Hello from Oklahoma

Hello Friends and Family,

We have finally started a blog. yeah! Sorry it has taken so long. Here is a little update for everyone.

Adam is in his third year at Seminary. During that year students receive a vicarage placement. Vicarage is a big fancy word for a seminarian's internship. It is a practical learning experience that a pastor in training must go through before graduation and ordination. We received our placement at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in April 2008. We moved to Edmond, OK in August of 2008 and we will be here until August 15th, 2009. Adam has been busy preaching on Wednesdays and Sundays, teaching confirmation, and is now leading one of the many Bible studies offered here. He has been involved with the college ministry in the area as well. The University of Central Oklahoma is in Edmond and a few of the students attend the church we are placed at. He leads them in Bible study on some Sundays and also goes to campus to meet with them for lunch where they have an informal chat about their weeks. It is a time to be able to share their prayer requests and concerns. He has really put a lot of effort into this ministry and has decided to expand the ministry to include other colleges in the area. He would like to get the group recognized as a Lutheran Student Fellowship group. Adam is not all work and no play though. He enjoys playing sports and getting some exercise as well. We have started playing volleyball on Tuesday nights in the church gym, and Adam has been playing soccer with a local team as well. We enjoy our home and we are looking forward to using the pool this summer at our apartment complex.

Rachel's days are filled with caring for our 14 month old daughter Audrey and the home. Along with caring for Audrey, Rachel has been involved with Body and Soul, an exercise class that combines contemporary Christian music with aerobics and strength training. She has loved it so much she is planning on becoming an instructor in the next few weeks. She passed her phone interview and will be sending in an audition tape here in about two weeks. If the audition tape is approved she will be attending a workshop in Washington D.C. in order to be eligible to teach a class. The Body and Soul instructors in the Oklahoma City area have been great mentors for Rachel and she will surely miss them in the Fall. Since Rachel will be returning to work at St. Luke's in the Fall , she will not be using this training until we receive our call in the Spring of 2010. She may have an opportunity to do something similar at Seminary called Faith and Fitness. It is a similar class led by student's wives for seminary women. Along with Body and Soul, Rachel has been attending a Bible study for moms on Monday mornings. It has been a blessing to be a part of that group. Rachel has found being a stay at home mom quite a challenge. Being a stay at home mom can be a lonely job. Audrey does not offer the needed adult conversation throughout the day and Adam is gone for extended periods of time during the day as well. The mom's bible study has been one outlet for her to network with other moms in similar situations. Rachel loves the people of Holy Trinity but is looking forward to seeing all her Seminary friends in August.

Audrey has adjusted to being in Oklahoma just fine. She has endeared herself to so many of the congregation members. It is hard to worship if you sit behind our little girl. Dropping cheerios and saying "Hi" to the people sitting behind her while she gives them a huge grin and a wave are just some of her church activities. She is so busy these days. She is walking now and seems to get into everything. She celebrated her 1st Birthday on March 8, 2009. We had our small group Bible study over for a cook out. We also had a cute cake that she destroyed out on our patio. She had fun opening her gifts and sharing a good time with some friends. She has made a few friends through church as well. There is a little girl that is just four days older than Audrey named Amelia and a little boy named Jack who is only a month older that she. They usually hang out in the church nursery when we have Bible study or when Rachel is in exercise class. She is such a social butterfly and loves other kids. She is so easy going when it comes to going to the nursery and she does not show many signs of separation anxiety yet. She recently has been cutting a lot of teeth. She is working on her first set of molars and her I-teeth. Her mouth looks like it hurts. I've heard it said that if we teethed like they do we would be on a morphine drip. I kind of believe that. Audrey has been walking well since about 12.5 months. She says two words. "HI". and "Bubble". She also can say "da da" and "ma ma" but she does not really use them that often. She loves to read and will keep bringing you books till you are blue in the face. We have been teaching her baby sign language and she can sign "all done", " more", "please", and "Thank you". We are working on "thirsty", " hungry"and "eat". She can point to her nose, eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, and today we found out she knows where her butt is. She is very smart and does all kinds of tricks. We will try and share them with you on the blog.

We unfortunately do not have time to catch up with everyone individually so we decided to start the blog. Please feel free to write us. We do care what you have been up to and would love to hear from you all. Blessings to you and your family.
In Christ,