Elizabeth Schneider

This week, Andrew and I became an uncle and aunt a second time! This little one took her time coming into this world (she was two weeks overdue). My brother and sister-in-law, Kevin and Angela, went into the hospital Sunday evening and after a very long labor had their first child, Elizabeth Lynn Schneider very early Tuesday morning (July 29 at 12:56 pm to be exact). Elizabeth was 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long. Both Angela and Elizabeth are doing great and will hopefully go home today. We are very excited to have this new little girl in our family, and we am so happy for Kevin and Angela. Congratulations you two!! We can't wait to meet you Elizabeth...we'll see you when we get home from Africa next month!

August 6-23

August 6th is coming quickly and our time of departure for Bethesda Outreach Ministries in South Africa is getting closer as each minute and hour that passes. As of 9PM tonight (26-Jul-08) we are just 10 days and 9 hours away from flying out of our Grand Rapids Airport headed to Atlanta where we will have an eight hour lay over (a similar lay over to the high school students from Cornerstone that waited in Atlanta for their final destination of Jamacia just a few weeks ago) after Atlanta we will cross the pond (Atlantic Ocean), refuel in Senegal, Africa but stay on board before we land in at our final destination of Johannesburg, South Africa. All in all leaving 6AM 6-Aug-08 and arriving 4:35PM 7-Aug-08 local time. All in all journey time of 34.5 hours and 4987 miles. The good news is that is just the first step and Kate and I can not wait to take that first step.

249 hours and counting to departure!!!

Dentist

Today Kate and I got to visit our friendly neighborhood dentist, OUCH! I got four cavities filled to Kate's one :( They said something about the sealants I got as a child breaking down and that is why things were not in tip top shape. Kids, no no, EVERYONE reading this should now pause and brush their teeth, don't forget to floss...
Now that you're back with clean, fresh, minty white teeth. Please keep Kate and I in your prayers that our teeth will not be so sensitive to extreme hot and cold, but more importantly that Kate's bite splint will fit and feel comfortable to her tonight. She has been in quite a bit of jaw pain.

News Alert, News Alert!!! Kate cuts hair, Kate cuts hair!!!

After 48 days (that is almost 7 weeks, a whole year in dog years) since my last hair cut I had finally had enough and encouraged and coaxed Kate into giving me her first ever hair cut. I must say after all was said and done I’m very impressed! We started out with some of the larger guards on the hair trimmers. As she got more and more comfortable the guards got smaller and smaller. I’m guessing the hair cutting genes run in her family, but the quotes of the night were, “I’m glad I’m going to be a nurse” and “My hand can’t stop shaking”. Both came from Kate and both while my hairs were getting trimmed. She knew how to instill confidence and give assurances. I LOVE THAT WOMAN, she is God’s special encourager, support, and gift to me!!!

Marshmallow Taffy

Sometime last week...

So Andrew likes to play with his marshmallows. He turns them into 'marshmallow taffy' by stretching and pulling it apart between his fingers. It is an art perfected through many years of camp! SO Kate was making it with him and made a huge mess...

Phil, Jenn and Natalie Visit

On Sunday the 13th of July, Kate and I had some very special guests. Phil, Jenn and our seven-month-old niece, Natalie, came and spent the afternoon and evening with us. It was so good to spend some time with them, and for Aunt Kate it was the first time she got to meet Natalie. Phil and I got to play some speedmitten (a lot like badminton but without a net and a bit more sturdy) while Kate and Jenn played on Adobe Photoshop. Jenn was able to show Kate some fun new things on her photoshop, like how to make a completely digital scrapbooking page. We made one of our new favorites for dinner, sweet and salsa chicken, with strawberry shortcake for dessert (see an earlier post to hear about ALL the strawberries). Phil, Jenn, and Natalie headed north to spend a couple of days with Mom and Dad to finish their Midwest family vacation tour.

Kate’s Weekend Trip

July 11-13, I was able to travel back to Detroit to attend my high school friend’s wedding. Andrew could not take the time off due to using most of his vacation time for our upcoming Africa trip. So I arrived Friday afternoon at my parent’s home. Kevin, Angela, and G came over and we all had a BBQ dinner. Kyle was not able to be there because he is in Jamaica right now on a missions trip and will be home on Monday (I miss you Kyle!!) It was so good to spend time with them since I had not seen them since May. Angela is 9 months pregnant and now past her due date for their first child. I can’t wait to meet my niece or nephew (Andrew thinks it will be a girl!). We all played bocce ball on the front lawn after dinner. The “Young Ones” team won the game, but we all had a good time playing outside on that beautiful summer evening. I also gave Kevin and Angela their baby present, it was a little early but I wanted to be there when they opened our gift. They loved their Build-A-Bear that we made for their baby. It was a great night with family!!

