Blessings ALL Around

Last night we got a scary call that our nephew Riley (Kevin's sister's boy) was on his way the hospital to have his appendix taken out.  This was more scary than normal since he's in Peru and the unknown of how the hospital facility would be was frightening.  Thankfully after lots of prayers this morning we were given the report that all went well with the surgery and other than the normal pain from surgery (stomach and back) he was feeling much better.  Kristi explained in her email to us that he would normally would have been afraid to have surgery there in Peru but he was in so much pain he just wanted it out.  The Mission President talked with Kristi and was about to go check on Riley and told Kristi to call back in an hour and he'd have a more accurate report on how he was doing. (The assistant had been with Riley the entire time.)  He told Riley he would be talking to his mom and asked if there was anything that he wanted him to tell her.  He said to say, "I love her and not to worry."  What a sweet boy!  How we love that guy so much.  Now praying for a quick recovery with minimal pain.

From Kevin's Facebook Post (The rest of the story...): 
A couple of months ago he was transferred to an area in his mission out in the jungle, which he was stoked for. But at the last minute the Mission President changed Riley's assignment to his current area. He was a little disappointed but quickly got to work and loves it. However, if he had been in his original assignment he would have been more than 10 hours from the nearest hospital when this went down. Thankful for a wise and in-tune Mission President. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. 

Another Miracle happened today.  My dear friend, Nola had her twin boys via C-section.  It's been a very stressful pregnancy with lots of difficulties with the twins.  She's been having 3 ultra sounds a week that last 5 hours each  just to make sure everything was fine with each of them.  They are the rare case of twins being "twin to twin transfusion" where one twin is the donor twin and the other a recipient. They each had their own sac but shared a placenta.  A few months ago they found some fluid in Brody (donor twin) in between is skin and organs.  None of the specialist anywhere (here or San Fran) know what it was.  They did the wait and watch method...hence all the ultrasounds.  Today as they delivered the babies they were hoping for the best but didn't know what exactly to expect.  Thankfully they are both doing well  Brody is in the NICU for breathing but considering everything else that has happened and could of happened it's WONDERFUL news!!

God is Good!  What blessings he's poured out today.  I'm sure there are even more stories around the world of His wonderful mercies.

I Hope they Call Me On A Mission

Another dot on our family missionary map! Kevin's niece, Cailley Sellers, just got called to serve in the Quito Ecuador mission! She leaves in September to the MTC in Lima, Peru then on to Ecuador! Whoo-hoo. Way to go Cailley. 

Missionary Dinner

 Tonight we had the sister missionaries over for dinner.  Kevin decided to make the Puerto Rican rice dish that he loves and share a bit of his mission with them.  They seemed to like it though they only had one serving.  When we have served it to the elders they always ate seconds or thirds.  ;-)  He also made Testones.  They were so yummy.  I told Kevin to pick up some Banana Sauce from the Cuban Resturant on his way home from a meeting in Portland and it did.  So yummy.  It's a little different than Ketchup but very similar.

Goodbye Oregon, Hello Peru

This morning was playgroup and I was in charge of the activity portion of playgroup.  It was so fun.  I brought play dough. It was a HUGE hit.  I brought books to read and instruments to play along with the Popcorn Popping sound track but the kids didn't need any of that.  They LOVED the play dough.  We had Mother's Who Know too and Emily Jensen was suppose to teach the class but her son got sick so I told her I would take that on for her.  The class went well and I just love getting to meet with the other sisters and hear from them and their input and experiences.

Right after playgroup we came home, I unloaded the bikes and activity stuff I brought, picked up Kevin and we headed out for Dallas.  Riley was having his going away party before heading out for his mission on Friday to drive to ID & UT.  Kevin had a work meeting in Salem at 3 so we had to drive down early which was nice so we could visit with everyone before all the crowds of people got there.

The kids LOVED playing with their cousins.  Tori and Kaila jump roped together, Addie played barbies with the girls and with Kristi, Glenn played with the cars and watch the video games Dalton was playing with Riley. Tackle time with Riley was  hit with Addie and Glenn. It was a wonderful afternoon. We even managed to squeeze in some homework time. Kristi made soup for us for dinner with bread and then we set up stuff for the get together creating veggie platters and getting the chips and dips out.

Shirt Grandpa Vaughn made for him

We sure are going to miss Riley.  He's such a great person.  The people in Peru are lucky to have him coming to them.  His companion will be blessed to have him severing beside them too.  He's seriously one of the best people I know!  We love you Riley.  As we were leaving and said our goodbyes Glenn was putting on his shoes and said that he was really going to miss Riley.  I told him to go get one last goodbye hug since this was his last chance.  He didn't want to go I think do to the huge amount of friends Riley had around him and he didn't feel comfortable going so I went and told Riley and he went over to Glenn to give him a hug.  Such a great cousin!  Then in the car as we were driving away Kaila said, "I miss Riley already!  I don't want him to go."  Kevin then explained what Riley was going to be doing to her and that helped her a little.  We will sure miss him at all the family functions.  It was hard for me to say good-bye and I barley kept back the tears as I hugged him good-bye.

So we signed up to have the missionaries over for dinner a long time ago. Little did we know this week would be a very busy one. DH was trying to hard to make it home from work Thursday night so they wouldn't have to have dinner on the front porch. I headed over to KFC for a bucket of chicken, mash potatoes, corn, and biscuits. I pulled out some grapes for a fruit and that was the meal. Simple and easy. They were suppose to come at 6 and had an appointment at 6:30pm so we knew they would have to eat and run but they still weren't here at 6:10 so I called DH and he called them. Come to find out they were running way late so I ate without them. They said they would come over after their appointment which they thought would be around 7:30pm but ended up being 8:10pm. I had left way before that to watch the end of my niece's baseball game and to visit my brother who just arrived in town from Boise, ID with his family.
DD loved her dinner of mash potatoes and grapes. She is such a little piggy. She ate so much. I think she ate twice as long as I did! She's really trying to get to 20 lbs so she can flip around in her car seat and face forward.

After the missionaries left DH went out to Cold Stone (healing his wounds from the Lakers loosing again!) He brought a shake for me and ice cream for my sister. We visited for a little while and then I had to get DD in bed. She was so exhausted!