Christmas Videos!

Here's a video of Braelyn at her preschool performing "The Colors of Christmas". Super Cute in our opinion!

Here is Braelyn at our church as a part of the shepherd choir. Thankfully Mr. Rick is blocking Braelyn at the beginning while she is picking her nose constantly! Then the whole time she is trying to balance with her foot on the step behind her. And for some reason she feels she needed to step up when the shepherds are speaking the first time. Enjoy!

Love this song!

Christmas pics at church

Random Pics from November

Braelyn and her best friend, Madelyn, playing dress up.

Daddy dancing with his girls.....they LOVE it!!

The blue hippo is one of Layna's favorite toys.....she loves to just stand in it and step out, step in and stand in it again....over and over. I think it makes her feel independent. :)

First time the girls have worn matching outfits. Thanks Mamaw for buying them :) They looked so cute. Braelyn was so excited to be matching with Layna.

Visiting my Granny Hasty on Thanksgiving. Hopefully she will get to go home soon.

We made a quick stop by Michael & Katy's on our way home.

Sweet cousin love!!

Layna's 9 month pics

Yes, I know I am late blogging these, but better late than never. These were pics from jOct. Didn't take time to edit them, just wanted to share a few.

Drumroll please............

Yes, I feel like this is the post that I have been waiting to post for the last 7 years! Some of you may not realize this, but Aaron and I both felt called to overseas missions even before we got married. So the last 7 years of our marriage has been preparing for and leading up to this next step. And we thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement. The Lord has given us clear direction and guidance as to which agency we should go with and as to where we should go. We are excited to announce that we are going to........
Kapsowar, Kenya !!

You would think after 6 years of blogging, I would know how to navigate this better, but obviously I don't. If anyone would like to give me a crash course on how to do all the cool stuff you can do on blogs, please come find me :).
So we have committed to serve with World Medical Mission which is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. They have a two year Post-residency program for people who are pursuing full-time medical missions to help put them in a position to be mentored and trained in overseas medicine after they finish residency. Here is a link to their website if you would like to check it out in more detail.
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/WMM/index/

We will be serving in Kapsowar, Kenya which is a beautiful area, from what I have seen from pictures :). At this point , it would be neat if I knew how to import a map of Africa or Kenya and show you exactly where Kapsowar is located, but since I don't I will just put the link to the hospital itself which gives you a little more info.
http://www.kapsowar.com

Also, Aaron and I found this video, which was made last year by Sam Purse at the hospital there in Kapsowar. The surgeon that is speaking in the video is there long-term and we will be serving with him and his wife also. The surgery unit they are talking about in the video is now completed, Praise the Lord. There is also another family that has been there for almost two years now, who have 4 small children. He is a Family Practice doctor also and they are planning on returning to Kapsowar next summer. We are excited to meet them and look forward to serving alongside them soon.
http://youtu.be/7jCJrZ4vhv0



Hope that works! I put a link to it too, in case the video doesn't work.

We are really excited about this next step God has planned for us and are trying now to get the word out to all our friends and family so we can build a team of people who will be willing to keep up with us, pray for us, encourage us, and share with us in the work that God is doing there.
I am hoping to compile a list of emails that we could send regular updates to, so if you are interested in getting those just give me your email address some time. Aaron finishes up with residency at the end of June. We haven't decided for sure when we are leaving, but probably August or September. There will be many more blog updates to come in the next few months with a lot more information and prayer requests!

We are praising God for the direction and guidance He has given us. Please pray that God would give us wisdom in all the decisions and planning that lays ahead.

"Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised" Psalm 962-4

Videos!!

Posting videos has been on my to do list for a long time.....finally, today, I was able to get a few up. I love seeing videos on other blogs, and I want others to be able to enjoy ours too.

Thank you to all those who have been praying for us in regard to what steps God would have us take after residency. We are thankful for the direction the Lord is providing for us and will hopefully be able to share more specific details soon.



Below is a video from our recent trip to Breaks Interstate Park in VA. It is on the VA/KY stateline. It was a blessed trip. We had beautiful accommodations and a great time with good friends.

Oh, and I took Layna for her 9 month appt on Wed and she weighed 16.2 lbs, (15%) and 27 and 1/2 inches long (50%). We praise God for two healthy girls! Layna is pulling up on everything, but not walking yet.

Yay for Fall!

Yes, Layna is pulling up on stuff and acting like she wants to walk!! We are making guesses on when she will take off....maybe by 10 months, we will see....

In the last couple of days she has actually started walking behind this toy! Watch out world, here she comes.

And these are just some fun pics I took today of my cutie pie. Can you tell she is teething? No teeth yet, but she is definitely working on them! And I realize that she always has a mop head of hair unless I take the effort to try to tame it :) which I didn't here....it grows two ways and is kinda curly which leaves her always looking like she has bedhead :)

I couldn't get any real smiles....she was too busy trying to find something to put in her mouth! Gotta love the upside down paci look :) She has been doing this lately.

And lastly I caught a shot of her blowing with her lips.....love this little girl. I am enjoying her more and more. I am so thankful for these two precious gifts the Lord has given us. Oh, and she has started saying "Ma Ma" in the last few days. Gotta love that!
She loves it when Braelyn tickles her and is happy to play by herself sometimes too. She LOVES being outside. If she is fussy I just take her outside and usually that solves whatever is bothering her. She is clapping her hands a lot now. I need to post some videos on here of that.

Please continue to pray for us as we pray and seek the Lord's direction for us in the next steps we take after residency. We are excited to see where He will lead us next.

End of September fun pics

Braelyn trying on her new Belle dress up outfit that Nana & Granddaddy got her for her birthday. She loves playing dress up right now.

Taking her new bike and new elbow/knee pads out for their first spin......

She did good. We have a nice flat area behind our backyard that she can ride in.

These are just some funny pictures of my two sweet girls! Braelyn was wanting to hold Layna and Layna was happy so I just kept taking pictures.

A little too much loving??

HELP!! and that is when I put the camera down and rescued Layna from her big sister's hugs!

Here we have Braelyn taking down all the toys off the shelf and being so kind and sweet that she wanted to give them ALL to Layna. Layna was overcome with toys and once again had to be rescued. :) Actually, she was enjoying every minute of it. So that is it for September. Hope you enjoyed!