Farms

I am really interested in Community Supported Agriculture, or CSAs, and the opportunity to actually know where your food comes from! Plus through CSAs you are supporting local farmers and helping the environment by buying food locally. I think food security will continue to become an increasingly important thing to tackle in our society as food prices continue to rise ( I paid almost 5 bucks for milk the other day!) and hopefully I will be able to get more involved with Nashville Urban Harvest in the spring.

I was watching an old Martha Stewart episode today and she had this cute little family of farmers on from up north. They have a farm rental house that you can stay in and also learn to work the farm while you stay. I know this probably isn't most people's ideal vacation, but I think it would be a really neat experience! Summer vacation anyone? lol

Here is the link if your interested...and if not look to see if there is a CSA in your community:
Tide Mill Organic Farm

Holiday Decorating!

With funds somewhat low this year, we decided on a Christmas tree fund limit ($20 big ones) and threw caution to the wind!!! As we arrived at Home Depot we were pleasantly surprised to find elf-size trees. After contemplating over the huge selection under $20 (all of 2) we went with the cutest little tree you could imagine:


(Warning tree looks bigger than it actually is due to a. the tall stand and b. I'm only 5ft tall-same height as the tree)
Here's to a MINI Christmas!




Setting up the tree!

Worst Week Ever!

This has pretty much been the worst week EVER! All I'm going to say is tons of papers, car accidents, and a MOUSE!!! More to come later.... In case you are having a horrible week too here is a funny holiday cartoon :)

2nd year Anniversary

Love Cornbread

Today we are celebrating our 2nd year anniversary! We cannot imagine life without one another and are truly blessed to be together. We are celebrating on Saturday with shopping, a nice dinner, and going to see live music! Today was just too crazy to try to fit all that in. Two years has gone by so fast and we have learned even more about the hard work marriage takes. Here's to another 100 years!



At Eastland Cafe (yummy) for our Anniversary dinner!

Pictures!

Here are a few pictures, as promised in the previous post, from Trish's surprise party and our Halloween Extravaganza!


Hanging out before Trish gets there


The birthday girl has arrived! Surprise!


Trish and Brian (love them!)

Halloween Party:

The Corpse Bride and her Groom
(not the best pic., but the only one we have so far!)

yummy cupcakes

most of our neighbors + The Adams from Atlanta

The Priest trying to excercise the demon from J?!

First Nashville party was a success!

President Obama!!!

We could not be more proud to be Americans than tonight when we elected the first African-American president in the USA!!!!
This was a long hard-fought election, but in the end the American people spoke and Obama came out as the winner. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum you have to be proud that America has over come some (not all) of their racial prejudices that have held this country back for so long.

We have always been blessed to live in America and tonight we could not be more happy to be a part of the amazing historical moment! President Elect Barack Obama! He sure does have a long road ahead of him, but we believe he will be the best President for our country through these tumultuous times.

Here's to history and Obama as United States President Elect!!! Yippee!

Surprise/Halloween

Hello! This last week was super busy so sorry for the lack of posts! We left our camera in Atlanta when we visited last weekend so I will post pictures when we get it back : (

Last weekend was a blast. We somewhat "surprised" Trish for her big 3-0 birthday, but we're pretty sure she knew the party was coming! Her husband, Brian, had been planning this thing for months and he did such a great job. What a sweet guy. When she walked in she had this look on her face like "I totally knew this was coming." I think some people at her work may have let the cat out of the bag. Needless to say a party is a party and we had a blast. We love them so much and were so happy we got to be there! (pictures coming soon)

We threw an awesome Halloween party last night and we spent all day today recovering :) Some of our best friends, Paulyna and Chris, drove up from Atlanta to be here. We have had a "Fall day" tradition for the last 4 years so it was great they were able to come up. We miss them like crazy! Jeremy and I were the couple from Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride". I think we rocked the dead look and I'm not complaining about my husband trying to imitate Johnny Depp (even if he was just a cartoon in this movie)! We had plenty of food, drinks, cornhole, flip-cup, and s'more making. Such a fun time with a few old friends and lots of new ones! My favorite moment of the night was when a few of our neighbors were handing out candy to the kids on our front porch and I walked out in costume. The kids FREAKED out! I totally scared them and I felt awful. I was like "so sorry" and ran back inside! I probably scarred those poor kiddos for life. Anyways, we had a blast and I think everyone else had a pretty spooktacular time too (hehe couldn't resist)!
(pictures coming soon)

