headin' home....

....an update on the Traveling Wittenbergs.....

As you know, we have had a marvelous spring traveling around the eastern U.S., speaking with many churches and families about adoption and orphan care and how they can be involved. God has been so close and faithful throughout our journeying! We also give thanks for the enriching time we had in Orlando at our Campus Crusade new staff training.

We rejoice today at being 20 weeks pregnant! What a humbling honor to watch a miracle before our eyes. Man (as in infertility treatment) could never ever accomplish what God breathed as He chose. 15 years ago, we were under the care of one of the "best" infertility doctors in the world, everything looked "perfect" througout each procedure, yet life never grew. God will move as He chooses, as He sees best for His dear ones. We continually give thanks that 11 years ago, He began leading us to our five precious children who made us parents and have given us immeasurable joy and growth.

My pregnancy is going along well, with a few hiccups along the way. Most notably, I was in the hospital overnight last week in Birmingham, AL.....we were on our road home, planning to be back in CO in about 3 weeks from now. The OB's there encouraged me to fly home to CO, see my local doctor, and stay put! That was enough for me to fly home this past Monday night and see my doctor yesterday (Doug and the children are driving the RV home the next few days!). All is well for now, but they are very glad I will be close by for ongoing monitoring!

(Driving through rural TN)

This week marks another huge transition for our family.

We will settle again in CO for this next phase in our life, but will rely on God to direct us from here, every step of the way. 

Watch the blog for new pix of our trip very soon - I JUST figured out how to convert my large, unruly pictures into a smaller format that will allow me to upload them here SO MUCH easier!!  We can't wait to share many of our zany adventures and opportunities with you!

God is Good (all the time!)

God is constantly at work with and among us!  We praise Him today for a continued healthy pregnancy (about 18 weeks now), adoption connections, new friend connections, etc...Toay Doug and I will begin our Institute for Biblical Studies course on the New Testament...so looking forward to it.  In fact, I said to Louise, "look what we (meaning Doug and I) get to do", and she said, "Oh, great, all of us?" ;-)  Love that she is anxious to dig deeper into His Word!!



We have been met in so many unexpected ways as we travel - from being able to pray for our Naturalist at the state park we are staying in, as she and her family wait on God's timing for two little girls they are hoping to adopt, to meeting impactful new friends in a campground and having the pleasure of staying at their home (in our RV) for over a week watching them in abundant personal ministry in their area - what a blessing.  We even shared our story and the wonder of God's Love and Timing with a sweet Texas family on the beach the other day (hi Shelle!).....



God has been faithful over the past months to give our kids multitudes of new experiences from hands-on learning, to now being in touch with many new friends around the country.  Also a blessing to spend time *as* a family and with extended family that we normally don't have a lot of time with.  We have read many new chapter books as we have traveled, as well as kept up with boys' and girls' Book Clubs, (we try to do it weekly, me with girls and Doug with the boys), which we love.  We have visited and shared with many churches, giving all of us a charming perspective on churches in America.



Pray for us as we once again as we open a new chapter in our lives by transitioning back to Denver much sooner that expected (will be home middle of July).  We love Denver and we have truly loved traveling.  God has been so clear and faithful in meeting us where we are, we have nothing to be anxious for!!

middle of May

Hi there - yes, time flies out here!

Right after the last post, we drove to Orlando where Doug and I began our ten day Campus Crusade for Christ New Staff Training.  We have accepted God's call to join the ministry of FamilyLife in the Rocky Mountain Region. We will be based in Denver and be working with churches and families on all issues surrounding families.   Our training was RICH and filled with God's abundant blessing as we swallowed up the teaching and met special couples from around the U.S. headed into full-time ministry.

We were lucky that during the training, we were able to park the RV at Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney World.  My wonderful sister, Kris, and my parents, were able to come down in shifts to play with kids while we were in l-o-n-g days of training.  Everyone faired just fine and had a blast playing with all of the amenities at the campground.

ANNOUNCEMENT.....

