two weeks travelling, episode 1

Castle from the 13th Century...

Nate's life story...

Look what we hiked along for 2 hours this morning!...

Cliffs and crystal blue waters in west Wales...

The morning sun and our favourite village in the background...

Meet the family

My brother, Baz, his wife, Scon, and their 2 kids Carys (Bubba) and Samuel (Oushy)...

Oushy knows where the lollies are kept in this bag...

What a stunner!

Sights so far

Cardiff Castle...
Stone Henge...

British telephone box...

Every day park in Wales...

St Paul's Cathedral, Salisbury...

Charming decorations outside St Paul's Cathedral... (notice the Lizard?)

First Day in London/Wales

Jet Lag...

Beautiful Day in London...

The view from our bedroom window in Wales at Baz and Scon's house...

Buckingham Palace...

The view of London from St Paul's Cathedral...

Autumn in Louisville

Beautiful! The view from our window on campus...

Camping at Red River Gorge in October

This post is for you Ben and Chelsea! Just some photos of Nate and me camping with some of our mates from Care Group. We were at the Red River Gorge when the air just got some chill and the leaves got some colour...

Planning the hike...

Bbq chicken at it's best...

4th of July

Nate and I headed to our local artsy street to see some local fire works on the 4th of July. We ran into our friends Justin and Bonnie (in the background). Despite the rain, a large crowd gathered huge crowds gathered to see the celebrations.

A lucky press of the button on the camera!

Our 1 year anniversary

The 2nd of June was our 1st anniversary and we had an excellent time relaxing at Taylorsville Lake State Park -1/2 hour drive from home here in Louisville, Kentucky. As far as the park goes, the hiking was on horribly sludgy horse trails and the lake was only accessible for boats... but it was still splendid jumping back in our trusty red rocket van and hanging out on our camping chairs - just like we did many times on our 10 week honeymoon around the USA a year ago.

My sister, Wooz, told me that she and Tim have a tradition on each anniversary of summing up their marriage the previous year with one word. Nate and I had a go at this and agreed on "revealing". Our marriage revealed a lot about ourselves, our selfishness, God's abundant grace and generosity and how God wants to change us to be more like Jesus. It has been full of joy, even with trials, and I wonder if there could be anyone happier than I am. Being Nate's wife is an underserved blessing and it is a constant reminder to me of God's grace in sending his only Son, Jesus. I did nothing to deserve such a fun, wonderful, loving, godly husband and how much more did I do nothing to be saved!

Even while I was rejecting God, he opened my eyes to the truth. Because of my sin against God, my creator, I deserve hell. But God chose to punish Jesus for my sin. Then God rose Jesus from the dead and set him as ruler over all things. I don't deserve heaven but because I have believed this good news, God has saved me from his coming judgement. He will take me to be with him when my time on this world is over. Knowing Jesus is my greatest joy; and my 2nd joy is sharing this faith with Nate, a picture of God's grace.

Spring in Lousiville is amazing

How can we but praise God when we see Spring in Louisville. These photos are from April, the 2nd month of Spring, yet even now into June, there seems to be a new flower flowering each week!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi, Oi, Oi!

It's wonderful! An awesome family of New Zealand Kiwis live on campus at Southern. And they're passionate about real sport! After some Tim Tams last Fri night (they sell them at World Market in the USA now!) we headed to the gym for some indoor cricket. Nate and I sported the green and gold against the NZ All Blacks...

Thanks for the face paint, Jt and Jen!

We had Aaron and Kyle over for stir fry tonight. Aaron, Kyle and Nate were all 'Journeymen' with the IMB (International Mission Board). They met during preparation time before each went on their separate 2 year overseas mission. We ran into them (and quite a few other Journeymen) on campus at Southern . It was tops to share stories and hang out.

All smiles - the result from exceptional company and excellent food at the Schoen household!

Taboganning

We just had 4 inches of puffy, fat flaked snow. Beautiful. After hearing the forcast this avo, Nate and his buddy, David, went to Target and bought $4 sleighs. Random people from all over campus got together to try them out tonight. It didn't take long for security to send us off campus, which was tops because we found an even bigger/steeper hill just down the road. Sleighing is awesome!
We didn't take the camera with us for action shocks but here are the after results...

sorry, we've discovered that it's impossible for me to keep my eyes open for photos with the flash... I don't understand how everyone else can keep them open!

That white blemish in the above photo is an example of one of the fat, puffy flakes! Beautiful. Snow flakes really look like a 3D minature version of the cut out snow flakes we make in preschool. (I apologise for my ignorance and amazement to all you snow-experienced friends)

We're in Kentucky and I'm a perminant resident...

Thanks to a kick up the bum, from both Macca and Amy, here is a quick update...

We're living on campus at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

We love our big windowed apartment:

Nate loves what he's learning at bible college:

My immigration (or alien, as the government fondly refers to me as) case has been approved! Praise God!

I'm now a permanent resident and I have a job as a preschool teacher... but I can't work until that permanent resident card arrives in the mail!

I'll update this blog much more regularly from now on... or did I promise that last time???