Lydia is here! Thank you for all of your prayers. The C-Section went so smoothly and our prayers were answered when Lydia came into the world at 8:26 am on Friday, May 11 – healthy and happy. The Lord was so kind to allow us a joyful delivery and Maddi has had a really quick recovery!

Now for the part you really want to see…PICTURES!

Thursday we got to spend time with Maddi’s whole family and let Ruth get extra loved on for the day! She loved swimming with her Daddio!

One last picture of our family of three! My goodness, I look like I am going to explode – a huge dinner with Grandpa Scott and Grandma Brenda at Biggs BBQ may have added to my belly a little! Good thing Lydia was coming the next morning.

Yea! Here she is. Our little baby – only 8 pounds 4 ounces! She was a two pounds smaller than her big sister! I feel like I have a little premie on my hands. Josh and I keep staring at her in awe of how little she seems to us. The Lord was so kind during my surgery and I recovered really quickly in the recovery room. In just an hour, we got to head to our room for family to meet her.

Ruth LOVES Lydi – or as she calls her “Yiddi” – darn those L’s! She likes to hold her on the Boppy and talk to her and make Lydia hold her hand lots. She says, “I yuv you sooo much yiddi”. When Lydia cries, Ruth says, “Aww come here yiddi. I pick her up!”

Me and these sweet gifts the Lord has entrusted to me. I think I could spend all day cuddling with them and it still wouldn’t feel like enough.

Ruth had fun staying at home with her Grandpa Scott and Grandma Brenda on Friday and then her Papa and JuJu on the nights we had to stay in the hospital but we missed our family time so Ruth would head up to the hospital to watch Caillou with us before bed….and get in one last holding time with Lydia.

Here is our sweet girl! She is a peaceful and joyful baby! She is a sleeper too which has been nice so far. We will take lots of family pictures next week when Stephanie gets here to play with us for a few days so we will make sure to post LOTS more Lydia pictures!

We have been so thankful for lots of help! My mom stayed for the last few days to help us and Josh’s mom got here yesterday to help through the weekend! Ahh family makes everything so much sweeter!

Thanks for celebrating with us. The Lord is faithful and he has for sure added lots of joy to our family with this new precious girl of ours!

Love, Josh and Maddi

“He is Risen!” Those were the words I heard my sweet girl say last night. I do think it was to help me stop crying. We had just finished reading the Passover story in her Jesus Storybook Bible. We read about Jesus being the Servant King and I was in tears. She kept wiping them away and kissing on me. We were having a good talk about how great Jesus is and she said, “RISEN!”. She knew it was the thing that would fix everything. The back-story is that I have been trying to teach her to say that for days and she has stubbornly refused. Now I know she was just saving it for the perfect time. When is that not the perfect thing to say?!?!?

Here is a recent picture from a walk we took as a family…

We just sent out our April Newsletter in the mail yesterday to our faithful prayer partners and wanted to follow up with a few extra pictures and stories. When we think about the BIG picture of what God is doing on campus, we just feel like He is growing people and stretching our faith as we prepare for ministry next year. 

Here is a picture from our recent Women’s Retreat. It was a fun time to connect with girls in our movement and talk about our identities in Christ. The woman that shared encouraged us and the students to lift our eyes from ourselves and embrace Jesus. It was a great message! 

Below is a picture from our outreach event last week. It was fun for the staff and students to serve together and talk to people on campus about Jesus! Ruth jumped in on the fun and ran around handing out fliers to all the students. That girl is fearless : ) I did get some funny looks being 8 months pregnant on campus so I was glad to have Ruth there to distract from my big ol’ belly! 

Thanks for taking some time to look through our pictures. If you have time to pray for our ministry – we ask that you would focus on:

1. Lift up students to the Lord. Ask Him to continue sanctifying them and growing them! 

2. Lift up Josh’s trip this month to Colorado. He is meeting people that He will coach this summer in the support raising process. I personally think He will be a GREAT coach : ) 

3. Also ask the Lord for a safe rest of pregnancy for Lydia and I. We can’t wait to meet her!! 

Thanks! Email us if you have requests that we can be praying for you!! 

Love, Josh & Maddi

We have heard from some of you about our latest newsletter because we shared in it that it will just be Josh and I on campus here next year. Yep, our team of 11 is going to be just Josh and Momma Maddi for the year. I have been praying lots through this and wanted to share some of the freedom God has been giving me in regards to this big change. 

This might be one of those blogs that is more helpful for me to write than it is for you to read. 