I feel like I can't go ONE step further without making sure that anyone who is reading this blog post has heard the WONDERFUL news.....After 18 years of marriage, we found out in April that we are expecting our first baby EVER.  PREGNANT!  WoW!  Total shockaroony to say the least.  I can only sum it up by saying that I really think that I was getting too cocky in declaring that NOW I had God figured out, in the reason that I could never get pg before was so that we could adopt our five darling children.  I will never again say I have God figured out!! haha 

We are thrilled beyond measure and we marvel EVERY SINGLE DAY at the work of His hands.  Truly a miracle, odds in the millions.  I am feeling pretty pregnant - normal I guess!  I am about 13.5 weeks along at this point and everything appears to be just great.  Very thankful!

BACK TO THE POST....

Per the above, I didn't quite feel like getting everyone around the parks at Disney, so we enjoyed touring around resorts, Downtown Disney, etc.....  We had a great surprise when we found out that the IronKids Orlando Triathlon was happening at Fort Wilderness this past weekend.  Last year I blogged about Louise finishing the Boulder IronKids Tri.  Louise definitely wanted to do the Orlando event, and little brother, Andrew, was ready to start his Tri career (now that he's 6 - the minimum age ;-)) also.

They competed this past Saturday - wow, a lot of professional-looking youth Tri teams in Florida!  All decked out in their matching Tri suits and fancy bikes!!  I guess because they can train year round it is very popular here.  We knew it was going to be a little more competition than Boulder, more kids competing too.  Louise was first - she was verrrry hot and emotional when she finished - the course was a little confusing - she tried to come in after not enought bike laps, but we caught it and she headed back to finish of course.

Andrew had sprinted out of bed at 5:30am that morning, so we knew he was ready to go.  His heat got in the water about 9:15, so he had been waiting a while.  He was so brave in the open water swim - no problem!  He swam, biked and ran a super fast course.

Award time came......The top five finishers in each category are invited to Nationals in Des Moines in September....the top three in each category (age/gender) are given trophies in addition to their medals.  Louise was absolutely thrilled with a 6th place finish - she beat her times from last year (her goal) and finished in the top third in a tough group.  Andrew was all smiles to head to the podium with a third place finish in his category.    Louise will have another chance to qualify for Nationals at the IronKids in Boulder (and not sure if we would attend anyhow - we did not go last year, but it is fun to qualify ;-))  Fun day for all - fun crowd, fun healthy, athletic energy all about!  We all went back to the RV and napped!

We left Disney yesterday and headed straight east to the Space Coast.  This morning was a privelege to walk 5 minutes down to the river in our campground to witness the historic final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor.  We were directly across the water from the launch pad.  Unfortunately, the cloud cover was pretty thick, so we saw it for a few seconds before it punched a hole in the cloud and faded from view.  Still absolutely unforgettable to watch the engines roll with fire and push it off the pad.  Definitely something I was hoping to see some day!  I have a very amateur (shaky!) video of the whole thing - will try to post it some day.  You can probably see a very nice video on www.nasa.gov!

Today is a school day for us, work day for Doug.  The kids and I are also working on necklaces to contribute to this event held by the Patterson Family in San Marcos, TX to benefit orphans.  We will be contributing glass tile neclaces with the event logo for their silent auction.  If you are in the area that weekend, you should check out the family event - it looks like it's going to be a blast!

The kids are out happily gathering lizards and crickets to fill their insect house....we better get started on some real school, huh?!! joking of course - hands on, roadschool ROCKS!

xoxo
jen

Just a quick note to let you know that, thankfully, we are out of harm's way with the recent deadly tornados.  We have been in all of affected states in the last few months.  My parents in Mobile, AL, are just fine also.....the storms were all north of where they live.

Pray for those affected and the extraordinary damage these storms have caused.....

We are headed to Orlando today to prepare for our Campus Crusade New Staff training ;-)

the place where it all began

Blog readers.....this is an older post I have been waiting to put up until we had a good internet connection (pictures are hard to get up!). This goes back to the early weeks of our trip, but I thought you would enjoy seeing "the farm". ;-)

This is the spot where it all began....."The Farm".....My mom knew Jim from a business group in Houston.  Jim mentioned they raised donkeys and llamas (The exotic animal of choice in the early 90's!) on their farm in East Texas.  "It just so happens" that I had always LOVED llamas AND I was going to college about an hour away from this weekend farm of Jim and Pat's.  I started going to visit Jim and Pat on the weekends and helping train their llamas for the Houston Livestock Show (a BIG show!).  I ending showing llamas three years at the show, but ended up with an even BIGGER prize!

