Shaarda's Story - It's God's Story!: October 2015

On October 10 my younger sister Amanda (yes, we have the same name) got married to Ben. It was a beautiful, brisk fall day in between two rainy, cold weekends. Our family was honored to be apart of their special day. Since we were in Uganda and missed the last two family weddings, our children were in Amanda's wedding and Josh and I were master and mistress of ceremonies.

Emalai and her cousin Stanley

Lydia and Grace loved getting all dressed up. pretty and part of the wedding!

Lydia and Grace with their Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Kansas

With my Dad

Ben & Amanda were married in a beautiful barn - the perfect fall setting

Beute sisters!

Our Big, Beautiful Beute Family!

And CRAZY!

Josh praying for Ben & Amanda during the wedding

Cousins!

Grandma Beute (The master designer and planner of the wedding. Job well done Mom!)

Smores

Malai and Ellie

Dancing with Grandpa

Congratulations Ben & Amanda! We are thankful to now have Ben as part of the family. May your marriage be firmly rooted in Christ. May you choose Him everyday so you can selflessly love one another. Trust in the Lord. When you do marriage the way the Designer created it to be it will be a great blessing. Marriage is one of the biggest gifts God has given us. Love you and am so thankful we could be at your wedding and with our family on a special day.

Here are some pictures of our road trip to Colorado (about 19 hours each way!). We had a great time, the kids were awesome, and we made lots of wonderful family memories together. I am so thankful God went with us, kept us safe, showed us His awesome creation, and renewed us. We went to Colorado to be a part of MTI's DAR and CHIP program. It is a time of debriefing and renewal for missionaries. The greatest part is that they have the same class for your children and appropriate to their age level. The kids also learned about being a third culture kid and how that makes them feel. We were all thankful we had the opportunity to go. It was wonderful to be with other missionaries who understand us, for our kids to make great friends with kids like them, to process, learn, be encouraged, and affirmed. I can't say enough about how good it was. I'd love to share with each of you. One thing we talked about it how we change through loss and chaos in our lives, and it made me think about so many in my life. The things we learned were not just for missionaries. We are carry stuff in our "backpack" on our path in life. Somethings are good and help us and some are heavy and a burden we need to unpack. Like I said, I'd love to share it all! But for now here are some pictures of our time. A special thanks to those at Georgetown CRC, Cadillac CRC and Prosper CRC who helped make it possible for us to go!!!

We stopped in Springfield to see Lincoln's house.
It was great because we just studied the presidents in home school.

Lincoln's very desk! (He sat there!)

Then we stopped in St. Louis.
It was so fun to see things we have never seen before and go to where we have never been before.

We ate lunch on the Mississippi River. It was hot! (95 degrees)

Wild antelope along the way.

We drove up Pike's Peak the first day.
It was SO cold and windy (39 degrees) and we were all feeling the altitude.

We love the mountains!
Who can say there is no God?! The mountains make me praise Him!

Beautiful! God's art.

Ribs :)

Josh and the kids went horseback riding and loved it.

We had a map and colored in every state that we saw on a licence plate.
I told the kids they wouldn't get Hawaii, so they were pretty excited when they found it!
We didn't get 3 states; Mass. RI, and Conn.