On a sad note, yesterday was 13 years since my mom passed away and it never gets any easier! I think you just learn to kind of hold your sadness in better or something. I miss her more and more the older I get because I realize how much you still need your parents, even if you are a grownup. I know she is shining down on my sisters and I in heaven because she was the most amazing woman I've ever known and she loved God with all her heart. I only hope to impact people's lives the way she did. I love you Mom!!!

Pumpkins!

*They were HUGE*

I break for pumpkins!

We went to the Nashville Farmer's market yesterday for the Fall Festival and it was so fun! I couldn't help myself with all the pumpkins they had : ). There are some pretty crazy things you can buy at the Farmer's Market....pretty crazy. We stuck with the normal things like tomatoes, basil, chow chow, and apples! I made a lasagna today with the tomatoes and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Let me know if you want the recipe and I can email it to you.


*Enjoying the fall weather*

VU is on fall break next week so we are just relaxing and trying to catch up on some house work. We have lots to do for our upcoming Halloween party. I cannot wait! We already have our costumes and everything. Also, our friends Paulyna and Chris are coming up for it! Yippee I'm super excited.

Last night we saw the new Leonardo Dicaprio movie "Body of Lies." It is a CIA action type of film and we thought it was pretty good. I'm not sure if I would pay to see it again, but Leo isn't too bad too look at for two hours!

Oh....I almost forgot. We took the boys to the dogpark today because it was so beautiful outside. Jeremy was sitting on the sidewalk petting another dog and Ernie walked up behind him and peed all over his back! I was mortified, but started laughing at the same time. What dog does this? Apparently ours! He has never done this before so I have no explanation. Luckily, Jeremy thought it was pretty funny too.

Last, but not least, our friends Kevin and Lindsey got engaged last weekend! They have been dating since we all were in high school together, so we were very excited for them. It's about time! We can't wait to celebrate!

We hope you have a relaxing weekend as well. Get outside and enjoy this beautiful fall weather!

Go Falcons!

Falcons beat THE Bears this past Sunday...yippeee! Unfortunately, they don't usually show the Falcons' games here so we weren't able to watch it-but we are still pretty pumped that despite all the critics they are doing pretty great so far this season. Hopefully, we will be able to find a place that shows their games so we can get our football fix!
One big reason for the win is this guy: Mr. Matt Ryan



That's for you Bri ;)

GOOOOOOOOOO FALCONS!!!!

service

This past weekend we had the opportunity to volunteer with Hands on Nashville at Cohn Adult high school. PGSA, an organization I'm involved with through Vanderbilt, sent volunteers and it was such a great experience to be able to help beautify a local school. We painted a handicap ramp and an art classroom.
In light of current events, the presidential election, school, the economy failing, we are trying really hard to not get worried and instead focus on service to others. Somehow when you see the abundant needs of those in your community, it helps you to realize your problems aren't so bad. When we moved to Nashville Jeremy and I really wanted to re-prioritize service as an important aspect of our lives. I think the opportunity to work in the Dominican Republic this summer opened our hearts to God's calling for us to be better servants. Anyway, this week has been busy (as I'm sure all of you can attest to), but it is a good busy. The kind where we get home at night and are thankful for our daily commitments, but also thankful to have eachother and a place to call home. Nashville is finally growing on us and especially the fall weather here (have I mentioned how much I love fall).
Soooo....come visit us!

B&E

It has been beautiful here in Nashvegas this whole week. The boys and I took advantage of the weather by playing outside and going to the dog park. They absolutely love the DP (we have to call it this or else every time we say the whole name Beau freaks out in excitement). We met some super nice people there the other night who have two girl pugs! They were adorable and I'm trying to convince the boys that it's time they met some lady friends...lol. This week has been super busy with work and school so hopefully we will enjoy some relaxation time this weekend!

