Below is a blog entry I wrote on November 19th.  I have not posted it until now because we have been having issues with our internet and computer.  You may be happy to know that I have since stopped searching for the illusive baby formula at our local Walmart-- One: because I don't need it anymore (yea!!) and Two: because I now know that it is located by the checkout aisle.  hmmm.  I would have never looked there!

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We're not quite in New York City, but we are still experiencing our fair share of culture shock here in the shadow of Albany, NY.  Our home is about 8 miles driving distance from Albany, which of course translates into 20-25 minutes drive time.  (We no longer equate miles traveled with minutes on the road!  Drive time used to be simple: 15 miles meant 15 minutes.  Not here.) 

I am enjoying getting to know our new home, but my 3+ hour trip to Walmart today almost did me in.  It is only 4.5 miles from my home, but somehow it took me 20 minutes to find the parking lot.  Once I got in the store, I was pleased to find that I didn't immediately feel "turned around".  Have you ever walked into a different store (same chain, different store) and discovered that the whole store seems turned around: The grocery aisles are where the pharmacy should be and the check out lines are on the wrong end?  This happens to me most every time I walk into a new Walmart.  I get used to the one in my town, then I move and have to figure out a new one.  It's just another adjustment to make in a life of frequent relocation.  Anyway, like I said, I was glad that I did not immediately feel discombobulated.  Key word: IMMEDIATELY.  It did come, eventually.  Most likely because this Walmart has two floors--Yes, two floors!  The first floor was grocery, pharmacy, paper goods, cleaning supplies, hygiene products, etc.  The second floor contains the clothes, home goods, do it yourself supplies, baby supplies, shoes, crafts, etc.  Needless to say, it took me much longer to accomplish my shopping list!  Of course they had to put the baby section on the top floor in the very opposite side of the elevators (oh yeah, they have elevators and escalators that accommodate your shopping cart).  I had two highly annoying experiences during my first Walmart endeavor.  The first was the absence of the baby formula.  I searched the baby section high and low and STILL could not find the baby formula.  You would think it would be in the baby food section, but it wasn't!  Thankfully, I am not out of formula right now because I never found the formula.  Where else could it be?  The second annoyance was when I was looking for some window suction hooks.  I went to the craft section on the second floor and could not find them.  I finally found someone working there and asked her where they could be.  She told me they are in the "Kids Crafts" section on the bottom floor in the back of the store.  Of course.  Silly me, checking in the "adult" craft section.  Funny!  Oh well!  I know it will get easier the more I practice!  : )

Well, we made it to New York!  Thank you all for praying for us as we were trying to make our way here!  To review: we left Iowa on November 1st and made it as far as South Bend, IN, where our truck broke down.  In really simple terms, the drive shaft and transfer case dropped out from underneath the truck while we were driving down the interstate.  It was a difficult two days as we tried to line up tow trucks, a parking spot for our trailer, a mechanic, lodging, etc.  The Lord truly helped us as we felt completely at a loss when first faced with our situation!  Some of the details were worked out quickly, but some were not.  We ended up towing the truck to a friend's house in Sauk City, WI (our last build site location).  Our friend is a Dodge mechanic, so he graciously offered to not only work on our truck for us, but to also keep our family in his family's home while we waited for the truck to be fixed.  We were there for a full week.  We left again for New York on November 11th and arrived at our new home in Guilderland on the 12th.  The truck ran great!  Praise the Lord!

We are thankful for the CBM mission family and our friends who helped us in so many ways!  God took care of us and we feel humbly blessed as we see how God's people have given of their varied resources to help us.  Many of you have asked how you might give to help us with our growing financial need.  As we look at all of our expenses, we estimate the total added cost to us was around $2000.  (This total would have been much more had our friend in Wisconsin not helped us with the repairs!  He saved us thousands of dollars!)  The best way to give would be through our mission agency's website: cbmoffice.org.  On the right side of the page you will see a "Give A Gift" link.  Clicking on that link will direct you to the pay portal.  The memo on your gift should include our names.  Thank you if you give, and thank you for praying for us!  We are so grateful for God's loving care and that He uses His people to be such a blessing in our lives.  We have seen this time and time again and we remain humbled.  God is good; we have much to be thankful for!

