Our week...

So we have had a big week this week.  A week of joy and unexpected surprises.  To tell you about this week though, I think I am going to give a little history before getting to our week.

SO....

Sarah Katelyn Davis was conceived very quickly after Michael and I decided we were ready to start trying to have children.  Literally the month we got off birth control, we got pregnant.  While there was a little scare with her towards the end (IUGR), all went fairly smooth.

10 months later, we thought, "hey, let's try again".  I always thought it would be fun to have our kids close together.  Well, that same month we starting trying, we conceived.  Then...the Lord called our baby home to be with him.  We were devastated.  I honestly have never felt more pain in my life.  It hurt like hell.  I remember laying in the bed with Michael after loosing our baby beating him on the chest sobbing for hours.

(Here's a pic of the weekend we told family we were expecting...SK's shirt said "Big Sister!")

Then, we went through almost 3 years of infertility.  I know I have blogged much about the pain of going through that, but the Lord grew my faith so much during that time.  I learned just how much God is in control and holds us in his hands.  He held me each month that I learned we weren't pregnant.  Then the Lord gave us a dear dear doctor in STL who walked with us and helped figure out what was going on and after 3 months of clomid (in order to help me ovulate, which I wasn't doing on my own), we were able to conceive Evelyn Joy.

After she turned 1 year old, we hoped to try again to have another baby before heading to England.  Once again, it looked as though my body was failing to do what was needed in order to conceive.  In the spring, we actually did 3 rounds of clomid again.  This time, the clomid did not end with a pregnancy.  So after 3 months, we decided to take some time off and wait till we got to England to start trying again.

2 months later, I got food poisoning.  It was right before we headed to England.  If you are friends with me on Facebook, you remember me asking for prayers about that?  It was rough.  Well, in the midst of that and I guess due to that, I was 2 weeks late.  I actually took a pregnancy test in England since I was so late.  It was negative.  So after that month being so late, I thought my body was just thrown off from being so sick.

SO then this month came.  Yet again, I was late, but really didn't think a thing about it since my cycle was so crazy last month.  We had decided we weren't going to try right now, so the thought of pregnancy didn't cross my mind really when my cycle was looking long again.

Tuesday.  I get up with Michael.  He and I get up and he needs to get ready to head to presbytery where he is going to be examined in front of everyone for licensure.  I decide to make some eggs for breakfast before he needs to go.  I crack a couple eggs, all is good.  Then I crack a bad egg.  I start gagging.  Had to leave the kitchen it was so bad.  I go to the bathroom, compose myself and try to return to the kitchen.  Then I get a whiff of the egg smell.  Gagging again.  I go back to the bathroom and leave Michael finishing off the eggs.  I remember that I happen to have a pregnancy test already at home, and decide, I am going to take it.  I figured I would take it and it would be negative and my period would start later that day.

To my surprise, it was POSITIVE!!!!!!  Immediately turned positive.  I was doing double and triple takes, looking back at the box and seeing what 2 lines meant and stood there in shock.  Then I come out to the kitchen where Michael is with my hands over my mouth looking like I have seen a ghost I am sure.  He looks at me and is asking if I am sick and what is wrong.  I respond, no....but I am PREGNANT.  His response is, "WHAT??!!??"  We both were completely shocked.  We go back to the bathroom and sit there shocked.  We are amazed.

The eggs get burned since they were left in the kitchen to fend for themselves while we pull our chins off the floor.

Did I mention that Michael had to leave in 30 minutes to head to Presbytery???  He gets ready quickly and I sit trying to pull myself together before the girls wake.  He leaves for the day (till 4 in the afternoon) and I sit all day at home trying to do homeschool with SK.  I think I texted him like 5-6 times throughout the day.  It was hard to be home (without a car) all day knowing I was pregnant and not being able to even tell SK yet (I was waiting till Michael got home).

He finally got home and we told SK (and Evie, but she doesn't really get it at her age :)).  We skyped my mom to surprise her, then we headed to surprise Michael's family and my brother and his wife at a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  We had told the family that we wanted to go out and celebrate Michael passing his licensure stuff and officially being licensed to preach.  Then we got our friend (who works at the restaurant) to bring out a baby bottle with our drinks :)  It took everyone a few minutes, then there were lots of screams and hugs.  It was fun :)

So, that has been our week.  One of the first questions we get when telling everyone so far, is what does this mean for England?  Well...right now, we don't know.  We are still going, but we are either going a little quicker than planned or waiting till after baby arrives.  We are praying and will talk with a doctor in a couple weeks about it.  First we have to get a due date.  Since my cycle was so crazy the month prior, the due date is hard for me to figure out.  The due date should be somewhere around the middle to end of April.   Our original goal was to be in England by March 1.

