Rain slows down the work

Things have slowed down a little bit this week. God's timing and the builder's timing was apparently not coordinated. The basement floor should get poured tomorrow or Wednesday. There is still a chance the structure might go up this week, but it is beginning to look like it might be more like July 9 or 10. God is still sovereign.

We broke the 100 hour mark today!! Amy and I are "blitzing" with our sweat equity hours this week. Friends have graciously volunteered to watch Abbi, Mackenzie, and JohnMark during the day this week so we can go out to Austin and help at the humane society as well as the Habitat office. We will also be continuing to work on staining the baseboards and trim on the house.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and we continue to praise the Lord for His goodness and the fact that He is still totally in control.

No New Pics This Time

Just a quick update.
For those of you who are in the Albert Lea area, you may have noticed that there isnt a framed house as of yet. At first we thought that it would be done on June 22. Then, due to weather, it was shifted to either June 26 or June 27 (Tuesday or Wednesday). Now it is looking like it will either be the end of this week, or potentially July 9 or 10. We will be putting up pictures to show once we have it done. Amy was thinking of chronicaling everywhere that the building permit traveled during the basement construction. This was largely due to the fact that the permit was never in the same place two days in a row. At one point, the permit disappeared and the song "Oh Where Is The Permit?" (sung to...you got it..."Oh Where Is My Hairbrush?") was heard as she looked for the permit. After about ten minutes of searching and no finding, she gave up and took a picture of the newly aquired port-a-potty that showed up at the site. Now the question is, will the weather hold and will the cement make it in time that the house can be framed this week? Stay tuned for further updates. :)
On a similar note but totally different foot, Steve is taking this week off so we can blitz on our hours. As of the post time, we have not only hit, but bypassed the 100 hours mark. Just think, what can be and get done the remainder of the week. Our next week for blitzing is set for July 9-13, minus the 11th. If there are those of you who are around the Albert Lea/Austin area who would be willing to help us out with child care, please let Amy know. Right now the Monday of July 9th is taken care of, but she still needs help with either full or partial days of July 10th, 12th and 13th. This can either be done by posting here on the site (Steve will check it), or by calling either Steve or Amy, or emailing Steve (as we have no way for Amy to check her email).
The kids are all doing well. JohnMark (most recently responding to "Bubba") is not only growing, but responding quite well to the new treatment. For those who have not recently been updated, one of JohnMark's doctors thought it would be nice to check out a potential allergy. Not only is JohnMark lactose intolerant, but it seems he is allergic to a protien in cow's milk. This will show some interesting times ahead as we search out goat's milk, but through God's help, we are sure that it can be found. JohnMark still has some problems with asthma, but the constant mucus isn't there anymore. We will see on Wednesday the 27th of June how much weight this has helped him gain. Be in prayer as we think this may be an answer to prayer with his health, but on the other hand opens the door to a bunch of questions in which way to go and how many more allergies the little guy may have underlying every thing.
Well, this is the last of the post for now. Hopefully later on this week there will be more of an update on both JohnMark and the house. To quote Dr. Crane (President of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College) "Have a great day and a great life". Just for sake of nostalgia:)

Lots of things at the Lot

Well, well!!

Things have been finally coming together with the house. On June 3 we had the ceremonial ground breaking for our new house. It was great and the board members from Habitat for Humanity were pleasantly suprised to see how many people from our church came out to support us. Thank you to all those who came. Pastor Seiler opened in prayer, we had some introductions of the board memebers and Amy, myself and the kids, thanks to all those who are helping, particularly Freeborn Lumber, and then we broke ground. Pastor Seiler then closed in prayer. It was a good afternoon and it really seemed to make it real.

After we turned over the fist shovel of dirt, Pam, the president of Habitat, saw a work in the dirt and showed it to Mackenzie and asked if she wanted a new pet for her new house. Mackenzie gave an enthusiastic "YEAH!", picked it up, and started chasing Abbi and the son of one of our friends.

