Last couple of days...

Just got back from a hot and humid day with Samaritan's Purse!  From 8:00 this morning to 4:00 this afternoon, we have been chopping trees, raking leaves, and moving debris to the curbside.

Here are some pictures from today's and yesterday's work.

We worked at several different homes today...

Eli was the chain saw king; boy did he love it!  He got pretty brave climbing up some of those massive tree's...

 

If there was a tree to be felled, Eli was the man... 

 

The guys found and were checking out a storm shelter...

If you look up at the roof of the shelter, you can see our team leaders hand waving...

 

Yup! "The little room that did!!"

This small safe room was all that was left of a house...

 

Thomas and Robert, looking out at all the destruction...

Conquered this job!  On to the next!

 

The work here was a little tricky... we had to bring down a huge tree that was RIGHT next this lady's house, without it falling on her home and doing more damage.

We did get most of it cut and out today; we have a little left to do tomorrow, but that should not take very long...

Nothing feels better than looking out at a beautiful backyard, knowing that just two hours ago you could hardly even see the grass...

Tonight Eli helped out to change the sign about the donation center at the church...

 

Well, another work day tomorrow!   90 degree weather, 85% humidity... gotta love it   ;)  

Random Pic's From The Last Few Days...

We've been in Moore, OK for almost a week.  The work is kind of slow for us girls; we have been doing a lot of clean up for some of the families in the church that lost everything, but a lot of it is machine work.


Here are some random pictures of our adventure.
Jake found this adorable baby bunny in a pile of rubble...

Everyone taking a lunch break, I don't know if I have ever seen them all this dirty, LOL!

It's the younger boys' first time cleaning up and are loving it!

If there's a ham in our family, it's Jake for sure.

I guess, judging from the way he looks he's been working hard...

 

While the boys are off working we like to take an occasional trip to the park; which so happens to be right across the road...

The little girls are always asking if they can go to the park, in like 90degree weather, CRAZY!

 Caleb LOVES the playground! He will sit in a swing for hours if we let him. 

But, he's not a big fan of sunscreen...

 

Here we are unloading a semi trailer of donations...

Almost done!!!!

 

Here is our full hook-up site.

Ugh, laundry day... not my favorite way to spend the time, but I've had worse ;)

 

 A family from the church had their entire home destroyed! That is where we were yesterday...

 

Eli got rid of a huge tree in the backyard...

 

Caleb thinks he is big enough to help also....

 

That's my Peanut ;)

 

 

By the end of the day everyone was pretty tired :)

But we loved every minute of our time together as a family!!!

 

Our First Day!

Well, this was our first full day here in Moore, Oklahoma.

 The weather was beautiful (very hot) and the kids loved playing with the some of the other church kids in the huge grassy lawn in front of the church... 

The church gym is where all the donated supplies are stored.

The distribution hours are from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday; there are boxes ready for the people who come in, to fill with the things they need. 

 

 Yesterday Dad and a few of the boys went to check out and get some pictures of the devastation.

This is beyond anything we have ever seen. 

The destruction was so much more than I thought it was going to be - there were whole suburbs, gone!  All that was left was giant piles of people's belongings and house materials.  

It was awful seeing all this.  You people walking around, and you take one look at their face, and I've never seen so much sadness and sorrow... they have lost everything!  Their homes, their belongings,  and for some, a loved one...  

The sign on this garage door says, "HE is our shelter in a time of storm, God bless Moore OK."

 

We are going to do some work for the church tomorrow, and then start working with some of the other Disaster Relief Organizations...

Hello Oklahoma!!!

Well, we have finally arrived in Moore Oklahoma! 
We left Friday afternoon, and pulled into the church we are now staying at, around noon today (Monday).

The scenery was beautiful!  I never thought I'd like southern Kansas so much - I could easily live there!  I loved watching the grass wave in the wind, and the endless sea of wind mills.

Ohhhhh! I just can't get over the amazing beauty of south Kansas! 

The trip down was OK; I definitely need to get some new songs for my ipod tho!  I rode with my Dad the whole way down and spent some great quality time with him.  Whether it was singing "Life Is A Highway"(Rascal Flatts) together, "Reckless"(Jeremy Camp), or maybe "Good Morning"(Mandisa!)  Or just trying to stay awake, and trying to keep him awake, :)  I always like spending time with him.

We tried to drive for 10 hours each day so that we could get there on Sunday, but... with our family, things always go slower :) anyone who has a big family will know what I'm talking about...


