We hope you and your families had a joyous Christmas and are enjoying the New Year!
We are so excited to finally have the opportunity to update you with where were at and what God is doing! As many of you know we have had a house in Toledo and are awaiting the sale of it. God allowed us to attend training for a year in a half and we are so grateful for the time of growth!
In December we were faced with a huge decision. With no money to continue in training and no money to pay the mortgage in Toledo we felt it wise to step out of training for a short time. We are confident in His perfect plan and find our hearts willing to follow Him in the direction He leads. We trust God will sell our house in His perfect time and we eagerly await that time.
We want to share how appreciative we are to those of you who helped us carry a house full of belongings down one hall, down 4 flights of stairs, to the other end of the building and finally onto the uhaul truck. Thank you so much to those of you who came over to help clean, made a meal for us and watched the boys. We were so grateful for the help and really needed it.
We want to thank our deans for meeting with us, praying for us, giving us Godly insight and for showing us Christ like love.
With that all said we want to share with you a bit of our adventure these last 2 months.
Having the opportunity to finish our junior semester was such an awesome blessing! We loved it and can't wait to go back and finsh our final semester (Lord willing Jan. 2008).
The week we finished up with finals for our classes was followed by a really rough weekend of packing and cleaning (cleaning and more cleaning). We started on Friday and worked continuously. We finally were able to set out (Tues.) from New Tribes heading back to Toledo. Before we left our Church family, from Cascades Baptist, came to visit us in our apartment. They came to sing Christmas carols and bring gifts! It was truly a blessing and a great encouragement. We love them so much and hope to keep in touch with them while we are gone.
We arrived in Toledo late Tuesday night and found ourselves welcomed by our good friend from church (Ryan) and our neighbor friends (Troy, Camile and their kids Casie and Gillian). They helped us unload for over an hour and we want to thank them so much.
We then had to leave a couple days later to go visit Aaron's family in Warsaw, New York. We had a great Christmas and stayed their 5 days! We drove back to Toledo and the next day we received a call from our realtor saying that their was a couple that wanted to look at house the following day. We laughed at first because we were still living out of boxes. We accepted the challenge of getting unpacked and having the house look presentable. It really was motivating!
That weekend was New Years. Aaron spent all day watching Austin and Ethan and I spent it at the hospital with Brayden. He was admitted early that morning with Reactive Air Way Disease (also known as asthma). He was suppose to spend the night but they told us we could go home. That was a blessing but the next 2 days we spent running back and forth to doctors because he was having breathing problems.
Now, everything is controlled and both Brayden and Ethan take Pulmacort (a steroid breathing treatment) daily. Praise, the Lord they have all been really healthy these last few weeks!
Now, the exciting news you all have been waiting for!!!
After countering, re-countering and re-re-countering we finally get to sign papers tomorrow to sell our house!!! Can you believe it. We have only been unpacked for 2 weeks! God is so amazing and we are really excited to see if this is really it.
Classes at New Tribes started 2 days ago so we know for sure His plan for us is to remain here this year. We are looking for housing or and apartment to rent on the south side of town so we can be close to work and our ministries at our home church. We find ourselves traveling nearly 40 miles back and forth 4-6 times a week. Yikes, that's expensive for gas so this will be a huge blessing! We are serving on the praise team again and have been asked to serve on the missions board at church. We are grateful for the opportunity to be involved and continue challenging hearts with missions!
Work???? The Lord has blessed us with so much work from within our church body. Aaron loves it and he said if the Lord kept him busy doing what he is doing... that would be great!
The boys and us have been really enjoying life with out balancing the homework load. Aaron has had time to play basketball with our church's outreach on Thursday nights again. He has been asked to share once every 3 weeks as part of a ministry with 3 other guys.
Aaron and I have been able to spend time talking and watching movies together. Its great!
I have been able to spend a ton of time playing with the boys, cooking meals and homeschooling Austin. I am learning to play tennis at our community college (thanks to Pell grants) and have also been busy learning the guitar. Something I started 2 years ago but had to put on hold this last year in a half.
Austin is starting to read 4 letter words and is adding and subtracting math. He is a sweetheart! He has adjusted real well to all that's gone on and seems to look forward to the next adventure. We hope to hook up with some kind of homeschooling group here in Toledo so he can have fun and meet other kids.
Ethan is so cute and still remains to be our fiasty one. He is almost potty trained. OK, some days are great and some not so good. He is busy still wanting to do everything his brother does. Its pretty humorous. He has actually wanted to sit down and do school work like his older brother. We do a little but mostly I try and use him to help with the dishes, laundry or baking.
Brayden is 7 months today and is starting to crawl a bit more! Oh, that's really not that exciting. I forgot it only gets harder when they start moving. He still is nursing well and eats 2 jars of food a day. He loves Cheerios and loves to laugh, giggle and play with his brothers.
So their it is! A long list of updates. We will definitely keep you posted as we take another step towards finalizing the sale of our house. Closing is scheduled to be on February 16th following with only 7 days to pack, find housing and move. If you have ever bought a house you understand that nothing is for sure until you sign at closing. Something we try and remember!
