Hello Everyone! This is my first post (thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law who convinced me to start a blog), so I just want to up date everyone on what has been happening recently in our lives.

Albert is preparing to go through his ordination process. Please pray for him, as you can imagine, it is a very scary goal to accomplish. Right now he has been writing and rewriting his doctrinal statement.

We Bought A House! we are very excited to announce that we now own our first home (well, almost). Our close date is October 15 so please pray that all of our paperwork clears and everything goes according to schedule. God really had His hand at work in our lives during this whole process. By God's glorious plan, we stumbled on to a brand new house in a wonderful neighborhood with all the space we will need to raise a family that was in our budget. We had lowered our standards because we did not feel that we were being as practical as we should. I guess God decided it was time to give us a little unexpected blessing. We have a wonderful Realtor, Keith Nickerson of Sombody's Moving Real Estate. He fought tooth and nail and really went above and beyond the call of duty to get us this house at a great deal. When it seemed as though we might loose the house, Mom and Dad Armitage stepped in and co-signed with us. We are so thankful God blessed us with wonderful parents. Thanks Moms and Dad and Amber!!!

We have Kittens! Yes, I am constantly bringing home animals and this time I really did us in. I brought in a pregnant cat that I found in labor under my car. I waited three days before I told Albert. I know I know, that was really bad. Well, she has 5 kittens, 4 boys and 1 girl. I missed the birth, but I have made a point of spending time with them everyday and I think I am very very attached. They have been coming to Wednesday night church for the last two weeks so they will be comfortable with children when they find homes. We all know they had to learn to be comfortable with dogs because dear Rocky tries to mother them and Bandit, as sweet as he is, tries to eat them or play them to death. So far... No casualties.

I am looking for a new job. This is a very big trial for me since I have applied for 30+ jobs and the only people who want me cannot pay enough. I am really hoping that God will open a door soon.

My birthday is on Sunday! I will be 21!

Please keep Albert and I in your prayers. Here are a few specific prayer requests we have.

1. Our College Age Ministry - All of our college age groupies have left us, Tony went to Lawrence and Bob and Becky have moved to Arizona. Currently we have no class to teach, no one to attend activities, and all of our potential students are not attending church right now. Pray for God to help us increase our class numbers-they really can't get any lower!
2. Bob and Becky have moved away. I need prayer because Becky is the first person-outside of family-who I have allowed myself to get close to since Albert and I came out with our engagement. I lost just about every friend I had at that point and I was deeply hurt. I have really come to trust Becky and of course she is still my one really good friend but pray that I will allow myself to make more friends-it is a real struggle for me.

Thank you for sharing in some of our recent events and praying for us. I will post some pictures of the house, the kittens, and some recent photos of us and the dogs once Albert gets done playing on the other computer!