We are mostly settled in our new location.  We are so thankful to be here safely!  Andy has this week off of work because of the Thanksgiving holiday, so we are making the most of it!  We will be working on getting our trailer home ready for the winter, decorate for Christmas, eat Thanksgiving dinner, and celebrate two birthdays: Asher's FIRST! and my 29th. 

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and that God's blessings will be at the forefront of your minds!

Thank you again for your prayers for our family!

God is keeping our life interesting.  I feel like my life is in a state of constant upheaval lately.  There is so much inconsistency in the day to day schedule when we are moving our home and switching project locations.  Not to mention traveling on the weekends in order to update our supporting churches.  All these things are good and exciting, but after awhile, can make me long for a "normal" life where we don't move 3+ times a year.  Recently, this longing was brought to the forefront of my mind...

This last week, while we were on our way to New York for our next building project, we had a major disruption in our plans (but we rest in knowing that nothing was a surprise to God.)  Andy and Judah were in the truck pulling our trailer home behind them.  I was in the van with Asher following them.  We were nearing exit 77 on I 80/ 90, near South Bend, IN.  Andy called and said something didn't sound right with the truck, so he was going to exit and check it out.  Not 1 minute later, a huge dust erupted from under the truck and loud noises of "mechanics" hitting the pavement flooded my ears.  I could hardly believe what I was seeing.  Pieces from our truck were flying all over the interstate.  I saw Andy coast a few more yards in order to reach the next exit, but I stopped right away so I could get out of the car and check out what had fallen from the truck.  Andy came back to me to see what in the world I was doing, and he began to understand what we were looking at: his u-joint, driveshaft, etc.  We were in shock as we looked at everything, realizing how big of a repair this was going to be.

We spent the rest of the day calling tow companies and friends and family, trying to formulate a plan of action.  This is what we settled on: a missionary friend came down from our home office in Rockford, MI and he pulled our trailer to a church parking lot in Stevenville, MI.  Our truck stayed parked where it was in front of a toll plaza until we could arrange for a tow truck to take it to Sauk City, WI, where a friend of ours is a certified Dodge mechanic.  He offered to do all the work for free, all we need to pay is for parts.  What a blessing to have God's people rally around us to help us in our time of need! 

We spent that night in our trailer home at the church in MI and woke up the next morning to drive back to our truck and try to arrange for towing service through AAA.  After FOUR hours on the side of the road with two little boys who did NOT want to be stuck in the van, we finally had a tow truck come who could help us with our problem.  He towed us to Joliet, IL, where Andy's brother, Jeremy, met us with a flat bed trailer on which to haul our truck up to WI. 

Today (Friday) we are here in WI, waiting for parts to come in so that our truck can get fixed.  The same friend who is fixing the truck is also letting us stay at their house for however long we are here.  They are a blessing to us.  We know that this may be a lengthy layover.  We are disappointed to not be in NY yet, but thankful that God kept us safe and is providing for us in this unexpected trial. 

Please pray that God would help this truck repair to go smoothly and that after it all, our truck would run well and would be able to finish pulling our trailer home to NY where we are supposed to participate in our next building project.  Please thank God for the friends and family who helped us while we were in such need.  Please ask God to help us with the very real financial burden that we now have--He is already providing!  Praise Him!

Thank you all for your prayers!  Next time I hope to write to you from Guilderland, NY!