Things just got a little more interesting for us :)  We are beyond thankful and ecstatic.  We are a whole mix of emotions really.  I am fearful, given our miscarriage in the past.  So will you pray for us.  We need lots of prayers.  Pray for a healthy baby.  Pray the Lord will give clarity to us as to what this means for our timing in heading to England.  Thanks friends.

And to end here is a picture I am beyond thrilled I got to take this week :)

(Evie is wearing the same shirt that I had made for SK...I never could find myself able to get rid of it all these years.  Now I am glad I held onto it!)

And 1 more just cause these kids are super cute :)

On Support raising...

So we are back from England and now really jumping into the "full-time support raising" life.  While there are plenty of people that totally get the whole concept of support raising, there are plenty of friends also that don't completely understand why we have to raise our support.

So why do we support raise?  I grew up in the Southern Baptist church, where those who feel called to international missions were sent and were funded through the denomination.  That's really cool in so many ways.

Here's what is different for us though that I do appreciate.

I appreciate knowing that we have so many individuals and churches who are stepping out in faith with us to see God's kingdom grow.  We are so encouraged to see the Lord raise up people and churches who have a heart for England.  We know that those who are financially supporting us are connected to us and are praying for us.  Having people/churches financially supporting us reminds me that we are all connected to a universal church, no matter where you actually spend your Sunday morning.  We are all called to be about the spreading of the gospel "to all nations", and for some that means going and others it means sending.

Sending can mean different things.  Some don't have the finances to give, but instead can be great encouragers and prayer warriors.  Believe me, we need those greatly.

Support raising is hard at times, if I can be really honest.  Calling your friends and asking them to consider financially supporting you is out of my comfort zone.  When we first started last year, I had a hard time with it.  While it still isn't necessarily easy, I have come to a better understanding on why it is good.  Support raising isn't just going around talking to people asking for money so that we can get to England.  Support raising is ministry in and of itself.  Asking for support, is asking someone else to step out in faith that the Lord will provide enough money each month/year so that they can support ministry.

I feel like our money is one of the hardest things to trust God with.  So many times we can look at our money situation and think, "I don't think we can squeeze any more out".  I myself can struggle with wanting to give away our money to others.  I struggle to think that there just isn't enough.

I think we have to think beyond that though.  We have to truly evaluate where we are putting our trust when it comes to our money.  And really, where our money goes, that is where our hearts are.  When we give to world missions, we are drawn to think of the world and God's kingdom coming all around it.  We pray for it more typically when our finances are going to it.  Am I right??

Going to seminary taught me and Michael a lot about trusting God with our money situation.  We didn't know how on earth we were going to make it month to month, much less 3.5 years there.  Now looking back, I am amazed.  The Lord met our every single need truly.

There is something to be said for stepping out in faith in the unknown, trusting the Lord will provide. What a faith builder and an opportunity for the Lord to work and grow us.  When we are comfortable and have control over things, we don't tend to "need" God as much (so we think many times).

We are all called to be about the Kingdom work.  For each of us, that will look different.  Some of us will be called to go.  Some are called to stay where they are and be about God's kingdom right where they are.  But I believe we should all have a heart for the lost throughout all nations.  God does.

So if you have gotten a phone call/text/email/facebook message...know that we are just doing what the Lord has called us to at this time.  We are inviting others in to be a part of the work going on in a little village across the pond in England.  Our hearts through this time in support raising is that we can encourage others to think about their money and resources.  We want people to wrestle with where they are using them and how God might want them to use them.  Whether they end up supporting us or not, is sort of irrelevant.  While yes, it would be great if everyone we contacted would support us, that is not what the ultimate goal is.  The Lord knows who he has in mind to support us.  If you don't support missions in some capacity, can I challenge you to consider it?  If you don't feel the Lord calling you to support us, that is ok.  But what is the Lord calling you to support with your time and money?

And if you are one of the ones we have contacted, we love you and it's ok if you don't end up supporting us.  We still want to be friends ;)

And to end, will you pray for us as we are on this support raising journey?  I can see how the Lord is using this time to refine and shape us.  He is exposing my sin in this and it isn't easy at times.  But I am so thankful too that He loves me enough to teach me and make me more and more into His image.

And if you want to hear more about what the Lord is doing across the pond and why we are going, please feel free to contact me.  If you feel led to support us, that would be cool.  But my prayer is that the Lord will grow us all through this journey, showing us where he wants to peel back the layers of unbelief and point us more in the direction of being about HIS business while we are here on this earth.

