Kristen Goes to Shreveport, Dave Goes Into "Labor!"

Kristen, her mom, and her youngest sister drove to Shreveport this past Saturday for the day to see Kristen's great Aunt Anne. It was a very special time of fellowship--both on the road and at the nursing home.

While the girls were gone, Dave took on the project of sanding and painting our baby furniture! We are excited to be using the same baby dresser and crib that Kristen's dad used, as well as Kristen and each of her sisters! It definitely required some hard labor though! Dave did an excellent job as evidenced by the pictures above. It is going to look perfect in the nursery!

We move into our rent house tomorrow, August 1, so we'll look forward to letting you know how that goes. Please pray for a rain-free moving day!

We Bought a Car!!

Well, another one of our big tasks has been checked off! After much research and test driving over the past couple months, we finally made the purchase this week! We are very grateful to have this "to do" DONE, and we are also very grateful to our friends, Jamie and Jenny Hipp, who so graciously allowed us to borrow their car until we found one of our own! Please rejoice with us, once again, for His faithfulness and timing in details such as this!

36 weeks and counting!

Here is a picture of us at 36 weeks! At last weigh in, Dave has gained zero pounds, Kristen has gained 16! We had an ultrasound this past Tuesday, and everything looked great and "right on schedule" according to our docter! We are getting increasingly excited for Katelyn's arrival on August 20. We just hope she can hold off at least until we move into our rent house next week! Thanks for sharing in our joy and excitement!

A Special Gift for Little Miss McCurdy!

Little Miss McCurdy received a very special gift at a recent baby shower given by some of Kristen's close friends in the Dallas area. A precious "Made in China" onesie to remind her of her roots! Thank you Jenny, Kimberly, Dangela, and Tanya for a wonderful baby shower!!

Visit from friends in D.C.!

We had the wonderful opportunity to host our dear friends, Jason and Carrie Lampman (and their cute 11-month-old son Ben!), for a few days during their "Texas tour." Dave met Jason and Carrie in 2000 when he was living in Austin. Their son, Ben Lampman, was born just last year while we were in China, so we enjoyed finally getting to meet him in person and play with him! The Lampmans are currently living in Washington D.C., but they will be moving to Baltimore where they will plant a church. To learn more about their desire to reach Baltimore and what this church plant will look like, please visit their website at http://www.reachbaltimore.blogspot.com/. We are thankful for the time we had to catch up with them before they head back up north.

Enjoyable Open House in Dallas!

Our open house in Dallas was wonderful! Thank you to our friends James and Dangela Hill who hosted this special event! Thank you also to all of you who came! Once again, we enjoyed the opportunity to reunite with friends and share some of our experiences from the past two years in China. We look forward to sharing with those of you we haven't seen yet.

We Found A Rent House!!

We are excited to share with you that we found a house to rent! For those who like a long story made short...We used a realtor who was recommended to us by our good friends, and last Sunday at 10 a.m. we set out with her to look at four potential rent houses...by 11:30 a.m. we were done with our search and excited about moving into our new place! The house is in Lewisville, Texas (just north of Dallas), and we move in August 1.

For those who like to know just how detailed the Lord is in meeting our needs and arranging circumstances for our good...read on. The first place we looked at was a duplex, and upon our arrival we heard the neighbors yelling and a large dog barking. No problem....but good to know. Athough it was a nice enough place, we just didn't feel like it was "the one." We left and rode to the next house. When we pulled up, the owners were actually home and we were able to meet them. They are a couple about our age and were very friendly. The husband was actually out front doing yardwork and the wife was inside baking! As we entered the house, we were amazed at how nice it was! Everything just "felt" right. Come to find out, this property was not even within our price range when the realtor first started looking, but between that time and the time we were available to go look at properties, the couple had come down on their price, and here we were! One of our favorite parts of the house was a little backyard deck and garden area, as we were really wanting a home that could be a respite for us to settle in and start our family. We considered going to the last two houses, just to look, but the realtor assured us that they were nothing compared to this one, and that she was just as surprised as we were about how great of a place and deal this was (she actually called it a miracle)! We found out that the couple is just moving a little farther north of Dallas due to a change in the wife's sales territory for her job. We felt good knowing that they would still be close by should we need them. They really felt like we were the type of renters they had been waiting for since they wanted to see the house well taken care of after putting their heart and soul into making it look so nice. They also needed renters that could wait until August 1 to move in....wouldn't you know? This is the exact date we were needing to move in!! We signed the lease papers yesterday evening and again had a definite peace that this is where we were supposed to be for the next year! Our realtor (who is a Christian) was also very encouraged by this whole chain of events. When we first e-mailed her about our situation, specific needs, and timeline, she told us later that she expressed to the Lord her need for Him to help her know how to meet our needs. She was initially very discouraged by the limited number of options that met our criteria, but she knew the Lord was telling her to keep working with us, even if she couldn't see how things would work out. After this past Sunday, we all saw how He wanted to reveal Himself and His power to us in a very special way! We have seen the Lord's dedication to the details of our lives in so many ways throughout the past two years, and this is no exception. We are so thankful to Him for His guidance and reassurance with each important decision we make. Thank you for rejoicing with us at the Lord's provision for us and Little Katelyn. How special to know that even before she is born, he is caring for her in very specific ways!

Baby Shower Fun in Austin!

Here are a couple of pictures from Kristen's baby shower in Austin. This was given by her friends Roxy Morris and Erin Olson, pictured above, respectively. What a special time it was to see so many familiar faces!

Back in Dallas!

After a fun-filled week in Austin which started and ended with a trip to Dunkin Donuts, we are now back in the Dallas area. We picked up the U-Haul truck at 7 a.m. on Friday in Austin, loaded up our stuff from Kristen's home, then stopped in Waco to load our stuff from Dave's home, then arrived to our temporary home in Highland Village to unload it all in the garage until we find a place of our own (hopefully in the form of a rent house by the end of July!). We are thankful for the friends who helped us unload! What a great help that was! Dave leaves for a business trip to LDi's U.S. headquarters in Atlanta this Monday and will return Thursday. Kristen has had two baby showers in the past two weekends (one in Austin and one in Dallas), and we feel so blessed by the abundance of gifts our growing little family has received! We'll post pictures of those soon! We just wanted to give you latest update on our travels and where we are!

Awesome Austin Open House

We had a wonderful time at the Austin open house, held at Kristen's parents home (see picture above of us with Kristen's cute parents!). We were able to reconnect with many friends, and in every case, we wish we could have had at least an hour to visit one-on-one with each person there! It was almost a tease to see so many special people and not be able to catch up as much as we would have liked, but nonetheless, we were blessed by the presence of each person there. Thank you especially to Mike and Jeani Copeland who drove from Oklahoma to be here! Jeani was Kristen's teammate/roommate during her first trip to China in 2000, and the Copelands are moving to East Asia in October for an indefinite period of time. We are excited to be able to support them in prayer as they go to serve a people and country that we miss so dearly!