Oh, the pleasures of being parked beneath two huge oak trees!  The past two weeks it has been literally raining acorns on our home.  If we lived in a normal house, we would probably hardly notice this natural occurrence, but since we live in our 5th-wheel trailer, we hear every single acorn that falls.  It's like when it rains, we hear every single rain drop that falls.  The latter is nice and can even be comforting or lull us to sleep, the former does much the opposite.  It sounds like we are being attacked or that someone is constantly throwing rocks at our home.  I must say that today it is better though.  Where as we used to hear a few acorns every 5-10 seconds, today it has been a few every 2-3 minutes.  Either the squirrels are done jumping around the trees with their harried gathering, or maybe the acorns are just done falling.  Well, we won't be here much longer to "enjoy" this mild annoyance.  We will be leaving Sauk City on October 13th and heading for our property in Marshalltown, IA.  We look forward to living on our land and working on the maintenance issues there.  We will also be traveling every weekend to update some of our supporting churches.  We are updating churches in Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa.  Appreciate your prayers as we pack things up and leave friends here and as we do lots of traveling next month!

How many of you find it difficult to ask for help?  I am raising my hand too.  I have theories on why I have trouble asking for help; excuses why I should and like to be self-sufficient.  I'm very tempted to lay those out for you right now, in fact.  But, instead of doing that, I want to tell you about what God did in my quiet times this week, and how He is helping me.

If you're like me and every other parent in this world, you are often left in bewilderment and stand in confusion as to how to handle certain situations with your children.  As Judah, our oldest living son, reaches 2 1/2 next month, he is getting to be more independent and tends to assert that independence in new and sometimes undesirable ways each day.  Recently we have tried to encourage his independence in one area: potty training.  It's been a work in progress for almost three weeks now.  He has had really good days, but this week he has seemed to have a setback. 

As I have been navigating this training process and as I see Judah's new struggles with independence and obedience emerge, I got to the point of just total confusion, disillusionment and an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy.  (Ever been there?)  One day during my devotions, it was difficult for me to focus as I had these issues on my mind.  So, I prayed about them, and it occurred to me that I should have been doing that all along, but it's just hard for me to ask for help--even from God!  So, I began to ask God to give me wisdom into Judah's spirit and personality and God-inspired words to teach and train him.  I found encouragement in this time of prayer, and then I decided to open my Bible and start reading.

As I was turning to the text in Galatians, I "just happened" to open the Bible to 1 Samuel where there was an ultrasound picture of one of my baby boys.  I automatically assumed it was a picture of Collin, thinking that I probably would have kept his ultrasound picture close since those are some of the only pictures we have of him.  But, as I looked more closely, I realized it was the first ultrasound picture we had of JUDAH, taken when I was just 57 days pregnant (only 11 days after I knew I was expecting again).  This picture reveals nothing about Judah's form, all you can see is just a speck of white that we were told was a baby.  I didn't even know this picture was in my Bible, but as I sat staring at what I knew now to be my boy Judah, I cried, knowing that even as a month old embryo, my God KNEW Judah perfectly: He knows Judah's petite form, his friendly(!) personality, his overwhelming joys, his tragic sorrows...everything about him--better than I do!  And as I considered this truth, I realized that God was telling me that He would help me parent Judah in a way that is perfect for Judah.  He knows Judah perfectly and established me to be his mommy.  What a privilege and what a responsibility! 

This week I learned again to be okay with asking God for help.  I can't do it on my own, and I'm absolutely not meant to!  God has given me help in the form of a wonderful husband and father to our boys, and He has promised to give me wisdom if I ask.  (James 1:5) 

I'm so thankful to be a mother who has God as my helper!

The location of our next building project has been revealed to us.  We will be serving with Grace Baptist Church in Guilderland, NY.  It is located very close to the state capital, Albany.  We will be helping this church to build a parsonage for the future pastor.  They have not hired a fulltime senior pastor yet, and most of the reason for that is because they need to be able to offer the senior pastor a parsonage in which to live since housing is so expensive in that area.  We look forward to serving with lead builder, Sean Genung and his family.  We will also be joined by two other builder families. 

We are excited to say that we will be moving to Guilderland around the first of November, which means little Asher will celebrate his first birthday in New York, and we will celebrate the fall/winter holidays there as well.  After investigating some of the important details, (is there an Aldi close by?  A Walmart close by?  A Starbucks close by?...etc.) I am glad to say that this looks like an exciting location for us.  We don't know that much about the church and it's ministries yet, but we look forward to meeting the people and understanding their unique passions for ministry as a church body!

