Our New Journey Begins

Last Wednesday we started out on our two day journey across half the country. Aaron's dad (Dale) and brother (Ryan) flew out on Tuesday night to help us drive back. We had both of our cars and the moving truck, so Aaron and I each drove a car and Dale and Ryan switched off driving the truck. We move very well, so of course, we had everything completely organized and ready to go when Dale and Ryan arrived. We had the truck loaded up in less than an hour. This is our 6th move since we've been married, and hopefully, it will be our last move for a while. We traveled approximately 1,100 miles across five different states, and we finally made it to our new home of Illinois on Thursday. Everything is still sinking in for us. It's weird to think that we're not going back to Virginia and that this is our new home, but I'm sure we'll adjust soon. It feels very surreal to be here, but it's exciting to be starting this new phase in our lives.

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to...

The last couple weeks have just flown by. We've been so busy packing and preparing for our move half way across the county, and we've been trying to soak up as much time with our friends and family here in Virginia Beach as much as possible. I'm not going to lie...this move is definitely going to be the hardest one we've done. We've moved six times since we've been married, and I don't remember any of them being as hard as this one, but we definitely know the Lord has amazing things in store for us in this new phase in our lives.

I'll admit that the past couple weeks I've done A LOT of crying. I'm even getting teary eyed just thinking about it. Aaron and I did not expect that almost 4 years ago when we followed the Lord's calling to Virginia Beach, that it would be one of the best experiences of our lives. We've learned so much during this time, and we've made friends that I will now call family. I wish we could just pack each and every one of our friends from Virginia Beach in a box and take them all with us.

We're going to miss so many things....

 The beach and the weather are definitely going to be missed. Aaron had a terribly time trying to pull me away from it on Sunday when I said my goodbyes to the ocean. (sigh)

We'll both miss Regent University so much. It became such a huge part of our lives, but I'll definitely miss my coworkers. Each one of them became dear friends. 

Aaron's coworkers were a little more "rowdy", but they'll still be missed. Love you all!

I'm going to miss my "5:15" friends. They will always hold a special place in my heart. 

And Lis holds a special place in my heart as well.

 Of course, all of our friends will be dearly missed....

expecially our Goddaughter and my best friend Joanne....

 and the rest of the Whitfield family will be dearly missed as well. We consider ourselves a part of the Whitfield family, and they will always be a part of the Kaney family. 

It stinks that all these goodbyes are happening on my birthday, but praise the Lord for Skype. I know we'll be in touch with each and every one of our friends here, and we're looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us in Illinois.

God's Work In Honduras

This past week I was in Tegucigalpa, Honduras serving with World Gospel Outreach (WGO). There is no possible way that I can show everyone all the ways that God worked in my life and the lives of many of the Honduran people over the past week. I can only show just a glimpse of what the Lord did over the past week.

Throughout the week my team and I served with WGO to conduct medical brigades in Tegucigalpa. We had stations set up for dentistry, optical, medical, and children's ministry. We also laid cement floors for three families throughout the week. The Lord allowed us to use these different areas of ministry as the "bait" to get them in the door, and as they left, we shared the gospel and prayed with each person. We saw about 2,300 people throughout the week.

Here's just a glimpse of the work we did in Honduras. My life will forever be changed by the work that God did in Honduras.

 A view from the mountain where we ministered on Monday & Tuesday

 These were just a few of the kids that were waiting outside the church for our brigade in the morning.

 This is Aaron & I. This little Aaron came up to me and told me how his name was Aaron and asked me if I knew that the name Aaron meant that he would be a great man of God. Little did he know that I was married to an Aaron that definitely is a great man of God.

 Kirsten & I with some of the Honduran kids

 I helped lay a cement floor for this little girl's family, and she gave me quite a few kisses on my cheek after we were done that day

 A typical Honduran home

 Our team

 Being on the trip with my mother and father-in-law was such a blessing

Teaching the Honduran kids the story of Christ

Dios Te Bendiga

(God Bless You)

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..."

You know you're singing that song in your head right now, or at least I am...

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye....

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go...

'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
I don't know when I'll be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go....

Sorry...I only know the good parts of the song, so I didn't quote you the whole thing. And you're really lucky you aren't here with me to hear me sing it because well...lets just say...I wasn't gifted with the best singing voice in the world.

