random

Tonight while cooking dinner I heard a loud thud on one of the many large windows here at the Bailey house. My first thought was, "its kinda late for birds." To my surprise upon investigating, I found a small owl laying on the deck. I told Bob and he came up and picked it up right away. Luckily the little guy, which Bob identified as the Northern Pygmy Owl, was pretty dazed but still breathing. We got to watch him come to his senses and after 10 minutes take off into the night.

Love & R e s p e c t... (find out what it means to me)

This last weekend Sharon and I got to go to the Love and Respect marriage conference that was in town. It was sweet. To be honest, we had read the book 2 years ago while in Lithuania and it was ok. The author, Emerson Eggerichs, had some really good content but you could tell he just isn't an author. Well we found out he is a speaker and a dang good one at that. This guy did an amazing job and is one of the best communicators I have ever heard. Really. He had great content and a unique message, we loved it and are excited to tell others about what he had to say.

So if you only have access to the book read it. But if there is anyway you can see him in person or watch the dvd, do it.

for more info

Two Months Today

Eliana is two months old today.

Every time I look into her precious face, I feel like I'm looking in the face of a miracle!

Easter - Mormance Style

Sometimes people ask me (Sharon) "What was it like marrying into the Mormance family?"

My first answer is usually, "Well, it was really intimidated marrying into a family where everyone is an amazing cook." But I love how the Mormances love to have fun! Here are just a few photos from our Easter gathering to give you a glimpse into what I mean:
These next two photos of Matt and his sister Shelley make me laugh:

Can you see the family resemblance? :-)

Happy Birthday Sis!

My parents came down on the 9th to celebrate my sister's birthday (ok and maybe to visit their new little granddaughter too).

Besides my wonderful husband, these are the people that I love the most:

As you can see in the photo, Lynn is holding Eliana.

My favorite part of the whole evening came when the waitress stopped by, looked at the two of them and asked, "How old is she?"

Lynn, still in birthday mode, was just beginning to say "I'm thir. . ." as I said "She is 7 weeks old."

Ha! Hanging out with Lynn always makes me laugh.

She thanked me later for answering before she did.

Livin it up with the little lady

I had the chance to do my first overnight babysitting job last night with my own Eliana, it was great. Sharon had the chance to go to a women's conference in town led by Beth Moore. This was an amazing opportunity that Sharon had been waiting a long time for.
So I got to take of my girl by taking care of my little girl Friday evening till Saturday afternoon.
Now, I have to admit it wasn't very hard. Eliana was great, she took it easy on her dad. I also got to hang out with a buddy last night who was watching his kids so his wife could go hear Beth speak.

I got some great girls.

Size of SLO

Many have wanted to know facts and figures about Slovenia. Here are a few interesting ones...

First, for those who are a bit geographically challenged, Slovenia is in Europe not Africa.
Here is a map of Europe with SLO highlighted in dark green.

The population of the country is 2,053,355
The population of Ljubljana, the capital where we'll live, is 275,000
Ljubljana is about the same latitude as Astoria Oregon
57% of the people are catholic and about .01% are protestant and 10% Athiest.

Since a photo is worth a thousand words I'll keep this short and just let you see just how BIG the country of Slovenia is in comparison to the State of Oregon.



Thanks to Johnny Stevens for creating this JPG.

The Culprit Revealed

Last night we had Kathy Codanti over for dinner. She got back a couple months ago from spending a year over in Slovenia as an intern. It was a good evening hearing all that God did in and through her during her time in SLO. It was also good to ask all kinds of questions about Slovenia, the people, and the culture, especially since we haven't visited there yet.

One thing that we discovered was particularly interesting. It seems that Kathy was the one who suggested to the leaders of Josiah Venture in Slovenia that they should contact Sharon and me to come there and start a University ministry. We have a lot to thank her for.

So it was fun to hang out, catch up, and hear how God is working behind the scenes and to hear part of "the rest of the story."

It was also another good reminder of the specific needs in Slovenia and to be honest, we can't wait to go and help fill some of those needs.

livin the vida loca... not really

Well, we are still getting used to the whole parenting thing and especially how to get our little girl to sleep at night. She and we are doing well though.

I, Matt, am working as an electrician for the time being. Construction is slowing down but that's not a bad thing, it'll give me more time to focus on raising support.

Sharon is doing a great job at taking care of our little girl, who might I add is as cute as her momma.



As we mentioned before we are living with Bob & Anita Bailey right now. They have been gracious enough to open up their home as we prepare to go back overseas this summer. It has been good living with them, they are great people and super easy to live with. One of the many perks to living with them is their amazing house in the forest that overlooks the river. I love being out away from the city since I grew up outside of suburbia here in the country. Today was great, on my way home from work I even got to see 9 deer grazing in a meadow on the street we live on. It's rough.