Thank you for praying for us as we anticipate our move this fall!

Well, it's been a really long time since I last made an entry on this blog.  I was getting so many spam comments that I considered deleting my blog account.  However, I just couldn't commit my heart to the idea of no longer keeping up this ministry blog.  So, I'll endure the spam comments--unless someone out there knows a way to block spam comments???

Anyway, we have been having a busy summer so far.  Summer is always a welcome time for us because it means more time outdoors and that is like adding an extra room to our house.  However, autumn is really our favorite season, and I was pleased to hear the weatherman say today that we have just 4-6 more weeks until the weather starts changing.  Fall brings football, cross country, marching bands, an extra hour of sleep, pumpkin farms, apple orchards, back to school sales, cooler weather, candy corn, an end to mosquitoes, colorful landscapes, my birthday and more football!  This fall will be extra special because we'll be moving to our next build project (we don't know where that will be yet) and we'll celebrate Asher's first birthday!

We can't wait for fall!

Have you ever been on an Amtrak train?  If you're anything like me, it is something you have always been interested in doing, but have never quite found a reason to do it.  The idea of riding on a passenger train has always fascinated people, I believe.  Riding across the deserts, hills and plains of America at fast speeds, all the while partaking in the beauty of new places is intriguing. 

Well, I had the interesting experience of riding one of these trains last week.  Andy and I wanted to go down to Fort Worth, Texas to purchase a new truck.  We looked into airplane tickets, but they were too expensive.  Driving ourselves was going to be expensive as well, so we decided to take the Amtrak down to Texas and the plan was to drive our newly purchased truck back home.

First we had to drop off the boys in Iowa with Grandparents.  Then we caught the train in Burlington, IA.  Our excitement for the trip was barely dwindled when our train was an hour late.  We were told that we should be thankful it was only an hour late because the day before it was three hours late.  We should have taken the late train as a sign of how things were going to be for the rest of the trip, but we kept positive. 

We rode 45 minutes East to get off in Galesburg, Illinois.  After a 4 hour layover in bustling Galesburg, ILL, we got on the shuttle van with 7 other strangers for a two hour excursion to Springfield, ILL.  Andy and I snagged the front bench in the van so that we could see out of the windshield--we both get car sick pretty easy.  This leg of the journey turned out to be my most favorite.  The driver of the van and the man in the passenger seat were both sports enthusiasts and one just happened to work for the Atlanta Falcons!  We all enjoyed some great football conversations!  At the conclusion of this ride, Andy told me I was good at "talking sports."--A great compliment, I would say!

When we arrived in Springfield, ILL we had another layover to wait for the great "Texas Eagle" train to take us on a 20-hour journey to Fort Worth, Texas.  By this time it was time for supper and we were getting hungry and tired.  Thankfully the train was just 30 minutes late, and we got our seats on the lower level of the train.  This turned out to be a blessing because all of the activity took place on the upper level, so that would mean "better" sleeping conditions for us. 

After a supper of nothing healthy, we settled into our seats amongst our new neighbors: a man with sleep apnea (who warned us that he doesn't wake up happy), a man who illegally smoked in the restroom and had a colorful vocabulary, a man who liked to sing along to his ipod, and two tired moms with their three tired children.  On top of that, the air conditioner was broken in our car.  All the makings of a very interesting ride!  The best part of the night was seeing St. Louis all lit up at night!  That was truly beautiful with the arch and the skyline.

Over the course of the night, we got maybe 4 total hours of sleep.  Our chairs reclined minimally and we found out that our neighbor did have sleep apnea, which meant loud snoring.  In the morning we decided to try to catch the sunrise from the viewing car upstairs.  We did get a good view of the sunrise, but a not-so-great view of everything else.  With the exception of the St. Louis skyline the night before, the scenery from the train left a little to be desired.  We had ideas of seeing great scenery and city sights, but the views of the city were what you would see around the railroad tracks--not usually the best part of the city.  Oh well, it was still fun to see the sights which included animals, trees, cemeteries, buildings, etc.

