Goodbye, Michigan

Nearly eight months after we first arrived in Michigan, the time has come to say goodbye. When we first arrived, on Thanksgiving day last November, we had no idea how long we would be staying. Our lives were in flux; so much depended on when we would find an overseeing church. As the weeks stretched into months, sometimes the wait seemed interminable. Now, looking back, eight months really doesn't seem that long at all, and in many ways, it has just flown by. We are headed now to Nashville to be with our supporting church for a few months before we go off to Portugal for some intensive language study.

So, thank you, Michigan, for allowing us to be residents of your fine state for the past few months. We have enjoyed your winter snows, your gorgeous spring days, and we are loving your mild summer weather. We think your DMV should give lessons on efficiency to the other 49 states in the union. And we now think we finally understand the "Michigan left."

Thank you to all the churches in the Detroit area who invited us to come and do our Angola presentation. A special thank you to all those who contributed to our one-time expense fund. We know that the ecomony is especially dismal in Michigan these days, and so we are touched by your generosity, even as many of you face hard times.

Thank you to our Livonia church family, for welcoming us to your midst with open arms. Thank you for praying for us and encouraging us and inviting us to your home groups and being interested in our dreams for Angola. Thank you for allowing us to participate in as many church activities as our time and travel schedule allowed. A special thank you to all of Alex' amazing teachers -- he loved to go to Bible Class! And to Beth and Shannon for all the playdates -- it meant so much to Alex to have some social interaction. To those of you who have recently expressed a desire to be regular monthly contributors to our work -- thank you! Each pledge takes us closer to our goal and closer to Angola.

Thank you to "Dr. Kelly" and her staff for taking such good care of me during my pregnancy. Thank you for your willingness to accommodate my wishes for a natural birth and for assuaging my fears that my second labor would last as long as my first! Thank you for knowing when to tell me to rest and take it easy. I am only sorry that you weren't the one to deliver Stephen since everything happened so fast! Thank you to the nurses and the staff at the Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield for an incredible natural hospital birth. (I wish I could have all my future children at this luxurious hospital.)

Finally, to my parents... there really are no words to express our gratefulness for all the ways you have blessed our lives these past months. Thank you for allowing us to call your home our home for an indefinite length of time. It has been such a place of peace for us, a true haven while everything else in life has been in limbo. Thank you for continuing to allow us to use your basement as a second storage unit for the next several weeks. Thank you for putting up with our messes, with a pregnant woman, with a new baby, and with a (sometimes) cranky and defiant 3-year old. Thank you for all the delicious food and good conversations. Thank you for the free baby-sitting while Rusty and I went to our Bradley classes or just enjoyed a night out. Thank you for all the trips to Greenfield Village and the zoo, and for all the special memories you made with Alex. Thank you for sharing in several special events for our family over the past few months -- birthdays, our 10th anniversary, Rusty's HUGSR graduation. Thank you, most of all, for your prayers and encouragement as we waited on God's timing.

I can think of no place I would rather have been for the past eight months, than right where God put us -- in Livonia, MI. Although I am eager to move on, to be one step closer to permanency, I will always treasure the memories of these past months, and the extended time we were able to spend with my parents.

Torch Lake

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of our family vacation to Torch Lake. Sadly, I don't have as many pictures as I should, because, after we had been there for over a week, Rusty accidentally reformatted the card in the digital camera. (And just in case you didn't know, when you do that, you permanently erase all data on the card.) So the pictures below were taken in our last three days there, as we tried to think of and recreate all the photo ops.

Aside from the camera catastrophe, we really had a wonderful time at the lake. We are so thankful to our friends Bob and Teri for allowing us to spend almost two weeks at their little lakeside cabin. It was a time of rest and relaxation, reconnecting and refocusing. The weather was mostly cool, but we had a few gorgeous days of warm sunshine toward the end of our stay. Rusty and Alex went fishing and kayaking several times. They tried to go swimming once, but the water was still pretty cold, so Alex didn't even last five minutes before he was ready to get out. After that, he was content to just sit on the beach and throw rocks in the water or dangle his feet off the end of the dock. We had a fire in the firepit two different nights and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores while enjoying the stunning sunsets.

