The Aliens Have NOT Landed

So if you read my last post and wondered who has hijacked my blog, don't worry! I haven't been abducted by aliens. It's still Eskai :-} A fellow church planting wife and good friend, Anne Milam, is starting a new blog for church planting wives and she has asked me to contribute to the blog. So you will occasionally see an article about my life as the preacher's wife. Don't worry! I will still post about the adventures of the Foster Family and there will still be many pictures of Sarai. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up!

Windows

As I sit at my desk three days before Christmas looking out the window at the clear blue sky and crisp white snow, I'm struck by how much my life has changed in just a year. One of the biggest changes being all this snow outside my window! Charlotte, NC only got this kind of snow once in the seven years we lived there but it is quite the norm here in northern Illinois.

Last winter, my husband and I knew God was leading our family into the wild world of church planting but where He was taking us or when we might get there was still unknown. This winter, we have found ourselves in Gurnee, IL where we have already had a month of services at the Warren Campus of North Point Christian Church. Last year, I would never have dreamed of living just north of Chicago, yet now I'm in love with not only the area but the people here as well.

Last winter, we were living with friends because our home had sold before it was ever put on the market. This winter, we are settling into our new home that has truly been a blessing from God. A year ago, I said good-bye to some of my best friends while wondering if I would every have relationships like these again. Now God has opened up so many new doors for relationships then I every thought possible.

Last Christmas, I was still adjusting to having a toddler who could walk. Not only does she walk now, but she talks in full sentences! Last winter, being that we lived in Charlotte, I could have gone outside in a light coat. Now I wouldn't dare go outside without my wool coat, scarf and gloves on!

But most importantly, I did not fully understand how God could stretch my faith in just 12 months yet I'm amazed at how much I have grown in my relationship with Him.

This past year has been a whirlwind for our family from moving halfway across the country to being a part of this new church work but through it all, God has shown me again and again how much He loves me, how much He cares about the little things, and how much bigger his picture for my life really is. The verse that has encouraged me the most this past year is one I memorized back in elementary school, but this year it has finally found its way to my heart. Jeremiah 29:11 reads, "'For I know the plans I have for you', says the Lord. 'They are plans for your good and not for disaster, to give you a hope and a future.'"

In many ways, my life this past year has not been what I would have expected. But then again, as a church planting wife, it usually isn't and I would not want it to change one bit. As you look through the window of this past year, how has your life as a church planting wife been different then what you had anticipated and what has God taught you through the unexpected things?

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree! How lovely are your branches....covered in snow! We did a brand new thing this year and cut our own tree down! What an experience! This past Saturday, our friends Tim, Mary Beth and Hannah Babcock invited us to join them. Together we traveled to a local farm and shared in this Christmas tradition. It had to have been the coldest day yet of this winter not to mention it had snowed all morning. We bundled the girls up in their snowsuits and headed out to the farm just after lunch. They took us out to the tree fields on a wagon (which Sarai was excited about) and dropped us off to find the "perfect tree." Just out of curiosity, does the "perfect tree" exist? After searching for more than 30 minutes and realizing that we could no longer feel our toes, all the trees looked "perfect!" Both families did find trees to call their own and we eagerly caught the next wagon back to the farmhouse. Mary Beth and I quickly volunteered to take the girls inside to find some hot cocoa and let our limbs thaw out while the men got the trees attached to our vehicles. Make sure to check out the picture of Hannah and Sarai! Next year we shouldn't go in the middle of naptime :-) But we had so much fun! Thanks for letting us tag along Babcocks!

I would love to say that we came home and began the process of tree decoration but unfortunately, we had a Christmas party to attend that evening and the next three nights were also tied up with meetings and such. Mike did get it put in the stand Saturday afternoon but it stood bare except for a star till Wednesday night. But Wednesday evening the fun began! I had no idea Sarai would get as into the decorating as she did. She couldn't get an ornament on the tree fast enough before she was heading back to the boxes to look for another one! It was so enjoyable to see her excitment :-) And we even managed to snag a family picture when the tree was all done. Amazing since it was 9:15 and Sarai usually goes to bed no later than 8.

