Cuteness

Children, particularily our children, never cease to amaze me. They provide us with abundant laughter, humor, "character development opportunities," and enduring memories. Some things are terribly important in a child's life, like showing daddy the amazing frog they caught, even though daddy is in the middle of plumbing the bathroom.

They delight us with their enthusiasm for watermelon and chocolate chip cookies.

They grace us with beautiful smiles, and bestow on us slobbery kisses.

Our children give us continual joy in the midst of difficult circumstances.



Truly, I am having a hard time believing that grandchildren are going to be better. :-)

We just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. We bought ourselves an anniversary gift that now graces our dining room wall. It reads: "Live so that when your children hear these words they think of you...fairness, caring, integrity, honesty, love, trust." Don't ya just love that? We have so much to be thankful for! Top of the list is our family, they are an imense blessing.

All this because two people fell in love.

The Faithful Provision

We have been working on building the interior walls, wiring the first floor, installing the kitchen cabinets and countertop, and plumbing. Most of the first floor is finished. We had to go to town for supplies, so we stopped by Habitat, and lo and behold, there was a like new tub/shower unit perfect for the children's bathroom. Not only that, but also a large shower unit perfect for the master bathroom. Add two toilets for $10 e and we were fully outfitted for our bathrooms at a 70% savings! To top that all off, a good friend with a two ton flat bed was also in town and he drove over and picked up our goods for us!

Well, our building fund was nearly dry, and we were praying," God, this is your house and your project, please supply the funds to be able to keep work progressing." Saturday, a man walked up to Brian and stuffed a check in Brian's pocket and walked away. Thanks so much D.D you are such a blessing to us!

Meanwhile, Rose and Julianne tackled refinishing a yard sale table for porch dining. Brian and Julianne made some benches from scrap lumber, and all were stained and then enjoyed with a romantic dinner on the porch.

Father of Lights

One advantage of taking several years to build your home is the ability to bargain shop.

Every time we are in town, we stop by Habitat for Humanity. We have found all but one of our light fixtures this way, and haven't paid more than $15 for any fixture. Most were under $7. Basically, if we liked the form we bought it, and to keep a consistency in style, we spray painted everything black. Missing globes have also been discovered via thrift shopping, usually $1 each verses $6-$10 e. retail. The most amazing thing is, that of our porch lights. Now I always pray on my way to town, asking that the Almighty God and Father provide our needs in an affordable way. About 3 yrs. ago we found these porch lights for $10.

I knew that we would need a third light for next to the door, but we had plenty of time to find it. Low and behold, a few months ago we were at Habitat for Humanity and look what was there:

A matching porch light! I contribute this small miracle to the Heavenly Father who knows and cares about the details of our lives. Now isn't that cool!

Time To Get To Work… Again!!!

With the possibility that it may stop snowing soon (Oh Lord… please?), we are gearing up for work at the lodge this week. By the grace of God everything but our storage tent made it through the 4 feet of snow that we had at the lodge. The solar panels have kept the batteries that made through last winter in tip top shape. Hopefully by end of the week we will have the electrical service in to the house from the generator/battery shed. It will be nice to get rid of the long heavy extension cords we've been using for three years. We should also have one functional toilet by the end of the week. A real plus with a family of ten and often times some friends out working!! Yes… it's time to get to work at Providence Lodge again!

"Lord, thank you for your faithfulness to us. Thank you for providing exactly what we need, when we need it, to build this, Your home. May this home be a beacon of hope to many and a refuge to those who need it! May Your name be extolled. Amen!"

walking in winter

Life with Gabe

Gabe is already two months old! My how the time does fly. We have been completely caught up in spoiling Gabe. Everyone does their best. He gets well over 100 kisses a day, mostly from his two year old sister, but the rest of us contribute as well. Babies are such a blessing and so wonderfully sweet! Our home will be amiss when we do not have a baby present. It is such a peaceful, joyfull feeling to have a baby all snuggled up to you, or staring straight into your eyes, or smiling and gooing at you as you speak to him. It is amazing how God has made such a little bundle so small and precious, who desires to interact with you and know you. I concur with Marilla, who said, "Every baby is the sweetest and the best!"

