We had visitors last weekend! My Momma and StepDad came to visit us. Josh was in Iowa for the weekend (more about that at the bottom). It was great because Mom and Rick helped me take care of Ruth. They also took us shopping at ZonaRosa and spoiled us with some new clothes. It was a fun trip but went by way too quick…here are some pictures of Ruth loving on her Papa and Juju.

Josh drove to Marion, IA for the weekend to spend time with our friends Bryce & Katie. They are pregnant with a precious baby, Olivia. Olivia has been diagnosed with Trisomy 18 and is not expected to live long after birth. What a hard sentence to type. The Lord has been faithful during this time and brought them through so much already. We are praying that the Lord will continue to carry them through this pregnancy one day at a time and lavish them with His love for them and sweet Olivia.

This weekend Josh got to be a part of a Celebration of Life for Olivia. It was time for all of Bryce and Katies’ friends and family to spend time celebrating Olivia. Josh was so thankful to be there. He was really moved as they all read Psalm 139 together.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

We love love here at the Fieleke house! Josh is great at romancing me in all sorts of ways. Ruth and I love to attack Josh with kisses every morning. So Valentines Day is a great day around here. We were beyond thankful because last night (actually on Valentines) some new friends from our small group offered to watch Ruth for a few hours so we could go out alone. We sat and ate YUMMY dessert at a place here in Lawrence, Tellers. It was so nice to be alone and hold hands and do all the lovey dovey stuff without sweet Ruth girl on my hip!

We wanted to do something fun as a family though, so Saturday night we set up the air mattress in our living room and ‘camped in’ for the night. It was great. We watched Shrek 3 because we thought it might keep Ruth’s attention. We were wrong. Its ok; Josh and I still liked it.

No good Valentines Day is good without some treats. I found this GREAT recipe for homemade graham crackers here.  They were fantastic – I highly recommend giving them a try. Just a side note on the recipe… I have little to no patience so I did not wait 2 hours to roll out the dough. I just put a piece of parchment paper on the top and bottom of it so I could roll it out even though it was sticky!

Here is Ruth girl with her one and only Valentine! She loved having the air mattress out. She kept climbing up onto it and then rolling right off. I have just accepted the fact I have a wild baby. I swear she has 5 bruises on her face right now from all the exploring and tumbling she does. Its great – God gave her a passion for life and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

I almost didn’t post this picture because my hair is looking nasty with a capital ‘N’. But I just had to do it. I love blogging and looking at blogs because it is so fun to see all the pretty pictures and perfect moments. The truth is though, that most of our moments are not perfect at all. They are just one big mess. One big beautiful mess. So I am trying to embrace the mess and own the fact that our lives are far from full of perfect moments. Expect many more pictures of messy hair, our dirty house, and chaos all around.

We just got home from a 5 day support trip to the St. Louis area. BIG NEWS – we are excited to be at 82% of our support goal!!!! YEA!!!! One day soon we will be on campus at KU loving on students….

This picture is of Ruth Mae loving visiting her Grandpa Scott and Grandma Brenda’s house. They moved to a new place in East Alton, IL and we stayed with them for the time we were there. We were thrilled to see the place and spend great time with them. Ruth enjoyed pretty much every minute of being at their house. She explored every inch of the house and she LOVED their 3 doggies. Can you tell from the picture below? She squealed each morning when she woke up and remembered there were dogs to play with.

Morning coffee with Grandpa

Cuddling up with Daddy before we had dessert with some of Grandma and Grandpa’s friends to share about our ministry at KU.

Grandma Brenda works at a Dentist office now so she was really proud of Ruth for brushing her 8 little teeth.

Ruth is learning so many fun new things. She likes to peek through the opening of her toys, she plays peekaboo with her blanket up over her face, she knows about 3 words we understand and about 10 we have no clue how to figure out.

Tuesday night we got to share with our dear friend Ashley’s small group about our ministry and our need for partners. Seeing her was a highlight because she just knows me so well and loves on my family so much. Josh laughed at us one day because we kept finishing each other’s sentences.

Pretty much we feel full to the brim right now. We are trusting God with our everything as we look ahead at finishing up our support raising. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 says, “He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for He is faithful to do what He says, and He has invited you into a partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”Driving home singing songs from our new worship CD together, I said to Josh, “I am just ready for Heaven today. I hope Jesus comes back for us soon.” He agreed. We are truly enjoying the journey. However, the best part of that scripture to us is that one day soon, Jesus will come back for us, His beloved!

