Wednesday, August 27, 2008

First Day of School




Ella started preschool yesterday. The teacher said she did wonderful and her "stick" stayed green! I was a little sad as I didn't even get a goodbye. She walked right in over to the kids that were already playing. At least I got this conversation later at Chick Fil-A.


Ella: There was a little girl named Mackenzie that cried.

Me: Did she cry the whole time?

Ella: Yeah, she cried for her momma. She missed her momma.

Me: Did you miss your momma?

Ella: Yeah, but I didn't cry.

Sisters




I am constantly telling people that I don't think Ella and Mia look very much alike. I still don't think that, but I do think that they both have the most beautiful smiles that light up the room. Much like this yellow dress!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Maxwells Go International

The school that is affiliated with our church hosts an International Student Program every year. Families find out about Faith Christian School through the internet and send their teenagers a gazillion miles away to study and learn about the American culture. Jacob and I had spoken before about hosting one, but never really seemed serious about it. It seemed like it would be to far of a stretch out of our comfort zone. Well, a friend of ours is the leader of this program at the school, we found out through another friend that she had had 2 host families drop out at the last minute. Because we only know how to make decisions at the last minute, I called Jacob and told him about this need. He immediately felt like we were called to do this. So, the next day, we signed up to host a 17 year old girl from Korea. We are very excited about this addition to our family. It will be different, but different is good. I think sometimes we get comfortable with our families and don't realize that we need to grow. God needed us to host this girl for reasons we do not know yet. Maybe to share the gospel with her in such a crucial point in her life, or for her to strengthen our Christian walk. Her father has gone to an American seminary and is a professor at a Christian college. Or maybe its because of the plans that we may have to do with the money we receive as compensation. Jacob and I are really looking forward to this year as a year of truly growing both as a married couple and learning what God has in store for us!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Our Staycation






My best friend from college came to visit this past weekend. Along with my other college best friend, we try to do this every summer so our kids get a chance to play together. So far we have a 5 yr old, two 3 year olds, a 22 month old, an 8 month old and one on the way. We've come so far from the three friends that would go to Steak-n-Shake at 3:00am for coffee. We've been friends for over 10 years now. It doesn't quite seem possible, but when you look at these kids that we dreamed about in college with husbands that two of us didn't even know yet, you realize that 10 years might not be such a long time. I look forward to the next 10 years and to see what other dreams come true that we didn't know we had.