Is it really 2016 already, and the middle of February at that? I think it's about time I updated this blog with some of the many things we have been doing over the past several months. I guess I'll just start back at the beginning of the holidays -- (get ready for lots of pictures)
With our growing family and the unexpected blessing of the twins we had to change our plans for our ministry furlough, which in turn changed our plans for the holidays. Instead of going back home to AK and WA over the summer (since the twins arrived this simmer) we decided to take a shortened furlough during ones of Neal's longer school breaks and visit our supporters and churches over the holidays. This change of plans really was special for us because it meant that we would get to spend the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) back home with family.
We not only were looking forward to seeing family and updating our supporting churches and friends about the ministry with TWR but we were also excited to finally have a long stretch of time together as a family. Right before our furlough Tyler's travel schedule with TWR had been very busy and had traveled to over 15 different countries in the span of a few months. So needless to say we were ready for some time together as a family, and being back home in AK was just an extra special blessing in the mix.
We had a great time being back "home" and it felt so familiar and comfortable to us. Our home church had a house on the church property for us to live in while we were in AK for almost 5 weeks. This house was probably one of the biggest blessings for our family while away for so long since it allowed us to have somewhat of a normal routine to our lives and not have to be living out of suitcases.
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| Lot so help feeding the babies |
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| A small tree for our temporary home |
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| Loving the snow |
Our evening were filled with many dinners and ministry nights with supporters and churches and our afternoon were filled with visits with friends and family.
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| Ministry night sharing about TWR |
What an encouragement it was to see and reconnect with some of tour closest friends, the Lord has used the friends we still have in AK in our lives in many ways and it was refreshing and encouraging to get to sit and have coffee together again.
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| As close to real wildlife as we got, except for a few moose we saw in person |
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| Fun with good friends in the snow |
We also had a wonderful time with Tyler's whole family who all came back to AK for the holidays. It was great to have his parents house filled once again with everyone, and lots and lots of kids (way more kids then last time we were all together). Our time with family was filled with coffee, quilting, computer games, movies, lots of stories, flying and of course food, LOTS of food.
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| The whole Gates Family |
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| All the Gates Grandkids |
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| Flying with Uncle JR |
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| More fun in the snow |
A few days before Christmas we boarded the plane and headed down to Seattle to be with my (Laura's) family for about 10 days.
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| Movie time while flying |
We had a great Christmas celebrating with family and were so glad that we were able to spend some precious time with my older sister and her family before they headed back overseas for their next term in ministry. We had lots of fun playing games, eating food, watching the kids do a Christmas play and even getting to go to Zoolights.
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| Gwen and her Poppa |
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| Grandma and Donny boy |
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| The cast of the Christmas play |
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| Enjoying Zoolights |
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| New Years day |
We were gone for a total of 6 weeks and though we were away from home it felt almost like being home again. It has been a little hard to get back into the routine of life and ministry again, but we are relying on the the Lord and remembering the encouragement and support that we received while back "home" with our support team. Living so far away is not always easy, and I still feel at times like we are still adjusting to the transition of the twins but the time we had back home was wonderful and I am so glad that we were able to all be together for several weeks.
