Happenings since August

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord......"

It's been a busy fall and winter around our house. Stefan switched highschools and is now at Paris High. He loves it! It was a busy football season for him and we saw improvements in his abilities on the field. The big rival game against North Lamar brought the injury that would remove him from athletics for the rest of the season.

Jansen who never lets me photograph him has been busy with work and his little red

'69 Volkswagon Baja Bug. It's loud and all little boys race to get a glimpse of it going by.

It's constantly needing work and has brought him loads of fun as he has taken it mudding.

He also turned 18 in January...we did get to take his picture that day.

Many of you know our lives have taken a new turn. We are now full-time missionaries.

Randy left in January to find a place to settle us. We brought Candace and Madison for one more trip home before his departure. Andrew had to work and couldn't come. We are waiting for the day when he's able to make it back to Texas for a visit. We praise the Lord that we have had some great conversations with him lately.

This old farm truck is what the kids learned to drive in when we lived in the country. Randy

would stand inside the door and they would try to peak over the steering wheel and drive all over the open field behind our house. Randy and the boys put a 454 engine it...we recently sold it. That pretty well tore me up. I saw one more thing from my children's childhood leave. One thing we all loved and remembered fondly.

We also lost Blue, our Australian Shepherd who walked beside us faithfully for 10 yrs.

The preparation to move on and remove things that would hinder and worry us while on the field is painful. It's a closing of doors that I am not ready in my heart to close.

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.....

Create in Me....

The last few months I have had the need to be creative. I haven't played around doing crafty things for a few years now. One day I woke up and it was all gone. I wondered if it would ever return. Hallelujah! Praise The Lord! it has come back.
I saw something online and thought I could do a fair job with the same idea so I took my old paintings from the high school days and painted over them.
I sent these to Candace & Andrew for their 2nd anniversary.

Women's Retreat

We enjoyed our Women's Retreat in the country setting at Rock High Ranch.
It boasts, Rustic yet Refined. We had pool time, devotions at sunrise and crafts. We made new friends with the multitude of women who were joining us for the first year. Speakers, Pat and Christy brought lessons on Psalm 139 reminding us that God's thought toward us number more than the grains of sand. Do you know how much sand is in the Sahara? on the beach? It tells us that His thought are on us always, continually, endlessly and eternally. Nothing enters our life without being filtered through him, his right hand holds us. If I rise on the wings of morning, or plunge to the depths of the sea, he is with me.

Happy Fourth of July!

My post wouldn't post. So after two days of trying, I deleted the text...some of what I would've said....

Years ago we started a family tradition for just our family of five. We camped at Raymond Gary Lake for July 4th. We met a great family that first year and every year we met them at our spot for fun, food and fellowship of like-minded Believers. Mike and Cassie shared their pontoon boat and took us swimming in the hot of the day and for a toodle around the lake after supper. The annual fireworks show took place from the piers around the lake and from homeowners there. We would sit in the middle of the lake while fireworks burst overhead showering us with light. More than once we weathered lightning storms hoping not to get struck. It was so hard to freely enjoy the light show when you know you're in an aluminum boat on the lake. We loaded up on junk food 'cause Cassie is the ultimate fun camping mom.

It was always fun to arrive at the campgrounds and watch the kids run to climb on this one certain low hanging tree. With each passing year I noticed the tree seemed smaller than the year before. Hmmm. We each had an important job to perform to get camp set up. After the work the boys would hop on their bikes and fly down the winding hills. We always enjoyed Daddy cooking breakfast and Jansen's famous camp toast.

One year as we were on the lake waiting for fireworks we called Derek to let him know what he was missing by not coming. The next year we were calling Candace. As we heard her choke back the tears we knew we had succeeded in making those "family memories" that run deep. Regardless of how nice life is we think of those years camping.: The muddy water of the lake, the temperature changing with the depths, the year we had the johnny boat, waving at the passersby, meeting new folks, johnny coming by for coffee and a chat.

Thank goodness for a country where our lives are free because someone loved America enough to fight for her. Happy Fourth of July!

July 4th Memories