Courageous

Today after church, our family and another family from church went to see the new movie Courageous!  We enjoyed it very much!  It was the best one so far and had a wonderful message!  I encourage everyone if they get the chance to go out and see it for yourself and support the Christian movie industry!  You can find the link to the website where you can watch the trailer here:

http://www.courageousthemovie.com/

Going Courting!

 We are so very pleased to announce the courtship of our beloved sister, Jordan Hammond, to our close friend, Caleb Yuck!

"Trust in the Lord, and do good...Delight thyself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass."

Psalm 37: 3-5

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We met the Yuck family back in December when we attended the Love The Church conference in North Carolina.  We just seemed to hit it off right away with them.  They were so easy to talk to and they seemed like such a nice family, that we wanted to get to know them better.  They are also dairy farmers like ourselves (only on a much bigger scale!), so that gave us something in common.  They invited us to come visit them in Canada if we ever got the chance.  Then they just happened to mention that they go to Florida each March on vacation, so we invited them to stop in at our place on their way down.  Before we left from the conference we had exchanged emails and phone numbers, promising to get back in contact with them.

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Sure enough, the emails started going back and forth between our families and we realized that we did indeed have a lot in common with this family.  By the time March rolled around, we couldn't wait to see them all again.  They spent 3 or 4 days with us, sightseeing, talking, and simply enjoying each other's company.  When they left for Florida, they made plans to stop by on their way back through to pick up some stuff that they had ordered and had shipped to our house.  At first, it was only going to be a quick stop, no more than one or two days, just enough time to get a U-Haul and load up their boxes they had ordered.  But as the time drew nearer, the amount of days they were going to spend at our house got longer!  So they ended up spending about another 4 days with us in April!  We immensely enjoyed having them come back again.  We were able to do a little more sightseeing, strolling around a local park, playing games, talking, singing together, milking together, and just hanging out together.  It was a wonderful time and we hated to see them leave, but we were already making plans on going to see them in Canada!

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We decided that we would try to travel up to see the Yucks in June, trying to work around their haying season and chicken processing times, so that we would have the most time possible to spend with them.  We started scrambling to get passports!  During this time, our two families were faithfully emailing back and forth about once a day!

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June rolled around, and it found us very busy trying to get things all lined up so that we could go on vacation.  Our grandparents, aunt and two uncles offered to milk for us while we were gone, which was such a blessing.  The Yuck's were also staying very busy getting the haying done and preparing for our visit. About a week or so before we were scheduled to leave for our trip, something came up which would have made us miss the trip altogether, but the Lord's hand was in it and working through the whole thing.  The trip was back on and we were more than ready to go on a vacation. 

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 When we reached the Yuck's home, it felt like we hadn't even been apart for those last three months!  We picked up right where we had left off in April.  They welcomed us into their home and went out of their way to make us very comfortable for the week we were there.  It was a very relaxing time.  They were wonderful tour guides and showed us anything and everything we ever needed or wanted to know about Canada.  It was wonderful just to sit around the kitchen table late at night with a bowl of ice cream or popcorn, enjoying a game together with some friendly competition!  In the many hours of conversation we had with them they again proved themselves to be very easy to talk to, and enjoyable to be around.  We all realized that our friendship was a special one, one that had become very close in a very short amount of time, one where everyone enjoyed each other's company, one which allowed us to discuss just about anything.  And we did!

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By the time our vacation had come to an end, we were very sorry to be leaving our good friends.  There is always a tinge of sadness when a good thing comes to an end.  On our way home we were already making plans to go back in January.  Once we arrived home, we got busy settling back into routine.  Until Dad got the phone call...

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On July 4th, Mr. Paul Yuck called dad asking him if he would consider Caleb for Jordan.  Caleb had been considering Jordan since we met them way back in December.  After a couple of days of reading Caleb's beliefs on theology, family, marriage, and several other issues, and after praying and talking with each other and the Yuck's, Dad and Mom wholeheartedly gave their consent.  If Jordan was agreeable, then they would tell Caleb yes.  Jordan was indeed agreeable to start a courtship with Caleb.  She in fact, had been praying about Caleb for the past three months.  So on Wednesday, July 6th, 2011, with both sets of parents approval and love, Jordan and Caleb officially and joyfully entered into courtship! 

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Within the next two days all the siblings and grandparents were informed (although some of us had already figured it out by then!), and there were two very joyous houses bubbling over with excitement!  We are very excited at what the Lord has done and what He continues to do in the lives of His children. 

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"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

-Romans 8:28

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If we thought our two families were close before, there is no way of describing the closeness that we share now!  I cannot even begin to count the emails that have passed between our families since we met, with that number nearly doubling in the last few days alone!  If you try to call our house or theirs at certain hours of the day, you will simply get "the busy signal"!  Not to mention the jobs that are left only half done around here because some people are only half here!

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We are only about one week into this and already it's been such a precious time!  It's also a wonderful testimony to those people who always ask,

"How are you ever going to meet anybody if you don't date?"

Jordan and Caleb have both shown patience in finding the Lord's mate for themselves, and the Lord has shown Himself faithful.  Sixth months ago we didn't even know the Yuck family existed, but the Lord brought our families together in His timing, when He knew Caleb and Jordan were ready.  We are truly exicted about what the Lord has in store for our families and for Jordan and Caleb. 

