Time for a family update

It's been awhile since I've caught you up with the main characters in this family. Since our anniversary just past, you've been hearing all about David and I, but here's the rest of us!

Lydia is now four and (obvious as this may seem!) more grown up than ever. She thrives on helping mom whenever she can, whether it's cleaning up, preparing dinner or watching her sisters. She also is loving starting on school! Definitely a first born, she loves all workbooks and filling in the dots. She has made great strides lately in being encouraging to her sisters instead of just bossy. She prayed to receive Christ a few months back and it is so exciting to see her heart to truly make Him Lord of her life!



Bethany is two and a half. Do I really need to write anything else? She is full of life. Everything she does is completely whole hearted. Whether it's playing, singing, crying, laughing, fussing, fighting, dancing, hugging, crashing or loving, it's with all she has! Her greatest struggle right now is that she is trapped at two until her next birthday. She longs to be a big girl, but we think that she is getting there plenty fast. She brings us joy and laughter every day!

Havilah turned one recently and is as much her own little person as I have ever seen. She is one of those that if left to herself would be the terror of the world, but with training is absolutely irresistible! She absolutely refuses to try and walk ( all of mine have been late walkers though) but has just begun to try out some words. Her favorite and very well used word is "up". She goes all around the house then poses with her palms raised to the ceiling and stretching her fingers open and closed she says " Up? Up? Up?". We are so in love with her! She is such a treasure.

Baby #4 seems to be doing quite well. It is now eight weeks old, about 1/2 in. long and has all of their fingers and toes.

We found out about two weeks ago that I am expecting again!!! I am so excited! Only a few very sick days so far, but I am mostly feeling great! I should be due around the end of January. Nothing amazes me of the greatness of God like experiencing new life being created and then born. I am so thankful for the blessing of this new life and can't wait to meet it!

I know you're all thinking "Maybe a boy!". We would love a boy! But we adore our girls!!!

Our Fabulous Weekend!

To celebrate our fifth anniversary, David and I decided that this year we really would go away, by ourselves, and have some time together. We haven't gone away without the kids since we've had the kids! And don't get me wrong, we adore our girls! We love spending time with them! But there is just a time when we need to be just us. And that time was way over due! So we dropped the girls off at Grandma and Boppa's and took off. ( Let me just add here again what a tremendous blessing it is to have family so close. Our girls feel almost as at home at my parent's house as at our own!).

We went to Newport and stayed in Shilo Inn. Now this may not seem like luxury to many of you, but for me, I assure you it was! No cleaning, no cooking! I usually only have hospital stays to look forward to for such treatment! It was fabulous!

Sorry for the messy picture! As I said, we really did very little cleaning!

This is the beautiful Newport Bridge.

My handsome hubby gleaning knowledge as always. He amazes me!

We spent much of the day Saturday walking all around the Newport Bay. David loved the boats and I loved the Salt Water Taffy! Of course we had to spend some time watching the sleeping sea lions. As I was thinking how scary it would be to have one of those glide by you as you were swimming ( they really are quite big!), my husband was thinking what might happen if you jumped down onto their platform and woke them up!

Unfortunately, once again I forgot to get any pictures of "us" (very embarrassed!), but we are hopefully getting family pictures taken soon! It was such a special time that I will always remember. I am so thankful for such a wonderful and romantic husband who is also my very best friend. I'd rather spend time with him than anyone in the world!

My Dream Come True

I already wrote out our story (post below!) but I still wanted to share some pictures from this amazing day!

Our love story

Since our anniversary is rapidly approaching, I thought that now might be a good time to fill some of you in on the details. (Warning!!! This story relies heavily on God's faithfulness and direction!)

David and I met when I was three years old and he was six. We attended the same church for a few months until my dad started a church in the little town we live in. Both of our families home school and so our moms hit it off really well and even did several classes together through the years. We also discovered that our dad's shared the same birthday and so for twenty years now we have been having a giant joint birthday party with both of our families called "The Daddy Dinner".

