It has been a long time inbetween posts so I thought I would share a little glimpse of the beauty of the world at 90 feet below sea level. I took these pictures on my first ocean dive while at Grand Cayman during our Disney Cruise. Stay tuned for more.

Soccer




Lady Vol Soccer






Kortney's Volleyball Pics

Rylee is 8 now. She is in the 3rd grade. She goes to Freedom Christian Acadamy. She is a very good student. She strives to make straight A's. Actually, she had a melt down last year durning a family night when they called her for the RED honor which was A/B honor roll and not the BLUE honor roll which is all A's. (She had a 92.something% B in handwritng) She places high expitations on herself. She likes things to be her way. When a project comes home from school, she wants to get her poster board that night even if it is not due until next month. She reminds us all the time to do things that are coming up. I guess she does'nt trust that we can do things without her. Not that we have ever forgot. She doesn't like to break the rules or for anyone around her to break rules. Her cousins like to mess with her and put their toes across a line at Disney that says stand behind the yellow line. Just to watch her panic. Todd and I have always called her "Special" Because we didn't know what else to call her. When she was an infant & toddler -98% of the time she is perfect but that 2% that she wasn't everyone knew it. She can push her daddy's buttons more that anyone. (I think they are alot alike) However, she can melt hearts just as fast. She is very tender hearted. She always thinks of people that are less fortunate. She loves all babies. She trys to take care of them all. She says she wants to be a first grade teacher when she grows up. For the ones of you that don't truely know her I wanted to paint you a picture. She normally will over react. I made up a term and said she had hyperconderosis & sympithtis. Which means she turns any small element into a disease & she can catch a cold from over the phone, kinda like her granddaddy. ha ha ha So when Mrs Fussaro her 3rd grade teacher asked us if Rylee told us that she said she could'nt see the board. We said No Rylee has never said she could'nt see before.... but my first thought was is this her hyperconderosis & sympithtis kicking in. Did she say that because a friend said it. We decided to piggy back Rylee on Kortney sports physical and have the peditrician check her eyes. Just in case. Well he said she was definatly struggling to see. He thought it was 20/140 & to go to an eye doctor immediatley. Her appointment was today. She only reminded us 4 hundred 72 thousand times. The doctor checked her out and told us that her vision was 20/200 and exaplained that she was living in her own world. We felt so bad, but the doctor said she doesn't know any better. I asked how we did'nt know and he said that she has been compensating for her poor vision. I explained that she was a good student and reader. He said that was because her best vision was at about 50 cm. Which is about the distance to her desk. We picked out glasses. The ladies that sale the glasses were going on about they could'nt beleive she has'nt ever had glasses before & they hope they are here when we picks her glasses up. They want to see her when she see for the first time. They also went on about how pretty her eyes are. She was so funny....she had the frames on without special lenses and she said "I can see way over there now" After laughing alittle,we explained that they were not her real glasses. That we would get them next week. Well we shared the news with some friends and family. We were still in shock that she could'nt see well. We posted a picture of Rylee in the frames she pick out on facebook and received great comments about how cute she was. One of our comments was from a family friend who said "Poor Rylee is leagally blind" I thought it was an expression until I remember that my friend used to work for an Optometrist & that she went on mission trip to give out glasses. I immediatly googled 20/200 and the words were there. Legally Blind- my heart broke and my eyes swelled up because I did'nt want this for her. I would take it for her if I could. I am blown away right now because the doctor did'nt use those words. I feel like I should have known that she could'nt see. I just have to give those beautiful eyes over to the Lord. Rylee is excited about her cool new glasses. Now, we really can't wait for the real glasses to get here. So she can see the beauty that our Lord created.