Pics. of the boys:

2nd Wedding

When we renew our vows some day this will be the dress I wear:


This is from NY fashion week and I'm in love (with Jeremy and the dress)!

Football!

So we have to do a football post because all three of our teams won this week...yippee! We LOVE ourselves some football and hopefully one of our teams will go all the way this year. I'm thinking we look prettttty prettyy good (for you Curb your Enthusiasm fans) so far!

Go FALCONS!!!



Go DAWGS!!!

So we have to do a football post because all three of our teams won this week...yippee! We LOVE ourselves some football and hopefully one of our teams will go all the way this year. I'm thinking we look prettttty prettyy good (for you Curb your Enthusiasm fans) so far!


Go Vandy (see below)!!!


We had a great weekend! Friday we saw Pineapple Express and it was pretty funny (not as funny as some of Seth Rogen's other movies, but still hilarious). Saturday we did some shopping (yeah for new work clothes), ate Mexican at Rose Pepper, and watched Black Hawk Down. Have you seen this movie? Wow, it has to be the most intense war movie I have ever seen. I decided that if I ever have to go into the military I definitely want to be in the Rangers...these guys are serious. Oh and of course we watched lots of football and did some yard work. Sunday was beautiful here in Nashville - perfect weather. We have been visiting a new church, Crosspoint Community Church, and we really enjoyed it this past Sunday. The new series is titled "Baggage" and it should be pretty interesting/scary! OH and they sang "From the Inside Out", which is one of our favorite songs AND the song that we taught the Dominicans in Higuey this summer ("Dios eterno, por siempre...") LOVES IT. I think God may be telling us something. Also, I am almost finished with the curtains I made and will post pics. later (gentlemen I'm sure you cannot wait!).

Love to all and have a wonderful week!

Vandy beats USC!!!

Last night we went to Vandy's football home opener against University of South Carolina. It was a ton of fun and we WON! I think this is the first time we have won against a ranked team since the 1930s?!? Anyway, we ran into our neighbors while we were there and ended up sitting together. I was just so excited to be at a school that has football I wanted to post some pics. GO 'DORES!!!

visitors

Fall is in the air - I can smell it! It will be so exciting to experience fall in Nashville because there are so many beautiful trees here, especially on Vanderbilt's campus! I can't wait to watch Fall movies like "You've Got Mail", start burning Fall-scented candles, and put out all my Fall decorations (most of you know how obsessed I am with Fall).

We have officially been in Nashville for a month---yippee!

This month has been so much fun mainly because of all of our visitors! We may just turn our house into a regular B&B (hey I wouldn't be complaining!) I added some pictures of our house and friends/family that have visited so far!

The picture on the stairs is of my dad, little sister Emily, and Jeremy at VU. They helped us move all of our CRAP up here and we couldn't have been more grateful! The older I get the more I realize how lucky I am to have a wonderful (and slightly dysfunctional family) whom I love to death!

My older sister Crystal visited us, but I seem to have no evidence! UGH! Must get pictures from her camera soon!

Then our long-time friends Adam and Christina stopped by for a "we need out of Atlanta ASAP" visit! We didn't get to spend much time with them, but we're happy for a little piece of home! Favorite quote of that night by A, Bourne "No, I bet they have black midgets in Decatur as well"....bahaha loves it.

Last, but hardly LEAST the Hutchersons stopped by last Sat. They are an AWESOME couple we met on our DR trip this summer and fell instantly in "friendship love" with...hehe. We are trying to convince them to move to Nashville sooner, rather than later, but I think Trish could go a few more years without seeing a U-Haul truck : ). TRISH c'mon COUNTRY MUSIC CAPITAL of the world?! You'd be in heaven. Well, if we can't be close we sure as heck can visit lots. Oh and I specifically put the picture of Trish and Ernie because he was officially obsessed with her....I mean who wouldn't be? Thanks so much for coming guys!

