Now that our family is tied to a school schedule it makes traveling during the year harder. Between school, having babies, moves and of course our normal work with the Caribbean, we haven’t been able to see many of our out-of-town partners and churches. So this summer we made up for it AND threw in extra ministry work too! It made for a very busy summer that we spent mostly away from home. I think the easiest way to recap the last few months is to start at the beginning and go from there…
Riley-Grace Turned 5!
Memorial Day weekend we packed up and drove to Sean’s parents’ home in Spanish Fort, AL (near Mobile). Riley-Grace wanted to celebrate her birthday by going to the beach… which is her happy place. So we had a small family birthday party and then went to the beach! Her birthday is actually on June 4th but we wouldn’t be in Alabama then (more on that later) so we celebrated a week early.
CYIA of Florida Training
We spent the first two weeks of June in Orlando… nope, not at Disney, but at Florida’s CYIA training. CYIA stands for Christian Youth in Action and is a program with CEF where teenagers teach 5 Day Clubs throughout the summer in their local areas. It’s how Sean got started with CEF! We were honored to be picked as Florida’s focus missionaries for this summer and were asked to attend their training camp so we could really get to know the teens. Whenever those teens taught the missionary portion of the clubs they would share about us and our ministry to Turks & Caicos! Our girls had a BLAST hanging with the teenagers for two weeks! It was fun for us too!
After the first week we actually drove ALL THE WAY back to Alabama to drop Maddy off at Camp Victory. We stayed the night in Enterprise and then drove ALL THE WAY back to Orlando. We couldn’t really go to Disney World while we were in Orlando so we did the next best thing. On Riley-Grace’s birthday we went to Disney Springs (Downtown Disney = free), met up with some of my family (from Texas!) who happened to be on vacation at Disney World and ate at the T-Rex Cafe! Riley-Grace said it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER.
Seattle
After Florida’s CYIA tranining was over we drove back home, picked up Maddy and then a few days later Sean went to Turks & Caicos to train the new National Board. He will fill you in about how awesome his trip went on the next blog post! He was only back for one day and then we left again, this time for Seattle! The ticket prices for flying were ridiculously expensive… the cheapest by far was out of New Orleans. Thankfully Sean’s parents only live a couple hours away so we stayed the night there and then drove to New Orleans. Thankfully, our flight was non-stop because we arrived in Seattle at 10pm (our time)… our girls go to bed at 7pm. I’m sure you can easily guess how things were going at that point haha. But it was so exciting to be back in Seattle again! The last time we were there was in 2014 when I was still pregnant with Riley-Grace… we hadn’t even moved to Turks & Caicos yet!
In case you are wondering why on earth we went to Seattle, we have had a partnership with Evangelical Chinese Church (ECC) for several years. They sent two mission teams to work with us in St. Kitts and still pray for us, support us and even send us the coolest notes and origami! They are one of our strongest church partnerships, we really do love them! We were able to hangout with several people who were on those mission trips to St. Kitts six and seven years ago, Sean had the opportunity to preach on Sunday morning at ECC’s Seattle campus, we shared in Sunday School and we were able to meet with the missions committee over dinner.
For some fun while there we wanted to go downtown, checkout Pike’s Place market, visit the first Starbucks, eat some Russian and Turkish goodies and checkout the zoo. Charlotte however, was exhausted and wanted none of it haha. Sean bought some Turkish Delight and we rode the ferris wheel downtown then had to leave. We made it through about 1/3 of the zoo and had to leave that too. Let’s just say a busy schedule + not enough sleep + a new place + a two year old… it doesn’t equal anything happy. And on our flight back to New Orleans we were definitely THOSE parents with THAT kid on the plane. Once we were back and she had a few days of good sleep, she was back to normal… still very much two years old, but much happier!
July
After Seattle was our vacation time. A very generous friend allowed us to stay at their beach house for a few days. We are incredibly grateful because we would absolutely not be able to do this on our own! And after such a busy June we were all needing a break (especially Charlotte). We spent our time doing a whole bunch of nothing… just resting and enjoying our time together… and letting Charlotte catch up on sleep.
The respite was much needed because we were only home for less than a week before leaving again. This time we drove to South Dakota and back but stopped all along the way up and down to meet with partners, friends and co-workers. We spent a few days at CEF Headquarters in Missouri… Sean was in meetings most of the time. It didn’t occur to me to actually take pictures for some reason so I don’t have that many to share. But I do have this picture of Sean and Maddy getting to be part of the flag raising ceremony. Each week they raise different flags in front of headquarters and pray for those countries. While we were there Bermuda was one of those countries!
My (Mandi’s) mother and aunt moved to South Dakota last year… which actually worked out great because CEF of South Dakota is also a strong partner with us in the Caribbean! Their teens raise money for the Caribbean each summer and they have sent several mission trip teams to help us in Turks & Caicos over the years.
We hadn’t been to South Dakota since 2016 when I was still very early pregnant with Charlotte (we hadn’t even announced it yet). We were able to meet with people who were on some of the mission trip teams to Turks & Caicos and we got to speak at Camp Good News! It was so fun to hang out with the kids! Many of them had heard about our family and Turks & Caicos for several years so it was awesome to actually get to meet them in person.
Before we left South Dakota we were able to do something we weren’t able to do when we visited in 2016… we went to Mt. Rushmore! Even though it was partially closed for construction we were still able to see it well. We also drove through the Badlands on the way there and we all decided it was the coolest thing we have ever seen. Out of all the places we visited this summer Maddy said the hour we spent in the Badlands was her favorite!
(Also, we didn’t see any rattlesnakes but we could definitely HEAR them!
On our way back down to Alabama we stopped again at CEF Headquarters. Sean had several meetings, Riley-Grace got to be filmed in the studio, we had dinner with friends who partner with us, and we were introduced at CEF’s chapel service.
Instead of driving straight to Montgomery we made our way over to Indianapolis. We stayed the night with friends and fellow missionaries who lived in St. Kitts, The McGaugheys. Although we have known each other for several years now, our kids hadn’t actually met. They moved to St. Kitts just a few days after we moved away… they even bought our van from us! We were also able to have dinner with our dear friends The Graysons. After living in St. Kitts for eight years they recently moved back to Indianapolis. Our daughters were best friends and we have missed their family so much. We ate dinner and let the kids play at the church playground. We even got to see other friends at the church we have made over the years because of our friendship with the Graysons!
Back Home
We were only back four days before Maddy’s open house and as I type this she is at her second day of school! The summer was a whirlwind. We had a lot of fun seeing so many friends, supporters, churches and co-workers. We loved the opportunities to speak in Florida, Seattle and South Dakota. We are so grateful to the Lord for getting to serve the way we do. And we are grateful to all of the people He has brought to partner with us over the years. Some may think we were on vacation all summer and I can assure you that is NOT the way we’d like to spend a vacation haha! For all of the fun family stories we made, we have an equal amount of “not so fun” stories about what it’s really like to travel all summer as a family. I can assure you, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows! But as a whole, the work, the ministry, the friends and family and even the stress made for an amazing summer… one that at least 2 out of our 3 girls will always remember.
