A Year Ago

Wow...It was the end of July for our conference. I look at the faces and many have gone to serve in Israel for various amounts of time. Of those, I was the slower one to submit to the call; as we are still in the U.S. after Randy has returned from serving in Tel Aviv, I wonder if I'll ever get there. .... Here's last year's post that I never posted:
Last month the Apples held a conference at our church to teach about what servant hood in Israel entails. We studied the short side of the history of the Jewish people, a little of the language and what daily life might look like. While I was eager to attend I kind of felt that nagging in the pit of my stomach...like I knew what was in front of me. Then, I gave in and the wheels of preparation began. I had finally said it, " Yes, I'll go and serve in Israel."

We brought Candace and Madison home for a visit.
What a blessing to sing alongside her once again. Madison thought it was
kind of fun and wanted to join in...LOL

Candace had just finished leading out the song "Hosanna", doing a wonderful job on a song that was completely new to her. Pastor walked in to make the morning announcements and unbeknownst to us began to announce that the Roams would be leaving and moving to Israel to serve as new missionaries and they were going to ordain Randy. I can't describe the wave of shock that rippled through us and our children. C. I are on stage trying to still smile and not look surprised...there are my boys in the back and I wondered what was going through their minds and then the surprise to Pastor Randy himself.
I was amazed that our entire family was together, in one place for this occasion. I would have broken hearted if Candace was in Ca. and had missed it. I just happened to have my camera so we snapped these photos from 2nd service.

Good-Byes

It's tough saying good-bye to this. Last week wrapped up the end of Candace and Madison's 10 day visit in Texas. Of course I have tons of pictures and will post a few more.

This is her in the airport with her monkey backpack.

We also took Randy to the international terminal where he flew out to Israel for two weeks.

It was rough driving home.

Our last family photo. Boy! it beats the one we took last year where Madison was crying everyone was fussing then putting on one of those fake "smile for the camera" faces.

This is GENUINE! Nothing but love for my family.....