Missing Daddy!

Peter has been gone since last Sunday (early morning) with the high schoolers from our church. They went to Hollywood, CA on mission trip. From what he has told me, it has been a great week of learning evangelism strategies and putting them to practice in all kinds of different settings. They have witnessed in parks, on beaches, on Hollywood Blvd, on Skid Row (large homeless population), and at a Kid's Club.

Joshua and I dropped Peter off at the airport at 5:30 a.m. last Sunday which was Father's Day. It was kind of sad for me (I don't know if Peter cared) that we weren't getting to spend the day with him on HIS DAY. We did celebrate a little on Saturday in between VBS, laundry, and packing. We are SO glad that he will be on his way home to us in a few hours. I keep imagining us going to DFW airport and waiting for him in baggage claim. Joshua spots his daddy and starts running toward him, arms in the air and shouting "DaDa"! I don't know if that will really happen, but it would be so sweet if it did!

While it was hard to have Peter away, I did enjoy my time with Joshua. We got to go swimming one evening, and went on a date to Boston Market last night. My parents came in town for a few days to help keep us company so we had a good time with them. This morning, Joshua gets to meet a new friend for the first time...Elliot Louise Sherrell. We have been waiting over two months to get to see her (my fault), so we are excited to get to meet this precious little girl.

I have learned this week once again that "absence makes the heart grow fonder." I have missed my husband and I know Joshua has missed his "DaDa". Peter is such a good daddy and loves to spend time with his boy. Peter, we are so glad that we get to see you in nine hours!

Big Brother!

If you can't tell from the picture, we are very excited to announce that Baby Murrell #2 is on the way! Peter and I visited Dr. Clark on Friday for confirmation that we are indeed pregnant and due on January 25th. I am 8 weeks along! I needed some major confirmation...you see last Friday I took the first pregnancy test and really couldn't believe that it was positive. So later that night I took the other one...still positive. Saturday I decided to get a different brand and took one more...still positive. Finally, this Friday morning before the appointment I took the fourth one because if I wasn't pregnant, I didn't want to find out at the doctor's office. Silly, I know!

It was so sweet to be able to see our baby in the sonogram, and see the little heartbeat racing. Dr. Clark said that right now the baby just looks like a bean. At our next appointment in a month we will do another sonogram and will be able to see a lot more.

God is so good and we are excited to see His plan unfold!

Baby Swim

Last Saturday, Janelle and Kristin came over and we took the babies swimming in our apartment pool. I always remember when we would go to our neighborhood pool when we were growing up, that I would dread when the lifeguard would blow her whistle and shout "Adult Swim". That meant that all of the kids had to get out of the pool for 15 or 20 minutes and the adults would swim laps. Well, when the six of us were in the pool last weekend, it was as if someone shouted "Baby Swim!". There were several people that walked into the gate, fully intending to swim in that pool, but must have been intimidated by what they saw, because they kept on walking. There is another pool not 15 yards away, so I'm sure they all went there. It made for a very nice, quiet swim with our sweet babies.

This was Joshua's first time in the pool since last August. He was not feeling very adventurous and really did not want me to hold him away from being pressed up against my body at all. We did manage to get him to stay in Ella's float for a few minutes.

Vacation Bible School

I have been so excited this summer knowing that Joshua would get to experience his first Vacation Bible School! I want VBS to be a yearly, fun memory for him, so it is great that it is beginning when he is only 13 months. I know that he won't remember this, but he is definitely having a lot of fun with the other babies his age. The theme this year is called "Game Day Central" and is a sports/team theme. Joshua wore his basketball jersey outfit on Monday and was dressed for the team. When I picked him up from his class, he had the cutest little temporary tatoo on his cheek. The older kids get one each day, but I was not expecting for my little one to have one also. It made him look like a big boy! I really wanted to take pictures of this, but I waited until we got home and he was super tired and could not even stand up!

After a good nap, we were able to get another picture of the tatoo!

Oksana's Baptism

Here are a few pictures from Oksana's baptism. You can read about details of this day at the bottom of yesterday's post.

It's Time For a Celebration!

Someone called for a little celebration in our lives this last weekend. We took a special trip to Houston to celebrate several things: Elizabeth's graduation (Peter's cousin), Phillip & Elizabeth's birthdays, Bill's retirement, and Oksana's baptism. We were going non-stop from party to party, and I think Joshua probably had as much cake over the course of the weekend that he had on his birthday. Here are quite a few pictures from the weekend...trust me, I'm actually sparing you, because I took around 300 pictures, so I'm only sharing a sample!

Elizabeth's graduation was so special. It is hard to believe that she was 5 years old when I met her for the first time, and in August she will be headed off to A&M! She is a wonderful example of a godly 18 year old that seeks God and serves Him. A tradition during graduations at Houston Christian High School, is that each graduate gives a rose to each special woman in their life. Elizabeth is giving a rose to DenDen, Peter's grandma (except Elizabeth calls her MiMi).

During the ceremony, Elizabeth sang her last song with the choir that she spent hours upon hours performing with during high school. (She is in the middle of the pic.)

Elizabeth with her parents, Beverly & Numa.


Joshua's favorite graduate cousin!

On Friday, we celebrated Elizabeth's graduation in style at the Houston Junior Women's League for a luncheon. It was in a beautiful house with delicious food, and 14 ladies who have mentored and encouraged Elizabeth since she was a little girl. Somehow, Joshua got to crash the party and was the only boy!

We celebrated Phillip & Elizabeth's birthdays...they share June 8th as their birthday.


On Saturday morning, we visited with Peter's grandma. She had a cute rocking chair that was just Joshua's size, so he enjoyed climbing off and on just about the entire time we were there.

On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Bill's retirement party at the Bush Intercontinental Airport firestation where Bill worked. The firefighters arranged the entire party and had a fried catfish & shrimp lunch, a huge cake, and a nice "award" for Bill.

Bill retired as a senior captain, and these were the guys on his shift.

Future firefighter?

Phillip and Joshua were watching the planes take off as they looked over the fire station wall.

The highlight of the weekend for me was Sunday morning. Peter had the privilege of baptizing Oksana, his 12 year old sister at FBC Houston. I wish I had a video or pictures of the actual baptism to share, because it was very sweet. Peter recounted several important times in Oksana's life:

~Peter & his dad went to L'Viv, Ukraine on a mission trip with FBC Houston and met Oksana at a children's hospital when she was four years old.

~The next year, Peter's parents traveled back to Ukraine to adopt Oksana as their daughter.

~Last summer at FBC Irving's children's camp, Oksana heard the message of salvation presented by Camp Pastor John Durham, and responded that she wanted Jesus to be her Savior. It was at that point that God adopted her as His daughter.

What a beautiful picture of God's sovereign plan for Oksana's life...that He would take a young orphan who was sick, and provide a wonderful family, bring healing to her body, and give her the ultimate gift of salvation.

You may have noticed that all of these pictures are of the Murrell Family! This trip to Houston was to celebrate many great things in their family. I managed to sneak away for an afternoon to visit with my parents and give them a little time with Joshua. Here are some of the adventures that Grandpa took Joshua on.

Digging for earth worms...

Joshua kept picking the worm up and trying to hand it back to my dad. He was not bothered at all by the slimy, dirty worm...a boy at heart!