Moving Onward

Hey friends and family-we wish you a merry Christmas and a wonderful new year filled with the hope of our Savior, Christ the Lord!

We had a wonderful weekend with the Boersma family out here in the hills. Dad, mom, and all the siblings made it out and brought Christmas to us. I don't have pics downloaded on this computer, so you'll have to do without for now. The weather was great and we spent a lot of time outside riding horses and on Saturday we all went over to Jeff and Tracey's for a hayride. Dad and Daron got to drive a team of horses for the first time and we all lived:) More importantly, they got to hang out with Daraby and love on her. Mom even was able to live through a weekend of 3 puppies and 2 dogs in the house! Unfortunately, the flu bug cut their visit a little short, however, we are on the mend and looking ahead to a quiet Christmas out here in the hills.

We won't be back in Michigan this year for the holidays. This saddens us but we are also being realistic in light of Darcy's pregnancy, puppies, and our transition coming up. I (Andrew) have taken a job at a small Christian school up in Miller, SD called Sunshine Bible Academy. We will be moving there the first of Jan. This school is a boarding school, and we will be living on campus. My job there will be dean of students, which will be an administrative position dealing with the students in both their school and residential lives. We interviewed there two days in early December and were impressed with the commitment to Christian education by both the staff and parents. We are excited for this new opportunity and a chance to be closer to our family in Pierre (about 80 miles west of Miller).

Please pray for us as we move and make this transition in the next couple of weeks. It is going to be hard to move from our friends and community here in the sandhills. God has blessed us with some wonderful relationships here and our friends and neighbors have taken us in as family. The sandhills will always have a special place in our hearts-there is something about the rugged beauty and quietness that makes it unique. We call it "God's Country" but not everyone sees it that way.

I think that's all I have time and energy for right now. We will pass on contact info at a later date. Thanks for tuning in!

Our crazy life...with puppies!

The puppies have arrived! Abby gave birth to them in the suburban during our move up north (Nov 8th)- glad we didn't lose any between the seats. We were in Pierre for Thanksgiving and the pups were a huge hit with the kids.


Darcy holding the only male of the litter-1 boy, 3 girls (right on par with the ratio we have going around our place:)

Daraby's made some new friends, however, we have to continually teach her to be "gentle" with them so she doesn't hurt them-they are not as strong as Abby.

For those who don't know, we have been blessed with an opportunity from a neighbor to stay at his ranch through the end of the year. We moved up there (7 miles north of our old house) Nov. 8 and it has worked out well. We don't have the internet up there, so we haven't done much communication on that front-so I figure I better get some of these pictures up before the holidays.

We are excited to have the whole Boersma family (dad, mom and siblings) here next weekend for a Christmas visit. The next weeks will be a time of transition for us and we will post about that at a later time. We appreciate all the prayers and support of family and friends through this difficult last 10 months.

We still have a couple of puppies for sale if anyone is interested. They are registered springer spaniels, have great hunting bloodlines, and are going to make excellent family dogs. Let us know if you or someone you know may be interested. Our new number is 308-588-2200. Thanks for tuning in!

More Photos for Your Enjoyment!

Andrew captured this photo- Good Job!


Daraby is normally happy and laughs a lot. I really enjoy being a mother at this stage.


Andrew was repairing some shingles on our roof. Daraby loved watching him walk on the roof. Abby thought he was going to throw something for her to fetch. She ran crazily around the house until he came down.


These two are quite the pals.

Andrew was on the roof when he took this photo. It was a beautiful night to be out on the lawn. Although we just went up to move some of our stuff we took full advantage of laying out on the grass. Andrew had some work to do on the roof so we soaked up the setting sun. The lawn down by the home we've been living in is covered in stickers so we can't hang out there. Daraby likes to pull the grass out and throw it. Most children don't like the feel of grass so they don't crawl on it. Daraby doesn't mind the feel of the grass at all. I have to keep a close eye on her. She doesn't walk but she can crawl really fast.