We were traveling across the ocean on June 5, to Korea. We sat on the plane and enjoyed a few moments of quiet. We were taking a small break from our fast pace life trying to prepare for our upcoming week abroad. When Todd says..."You know our summer is over!" Boy was he right. Our summer has flown bye. Between Korea, VBS, PCB camp, mission trip to Asheville, and trying to move we have hardly had time to unpack our suitcase. It has been incrediable and amazing but it doesn't seem possible that it is the first day of school. Normally we are on the ball at the beginning of the school year and we slack off a bit by late spring. I don't know why but I guess it is because of the craziness of our life style. This new school year I believe we have started off feeling slugish. We did'nt get our school supplies until yesterday. We had these grand plans of a perfect night at home, good home cooked meal, baths, haircuts, and early to bed. But a Dahl got thrown in our plans...yes, you heard it. Dahl and Chris (2 of our students) stopped by for a visit. We enjoyed our visit but it put our perfect timing off. We managed to salvage the night, we got the kids to bed at 9:00, which is normal not early. We laid out the kids clothes but we didn't pack their lunches or back backs. Do you know how long that takes if you don't do it the night before? We woke up and raced around to get everyone dressed. We frantically packed their backpacks with the items from their forever long school supply list. We snapped a quick photo for the scrapbook and made it to school with 5 minutes to spare. That is not how we would wish for the first day of school. I would love for a calm easy morning but I feel like we are still in our spring slack off mode. I guess our bodies have not felt a summer break. I hope we can get our act together because I would hate to see what next spring will look like if we slack off from here. Oh where did our summer break go?? Speaking of summer break, when I was a child the Olympics was a summer event. I mean, I remember watching it on my summer break. But my kids are having to go to bed because they have school tomorrow. The Halliburton's have been all about the Olympics. We watch it all. We have been pulling for our American team however we smile when the Koreans do well. We left a small part of our hearts in Korea. We have new friends in our Calvary family. We are going to post some pitures of our first day of school and pictures of our kids dressed in the shirts Lee and Sue (our Korea homestay family) bought for them. The girls are wearing a hairbow from Yeon Hee.
Tonight has been a little more productive. Maybe we realy realize summer is over and school has started. Lunches are packed, backpacks ready, clothes laid out, good supper and normal bedtime. The USA even won the Gold in the mens swimming relay. If only our USA ladies could of held on to the floor exercise. Silver is good too but I like the gold. By the way, how old are the girls on the China gymnastic team. They are still missing their baby teeth. Well anyway, we are looking for an easier second morning of school. Because summer is over and school has started whether we are ready or not.

Here is a link to our Asheville Mission Trip.. Go watch it I hope you enjoy it!!!

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=40012335

What a summer it has been. We have taken the students to Korea, Panama City Beach and Asheville. Plenty has already been written about Korea (except that we are going back next year, did you hear that Lee and Sue) And the trip to PCB was amazing, so much impact in so many students lives. The last trip of the summer was our mission trip to Asheville. This is a trip we do each summer to work with Western Carolina Rescue Ministries. While it may have been last it certainly was not least, even though it was only four days long. Our students were incredible! They built three bus stops, worked at the thift store, organized the event closet, coat closet and learning center with all its books, fixed lunch and dinner on Wednesday while serving lunch and did a chapel and a cookout on Friday where we feed around 110 people while doing an hour and a half block party for the homeless of Asheville with live music, dance, cookie give-a-ways and hotdogs with all the fixins'. They did all of this without a complaint or argument. I have been blessed by God with a great group of students and they showed themselves to be just that with their selflessness and interaction with the men of Western Carolina Rescue Ministries. I thought I would take a moment and brag. Stay tuned for more as the new school year gets started and a whole new calendar year of ministry events gets underway

Here are some pictures that represent our crazy but wonderful life!

Adoption Annoucment


Dalton from July 4th


Kortney's Birthday invitation


Camp Group pic


Junior Camper Pic


Happy Birthday Todd!

Sorry we haven't blogged that much lately. Our last month has been a little challenging. I mean I know a lot of people say that but here is a little view of what ours has looked like. Leeanne and I have been to Korea and back, we have adopted the boys, we've bought a new house, are trying to sell our old house, we've fed a group of World Changers for a week, helped with VBS, planned our camp trip, planned our Asheville trip, done a funeral, done a wedding, planned two birthday parties and hosted an out of state friend for three days to take family pictures, the only reason ?I am blogging right now is because I am on a ten hour bus ride on a bus with wi-fi. Other than that it has been life as usual, what am I talking about, that is life as usual. Stay tuned we will be getting back into the flow of things. There will be a post on the adoption coming soon. Check back for it!