I met Doug at the farm in 1990.  He was there visiting from Colorado, where he was working.  Doug's parents had known Jim and Pat from the Chicago area, and had been friends since Doug was about two.

Long story short (although I am sure I will write the details down some day!), Doug and I went our separate ways for about two years (he back to CO and me back to school), then "re-met" at the farm at the end of my senior year in college, fell immediately in love, and became engaged at the farm about six months later awwww!

We love taking our kids to "the farm".  Jim and Pat have retired from their careers in Houston and now live at the farm full time.  It is a beautiful and peaceful place and our children enjoy Jim and Pat as much as we do.  They do not have children, but instead have loved on many friends' children and nieces and nephews over the years.  They are special, special people and we always count it a privelege to be together.

On March 1st, we celebrated Micah's 4th Birthday at the farm....he said he had a Donkey Birthday and was thrilled!  

heading South....

We have arrived in one of our favorite places - FLORIDA!  Thankfully, we missed all of the treachurous storms that plagued the central and eastern U.S.  Truthfully, the southern edge of the storm put a tornado down about 40 miles north of where we were that day, in Charleston.  We were so thankful to not even get a drop of rain (but sustained winds of 50-60mph!!).

Charleston and Savannah were historical treats - we really loved the compact feel of Charleston better than Savannah, but both were fascinating and enjoyable.  We visited National Fort sites in each city (Fort Moultrie in Charleston and Fort Pulaski near Savannah).  The children earned two Civil War Junior Ranger badges by filling out booklets at each location.

 In both cities, we enjoyed the 1600s-1700's architecture, plus the southern feel and charm of the cities with their block squares, the old moss hanging on trees and a kaleidoscope of people and cultures.

This gal is making "sweet grass" baskets - a handful of women in this area continue this tradition which was handed down from previous generations.  We learned that this woman learned to make baskets from her grandmother and sells them on the street to make her living.  She said the baskets will "outlive" you and their uses are endless.  The prices reflect the craftsmanship - the medium sizes go for around $150....

We spent a little time roaming around Charleston's old cemetaries - fascinating to see US Constitution signers' graves!

I do pray that Doug can write these words about me (hope you can read them!)

The boys had a grand time collecting caterpillars at our campground.

We worked our way down A1A on the eastern coast of FL - a route we had always wanted to take, but never had the time.  It winds down through many popular beach areas, including Amelia Island, Cocoa Beach and Daytona.  Fun to see and pass through!  I will post more pictures later of our time in Florida so far.....

time flies....(you know the rest!)

When you're havin' fun!  We are doing just great on the road....we were in the DC area a little longer than expected, but had an amazing time.  We visited the "city" for a day....went to several of the Smithsonian museums.  WOW!  It is wonderful that our country is keeping and maintaining so many of our national treasures.  We went to the National Zoo and many battlefields, including Harper's Ferry, Manassas and Gettysburg in PA.  The kids are getting quite a hands-on look at the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. 

Doug even said the other day, "honey, do you think we may have visited TOO many battlefields?", referring to our boys near-constant re-enactment mode!! haha

We were so fortunate to stay in a beautiful Regional Park in Virginia - centrally located to many places we were going.  The only unfortunate event there was Stella taking a big tumble on her scooter, and ending up with 10 stitches on her knee, plus an "immobilizer" brace and crutches, as she can't bend her knee for 10 days!  ick!  She has been such a trooper on crutches - everything is healing up just fine - she is looking forward to getting those out in a few days.

We visited Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD for two Sundays.  What a blessing!  Joshua Harris is the pastor....we "bumped" into him at the bookstore after the second Sunday and gave him a brief overview of what we are doing.  He gave me a copy of his latest book, Dug Down Deep, which I am about halfway through (it's very good!). 

Josh directed us to a pastor whom we met with and shared Hope for Orphans materials, and other thoughts and encouragement about Covenant Life starting an Orphan ministry.  It was ordained timing, as they are sending several church members to the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit (which Doug and I attended last year) in Kentucky in a few weeks.  Pastor Mark was so happy to have the personal contact with us.  Yeah for connections!

We have been making our way down the eastern coast - thankfully missing all of the dangerous and deadly storms that made their way over here.  We were in Charleston for a day, and the southern edge of the storms put a tornado down about 50 miles north of where we were.  We never got a drop of rain, even though we expected it all day and had plans to be out of the RV in case the predicted tornados came our way.  Pretty scary!

