Crosswalk

(bottom left:  our new display!)

We've been thankful that since landing back in Central Illinois, we had a church to call 'home' during the weekends we are in town.  Steve (Nathan's brother) pastors a growing flock at Crosswalk Fellowship in Delavan (IL) and they graciously allowed Nathan to share the morning sermon on Sunday!  A very pleasant surprise that morning was a visit from one of my dear high school friends, Gretchen, along with two of her children.  I had shared on our Facebook group page that we'd be sharing at Crosswalk and don't you know, she read it and made the effort to come!  I'm still feeling warm fuzzies from that!  Thank you, Gretchen!  I'm kicking myself for not getting my photo with you!

If you live in Central Illinois and we haven't had a chance to get together, later this fall we hope to host a coffee and culture night at Common Ground in Delavan to share more specifics about the ministries into which we'll be throwing ourselves in Albania.  Turkish coffee is a diet staple and we'll be brewing some up -- we'll keep you posted as to the date and time when it's determined!  We'd love to see you!

We're blessed by wonderful worship at Crosswalk.  That's our sister-in-law, Rachel, on the violin.  On the keyboard is my friend Diana (she and Rachel were two of the three musicians at our wedding, btw), who was my piano teacher for a season, but became a good friend ...

 Following church we enjoyed lunch at a friend's home.  Their family has a son adopted from Albania and he and Ellie share some amusingly unique qualities. It was fun to see how well they got along!

I wanted to follow up on my post last week about homeschooling Ellie.  The afternoon after I posted it, Ellie provided some of THE BEST handwriting I've ever seen her complete.  What an encouragement!!!  Then, that evening while shopping at Wal Mart I got the bright idea to buy Reni some light up tennis shoes for his prosthestics.  I've never seen him so excited about shoes!  Thank you to those of you who pray for our children!  We have sensed your prayers and wanted to let you know how we are seeing those prayers answered!