Classes began this week and are going great. My job starts next week and I'm so glad everything didn't begin at once because I tend to get overwhelmed easily. I met some really nice people in my program at orientation and can't wait to get to know them better throughout the semester!

Jeremy's school is still going well, but he has had a few behavioral issues to deal with as the kids are becoming more comfortable. For example, there was a fight this week at his school where a girl was beating up a guy! The police came and arrested them. Apparently, the fight was gang related and teachers are having to be a lot more vigilant about writing kids up for any signs of gang activity. The "bloods" are the gang here and it's pretty crazy how pervasive they are in the community. J was saying that gang members will impregnate young girls just to create more boys to be raised into gang life. He teaches 9th grade and one of his students had a baby this summer and she has to miss class sometimes to take care of her (wow!).

Anyway, I'm going to figure out how to post some pics. now! Love to all!

Nashville: Making a New Home

Hello! It seems like forever ago that we created this blog and I can't even believe that it has been 2 months since our DR trip. The past two months have been a whirlwind of craziness and this week has been one of the first that we both have simultaneously had off since CHRISTMAS (and the DR trip was not time off...it was amazing, but still work)!!! I thought I would fill everyone in on what's been happening the past few months and on our new beginnings in NASHVEGAS (yeah, I'm pretty sure NO one else calls it that here).

J finished his Master's in Teaching English a few weeks ago with a final GPA of 3.8! I'm so proud of all the work he has accomplished and also happy to have him home more :) This last year was quite challenging trying to juggle marriage, school, work, graduate applications, and the like, but we made it...scratch that God pulled us through BIG time. Props to God. We couldn't have asked for a better year though (sorry we have been measuring years on school time since our whole relationship has revolved around school from the beginning...therefore the "New" year begins in August and ends in May-June and July are free months-just trying to be like the Chinese). It's true what they say "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

Packing and boxing up our life in Atlanta went semi-smoothly. I had my last day at work after two years on July 17th. It was pretty rough. I had been trying to set myself up for the change, but you just can't prepare for these type of life-events. Jill(my boss) and John Brady (the little boy I nanny for) attended our Softball Bash/Going away party that our AWESOME friends threw for us. I was so glad that everyone came out to send us off because it meant the world to us. Thursday before the move was pretty emotional (I'm a crier people...don't you know this already?!?). I created this slideshow of pictures that I have been taking of JB since he was about 10 months old and another little girl (his neighbor) that I have watched this summer. We all watched it together and it was pretty hard. I'm really going to miss that little guy:( Jill was so sweet and we hugged and cried and hugged and cried some more. I mean they have been a 2nd family to me and it is hard to leave people you love working for, but we will keep in touch.

We were both exicted to get all the boxes OUT of our living room and into the truck (finally). We had a lot of great help from our families. My Dad and little sis Emily even came up here to help us get settled. There is just no way around moving being stressful, but for the most part it went well. The first day we got here two young neighborhood couples came up to the house and introduced themselves. I was shocked! Usually people are so evasive these days. We are so happy to already know some people in the Hood. The older gentlemen who lives to the right of us has lived in this hood for 54 years! He lived he during the Civil Rights movement...how freakin' cool is that?

We live in East Nashville, which is right across the bridge from downtown and the Titans football stadium. East Nashville is a very unique little place and so far we love it. It reminds us of a Little Five Points mixed with VA Highlands. Many parts are Historic and even the house we are renting was built in 1899 (don't worry the owners spent the last year renovating it - no more wood-burning stove yippee). Other areas, including our street, are not the nicest houses, but this area is growing so fast and quickly changing. Although some of the houses are older, our street is very quiet/safe, and our neighbors are super friendly. Across the street we have the Five Points area which is really neat. I have a new favorite breakfast spot "Marche" and a ton of other indie places like: Z's Deli, Pied Piper Creamery, Bongo Java, Alley Cat Tex Mex food, and lots of bars: )