And we're back...

Well, we are back in AL and feeling the jet lag.  I wanted to blog more the last week we were in England, but I guess we were too busy having fun.  So what all did we do after my last post...

-We got to spend lots of time with most everyone in the church.  Made me more hungry to get back over there and be able to spend more time building those relationships :)

-We had a family adventure day going to Liverpool.  SK's dreams came true since she got to ride a double decker bus (which she had been requesting since the first time she saw one at the beginning of our trip) and we rode a train in to Liverpool.  SK would say this was her favorite day I think.  We walked all around Liverpool seeing the Metropolitan Cathedral (which was massive!) and the "bombed out church" as we call it.  We had a really great day there!

-We got to check out 2 Primary schools in Culcheth and meet with the head teacher at each.  This was really great in getting SK excited for going to school there.  She loved the schools.

I am sure there is stuff I am missing, but I will blame it on the jet lag.

Overall the trip was amazing.  It was helpful.  And it was eye opening in a lot of ways.  It really gave us a glimpse into what life will be like once we move here.   We learned how to go about everyday life including buying groceries, cooking (meaning getting used to a different kitchen and finding ingredients that might have different names here--like courgette...anyone know what that is???), getting around via the bus and train on our own, figuring out the pound.  We learned so much.

We got to see and talk with many people in the church.  We saw even more the massive need for workers in Culcheth.  Our hearts grew in our longing more and more to be with this church and serve there.  The Lord is at work there for sure and it was amazing to see how he is at work.

Pray for the church there.  Pray that they will be able to find a chef for the cafe soon.  Bruce (one of the elders) is currently playing the role of chef and that is taking him away from being able to do much shepherding and discipling which is where he longs to be.  Trace is away (the other elder) and the church feels the loss of not having the Donahoo's there.

Pray for us as we raise our funds to get there.  Pray that the funds come quickly and we can get there by March.  But also pray that we enjoy this time here in AL (and where all of our travels take us) and our time meeting with people and churches.  It can be tiring (to be honest), but also so encouraging.

After I get over the jet lag, I hope blog more....for now I am off to eat an early breakfast :)  Yesterday I was awake at 2 a.m. and today Michael and I woke at 4.  That means it's getting better right?  We are thankful the girls are doing well so far with the change in time.

Alright, I will leave you with some pics and be back soon for more blogging!

(This last photo is a church-turned-home in Culcheth)

Dunham Massey adventure

So today we decided to venture out to a place called Dunham Massey.  It was beautiful.  It was an old estate, where the home was turned into a military hospital during the first world war.  There were beautiful gardens, deer everywhere roaming, ducks to feed, and logs and trees to play on.  We had a great time exploring then finished off our time there with some delicious ice-cream :)

I will leave you with pictures today, since I got some fun ones while we were there.  More blogging to come...Michael preaches in the morning at CCC and then we have 1 more week to enjoy here!

We had a great family day today and looking forward to worship in the morning!

Berry Picking and Chester

Hello again!  What all have we been up to so far this week?

On Monday, Michael "hired" a car for us to have for the week and that has been quite fun (I can say that since I have been the passenger and not the driver).  So Michael has gotten to try his hand at driving on the other side of the road.  He has done quite well I must say.  We have gone to the Trafford Centre (which is a very large mall/shopping center) which is about 20 minutes from Culcheth.

We went on Monday to a farm that is only a few miles from here called Kenyon Hall.  It had all kinds of berries for picking and a cute cafe and shop as well.  We were able to try out some new berries that I have never heard of before including gooseberries, tayberries, and black and red currants.  They also had raspberries and strawberries.  We had a great time picking some berries, though Evie ate more than we picked I think.  We ate in the cafe with Bruce and Bea, then headed home for Evie's nap.

Yesterday we decided to go about 45 minutes away to a place called Chester.  Look it up y'all.  It was amazing.  There are Roman walls there, a Roman amphitheater, a beautiful Cathedral and another very old church as well.  It was buzzing with shops and lots of people about.  We had so much fun there!

I have gotten to help serve in Quench Cafe twice now and really have enjoyed that.  I even took some orders yesterday and didn't mess them up too much I believe :)  Though I might not know what they were ordering, I just wrote down what they said :)  hehe.  At one point, a guy came and sat down and wanted to order, so I asked him what he would like, ready to write down what he said and not look dumbfounded if he asked any questions...he asked, "do you have any sandwiches?"  to which I replied.."yes...I believe so"  and had to flip around through the menu to find them (and it took a few flips...oops).  It was quite funny.  I had to explain that I was new to being in the cafe as well and he just laughed.