GOD IS SO GOOD!

Caleb's flowers that he sent to Jordan

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

-Proverbs 3:5-6

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

-Jeremiah 29:11

The day we announced the courtship to our family!

Caleb will be coming down to visit in a little more than a week, so there will be many more photos to come!  So stay tuned!  If you would like to visit the Yuck family blog and read about it from their end, click on this link

buildingafamilythatwillstand.blogspot.com.

Bethany and I will try to keep you all posted on the happenings at the Yuck and Hammond households during this exciting time!

Background Music

You all may or may not have noticed that we took the music off our blog.  I truly liked the effect it gave to the blog, however we had begun to notice that there were advertisements playing after several of the songs, advertisements which we would not endorse.  So, we have decided to remove the music from the blog until we can find something that will not run ads.  We apologize if any of the ads were inappropriate.

Reverse Thinking

I found this video on a dear friends blog.  Please watch it through. 

It is powerful.  We were all amazed after watching it.  (You will want to pause our blog's background music before you play this video -sorry-)

Good Morning!

"Arise, shine;

For your light has come!

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you."

-Isaiah 60:1

I stumble upon this verse a while back and found it to be a beautiful, cheerful verse to wake up to and quote early in the morning.

This was the view that we awoke to this morning, with the fog settling over the fields.  As I walked out to the dairy to milk, I had to stop and take a couple of photos.  It was a gorgeous day, with the temperatures rising all the way up to 71 degrees this afternoon.

Book Recommendation!

I don't normally write book recommendations, but this series was just too good to keep to ourselves!  It's the Viking Quest Series by Lois Walfrid Johnson.  Ethan received the books for his birthday in November.  We started reading them right away.  Anytime we went somewhere in the car we read it.  If all of us were home we stopped to read a couple of chapters.  We couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next!  We just passed the series on to Gram who can't put it down!  Lois Walfrid Johnson is a very talented author with the way she keeps the story moving.  She also wrote it in a way that makes it a great book for boys and girls alike!  It is a great family read aloud!  (We would recommend it for ages 10 and up because some parts may be a little too much for a younger audience.)  So don't judge a book by it's cover and give this one a try!

Twin Sisters

Katelynn and Elaina
(Our Twin Cousins)



Twin Sisters

Twin sister, here beside me,
hold on to my hand tight.
For we know not what lay ahead,
but next to you I'll be all right.

When you fall down, I'll help you up,
you do the same for me;
You'll get a bandage for my cut,
I'll kiss the boo-boo on your knee.

Twin Sister, here beside me
together we will walk,
Together we will cry and laugh,
together we will talk.

One of these tomorrows,
our childhood will end.
So promise me, Twin Sister
that you'll stay my dearest friend.

Someday in our Lord's good time,
I know we both must die.
I will go to meet my Savior Jesus
in His home up in the sky.

So promise me, Twin Sister,
that you will belieive in Him as well.
Jesus loves you, dearest sister,
He wants to save your soul from Hell.

Jesus wants you, dearest sister,
to spend eternity with Him.
Won't you receive His gift, Twin Sister,
repent of your sins and let Him in.

And someday, Twin Sister,
when we meet Jesus in the sky,
We'll have no fear, we'll have no dread
we'll have no need to cry.

I'll say "Twin Sister, here beside me,
Hold on to my hand tight.
We know our Savior waits ahead,
and with Him we'll be all right."



Elaina and Katelynn

 Posted by Jordan

Are you puzzled yet???

A friend recently sent us this puzzle and I had a good time trying to figure it out!

There are 5 different houses each with a different color.  Each house is owned by a person of a different nationality.  The 5 owners each drink only one type of beverage, eat one type of fruit, and own one classic book.  Using the clues below determine who owns Moby Dick. 

• The German lives in a red house.
• The Swede owns The Scarlet Letter.
• The Dane drinks tea.
• The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
• The green house owner drinks coffee.
• The person who eats bananas owns To Kill A Mockingbird.
• The owner of the yellow house eats apples.
• The man living in the house right in the middle drinks milk.
• The Norwegian lives in the first house.
• The man who eats pears lives next door to the one who owns The Grapes Of Wrath.
• The man who owns Call of the Wild lives next door to the man who eats apples.
• The owner who eats strawberries drinks root beer.
• The Brit eats apricots.
• The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
• The man who eats pears has a neighbor who drinks water.

Hmmm....think you know the answer?  I'll let you think about it for a little while.  The answer will be posted sometime soon!

Memorial Day...

Memorial Day is a day set aside to honor those veterans who have given their lives so that we as Americans can live free. They fought wars and died so that we, generations later, would have freedom. A freedom which we take so lightly...

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Why is it that we as Christians do not have a day set aside to honor those Christians who have gone on before us? Those who died so that we might have RELIGIOUS freedom. They died horrible deaths just so that generations later we might be able to stand and worship God publicly and how often do we do that? Just browse through Foxe's Book of Martyrs and see how they died. How is it that we take our religious freedom so lightly when it was something that they died for? If there were a day set apart for the veterans of the faith, it would be world wide, not just national....