We are leaving today from Savannah, GA, and heading right down the eastern FL coast to my aunt and uncles, to celebrate Easter with them, and prepare for our Campus Crusade training.  Thank you for your prayer and encouragement as we look forward to this exciting next chapter in our lives!


I just tried to upload some pictures, but my connection won't allow - boo!   Will keep you updated as we can - internet connections can be a little sketchy!

Here are some closing quotes for you....

from Micah (4) - "Did you see dem birds?  Dey have long noses.  Dem are woodpuckers!"

from Jacob (10), dragging along at CawCaw Nature Center in SC, "I don't know, nature just makes me walk slow" ;-)

from Micah again "mama, mama, we saw a BLUMP" (yes, MetLife was flying high over the GA coast yesterday!)

and from Micah again, as we cruised through the Little Round Top Battlefield at Gettysburg National Park, "mama, is this a-store-ed?"  "What, Micah, is this stored?" "No, is this A-STORE-ED?" "Storage?" "NO, A-STORE-ED?"......."Historic?"  "Yes, astoric, remember, you said everything was astoric"  "Yes, Micah, this is historic".  "Oh.  What's historic?".........too cute!  Micah has been enthralled with every historical film we have seen and area we have visited.

end of March already?

hi there!  Louise just wrote an excellent journal entry on "Louise's Trip Page", re-capping the states we have visited thusfar.  We have traveled the South and are now making our way up and down the Eastern coast.

We were so fortunate to be able to spend two weeks with my parents in AL.  We have not had that kind of time together in a long time.  We stayed in a campground about 10 minutes away - worked out perfectly.  My dad was in the hospital with pneumonia for three days, and I was so glad to be there to spend the night with him!  He is recovering now and doing great.  As we headed north to VA, we stopped in NC and saw an old worship team buddy of ours and his family.  Such fun to re-connect!

We are currently camped hanging ourselves 10 feet from the Chesapeake Bay on the very tip of the peninsula jutting into the Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.  The kids so enjoy walking to the beach boardwalk and watching the humongous cargo ships anchored out in the bay.  They are amazing sights!  Right down the road is the Virginia Beach boardwalk - we drove down there last night - still very early in the season, so the carnival and tattoo shops weren't open yet (darn!).  It does look like it would be fun in the summer!

We spent the last week in Williamsburg as a 40th b-day gift for moi!  We were at a retreat hosted by an online community of moms I have been a part of for many years. Williamsburg was one of my top picks in the country that I couldn't wait to visit.  None of us had ever been there before.  It was truly delightful and even more so as we met new friends from around the country.  Our group host planned many wonderful activities, including a mom's dessert, mother/daughter tea, dad's breakfast, two colonial balls (with a dance caller, so we could learn all the dances!), a boys' leather-pouch making class, and more.  One of the neatest parts of the week was that Pete and Roxy Olson, of http://www.visionheirs.com/  in Denver, flew to VA to give us tours of all of the historical areas  (Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown) from a Christian worldview...so informative and accurate.

We made many new friends last week - mainly homeschool families (mostly large families) from all over.  A family I was really looking forward to meeting in person adopted 19 children....they brought 14 with them last week (the other ones have already moved out).  Delightful, wonderful couple - such a joy to know them.  We do look forward to spending more time together in the future.

Today the kids and I went to the Virginia Air and Space Museum while Doug worked.  Beautiful museum!  Doug's parents gave us a family membership to this museum for Christmas.  It is one of two (I believe) museums in the U.S. that has reciprocal benefits to both the Association of Zoos and Aquariums(AZA) and the Association of Science and Technology Center (ASTC).  After visiting the Air and Space Museum and grabbing Doug, we all headed to the Virginia Living Museum.  We used our reciprocal benefits today and saved almost $200!  I highly recommend joining a museum or zoo with reciprocal benefits if you travel and enjoy museums....

I will update more later, hopefully with pictures!  With our limited data plan, it is not always possible to post pix, but I want to at least update text more often ;-)

write us a comment and let us know you were here!  we love to hear from home!

love
jennifer

opening their hearts and home

While we were in Texas, we had the special and unique opportunity of meeting former-cyber, now real-life friends at their home in the Hill Country.

I first starting reading Lorraine's blog last year and was captivated by her writing, but mainly by her love for the Lord and how they were open to being used by Him.