We are resting now after going to Leigh this morning, where we got some groceries at Tesco.  I spent some time with a lady that lives next door to where we are staying and the girls played in her back garden while we had tea.  It was lovely and she has an incredible garden.

We are having Bible study at our home tonight, so I think I might go and make an apple crumble....

Here are some pics from the last couple of days to leave you with today.

 SK loves watering the plants!

 Another rose bush in the front...love love love the roses.

 What the skies have looked like for 3 days now!  

 Berry picking at Kenyon Hall, where this little girl helped test the berries :)

 Me and my love.

 Picking currants.

 Aren't these gorgeous!

 Snuggled up to Uncle Bruce after hard work "picking" berries

 In Chester.

 Part of the Roman wall in Chester.

 St. John's...had amazing history to it--read out it more HERE

 Stoping at a Cafe for a rest and treat.

Chester.

Cross Cultural Training Notes...

So part of our reasoning for coming to England for 3 weeks this summer is to get a bit of understanding of how we will do life here once we move here for good.  We thought this trip would be a great chance to figure out how to get around on our own, get groceries, cook, do laundry, etc. etc.

While we are not going to have to learn a new language, there are quite a few words that are different here and many things culturally that are different.  So far, I feel like I have learned a lot, even in just the few days we have been here so far.  On our last visit a year ago, we were able to have the help of Trace and Ginger to help us with everything, which was great to have then, but we knew at some point we would have to figure it out on our own.  When we moved over, I am assuming Ginger won't go with me to the store every time I have to go or go with me on a train or bus every time we want to go somewhere.

So I figured today, let's make a little list of what our "training" has taught us so far!

*Black out curtains are essential.  Right now, it isn't getting dark outside till around 11:00 p.m. or so. And it gets light out very early as well.

*You can never overpack on layers.  I thought I would be good with just a couple long sleeve things...and poor Evie only has 1 cotton jacket.  I was able to find another little jumper (meaning sweater) in Rowan's closet so Evie has borrowed it for the next couple weeks :)  Thanks Rowan for sharing with Evie!

* Comfortable shoes are essential as well.  You walk a lot...and the same goes for the kiddos.

*We are learning words and phrases that are used here that we are not aware of with every conversation we have it feels like.  For instance, today, I helped serve in the cafe.  As I helped, one of the other ladies I was "shadowing" asked me to get a fork, knife, and a serviette.  Y'all.  I had no idea.  I am sure many of you would know exactly what that meant, but for me in the moment, I was clueless.  I finally figured out that it meant what I would call a napkin, but it took me off guard :)  Another phrase that come to mind that made me have to think hard on:  "hire a car" (meaning rent a car--we are looking into that...).  When I was working at the cafe today, I also got into a conversation on what each meal is called.  Whew, that can be confusing depending on what part of England you are in.  Just a few words that are different (there are plenty more I will just name a few): Dummy, Nappy, Rubish Bin, Tele, Toilets (instead of using what Americans would call a bathroom or restroom), and Buggy or Pram.  And then I won't even get started on the foods that are different and ones that I have no idea what they are by reading them on a menu :)

*I was nervous before coming about figuring out the pound, but I am happy to report I am figuring that out quite well.  I might have to stand and read each coin in order to get the right amount to pay, but I am making progress.

*I was able to get a package of Spaghetti noodles for dinner tonight for 33p (which would be about 56 cents in US dollars).  The pasta seems to be fairly cheap :)  The petrol (gas for the car) on the other hand is 1.30 pounds/liter, which translates into about $10/gal.

*Breakfast foods here are quite different as well.  And beans are served with many meals, which Evie has come to love.   Today, I got chili at the cafe, which was served on a bed of chips (fries) and rice.  It was delicious.

Overall, we are loving our time here and it will be hard to leave in a little over 2 weeks.  I love being able to walk to Sainsbury's at 4 or after and deciding what to cook then walking home to fix it.  I love that if we need something from the store, Michael can run over and be back in a matter of minutes.  I love learning about the culture here and trying new foods.  I love the gardens.  I love how people seem to take their time at meal time or stop in the afternoons for a cup of coffee/tea and don't seem to be in a rush.

Other thoughts about our time so far...

*We haven't seen the sun since Wed., our first day here.

*SK wins the prize for adjusting to the time change and getting over jet lag.  That girl took no time getting used to the time here.

*Chocolate here is amazing.  We are stocked up at the moment on Cadbury chocolates :)  And we even found Cadbury granola bars when we were at Tesco that are so yummy.

*Scarves and coats are needed year round here...there's no "putting them away" till next winter.

