McDowell Family Vacation

Below are some pictures from my familie's trip that we took last week to Washington, DC.

This trip was my first time to visit the changing of the guard at Arlington Cemetery. It was a fascinating ceremony. We also visited the botanical gardens, the air and space museum, and the zoo.

Devin enjoyed smelling the flowers at the botanical gardens.

Uh, oh, Uncle Jeffrey's going to get me!

Oh, for a .22!

I Love You, Missy!

Yesterday was our third anniversary, and I want to publicly express how much I love my wife. It is amazing that three years can fly by so quickly, but they have been three great years. I was thanking God again today for blessing me with such a wonderful wife and little boy. Thanks, Missy, for being my best friend and such a wonderful wife and mother.

Off to Honduras and Guatemala

My parents and my youngest brother Jeffrey left today for a ten-week trip to Honduras and Guatemala. They will mainly be working in Honduras, spending nine out of the ten weeks there. I'm sure that they would appreciate your prayers as they are ministering this summer. My mom will be working in the clinic, and my dad will be teaching, preaching, and probably helping in a dozen other ways.

Last night we had my family over for one last meal before they left. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing evening. After supper we went fishing in our pond. Jeffrey got rather perturbed over the fact that I had caught five bass before anyone else even caught a fish. When it was all said and done, I caught six, and my two brothers, my dad, and Missy all caught one.

Susan Vacation

Although this may not be the best snapshot, it is the only one I have that shows all 14 of us.

We stayed at this beautiful resort in Virginia.

Some of our activities included mini golf, tennis, raquetball, tubing, hiking, shopping, and of course ping-pong (you can't be a Susan if you don't play ping-pong).

Devin did pretty well on the rough hiking trails.

We spent part of Sunday and Monday at Missy's grandma's place.

I Couldn't Believe It!

Hi everybody! We are back from a very enjoyable, if somewhat tiring, vacation with both Missy's and my family. First we went to a resort in Virginia with the Susans, compliments of my sister-in-law's boss and his timeshare program. Then we went to Washington, D.C. with my family. We had a wonderful time at both places; I will be posting pictures in the next few days. It was after 1:00 A.M. this morning when we finally got home, and then we left at 4:30 this afternoon for a service in Gratz, so I am only going to share one amazing story before I hit the sack.


The rest of Missy's family all left for home on Monday afternoon. We spent Monday night with Missy's grandma and then met my family in Washington on Tuesday morning. Imagine my surprise when I saw my mother-in-law in Washington later on in the day! I had to take a date-stamped picture just to prove that my eyes were not playing tricks on me. As you can see for yourself, I have undeniable proof that she was in D.C.

We Are Off To Virginia

We will be heading down to Virginia later on today to spend a week's vacation with Missy's family. This might be one of the last times that we will all be together before we head down to Costa Rica, so we have really been looking forward to it. Maybe I'll get a chance to post some pictures along the way.

In parting, this is what our presidential choices have boiled down to. Thanks, Br. Hight, for the picture.

Faith

I came across a quote about faith that has really made me stop and think. It says, "Faith is not believing that God can, but knowing that God will." I wonder, how is our faith doing? Sometimes I feel like only believing that God can is a cop-out that stops us from praying until we get to the place where we know that our request is in God's will and that He will grant us our request.

Our Crash

We had a crash this past Thursday! Actually, we've sorta crashed most of the weekend. After all, isn't that what you are supposed to do when you get home from being on the road for close to a month? Anyway, we thank the Lord for giving us a good trip and bringing us home safely.

Sunday morning was our first time to be at our home church for a while. It was so nice to be able to spend some time on Mother's Day with both of our mothers. I have been blessed with 2.85 good mothers in my life. Missy is an awesome mother to my son; God has blessed me in giving her to me. My mother has meant so much to me down through the years. Thanks mom, for always being there for me. And then there is my mother-in-law (that's where the .85 comes in). But for fear of being blackmailed again with her apple pie, I had better be nice to her. So I'll put it this way--she is the best mother-in-law that I have ever had.

If you think of it, please pray for Br. Steve Hight and his family in the coming days. His mother passed away, and the funeral will be tomorrow.

Today we gave Devin his first major haircut (notice the we), and boy did he need it. We had trimmed his hair several times before, but today we got serious. I must say that it turned out better than what we expected, or maybe I should say better than what we feared.

Devin on Deputation

We are almost done with our three and a half week tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania, and I must admit that we are all ready to get home. Deputation can be especially hard for little people, but overall Devin has been doing very well. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is my 7,000 word post on our little man.

Devin really enjoyed playing on the playground at Bedford, IN.

Stones don't taste very good...

but the merry-go-round is pretty fun!

We are trying to teach Devin to sing opera in Spanish for our deputation services (it isn't coming along too well).

Don't ask me why Devin decided to crawl into the bottom of his stroller.

We are trying to work on Devin's "new girlfriend a week" habit (in this case Jilaina Dotson), but that isn't coming along too well either.

Cousin Ethan Susan is growing like a weed.

Funny Animal Picture #2