Ahhhh, Iowa!

Holden has a project due Monday. He had to choose any state besides Florida and research it and prepare a notebook and a poster.  He worked very hard on his Iowa project! He had lots of fun looking back through pictures to find fun ones for the poster.  And, Aunt JoJo was a BIG help!  Thanks Aunt JoJo!  Here is a close up of his work:

You can see his Hawkeye colors and the kids in their shirts, the state seal, the capitol building, the state flower, some pictures of snow (some kids here have only seen it in pictures!), and of course the flood of '08.  The top left is a weather graph he made of your lovely April weather for one week. It was in the 70s the entire week! Congrats Iowa folk, spring finally arrived!

We hope that warm weather sticks around for May because we are going to come for a visit! We are so excited! We are not going to miss the Prachar family reunion this year! After hosting the reunion at our home for 9 years, and never missing it for 10 years, we were heartbroken to miss it last year. We resolved not to miss this year.  We will likely be driving [insert sarcasm laced "Yipee" here], and the kids will miss a few of the last days of school...but we are coming! We will probably land in the area Friday, May 28th and head back out Monday evening. Alayna has Kindergarten graduation on Wednesday, so we have to get back quickly! But, we hope to see lots of you over the weekend! Please give us a call (we still have the same cell numbers) if you are going to be in town as well!

For those of you keeping up on our home buying struggle, the latest news is not good, we must close on Monday or lose the deal and the bank is not optimistic about closing that day.  Either way, we will know for sure Monday at 4pm. We need another miracle...this is getting OLD! I have been in almost every one of the boxes we have had packed up in the garage for the past several weeks, looking for some needed item like shampoo, shower gel, lotion, razor blades, antibiotics. I still need to dig out some school shorts for Gabriel too.  Parking outside is no fun either...wow, I am whiny today!

We do have our moments when we feel down about what is going on, but we keep reminding each other that God is looking out for us and if He is on our side, we cannot lose!  I got a little perspective this week through a couple of my patients. I had  a new patient come in to establish care who was 22 years old and just diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Then, on Friday, I had to tell a 23 year old patient that she had cervical cancer. It was no fun, we cried together and I hugged her several times.  So, I am certainly aware of all the RICH, rich blessings around me and evermore reminded to shine my light into all the dark places and share His precious love.  And, I also am reminded that this world is not my home, I am just waiting for my final, perfect home...where there will be PLENTY of bedrooms (I hope Glenda can find me a verse for that one too)!