Our Adventure to Big Woods - Part 2

A few items from Part 1 I forgot to post:

As we left Wichita on Saturday Grace held up the beautiful sunflowers from Catherine Wurts.
A reminder of our friendship and of our home state Kansas!

We carry you with us in our hearts!

Here are some pictures we took at a gas station (I think in Oklahoma) on Saturday evening. The girls LOVE horses and wanted to ride on it.
Silly gooses!

 Sweet Felicity!

Helping big sis!

Whoa Nelly!

Picking up from Part 1:
So Saturday night we headed out of Dallas and closer to Louisiana. Donovan wanted to keep driving. The girls feel asleep and I was getting very tired. It seemed like every 20 minutes I would pop my head up and ask Donovan if he was tired and if he was doing ok. He always said he was good and kept driving. Well I am getting really tired at this point and I doze off again. All of the sudden I hear the tires hit the rumble strip and I jump up in my seat. I start yelling (cause I am really startled/scared) "What happened!? What happened!?" Donovan had ALSO fallen asleep and started to drive into the shoulder. The noise of the tires hitting the grooves woke him up (thank God)! The girls also woke up (because I had been freaking out). At this point Donovan realized just how tired he was and we both decided to pull over soon. We had no idea where we were and said a quick prayer to St. Anthony to find us a place to stay. We passed one turn off and then saw a sign that said lodging ahead and had several hotels listed. We pulled off at the next stop and drove to the first decent looking hotel. They only had a few rooms left and we were able to get a king with a pull-out sleeper for the girls. It ended up being a very nice hotel and we all really enjoyed the sleep that we all needed! We went to bed about 2 am and didn't get up until 8 am. We grabbed some breakfast and headed back on the road. We had an uneventful drive (for a change) and made it to Big Woods a bit earlier than planned. On the way we made a stop at McDonald's (not to eat, but to go potty and play of course!)  I thought it was funny that none of the girls asked for anything to eat. They knew we were just there to stretch our legs and use the bathroom.They wanted to take some pictures with Ronald McDonald (I love that Felicity didn't know who that was).

 Shortly after our stop we made it to Big Woods. We were thankful to be safely arriving at our new home. As we pulled up to what would be our new house for the next 3 months the girls began screaming and getting very excited. Check out the video at a post I made earlier of our arrival.

Join us at the Proclaim Conference 2013!

Coming up very soon is Family Missions Company's Proclaim Conference 2013. We will be there and would love to see you there too! Get a 20% discount until October 1st! (with promo code ProclaimJesus)

When: World Mission Sunday weekend, October 18th, 19th, and 20th 2013
Where: Holiday Inn Convention Center in Lafayette, LA.
              2032 Northeast Evangeline Thruway
              Lafayette, LA 70501
              (337) 233-6815
Why: To support missions and see some really awesome speakers (and see us of course)

For more info. or to register:

Facebook Proclaim Conference 2013

Proclaim Conference 2013 Website

On the News

We celebrated Cajun Fun Day as part of our Intake Retreat last week. The news came and interviewed Donovan about the 37 people from all over the country who were here in Louisiana to be foreign missionaries. Click on the link below to see the footage that played on the local news.

FMC Cajun Fun Day Footage

We all had a fun day visiting with each other. The girls got to play in the water and Hannah & Catherine got to go canoeing in the lake. It was a typical humid Louisiana day (much more humid than what we are used to in Kansas).

Arriving at Big Woods

Here is a quick video of the girls as we pulled into Big Woods last Sunday!

Photo Shoot

Friday evening, before we left for Louisiana, my friend Katie Gordon (Flash Gordon photography) came by and offered to take some photos of our family. At FMC we end our prayers with "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen! Alleluia! Glory!" So we took this photo in front of our house and shouted the last part! Thank you Katie for the unexpected photo shoot!