Friday's update: We said our hard goodbye's at the church. We held hands and Pastor Won led us in "God is so Good." And the Americans all cried. Pastor Won asked Todd to pray and then he also prayed in Korean. They gave us all a gift. Todd also got a Korean bible, it will go right next to his Bengali bible from Todd's Bangladesh mission trip. We all had alot of emotions about leaving Korea. The church members came around and gave hugs and said good-byes that were more like "see you soon." More than once, we were asked to pinky-promise that I will be back next year. Today was a very emotional day. After leaving the church, we drove to the DMZ. (The "de"militarized zone that has more soldiers and land mines than anywhere in the world.) There is a river that runs parallel to the highway from Seoul to the north. The river is "fenced in" with tall barbed wire and manned guard stations. The reason? The river runs south from North Korea and the guards and fence are protection from small groups of soldiers trying to enter by water. Caleb told Erin of his time in the military. In Korea, young men are required to serve for three years; Caleb served 40 months in the navy and is classified as a lieutenant-general grand. He said he traveled to twelve countries, including his time stationed in Guam. He told Erin that once he had come face to face with the North Korean enemy, but that's all he said about it. When we arrived at the DMZ, we were surprised to see a carnival. I guess they are taking advantage of the tourism, so there is a 'restaurant' (we chose not to try the cooked bugs, we ate Ra men and a coke) and rides, including tea cups. From the outside it looks like fun, but once you step inside you know this is a serious place. Your passports are checked before you can get on the tour bus. We went through a guard station where our passports were checked by a soldier who came onto the bus. Kelly asked Caleb if these were all South Korean soldiers. His response was, "yes. If they are North Korea soldiers, we are dead." Driving up to Dorasan Station we passed signs to remind people of the presence of land mines. We were not allowed to take pictures at most places. At Dorasan we were able to look out over an observatory area into the neutral zone. We may have been able to see North Korea if today had not been so cloudy. Inside a small auditorium there was a map of the area. While we were studying the map, Caleb told us that sometimes it floods in North Korea and bodies wash down the river into the South. (Caleb was our personal tour guide--he translated announcements on the bus and pointed out US army bases, etc.)We went into 3rd tunnel. The tunnel was incredible. We were given helmets (but had to leave cameras and phones in lockers) and rode what was like a roller coaster car down into the tunnel. We rode through the part South Korea tunneled to reach the actual 3rd tunnel. We were able to walk once we reached the actual tunnel. It's crazy to think that 1) men dug that tunnel for so long without anyone knowing, 2) they dug that far underground, 3) we stood today where soldiers had once prepared to ambush a country and break a peace agreement. Throughout the tunnel are yellow paint markers--the spots where dynamite had been used to further the tunnel. On the way out of the tunnel Todd said he wished he had a rock or something since we couldn't take a camera. Aaron said I think I can reach one. Todd ended up with a souvenir. We toured a museum outlining the relationship of the North and the South from the 1950s until now. Then we watched a video that portrays the DMZ as a happy, hopeful place. You could walk away from the video thinking that tomorrow you will go back to the DMZ for a picnic with the North. Today we heard again of the desires for reunification. On the bus, Caleb pointed out buildings under construction to be used when the military is united. South Koreans really seem to desire reunification. Only the outside, apparently, considers Korea divided into separate countries. We were at the DMZ for about 3 hours. "Ninja" stayed with the van carrying our luggage the whole time we toured. From the DMZ, we drove straight to Incheon International Airport. Pastor and Ms. Won met us there to say good-byes and pray together one last time. We said our last good-byes a little before 5 pm (4 am in Knoxville) and headed through security, which was not nearly as involved as in Knoxville. We exchanged our wons for dollars and, after taking pictures and video of the cool toilets, we boarded the plane for Knoxville.
We flew over Tokyo. It was amazing!! As we first flew over Japan we could barely see lights when the clouds lifted. But once we reached Tokyo you could see the outline of Japan's coastline in the city lights. We didn't have a window seat but Erin kept us posted and would let us look out her window. I sat next to another lady who was stationed in Korea. She was from Georgia and was a christian. We left Incheon at 6:05 pm Friday June 13. We landed in Atlanta at 6:20 pm Friday June 13. We had to remind each other exactly how long it had been since we had gotten up. At the time we landed, it had been about 25 hours for us. Todd said "his body was so confused, that we either went to the DMZ yesterday or the day before or maybe we were going tomorrow but he knows he has been there". We got to Knoxville at 10:20 pm, we all enter the airport together. As we turned the corner we saw a group of people with "welcome back" posters. . . and then realized they were for us!! Thank you so much to all of you who came out to the airport late on a Friday night to welcome us home. It means so much!! Also, thank you so much for the positive feedback on the blogs. It was a huge encouragement!!!! My life is forever changed! Thanks for the prayers!