Peoria-Chicago-Wheaton, IL

Since leaving Wichita last week, we made our way to Illinois where we have made several stops.

First Stop:  Peoria, IL

We were VERY excited to reunite with the Carrigans!!  Hard to believe a year has passed since our families were together -- especially since we lived in close community from July 2011-June 2012 during Dean and Marc's fellowship training.

AND we got to meet baby Isaac at long last!!

All the kiddos

The kids were fast friends and played GREAT together while the adults enjoyed catching up and sharing from our hearts how God is leading us.  Truly a sweet time!!

Second Stop:  Downtown Chicago

The French visa process has definitely been a new experience for us.  It has been far more involved than any previous visa application, AND it required appearance IN PERSON to submit the application.  We were assigned to the consulate in Chicago which is a blessing since we were coming to Illinois for training at TEAM anyway -- so we made our appointments for the Friday before our TEAM training started.

Actually there have been MANY blessings throughout this visa process:

--church member fluent in French to help us complete application (several parts required in French)
--friend who is a notary and was able to notarized all required documents (since bank refused to notarize anything that was not in English)
--replacement marriage certificate received within an hour of requesting (truly an amazing story -- ask us to share it with you sometime)
--Priceline hotel at a GREAT price that was 0.3 miles from the French consulate

And these are just the highlights!  Thank you to ALL who have been (and continue) praying for our visas.  We repeatedly saw how God was answering your prayers by overcoming obstacles.  Our applications were successfully submitted -- hopefully next week we will learn if they have been approved so please keep praying!

Gracie enjoying the downtown view from our hotel room

G's preferred mode of travel while downtown

After the consulate appointments -- which were VERY efficient and ended earlier than expected -- we took Gracie to nearby Millennium Park as a reward for her excellent behavior.

At first she was bummed because this "park" did not consist of the "playground" she had been imaging.  But thankfully there was a Family Fun Festival complete with a tent full of crafts and games -- and she quickly changed her tune!

Decorating a "link" for a paper chain

Watching her link be added to the chain

Once her craft attention span reached its limited, we wander over to a fountain so she could cool off -- with nearly every other kid in Chicago (so it seemed)!

Playing in the water

Although we don't consider ourselves "big city" folks, we enjoyed our 24-hour adventure downtown.

Third Stop: Wheaton (Carol Stream), IL
TEAM Headquarters

After completing our visa task -- and before the 24-hours was up on our fixed rate spot in a downtown Chicago self-park garage -- we headed for TEAM headquarters which will serve as our "home" for the next 9 days.

Gracie has truly taken all of this transition very well.  Several times a day she asks, "Where are we going next?"  Since arriving at TEAM, she seems quite satisfied to stay put.  Our training, however, did not start until a few days after our arrival, so we found some fun, free, family activities to fill our time...

Kline Creek Farm -- a living history farm fashioned and run in 1890s style

Collecting eggs

So proud -- NONE cracked!!

Watching the bee-keepers

Loving on a little lamb

Helping "Mr. Farmer" scrub the water tank

Visiting the horses

Trying her hand at the plow

 

Willowbrook Wildlife Center -- an education and animal rehabilitation center

Saying "Hi" to a bunny

Butterfly Garden

Exploring the different exhibits

Bobcat

Paw print stamps

Deer print

Yes, this is a RAT!!
G's comment:  "He's SOOOO Cute!"

Admiring the dove

Both of these activities were perfect fits for Gracie -- and us!  It is particularly fun to watch as she discovers new places, people and things...we are thankful for her extroverted, adventurous spirit!

Refreshed in the midwest,

DD&G

Family, Friends, Farewells...

The past several weeks seem quite a blur.  They have been FULL weeks, and the highlights (at least) are worth sharing.

As mentioned in our previous post, we managed to squeeze in a South Carolina long-weekend for July 4th.  In addition to gender reveal parties, we had lots of outdoor fun with family!

G & Papa fishing

Nana's turn to help G catch fish

"Cheese"

Savoring the sweetness of summer

Picking flowers at Nona's...
especially a treat since G planted these flowers with Nona in May!

