A skip and a hop

 We love summer and it sure is flying by!  Last week we got back to SD from a trip to MI for the fourth of July.  Daraby and Dakota actually were in MI for the better half of a month with Grandpa and Grandma Boersma.  Their favorite activities included time at the cottage, playing on the beach, climbing sand dunes, hanging out with the extended Boersma family, and going to any park they were near.

 We got to experience a small fourth of July parade around the cottage which ended in an ice cream social.  Ice cream always hits the spot no matter what time of day it is.  We are planning an entrance into next year's parade which should be very exciting!

 While up north, we went on a dune ride with a crazy driver from South Dakota!  Matt used to work with us at Sunshine and got the summer job of his dreams working at Mac Woods Dune Rides up in Silver Lake.  He treated us to a nice tour.  I think all those bus driving trips around South Dakota paid off for him in this job!

Darcy and I took the scenic route through the UP on our way to MI.  Then we met up with the family at the cottage.  We were able to see friends from TimberWolf Lake Camp along the way.  We were also blessed to catch up with friends at Grace Adventures and worship with them on the Sunday before the fourth.

In the above photo, part of our extended family made the annual trek up heart-attack hill behind Andrew's grandparents cottage.  The girls are old enough to take part and they loved it-I think they still have sand in their hair from all the playing they did on the dunes!

 One of our family's favorite places to go at the cottage is the petting zoo.  The girls could spend all day there playing with the animals and toys.  We always take a picture on the giant rocker, so here's this years photo.

 In early June we did a short vacation out to the Black Hills in SD.  Andrew took a class out there and Darcy and the girls came along and enjoyed some of the attractions around Rapid City.  It was a fun couple of days but we were ready to be back home after staying in a one bedroom/midget-sized bathroom cabin.

 You can't pass up an opportunity to go to Mount Rushmore when you are in the Hills!  They put on a night service at the park which honored our veterans and then did a light show after dark.  It is worth the trip!

 More cottage and dune pics.  We didn't get in the water that much this year as Lake Michigan temps were pretty cold.  The girls did enjoy floating down the Stoney Creek channel to Lake MI.  The channel water is a lot warmer than the big lake water so we all were able to get wet there.

Darcy took a nice shot of downtown Grand Rapids the night before we headed back to SD.  She hung out with Aunt Deb who has a house in this area.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip.  We are very blessed to have family that supports us and a place we can go to relax, refresh, and re-focus for the upcoming year.  Things start to really heat up at school after the fourth to get ready for the upcoming year.  Thank you for tuning into our adventure and we hope you are enjoying your summer!  

School's Out for Summer!

 It's hard to tell who is more excited for summer break-the students or the staff!  I don't know that this year has been any harder than other years but we are exhausted-maybe hitting 30 is getting to us?  At any rate, we had a wonderful graduation last Sunday and then were busy shuttling students to Sioux Falls and wrapping up the year with meetings and checklists this past week.  Now a holiday weekend is here and we can look realistically at what we will get done this summer!  The above photo was taken at our Junior/Senior banquet in Pierre back in April.  Apparently I am too tall for the camera.

 The girls continue to grow before our very eyes.  Both of them are very artistic and Darcy has recruited their help on a number of projects including painting custom cards.  Dakota is too young for makeup but that doesn't stop her from trying-she painted above her eyes to pretend like she had makeup on!

 Daraby finished her first year of preschool and is developing into quite the young lady.  She is learning lot's of new things (including being able to swing on her own) and was playing at the park with some friends from church in this picture.  Our friends at church have 3 children that our girls get along with very well and that makes for fun afternoons at the park.  A trip to Zesto's (the local ice cream shop in Pierre) is a great way to end the afternoon together.

We've been spending lots of money lately including a purchase of a "new" (new to us) car.  It's a 2004 Toyota Prius with 200,000 miles on it.  We've enjoyed driving it so far and really like the 40-50 miles per gallon of gas it uses.  Unfortunately, it left us stranded between Pierre and school (a distance of 75 miles with no towns between them) a couple of weeks ago.  The trusty suburban hauled it to Pierre for a repair and we are back in business.

