Our very dear friends Lester & Deanna Jennings paid us a visit in June while Kaitlin was in Africa. It was not only great to see them and spend 4 relaxing days fellowshipping and eating our way through Dallas with them, but it helped preoccupy us from missing Kaitlin.




















Lester and Deanna rode 1494 miles on a Harley to see us. They traveled through the desert, and the plains of West Texas to see us. If we had ever wondered whether Lester & Deanna loved us they squelched all our insecurities by coming to see us!



It didn't take very long for Isabelle to warm up to Lester!!! Once she did she nearly ran him ragged!

Isabelle was so impressed with Lester that she kept calling him Pastor Ed. (Our Pastor from C.O.D. who came out to visit two months earlier.) To which we all roared with laughter. She must have recognized the similarity they have in their love of Christ and passion for discipleship because besides the bandanna, beard, tatoos, and Harley that is all they really have in common!!!

Izzy couldn't help but stack all the chairs up and proceed to lead church complete with music and sermon in the family room. You can't ask Lester & Deanna what Izzy preached because both of them were crying with laughter at Izzy's mannerisms. ( I thought I was the one in seminary)


Thank you soooo much Lester & Deanna for blessing us with a wonderful visit!!! We enjoyed the love laughter and prayers. Izzy loved the Bike!

As many of you know Kaitlin was invited by Jon & Kathy (Michele's Dad & Mom) to accompany them on a once in a lifetime trip to Africa!!! They planned on leaving June 3rd and would return three weeks later after a safari in Tanzania and stay at an incredible resort in Zanzibar.

As many of you may not know we had changed churches this last year because Kaitlin was not not making any connections with friends at church and not really being challenged to grow spiritually. So we left that church in search of a church that could be a home for all of us. The Lord lead us to Waterbrook Fellowship after 4 months of tireless searching. All of you who have looked for a good church you know how trying it can be being the 1st time visitor for the 7th Sunday in a row, trying to find children's facilities and parking is no fun when you are new every week at a new church. BUT we found a wonderful church that really demonstrates the love of Christ to new people and each other! We have been there 8 months now and Kaitlin is flourishing!!!

This photo is of all her Pastor, Youth Leaders, friends from youth group and our neighbor who came over to the house the day before she was to leave so they could pray with her. They made bracelets that everyone wore to remember Kaitlin and pray for her safety, enjoyment and incredible adventure while she was away for the next three weeks! God is good and His body is beautiful!!!

Kaitlin was honored at the the end of the school year by receiving the Presidential Excellence Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. This is a photo of the assembly the actual receiving of the award I video taped so I couldn't get a photo!

Isabelle received some make up as a gift and had a great time for about thirty minutes exploring all the possibilities and colors!!!















The shirt was already tie-dyed, but the lips, legs and toe nails are all Izzy's creation!!!!

Mothers DAY!!!

Remember our friends from church Dave & Joni Burchett!
Well on Mothers Day the Texas Rangers celebrated Cancer Survivors, and they asked Joni to throw out the 1st pitch as a Breast Cancer Survivor. She had just received her clean bill of health weeks before and after a grueling battle to over come Breast Cancer. (Thank you Jesus for your mercy in her healing.) So we were invited among many friends and family members to take part in this momentous day.





Michele who doesn't much care for baseball but loves Dave & Joni loved her special Mothers day in the sun outdoors with her family and in the company of wonderful friends celebrating the gift of life.
By the way the game was awesome!!! We saw 4 lead changes, 8 home runs (1 by Sammy Sosa), double plays, a manager & a player get ejected, a player storm the mound, fireworks!!! It was a Great DAY!!!

AWANA Cubbies!!!

Isabelle completed her 1st year in AWANA. She went every Sunday night from September to April and would memorize Bible verses hear great lessons about the Bible and sing songs, play games and do arts and crafts. Because she memorized all the verses in her book she received an award at the end of the year.

We were very proud of her. She wasn't too crazy about Awana at 1st and fell behind in her memory work because she was too shy to repeat what she had learned, but after a few weeks mommy went into class with her and helped a couple times get the ball rolling and pretty soon she was doing 2 and 3 verses each week.

While the Trerise's were here in Dallas we all went to Six Flags!!! It was great except for the 4-5 tornadoes that touched down right around the park.

Needless to say the park was closed with in an hour of our arrival. The good news is they gave us a Rain Check, but the bad news was the Trerise's were leaving the next day!!!

So the last day of April Michele took Kaitlin and some girls from church to enjoy the day that we had originally planned to spend with Tim, Careth, Benton, Tiffany, and Ryan.

Boy's Night Out was a trip to Ranger stadium to watch the Rangers play Boston.



It was cold but we had a Great Time!!!

Easter morning at Waterbrook Fellowship.

This Post is for Ed Underwood!!!

It Really freak's Ed out when people from different areas of his life intersect and he's not around!!!
This is Michele and the Trerise's with Ed and Judy's dear friends from Dallas who kept them sane when they were here attending DTS in the 80's!!! Dave & Joni Burchett. (More on them later)

Easter 2007!!!

The next huge blessing we received was a visit from The Family Trerise!!!

Tim & Careth were among the very 1st friends we made at C.O.D. when we 1st attended. Our kids bonded and blended very fast. So much so they often forget that Kaitlin is not a blood relative.






Easter Morning was very exciting!!!

We had 1 house with two families, and only 2 bathrooms with 4 teenagers and 4 adults!!!

Amazingly enough we all made it and had time to find baskets and an easter egg hunt!!!

The Spring was also loaded with wonderful visitors who are all very spacial to us.
March brought us our Pastor from C.O.D. Ed Underwood. He was visiting those from C.O.D. who are attending DTS in preparation for future ministry. Right now there is another couple from our home church Greg and Michelle Fink attending DTS, and pictured with us is Matt Ketterling who came with Ed to investigate DTS. He is already attending Talbot Seminary in So. Cal.




Ed came over for dinner and and made Isabelle's whole week!

It is a wonderful thing to experience family and friendship in the body of Christ. Our girls feel very connected and a part of Church of the Open Door and it is all because of the unique love and passion that our church has for Christ and the their devotion to loving the body even when the body is 1400 miles away! Thank you Ed for being a tremendous blessing to us, when we needed it most!

1 month later March 17th we celebrated Kaitlin's 13th Birthday! She is officialy a teenager!!! What was her first wish as a teeenager. . . a pancake birthday cake, whatelse!

She received an assortment of fun gifts from friends but the crowd pleaser was the cash rolled up in toilet paper!!! Very Cool!!!
The girls then were off to the movies and then they hung out and walked around the mall. Great teenager fun!

Saturday Feb 24th, 2007 Isabelle was feeling much better and she was truly in the spirit to have a party!!! What a Party she had!


She invited friends large and small to celebrate!!!

Michele came up with a great idea to transform the house into a carnival.

There was bowling, fishing target shooting, a ring toss and and of course a shell game!

Don't forget the face painting!