Lorraine and Matt have three biological children, who served as the catalyst behind their family adopting seven children (almost all single adoptions, one sibling group) in the last 2.5 years.

They have OPENED their hands and hearts to many different children from many different situations, from Texas, to Haiti, to Serbia, younger kids, older kids, middle age kids....moderate to severe needs....

They have all come home to find their FOREVER FAMILY on their wonderful Hill Country ranch....a place FILLED with LOVE and JOY and COOPERATION.....

Please pray for Sweet Selah (just 5 months old), whom the Patterson's adopted a few months ago.  She has hydrocephalus and has just undergone a very serious brain/skull operation and has several more ahead.   You can read about Selah here. 

Such an enjoyable day meeting new friends!  Precious folks, opening their hearts to God's leading and God's sweet blessing!  Thank you for a wonderful day!

being fed on the road.....

I wanted to tell you that we have been so blessed to have found great churches on our journey thus far!....

Four Sundays ago, we visited The Church of the Apostles (an Anglican Mission in America church, AMIA) in Evergreen, CO.  We were there with Doug's parents....what a warm welcome we received!  They gathered to pray for us and our ministry....we shared our story and vision with them.  It was refreshing to be surrounded by liturgy and meaningful worship.....   http://apostles-evergreen.org/

Three Sundays ago, we visited Providence Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Lubbock, TX, with our friends, the Hunts.  They have many homeschool and CC (Classical Conversations) friends that attend there, so we felt right at home ;-)  They sing traditional hymns from a hymn book and enjoy strong teaching.  We also attended a bible study class with them that morning.  Providence is in the planning stages for a large Orphan ministry in their church.  They have many adoptive families already...we were able to pass along materials and ideas!   http://www.providencepca.org/

Two Sundays ago, we visited First Colony Church of Christ (although it is no longer affiliated with the Church of Christ, now non-denominational) in Sugarland, TX, with our friends, the Fridge's.  Eric Fridge served as the Family Pastor and in other roles there for over 17 years.....FCCC is a large church with many many activities, ministries, vibrant worship (think Hillsong!) and friendly folks.  We all attended a "Family Sunday School (Bible) Class".  It is a new concept at the church, where any aged children/teens attend a Bible Study class with their parents (BRILLIANT! haha).....there were about 40 or so in the class.  Again, they prayed for us and we were able to share about our family journey!  This church felt the most similar so far to our home church, Greenwood Commuity.    http://www.firstcolonychurch.org/

Today was a new experience for us....we are now in Mobile, AL and normally when we are here visiting my family, we all attend a large Methodist church.  None was able to go today.....so, we decided to do some research and find out about the church environment in Mobile.  The Baptist churches are the HUGE mega-church types.  I tried to find a Vineyard church that I had come across on the web....it appeared to be a church plant, but I was not able to find any current information about it.  I was really praying for God to lead us to a special spot.....I remembered passing a big church on the freeway called "Harvest Church".  I googled it, Doug and I read their theology and looked at their ministry and mission involvement.  We decided to head over there this morning.  You can imagine being such a large crowd (7 of us), we don't really just "sneak in the back door" to go to a service.  As we were heading to the door, Doug said, "I just feel like we are here for a reason - this is the right place for us to be today."  We were asked about kid's classes - we said we would like them to be with us in worship ("no problem"!)......thank you, Lord, that we had a super special morning at Harvest Mobile!  The lead pastor, Kevin Cooley, is a bible-preaching, missions-loving, sincere, quippy/cliche-y (in a good way!), worship song-writing/leader, strong sermon-giving pastor.  Heartfelt worship and teaching.  Super diverse crowd (loved it!).  It happened to be their once-a-month Missions Focus Sunday, plus their Newcomers Lunch, so we were invited to stay and share about our ministry and have a yummy lunch with them.  Very very friendly - we will definitely return and really call this an AL home away from home church.  Check out some of Kevin's sermons here.....

http://www.harvestmobile.com/index.php/style/teachings.

Four Sundays, four groups of folks with different worship styles. 

 Such a blessing though, for our children to see that even though we are apart from our church home, we are ALL ONE BODY OF BELIEVERS and we always feel welcome and at home worshiping and praying with a group of Bible-based believers.   Please pray that we will continue to be fed here on the road - very important for all of us!!

xoxo