Raising Godly Seed: Family Vacation in the Mountains

Monday, September 29, 2008

Family Vacation in the Mountains

It's hard to come home after spending a week surrounded by the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. We were blessed by friends of my mother and stepfather, who own gorgeous wooded property with a lake, cabin, guesthouse, waterwheel, real spring water, wild grapes, deer, creeks,...ahhh. Paradise.

Buck and Darlene, our hosts, showered our family with fun, food and great fellowship for five days. They even slept in their motor home so that our family could have their lovely cabin to sleep in. Mom and Bill slept in the guesthouse and brought all sorts of supplies to make life easier for us and helped us with the little ones everyday. It was like living with four grandparents. What a blessing!

We were all glad to see Kendal. She loved every minute of her four weeks of vacation!!!

Eventually we settled into a routine and everyone had a chance to enjoy boating, 4-wheeling, and sitting around the fire after dark. We tried to figure out how we could move there and make a living...we're still working on that!

Once home, with the State Fair rained out, we decided to go to Kitty Hawk, NC to climb Jockey's Ridge. That was one of our Nagshead Last Day of Vacation traditions. So in one week's time we had been 3,300 ft above sea-level where water came out of the rocks, and back to the sand where the rivers all run into the sea! Amazing!

We have many gorgeous photos. Hopefully we'll make our holiday card with one. I'll post a few for today.

Bob, Isaac and Daniel at the top of the pasture.

One of many bubbling creeks.
Hanging out on the dock by the lake with Grandma Brenda. Kelsey was in the boat taking the picture.
All eight Butler children with the lake and cabin in the background.
Anna playing checkers with Grandma Brenda, with Kendal watching.
Kendal, Joy, Anna, Kelsey and Molly Kate (our hosts' dog) in the Johnboat.
The waterwheel that runs into the lake.
The Butler family on the steps of the cabin.
Anna, Isaac, Buck, Kelsey (holding Molly, another dog of our hosts'), Mary, Daniel, and Kendal on a very slow ride on the four wheeler back to the cabin from across the lake. By the way, Kelsey had atleast one of two dogs in her boat, bed or arms most all of the time we were at the cabin. It's a wonder that we didn't come home with one!

This is my favorite view on the whole property. Bob and I rode this trail several times! Buck and Darlene with our family. This is a storage shed built over the water. It looks like a millhouse, or boathouse. Picturesque.
Kelsey turned thirteen on the first day of our vacation. It was a VERY exciting day for her. Wait until you read her version of it!
While all the big kids were out four-wheeling, Mary enjoyed a Cherry Coke with a cookie! Shhhh! Don't tell.
Noah on the hammock with the woods in the background. So cute in his sweater!The children at the base of the mirror horse, in NC at Kitty Hawk Kites, across from Jockey's Ridge.

1 comment:

Butler Family Member said...: This was the best vacation we have ever had! We hope that we will have an opportunity to do it again soon.To me,it was next to heaven! You all should do something like it soon.
Kelsey; October 23, 2008 at 5:25 PM

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Our growing testimony

We are not able to raise this family in our own strength, determination and knowledge. But all things are possible with God! "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it." I Thessalonians 5:23-24 Although onlookers will try to categorize all homeschoolers or large families together, we know that He lovingly and specifically leads each one of us in lives that will fulfill His purposes. We were married in May of 1990. I could barely wait to complete one year of my first job, out of nursing school, and start a family. Fifteen months into my career, I was pregnant and too sick to continue working in the pediatric stepdown unit. I changed to a slower paced, part-time job, and our first baby was born in December '93. Both of us had been raised in Christian homes and had individually accepted Christ as our Savior around ten years of age. However, we did not know that embracing the responsibility of God-led parenting would change our entire view of life and all of our desires. God has captured our hearts by calling us to raise children for His glory. Has not the LORD made [husband and wife] one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. Malachi 2:15 That same year, I heard a radio program about homeschooling on Focus on the Family with James Dobson. We'd never heard of homeschooling before. That day marked the beginning of an incredible faith-filled journey of seeking God's specific will for our family. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Psalm 105:4 In seeking, we've found that He calls us to many habits that have become "non-traditional" in modern America. For example, we embrace and work toward a father-led family, daily family Bible study, training/educating/discipling our children at home, God-planned family, modest dress, multi-generational corporate worship, courtship, back-to-the-basics food preparation, simple living, and natural medicine (as often as possible). We have felt abnormal in many situations. We're comforted by the definition of holiness: to be set apart for the Lord. The Apostle Paul says that we are aliens and not of this world. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2 Thankfully, we've met many precious families throughout the last nineteen years who are being led similarly. While it is comforting and encouraging to fellowship with like-minded families, we also see the creativity of our God in the many different ways He leads families which resemble one another outwardly. The "big" decisions that set us apart are not made easily, nor quickly. It is not in embracing any man-made laws or legalism that we have peace and joy, but in utilizing the liberty of His grace that we can choose to walk as He directs us. "So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord...who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace." II Timothy 1:8-9aAs of January 2013, we have been married twenty-two years, have nine children, atleast three in Heaven, have been living on one income and have been homeschooling for thirteen years. Our eldest is in her second year of post-highschool studies and the youngest is 2 1/2 years. The oldest six have made professions of faith, saying that they believe that Jesus died for their sins, that God raised Him from the dead and that they identify Jesus as their Savior and Lord. And we recognize this is just the beginning. The Lord has begun a great work and He will be faithful to complete it.

Raising Godly Seed

Monday, September 29, 2008

Family Vacation in the Mountains

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