Sunday School class

Good-bye to our good friends Jordan and Lilly

Annie at Taylor's Finishline

This is Annie with Robbie, Marnie's mom. Marnie is in the background with her dad. She was a tad bit shy and didn't want her picture taken. Very understandable!

This is MARNIE! I caught her on the merry-go-round and got a good picture of her. How precious is she?

Annie with Adam. He was a real charmer!

Then there was TOBY MAC the Grand finale! He was awesome!

We have been going, going and going some more for the past week. One thing about meeting a lot of new friends and catching up with old ones is that after the year you have to say, "Good~bye." This is not exactly something I enjoy doing but it is something I am getting used to doing. I did pretty well. I probably cried the most when saying good~bye to Annie's best friend from school, Isabella. I know how much Annie will miss her and for that it made me sad saying good-bye to her.

We had such a great time at Taylor's Finishline. That was a festival last Sunday (a week ago) that celebrated a little boy named Taylor Gibbs' ending of his leukemia treatments. He is now healthy and they had a HUGE celebration to raise money for Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte, NC and for Make A Wish Foundation. The main reason we were going was because we promised the boys that if we could get them to a Toby Mac concert while we were here in the US, we would. So.... Toby Mac was playing at this festival and that meant we were there!

However, God is so good and He had more than just Toby Mac in mind for us for that day. Annie has prayed for 5 children everyday since she heard their prayer requests. One of them is Clay, who was burnt; another is Jonah a little boy with a disease called EB, another is Marnie who is a little 6 year old who is now cancer free, Adam a little 5 or 6 year old boy who is now cancer free and Susana, a little 4 year old with cancer. On this day Annie was able to meet Adam and Marnie and that meant soooo much to her. It was priceless to put a face with her prayers. She is our little prayer warrior and this showed her that these children are being healed by the prayers that are being prayed. It was really neat to see.

I am sorry I have been a little silent for a little while. I guess packing, saying good-bye, traveling to see my parents and still staying somewhat level headed has kept me a little occupied. I will try to do better. I do hope you all have a very peaceful Memorial Day and are able to be with the ones you love. God bless you all!

busy beavers

Hi friends! Well, I am trying to get things back to normal. I think we have made it so that most searches done will come up clean. By that I mean I have removed most of the lingo that could bother someone. Anyway......I had to send you the very short and sweet email stating the new address, it was the only way I could let you all know. Sorry there was no message in the email, my time is limited. :o) It is kinda fitting that we change the email address now anyway. It was 2 years ago on May 24th that we had our terrible accident happen to Annie. God has done amazing things with and through my girl over the past two years and now it is time He do great thing with and through His villages. We are excited about the upcoming years and look forward to the future. Please continue to pray for our family. MY PLAN is to write a newsletter this week sometime and send that out to all of you. I don't know if it will happen with the many other things that have to happen before we depart from the Wake Forest area, but... it is my PLAN!!

We spent all of the day today cheering on Alex as he played in the State Championship game in flag football. It was an all day event. He played 3 games and won the first 2 which put his team into the final game and then unfortunately they lost that game. Long day, but Alex enjoyed every minute of it! It was a nice way for him to end our time here in WF. I am really tired and hope all of you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!

On the agenda for tomorrow is a Toby Mac concert. We promised the kids that if we could get them to a concert before we left, we would. So, timing is bad, but tomorrow it is! We can't wait! love you all! Missy

Take note

Hi friends, take note of the address above, it will be the new one from now on. Hope you like it. You won't have to log in anymore. Love you all! Missy

Revin' up

Hi friends!

I have been so busy. I mean... we are transitioning for this next phase in our lives, whatever that may be! :o) I just got home from Michigan from attending a homeschool convention. I learned a lot and came home still not totally sure about what I will be teaching but with a lot more clarity than I had before. I met some great people and had a wonderful time catching up with Jessie Twiddy. (friend from our old church)

Greg held down the fort here with 2 football games and Annie's last swimming lesson. She loved swimming. Jerod's team came close to winning their last game but lost in the last few minutes. Alex has really enjoyed flag football because he is on a younger team. In the fall when he played tackle, he was one of the youngest on the team, and now he is one of the oldest. Well, he is now one of the best on the team and LOVES it! He was quarterback on Saturday and threw a "VERY LONG" pass and scored the winning touchdown. After that he threw the pass that scored the conversion point to boot. So, they are on to the championship this weekend. Greg, (who is coaching him) was a pretty proud papa! I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get to see it, but happy I will be there this weekend!

We are saying all of our good-byes here and plan on moving out sometime soon. We don't know what our future holds, but we know who holds our future! :o) Hope all of you are doing well. I will try an upload more pics soon. Love you all ! Missy

Happy Mother's Day!

Hi Friends!! I have been SOOOO busy. I mean really. The past week has been fun and crazy all at the same time. We had a wonderful time visiting with some old friends from Tennessee. They came all the way here (a 6 hour drive) just to visit with us for a day. These are friends we met about 3 years ago in Mexico. They had come down there to take care of our children while we were doing some training. That was the start of a great friendship.

Bill and Dianne

Ted and Carol

All of us

Chad and Amber

We have been so blessed by friendship. When I was dreading leaving the country 5 or so years ago, I worried about not having friends. Ha! I have more friends now than I could have ever imagined. I have friends in states that I have never even traveled to and I have friends in countries that I had never even heard of before I met them. It has been such a wonderful year here in the states, since I have gotten to reconnect with old friends and meet a lot of new ones. After spending some time with our friends from Tennessee, I was able to catch up with one of my childhood friends, Mindy. We have been friends since I was in the 8th grade. We had a great time reminiscing about old times.

Mindy and Annie

Then I topped the week off with a wonderful Mother's Day with my family and our friends, the Dysons. We met the Dysons when we started our journey in Mexico and it is just fitting that at the end of our 5 year mark, we would celebrate Mother's Day together. It was 5 years ago on May 7th, which was Mother's Day weekend that we landed in Costa Rica together. Oh, how time flies! I am not kidding, it really does.

My present from the boys, the book I wanted.

Lunch with the Dysons

Alex and Mikayla

Jerod and Skippy ( Skyler)

Annie

How many kids can fit in the back seat of and Explorer?

We also squeaked in a few football games, ballet lessons, and swimming lessons, plus a yard sale to boot. What a week. I am one tired Mama! Hope all of you had a wonderful week and an especially wonderful Mother's Day! Love to you all! Missy