Loving the horses

Airplane ride with Boppy

We returned to Wichita late Monday night, July 8th -- just in time for one final week of work and school before leaving Wichita on Tuesday, July 16th.

Gracie's last week was a fun one.  Her class took two field trips -- one to a nearby bookshop for a special story time and another to the Children's Theatre for "Peter Rabbit."  We have been blessed by the loving staff at Jacob's Learning Ladder and will miss them!

Cookie Cake for G's last day

 Dean & Dianna were both blessed by farewell luncheons at work as well as sweet gifts -- candies for us as well as special things for baby boy!  It has been a privilege to serve and minister at GraceMed this past year, and we will miss our GraceMed family.

In the midst of packing and moving -- which would NOT have been completed without the help of church family and special friends -- we were able to savor our final moments (for now) with some dear friends.

Gracie & Gabi at Heartland's VBS

We also said to goodbye to our Heartland family.  Thanks for the prayerful send-off!!

Heartland Goodbyes

Final "Mr. Stan" snuggle

And, we squeezed in a little exercise-decompression time, too!

Whew ... DD&G

Baby K5 Gender Reveal

This time around we were excited to discover baby gender before the BIRTHday -- just seemed more practical since we are packing for the first few years of this little one's life!

And we wanted to share the news through a fun Baby K5 Gender Reveal for our families.  Our July 4th trip to SC proved to be the perfect timing...

Gender Reveal Part 1: The Kubaczs

Dean's older brother Darol and his wife Cheryl were also in SC (celebrating 2 years of marriage...Woo Hoo!!), so we all gathered at their lake house on Lake Keowee for July 4th.

G taking a swim

For this particular portion of our gender reveal, Dianna made Cake Ball Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies.  And taking Sugar Derby's advice (and recipe for both cake balls and CC cookies), used the appropriate (either PINK or BLUE) food coloring added to an ordinary white cake mix, thus -- Gender Reveal Cookies!!  Can you say YUMMY ?!?!

Everyone gave a vote (which all present voted BOY) and then chomped a cookie...

Yep, BLUE for BOY!!

Here are a few pictures from the process...(Sugar Derby provides more step-by-step photos in the above links for anyone thinking about trying this)

Blue Cake Balls
Fully cooked blue cake crumbled, then mixed with 1/2 can cream cheese frosting and rolled into balls.

Chocolate coated blue cake ball (which was frozen overnight)

Covering cake ball with cookie dough

Cake ball covered cookie ball ready for baking

This shot lets you appreciate the cookie ball "bump" -- it's the cookie's baby bump : )

YES, they are as delicious as this photo suggests!!

Dean "feigning" his surprise at the Kubacz reveal

Gender Reveal Part 2: The Plylers & LeGrands

The next party was for Dianna's family and extended family who were gathering at her parent's new lake house on Lake Murray (about 2.5 hours from Lake Keowee) on July 5th.

This time around we were expecting a few more people, so Dianna solicited her mom's help in making a gender reveal cake.  Again, the idea was not totally original but adapted from an internet image search leading to Betty Crocker.

Dianna's mom baked the cake and had it prepped, so all Dianna needed to do was pour in the appropriate color candy, add the final cake layer, and complete the icing...

Gender Reveal Cake with some remaining Gender Reveal Cookies

Again, we had everyone cast their vote -- this time by wearing either a pink or a blue ribbon -- before cutting the cake...

Nana, Papa & G cutting the cake.  Will it be pink or blue???

 

This time Gracie participated -- we decided NOT to let her observe our cookie reveal the previous night because we wanted part 2 to be an unspoiled surprise.

Nibbling at the cake innards...mmmmmmm!

And sampling a cookie, too!
"My baby sister is a BOY!!"

As you can probably tell, we are THRILLED to welcome a little boy into our family!!  Praying for continued health this pregnancy (we are beyond halfway) and a safe delivery in November.

Oh BOY,
DD&G