We are planning on starting disaster relief (DR) work tomorrow; first we are going to help out the church that we are staying with while they have a skidsteer rented (they don't have an operator and dad runs one).  Besides working with SP (Samaritan's Purse) while we are here, we're also going to try some new Disaster Relief organizations that are here - we want to try volunteering with God's Pit Crew and with Operation Blessing (but not sure about OB because you have to be 15, so Thomas can't volunteer with them...).
Matthew 19:26
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

I would like to ask EVERYONE to please keep in your prayers, that all goes smoothly and that God will use us in a mighty way for His glory!

Romans 8:28          
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Memorial Day Weekend...

We had a great time this past weekend!  The campground was almost full and there were a lot of kids...

We had Gramma ,Greg, Hannah and her family all out on Sunday to hangout and visit.  Everybody had a blast!

 

Caleb already thinks he's pretty cool, especially with his scraped up nose :)  I love it...

The weather was absolutely beautiful! (for awhile)  The kids played outside the whole time, and some of the neighbors kids came over to ride bikes together...

 

At one point, Eli got hold of my camera and started taking goofy pictures of himself, so I snuck up and joined him! LOL!  

Later in the afternoon it started raining! Grrrrrr.... so everyone came inside to hangout.  The boys got in to a huge rubber band fight :)   I was to busy trying not to get hit that I did not take any pictures  :)


Even tho it's going to be a lot of work, I'm really itchin' to start our trip to Oklahoma... just a few more days  :)

Oklahoma Here We Come!

It's official... We're going to Oklahoma City!
We are planning on leaving in about a week.  We're going to strip out my Dad's 14' job trailer, and fill it with donated supplies to give to the churches that are working on the disaster relief.
At first, we thought that we would not be able to get in to help (seeing how there have been over 700 people trying to volunteer!), but since they won't have to house us at the church, (another perk of being an RVer) we were able to sign up and we're in!

God is truly blessing our family by giving us this wonderful opportunity;  none of this would be possible without Him.  I can only speak for myself, but my life has never been the same since the first time I volunteered; our very first more-than-a-few-hours volunteer job was a weekend of building with Homes for Our Troops.  I became more aware that life is not just about me, that I had to get out of "My own little world" and look around.  When we first started traveling I thought that everything would be about 'where we were going next'; I didn't think I'd have any opportunity to do anything like volunteering several times with Samaritan's Purse.  I had no idea what God had in store for my family and I.
It's going to be hard leaving my friends when we've only been back for a few weeks, but hey! when God calls, there's no saying 'no',  no matter what the sacrifice may be.

If anyone's around the Oklahoma City area, we would love to see you!  I'm really hoping meet up again with some of the other volunteers that we met in Calhoun, Tuscaloosa, and Shuqualak!

I Love My Friends!

I think friends are one of the greatest things to have in life.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”
―C.S Lewis

I am very blessed to have some of the greatest friends in the world!  I thank God every day for them.   Being the oldest girl in our family traveling, I do not meet many others girls my age, but my friends have been there for me every step of the way, even if it's just a phone call or email.   Through thick and thin, they've been there to help and encourage me.  I have tried to imagine life without them... I hope I'm never at that point.

I'm glad that my friends don't think I'm crazy in my ideas or the way I live.  It's true that friendship is not a big thing, but a bunch of little things...

Like riding horses in the rain...(and getting thrown!)
                                                        You gotta love cowgirl boots tho!!!

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart"

Sorry no horse pictures, and no, I didn't get hurt :)

Or having a sleep over and watching chick flicks while eating "terrible for you" snacks... We do some pretty crazy things when we're tired and stay up to late! (not to mention we have not seen each other in months...)

"Good friends don't let you do stupid things...alone."

 

An all time favorite is playing Apples to Apples in our jammies...

Or maybe trying new recipes in the kitchen...

Some of the sweetest friends can be right in your family.  I have the sweetest (and cutest) cousins...

Hey girls! I'm so looking forward to getting ready for your Mom's party. ;) Last year was so much fun I can hardly wait for this year! Love hanging out with you guys. 

 

Somehow... Joel got half his head in this picture!  LOL!

 

Friends truly are wonderful blessings.  I think the hardest thing about our friendship for us, is saying goodbye, knowing that you're not going to see each other for a while... But, now that we travel, there are no "goodbyes" in our lives, just "see you laters".