Outside Fun

Here are some pictures of the girls enjoying the outdoors a bit...

Mercedes smelling the flowers

Ava smelling flowers

Bikes

Ben said smile, and this is what she did!

Ava grinning

Visiting

A couple of weeks ago we packed up and went to Chicago land to visit Eric & Rachel, and a doctor's appointment on the side. Mercedes and Ava love staying with Uncle Eric, Aunt Rachel and Lucky the dog. The girls have been talking up a storm lately and learning new words. They have been able to say Lucky's name, easy enough. Rachel has been dubbed "Tito", and Eric's name has yet to be said. Hopefully they'll say it any day now...

Lucky the dog

Aunt Tito and Bethany

The Unnamed Uncle with Ava

While in the area we all went to the Brookfield Zoo. Had a good time looking at the animals and hanging out. The girls had a chance to "chase" some geese around, they love geese.

The girls in their stroller at the zoo.

And during the crazy busy visit that we had, Rachel and Bethany made a cake for Rachel's Belated Birthday. I won't tell you how old she is. By the way she loves Charlie Brown.

Another Month

There it went, flying by, never to return. I cannot believe how fast time goes when you are busy, busy, busy! And we have been very busy. Meetings, doctors, meetings, phone calls. Not to mention baby here, baby there, where is baby?, there's baby, where's the other baby?, and trying to keep the house in somewhat of an order. Exhaustion is understatement. But alas, we are alive and God's grace continues to abound! Here are some recent pictures of the girls enjoying the lovely weather.

Mercedes

Mercedes watching the geese

Ava makes the best goose sound, ever!

All dressed up.

Mommy Zoo Day

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all you Mothers!

Last Mother's Day was my first and the girls were just 2 months old. To be honest I ( Bethany) only remember one thing about it: Ben made me pancakes. My lack of memory is probably due to the sleepless nights and the recent move from Missouri. Not a great Mother's Day to be remembered.

This Mother's Day was a memorable one. I will store it in my rusty brain as long as I can. We decided to celebrate at the zoo! I love the zoo and the girls are really getting into liking animals, so we thought it would be a good combination. We all had a blast! Here are some pictures...

Ava and a shirt eating goat

Mercedes and a goat

Duck Pond

Mommy and her girls

Daddy and his girls

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

As the past month has gone by we feel like we just sat in the house and watched it go by. Three of the four weeks in April we were sick. Mostly Bethany and the twins but even Ben was sick for a few days. Now, Bethany and Mercedes are going for another round.

In the time between sicknesses:
- We have been able to take a trip to Chicago to get a check up for Bethany. She is doing better! There is still a ways to go but the light is getting bigger for us.
- We were also able to have a small group meeting to present our ministry to some missions minded folks. It was a good time and we hope that it was helpful to them.
- The girls were able to master climbing on and off of the couch. We have to put a little box next to the couch because they are not tall enough to get up on their own.
- Bethany and Ben's sister-in-law planned and executed a scavenger hunt birthday party for Ben's mom. She turned 50! We surprised her at the end of the scavenger hunt with a dinner at a Japanese restaurant. The cake Bethany made was awesome! It looked like sushi.

We are geared up again to keep pressing on with our partnership development (support raising /partner raising). Our plans are to move to Florida to the NTM Head Quarters in September. But this is dependent on if we can raise the recommended support that NTM requires of us. We are currently at 22%. Please pray that we can stay focused and be a blessing to those who want to hear about our ministry with NTM. If you are interested you can email us at: ben_koorsen@ntm.org.


Mercedes and Ava in the sun

Bethany's sushi cake for Ben's Mom

Chillin on the couch

Mercedes like to sport the shades

Ava observing the bubbles