Last night we had a panel question and answer session to conclude our month long series on the body, sex, sexuality, dating and purity.

Noah and I (as well as the others on our staff team) joined together to use Biblical principles in an attempt to answer our students questions. When I say questions, I don't mean easy things... we are talking about things like ....

-If I don't think I want kids, and I'm fine being single, does that mean I have the gift of singleness.
-Is it selfish to consider marriage w/out the purpose of having godly children?
-How does God view homosexuality and transgender people?
-Is there a real "Mr. Right"?  I.e. is there a specific person that God has for us, or does he kind of let us choose so long as we honor him with the relationship and put him at the center of it?

Overall I think it went well. I was especially thankful for the wisdom of the others on our staff team.

Speaking of panels... We are having a "Pizza q&a" on Tuesday night in the 6-pack (The dorms we are focusing on). We are asking our students to invite their non-believing friends for pizza. The price of admission is a spiritual question. Some of our staff team will be there to try to answer these questions, and ideally stir up a desire to seek out the Bible's perspective on these issues.

Hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's Day.

We had been wanting a hand-held GPS for awhile now... and I guess yesterday was the day! I opened it in the morning and Noah had programmed in a bunch of places to go visit around Champaign throughout the day. I had to use the gps to navigate our way there. It was really fun! Now we can even go geocaching. <--- Click on that to learn more!

We laughed as my gift for Noah was an atlas... I guess we are all about navigating....... no pun intended;)

I am finally caught up on all of our posts!!

This past weekend we had a women's retreat and focused on Psalm 16 and the topic of being satisfied in Christ. (Check out Psalm 16:11)

We were supposed to travel to Indianapolis for the overnight retreat but at the last minute weather kept us in Champaign. The girls were totally flexible and we had a wonderful time at the Hubbard's house with 26 women joining us for the weekend!! (I even got to sleep in Rachel's bed.. which is a bunk bed with just the top bunk, and a slide from the top bunk to the floor! ha!!)

I can't even tell you how blessed I was to see these women encouraging one another, including each other, quoting scripture to each other, asking about each others lives. They were truly just loving one another and having a blast doing it! It is amazing to see the community that God has formed among the women in just a few months!

Pictures are: 1) Painting canvases with scripture passages on them

2) Kneading dough for homemade cinnamon rolls!!

3) Enjoying orange julius for breakfast!

Amidst all of this going on with students we have a found a way to find (Some) time for ourselves!! We went to Platteville to celebrate with my family the weekend before my birthday, and then Noah did a great job of making my first Champaign birthday special! Complete with breakfast in bed (caramel rolls!), decorating the door, and pizza out with friends :) Oh, and did I mention a pink laptop case and a leather ESV study Bible?!? :) We don't have many pictures unfortunately... and this one was rotated but went back... oops!

I finally had to open my third set of dishes I got for our wedding!! I have 12 place settings but have never needed more than 8. Whenever I hosted more than that it was usually a group of 20-30 so we enjoyed paper plates!! Last week we hosted 8 students (plus Noah and I) for dinner... family style... and I finally found a use for those long lost dishes!! We invited some of our freshman students... I think they really enjoyed it! A home cooked meal around a table is a nice treat for students!!

 We started off the semester with a fun night inspired by CEFC's annual soup and pie night! Students were invited to bring a soup &/or a pie as well as a muffin tin to serve themselves a variety of things :) Check out the pictures!

We got home one day to two great surprises... TONS OF SNOW (for Illinois!) and all this mail!!!

The next day we got right back into things and hosted 5 guys form Eau Claire. It was wonderful to see some of Noah's key guys from last year. And to put our new Christmas gift to good use (look at the pictures!)

Love at first sight!!!!! Ms. Claire Elizabeth born 12/9/09!

SO hard to leave this precious one. We miss her SOOO Much!! She turns 2 months tomorrow!! We were then off to AZ to see family and tour the Grand Canyon!

Pictures don't even begin to capture it! If you have not been there, it is a MUST see!!!

I realize we haven't posted in a LONG time!!! Let's start with a few Christmas pictures!!

Our annual gingerbread house!

A sleigh ride thanks to Noah's parents

Christmas Eve in our Christmas Outfits

On the ski lift with my dad. We didn't get many pictures with my family because we kind of missed Christmas this year. With my niece being born and all sorts of things around Christmas it was very NON-traditional!