Summer time means horses and Daraby is starting to ride Dally on her own.  Daraby is learning how to "be the boss" and making Dally do what she wants him to do.  Dakota is content (for now) to ride behind Daraby and help with brushing and feeding the horses.  The girls find all sorts of entertaining things to do at the barn which is what kids their age should be doing!  One of the latest quirks of being at the barn is getting to go potty outside, however, it is hard for them to realize that this is only ok when we are at the barn, not around school!
Back in April we were able to make a quick trip back to MI to attend the celebration of life service for our   long-time friend Ryan Prudhomme.  Ryan was an inspiration to many in his determination to live his life for the glory of Jesus Christ even through cancer and the fact of leaving his wife and 3 year old son behind.  We walked away from that experience encouraged and challenged in our faith in the midst of the sadness of saying goodbye for now to a dear friend.  There were friends from Grace Adventures that we had not seen in years and were able to reconnect with them at the service.  The beauty of something like this can only be described in the phrase "in Christ" because that simply is our hope, our salvation, our purpose, our meaning for existence, and our assurance of being together again in paradise for those who have placed their trust in Jesus.  Are you confident that your hope in life is built only on Jesus Christ?    
We have had a fair amount of activity in our adoption process over the last 3 months but nothing has materialized out of some possibilities that surfaced.  Please continue to pray for patience and wisdom as we wait on the Lord and his timing in these things.  Also, pray that God would re-sharpen us over the summer months as we prepare for another school year.  I (Andrew) will be teaching an Introduction to Agriculture class next year as well as helping start an FFA program  at our school.    

Happy Easter!

Our beautiful Daraby is growing up and we are super proud of the little girl she is becoming. She loves this dress and will be heartbroken when she outgrows it. We call her "Princess Cinderella" when she wears it. Her long hair is a daily battle to brush but is beautiful.

Can you tell who tries to make who mind? Daraby is the typical big sister who tries to get willful Dakota to behave and "SMILE!"

Nothing like acting Surprised! Daraby came home an adorable bunny from preschool. They had a party today. Daraby really likes parties and candy. What you don't know is that in this photo Dakota is naked from the waist down. Getting her to keep clothes on is like trying to keep my dog dry. Nope, not going to happen.

A few weeks back I got a nudge from the Lord to start sewing again and it was to be a boy blanket. In a vague sense I was hoping that this time the blanket would be for our adoption but I am happy to say that it turns out that our friends in MI adopted a little baby boy. It was somewhat unexpected and I finished sewing the blanket just as they brought their bundle home. I think it is incredible how the Lord works. HE knew that this baby would be coming home and he set me to task to make a blanket and I'm a thousand miles away. Someday, Someday he'll nudge me and it will be our time but I couldn't be happier to rejoice with our friends!

Despite our joy the last couple months have been extremely tough for a variety of reasons. Nothing major but just a bunch of things that have added up that add stress to life. I'm sure it is similar to times in your life when things were just ten times harder than the should have been. One of the main concerns has been our dog Abby who had a staph infection that took most of all her hair and skin off her back. She is very slowly getting better, it has been 8 weeks, but we still have a long road to go. Next week we will be renewing our home study update- it has been a year. Tomorrow we will have our medical exams, drug tests and finger prints for our update next week. These are just a few of the things that have made our life interesting! Pray that God would give us strength and endurance to stand strong in our faith and trust in Him.

At this time of the year I am reminded of the song, "At the Cross."

The lyrics say,

"At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away,

It was there by faith I received my sight,

And now I am happy all the day!

I am resting in the assurance that my Savior is enough. He is enough when I am not. He is enough when I desire something else. He is enough when I am weighed down by so many burdens. He is enough because even when life is bleak my cup has overflowed. Even in the midst of trials may you be able to take comfort that the Lord is with you. Much love and Happy Easter!

-darcy

A Quarterly Update

 Our blog has been neglected the last couple of months so I'll try to give an overview of the last "quarter".  The term quarter is especially applicable in the educational setting as that as how we lay out the school year.  We recently had a laugh in one of our staff meetings when a coworker asked innocently if there were 3 quarters in the school year.  I won't name names but this is one of those comments that we can laugh at her expense from time to time!

 The girls are growing up, cute as ever, and enjoying life.  Daraby continues to do well in preschool.  She is learning her letters and brings back lots of stories about her school experience.  She will miss her school friends in Miller next years as she will probably be starting kindergarten at SBA in the fall.  Dakota is content playing with her sister or playing alone while Daraby is at school.  She is a driver and goes after what she wants.  This keeps things exciting (in good and bad ways) around the house.  Dakota is now potty trained and we are enjoying not having to buy diapers for the time being! 

 Puppies...We have another batch of puppies.  However, as you can probably tell, they did not come out of Abby.  We bred Abby (our oldest springer spaniel dog) before Christmas and were looking forward to pups the first of February.  She went into labor on a Saturday and on Sunday still did not have the pups.  Darcy took her to the vet and they ended up doing an emergency c-section and discovered that the pups had died inside of her.  Abby was in rough condition and had to stay the night at the vet.  We brought her back home on Monday but she was an emotional wreck-actually crying.  Darcy got tired of this and decided to see if anyone had some orphan pups or kittens for Abby to raise.
Through facebook, Darcy found a rancher who had an "unplanned" batch of puppies out of a border collie mom and a lab dad.  The rancher gave us 3 female pups and Abby took to them right away and started nursing them. 
The pups were growing but Abby soon took a turn for the worse.  Her hair started falling off and she got huge infections on her back.  We took her back and forth to the vet and they had to do multiple surgeries to remove the infections.  They put her on antibiotics and tried putting bandages on her back.  The bandages wouldn't stay on and Abby wouldn't hold down the antibiotics.  The vet took a sample of the infection and sent it in to a lab, who said it was a staff infection, which can be very contagious.  Thankfully, none of us or the puppies have gotten the infection so far.
Needless to say, we are on a first name basis with everybody in the vet office!  Abby is now doing better although she will have sores on her back for a while.  The pups are set to go to their new homes this weekend! 

