Our little Ham

Gotta love the [very, very, very short] season when every time they see the camera they give you their biggest, most hilarious smile.

The Lineup

When Benjamin yells, "Mama, come look!" this is usually how I find them. My oldest child knows a photo op when he sees one and is so sweet to let me know. Most of the time Samuel is forced into this position but thankfully he is easy going enough to just giggle.

Story of my life

Isa and Sam looking and smilingBenjamin and Isa looking and smiling

Benjamin and Sam looking and smiling

Seriously kids! Could you coordinate your smiles a little bit?! They were just a tiny bit excited about going outside.

Just sweet

For Father's Day last week we took Drew to Red Robin because it's the only thing within walking distance of our church (we try to avoid finding and paying for parking whenever possible!). Benjamin loves balloons. Unfortunately, Benjamin's balloon flew off the string on the walk back to the car. Benjamin was holding his string, watching his blue balloon disappear into the sky, and sobbing his eyes out. Sam graciously gave Benjamin his red balloon. This is how we found Benjamin during his quiet time. Never let go!Eloisa is constantly being complimented on her clothes. Big shout out to Drew's Aunt Michelle for all of Isa's hand me downs. We are so thankful!

Dimples anyone?

8th Tooth

Samuel got his first 7 teeth in all within a month and a half of each other in January and February. The 8th tooth finally poked through this past week. I love his smile.

Be Brave! Be Strong!

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

I was so proud of my little man Benjamin earlier today when I took him in for two shots that he needed to go to preschool. He didn't seem nervous at all on the way there and was telling me what was going to happen once we got there. I was half paying attention to his description of what the doctor would do because there was a car accident and I got lost trying to go around it. We made it right on time to our appointment-not a minute early-gasp! (Anyone who knows me knows on time is not acceptable-I have to be early.) Benjamin smiled at the doctor and gave him a high five. The doctor told him to hug me around the neck and he proceeded to give Benjamin a shot in each arm. One shot...no tears or whimpers. Number two...still no tears or whimpers. The doctor said he was all done and Benjamin hopped down, thanked the doctor and headed out the door. I was sort of standing there like, "Is that really my son?" After we got home and we were sitting down eating lunch he said, "You know why I didn't cry, mama? That why I trayed and asked God to make me brave and he did." My first response was to feel bad that in my rush I didn't think to pray with him and my next response was to feel an overwhelming joy that he prayed that on his own.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
Isaiah 43:2-3

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:33

We pray our children don't grow up assuming life is going to be easy or should be easy for them but we long for them to KNOW that the Lord their God is with them through it all.

awaken us… Lord

awaken us from our slumber

too long have we slept.
too long have we looked upon a darkened, dieing, hopeless world and lazily looked to the horizon for Your coming… or was that our T.V. set?

Awaken us Lord to the hunger that is within.

Stir your children of light from their comfortable seats… that we would know the feeling of Your armor again… the feeling of your sword.

Fan the fire of passion for Your Name… Your Fame… that we might feel the coursing fire flooding through our souls… like rivers… like springs of life.

Let us sleep no longer!
Let us waken from the night in search of our Beloved.
Let us throw ourselves against the gates of injustice… the gates of poverty… the gates of darkness… the gates of hell. Until we can no longer stand AND YET we stand!

AWAKEN US LORD!

Move us to the edges… gather us to the corners… take us OUTSIDE THE CAMP…

AWAKEN US LORD!

Awaken hearts that are broken for the broken hearted. Lives that are lived for the lost.

AWAKEN US LORD!

The night is far gone; the day is at hand.

Even so. Amen.

timothy mark mcdonald http://www.awakenus.org/2009/06/intermittent.html

Love these boys

This picture of me holding Benjamin and Samuel was taken at Salem Church, the last stop on our two month tour of the Midwest. My arms almost fell off that day. The kids were tired and done with traveling so I spent most of our visit holding at least two of them at one time. But I cherish holding them in my arms and was thrilled to have Andy share this picture with us.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day (a few days late!) to one incredible father. Your children adore you. There is a reason they squeal with delight when you walk through the door. You set aside so many other things that you love to do in order to spend time with them. They feel loved, and accepted, and cherished because fathering them is one of your top priorities in life. You are the closest example for them on this earth of the extravagant love of their heavenly Father and you're doing a mighty fine job in my opinion.

enable me to sacrifice time,
and possessions,
and securities,
to do something...
something about what I see,
something to turn the water of my words
into the wine of will and risk,
into the bread of blood and blisters,
into the blessedness of deed,
of a cross picked up,
a Savior followed.

Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace

Denver

We were blessed to spend two nights in Denver with our good friends the Newtons. Visiting Denver feels like 'coming home' to Drew and I since that is where we spent the first 3 years of our married life. We spent the first year of our married life in the same nasty apartment complex as Joel and Hill. Good times at the Royal Manor! The kids were thrilled to have a day off from the inside of the van and we were thrilled to visit with friends. Samuel was serious about his rock transferring business.

Norah was tickling Isa, Anna and Benjamin's feet.

Splashing in freezing cold water on a cool day sounds miserable to me but the kids had a blast.

We Made It!

We are in Vancouver! We got in last night. They gave us our visas at the border. Praise God! The kids did incredible in the car. They spent four long days sitting in car seats and they were so patient and easily entertained. They were wild and ran like crazy at every stop but never threw a tantrum when we asked them to get back in the car. By day four, Samuel did get super stiff when we would go to put him back in his car seat. We would have to push on his squishy belly to get him to bend back into his seat. We were so proud of our three little ones. We were stopped by so many strangers at restaurants and our hotels that wanted to tell us what a beautiful family we have. What an encouragement and blessing to us to hear those words when we were feeling road weary.

While the kids slept in the car, Drew and I even had a chance to read a book to each other. We read Crazy Love by Francis Chan. It pretty much kicked our butts. We are each going to reread it and take more time to reflect and pray. One line that has been rolling around in my mind: "Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers." Oh Lord, may we love and serve and give (out of LOVE not guilt or duty) so extravagantly that the world thinks we are crazy.

I'll upload a few pictures when I uncover the camera.

Thanks for your prayers and support. We are so grateful.

Homemade Granola Bars

We are in mad packing mode and preparing for the biggest roadtrip of our lives. Because we are going to be spending lots of time in the car, I wanted to have some yummy, healthy things available for the kids to fill their bellies with. Benjamin and I made Homemade Granola Bars this morning for our trip. Only the kids (and Drew and I) absolutely loved them and we ate half of what I had wrapped up to take. I had to call my mom and ask her to stop at the store on the way home from work and bring me more dried fruit so I could make another batch tonight. Benjamin did most of the work. They were easy and fun to make and oh so delicious! Check out Benjamin's beautiful and neat piles of ingredients. He is my child. (We threw in coconut, dried apples, and dried apricots.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Gather your ingredients:

2 cups oats

3/4 cup wheat germ

3/4 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup peanuts, crushed

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

4 Tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

approximately 8 oz. dried fruit

To crush your peanuts, put them in a plastic bag and smash them with a heavy mallet, measuring cup, or sauce pan.

Then, mix the peanuts, oats, wheat germ, and sunflower seeds in a baking dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so that they don’t get burned.

Meanwhile, prepare a glass baking dish (about 11 x 13 inches) for your granola by lining it with waxed paper lightly sprayed with a nonstick spray.

Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.

By now, your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. The grains, the liquid “glue,” and the dried fruit. Oh, and turn off your oven, because you’re finished with it now.

Mix everything REALLY WELL because you want to make sure the “glue” gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your prepared baking dish.

Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Now fold over the sides of the waxed paper or add a sheet on top, and PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compact it together so that your bars won’t fall apart when you cut them.

Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled.

Then, open the waxed paper …

And carefully turn the granola onto a large cutting board, peeling away the rest of the paper.

Now, firmly pressing down with a big knife (not sawing), cut your granola into whatever size bars you’d like.

I wrapped ours individually in plastic wrap, so that we could just throw one into our bag or lunch box in the morning. If you’d like to save on packaging though, you can store yours in an airtight container, between sheets of waxed paper (so they don’t stick together).

Of course, you can mix up the recipe. I used peanuts because they’re what we had, but next time I’m going to make the granola nutless at first, but during the pressing-down part, I plan to press almonds into the top of the bars.

Another combo that would be fun to try is macadamia nuts, dried pineapple, and coconut flakes.

Or try dried cranberries, walnuts, and white chocolate chips (just a few).

I also plan to add flax seed to my granola mix.

Different flavors of honey would also probably change the final outcome too. Mmm…

So many options!

Fun on the Farm

We spent some time out at the Rupp farm this morning with the kids. Most of these pictures are of Samuel because he is just so stinking hilarious out there. He LOVES the animals, the dirt, the garden and plows full steam ahead while his older and bigger brother and sister hold back with much more apprehension. Samuel was yelling, pointing, and picking up kittens by the head (no animals were harmed during our visit). We saw kittens, two 2 day old kids (baby goats), and a one week old calf with a very protective mama. City kids sure miss out.