Growing up I wasn't very fond of the King boys. They were very much boys and weren't very sensitive or compassionate to younger girls! Many years passed, without having very much contact other than our "Daddy Dinners".

When I was thirteen we got involved in a home school band and choir and also joined Bridgeport youth group. David was also involved in these things. All of the sudden I found that I liked this guy. A lot. ( My youngest sister is thirteen now and it blows me away to think that I was her age when I fell in love with David!). We became very good friends. We were involved in so many mutual things that we ended seeing each other almost every day, and because his family had now moved to where I lived we (My sister and I and Him and his brothers) carpooled almost everywhere.

This went on for several years. We both really liked each other, and though we were very close friends we never shared how we felt about each other. Time felt like it dragged by. The summer after I turned sixteen David decided to go work in Alaska with his brother Jonathan for six months. I thought my heart was broken. That was such a horrible time. And yet God used it in amazing ways in both of our lives. A verse was written on my wall board all that summer and it stayed there until I got married.

Psalm 37: 4-7~ Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

Finally he came home. I was so nervous that things would be totally change between us. It was a little awkward, but not too bad. He was leaving again in a month to go sell Christmas trees down is California for six weeks. The day that he was going to leave he asked my dad if he could talk to me, alone.

I'd better back up here and add another detail I left out. Because our families spent so much time together we had developed "The Rule". Even the youngest in our families knew what "the rule" was. The rule simply stated that no boy from one family and no girl from another could be alone together, just to keep a standard of being above reproach at all times. So for David to ask to talk to me alone was a big deal!

We went out to our barn where we each awkwardly sat on our own separate hay bales. There he told me that he liked me, that he had liked me for a long time and that he wanted to marry me. The problem he told me, was that he didn't know if God wanted him to marry me. We decided to take the time that he was away and any following time we may need to pray for a answer from the Lord before started any sort of relationship other than friendship.

That again was a very hard and yet very precious time praying and relying on the Lord for His direction. Finally he came home, but without an answer. So we continued praying. And praying. And praying. God always works when we least expect it! One evening while I was at a youth group event at the church David went to my parents, told them that God had given him an answer and asked if he could marry me. They had been watching this unfold for several years and were ready with their answer. Next David came to the church and asked if he could talk to me. We went into our church sanctuary where he told me that God had given him an answer and that it was a yes. That is such a precious memory to me. I remember sitting about two feet away from him on the pew and having him say that someday we would be getting married right there in that room. This all happened a month before my seventeenth birthday.

We entered into a precious "courtship" period, already committed to marriage, but getting to know each other (even after years of friendship!) and preparing for marriage. I can't say enough how thankful I am that God let us know that we were supposed to marry each other before we even started our relationship. It was an incredible time for us. We went with a team to Romania that summer ( my second trip) which gave us an extra special time to get to know each other.

By the end of that summer our parents and us all knew that it was time to start planning a wedding! We set the date for June 5, 2004 (06-05-04 pretty cool huh?) and got to work! That spring I turned eighteen, graduated from high school and got married a month later! I look at eighteen year-olds now and I am blown away! It wasn't that I was more mature or wise than most, but God had been preparing us every day of our lives, and this was His timing. I am so so so thankful. God is so good and does good and amazing things. I'm sorry that this is so long. If you made it all the way through, please be encouraged. Romans 8:28~ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Softball Season!!

Last Thursday evening was the start of our church softball league. David has played the last five summers and it is such a fun time for our family.

There are always plenty of uncles, aunties or friends to play with and beg drinks from.

Even Havi started out having lots of fun!

The girls are great cheerleaders and usually learn everyone's name by the end of the season.

The game went a little long for Havilah's taste and she got pretty grumpy by the end!

Who me?

Grumpy girl #2

Just kidding!

She'd like us to believe it!