This experience has been hard as a family but has also sparked some really good conversations with Daraby about birth, death and adoption.  As Abby "adopted" pups that weren't her's biologically, so we hope to adopt a child into our family who isn't our's biologically. 
Daraby and Dakota have been a great help in raising the puppies.  They both have a heart for animals and it is amazing as a parent to sit back and watch them nurture and care for these pups  Daraby is gentle and kind whereas Dakota is more rough but not afraid to get down to business with them if they bite at her!
Onto other news.  We are on the tail end of our spring break.  Praise the Lord for a week of down time and family activities!  We have done a couple of day trips but have mostly been hanging out together at home. The next two weeks will be extremely busy at school as we host a retreat for youth groups next weekend.  Pray that students would come to know Christ and grow in their relationships with him!
I (Andrew) will be teaching an agriculture class next year at school and am working on the details of that this spring.  I have also been helping with junior high sunday school at church.  Darcy continues to lead the 3 yr old "Cubbies" group at Awana on Wednesday nights.  If you are ever in the Pierre area on a Wednesday night with some time on your hands, come on down to Community Bible Church to help with this group.  They are a lot of fun and a lot of work!  Darcy was able to go to a women's retreat in Rapid City last month which she really enjoyed. 
The highlight of January was spending the weekend at the stock show in Rapid City.  There were great rodeos and horse events to watch.  A student from our school won the saddle bronc riding competition in the high school rodeo!  We feel like the stock show keeps us connected with our ranching way of life we enjoyed down in Nebraska.
I think that sums up the highlights of the last couple months.  We will try to stay updated a little more frequently as we move into the spring and summer months.  Darcy does a lot of updates that you probably read through facebook.  My facebook is lucky to be opened twice a month-I guess I just stuff it all in and then write a couple months worth at one time in a blog!  Anyway, thanks for tuning in!

Over the river and through the woods...

To grandmother's house we go! Is Christmas really over already? It seems like we were just getting started! We had an enjoyable break from school which started off with a Beck party in Sioux Falls at Dave and Dixie's house. We had great food and then were able to play a game of phase 10 that was full of laughter and fun.
Then we headed off to Michigan for the rest of the time.  We arrived in time for all the family get-togethers and had a blast celebrating Christmas.  All of my (Andrew's) cousins were back on the Boersma side and we got together with them on Christmas Eve.  Then we attended a beautiful Christmas Eve service at Calvary Church that night.  The place was packed (around 3,000 people) and we ended the night with a candle-light singing of "Silent Night". 
Christmas Day we hung out with the Boersma clan at my parents house and had a laid back day of church, a big lunch (with all the fixings!), presents and (perhaps most importantly) the Boersma family Gingerbread House Contest!  The above picture is Daraby with her new cousin, Eli (Susan and Michael's).
Later that week we had a VanDuinen family Christmas and had fun with a $5 gift exchange which got pretty exciting.  There are lots of kids on that side of the family and the girls kept busy keeping up with all the activities-presents, baby dolls and playing with the other kids.

Every year, we step up the competition a little bit more in building the Ginger Bread Houses.  I'm proud to report that Daraby and Dakota jumped right in and decorated their own houses!  They spend lots of time with Darcy doing craft projects around the house and I think that is paying off!  I'm also a little nervous of the up and coming competition!

The above picture is our family's gingerbread houses from left to right-Dakota, Andrew, Darcy and Daraby.  I created a chapel this year and Darcy created a traditional house.  Dakota is proud of her work!

The day after Christmas we had a little snow and were able to go out sledding.  Both the girls and us adults had fun taking trips down the hill.  Rachael and Daron stayed with us through the end of the week of Christmas and Susan and Michael spent a couple of afternoons with us while we camped out at mom and dad's.

We were also able to catch up with some friends while back, although the flu bug hit Darcy and the girls a couple of days after Christmas.  Darcy didn't fully recover until we got back to SD.

It is a blessing for us to be able to make these trips and we praise God for the relationships that he has given us with family and friends all over the country!  We have a busy couple of months ahead of us with school and in keeping up on our adoption journey.  It's always interesting around here-never a dull moment!  Thanks for tuning in!