J has been planning the upcoming school year with his colleagues and he is looking forward to this school year. He will be teaching 9th grade Language Arts at a high school 3 miles away. It is a pretty rough school, but he is going to make such an impact there. The principal is much much much better than his last school and he has this amazing classroom. We have been working on getting it ready this week and I think the kids are really going to dig it. The room is on the 2nd floor with TONS of windows and bookshelves (I forced him to bring most of his books to his classroom because honestly the amount he has is getting out of control). I don't begin classes until Aug. 25th and my RA positionn doesn't begin until Sept. so for now I'm chiling at home. I couldn't be happier. I'm trying to work on decorating, but I think I overwhelm myself with starting too many projects at once. We have been doing a lot of yard work and it's beginning to look fabulous....well semi-fabulous anyway:)
Beau and Ernie are adjusting well. They LOVE having a backyard and being able to bark at people who walk by!

Anyway, I think this is enough for one entry! We miss everyone, so start scheduling your visits ASAP. 5 movies for $5 isn't going to last forever at Blockbuster and then we will need some real human interaction... My older sis Crystal is coming to visit this weekend and I cannot wait.

****Nashville Pics. coming SOON******

Thanks to Biz!

Biz (our team mascot) created these for us at the picture party:









Thanks Ben...these are awesome!

Blessings!

Hey Everyone!

We are going to post more entries from the trip soon, but this past week has been SUPER busy. We visited Nashville last Friday and finally found a house to rent. It is awesome and we can't wait to have people come visit us. We are planning on moving towards the end of July, after Jeremy graduates from his M.Ed. program. We also both found jobs this week (woohoo)! God has been amazing in blessing us with our move to TN and it reinforces even more that this is where he wants us to be.

Also we are working on putting up a slideshow of pictures on here and some video links!

We will update soon,
J & Ash

Stay tuned...more to come...

We will add the other entries in a couple days so that everyone can get through the first couple of days! : )

BTW here are a few of our teammates blogs who probably do a better job at explaining the trip and have pictures:
http://www.briantrishhutcherson.blogspot.com/
http://www.bensphotoblog.com

6/3 Tuesday DR Trip

(I journaled each day on the trip and then decided to post the entries upon our return to the US)

Tuesday 6/3/08

We were Definitely SORE this morning...but we just took some tylenol and pushed on!

We began devotional at 7:30am today and Stephanie shared her testimony with the group which was again encouraging to hear about her journey in her relationship with Christ. After our usual breakfast we headed over to the church to continue working on clearing the ground so we could start digging the trenches for the cement. Today we spent a lot of down time playing with the kids and helping to create a baseball/recreational field in the empty lot next to the church. We officially named the field “Toma Tomalo” after a song that we sang at church on Sunday. We have all been going around saying Toma Tomala all week being funny. The field was pretty gross and had tons of trash, glass bottles, bones, bugs, manure, and weeds we had to clear out. Andrew H. was a former pitcher for the Giants and took the field under his wing as his mission to create a field that would bring children closer to playing near the church. It was amazing to see how much trash we cleared out of the field in less than an hour. The lot already looked 10 times better and we still have a ways to go until the kids can play on it.

During lunch today some of the people on our team stayed behind to practice Hillsong’s “From the Inside Out” in Spanish to perform at the service on Thurs. J stayed behind to play back-up guitar to Carl so I stayed just to watch them practice. Ana ended up teaching Mandi and I the song in Spanish (She is one of our fluent Spanish speakers on the trip) and by the end of lunch I was singing up on stage as well. This is pretty funny seeing as 1. I’m the worst Spanish speaker and 2. I can’t sing…haha. Anyway, Ben, Ana, and Mandi all have wonderful voices so they drowned me out anyway. Plus the Dominicans love them some LOUD music. Their worship team that helped us with the song were incredible! It was cool getting to know a few guys in their band. Aldolfo, their bass guitarist, actually records and produces music for a living. Their lead worship pastor is an art teacher part-time along with working at the church. Hearing someone worship God in another language is amazing and makes you realize even more how Huge God is and how small we are. I was just there for moral support and to give God praise! I love that song now. I will add the lyrics in Spanish later. We also practiced “Mighty to Save” in English, which we will perform the same night along with the rest of our team! How fun!