Blessing Number Eight Arrives – 11:36pm, December 28, 2008

Mama and baby are doing very well!!! Thank you for your prayers. Gabriel (Man of God) Leander (Lion Man) Primer (First Reader of the Sacred Scripture at Mass) seems to be a very mellow and laid back lad. He weighs every bit of 9lbs 2oz (according to Julianne ) and is 20 inches long (short and stocky… just like his uncles ). Both he and his mama are looking forward to a long winters nap. Daddy is very pleased and thankful to his Faithful Heavenly Father for another blessed world changer. "Lord, may you grant me the strength and wisdom to lead him, by word and by deed, to the foot of your cross."

I want to thank you all for your prayers. I also want to convey my deepest gratitude to our loving, caring and extremely experienced midwife, Terry Rogers, for her calm and sweet disposition and her deep love for us and for Christ. Also, for our dear sweet friend and sister in Christ, Tracy Berard, who served and served and served us throughout the whole labor, so graciously. We thank God for such wonderful gifts.

We have given him the name Gabriel… to honor the day the angel came to Mary. Our celebration of Christmas is so meaningful to us. This year especially the celebration of the gift of a child has been precious. Gabriel means "Man of God". We pray that Gabe will follow hard after his great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Leander (Lion Man) in honor of our dear friend, father, brother… Dr. Leander Eckard. May Gabe have the sensitive, evangelistic, stubborn-headed drive of his namesake!! We miss you Doc! Did I mention, Gabe is short, stocky, barrel-chested, has two or three chins, and wrinkles on the back of his neck?  It was easy to name him Leander.

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Brian

The Blessings of a Faithful God

As our building fund decreased to nearly nothing, and our fall ministry and activities increased, we began to think perhaps we were going to spend another winter without making any progress on the lodge. But, we are so close to being able to finish! As we prayed about the situation and patiently waited for something, we both became content with letting the progress go in God's timing, not our own. This is something that we have had to do over and over and over since we started.
Well, recently a dear soul called and said they had a check for us, could we stop by. Not only was it enough to make the few final necessities, like sheet rock on the bathroom walls, countertop in the kitchen, and some wiring and septic fixtures, but it looks as though we will be able to purchase a cistern, pump, and all we need to have RUNNING WATER.
Brian has been making calls about what pump to use on our 600 foot well with our solar power system. Then we took a trip to town to look at poly cisterns and see what all that entails. The pump has been ordered and arrived a few days ago, and the pump guy is scheduled to come out next week.
So, as we look forward to celebrating Christmas this week, we have more than a few things to be thankful for. We are still amazed that we are able to build this big, wonderful house, without a bank mortgage, on our modest income and growing family. It is nothing short of a miracle really, which is the whole reason we named our home Providence Lodge.
As the snow has been falling, we imagine how cozy and romantic it will be to observe the winter stillness from within the rustic walls, a cup of our favorite tea ("Preacher's Passion"**) in hand, and little munchkins snuggled in all around us, but alas, we will be happily content with our little parsonage until that momentous day arrives. As with waiting for a baby to be born, it is always NOT my timing, but as God wills, and what a wonderful lesson to learn to sit it out with a rejoicing heart.


May you be encouraged as you read this, of what a great, good, loving God we serve, and be thankful for all the good things He blesses you with each and every day. Merry Christmas!





** Preacher's Passion tea: 1 part of each of the following: chamomile, oat straw, passion flower, peppermint. Each herb calms a specific system within your body, making for a very relaxing, de-stressing drink, and it tastes really good. We encourage our children to drink LOTS of it. ;-)


We got the recipe from THE BULK HERB CO, where we also guy the herbs to make it, 1/2 lb. of each makes a huge batch that lasts (even us) for months.

Beginning the Interior Walls

Our next project is building the bathroom walls and running the plumbing lines. We have one wet wall downstairs, with another directly above on the second floor, allowing our lines to pass through the floors as easily as possible. There will be two bathroom on the second floor with the one wall accessing both. This was a fairly trickly part of our floor plan, as we needed to make sure we would not run into a floor joist, or have drains hanging down into the living areas. We have been pleased with how quickly the walls went up, and hope to be hooked up to the septic lines and drywalling soon.

Just for fun, here are some too-good-not-to-share pics our budding photographer daughters took.