Evie looks out the front door

                                           The view from our living room windows

                                                  Trail to the dog kennel out the back door

It's nearing the end of March and while temperatures are still well below zero at night, we've got mid-thirties in the daytime temps and the snow has begun to get a little wet. This has caused several roof cave-ins in our area and most people are shoveling their roofs off. So Justin and my brother Isaac took to our roof yesterday to clear it off. This is great, since I will now sleep much more peacefully instead of worrying about the roof falling on us...however, all the snow that was on our roof is now at the base of our house. It feels like winter has started all over again since the snow outside our house has effectively doubled!!
We are still taking advantage of the snow here though, as the high school and young adult group at out church is planning a nerf night in the snow maze at Calvary. It should  be interesting!
We're heading to Anchorage next weekend for a hockey tournament and to spend some time having fun as a family. We hope the roads aren't too scary. We are realizing lately, especially in view of this winter, how unique Alaska is with all its challenges. This winter's weather has been extra crazy, even for here. I am just going to keep reminding myself how much I love this state that is our home, and trust that perhaps by July the snow will be mostly melted. ;) Then we'll only have to worry about flooding.

The maze I built behind my church.  Some 15 hours of shoveling.  12 1/2 by me and 2 1/2 by my brother in law.  You can get a better overall picture of it by the video at the bottom.

Spring?

In many other places right now, the trees are beginning to bud and you can see early springtime flowers starting to bloom...here in Alaska, we've got below zero temperatures (in the middle of the day while the sun is shining!) and we were awakened this morning with a loud cracking sound from our roof--it is groaning under the weight of the several feet of snow piled on top! So this is our springtime!
We went up to Victory Bible Camp last weekend for the junior high Winter Blitz. Our whole family got to enjoy tubing, broom hockey on the lake, and the amazing snowy mountain views! Justin helped here and there with the retreat and we got to touch base with many of the staff up at camp. After our visit at Victory, we headed back down the mountain to the valley. We went to Willow to watch the official start of the Iditarod. It was a beautiful sunny day but not an altogether pleasant time since Norah was very cold and cried the whole time! Poor baby! We also got to stay a day with our good friends the Engles. They have kids around the same ages as ours and they always have fun playing together (not to mention, mommy and daddy have fun too. :). While in Palmer, we met with the missions board of Lazy Mountain Bible Church- our first church meeting to talk about missionary support. We are continuing in the process and a lot of the support raising work right now is just talking to people. We are enjoying the knowledge that God is building our faith as we push through the feelings of uncertainty and not always knowing where to go or what to do next. We are also enjoying forming new relationships and building ones that we already have with people.
Justin went to Alyeska Ski Resort for the day with a group from our church on Saturday. He had a great time and definitely got a good workout! He is enjoying spring break right now and so are the rest of us. It's great to get rested and refreshed and refocus our perspective as the year moves on and we realize we only have 11 weeks left before our intended moving date!
We are at 30% of our support raising goal. We know that's a long way to go in 11 weeks but we are not afraid!

                                                   At the start of the Iditarod

                                              
The new improved support ticker!



Ways you can pray for us at the moment:
-That our support base will continue to build as God leads people to invest in Victory Ministries and our family
-That we will have servants' hearts in everything we do and keep our focus- to make Christ known
-That sickness will stay away from our house. It seems every week either Evie or Norah is sick with something new! :(
Thanks for reading!!