Just for a minute I need to tell you about one of the things I feel in love with about our house. I used to joke with Mike that someday I would love to have a house with a picture window to display my Christmas tree. If you notice, our tree is displayed in my picture window this year :-) When Mike and I found this house on the internet, I didn't notice the bay window in the living room until we actually pulled into the driveway to walk through it. We did not buy this house just because of the picture window of course but it was sure a nice cherry on top. I know it put a smile on God's face to see my excitment over a silly picture window :-) Merry Christmas everyone!

Sarai showing off her ornament
Where's baby Jesus, Sarai?

Giving Thanks

Just thought you all would enjoy some pictures from our Thanksgiving celebration. My entire family flew in on Thanksgiving day for the holiday. It was so much fun to have my parents, my brother Philip, his wife Michelle, my other brother John and his girlfriend Sarah here. I had done all of the cooking, baking and even the turkey before Thursday so the only thing we had to do was drive home from the airport and throw all the food into the oven. It was so nice!

Saturday we took a day trip to downtown Chicago. It was obviously a cold day given where we live but it wasn't as cold as it could have been! Sarai was so funny...we had her all bundled up in her winter coat but she refused to wear her hat or gloves. Needless to say, after about an hour of walking around in the cold, her hands had found there way far up into her coat sleeves and all you could see out of the hood of her coat was her eyes. Maybe next time she will wear them :-) We walked from the train station to Millennium Park and enjoyed watching the ice skaters as well as seeing our funny reflections in "The Bean," which is a large reflective sculpture in the park. From there we caught the "L" and headed to Lou Malnati's Pizzaria for dinner. Yummy! The city was so beautiful at night and all decked out for Christmas!

We also had our first snow of the year Sunday night. My sister-in-law, Michelle, was super excited because she had never experienced that much snow. I do have to admit that even though I'm not ready for the cold, winter months to be here, the snow was quite beautiful. And it was fun to see Sarai enjoy her first snow. Initially she wasn't too sure about it but Michelle showed her how fun it was and pretty soon Sarai was helping with the snowman. They even got my dad to make a snow angel!

The only crummy part of the whole visit was Sunday night Sarai came down with a 24 hour flu bug and over the next four days, 7 of the 9 of us got sick. Not fun! I felt so bad that everyone caught it. Hopefully my family will still be willing to come see us again :-)

Oh, and what better way to end a visit with Nana then by making chocolate chip cookies! It makes my heart smile to see my mother and my daughter baking together...and Papa helped too!

The Art Institute
Skaters in Millennium Park
Sarai's reflection in the "Bean"

Trying to stay warm...should have worn the hat and gloves!

My brother John and his girlfriend Sarah

My great $15 garage sale find!

Sarai and Michelle playing in the snow

Yes, that is my dad!

Michelle and Sarai's first snowman :-)

Best part about making cookies is licking the spatula!

Pictures from Launch Sunday!

And the Baby Is Born!

Today we were blessed to be a part the birth of North Point's Warren Campus! Many of you know that 7 months ago, Mike, Sarai and I packed all our earthly belongings into a U-Haul truck and moved from Charlotte, NC to Gurnee, IL. We came because God has given us a desire to see new churches planted and hurting people transformed by His amazing love. And today was the beginning of what not only our family but many other families have been working towards and praying about for more than a year. We had our first official service as the Warren Campus of North Point Church! And I wish I could put into words all the emotions of the morning. We had been able to "practice" for the past three weeks so the set-up went rather smoothly and visitors began arriving around 9:40 a.m. I was busy helping parents get their children signed in and to their classes until well past 10 but I was able to sneek into service around 10:20 to see what was transpiring. The minute I walked into the theater and saw how full it was of faces I did not recognize, I began to cry. Not because I was sad, but because of the tangible realization of how greatly God is working through us and through all those on the Warren Campus team. God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