Lately, this song has been playing in my head because (if you haven't heard already) we're moving back to Illinois. We got the news late on Tuesday, and it's been a whirlwind of a week. We haven't worked out all of the moving details yet, but it's a work in progress. We were so blessed to find out that Aaron was offered a position as an Assistant States Attorney in Carroll County Illinois. We truly feel like this is something the Lord led us to because honestly, we weren't seeking it out. It was by word of mouth that we heard about the position and from then on it was like the Lord had all the steps in place, so we know that this is the right move for us.

We're excited about what the Lord has in store for us in this next season of our lives, but we are extremely sad to leave Virginia Beach. We've had our fair share of tears over the last couple days because we don't want to say goodbye to a lot of people or Virginia in general. Our friends here have become family, and we wouldn't trade the time we've had here for anything in the world. We're also really sad to say goodbye to Regent because the university has truly become a part of our lives, and we feel blessed to have been a part of the university. And of course...we're definitely going to miss the weather. It was 65 degrees here the other day while Illinois was getting pounded with a snow storm, so I'm sure you can see why we're crying.

The past few days have been a blur, and to add to the mix...I'm leaving for Honduras in just a couple hours. I fly out tonight, and I'll be gone for a week. This leaves Aaron home by himself to start trying to get our move in order so that we can travel half way across the county with all of our things. It's going to be a crazy month for us, but we know the Lord has it all under control. As long as we trust it all to Him, everything will be okay.

Sunday Golf

About three years ago, Aaron got me pink golf clubs for my birthday. Yes, I say pink golf clubs because the fact that they're pink just makes them work better...this is a fact every golfer should know.

However, I've only used my clubs a couple times, and I haven't ever used them to actually golf on a course. I've only used them at the driving range a few times. Aaron always said I needed to practice before actually getting out on the course, but then we would practice, and this is what would happen...I would yell at him for trying to tell me how to do it, and we'd never end up actually golfing. I guess I used to be am a little hormonal sometimes, but now I have my hormones "under control"...at least for today they were. So we've had these two vouchers laying around for a couple months for 18 holes of golf with a cart, and we decided that today was the day to use them.

Despite our previous attempts at golfing together, we both ended up having a really great time. It was a little chilly out with the wind, but we, honestly, had a lot of fun. I didn't yell at Aaron for trying to help me, and we spent a lot of time laughing at my bad swings, but I actually didn't do too bad for my first time. Of course, Aaron beat me, but with a few lessons, I may just be playing in the LPGA tour next year. But don't worry, once I go pro, I'll give all the credit to Aaron for teaching me everything I know.

Double Date Night

We went bowling this past weekend with Tra & Joanne. It was a blast! We teamed up against one another (The Kaneys vs. The Whitfields)...trying to mess up the other team in any way we could. There was, of course, some trash talk and a few "accidental" bumps into the other person, but it was all done in a very "pleasant" way. Somewhere in the mix, I even got blamed for making the little girl in the lane next to us cry. All I said to the little girl was "It's okay...I get the ball in the gutter sometimes too." Are you not supposed to say that to a 5 year old? In the end, of course, The Kaney team won both of the two games we finished, and in the third game we ran out of time. The computer locked us out of the third game just after Aaron beat Tra's score by one point. I think Tra's planning a rematch soon.

Holiday Craziness

The past month just flew by. Work has been crazy, home has been crazy, and life (in general) has been crazy. Not to mention, we threw a 10 day trip to Illinois in the mix that included five Christmases, a wedding, and two EXTREMELY long drives (17 hours each way). Is now a good time to mention neither of us drink coffee or soda? We were two very exhausted people during the month of December, but our 10 days in Illinois were fabulous!

We enjoyed lots of time with family...

 We squeezed in breakfast, lunch, and dinner with as many friends as we could and asked strangers in restaurants to take our picture...

My mom married a really tall man...

 We had a lot of fun at the wedding...

And my mom is really happy. Welcome to the family, Chris! We love you both!

But that wasn't all we did...

We decorated cookies...

We imitated elves occasionally...

We watched dogs in sweaters open up Christmas presents...

We tried to keep our sanity at some points...

 We spent time with our niece, Rachel...

We did our makeup and braided hair...

And we were blessed with tons of presents.

The holiday craziness is over now, and we're thankful for the time we could spend with our family and friends. We were blessed beyond measure this year, and we can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in 2011.