Hotel Living

I have had several people wonder how in the world our young family is living in a hotel for half of the summer!! There are a few challenges.  But on a positive note, here are some really great things about living in a smaller space...

Our friends, the Hendersons, live directly across the hall. They have Caleb (almost three) and Josua James (7 months). How awesome to open your door and see these faces?!!

The hotel has a "free" breakfast bar... no  morning cooking for this mama!!



There is a pool, enough said! Need to wear out your kids fast? Even just thirty minutes down at the pool is a guarantee for some good naps/night sleeping:)

There is a cleaning service that comes every. day. It is amazing how much time and energy it takes off my plate to not have to clean. I use that energy to hang out with the sweet students and staff!

All of these things are great, but I think that the biggest blessing is living in (close) community with other families and students. I kind of wonder if Americans lose something by living in our big homes and neighborhoods away from each other.

What we are doing is not conventional, but it sure is a blessing!

On the road again

We Uzzells don't stay in one place too long. Its part of what we signed up for when we joined Cru. Even though it is expected to be gone for the summer,  I still can't wrap my mind around leaving in a week. I'm thankful that I am excited about where we will be though....



This photo of Charleston is courtesy of TripAdvisor


We 're going to be near downtown Charleston with 50 students, 14 staff, and 6 children! The students come for 10 weeks (we'll be there 6 1/2),  get jobs, and we have the privileged of discipling them. One of the biggest things they will learn this summer is how to have a ministry in their workplace.

We've never been to a summer project where we can leave at 8 in the morning and arrive by lunch. So very thankful for that!

Catherine is 11 months (22 pounds), and has started saying "mama" , "dada," and "b" sounds. Still as active as ever and even learned how to get up all the stairs this month! She can also walk a little bit behind a walker. Next month will be a big month where she will turn 1 and Henry will turn 3!

quick random update

I can't believe we are almost halfway through April! Have a mentioned that my ENTIRE family is moving within 6 months of each other? My Dad and Mom have moved to Montgomery, AL, so we headed down there for Easter.

While we were there, Henry learned how to play t-ball

Catherine is 10 months old and is in to everything. She's pretty fast on all fours and everything she discovers while she's down there goes in her mouth! She is pulling up a lot and I think she'll walk before Henry did at 15 months. 

Henry is going to be turning three in June and we have been potty training for the last week. I have nothing cute, funny, or creative to say about this endeavor (however, my friend Elizabeth does)! There are just no words as to what kind of battles are going on over at our house. 

He talks all the time, loves being outdoors, reading books, and making his little sister laugh! 

a very "Clemson" day

Henry went to his first baseball game this week. Clemson was playing  Moorhead State. He loved it and we lasted 3 innings! Believe it or not, we were impressed that our family of four could sit for that long;)

I couldn't bring myself to buy a Clemson t-shirt for Henry, so we opted for just an orange one. I'm sure this will change, but I felt like I was cheating on my Auburn tigers! I was a tad horrified that I showed up in the opposing team's colors. I guess I need to buy some more purple and orange stuff.

We came home, and Hank took Henry to the baseball field/park across the street where he happened to meet Dabo Swinney (Clemon's head football coach). We haven't gotten a picture with him yet because we're wanting to play it "cool" since we'll be seeing a lot of him as his son practices there a lot!!!

We just found out that we'll be spending the summer in Charleston on the Historic Charleston Summer Project. We are super excited and will be gearing up for being gone for the summer in the next two months!

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For my memory, I wanted to write about Catherine at 9 months. She is busy busy busy. C is army crawling and moving continually. Last week she slipped in the bathtub and chipped her two front teeth. What is it with my kids and their two top teeth? Henry did the same thing when he was 13 months old. We got one of his buffed down and haven't decided what to do with hers yet. It is pretty scarring having to hold down your child at the dentist! She says "dada" and we ve gone to using all bottles except twice a day breastfeeding.

Catherine's first boat ride at Victoria's lake house on Lake Kiowee.  

The "S" word

Nope, not THAT "S" word! Support....

Everyone has their own set of things in life that keeps them trusting the Lord, depending on Him, and reminds them that they are not in control. Our major one right now is support. For those of you that don't know, CRU is a support based ministry. That means that there are no central funds. It's amazing how it all works. There are 26,000 people who work for CRU and all of them raise their own support... even the president, Steve Douglas. Salary, benefits, ministry expenses, it all is raised. Do you know what is cool about that? When people come along side of us financially, they are literally our ministry partners. They have just as much of a role reaching students for Christ as we do!

Confession though...

Staff friends, Elizabeth and Katherine from our team in Auburn 2009 (pre kids for all of us).Who's that skinnier well rested girl on the right?! 

Auburn students at the Atlanta Christmas Conference

I don't revel in having ministry partners all the time. I even believe the lie that if we weren't on support that things would be easier. My faith can be so small. In one breath I can tell amazing stories in how the Lord has provided for us over the past 5 1/2 years, and in the same breath I could tell you about the anxiety and fear that creeps into my heart when it comes to finances. It is not always like this, but we naturally go through seasons where it is more on our minds and hearts.

UVA leadership students

UVA team our first year

I was asked recently if this was really what we were supposed to be doing. Believe me, we have asked ourselves that question countless times!! But, it comes down to this. We love Jesus, we love college students, and He has called us to this ministry. And you know what... If it wasn't support, we fully believe that there would be something else that the Lord would allow so that we would depend on Him! Oh how I long to faithfully trust Him!

Vision trip to Clemson

*Support is not the only thing that we have to trust the Lord with (I could ramble off several more things). Just keeping it real:)

the move and 8 months

I read one time that moving was one of the top five most stressful things that you can go through.

I. believe. it. Ya'll, it took an army for us to get packed up, load/unload the truck, and unpacked in our new house. We are so blessed to have such incredible friends and family that helped us! 

G-mama and Papa Hal came to get Henry for a couple of days

I'm pretty sure that one of God's purposes in moving us so many times is to stretch us to where we have to rely on Him. That is a good thing, but sometimes there are some growing pains involved:) Henry asked us the other day if we could go home. He hasn't said anything since then, but everyone is going through a lot of transition in many ways. 

We're getting settled in and are praying for friends for all of us! 

This little girl has had a big month! She is eating a lot of solids/baby food and FINALLY is taking a bottle when I need her to (Alleluia)!! She is laughing and smiling more this month and has stolen all of our hearts. You can tell by the drool on her shirt that she has been teething. She now has four teeth on the top and two on the bottom. 

Moving... again!

We're excited to officially say that we are moving to Clemson, SC to work Lifelines (Cru)! Our time of training is coming to a close at UVA. We think it is going to be a great fit. I'm thrilled to be farther south;) Our kids had the flu this week so we did a crazy 36 hour house hunting trip down the Clemson. We figured if they needed to rest, then they might as well rest in the car. After barely surviving (literally) the trip, I'm not quite sure that was great logic. However, God provided a house to rent, so we are grateful to be able to move February 15th. This is truly when I wish that we worked for a company that would send movers to come and pack up our house. I think we are going to need every day of the next month to get ready.

I never said anything about Christmas! It was a whirlwind (four cities in 10 days)! Despite all of the traveling, it was pretty restful. The kids' favorite gifts were cowboy boots, a guitar, and a baby doll.  

Catherine's baptism (Dad officiated) 

Catherine turned 7 months yesterday and was weighed today at the doctor's (18 pounds 9 ounces). She  has been one sick little girl the past week and a half:( She can now sit alone better and is still loving that thumb!