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This is our daughter’s Junior year and we’ve been homeschooling since she was in Fourth Grade. She had been saying to us that she wished she could go back to school her last two years. We recently started attending Emmanuel Baptist Church which is the home to Emmanuel Christian School. Emmanuel is a very reputable school, however, the only way for us to be able to place our daughter in a private Christian school is for me to go back to work. I applied at Emmanuel and was offered a position with them for the Fall with a nice tuition reduction–which is great. This Fall there will be many changes to our household but the changes, I believe, will be good ones. I had been praying about which direction to take. The Lord made it clear and possible for us. When the Lord opens a door, our job is to obediently follow.

On July 14th, on our way back from our Family Reunion in Michigan, we stopped by Milwaukee, WI. You might ask, what’s in Milwaukee? Well, it just happened that our home team, the Washington Nationals were playing the Brewers at Miller Stadium. We had a good time, however, it felt awkward rooting for our team when everyone around you is a Brewer’s fan. Anyway, the Nationals lost, but we were glad that we had the opportunity to see a National’s game in person. BTW, I forgot to mention, Scotty’s cousin and her family came with us and a good time was had by all.

This is the last day of our Family Reunion in Big Pine Resort, Norway, MI. Our brother-in-law, John, came back from WalMart and brought this water balloon slingshot kit. They started filling the water balloons with this pump that came with the kit. When they had enough balloons, the water balloon fight began. It was kids against adults. The kids were on the raft in the water and the adults were on shore. Needless to say, the kids were aiming pretty good; the adults not so well. We were running out of balloons, when Cousin Billy came up with a brilliant idea–since they had purchased a cag of beer and the beer had gone stale–let’s fill the balloons with beer. They started shooting beer balloons. The beer balloons skidded thru the water and were hard to pop. However, when they did pop, the smell was horrendous. The kids spend the rest of the afternoon shooting balloons until we all tired out and it was time for dinner. The adults were saved by the bell.

It was Tuesday evening, and my daughter and I were headed to the resort. We’re driving down this road and all of a sudden two deer come running toward us. There was no way to stop and no where else to go, so we hit them straight on. You could see the terror look on the deer’s face–momma and baby. Sad to say, baby was killed and mamma took off. We pulled to the side afterwards to see the damages. We got to the resort and I told my husband what had happened. Before he went out to see the car, he was thinking the whole front end would be smashed in. When he actually saw the damages, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The next day, was funny because Scotty’s mom had asked him about the car, and he said, “Mom, it’s totally ruined and not drivable.” She started to believe him, but then he told her the truth. God’s hand of protection was certainly with us.

It’s that time of year, when the Henriksons go up to the Upper Penninsula of Michigan for their yearly Henrikson Family Reunion. We headed out pretty late at night. With four of us driving, it was great because we all drove 2 hours and switched. We drove all night and arrived at my sisters in Indianapolis. We celebrated my mom’s birthday and my nephew’s arrival from Japan which was extra special because him and his wife just had a baby. This was the first time that we got to see the baby. He was adorable! Of course, everybody was taking turns with the baby. We had our family pictures taken and enjoyed a wonderful dinner that my brother-in-law made. On Sunday we headed to Big Pine Resort in Norway, MI. It took us 9 hours to get there. On the way up, we stopped by every Borders we could find. We had rented a condo in Norway Mountain Ski Resort. The condo was pretty nice and had a view looking down at Norway Mountain. If it was winter, we could ski right out the back. It had 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, dinning room and living room. We spent the majority of the day at Big Pine Resort. Upon arrival, we got to see all the family and it was great to find everyone in good health.

This week was VBS week at Emmanuel Baptist (June 27 thru July 1). I’m new to the church, but they have received our family so graciously. I’ve always been an active participant in VBS and I just couldn’t sit this one down. After being in church a few weeks, I was asked if I could help with Preschool snacks. We had a great time. I had around 70 preschoolers. We prepared some yummy snacks. Overall, VBS was a very successful week for all. The place looked great and some accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, praise God!