The Clow Communicator

Day 47 - November 9

Wow!  I have a lot of catching up to do. Since the last post we have been in Delaware, VA and now we are in NC.  I will play catch up in a few days along with LOTS of pictures.  I have some great videos as well, but have to figure out how to post them...LOL! 

Tomorrow is Abi and Bekah's 9th birthday!  It's hard to believe that 9 years ago I was as big as a cow, literally!  For those of you who saw me pregnant with the twins, you know I am telling the truth!  We are so blessed to have those precious girls. We are grateful, yet humbled, to have the responsibility of rearing them. 

OK - past news and pics coming up in a few days so check back soon!

Day 35 - October 28

We arrived in Denver, PA today.  After a night of cold camping, we drove to York, PA and had a great evening with some of John's college friends.  On the way to York Kathy heard "snow showers" announced on the radio.  John didn't hear it and didn't believe it.  It was confirmed later that night when we watched the weather channel on TV.  So far, we are just cold and rainy - no snow yet!

The hour drive from York to Denver was WINDY!  John was thankful that we only had an hour drive in the RV.  There is still a chance for snow.  The kids are making plans for sledding and making snowballs - LOL!!!

Tomorrow we have plans to head to Hershey, PA and tour the chocolate factory --mmmm...gotta love homeschooling - so, would this fall under a "home ec" field trip?!?!?!

Day 33 - October 26

Tonight we are in Washington, PA.  Let's back up...Thursday was a rough night and instead of playing with the pigs on Friday am, Josiah and Evan headed to the Dr.  Both boys got a shot in each leg to clear up the croup, an antibiotic, a nose spray and allergy meds.  Seems as if they had a nice little sinus infection.  The girls, however, spent their morning on the pig farm and then Bekah spent the afternoon on a dairy farm.  Friday night we spent a great time of fellowship with some former team memebers.  That  night the boys slept through the night, but John had some low blood sugar that had us up for a little while.  The boys finally got some pig time on Saturday before we headed east to Ohio.  We arrived late afternoon in Columbus and were able to spend several hours with some dear friends who we were in Costa Rica with us.  Everyone slept really well last night and we made it to church this morning - running a little late, but hey, that's normal! Sorry, no pictures from our time in Ohio ) :

We were so blessed to share with Walnut Creek PCA this morning.  This church holds a special place in our hearts as it was five years ago that their pastor preached Evan's baptism service in Rio Bravo, MX!  It was during one of work teams just a few weeks after Evan's birth.  How awesome and humbling to know that there are those from all over that vowed that day to pray for our little man - and for us as parents - that we would raise our children in the ways of the Lord! "Oh, Lord God, may you give us the strength to do what you have called us to do and what we have vowed to do! We praise you for your faithfulness. May you be glorified and receive all honor and glory through our weakness."

Tonight we are all cuddled together in a KOA campground here in Washington, PA.  We are soaking up - and IN LOVE WITH - the mountains and multi-colored trees that surround us.  Crossing the Ohio River was magnificiant today.  Bekah shouted out, "Mom! We should live here!"  The God we serve is an incredible artist! His handiwork never ceases to bring me into a state of awe......

Tomorrow we will continue heading east to York, PA where we will see some of John's college friends. Then continuing on Tuesday to Denver, PA where we will stay the rest of the week with John's best friend from college, his wife and kids. 

Day 30 - October 23

We left Naperville, IL this morning and drove to Blufton, IN.  We spent two incredible weeks catching up with old friends.  We were sad to leave our "hometown" but ready to get the Clow Mobile back on the road and continue this journey.  Check out the photo album!  I also added some more photos to the Metemora album as well.

We arrived at the home of our friends, The Lemans.  They have a pig farm (which Evan is MOST excited about - he is obsessed with pigs).  Tomorrow we get to go out and play with the little pigs - I am sure that will produce some great photos!  We will be here in IN until Saturday when we head to OH.  Sunday we will be speaking at Walnut Creek PCA in Columbus.

Please keep our health in your prayers.  The boys have both been coughing a lot and John's blood sugars have been staying a little high.

Hope you enjoy the photos -- thanks for taking this wild journey with us.

Day 24 - October 17

Wow, a week has flown by since my last post!  We have been busy here in Naperville catching up with old friends.  John has been "hanging" out at his old job this week while Kathy and the kids have been the socialites of the town. Today we went and spent time with Carol (one of I55's 2008 summer staffers) at Wheaton College.  Abigail now wants to go to Wheaton and wants to know how many years of college it takes to be a waitress. 

We are enjoying the COLD weather as well.  As I type I am sitting under an electric blanket and my feet are still freezing.  Bek asked yesterday, "Is it below 0?"  It was 46.  I would say that our bodies have officially acclimated to MX climate.

• Tomorrow we have another growth group from NPC that we will be meeting with.
•  Sunday am we have a Sunday school class, Sunday afternoon a  reunion with friends from the church that sent us out as missionaries, Sunday night speaking with the senior high students.
• Monday a date night (and the kids are even going to sleep at Grandma Carol's house!!!)
• Tuesday we are taking the kids to downtown Chicago on the train, Tuesday pm a missions meeting.
• Wednesday visiting a local mission and then packing and getting things ready to head out to Indiana on Thursday morning.

Day 17 - October 10

We arrived in Naperville, IL last night.  We are staying with ourfriends, Mark and Kymberly Butts.  We we will be staying put here for 2 weeks before heading off in the Clow Mobile once again.  Thanks so much for all your prayers over these past few weeks.  Things are going really well, but PLEASE don't stop praying!