Lately, Daraby will stand on her own and take 1-2 steps and then fall. If she holds my hand she will take off like a rocket. I think she prefers to crawl because she can cover some ground. Last week we had a community meeting so she hung out with the other kids for a couple hours and has a hard time saying goodbye. The other kids are so much fun. She doesn't care where we are at all. Her personality is a real kick. During the day she chats and chats to me, herself, Abby and the cats. It cracks me up. I have no idea what she is saying most of the time. I catch words here and there. She is very social and has a hot temper.

We were glad to relax this last weekend and move some of our belongings to storage. We are really trying to be prepared for this move. We are anxious, nervous, excited and fearful. We don't know if Daraby will do ok in the home. If she doesn't feel good we will be homeless. There are no more housing options on the ranch. Life could change dramatically in the next three weeks. We have faith that the Lord will take care of us but that leaves a lot of unknowns if the home isn't safe. Pray that we would have peace even if we must step out in faith. We are glad that finally after 8.5 months we are finally getting closure to this mold issue. We hope to have a home again whether that be here are somewhere else. Pray, Pray, and Pray that we will be strong no matter what.

Thanks for all your thoughts. AnDD

Summer Fading Away

Some of the fall color behind us. The trees don't stay colored for long-within two days of turning yellow, this tree lost most of it's leaves (probably something to do with the 50 mph winds as well)


We took a sunset ride last Sunday on top of the bluffs above the creek



Daraby getting ready for school-she's quite studious!

Daraby sitting on food tray on deck-she loves hanging out on the deck and so far she hasn't fell off

My landscaping crew-overworked and underpaid (that's what they claim)

This weekend we were supposed to be moving up to our old house but that isn't happening quite yet. The heating guy found a crack in the heat exchanger of our furnace and is replacing the whole furnace next week. We will probably move in the weekend of the 17th of October now. It will be a little crazy starting to work buffalo next week and then trying to move, but crazy has been the story of our life so what more could we expect?
We hope that all the work up north on our house pays off and that it will work for us to settle there again. So far the water damaged areas in the kitchen and laundry room have been remodeled, the duct work has been vacuumed and cleaned, the new furnace along with a hospital grade air filter unit will be installed, and it will be professionally cleaned.
The pregnant ones in the household are doing well. Darcy had a great check-up this week and we'll have another ultrasound done at the end of October-and yes we'll hopefully know what it is. We can't tell yet if Abby is pregnant, but we're still hoping for a early November batch of puppies.

We had a great weekend in Colorado earlier in September. Rachael and Daron took care of Daraby for us while Darcy and I attended a bison conference up by Cheyenne and then went to a company outing at Ted's restaurant in Denver Saturday night. We met back up with the Shorts on Sunday and had a great time hanging out and going to church together. We saw Rachael's school on Monday and then headed back in the midst of the first snow of the season in Colorado. Thanks again to Daron and Rachael for taking Daraby!

As mentioned earlier, we are starting to work buffalo next week which means a busy schedule coming up. If all works out well, we should be done by Christmas. Hard to think about that time of year already, but it's coming. Thanks for tuning in!

Fall Expectations

We traveled up to Pierre on Labor Day weekend to spend time with family. Abby was already in her heat cycle and we found her a boyfriend. They played a couple of times over the weekend and we hope to have pups around the first part of November. Here's a picture with Cappy, who looks almost identical to Amber, our first springer spaniel.

On a more important note, Daraby is going to have to get used to a new playmate in February. We are expecting another child towards the end of February, hopefully not in the middle of a blizzard. We are very excited that God has blessed us with this opportunity. Life keeps multiplying here on the ranch! At least Darcy and Abby can share their pregnancy woes:)

For a little while longer, Daraby is our little princess. She's developing quite the personality and here she's showing off a new favorite toy-a string of fake pearls. Darcy and I are starting to be able to communicate with her on identifying certain toys, such as lamby, and certain people, such as dada. Her teeth are coming in and she continues to grow before our eyes. She had a great time playing with all her cousins up in SD last weekend. The boys get mad at her when she wrecks their lego sets but then the next minute they love on her and drag her around everywhere. It's really nice to let them all play together because she doesn't have many other kids around here to play with. That will all change very soon...

That's a brief summary of the last couple of weeks. We'll try to get back on soon with more pics and stories, including some from Colorado. Thanks for tuning in!