Getaway

 Darcy and I had a chance to take a trip out to the Black Hills last weekend. We visited Spearfish Canyon on our honeymoon 11 years ago and this was our first time back.

 It's hard to believe the hills are part of South Dakota when we spend so much of our time on the prairie.  It may not be Colorado but it sure is beautiful and many less people to deal with!

 After 11 plus years together, she is still my lover and best friend-thanks for hiking around with me!

 We hiked around Sylvan Lake before sunset.  There was a wedding on the lake shore shortly before we arrived.

I have a hard time formatting pictures correctly and this is no exception.  If you turn your head to the right at a 90 degree angle, you will see me standing on a stairway in between 2 rock formations on the backside of Sylvan Lake.

Thanks to dad and mom for making the trip from MI to come watch the kids for the weekend.  They had a great time catching up together.  Enjoy your extra hour of sleep this weekend and we'll catch up later!

We're Back!

 We are back on the blog trail after a two year hiatus which included the addition of twins.  Last fall, we welcomed home the last two (God-willing) children to our family.  The year has been an adventure to say the least...

 The twins love the afternoon football games, which is a perk to working at a school that doesn't have lights on the field for evening games-so school gets out early on game days!

 The older girls are growing up quickly and have become valuable big sisters in a hurry!  We thank God that He has provided family and friends that can help them specifically with the transition process.  They enjoy playing together and have recently gotten into building "girl" lego sets and playing with their Barbies.  Both are in school and loving it!

 The beautiful fall has given the twins an opportunity to spend much time on the deck and in the enclosed back yard playing with their toys.  At 22 months, they can climb and run very fast.  In fact, this morning they were shoveling rocks over the fence with a full size metal shovel!

 They are learning how to ride tricycles and we fear that bikes are not safe for very long around them!

 Amidst the crazy year, we were able to make a trip to Michigan both for Christmas and for the 4th of July and enjoyed time with family and friends there.  Lake MI was a balmy 40 some degrees when we were there this summer, so we didn't venture into the water much.  The whole family enjoyed a couple of trips down the channel, which is always a highlight!

Those who are reading this hopefully care enough about us to know that while this year has been filled with inexpressible joy, it has also been a most challenging year for Darcy and I.  Adoption is a beautiful, yet unnatural phenomenon that has drained us physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Through it all, we know that this is the journey God has called us on and rest in His unchanging love and grace.  Isn't it amazing that  God has chosen to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1, Romans 8)?  Praise God for His faithfulness and may He be glorified in our lives.

Thanks for caring and journeying with us!

Falling into the school year

 I don't know where summer went but here comes October!  We have been running crazy the last 2 months and are hoping the pace slows down as we head into the fall and get into the routine of school.  Daraby has started kindergarten and so that has been a big step in her educational career.  Dakota started nursery school and is enjoying the fellowship of other 3 year old kids!

 I (Andrew) have been teaching two agriculture classes at SBA this year.  The title of the class is "Exploring South Dakota Agriculture" and that is exactly what we are doing.  In the above photo, Darcy and Dakota came with me and my class to a neighbor ranch where we studied/identified range grasses and plants.  Over the last couple of weeks we have had many opportunities to get out of the classroom and into some hands-on activities.  You may be interested to follow our class blog: exploresdag.blogspot.com

 Daraby and Dakota have been more adventurous in their bike riding experiences.  Now Darcy and I actually have to keep up with them instead of vice versa!

 We also still take family walks with the dogs.  The girls are getting along (at least for the moment) in this pic.

As many of you have probably seen from facebook, we were blessed to have our friend Chad Coppess from Grace Adventures out to our school last week.  He led our Spiritual Life Emphasis Week by using a horse that he was training to illustrate our relationship to God and others from Ephesians 5.  It was a wonderful week of seeing God work in the hearts of our students and staff at SBA.  An added bonus was that Chad used a colt from Darcy's dad that we will continue training with. We named him "Dandy" to keep up with the D tradition!
It has been way too long since we have been able to communicate with many of you.  We hope and pray that no matter what circumstances you are facing, you will put your hope in God and rest on his Word.  In short, the last 2 months have probably been some of the most intense times we have had in ministry.  However, we know that God is faithful and that he has called us to glorify him through the blessings and hard times.  Thanks for tuning in!

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.