We had some rainy, windy days too. On those days, we stayed indoors and played games, read, watched movies, or scrapbooked. We taught Alex how to play Uno Jr., Yahtzee Jr., and Candyland. He is really enjoying games right now, and (so far) is a very good sport, not seeming to care whether he wins or loses. Rusty and I watched the entire first season of "24" in the time we were there, and we both made good progress on our scrapbooks. Rusty and Alex slept up in the loft two different nights, which Alex thought was great fun. (I'm not sure Rusty slept that well, though!) We had lots of yummy food, including some of our favorite ethnic dishes (Thai curry, Japanese curry, okunomiyaki, and temakizushi). Alex helped me make pizza one night, and we made chocolate chip cookies for Daddy. I tried a new recipe for cinnamon rolls which was awesome!

We also went on a couple of "outings." One day, we drove up to the town of Charlevoix and found a nice beach with a playground where we had a picnic lunch. Another day, we went into Central Lake for an antique car show. But mostly, we just stayed around the cabin and enjoyed being together and God's beautiful creation. It was exactly what we needed before facing the next several months, which promise to be very very busy!

Our little fisherman with his catch

Napping

Sweet Stephen

A beautiful sunset

Snuggly baby

Giraffe tongue!

Just kickin' it

Row, row, row your boat...

Aunt Julie's Visit

Aunt Julie and the cousins stayed on for a visit after Uncle Matt's graduation. We drove up to Detroit from Abilene, dropping Rusty off in Dallas along the way for his conference. The drive took us three days, and with five kiddos, a nursing baby and a potty-trainer among them, and me being sick with some sort of stomach bug, let's just say we were all very glad to finally get to Livonia. Julie and I did enjoy some good conversations in the car on the way up, though!

We had a great time and really enjoyed their visit, although it did get loud and crazy on occasion! Major highlights included a trip to Greenfield Village, and a day at the zoo. The kids also enjoyed playing outside, swimming, and watching TV together. Alex loved having his cousins around to play with, and was very sad to see them go.

Enjoy the slide show of our time together!

A Day Out with Thomas

One of the things I am especially grateful for during this time of transition in our lives is all of the time Alex is getting to spend with his grandparents. I realize that once we are living overseas again, our times with them will be few and far between. I am glad that Alex has had several months to make special memories with his Nyanya and Babu, and also that he is old enough that he will remember them later on.

On the last Saturday in April, Nyanya and Babu took Alex on the ultimate "grandkid date" (at least in this 3-year old's mind). They bought tickets to "A Day Out with Thomas" at Greenfield Village. The highlight of the day was, of course, getting to ride Thomas, but there were also train tables and trains for the kids to play with, motorized cars to drive, and other activity centers and photo ops. Alex had a great time, and he still talks about it almost a month later.

Alex with his grandparents

Here comes Thomas!

Driving lessons

More Snow Pics

You'll have to forgive all the pictures of us frolicking in the snow. Not being native Michiganders, it is still a bit of a novelty for us... although I have to admit that the warmer temperatures earlier this week were a nice break. More snow is forecast for tomorrow, though!

These pictures were taken last month after a Really Big Snowfall!

Alex really wanted to "plow" the snow with his dump truck!

Trying to catch snowflakes on our tongues

Making a snow angel

This picture gives you an idea of how deep the snow was.

I'm ready to go in and have my hot chocolate now!

Fun in the Snow

My humblest apologies to all our loyal blog readers for not updating in over a month. I have several posts in the works, so check back over the next few days for some Campbell family news and goings-on.

For the first time in my life, I am living in a place that gets lots of snow in the winter. So far, it has been fun, although since we have all been battling the sickies, we have not been able to get out and enjoy playing in it as much as we would like. These pictures were taken in December -- in the weeks leading up to Christmas, we got a lot of snow. So, we had a white Christmas this year, which was fun. (As I type this, Michigan is in the middle of an arctic freeze -- we had several more inches of snow earlier in the week, and now the temps are in the single and negative digits. Brrrr!)

Teaching Alex how to make a snowball -- or trying, anyway. All of the snow we have had so far has been dry and powdery, so snowballs and snowmen have been hard to make.

Alex and Uncle Matt

Fall Fun

This is my catch-all fall post. We have enjoyed a lot of fun fall activities over the last few weeks, including HUGSR's annual Fall Fest, Highland's Trunk-or-Treat, a trip out to Priddy Farms, and Halloween. And I have fallen a bit behind on blogging what with all the other things we have going on -- like team meetings, packing, and getting ready for our move to Michigan at the end of the month.

This year, for the first time, Alex was old enough to really participate in Halloween and trick-or-treating. He and Mackenzie were quite the pair in their Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber costumes:

Hi, Bob! Hi, Larry!