We learned that during the time we spent on the train, some of our fellow passengers had been accused of stealing food, getting in fights with other passengers, smoking in restrooms, possessing drugs, and other non-reputable activities.  Oh goodness!  God kept us safe though and we came out not missing anything but a pair of shoes.

We finally arrived in Fort Worth to get a look at our new truck.  We were thankful that we ended up purchasing the truck so that we could ride home together in the truck and not have to turn around and board the northern-bound "Texas Eagle."  What a good night's sleep we had at our hotel in Oklahoma City that night after showers and a good meal!

So, the next time you think it would be fun to ride an Amtrak train somewhere, remember this cautionary tale!  haha!  Just kidding.  I think had we not had the overnight experience, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.  There were some good parts about it all: cheaper than airplane rides, no TSA hassles, got to meet new people, no time behind the wheel for Andy, got to ride home together instead of two separate cars, we got to spend time together and we got a lot of new interesting stories! 

What a blessing to have a God with whom we can make supplication.  He listens to our cries for help and wants to help us.  He even knows what we are going to ask before we ask it.  It is a blessing to keep in mind that He is sovereign over all.

This past week Andy was in a roll-over vehicle accident due to winter weather.  He was in our Dodge Ram truck that we use for our ministry work: pulling our trailer and for the building ministry.  Andy did not anticipate that he would have trouble driving to work last Saturday morning, but he hit some ice on hwy 131, just North of Grand Rapids, MI, and the truck rolled upside down into the median.  As a result, we believe that the truck is totaled.  We haven't heard from our insurance agency yet, but from what we can tell, it will be totaled and we will be looking for a new truck. 

I'm writing today to ask you to praise God with us for Andy's safety.  God brought him out of the accident with no injuries, just minor scrapes and bruises.  Also, please pray with us about our need for a new truck.  Those of you who are familiar with pulling trailers know that we need a specific kind of truck that will fit our needs.  Please pray that God will provide a truck for us that is just what we need and at a good price.  We are praying that the insurance company will be fair in compensating our losses and that God will bless with the rest of the finances we will need to pay for the truck.  Thank you for praying with us about this matter!

Dear friends,

Thank you for your prayers!  I am excited to tell you that little Asher Edward Smith was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 25th!  After arriving at the hospital around 5:30 am (I think), we eventually welcomed Asher into the world at 7:38 pm that evening.  It was a long journey (we watched all of the Macy's parade, all of the Lions/Patriots game, Wheel of Fortune...etc.), but God was present there with us and helped us through each step.  Asher weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz and was 19 1/4 in long!  Such a good size for a 36 week old preterm baby!  I had always suspected that I was a week further along in the pregnancy than the doctor told me I was, so after I heard how much Asher weighed, I began to wonder if I really was further along than 36 weeks!  I was able to deliver Asher naturally--no cesarean section and no other complications!  What a blessing to have a safe VBAC delivery!  We had the best nurse and doctor during delivery and that made all the difference for me! 

Recovery has been so much nicer since I didn't have to have a c-section.  I am healing well and I look forward to having my Mom here with me for a couple days to help me recover more fully.  Asher is doing well.  He had some respiratory concerns during the first few hours of life, but since then he has been the picture of health.  There never seemed to be any question as to whether he would get to come home with us right away or not and we were so glad for that!  We all were discharged on Saturday, the 27th. 

Judah is so very interested in his little brother!  His new favorite word is "baby" and it's the first thing he says when he wakes up in the morning.  He loves to help with anything baby related: feeding, changing, traveling, etc., and he loves to give Asher kisses. 

Asher's name means blessed or blessing.  We chose this name because we believe that Asher is blessed by the Lord to have had a safe and healthy delivery into the world.  We also feel that Asher is just another one of God's many blessings in our lives.  A blessing we don't deserve and don't take for granted.  This healthy pregnancy and delivery is such a reminder to us of how good God is to us.  We are so blessed.

Thank you for your prayers for our family.  As you think of us, you can pray for Asher's continued health, Judah's adjustment, as well as the adjustment that Andy and I are making as we add Asher and his needs to our family.

Thank you!