My first trip to Colorado

Well, I'm out here in Colorado having a great time! I enjoyed my first trip on an airplane and the pilot even let me sit up front for a few minutes before the plane took off! I thought of you Jack and how much you would have loved to push all the buttons up there! There were hundreds of knobs and buttons and levers. So fun. Can you find me in the picture? Andy and EA keep saying this is like a second honeymoon for them. Ten days, just the two of them! So when they saw this french bakery in the airport, they had to take a picture. Guess it reminded them of their honeymoon in Paris when they ate fresh croissants everyday for breakfast!

But there are a few differences between their first honeymoon and this one. First of all, they brought me along. Kind of a third wheel, but it's all working out. There are actually three beds in our dorm room and they let me have the top bunk. That's right, I said dorm room. Not very honeymoon like if you ask me, but still really cozy. We're all enjoying the Colorado mountains, which we looked at this morning from our breakfast table. Andy and EA are reconnecting with lots of friends! Here is EA with Ellie, her roommate before she married Andy. They had snow cones and got caught up on life.

And here I am with a very special lady. Jack and Emma Grace, this is your mom and dad and me with Leslie. Leslie actually told Kacki about Jesus when she was in college! They've stayed in touch over the years and it was really fun to run into her. Kacki, she says hi to you.

Well, it's a two hour time difference so we are all wiped out. Heading to bed now. Jack and Emma Grace, your mom and dad wanted me to tell you they miss you very much and that they are blowing you kisses out our window so make sure to run outside and catch them soon.

Flat Stanley signing off now

Clara's day

Check out the things we did today:

I had my first trip to the library.

Emma Grace and Jack picked out 5 books each.

It was hard for them to choose only 5.

We read lots of books and played with puzzles.

I like the library.

we got our fishing poles ready to fish...never did get to fish, ran outta time

Emma Grace shared her milk with me...

I love Dora!

Jack took me for a ride....

Boy, what a fun day!

Whew, I am exhausted! (MammaNettte said that :)

We will be "off line" for a few days.... I'll take lots of pictures for you.

I am missing my brother Flat Stanley...if you see him, let me know.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from Flat family...

Hi from Flat Clara and friends!

Emma Grace took care to make sure I was not afraid on the rides.

She held my hand when I was.

Thanks to EA for letting me be her guest blogger. I am currently on vacation with my buddies and their grandparents. We had so much fun today!

We went to the park, rode the rides and played on the playground.

We got so hot, that we HAD to have ice cream to cool us down.

I like this vacation so far!

Jack wants to be like his uncle Charlie, see the name on his helicopter?

It's says Rangers.

Last year when Jack said helicopter, it sounded like "heart doctor"-

He's older now and doesn't says it like that anymore.

I miss it.

It was so cute.

If you look close, you can see me riding in the back seat of the plane.

EG was a good pilot!

Look, here I am again!

See you tomorrow~

Guest Blogger

I would like to introduce you to Flat Clara and Flat Stanley. They will be guest blogging while we are out of town. Flat Clara will be traveling all over NC with two little blondies and their grandparents. Flat Stanley will be hoping on an airplane with two foot-loose-and-fancy-free parents and heading out to Colorado. They'll both be blogging about their adventures here for the next week or so. Enjoy!

She's already thinking...

about what to do with this...
















Great grandparents can't resist, I guess.

Taking a break!

I'm really looking forward to the break Andy and I have coming up. He and I are heading out to Colorado for ten days at the end of this week. I am looking forward to being in Colorado, what a beautiful state, to extended time with Andy-30 meals of all adult conversations, to extended time with the Lord, much needed, to vision and encouragement in our work. It's good to take a break from our house. We've made good progress in the past few weeks, but we have so much more to do. It's nice to get away and not have that to think about!

A highlight of our new house is all the big trucks that come around. Garbage and Recycling day bring two mammoth trucks that make a lot of noise and have really cool ways of getting the trash into the truck. Our kids (especially Jack) love watching. He actually follows the truck all the way to end of the street and watches the truck do it's thing at every house on our street. He and the driver are becoming buddies. Even the furniture delivery truck was worth taking a seat for...















Another highlight has been getting to know our neighbors. One family has two girls, 5 and 8 and we've already stayed up past our bedtimes playing with them twice this week. Our house is in a cul de sac so it's a great place to ride bikes, blow bubbles, chalk the sidewalk, and eat popsicles. It's hot hot here, but our yard is kind of jungle like at this point, so we have plenty of shade.

Andy has been incredibly busy tackling the list of projects we have to do on our house. It's definitely livable-we have a floor now and all our walls are painted (well mostly!) but there's tons of stuff left to do. The yard, which is a project for the fall, needs lots of work. We're trying to conquer the inside before we set about that task. We did haul off all this brush this week.
















All this stuff was growing in our yard and we've been cutting it down slowly. At least our yard is less jungle like at this point.

For the most part, we've keep the kids under control during the chaos that is moving. But there have been a few moments where I've come in to find EG eating in the nude or Jack helping himself to some ice cream...not sure why he bothered to get the bowl out...he was eating straight from the container.

Old World, New World

Aubrey and Abby, precious new friends

Back in October, Andy and I attended a retreat for people returning from overseas. It was a weekend long getaway at the beach intended to help us transition back to life in the US. It was really helpful to process to be with others making the same big move and to reflect on the gravity of our move as well as get some helpful insight on how to make the transition go as smoothly as possible.

One of the activities they had us do was create an "Old World, New World" book. The first few pages of the book were about our "Old World" (for us that is China). Each page had a different aspect of our old world written on the top-friends, places, activities. They had us draw or write on each page. The room was electric while each family worked on filling out places and people from their old world. It was like a piece of us came alive again! Andy and I enjoyed listing all our friends from China. We drew a picture of the market where fresh veggies were daily piled and sold for practically nothing. We loved drawing pictures of the activities we were a part of. It felt so good to go back for just a few minutes to "that life."

Then they had us flip the pages to our "New World" (for us that is Florida). We were to repeat the same activity-this time listing places, people, and activities from our new world. The room grew quiet and somber. Most every one's pages were stark white with a few words scattered here and there, quite a contrast to the previous pages overflowing with people and places we love. We were thankful to write our families names and a few friends here in the US, but most of them do not live close by. They reminded us that this process of starting over takes time. There's so much to cherish from our old world and our new world feels empty right now. But it won't forever.

As we've closed out this first year of living back in the US, I've been thinking a lot about how God is filling our "New World" pages. He's coloring them in ways I did not ask and could not have even imagined. That's one thing I really like about moving and starting over. I have an awareness of my needs and my dependence on God to provide for me that I could not have settled into my old world. I still love my old world and miss my friends so much. But I am also keenly aware of God's movement in my life to meet me in this new world. People who bring us joy, a home that we love, neighbors who have blessed us beyond belief. There's so much to be thankful for as we watch God fill in our pages. I remember the first few months entering most interactions with people with an expectation and wonder-"what will God do in this interaction? why did he bring this person into my life" It's been fun to see some of that unfold this year. Starting over is hard. Really Hard. And I am not sure I can say I would choose it for myself again (I told Andy that I hoped he liked this house, because I am planning on us being here til we die!). But I'm glad for the way it's helped me see that God is my good father and that my good gifts in my new world are from him.