Alright, that's my thoughts from today...not sure I will keep this up everyday, but we shall see :)

I didn't take any pics today...though Michael says he wished he would have taken one of me in my "pinney".  I will make you go look that one up if you don't know what it is.

Nighty night y'all!

Hello from England!

It's been a while since I have blogged, I know.  I guess I can blame it on life getting a little crazy.  So what all has happened?  Let's see....

Michael graduated (with Honors!) from Covenant
We packed up our apt.
We sold many of our things including most all of our furniture.
We moved down to AL.
We took a little trip down to FL to see my mom and catch a little sun time.
And now, we are in Culcheth for the next 2.5 weeks.

So instead of trying to go back and tell you about all of the craziness and fun and hard and etc. we have faced in the last month, let's just talk about what we are up to now.  Maybe I will come back to those things later....maybe.

Let's just start with our trip here.  Well, let's back up a little.  Last week (as many of you probably saw on Facebook), I ended up getting food poisoning and was on the couch from Tues. evening till right before leaving.  I slowly got better and well enough to know I could make it on the flight over...it was iffy for a bit whether we were going to be even able to make it here to England on our scheduled date.

Praise the Lord, we made it here and while I am not 100% still, I am doing much better.  In the last day or so, I have been able to eat more than just bland foods, which has been great.

The flight over was fairly uneventful.  We flew from B'ham to ATL, then took an overnight flight to Manchester.  The girls did great.  We were able to put a movie on for the girls and she watched that then ate a little dinner.  After that it was probably about 9 our time and they turned the lights down and Evie went right to sleep in my arms.  SK took a little time going to sleep, but then they both ended up sleeping probably 4 hours almost.  It was lovely.  I did have a bit of a hard time getting comfortable with Evie sprawled out on my lap and not wanted to move too much as to chance waking her.  Overall, it went great though.

We got to England at about 8:30 a.m. (meaning about 2:30 a.m. Central Time Zone).  2 guys from the church came and picked us up and took us straight to Trace and Ginger's house (where we are staying while here).  We dropped off our bags and went straight to the Cafe (just a 5 minute walk is all) for breakfast.  We were starving and it was a lovely breakfast :)  We got to see a few friends from CCC there, which was fun as well.   After eating we walked on back home and got Evie down for a nap.  We all ended up falling asleep then :)  Michael and I woke after just about an hour, though we could have slept more, we knew it wouldn't help with adjusting to the time change.  We woke SK up too after a few more minutes.  We then had to wake Evie up after about a 3 hour nap (which is about her norm at AL).  We decided to walk back down to the village centre and check out the playground then get a few groceries at Sainsbury's.

Yesterday we walked around Culcheth and chilled for the most part.  We ate lunch at the cafe and took SK to see the Primary school.  Nothing big that day though.  We did have Bruce and Bea over after dinner to hang a bit.

Today we ventured out to Leigh, a nearby village.  We rode the bus and walked around Leigh all morning.  Meaning, we got lost a bit and ended up walking what seems like around the entire perimeter of Leigh till we finally found our way back to the bus station.  We went in Tesco to check it out, got a chocolate eclair at Waterfield's, and had a great time there.  We decided as it got closer to lunch to ride the bus on back towards Culcheth, but stopped at a very neat place called Bents (we came to it last year while here as well).  We got lunch there (and it was so delicious!) and looked around at all the cute things and plants and such.  Now we are back and Evie is napping.

I hope to do more blogging about our time here just to have a fun document of our fun time here ;)  SK is loving it so far.  She says she wishes she could live at the cafe.  She loves the cars, esp. the mini coopers :)  She loves being around the people here.  She was sad last night when we put the girls to bed because she wanted to keep hanging out with Bruce and Bea.

More blogging to come soon!  Here is a little sampling of some pics too:

 1 of the beautiful roses blooming in Trace and Ginger's back garden

(The flowers and gardens here are incredible by the way...so so so incredible)

SK the photographer got a pic of us :) 

 Evie playing in the back garden

Hydrangeas fresh from the garden and a yummy cheese board for after dinner hang out with Bruce and Bea.  There is a lovely delicateessen, where we got yummy cheeses and such.  Love that shop and will be there plenty during our time here I am sure :) 

Waiting on the bus this morning...I look not so great, but the girls are cute at least :) 

 Daddy finishing off the Chocolate Eclair this morning....yum.

Waiting on the bus to head to Bent's for lunch.  Evie loved riding the bus and waiting for it too.  She waves at any cars or busses that pass by.  It's so cute :)

Alright, that's all for now.  More to come though :)