Last Thursday night we had our friends and co-workers Shawn and Katie over for chili and baked potatoes. We were so thankful that they made the journey out in the snow to our house because we were going STIR CRAZY! The 12″ of snow was really fun for about 2 days and then we just wanted to resume our normal activities. Silly us though, all that time together at home was a huge blessing in the end.

We love hanging with the Stetsons because they are so fun to be around. It is also so fun because their little girl Paige is a month and a half older than Ruth and we have plans for them to be best friends! It is hilarious watching the girls play because their personalities come out in big ways. Paige is cool, calm, and collected almost all the time. She has these amazing core muscles because she has been able to sit up for so long and play on her own. Then there is wild girl Ruth who loves to suck on Paige’s toes and tackle her with kisses. We actually all cheer for Paige when she takes a toy from Ruth because we want her to stick up for herself when Ruth gets a little crazy. Those sweet girls are too much fun. See for yourselves….

How did you all survive cabin fever during the blizzard? Would love to read your comments!

Walking into Allen Fieldhouse this morning, I said, “Honey, how much must God know you and love you to bring you to a school that has events like ESPN College Gameday!!” Josh just smiled and agreed. He really just enjoys everything about the college atmosphere. I, however, was in mourning because the guards at the door made me throw away my Dunkin Donuts coffee – SAD!  Walking in and seeing thousands of students cheering for the KU basketball team gave us both a rush. I quickly forgot all about my caffeine needs. But Ruth didn’t really know how she felt about all that noise so we sat across from the students and got to watch the ESPN Analysts do their thing.

Here are some shots from our morning.

There was a lot of talk on the show about Thomas Robinson who is a power forward for the KU basketball team. His Mother passed away last week. Click here to read more about this. He released this letter of Thanks for the support from everyone in the community yesterday.

We just feel so sad for him – The Lord brought this to mind when I was typing this: “The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles.The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” Psalm 34:17-18

Do pray for Thomas when you think of him. It is fun to know that God has brought Bill Self, a professing Christian, to coach the team and hopefully minister to his players.

We are prayerful that in the next few years that KU athletes and coaches would be known as much for their love for God as they are for big dunks, touchdowns, and homeruns!

What a weekend I am coming down from. This morning Josh graciously let me sleep in until 8 am because I was TUCKERED OUT! We had 5 amazing house guests for the weekend – some of my besties from college! Cindi, Ashley, Bekah, Debbie, and Kendall joined Ruth and I in Lawrence for our annual house reunion. It was life-giving, soul-nourishing, and plain fun. I met these girls my freshman year of college in a Bible Study led by our friend (and fellow Crusade staff member Sheila). We lived together the next year in a house we named The Palace. After all, we are daughters of the King!

Here is a weekend run-down…. Friday night was chicken tortilla soup and lots of cuddling. Ruth happens to be getting some teeth so she was fussy but luckily for her she had 5 aunts to hold her. Late night updates on life and what God is teaching us started the weekend off right for sure. Saturday morning we had more time to chat over coffee. Ruth took advantage of her Aunt’s and went a bit nuts with the prunes…

It was so sweet of the Lord to give us this weekend. As I told the girls about my constant prayer for Ruth, we realized it was exactly what God had been doing in our lives since college. I always pray for her to have eyes to see God’s Kingdom – that as she grows up she wouldn’t want to go through life with blinders on, but instead she would see people and culture the way God does. I pray that the lenses she views the world through are Gospel colored – always seeing the depravity of people’s souls who don’t know Jesus, always praying that He would make sadness in people’s lives untrue, that He would right wrongs, and bring justice to the oppressed. It was a tender moment as we expressed that God had been teaching each of us these things and that He had started a lot of this in us during our time together in college! I am totally confident that He will continue His good work in our lives, and the lives of our husbands and kiddos down the road.

Saturday afternoon brought lunch and shopping on Mass street. It was really neat to show the girls my favorite part of town. And we topped off the weekend with yummy pancake dinner on Saturday night. Oh what a sweet sweet time it was. But now I am sure you understand why I needed that extra hour of morning sleep : )