Mike also put a post up about this morning. If you would like to read his thoughts on the day, go to http://mikefoster.wordpress.com/

Celebrate Fall

Several weekends ago, we spent our Saturday afternoon and evening carving pumpkins and eating Chicago pizza with our good friends Tim, Mary Beth and Hannah. We had hoped Hannah and Sarai would want to be a little more involved in the process but they didn't want to have anything to do with the goo inside the pumpkins. They were just happy to sit back and watch the adults :-) But they enjoyed sitting next to their carved pumpkins and checking them out all lit up on the front porch!

Aren't their aprons cute! I found them at the Dollar Tree :-)

Mike making weird faces while carving our pumpkin.

Hannah and her daddy, Tim

Hannah and Sarai enjoying the fruits of their parent's labor :-)

Mary Beth carved a "W" in a pumpkin for Tim because he graduted from the University of Wisconsin

And of course, we celebrated Halloween on Friday of this past week. Sarai had asked to be a butterfly so we bought her a pair of wings and paired them up with a black gymsuit with butterflies on it that she already had in her dresser. It wasn't fancy but she loved it! She ran around the yard saying "flapping wings, flapping wings!" We actually had flurries earlier in the week and I was a little concerned it would be cold Halloween evening. But it turned out to be a beautiful day. We even went to the park that morning! Since it was so nice out, we set up our camp chairs on the driveway and passed out candy while enjoying our neighbors and the pleasant fall night.

Going "Trick or Treating" with daddy while mommy passed out candy

My little butterfly

Sarai walked all the way down our side of the street by herself and carried her own bucket but daddy had to carry the tired butterfly back home.

Examining all the goodies :-)

Apples, Apples and Even More Apples!

We don't live in North Carolina anymore so there won't be fall trips to the mountains for apples but one fun thing about Illinois I have discovered is there are some GREAT apple orchards here! A few weekends ago, we headed 45 minutes west to Harvard, IL and the Royal Oak Farm and Orchard. The neat thing about this specific farm is that it is owned by a Christian family and they unashamedly display scripture verses and crosses all over the farm from the gift shop to the restaurant to the barns. Everyone was super nice and there were a million things to do besides pick apples. They had a pumpkin patch, a petting zoo, fun climbing toys, a carosel, a train the kids could ride, a gift shop and a wonderful restaurant. We had beautiful weather and were there all morning but still didn't have the chance to do everything.

We arrived as soon as they opened and decided to pick apples first as we knew the apple fields would get busy as the morning wore on. Well actually, we stopped at the gift shop first to eat an apple cider donut. Had to have some energy to pick all those apples! Because the apple fields are so spread out, they give you a map of where all the different kinds of apples are and take you out on a tractor to the field of your choice (Sarai wasn't too sure about the tractor at first but she eventually enjoyed the ride). But Sarai LOVED picking apples and eating them straight off the tree! Mike even picked her up so she could reach the high ones. A little more than an hour and a huge bag of apples later, we decided it was time to find us a few pumpkins. We picked out three, a daddy one, a mommy one and a baby one. They are quite cute sitting on our front porch. By this time, we had gotten hungry again (apple cider donuts were gone) and we headed into the restaurant for a home cooked meal. Sarai had homemade mac and cheese, Mike had a BBQ sandwich and I had chicken pot pie. It was all wonderful and I'm sure I gained a couple pounds :-) By the time we finished eating, we were getting close to Sarai's naptime but we wanted to check out some of the other things for her to do before we headed home. She spent some time playing on the climbing toys and then checked out the goats, cows, geese, and turkeys at the petting zoo. She didn't pet anything though. She's so funny. She loves animals in theory but as soon as they are alive and in front of her, she is singing a different tune. By now, she was starting to get whiney so we knew our time at the farm was coming to a close. Of course, she didn't nap at all on the way home but we had such a great morning, Mike and I didn't mind :-)