We are so happy for our teammates. Some of them will be serving at our partnership in Athens, Greece for the year. Others will be leaving to go to a new location on staff. Even others are finishing their intern years here and moving on to Graduate School. We are celebrating with them where God is leading them. Also I am crying when I think about them not being here to do life with next year. I really enjoy our team. Just yesterday, we ate tacos for lunch and laughed together! I just want to be with them all day everyday!

I have definitely had some tears when I think about our transition next year. Our family growing and Lydia Joy needing her Mommy all the time, our Ruth girl growing up and needing potty trained (ahhhhh) and me wanting to stay out of the loony bin and not lose my mind! The Lord gave me a verse this morning that couldn’t be more kind and gracious of Him to lead me to. 

Isaiah 41:18 says, “I will open up rivers for them on the high plateaus. I will give them fountains of water in the valleys. I will fill the deserts with pools of water. Rivers fed by springs will flow across the parched ground.”

In all of my fears, God is still the God who provides. He sees us and knows the needs of our family and our ministry at KU. He sees the freshman who are growing and promises to keep growing them next year. He is the one who makes water in the desert lands in our lives. I am sure you can think of areas or times in your life that you were needy or alone. But God is God and He is promising us that in the difficulty He is not going anywhere! How quickly peace rushes over me when I rest in His promises!

One thing we are excited about for next year is seeing students get chances to lead the ministry alongside us. We are also excited about lots of fun times for our girls as we travel and do the life of student ministers! Thank you for praying for us and the students here during this time. 

Here are some pictures from a fun KU baseball game we went to with students and staff this week. 

One of my favorite things Josh has started this year is inviting over any new students that come to our weekly meeting for dinner the next week. So tonight, we had the privilege of having two new girls over that I like a lot…minus the fact that I called one of them the wrong name for ten minutes before we realized what I had been doing (I blame Lydia for hogging all my sanity). After that though, we had such fun conversation with them!

Tonight I am praising the Lord for a few things. I am thanking Him that I get to cook for students and that they like it. It is a joy for me to use that gift to bless people’s lives. I am also thanking Him for His faithfulness to bring new students to our ministry! They had been wanting to come for a while but their schedules didn’t clear up until this semester. He is just so good to bring them to a place where they can grow with Him and get plugged in to what He is doing in other student’s lives on campus. Also, I am just in awe of His ways. The girls were sweet to share that they attended my Valentines Day talk at our Crusade weekly meeting (that I thought I flopped). But, imagine this…God spoke to them through some of the things I shared. They were encouraged to hear me affirming that God gave us relationships so that we could glorify Him together with our spouse. I am just encouraged that He would use this silly lady to help anyone walk more closely with Him!

On a side note, I am praising Him for my sweet daughter that makes everything more fun. We had a very significant event happen in our lives today. Ruth and her Daddy bought a pet. A goldfish. She named the fish, “Big.” Seriously. And then she told me it was a girl. Every time the fish moves, she laughs and says, “Swim Big Fish!!!” She made dinner more fun too – how can conversation not go well with Ruth blowing bubbles at the dinner table and yelling, “Pop!” Don’t mind the snotty nose, here is a picture of Ruth and “Big.”

I don’t have enough great things to say about my college roommates aka ‘ the besties’. We had so much fun together in college and our time together keeps getting sweeter. Two weeks ago, I went to Springfield for our quick reunion weekend together. We called our house, “The Palace”…we are afterall, daughters of the King! This was our 4th annual reunion. Hence our creative name, P4 : )

Being known by these women is a sweet gift from the Lord. I experience His love when I am with them and grow from watching Him display His glory in their lives.

Here are pictures from our weekend together….and a quick look into how fast Lydia is growing! 

Our old but GREAT first house. Poor girls that live in it now – we crashed it and asked for a tour : ) Still a group of godly college girls living there and keeping up the Palace Legacy! 

Our visit wouldn’t have been complete without a Mudhouse coffee date!

Us outside the Palace

God gives us BEAUTIFUL babies! That is Ruth’s favorite baby, Bennett Gaunt!! She loves him and we do too!

Thank you Jesus for a great time with dear friends!

If you haven’t heard yet, we are expecting Baby #2. I am about 16 weeks along now and finally feeling pretty good again. We decorated for Christmas and I just had to share these pictures with you. I think I was still feeling a bit of belly shyness though because I am in none of them : ) oops!

Above is our sweet girl enjoying a “coooookie”. Her favorite word and dessert!

