Hello All! Sorry it has been awhile since my last post. I have been busy with getting back into the swing of life after my "mommy's weekend" in Missouri. It was great to see the friends we love there. What a blessing for me to share time and fellowship with them all.

But, now I am back and life for Kelly and the kids went great while I was away. They rode bikes almost every day I was absent. The big development is Faith is riding her little bike as well. Kelly thinks on Saturday they rode about four miles total. That is alot for me let alone on the little legs Grace and Faith have. Yesterday and today we have had much fun outside in our backyard. Last night we got banana slurpees and played outside for a long time. In the pictures you will see Grace pushing Luke on the swing. She is a big helper to me! Faith and Grace both have started swinging down our backyard hill on the trapeze swing from our swing set. Kelly has hooked it up to a large white pine where we previously had a baby swing. Now they get quite the upper body workout and commonly jump off while in mid air. We are glad the daffodils are out and the tulips are not far behind. The beach is calling and we can't wait : ) Love, Crystal

Hello All! Well I am excited to post these pictures today. The reasoning behind my excitement is twofold. First, it may get warm here this weekend, so we went out to Meijer and bought summer shoes and shades. I had to take pictures of my cuties. As is to be expected Grace choose shoes with blue (her favorite color) and pink, Faith choose shoes colored green (her favorite color) and magenta, and Luke choose navy blue because Daddy has some just like his. So now they are ready to slip on sandals and shades and hit the beach. Yes, I am aware it may be a little while of yet. I feel optimism is always a good thing. So we look forward to the sunny beach days, but for now we wear our new duds in the house : )

The second reason I am excited to post these pictures is these pictures were taken on our new camera. We have been working with two Kodak cameras for the past months that were critically injured. One I dropped on the sled hill and it never quite recovered. The other camera ran down new batteries after maybe 5 pictures. So you had to really be quite discerning when choosing to snap a picture. So as of today we have a new camera and it works great!!! I will be traveling with it to Bolivar when I leave tomorrow morning. Please pray for Kelly as he sacrifices himself for my happiness and sanity. I love my husband and his self sacrificial heart!!! I am encouraged that it should be warm in the Great White North. If nothing else the kids will look good, eh? Love, Crystal

Hello All! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. This week was a busy one and frankly Mommy was just plain tired out. So it is with much anticipation and excitement I write about my "Mommy's getaway" to Bolivar, Missouri. Some of you may be asking, Bolivar what is in Bolivar. Well I am glad you asked. Kelly and I lived in Bolivar for the first five years of our married life. It holds many treasured memories for us both and our girls. It will always be a place that holds a piece of heart. We loved it there truly, it is a fun time for us to reflect on. But, the people is what made Bolivar special. In life I believe it always comes back to relationships. My closest friend in Missouri, Jacki, is so special to me. I had prayed once we left that our friendship would always remain strong as it was so hard to leave such good friends. Jacki and I have talked almost every week since we left Missouri. We make special times to chat and catch up. She has been a true friend to me and I am so excited to see her. We will have lots of time to talk and giggle, which is essential for girlfriends.

I am also excited to see the places we lived. Our old stomping grounds. What has become of them? The homes we brought Grace and Faith home from the hospital to. They are forever frozen in my mind. I know all to well though that time marches on. Nothing stays the same as it was. Except for God he is the same yesterday, today and forever, what a comforting thought. It will be fun to walk down memory lane, I hopefully will have a shake at Sonic drive-in, Frozen Custard at 3-G's and maybe some pie from Norma's Pie and Coffee Shop. Whatever I find in our old home town it will be fun to see the people that we love and pray for. It is hard to be separated from them at times. We do see so clearly now that our time in Bolivar had come to end. West Michigan is our home now. At least for now. Maybe someday we will live internationally, finally achieving our dream of Medical Mission work. For now we enjoy West Michigan and the friendships that we will carry with us to our next home. God has been good to us. We have friends who know and love him. We are confident we will spend eternity with them. No more separation. What a joy to think of that day!! Until then I get to go back "home" to Bolivar and enjoy some slow relaxing days with good friends. Thanks be to God and Kelly, of course!!! Please pray for him as he will be with the kiddos from Thursday to Sunday : ) My husband is a gift from God and I thank him for letting me take a little time away. If I could bring him back Frozen Custard I would as it was his favorite. Unfortunately I think it would be a liquid by the time it hit the plane. So if I were to carry it on I would get busted for bringing on a liquid greater than 3 oz. Sorry, Kelly! Maybe I will just eat extra for him : ) Love, Crystal

Hello All! I wanted to post some pictures of Easter Day. The kids hunted for their Easter Baskets before church. They loved finding them and of course the candy : ) We took the family picture before church as well. It turned out quite well and it only took 15 tries.