So cute.

We enjoyed participating in the Highland church's Trunk or Treat this year:

The parade of costumes

"Trick-or-treat!"

One Saturday in October, we took a family outing to Priddy Farms. It was such a neat place. They had all sorts of toys and play equipment for the kids, a hayride, a pumpkin patch, and a really neat "choo-choo wagon" made out of old barrels. Alex loved it, and he cried when it was time to leave. Unfortunately, we left our nice digital camera at home, so these pictures were taken with our camcorder, and they are not the greatest.

The hayride out to the pumpkin patch

Alex in the "choo-choo wagon"

We carved our jack-o-lantern two days before Halloween this year. Alex picked out the design, but that was the only real hand he had in the process. I wanted him to help me scoop out the pumpkin guts, but he didn't want to get his hands messy. Go figure! He thought it looked really cool with the candle inside, though. We don't have any pictures of the actual carving process, because Rusty was at work, and I wasn't about to attempt to take pictures and carve a pumpkin at the same time. But here is the finished product:

Happy Halloween!

On Halloween night, we went to a Fall Carnival at the Methodist church where Alex attends Parents' Day Out. We invited the Gearsons to come with us and had a really great time. There were lots of games for the kids to play, a moon bounce, a mini trunk-or-treat, and free food. Alex and Mackenzie had a great time, but I was officially "Halloweened" out after this event, and glad that we weren't going to be bringing home anymore candy!

Playing ring toss

Alex and Mackenzie were both fascinated by this monster doll that danced and sang when you got up close to it.

Catching Up (Part 2)

Our friends the Gearson's have a family membership to the Children's Museum of Memphis, a truly amazing place. They have taken Alex with them a couple of times this summer, and Rusty and I even got to tag along once! We had so much fun -- there is so much to see and do! An added bonus -- it's a great way to escape the summer heat and humidity.

Curious George putt-putt

Riding a police motorcycle

In the cock-pit of the Fed-Ex plane

Fireman Alex

This was one of his favorite things -- a pretend river with plastic boats and fish magnets that you could "fish" for. He would have played here all day!

In July, Alex got to go to Esther's birthday party at the Little Gym. He had so much fun climbing, running, jumping, bouncing, playing games with the other kids, and of course, eating cake and ice-cream!

Playing with a parachute

He absolutely loved bouncing on this thing!

"Wookit me, Mommy!"

Sugar rush!

And finally, just because I think they are cute, here are some pictures of Alex in one of Rusty's old T-shirts. KPRB is the name of the radio station Rusty's dad worked for when Rusty was Alex's age.

Catching Up (Part 1)

Well, after the frenzy of posts (35!) last month, you may be wondering if we have fallen off the face of the earth. Rest assured, we are still here; we have just been really busy. It feels like we have been on the go all summer. Probably because, well, we have! So, bear with me as I try to catch you up on all our (non-survey trip related) goings-on. Lots of pics to follow!

This first set of pics is from July 4th, which we spent in Thyatira, Mississippi with our friends Jeff and Angie. We had a barbeque and swam in the pool. Pretty low-key, but we enjoyed our visit with them.

Alex and Jesse had a great time swimming in the pool together!

Taking a break with Daddy

Alex and Mackenzie were so happy to be reunited after five whole weeks apart! Mackenzie didn't hardly want to let Alex out of her sight the first few days. I think she thought we might whisk him off to the other side of the world again while her back was turned!

Two all-American kiddos!

Bath-time fun

I love this picture!

Life at Harding Grad is super exciting!

Park Avenue (our church) hosted a community ice-cream social with a petting zoo for the kiddos. We invited the Gearsons to come with us, and everyone had a great time.

Petting the goat with Mackenzie

Feeding the sheep (I think it's a sheep!) Instead of taking a handfull of the pellets, he kept trying to shove the whole bucket in their faces!

Alex and Mommy

The next week, we went to Chuck E Cheese with the Gearsons. It was Alex's first time to go. He was a little bit overwhelmed at first, but he had a great time. He keeps asking when we can go again! Unfortunately, not anytime soon, since it was rather an expensive outing!

A game of air hockey

I love the look of intense concentration (on both their faces!)

Posing for a picture with Chuck himself

He was so excited when he realized he got to turn in his tickets at the end of the night and get a prize -- a new Hot Wheels car!

Special thanks to Laurel for letting me bum a bunch of the above pictures from her Facebook albums!