Extreme Week recap and Baby news

Hello all!

It has been a BUSY three weeks. We have been preparing for our huge children's summer event Extreme Week. It's like vacation Bible school, but not cheesy, boring, prefabbed, or full of Christian subculture garbage. It is an event written to be culturally relevant and to reach kids in real and life changing ways. It takes more work that your traditional children's event, but His kids deserve that! I write the teaching and the skits and the drama is written as well. Snacks were created and survivor themed and craft was created and included all of the day's teachign and the theme. We had over 150 volunteers and over 160 kids in attendance. And the theme this year was LOST: The wait is over... yes like to tv show. We also tied in survivor into the theme.

My friend Steph came over from TX to lead the worship band and it ROCKED!!! I am so proud of her and how she lead our band. We did the worship for the main services this weekend as part of Extreme Weekend and our people really enjoyed it. Most asking if we could do those songs as part of our weekend services. Thank you Steph for everything! I heart you and am glad that we got to feed you all that the Gulfcoast has to offer! See you soon!

The event was a huge success, despite the air conditioning in the building crashing, me throwing up one day before the start, a volunteer fainting, and video issues. Day One focused on the fact that we are all LOST. Day two: Jesus was never LOST. Day 3: We don't have to be LOST. Day 4: Our friends don't have to be LOST. Day 3, we had 42 kids become Christ followers! THAT IS AWESOME!!!

Needless to say, I'm still really tired and have missed a lot of phone calls due to all the week's activities. If I missed your call, I'll get to you. I just need to rest for a week. The event was more of a challenge for me this year being preggo and all. :-)

Speaking of bun in the oven, Elliott is doing well according to today's visit. Her heart is strong and she is kicking up a storm. Those kicks are getting more powerful too. The Doctor is a little concerned because she is measuring 28-30 and I am only 24 weeks. Typically they measure the area from your pubic bone to the top of the uterus and for every week that you are, you measure that in inches. For example, 24 weeks= 24 inches. I am larger than that, so they have ordered a sonogram to get a more precise measurement. Causes usually are that the due date is off, there is more fluid than typical, or it could be a larger baby due to gestational diabetes. I get tested for that soon too. Or, it could just be a big healthy baby! We will know more next month and this is no real cause for concern.

Other than that, we are doing great. We are gearing up for the Fall and hopefully the baby nursery will be done soon. I've got the crib, changing table, dresser, and bedding already. I'm just waiting to get the furniture back from being refinished. I am registered at target.com, babiesrus.com, and jcpenny.com. My friends here are also busy working on the baby shower stuff. I am hoping for a small, quiet, uneventful shower. No pink, no games, and real food!

Thank you for your continued prayers an support. We will be in touch again soon!

Jessica