Gentle, Sam!

Isa is the toughest little girl I've ever met but she's scared of kittens?

Watching the baby goats get a drink from their mama. Benjamin was fascinated.

Slugger

You can take the kid of the U.S. but you can't take the U.S. out of the kid. Drew is determined to be a baseball family no matter where we live. (My mom would want all of my readers to know that we realize the grass is long in the backyard. She buried her pool a month ago-sad but good-and we are waiting for the grass to get a little thicker.)

And below is what happens as soon as Benjamin drops the bat to run. Samuel swipes it out from under him and wants his turn. Benjamin is actually trying to help Sam swing in this picture but Sam is almost 15 months and pure trouble and wants nothing to do with his big brother's assistance.

Moser Family Update: June 2009

Friends and family--Is it June already? Time flies when you travel for 2 months straight! Here's our newest update.

Where we are...physically

Road weary, but happy. The past 2 months have been packed with traveling to visit family, friends, supporters, and churches. We're tired, but blessed. This time has been a whirlwind of appointments, road trips, plane flights, packing and unpacking...but it's been worth it. Worth it to see all of you. We are blessed to have such an incredible support network, and it's been good to see so many of you.

Where we are...mentally

Confused, most of the time! Common questions between Bekah and I are: "Where are we this week? What day is it?"

Where we are...financially

After 2 months of speaking, fundraising, and sharing, we currently are 80% of our goal to be able to sustainably live and serve in Vancouver. In order to meet our missions budget on a monthly basis, we need $1000 additional funding per month.

What this means:

After a lot of thought and prayer, we've decided to return to Vancouver in spite of our lack of funding. We're stepping out in faith, trusting in God's provision, since we firmly believe He has called us to return. Though we can't yet see how he'll provide, we're prayerfully waiting for God to reveal Himself in this way.

Where we'll be:

Our estimated time of departure (ETD) is Saturday, June 13. We'll load up our van, our 3 kids, and our fleeting sanity and make the 2,400 mile drive back to Vancouver. Overnight stops include Omaha, Denver, Boise, and HOME to Vancouver.

How you can help:

Pray!!!

• Pray for our travel back to Vancouver. For cooperative kids, patient parents, and safe travels.
• Pray for our reentry back into Canada. We are attempting to reenter without our visas in hand.
• Pray that we would continue to remain at the feet of Jesus. Anxiousness, worry and fear of all the unknowns are shut out when we recognize and acknowledge that Jesus IS the bread of life and we allow him to nourish our souls. "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:25,27,33
• Pray that we would pour out our lives in service to others only out of the love, grace and forgiveness that Christ has lavished on us. We don't want to just go through the motions of doing what is moral and just and good and right. We want to live in awe and wonder of our GREAT God who was and is and is to come. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything." 1 John 3:16-20

We're looking for creative ways to close the gap in our support, fully realizing that economic times are tough. For those who feel called to support our ministry, you can give securely online here. Another way: part of Drew's ministry is equipping leaders through personal/leadership coaching. If you're interested at all in being coached, Drew offers his coaching services at a fraction of the fees charged in the corporate sector. Contact him by email if you are interested.

We love you all and thank you so much for your prayers and support. May God bless you in a fresh way this month.

The Mosers

[Donate to the Moser family's mission in Vancouver! Click HERE to give online.]

Sam's First Haircut

We are headed back to Vancouver next week (another post full of updates and prayer requests-lots of prayer requests-will be posted in a few days) so of course we all had to see Janessa one final time this week and Samuel got to go along for his first haircut. I am posting lots of pictures because Daddy is in CA for some training and hasn't seen the new 'do.

A few Before pictures:

The front

The back

And the first snip. There goes the natural mohawk. My bottom lip is sticking out right now just thinking about it.Sam looks sad too, don't you think?

This picture makes me laugh. Janessa's hands move like lightening.

Be still my heart. Isn't he a little stud? He thought he was BIG stuff with his sucker.

We love you, Janessa!

Friends

We were hugely (is that a word?) blessed to be able to spend a whole 3 hours :) on Saturday with some of our dearest friends from our years in Denver and their beautiful boys. We all happened to be in IL at the same time. (Drew was preaching and they were visiting family.) We love you guys and miss you dearly. I ran across this picture of us before we all moved away from Denver (still not sure why we ever left that amazing place!) and it made me laugh. We all look so young and we have so many arms free and it was only taken 4 years ago.