Saturday, Dad and I were able to spend a lot of time together. It was so good to talk and catch up on life with him. I also visited with my best friend Cassie Whiteaker, she was in town for her sister-in-law’s graduation party. It was so fun to chat and share and laugh. I love that girl!! That afternoon, I went to Lisa Czupinski’s wedding. Lisa and I went to high school together; we were both in band and played soccer. She also went to GVSU with me and will be living in Holland after she is married; I am looking forward to spending time with her since she is going to be living close by. She was a very beautiful bride. I am glad that I was able to witness and celebrate her special day with her. It was also great to reconnect with my old high school friends (Jaclyn, Leah, and Jenelle) that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

On Sunday, I went out to breakfast with my parents, and then we headed to church at Cornerstone. I love being able to go back there and see all my friends. They are all really my family members, and it is always such a blessing to be back with the body there. It was also wonderful to update friends about our upcoming trip with how to pray for us as well as telling them about this blog. After church, I hopped into my car and headed back across the state so that I could be home in time for Phil (Andrew’s brother), Jenn, and Natalie’s visit later that afternoon.

playing Bocce Ball The Winning Team! :) In the new nursery, waiting for Baby Schneider to come!

Camping Celebration

After church Sunday, in which we were offically extended the right hand of fellowship (ie welcomed as members), we loaded up the car and went to Hoffmaster State Park in Muskegon, MI. We got to use a wedding gift for the very first time, our tent. It only took us two years to break our tent out of the box and go camping! After the last day and a half we should have done it a whole lot sooner. Kate and I set up camp and headed to the "beach" on Lake Michigan (Currently, we are having a discussion as to what exactly constitutes a beach. Personally, I

believe the beach only to be located at the ocean. The MI native (Kate) thinks that anything with sand and water is the beach. We will let you decide :) ) It was good to get out and just relax. Of course jumping into Lake Michigan anytime of year isn't exactly relaxing but we did it anyway. It actually warms up after you go numb! Went back to our campsite, warmed up and made dinner over the fire. Had way too much to eat including our brats, smores and doughboys. Finished the night playing frisbee, cards and Kate attempting to kill every bug in the greater Muskegon area. Personally, I questioned whether or not we really were camping since we did bring our queen size air mattress. Either way we did get a good night sleep.

The sun really does get up early the first week of July and this morning so did we. Had a true Fresh Start breakfast this morning: sausage, egg, cheese and bagel sandwich. We sure do eat a lot. Walked along the beach then got packed up. Kate, and now I had joined in too, were now determined to get all the bugs. Less than thirty seconds after we closed the trunk and had the last item packed the heavens opened up and the rains came down and they came down fast and hard. As soon as we got home, I checked out the weather radar, and we had gone through the orange and red rain storms (that was for both of our Dads). Orange and red are the most severe storms. All the camping gear stayed dry, yeah! The Dodds are very happy and thankful for the day away to celebrate two years of marriage together and time to unwind. Setting up the tent. Eating doughboys!

Happy 2 years!!

Happy 4th of July

Earlier in the week Dan and Emily (friends from church) wanted to get together on the 4th to watch fireworks. My first response was that I would not be able to go with them but I was sure Kate would want to watch fireworks since I had to be at work that evening. Then I realized that some fireworks would be going on at Kollen Park just a few blocks away from the mission. Later in the week Andy (my boss) got permission from his boss saying we could watch the light show from the roof of the Holland Rescue Mission. Of course we found all this out just hours before the fireworks. That was more than enough time for the Dodd's and the Stauch's to pull off the event. Kate and Emily made chocolate chip cookies and I was already at work so the three of them came to Holland just before dusk. We had to have had the BEST seats in all of Holland! After a beautiful sunset, we had an eye level view of all the fireworks. It was spectacular! Had a great time with our friends and enjoyed the show.

7/2/08

Our 2nd year anniversary!! Kate and I had a great day together celebrating 731 days of married life together. Before Kate's classes, Kate got two red roses to mark our two year anniversary. I got a new Tigers t-shirt, and Kate got a new outfit for church. After class, we watched our wedding DVD and had a great evening out including dinner at the Olive Garden we talked about what we look forward to most in year 3 as well as the top ten from this past year on our journey together. We had a wonderful day celebrating together!

Learning to Blog

Well I can't say I've been consistent at posting all things new on our blog, but I've got just over four weeks left to practice before we will be writing from the other side of the pond. We hope in the coming weeks we will practice writing so you can join in our journey to Bethesda and pray more effectively for us as we go.