I also wanted to include pictures taken at the Meijer Gardens butterfly exhibit on Monday. Grace's preschool class took a field trip to the Meijer Gardens. It was fun and the kids loved the butterflies. I went along with Faith and Luke as well. The Meijer Gardens has a neat outdoor children's garden and play area. We did make it outside, but everyone had hats and coats on as it was so cold. Not really a perfect day for a stroll through the garden. We moved quick through the garden, but it was fun all the same. I even had a chance to take a picture of a clearwing butterfly. See if you can spot it as it is nearly totally see through. Have a good night!!!! Love, Crystal

Hello All! Well today was a good day, but a weird day all the same. First, we went in for fingerprinting appointment courtesy of USCIS (the kinder, gentler version of INS). This is the last step as far as our pre-approval for the babies Visa. Now they will send us a form I-171H. That form shows the Consulate in Monrovia, Liberia we are pursuing an adoption and we have jumped through the correct hoops stateside to add another child to our family. So this is now the second time the Feds have fingerprinted me. It went well, we got there before our appointed time. We had just finished the paperwork they had given us to fill out and our number was called. We are glad to have that done though, I will let you know when we have our I-171H.

When we arrived home this afternoon we had fun painting Easter eggs. Luke was napping, so he didn't participate this year. The girls loved it. It was quite surreal painting eggs for Easter with three inches of snow outside. It has been snowing and blowing since yesterday. We keep teasing the kids by saying "Merry Christmas" or " Are we celebrating Christmas this weekend?" It has been on the weather locally that we will be colder and have more snow than we received on this past Christmas. That is pretty interesting : ) I have talked to my friend HollyAnn in West Texas and they are even cold and snow covered. Glad to know some others share in the frosty Easter. Easter Egg hunts and many spring sports practices were all canceled. I am sure glad the girls have warm sweaters to wear over their cute little Easter dresses tomorrow!

I wanted to include these pictures of Luke my little birdwatcher. He is looking out his binoculars through our sliding glass door into our backyard. He does this commonly and says "Birdie Mommy". It is precious because I don't really think he even can see through the eye pieces. He just holds them up to his eyes. He must think, "How does mommy see through these things." Enjoy! Have a very Happy Easter! He is Risen----He is Risen Indeed!!!!!!!!!! Love, Crystal

Hello All! I have lived in Michigan all but five years of my whole life. I am aware of what a Michigan spring entails. Usually a cold and rainy Easter celebration is the order of the day. But, uh-oh I think we are going toward Christmas, not Easter. My Daffodils and Grape Hyacinth have probably not survived this blast from the Arctic. I have posted our current temperatures currently. In yellow is the temperature with the wind chill factored in, YIKES! I am sure My Spring birds are hiding somewhere warm. They think they took a wrong turn and ended up in Alaska. Needless to say the big Easter egg hunt I had planned will most likely be inside. Maybe not, there is something so cute about kids hunting eggs in snowsuits : )

We headed to the children's museum today. It was the perfect indoor activity for today. The kids played and laughed until the museum became so packed you couldn't see a foot in front of you. I guess on such a cold day we were not the only family with the same idea. It was great fun all the same. Last evening two main state highways in Grand Rapids were shut down because of the white out conditions and the number of rollover crashes. The State Police responded as quickly as they could, but some motorists were stranded for hours. This shows how many crashes there were last evening. Scary!! This sure makes me want to make Hot Cocoa and a fire tonight. Is it really Spring? Love, Crystal

Hello All! I love spring for many reasons. The weather is warming up. The flowers are peaking through the cold rain soaked ground. Most importantly birds migrate through my backyard. I love birds and birdwatching. I am not the type to have a bird in a cage in my home. Watching wild birds in God's big, bright, beautiful world is a thrill for me. Today I had two fun sightings. The Brown Creeper is the first picture I posted. I can see this bird better after a rain. They are hard to spot as the "creep" up a tree gleaning for insects to eat. They are so well camouflaged in our backyard trees. But, when it rains colors change ever so slightly. The Brown Creeper does not blend as well into my rain soaked forest in the backyard. So I was able to watch my friend the creeper creep for 15 minutes as I prepared breakfast. He would go about half way up each tree than fly to the bottom of a neighboring tree and start his ascent anew. It is amazing to me how God has designed and protected him so well.

The next bird I have enjoyed watching of late is the Song Sparrow. I have one who has been visiting my birdbath and the ground around my bird feeders for about three days. My mother taught me how to identify this bird by it's song. So it is fun to listen for it. I hope he or she will breed in my yard : ) So as you can tell I love this time of year. I wake up each day with my binoculars in hand, make the coffee and watch for a new feathered friend. God Bless you all- Crystal