After working for a few more hours (Did I mention it is sweltering hot here and we are all applying sunscreen like crazy), we got back to the hotel and ate dinner (Rice and beans are getting pretty old at this point!). Then we had our devotional where Ben shared his testimony and was so open with us that it inspired me to add a few more things to my testimony. We went to bed early Tues. because by the end of the day we are just so exhausted we can barely do anything else.

6/2 Monday DR Trip

(I journaled each day about the trip and then decided to post all of the entries upon our return!)

Today we began work on clearing the area behind the church where classrooms were to be built. We woke up and had devotional around 7:30 am. Mandy, Carl, and Andrew were our leaders of the day and they began the devotional and then we ended it with Alice’s testimony. Carl has been leading us in worship songs each day and he is doing an awesome job. Their is a feeling you get from singing praise to God with a room full of other believers that can’t really be matched by anything else. This has been one of my favorite parts of the trip. We ate breakfast, which is the same everyday eggs with ham and cheese, toast, various fruit, juice, and PLENTY o’ café con leche (coffee with milk). We got to the worksite around 9am and went right into working. We pretty much had to move a bunch of rocks with our hands from the place of the original foundation to the roadside in order for them to come and pick it up. Let me tell you it was hard work and everyone on our team had such good attitudes and upbeat moods through it all. We finally were able to score some buckets and shovels after a couple hours which helped the process to go by much faster! It was difficult to not get frustrated at the circumstances of having no construction equipment, but hey we aren’t here to question everything we are here to serve!

After working for a few hours we took a lunch break back at the hotel and ate PB&J with chips. Then it was back to work hauling rocks. This little boy Juaquin followed us to the worksite and we dropped him off at lunch time. He was a pretty funny kid and helped us out at the church. When we got back to working it felt even hotter than before and was a little harder to get moving after a nice filling lunch. We left the worksite around 4:30 and headed back to the hotel for showers. One of my favorite things about the day was just talking with everyone and getting to know my teammates better. While we were moving buckets down line Ana was helping me learn some Spanish phrases such as “Tu eres mui fuerte” or “You are really strong!” and “Yo tango hambre” I am hungry! I’m really inspired to learn Spanish fluently and see how frustrating it is to not be able to communicate with people! These are all of our teammates on our trip:
Mark-our trip leader
Alice and Michael
Lisa
Alice
Andrew T.
Andrew H.
Trish and Brian
Stephanie and Joe
Ben
Will
Mandi and Carl
Ana
Jenna
Lorena
Chad
Ashley and Jeremy (US!)

After showering we all packed in our huge Hyundai vans and headed to Pala Pizza which tasted like regular American pizza, but better after eating beans and rice for a couple of days: ) They surprised Brian with and early birthday cheesecake so that topped off the night perfectly. The cheesecake was made by the Cheescake Factory…how cool is that? It was yuuuummy. Dinner was fun getting to hangout and chat with Brian and Trish, Joe and Stephanie, and Lorena who were all sitting at our end of the table. We even saw a dog on top of a roof across the street.
After dinner we had our devotional where Jeremy, Carl, and Lorena shared their testimonies which were awesome. It was fun getting to hear Jeremy’s testimony because even though I pretty much knew everything about him accepting Christ into his life I still find out new things each time I hear him talk about it. Sharing your testimony is such a deeply personal thing and it has been so amazing hearing each person’s story. Each time I listen to them I feel a little closer in a way to that person. It’s also really neat how I always seem to relate to one aspect of each person’s story. The trip is awesome so far and I feel as though God is softening our hearts through being here, in order to prepare us for the next few months in moving to Nashville.

