Kaylah at 6 months
It’s been almost one month since I last posted some photos! For some reason, my laptop has not been connecting to the internet, but it seems to be working again, thankfully. So . . . WARNING . . . this will be a long post as I have a lot of photos saved up to share with you. 🙂 It’s been a great month for us – busy, but lots of fun too. Just by way of review . . . we spent 3 weeks in the Chicago area. We stayed with my Aunt Carol and were able to visit quite a few churches and prayer partners which was great.
Here is my Aunt Carol with the Meadlings. We are thankful for the gracious hospitality she showed us.
During our time in Chicago, we took a road trip up to North Dakota where we had a family reunion on the farm where my mom grew up. Here are a few photos from our time there. It was so special to be with family that we hardly ever get to see.
Here's my niece, Claire, meeting Kaylah.
There were seven original cousins and here are their offspring (minus a couple who were sleeping, etc.) . . .
Cassidy and Kaylah
It wouldn't be a farm reunion without tractor rides . . . big and small!
Joel on the tractor - farm reunion 2012 . . . AND . . .
Joel on the tractor - farm reunion 2008 🙂
Cousins . . . Rylie, Hannah and Cassidy - farm reunion 2012
Rylie, Hannah and Cassidy - farm reunion 2008 🙂
Aliyah and Claire . . . getting to know you . . .
After the farm reunion, we drove 700 miles back to Chicago and then flew to Oregon (minus Hannah and Aliyah who drove to Oregon from ND with my parents – 1500 miles). Peter preached at our sending church our first Sunday here and we’ve been starting to connect with prayer partners as well as getting lots of time with family.
My Mom, having a cuddle with Kaylah
My sister, Amy, and nephew Matthew getting some Kaylah time
Mariah and Claire
Joel and Matthew wrestling
Blueberry picking!
16 pounds of berries picked by the Meadlings, plus Mom!
Joel's continued to love playing baseball. Here he is at a real baseball diamond, practicing his batting. He and Matthew also did a baseball "camp" one week (1 hr. each a.m.)
Mariah's really good at sliding into home plate!
Kaylah's not quite ready for baseball yet, but she likes Joel's Cubs hat! Maybe she was thinking of trading hats with him. 🙂
The girls all dressed up after a tea party with our friend, Aunt Sheri (yes, Hannah is wearing that wedding dress again . . . there is a story behind it!)
Hannah LOVED her four days at horse camp!!
We spent a special afternoon with our friends, The Meiers Family - here are 8 kids from our two families (Hannah was at camp and Kaylah was asleep)
Aliyah, harvesting (and eating!) from the Meiers' family garden with Kaleb
The day after we picked up Hannah from horse camp, we packed up again and headed to central Oregon (Bend/Sunriver area). Some friends graciously let us stay in their vacation home and we had a wonderful ten days! It was great to be a family of seven again (as much as we’ve enjoyed staying with extended family!) and we made some great memories. Peter was also able to speak twice in a church there and people were so welcoming and responsive. We also got to spend some time with prayer partners – friends who we dearly love! One family even babysat for us and provided us with some money so Peter and I could have a date. We had a meal near the river – such a treat! Peter took the kids floating on the river in innertubes twice and the church there provided us with passes so they could go to the local water park twice too. We took a hike to a waterfall (that’s where the first photo on this post was taken) which was fun even though we got eaten alive by mosquitoes!
Four Meadlings taking a rest from hiking . . .
We saw quite a few deer during our time in central Oregon. This one was grazing in the backyard!
We came back to the house one day to find two dead birds on the back deck (maybe they flew into the window?). In true Mead fashion, the kids and Peter had a funeral and I walked out of the house to hear them standing around the grave singing, "I'll Fly Away!"
While we were in Sunriver, Kaylah learned to sit up on her own (the hat was courtesy of her siblings!)
She still falls over sometimes (thus the pillows and blankets set up around her!) but when she falls over, she never complains! We just look over and she's laying down, relaxing. 🙂
Another new skill . . . grabbing and eating her feet! She's such a joyful little baby and has been so adaptable on this trip, praise God!
I think this is the one and only time we have needed a cardigan for Kaylah. The weather has been very hot almost the whole time we've been in the USA!
So we’re back in the Portland area now, staying with good friends in Forest Grove (west of Hillsboro). They have graciously moved into their basement with their girls and are letting us use their upstairs for the next 3 weeks. What a blessing. We have many friends and prayer partners to meet up with and our schedule is looking pretty packed at this point! Please pray that we will be a blessing wherever we go and for energy and stamina to keep up with the schedule. This Sunday our sending church is having a missions fair, so we are busy preparing things for our table to share about our ministry with people. Then the following Sunday, Peter will be preaching there again. As a family, we are all feeling eager to get home to Chippenham, sleep in our own beds and get back to a “normal” routine. Pray we will enjoy our last 3 weeks and have contented spirits, ready to be a blessing to our friends and family. Thanks for reading this LONG post and for praying for us!! We have a lot to be thankful for.