Every now and then

I love the "every now and then" times. Like when we all pack up and go to the drive-in for late night of fun, tired kids ( and parents), blankets and pretending we're teenagers. Or when we decide to just take off for the coast because there's nothing we can think of that sounds better. Growing up for our family it was running in to Arctic Circle after church. Not very often, just "every now and then".

Last week we were able to have one of those special times. And were did we end up? Arctic Circle!! We had such a fun time ( even though our server seemed half awake and after clarifying our order three times she still got it wrong!). Bethany decided that she liked fry sauce and Havilah learned how to drink from a straw.

Afterwards we went to the park. The girls loved running around and climbing everywhere. They are generally pretty cautious but Lydia especially is stretching herself and even climbed the big rock wall!

Not to take away from my daughter's adorableness, I must tell you about the sweetest thing I saw that evening. A couple was there with their about five month old twins and they had them in one of the baby swings ( above) with one facing each way. It was SOOO cute! I badly wanted to take a picture but refrained for fear of creeping them out!

It was such a special evening and Bethany still thanks God for "going to the restaurant and the park" when she prays at night. I'm thankful that we don't have all the money in the world to do, go or eat whatever we want whenever we want. I'm thankful that we can appreciate $1.00 burgers and fries and playing in the park. I love these precious times with my family!

A beautiful love story!

I am so excited these days and couldn't help but share an incredibly special story with you all. First of all I need to introduce you to my beautiful sister Mary.



Mary is next down in age from me and has always been such an amazing person. I respect and admire her as much as anyone I know. Her genuine heart for the Lord is so evident in all that she does and she is such a servant, in the home as much as in public. Mary strives to honor the Lord in every aspect of her life, and one of the ways that she has chosen to do that is to reject the world's formula for finding a spouse and trust that the Lord would bring her a husband in His time and His way. She has been living at home and serving our family by greatly contributing to my parent's ministries and teaching at the school they run. She also teaches many piano lessons and directed the children's home school choir. On top of all that, she babysits for me weekly so that I can participate in our youth ministry and she is there whenever I need her.

While the Lord has been greatly using her, she still had a great longing to be married. Enter Peter. Peter started attending our church and Bible study a few years ago. He watched Mary for a long time, seeing and appreciating what a beautiful woman of God she was. He finally decided to go and talk to Mary's ( and my!) father. Dad and Peter both took some time praying and getting to know each other, all the while Mary never even knowing any of this. The men finally came to the conclusion that it would have to be a "no" because Mary's heart had been called to missions and Peter owns a large farm and feels very called to that. A few months passed however and Peter still felt like the Lord was leading him to Mary. He re approached the subject to my dad and they decided to all (Dad, Mom, Mary and Peter) spend a few months praying about it. Now I should add at this point, Mary and Peter really hardly knew each other and this was not at all what Mary had pictured for her life. Honestly it was not a very appealing thought to her. She says that she prayed for quite awhile, " Lord, change my heart if you want to, but please don't!". At the end of the allotted time Mary's heart had not changed and so a "no" was given again.

Months passed. Several months! Then slowly and in His perfect timing, the Lord began to move.
Mary started seeing things in Peter that she had never noticed before. Certain traits she had always wanted in a husband. The Lord started to change her heart towards long term missions and even her thinking about formal ministry. God was starting to put all the pieces together, not only in her heart but in my parent's as well. Finally everything came together, they all shared where they were at and they decided to talk with Peter.

Now this had been about eight months since the final "no" and they had no idea what had been going on for Peter. Dad went and found him on his farm and they had a long talk. Not only had the Lord not changed Peter's heart but He had been growing it stronger towards Mary. So much so that the poor guy was really tormented about what he should do, having already been told no twice! He was happy! Or maybe I should say is happy. I've never seen a guy smile so much!

So now they are embarking on a courtship journey, knowing the Lord brought them perfectly together. It is so amazing to see all the little ways that they are so perfect for each other! I can't wait to see all that the Lord has planned for them!







P.S. Now I get to be distantly related to Kelly and Alysun since my future brother-in-law's sister-in-law is their sister-in-law too!