Below is our night of Christmas decorating. Overall it was a really fun night. Ruth only broke 5 ornaments so we thought that was a success : )

I am feeling the need to purge the last three months of ukkkknessss (throwing up all day and night) and move forward. However, it would just be a shame for me to not share some of the great things God is doing here in our lives and ministry. So here is my top 3 list:

1. I have a dear friend from China who I got to share the Gospel with last month. She had a painful rash the day I shared the Gospel with her and in the course of sharing, we talked about how Jesus lives in me and uses me for His glory. So I offered to pray that He would take away her rash and show her just how much He loves her. She agreed that I could pray for her so I did. The next day, we were texting and she told me her rash was almost completely cleared up and the pain was all gone. I told her that Jesus loves her very much and she wants to study the Bible with me now!!!

2. Josh started a men’s discipleship group at our house on Tuesday nights for students and it is so sweet what God is doing in these guys lives! They take walking with the Lord so seriously together! They even do pushups when they can’t memorize the verses on time. It is all in good fun, but I am encouraged by Josh’s leadership and their zeal for learning all they can about Jesus and how to follow Him.

3. My sweet girl started going with me to open gymnastics day on Fridays! Where did my baby go? She is long gone. This girl jumps in pits and on trampolines. She ran for 2 hours straight last time we went and this prego lady had a hard time keeping up. I teased a friend that she needed to come with me each week just to make sure I didn’t pass out while running around with Ru girl.

Ok that was fun. Thanks for reading. God is so good, even in my seasons of ukkkness. I am excited now for Christmas parties with our students and staff. We are challenging students to come with us to DCC (Denver Christmas Conference) after Christmas for a week of teaching and worship together. We would appreciate your prayers that God would move in students hearts at KU and motivate them to come join us at the conference. It has a special place in my heart because my best friend gave her life to Jesus there our freshman year!

I am also looking forward to December 13 – our ultra sound to find out if this is a baby boy or girl : )

 

 

 

We spent a sweet weekend resting and relaxing with our family. I have such great pictures from my Sis in law’s camera to share. The first few are from a family outing at Deanna Rose Farmstead. (it was awesome!!) Poor Josh had to miss it but he was busy loving on students. The rest are from our pumpkin patch outing with the Lee’s Summit Fieleke’s to Shaake’s Pumpkin Patch here in Lawrence. Thank You Lord for time with family!!!

Probably my favorite picture of all time right now. I can’t get enough of it. I mean, that handsome hubby of mine is lookin good and my sweet baby girl is loving life. I will be honest though, I think we are laughing because she wiped out and bit it and had dirt in her mouth. Oh well. I am writing my talk right now that I will give to our students at Cru on Thursday night. I am nervous but excited. I am also being CHALLENGED by God’s Living Word. Here is the quote I am challenging them with in their relationship with Jesus and time in college, “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”

What does that mean for me today? I don’t know! I am scared a little to know the answer. Just thankful for God’s mercy and grace over my life that in the midst of days full of time-outs and Sesame Street, He shapes me and never takes His Spirit from me! It helps me to know Him as my All Satisfying Treasure when I think of how empty those things would be without His presence and promise to ‘continue His good work in me (and Ru girl) until it is finally complete on the day of Christ Jesus’ return!’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have so many things we want to share about campus and what God is doing there but I couldn’t resist a quick update on my birthday this weekend. Josh called it my birthday week because I love to celebrate so much! My parents were in town for the weekend loving on us and spoiling Ru girl but I didn’t get a picture with them – oops! I think they got about 100 though so maybe you can email me one mama? Here are my pictures from the day yesterday…

We went to church last night for a big outreach event. It was fun but of course Ruth wanted to play on the slides the whole time! 

Celebrating with Josh and Ru is the best.
And the slides…She really loves them. We love watching her love them. God gave me a fearless daughter!

We had a blast celebrating Labor Day weekend. It was our first full weekend off campus since school started and God refreshed us for sure. Our friend Ashley came in town to hang with us and it was sooo fun. Ruth lovingly called her Ash all weekend which kinda melted her heart!

Here we are at the first KU game of the season. Josh spent all his allowance this month on a cheerleader costume for his girl. She rocked it!

Ash rocked my world by wearing the moby and lugging around Ru girl for the game. THANKS!!!

Here is our little cheerleader in action! She is so full of joy. We all had to get dressed up for some reason…I just can’t remember why : ) Oh us girlies….I am thankful Joshua loves us so much – we are kinda nuts!