Settled at Last

Hello friends and family!

I believe that we are finally feeling settled and comfortable here in Australia. I think it would be interesting for member of the family to submit their own thoughts about how things are going and what they think about it all.

The weather this week has been rainy and cool. We are in the fall months and I believe that June will officiallybegin the winter months. It has been pretty mild so far with temps ranging from the lows in the mid 60's to highs in the low 80's for the fall season. We don't experience alot of rain where we live, although the dams are at 50% which is the best they have been in years!

Duane is still working in downtown Brisbane on a pipeline project. He is just about finished with it and will return to his office in Milton. He still catches the train to work each day.

Rachel is working hard at UQ with her studies. She will be finished with classes in a few weeks and will begin the second semester in August. She is also working at the KFC in the Roma Street train station. It is a massive, multilevel building with shops and restaurants. She takes the train to work and the bus to UQ.

Amy and Caleb are enjoying school very much. Amy has many friends and she loves her teacher. Her teacher is young and out of school by only a year or so. She is high energy and is very witty. She manages the classroom exceptionally well and has the kids laughing AND working hard. Caleb's teacher is quite abit older with a no nonesense personality. She and Caleb got off to a bit of a rough start but they seemed to be doing fine now. He works hard for her and she appreciates that. She still nails him with no recess for his silliness. I think they have developed a mutual respect for each other. Caleb is Learning to play AFL (Auzzie Rules Footy). They don't allow the kids to tackle until the turn 12. He is enjoying the sport. He and Amy are both wanting to take piano lessons. I would like to get that going in the third term of school.

The house that we rent has once again been put on the market for sale. The owners are desperate to get their money out of it and have it sold. We are looking at other houses to rent; somewhere close by so that Amy and Caleb will not have to change schools again. I have been volunteering at the school and enjoy it very much. I'm in Amy's room once a week, Caleb's room once a week, and then I work in the uniform shop every other Monday and in the tuck shop about once week. The parents and teachers are a joy to work with!

Our church congregation in Kallangur has sold it's land. Services will take place in the manse. The buyers have let us continue worshipping in the church buliding and will continue to do so until they are ready to begin construction. I'm in a rotation for teaching children's Sunday school at the church. There are two families who bring their children every Sunday and two families who are more hit and miss. I always have at least 3 children and 5 at the most. They split the kids into 2 classes. The other class has 2 at the least and 4 at the most. During the Lent season, our organist was out of town some and Rachel and another lady played organ for the service. It was wonderful to hear Rachel use her talents to God's Glory!

Michael has just left San Diego on the USS Nimitz. It will be out to sea for a month. When it returns to port, he will have a few weeks and then he leaves again for a 6 month deployment. He will return shortly before January 2010 and we are planning for him to fly to Australia and visit us for as long as he has leave. He turns 22 on the 24th of May. He will be out at sea.

He has a work navy e-mail which he uses most of the time now. If anyone wants to e-mail hom to say hello, it would make him very happy. He has not been going to worship services although he would like to. I can sense by talking to him that he is depressed. He is missing his family and his church. He is living in a completely different environment than he was raised in. Any e-mails of encouragement would be appeciated by all of us. Please keep him in your prayers. I'm not sure if I mentioned in a previous blog, but Michael and Lauren were engaged. She broke it off in February. He knows that was for the best. Long distance relationships are tough.

Michael's navy e-mail is michael.hengst@cvn68.navy.mil

Amy is turning 9 this next week. Time is going by so fast. Rachel had just turned 9 when I had Amy. Wesley is turning 28 in a week or so. I am feeling very old.

Rachel turned 18 in April and to celebrate, she and Duane went skydiving. They jumped out of the plane at 14,100 feet and landed on a beach in Caloundra. It was a 65 second free fall before they opened the parachutes. They both have said that they would love to do it again. It was a birthday to remember!

I will close for now. I'm sorry it took so long for me to update the blog. I'll post our change of address on our blog when we find a house. Our lease isn't up until July 5.

May Jesus bless all of you and keep you in his loving care.

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to Him in prayer! Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!

Hymn 411, What a friend we have in Jesus

In His name,

Stacey