Our Little Baby Blueberry

According to our Dr.'s visit last week, our little blessing will arrive on the 2nd of August!

This week our baby has sprouted little hands and feet with knees and elbows and tiny finger nubs. He or she has grown up to 10,000 times her/his original size! Mommy and Daddy are so excited to meet him/her!

Our Little Sweet Pea

Daniel and I are very excited to announce the coming of our very first little Matlack!

Only the size of a tiny sweet pea, we can't wait to meet our little gift! Tomorrow brings our first doctor's visit and hopefully an official due date!

ART

My beautiful wife's beautiful paintings. The Chinese characters mean (from left to right):

YESTERDAY JESUS FOREVER

(this picture doesn't even really do justice)

Our Little Friends!

Daniel teaches Sonny to play English Chess after he gets whooped at Chinese Chess.

Daniel and Sonny put the lights on our tree!

Getting to work decorating - we are Pros!

Our new friends Lawrie and Isabel came over for a craft day!

Isabel is an artist and made me a beautiful hat!

Enjoying the weather while it lasts!

So this weekend I (yes this is Daniel actually writing on the blog) took Rachel to the park on a beautiful 75 degree day in Chicago to play some soccer. I decided to video some of it and wanted to share our little time with internet and all its people. I hope you enjoy.

So that last little bit I was trying to kick the ball over the tree between us (not actually hit Rachel). Nice video work though I must say.

Anywho this past week I had a pretty busy week at work with almost all of my projects being submitted so we haven't done anything else really exciting. Then today I had my last soccer game with the Moody Church league...we ended up losing in the playoffs :( but its ok. It was a fun league to be in. There's really nothing else to report. I'm sure Rachel will have something for you soon!

Looking Forward!

This week Daniel and I were informed of an exciting opportunity! The week after Christmas a conference call "Grace 2009" is coming to the City of Chicago for the first time. Every three years a different city hosts this conference where Leaders of house churches in East Asia can come for further training and to be refreshed. They are looking for hospitality and small group leader volunteers. Daniel and I are so excited to even just be there to watch the conference!

This Saturday we hope (maybe not since it is outside of the city and we can't get there on CTA) to attend a Revival and Informational Meeting.

Please pray:

- For the planning committee: that they would be given wisdom and endurance

-For the speakers: that they would be given words from God for those in attendance

-For the Leaders! For many it may be dangerous to come, but they are being faithful. Pray that God would prepare the way and prepare their hearts.

-For us: That we would be open to whatever part we are able to play and that we would be able to encourage those involved.

City View

Daniel and I are doing well and loving Chicago. We feel like we are adjusting nicely to city life and enjoying public transportation. Lately though, a feeling of discouragement has set in. We know that God wanted us to move to Chicago but yesterday we hit our 3-month mark here and still get the feeling we don't know what He is wanting us to do.

This week please be praying that:

- We would keep our eyes open to what He wants us to do and not just settle into our routine.

- We would find our fulfillment in Him and not in what we may or may not feel like we've done here.