Our Adventure to Big Woods - Part 1

Here is a little about the trip from Kansas to Big Woods. We left Wichita and headed for Dallas with the intention to stay the night there. When we got to Dallas we had a hard time finding the hotel where we were going to stay with our friend's sister. The hotel was in downtown Dallas, it was after 11 pm and it was Saturday night. I think we saw at least 3 drunk drivers before reaching the hotel (one was driving the wrong way on a one way road towards us)! We got to the hotel and saw that the only hotel parking was in a parking structure. We pulled into the driveway to the parking entrance and asked the guy who worked at the hotel if this was the only parking available. He asked how long we would be staying and we said overnight. He said to park there. We drove down the driveway into the structure and took a ticket to lift the gate arm. We pulled in and suddenly there was a loud (no a HUGE) banging noise. We both suddenly realized that we had a van topper on the roof of the van. So I got out to try and direct Donovan while he attempted to back out the way we came in (hitting the signs again and making a huge clanging noise). The gate arm wouldn't lift so I walked back up to find someone. The guy who had been there was gone and another man came by with a walkie talkie. He couldn't do anything because he didn't know the channel to call. Soon after two more employees came walking down and they tried using the call buttons but apparently the phone system had just gone down. They left and we got back into the car to wait. Luckily Donovan noticed the gate lift (it must have been a remote access). I walked up the drive and watched as he backed out. He drove slowly out and the van hit the height sign (6 foot 5)! It swung back and forth wildly and I can't imagine why the guy who had been standing there never said a thing to us (maybe he was laughing). When we had pulled in the first time we couldn't see the height sign. So we pull out and drive to the front entrance to ask the valet parking attendant. He said we could park across the street and pointed to a lot that was used for utility vehicles. Neither of us felt comfortable leaving the van out in the middle of downtown all night with the topper on it. We decided to get out of Dallas and keep driving. We pulled out and prayed that we would find a McDonald's nearby to use the free wi-fi for directions on our i-pad. We found one right up the road and were able to get directions. The building was closed and the girls needed to go potty so we pulled into a gas station next door. I got out with Grace & Felicity and Donovan began pumping gas. A car parked behind us was blaring music and I saw two guys who you might think were in a gang. Suddenly I felt very uncomfortable being at this gas station (which we realized was in a very bad part of town). As I was walking with the girls to the bathroom one of the men walked over to Donovan while he was pumping gas. I suddenly had the feeling that Donovan was going to be robbed or shot or both while I was in the bathroom. I didn't know what to do but keep walking and pray. When we got into the bathroom I had both girls praying to our guardian angels and I was praying Hail Marys over and over again. I kept walking over to the window to look out and the man had his back to me. He was still talking to Donovan. When the girls finished I told them to walk very quickly with me and get into the van fast. They asked why and I just said that I didn't feel very safe here and it was time to go. We got into the van fast and buckled up. Donovan was still talking to the man. He finally finished and got in. I was ready to get out of Dallas and we headed out on the freeway. Donovan said that when the guy walked up to him he was also scared and thought he might get robbed or shot so he started praying. The guy was probably drunk or high and came over to ask Donovan for money to buy a beer. Donovan said he didn't have any change (he was asking for 40 cents). He also told the guy he didn't drink so he wouldn't buy alcohol for someone else. The guy asked why he didn't drink and Donovan shared how he had made a decision when he was young not to drink. He responded by saying, "I wish I had done that." He ended up telling Donovan he had a really hard day and Donovan offered to pray for him. He agreed and said, "I'm not gonna close my eyes or anything." Donovan prayed over him and then he got back in the car. Who knows what was going to happen when he approached Donovan, but God had a plan in all of it. Donovan was able to witness to a stranger and God used that moment. Our missions had already begun.

We made it to Big Woods! UPDATED

We arrived Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the day eating, unpacking, and going to mass. We will be making posts on Sundays only from now on (MORE IF TIME PERMITS). That is also when we will make phone calls and respond to your e-mails (THAT WILL BE SUNDAYS ONLY). I tried to post a video of how excited the girls were when we arrived. I will have to try again later. We are having a great time and will post on Sunday more about our drive here and some of the amazing things God has done to get us here. We love you and miss you! Keep us in your prayers!