We have been mowing the grass at the new lot, and last weekend when I was finishing up I accidentally mowed over a nest of baby rabbits. There were 7 or 8, but thankfullly I only hit one, and that one only lost a little fur on its back. It seemed to be fine. We put it back in it's nest hoping that its mother would come and continue to take care of it. Unfortunately, the nest was about 5 feet from where the back of the house would be, so the next day Amy moved the bunnies to an area of thick shrubs and left a trail of the mother's fur to help her find the babies. When we have gone back to look to see if they are ok we can not find any remnants, so we think they are doing just fine. In the worst case, if the mother ignored them and let them die they would not be any worse off than if we had left them to be squished by the machinery.

They started digging the basement yesterday and got it all dug in one day. We found out this morning, however, that there is a slight problem. The city said that the water main came into the property on one corner, and so that's where the utility room is going to go. Unfortunately, the water comes into the basement from the otehr side. They are going to have to dig up part of the street, re-route the water to the correct side of the basement, and then fix the street before they can do much more work. This could cost Habitat up to $2,000 just to have the city tear up and fix the street. They are hoping to get the cost waived. Either way the cost will not have to be paid by use (Praise the Lord!!).

June 22 is building day at this point. They are hoping to have the basement done by then, and when the crew shows up that day they will start working on the actual above-ground structure. At the end of the day they are hoping to have all the walls framed, the windows, doors, and siding in, and the entire roof on! Pray that their time table is still able to happen and that God will grant good weather that day.

The other part of this whole thing is our sweat equity hours. We need to have 450 hours before moving into the house, but up to 150 of those hours can be donated by others working on the house. We are currently at about 60 hours, but I am planning on taking a couple weeks off from work and We are going to do a major blitz. Since babysitting counts for hours as well, we figure at the end of the two weeks we will have at least an additional 240 hours. This should put us over 300, and very close to being able to move in as soon as the hosue is done, since the last 150 can be donated by others as well as counted by us working.

We are currently working on sanding and staining all the wood trim and baseboards. This is no small task, but we are making steady progress. We have been working in the garage of the duplex we are currently renting, but we have also been accumulating some other things for the new house so space is starting to get a little tight. As soon as the structure of the house is done we can move the staining to the new basement. Currently in the garage for the new house we have a chest freezer (donated), canning jars (donated), an old fashioned push mower-the kind without a motor (donated), a dryer ($30), and a dining room table with 4 chairs and 4 leaves ($70). It is big enough for 12 people, but the lady we bought it from said she has gotten 22 around it in the past. WOW! GOD IS SO GOOD!!!! We are still trying to find a washer, dish washer, and hopefully some new furniture. We would like some new living room furniture because we do not know how much mold has gotten into our current things, and they are just falling apart. They were given to us by other friends, thanks Todd and Debbie, and we are probably at least the 3rd family to own them. They are perfect for a dorm room, but not an actual family home.

Of course, a new home wouldn't be complete without a new pet, so we are considering adopting a dog, preferably a bassett hound if I have my way, a while after we move in. Of course, Amy would like a kitty, and we may do that too. We've decided we're done having kids of the two-legged variety, so have to fill the house another way I guess. We have been volunteering with the folks at the Mower County Humane Society in Austin, and they have some wonderful animals there. They will also be able to help us make sure we adopt an animal that will be right for our family and the size of hte house.

There's a lot going on, but please continue to be in prayer as we see what God can do. Sam Telloyan talked about having an Ephesians 3:20 experience on his trip in the Ukraine over the last couple weeks. Amy and I believe this is goign to end up being, as it already has been, our Ephesians 3:20 year.

Prayer requests

• Good and easy progress for the building
• Safety and good weather
• Cooperation from our neighbor (the house had to be moved over 2 feet because he didn't want it so close to his yard)
• Opportunites to get our sweat equity hours completed
• Finances to be able to meet our beginning obligations
• Supplies and appliances not provided by Habitat (furniture, washer, dish washer, etc.)