6/1 Sunday DR Trip

( We journaled all of these entries each day and just decided to upload them all when we got back home: ))
Sunday morning we woke up around 8am and had our morning devotional where Will shared his testimony and Carl led us in worship. Then we headed to our breakfast of eggs with ham, fruit, and toast…oh and lest I forget café con leche! Yummy!
After breakfast, it was beach time and we all piled in the van for the hour ride to the locals’ beach. Pastor Rafael’s brother and his family hung out with us all day. Ana and I built sandcastles with their three girls who were so adorable. We bought a few souvenirs today and some of the guys got their Cuban…umm I mean Dominican cigars. For lunch we had pb and J and chips a la American style. At the beach this younger girl approached Trish, who has blond hair, and asked her if she could see her eyes. She told her that her sister who lives in Alaska has blue eyes just like Trish. She hasn’t been able to see her for two years and really missed her. I thought this was so sweet.

Also, the guys played football with a lot of the local boys in the water which was fun to watch. Everyone was in such a good mood. Lots of local people were there playing in the water and just relaxing. Carl stepped on a sea urchin and got the spikes in his foot. It looked pretty painful and they weren’t sure how to remove them. He was a trooper though and made it through! Later we attended church and met the people we will be building the classrooms for. The worship was awesome and they even sang a few songs in Spanish that we sing back in Atlanta (i.e. “Forever God is faithful, Forever God is strong….forever forever”). Afterwards some of the members approached us and kissed and hugged us which was encouraging. This one little boy, Juan, was hilarious and kept trying to show us his muscles. The only English he knew was “Hello baby” and Trish and I thought that was hilarious. He was so excited for us to get a picture of his muscles. Until tm.!

5/31 Saturday in DR

5/31 DR trip 2008 (I just journaled everyday in a word document and I'm going to paste those entries here!)

After waking up a little late, Jeremy and I got ready to head to the airport. We were suppose to meet our team there by 8:15am in order to get checked in and have time to get through security. We had been watching Hines, our friends’ dog, for a few days so we had to drop him off at Kevin and Lindsey’s condo before heading to Marta. As we waited for the taxi outside of their place we noticed Jenna, one of our teammates, hauling her luggage across the parking lot. How random that she lives in Kevin and Lindsey’s complex and we ran into her. She was able to hitch a ride with us to MARTA. We got to the airport on time and waited for Mark to arrive with the plane tickets. Thankfully, they were able to change my name on my ticket from my Byars to Clarke since I have not legally changed my last name on all my documentation (note to self…do that pronto upon return!).
The flight was 3 hours long and J and I sat next to Chad in the front row…plenty of leg room…score! They played “Bucketlist” as the movie, but I kept getting distracted by the amazing view from my window. As we flew over the ocean we could see all these various islands that looked completely uninhabited…how cool is that! After three hours we finally landed in Punt Cana and were able to stretch our legs. Then we waited for about an hour while Mark found us vehicles to make the 50minute ride over to Higguay.

On the way our the spare tire under our van that is in this sort of cage type thing came off and it sounded as if our muffler fell out. God stopped us in the right place though…right in front of a bus mechanics shop and the guys there were very generous in helping us to get the tire back into the cage underneath the car. Jeremy was a big help as well as he actually pushed the tire back in and fixed the cage. We ended up paying the guy about 10 bucks to help us, but it was worth it. Since we lost Mark who was driving the van in front of us we didn’t really have a clear idea how to get to our hotel in Higuey. All we knew was that our hotel name was Hotel Don Carlos near the Basilica, the local Catholic Church. Finally we arrived an hour later at our hotel and changed for our evening devotional. Then we headed down to our dinner of beans, rice, chicken, and fried plantains…definitely different, but satisfying after a long day of traveling. Then we headed to bed for the night!

We are here!

We are finally in the DR!!! After a plane ride and a car trip with a few troubles we are here safely. My battery is going to die on my computer any minute, but I just wanted to give a quick update.

We are staying at the Hotel Don Carlos and the Esso station across the street has an internet connection. Today we had a morning devotional where Will shared his testimony and then we headed off to the beach. Tonight we are going to a church service and then we begin work tommorow!

I'll write more later, but so far we have been very humbled by the circumstances here. It's been so much fun already and we can't wait to get started on building the classsrooms tm.!

