Catching Up

Seeing as it's been 6 weeks since any of us have posted in our blog, I decided it might be a good day to write something here!

You wouldn't know it from our lack of postings, but many daily events continue to carry us forward to our departure date of June 24 ~ only 104 days from today.  Wow, that is hard to believe!

Below are a few highlights since my last January post, when Sam and I enjoyed that pizza picnic by the Guadalupe river......I'm beginning to understand that life will not slow down in order for me to have time to pack the family for our move.  We have 3 teens and a pre-teen!  Life will not slow down -- I will have to CARVE out the time from our daily routine.  Meanwhile, the kids are certainly squeezing in every bit of life and action out of their last months in the USA.

~ SAM ~

• Sam has spent many happy afternoons with his friends, the Mixon boys, at their ranch near Junction and just hanging out at their house.  The Mixon boys' mom is one of my dear friends, and is the closest thing I've ever met on this earth to a total SAINT!  How she consistently puts up with the antics of these three boys, I will never know......

Sam and Cole also acolyted together for the first time.  They've been acolyting all year (Sam for two years), but this was the first time we parents dared to let them each have a candle lighter at the same time.....they did such a great job and showed such maturity that we realized they could handle much more responsibility than we've been giving them.  So proud.....

Sam has also kept busy with his piano lessons.  Each day, I am treated to a concert while listening to him practice:  one of the perks of homeschooling!

~ RUTHIE ~

Ruthie has been busy, busy, busy in school.  I need to upload more pics of each of these things later, when I can find them on my unorganized photo collection.  She's on the tennis team, ran on the cross country team this fall, has stayed in HCYO - even though she really doesn't have time to do so (thank you, Ruthie), serves on the Yearbook Committee, participates in Art Club, and I know about a million other things that I'm forgetting just now.  She was selected as a member of the Spurs (basketball team) Food Drive team called, "Team Up Challenge".  Her team has busily been working to restock the pantries of local food banks, which are currently quite depleted.  The Spurs had a basketball game where people could turn in cans of food in exchange for a game ticket -- you can bet that brought in a lot of food!  The girls and boys on Peterson's team were there at the Spurs game to collect donations of cash and canned goods, and to be silly and have fun, of course......

Ruthie has also LOVED being a part of Wyldlife this year.  Wyldlife is the Jr. High version of Young Life.  I think Wyldlife just might be Ruthie's favorite thing about 7th grade....but she likes a lot of things, so I don't know for sure.  Below is a silly pic of some friends at a Wyldlife theme night - it was 80's night.  

~ STEPHEN ~

Stephen, a sophomore at Tivy High, has stayed busy with guitar, debate and Mock Trial.  He also spends as much time after school hanging out with his friend, Hayden.

Here are some pics from his Christmas guitar concert.

 Picture below shows Stephen and Gage, his debate partner, just after winning Regional Debate.

  They are state bound in about two weeks!  Another picture is of his Mock Trial team, who just went to State and placed in the TOP TEN!  They did a great job.  In fact, I'm writing this in a hotel room on the way home from that tournament.  So, this pic is hot off the presses.  

~ HANNAH ~ 

Hannah has stayed busy with her music and finishing classes for her senior year, preparing for graduation, visiting colleges and writing/maintaining the www.bergfamilyafrica.com website.  She just played with the Hill Country Youth Orchestra in a benefit concert with Robert Earl Keen, and we visited Baylor University for the 2nd time just a couple weeks ago.  Ruthie came with us for our Baylor visit, and the three of us girls had so much fun!

Here are some pics of the Robert Earl Keen concert, taken from the nosebleed section of the theater, with my iPhone.  

Here she is with a friend and fellow HCYO member, Annie, just after the concert.

Here are Tim, Hannah and Ruthie just playing around, entertaining us.  So thankful for music and for their musical talents and looking forward to many jam sessions next year in Rwanda.  

Here are some clips from the concert.  They aren't the best quality, as they were recorded from far away on my iPhone! 

I didn't get many pictures of Baylor!  Here is another blurry iPhone pic from a student production called "Sing!" that they put on every spring.  

Here is a picture of her on her beloved piano.  Too bad that can't make the trip with us to Rwanda.  Thankful her violin is a bit smaller and more portable! 

Valentines' Day is one of my favorite holidays.  We celebrated our last Valentines' in our house -- at least, our last for a while -- as we always have, with a special breakfast, lots and lots of sugar, and the best home made cards from the kids I've ever received. 

 Our last big event lately is that our Suburban found a new home!  Friends of our local YL leaders donated money so the car could be given to Beck and Hayley Marlar, our YL staff couple in Kerrville.  They were very surprised, and we were very blessed by the generosity of so many people who helped us raise money for our mission AND provided a car for the Marlars.  What a fun day it was when we surprised them with this car! 

Lots of folks came out to surprise the Marlars.  Beck's parents and sister even came all the way from Midland.  Here is a pic of our two families at the end of that special day.

No time to include the special meetings with so many folks after speaking at various churches, the beautiful wedding of Kristen Miller to her beloved that our whole family was able to attend and enjoy, my birthday lunch given by my mom and so many of her friends, who have known me since I was a kid, nor the special birthday trip to Houston to surprise my childhood friend, Virginia, with our other dear friend, Carrie.  Maybe I'll post pics from those later.

This entire year has felt like, and continues to feel like a gift from God, helping me and all of us to say goodbye to everyone we love and have held dear for so many years.  When we first felt God was calling us to Rwanda, a year felt too long to wait.  As it has turned out, God knew exactly what he was doing when it worked out this way.  Every minute here has been precious, albeit hard at times, and has helped us to prepare our hearts for this HUGE change we are about to encounter.  I'm so grateful for the way it has worked out.