A Month of Travels

We started the month of May off by heading to Alexandria, MN for our annual regional staff conference, called 'MayDaze'.  We spent 3 days connecting with staff friends from around the region, hearing updates from the year, and learning from speaker Sharon Hersh. Maggie spent some quality time with her Nana and Papa across the lake and schedules worked out so we were able to see both of Matt's brothers and their wives! We hadn't been to Alexandria since Thanksgiving, so it was refreshing to spend a few days there...though we're hoping the lake won't be frozen on our next trip!

The week following MayDaze was finals week at MSU, so we spent some time connecting with students before they took off for their various summer pursuits. Then Maggie went south to hang out with Grandma & Grandpa in Iowa and I (Kristin) flew to Richmond, VA for a good friend's wedding. Amidst driving Maggie and I all over the place, Matt was able to host a college friend who currently lives in Sioux Falls.

Now that our family is all back together again, we've been able to enjoy some nice summer weather. Maggie is loving her bike trailer and asks to go for bike rides whenever she see it. :) Many of our international friends have left or are leaving soon for the summer and some are leaving for good. We were able to have seven of them over last night for dinner and lawn games to say our good-byes. It was truly a blessing that our lives were able to intersect with theirs for a year even though its hard to see them go, not knowing if we'll see them again. A few, however, will return in the fall and we're hopeful for how we can deepen those relationships.

We'll spend our summer preparing for the arrival of our new baby girl and building our team of ministry partners so our family is in a healthy place financially once she arrives and classes start up again in the fall.  We'll continue to keep you updated here!

Here are a few pictures of our recent activities....

Playing bubble with Grandpa in Cedar Falls!

Our family with some of our int'l friends at MSU's int'l festival in April. We'll miss them!

I joined staff with these girls in 2007 and we've done a lot of life together since then! From L-R, Kirstin directs the team in the Pittsburgh metro, Ginny & her husband are transitioning to a role overseeing ethnic ministries in the Mid-Atlantic, and Katherine just married Michael, an Aussie she met while on stint. It was fun to celebrate with her!

Ready for summer!