We are excited to see God work in the lives of the people around us and in our lives. We are praying that others will want to experience the great adventure serving Jesus Christ brings!
Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. We have seen God use YOUR PRAYERS ever step of the way!
By His Grace,
Jamithy, for the Sawades
WE'LL UPDATE SOON....check out new pics in photo gallery coming soon!
We want to thank our deans for meeting with us, praying for us, giving us Godly insight and for showing us Christ like love.
With that all said we want to share with you a bit of our adventure these last 2 months.
Having the opportunity to finish our junior semester was such an awesome blessing! We loved it and can't wait to go back and finsh our final semester (Lord willing Jan. 2008).
The week we finished up with finals for our classes was followed by a really rough weekend of packing and cleaning (cleaning and more cleaning). We started on Friday and worked continuously. We finally were able to set out (Tues.) from New Tribes heading back to Toledo. Before we left our Church family, from Cascades Baptist, came to visit us in our apartment. They came to sing Christmas carols and bring gifts! It was truly a blessing and a great encouragement. We love them so much and hope to keep in touch with them while we are gone.
We arrived in Toledo late Tuesday night and found ourselves welcomed by our good friend from church (Ryan) and our neighbor friends (Troy, Camile and their kids Casie and Gillian). They helped us unload for over an hour and we want to thank them so much.
We then had to leave a couple days later to go visit Aaron's family in Warsaw, New York. We had a great Christmas and stayed their 5 days! We drove back to Toledo and the next day we received a call from our realtor saying that their was a couple that wanted to look at house the following day. We laughed at first because we were still living out of boxes. We accepted the challenge of getting unpacked and having the house look presentable. It really was motivating!
That weekend was New Years. Aaron spent all day watching Austin and Ethan and I spent it at the hospital with Brayden. He was admitted early that morning with Reactive Air Way Disease (also known as asthma). He was suppose to spend the night but they told us we could go home. That was a blessing but the next 2 days we spent running back and forth to doctors because he was having breathing problems.
Now, everything is controlled and both Brayden and Ethan take Pulmacort (a steroid breathing treatment) daily. Praise, the Lord they have all been really healthy these last few weeks!
Now, the exciting news you all have been waiting for!!!
After countering, re-countering and re-re-countering we finally get to sign papers tomorrow to sell our house!!! Can you believe it. We have only been unpacked for 2 weeks! God is so amazing and we are really excited to see if this is really it.
Classes at New Tribes started 2 days ago so we know for sure His plan for us is to remain here this year. We are looking for housing or and apartment to rent on the south side of town so we can be close to work and our ministries at our home church. We find ourselves traveling nearly 40 miles back and forth 4-6 times a week. Yikes, that's expensive for gas so this will be a huge blessing! We are serving on the praise team again and have been asked to serve on the missions board at church. We are grateful for the opportunity to be involved and continue challenging hearts with missions!
Work???? The Lord has blessed us with so much work from within our church body. Aaron loves it and he said if the Lord kept him busy doing what he is doing... that would be great!
The boys and us have been really enjoying life with out balancing the homework load. Aaron has had time to play basketball with our church's outreach on Thursday nights again. He has been asked to share once every 3 weeks as part of a ministry with 3 other guys.
Aaron and I have been able to spend time talking and watching movies together. Its great!
I have been able to spend a ton of time playing with the boys, cooking meals and homeschooling Austin. I am learning to play tennis at our community college (thanks to Pell grants) and have also been busy learning the guitar. Something I started 2 years ago but had to put on hold this last year in a half.
Ethan is so cute and still remains to be our fiasty one. He is almost potty trained. OK, some days are great and some not so good. He is busy still wanting to do everything his brother does. Its pretty humorous. He has actually wanted to sit down and do school work like his older brother. We do a little but mostly I try and use him to help with the dishes, laundry or baking.
Brayden is 7 months today and is starting to crawl a bit more! Oh, that's really not that exciting. I forgot it only gets harder when they start moving. He still is nursing well and eats 2 jars of food a day. He loves Cheerios and loves to laugh, giggle and play with his brothers.
So their it is! A long list of updates. We will definitely keep you posted as we take another step towards finalizing the sale of our house. Closing is scheduled to be on February 16th following with only 7 days to pack, find housing and move. If you have ever bought a house you understand that nothing is for sure until you sign at closing. Something we try and remember!
We are excited to see God work in the lives of the people around us and in our lives. We are praying that others will want to experience the great adventure serving Jesus Christ brings!
Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. We have seen God use YOUR PRAYERS ever step of the way!
By His Grace,
Jamithy, for the Sawades
WE'LL UPDATE SOON....check out new pics in photo gallery coming soon!
2 comments:
Oh my goodness, Jamithy!! On the one hand, you must have laughed to yourself when your house (began to be) sold almost as soon as you moved back in. In your shoes, my first thoughts would have been of frustration. But praise God that HE had a plan, beyond your own! I think it's so awesome that you are trusting and grateful to Him. It would be hard, considering the timing of it all, but He knows. So, congrats on beginning that process! I will pray that you are able to easily find affordable housing. Thanks for the update!
~Aimee
You write very well.
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