 Tonight we will be speaking with a combined group of "growth groups" that will be meeting at Naperville Presbyterian Church (NPC). This Sunday we will be speakingto the kids during the kids service then skip out and make it back to the sanctuary in time to be "interviewed" at the end of the service.  Then hopping Sunday school classes.  Then redoing that all over again for the 2nd service.  Sunday night we will go back to NPC and speak to the middle school kids. 

Day 15 - October 8 : PICTURES

I just added some pictures.  I haven't had a chance to label them yet.  They are from Tulsa, OK; Coffeyville, KS and Metamora, IL. 

This afternoon we all got to go out and see them men harvest corn.  The kids got to play in the truck with all the corn while John drove the tractor...the Clows like farming!

Day 13 - October 6

As I type we are traveling through MO on our way to Peoria, IL. 

We left Coffeyville, KS on Sunday afternoon after having spent a wonderful time with the members of Grace Fellowship.  Then we had a great lunch with our friends: The Newby's and Shirley Tossey.  John and I lived in Coffeyville 10 years ago.  I was nanny to the Newby's youngest son, Steven (now almost 14).  Steven prayed for months that God would bless John and I with a baby.  He was actually praying that we would have 4 (2 for Mr John and 2 for Ms Kathy) - we are very glad that God only answered 1/2 of his prayer!  Shirley was a women in my weekly Bible Study that also prayed faithfully for months that God would allow us to have a baby.  It was a sweet afternoon of remembering fondly our time spent in that town.  As a result of those built friendships, Grace Fellowship became our very first supporting Church.  When the Newby's heard that we had been called to full time missions they went to the pastor and asked the church to support us.   We praise God for their faithfulness over the past 7 years!

We made it to Springfield, MO on Sunday evening.  We pulled the RV into a KOA campground and got out LOTS cheaper than a hotel room...and I didn't have to unpack!  The kids got to experience their first Long John Silvers for dinner (actually it was a KFC/LJS combo place - so the kids got chicken legs cause they liked the KFC kids meal box better.  But, they tried the fish and Evan liked it better than his chicken!) 

The kids were ready to run straight to the playground this am when they woke up.  We made them wait until 8am before the other KOA campers were introduced to the rowdy Clow crew.  John kept an eye on the kids while Kathy cooked her first breakfast in her new kitchen.  Bible devotions and pray journeling were just finishing while John pulled out and we got on the road.  One of the best things is that homeschooling can go on whether we are driving or not!  After devotions, a little history lesson on MO was next on the schedule before John pulled us into Springfield's Bass Pro Shop - complete with an indoor museum...hands on schooling about lots of animals (mostly fish)...now that's fun schooling!  The kids even got a little PE as John dropped some coins so they could have a turn at the shooting range (no worries Grandma..just pretend...little red lights on targets)!  They did head off right away to the gun section to see what a bee-bee gun cost...hmmm...sounds like an accident waiting to happen.  Again, no worries...we made it out of the shop..gun-empty!

****insert...we are crossing the Mississippi River!!! IL, WE ARE HERE!!!****

We are still a few hours from our evening destination.  We will be staying with the Barths in Metamora, IL.  They are farmers and have a son Evan's age...what fun the kids will be having tomorrow!  I talked to Julie Barth just a few hours ago and she said that we may have a deer cutting on the list of "to do things"!  So, for the next three days the Clows are going to become farmers..YEAH!  I am thinking we are going to have some pretty good journeling this week. And, hopefully, some pretty fun pictures.

Mark Keiser, I couldn't find an e-mail for you, so hopefully you'll read this:  you can get in touch with us via the Barths.  We will be there until Thursday mid morning or so.  We would love to see you.

Day 11 - October 4

The Clow Mobile made it on the road today!  After being parked in a driveway in Tulsa, OK. It was finally ready to spread its wings and fly.  We so very much enjoyed our time in Tulsa being spread out in a big house.   But, there was a lot of excitement today as we packed up, said goodbye to Grandma (who drove back to TX with our van) and headed out. 

Tomorrow morning we will be speaking at Grace Fellowship before heading out tomorrow afternoon.  We should arrive in Peoria, IL sometime on Monday or Tuesday.

Day 5&6: September 28-29 (Stupid is as Stupid does)

28: Spoke at Believers Church in Tulsaa, OK.  John made a joke out of the stitches on his head. We also shared the story of how we got the RV.  After service we were told one of the elders is a mechanic.  So, the church is picking up the bill to have the breaks and muffler changed out!  Sorry that John got stitches, but ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD!  After lunch with some church members we headed home.  Carolyn wanted to finish cleaning the RV and John had to put the front tires back on.  Kathy went out to see if she could help her mother-in-law.  She went to sit down on the kitchen table bench-seat.  The only problem was that the seat had been removed exposing the storage space underneath (the back side of which held the RV battery).  Kath fell hard and hit her back on the battery and both forearms on the side of the table and the back of the seat-bench.  The tears were more out of sheer embarrassment at her stupidity.  She has a nice mark on her back and some bruises, but at least no broken bones (or stitches)!

29: We spent the day doing some school work, organizing and cleaning and a trip to the Tulsa Zoo to see the feeding of bull sharks!  It was nice to have John's full attention - with the RV gone, he has no work to do! Fun day with no accidents -- hope I'm not talking too soon...