Chow!

Goals accomplished!

We just found out that our team has reached 103% of our financial goal! This is awesome because at our last meeting (a week ago) we were only at 63% of our financial goal. We are so excited and impressed (and humbled) with everyone's giving.

This past weekend was Ashley's 23rd birthday and it was such a great time spent with lots of friends and family. We said to eachother Monday night we are so blessed to have so many people who love us in our lives and we hope we make others feel just as loved! We always are so thankful for your love and support (and home-cooked food...haha).

This week we are having one final meeting with our team on Wed. We are looking forward to the barbeque at the Hutchersons and having one last get together before we leave on Saturday.

Our flight leaves at 10:40am on Saturday May 31st and we will come back the following Saturday at 6:00pm. WE CANNOT WAIT!!!
Now it's off to start getting some packing done...

Challenges

In preparing for the DR trip with our team, we have thoroughly discussed challenges that will arise to prevent us from going on this trip. We have had several of these challenges to overcome already (mainly our own fear of the unknown) and several other could-be-obstacles furthermore. These past couple of weeks have been stressful with deciding to move, work schedules, surprise class scheduling changes (Jeremy will still graduate and be able to go on the trip...yeah!), and the ever present financial obligations. Through all of this it has been our first instinct to want to go to a place of worry and doubt, but we have resisted that place and instead God has taken us into his arms. Ever since we have been seriously dating, we have this thing that we do whenever we start to get anxious about something. We say to each other (well, Jeremy usually reminds me) why don't we just wait and see if God gives us a sign (WHAT A NOVEL IDEA...duh). Anyway, of course He always does and it is better than anything we could have planned. Yesterday we saw a sign ( a literal one) that read "Instead of worrying, WAIT."

Simple. But it quickly reminded us that we are not in control of this journey, God is! Until next time we will just be waiting to see where God takes us!

P.S. A HUGE thanks to our support team who responded to our letters the past couple of weeks! We appreciate your prayer and financial donations very much! We couldn't do this without you :)

Winshape Retreat

"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."
-Acts 20:22-24

Hello! Sorry we have not updated our blog in such a long time! We will try to post more often over the next few weeks leading up to the trip (Only 40 more days...woohoo!!!). Our meetings have been great and it has been fun getting to know all of our fellow team members. We really see God working through our team to prepare us for the DR, especially after our team bonding at the Winshape retreat this last Saturday. The retreat was at Berry College and consisted of several team building activities as well as fun ropes course challenges. We really felt more unified as a team after Saturday and are even more excited to be working along such awesome servants!

Here is the link to our teams' website with pics. from our retreat and of our fellow DR team members:
www.newtourera.com/globalxdr

Day 1...of blogging; Day 11 of being accepted!

For 11 days now, my wife and I have known that we have been accepted to go on this mission trip to the Dominican Republic to help with the construction of a church. The exact details of what we will be doing are not known to us, but we have our first meeting coming up soon. Ashley and I were so happy to find out that we were accepted to go on this trip! We thought about how great it will be be to go to this place her and I have never been to before and to just work out of the love of God.

Those were great thoughts, but then the second thought came creeping in: How will we pay for this trip? This won't be a "cheap" trip (that is a relative word, as all words are) so we will have to start raising some funds. I went on a Yahoo website (Yahoo, I will take promotional donations) and found that someone asked, "What companies donate money for missions trips?" I thought this might be something helpful to read. The writer who responded to this question went on to discuss some really good points and recommendations. One of those was to start-up a blog to show the progression and updates of our attempts to raise money and prepare for the trip. Just as producers like to see what they are giving money to, those who help fund trips like to see the same, I guess. S0 this blog is dedicated to our mission trip so that all of those who contribute to our plans, rather through prayers or funds, can be updated. We thank you all for helping God's plans out, and I will type to you later.

* If you would like to visit the website about our trip created by North Point Church here is the link:
http://www.globalxm.org/partner_detail.jsp?pid=3

You can watch a video and read more about the purpose of our trip!