Alabama getaway.

Hello!

We have safely returned from a wonderful, restful, and sweet time with family at Lake Martin in Alabama. Uncle Dave and Aunt Sandy so graciously opened their beautiful home to us. Not to mention their boat and wave runner! We had a blast.

I don't want to make you too envious of our time (or detail every day and write an extremely long blog post), so I thought it would be a good idea to highlight our time at Lake Martin. Here are just a few of the highlights.

1.) Fathers Day - we enjoyed gorgeous weather as we had church outdoors (on the lake) at Church of the Pines. It was beautiful. Then we ate a delicious lunch at The Willow Point Country Club. It was a great day of celebrating our dads! We even got to celebrate with Papa J (Dean) from a distance (thank you video chat!). On top of that, a highlight of Fathers Day was watching Jim's 30 second tubing session on the lake. What a trooper! 

2.) Boat Day- Sam claimed one of the days of our trip as "Boat Day" (and when he gets going on something, he really gets going). It was a fun day spent entirely on the boat and docking only to eat lunch on the lake. Boating, tubing and wave runner-ing were huge highlights of the trip in general. Sun and lake, there is no better combination (except maybe coffee and chocolate).

3.) HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD!  On June 19th, we celebrated the marriage of Mom and Dad Haist. We felt so blessed to have been there to celebrate with them on this special anniversary.We celebrated with a delicious steak dinner at the house.

4.) Walks- I am convinced that if we lived in a place as beautiful as Lake Martin, we would be more motivated to exersise. Sam and I have been attempting to walk every morning as a way to start our day together and with the hope that we will get more in shape. We had some beautiful morning walks along the lake and enjoyed each others company.

5.) The Spring House- YUM! Pictures below won't even do this restaurant justice. It was gorgeous. The food was impecible, the company wonderful, and the scenery breathtaking.

Those are just some of the many things we enjoyed at Lake Martin. The greatest of course, was spending time with family and relaxing with no agenda (other then "boat day"). We were in wonderful company and are so glad we were able to take the time off work to enjoy ourselves. We hope to be back to visit Lake Martin before too long. A huge thank you to Mom, Dad, Dave and Sandy for a wonderful trip. We are truly blessed.

Love,
Sam and Katelyn

P.S. - This was the longest we have been away from Ethel and let me tell you, she missed us (maybe not as much as I missed her :) ). 

Dave and Sandy's lake house on Lake Martin, was the perfect getaway for a whole week! A huge thank you to Dave and Sandy for your hospitality and allowing us to stay at your beautiful home.

Those are some good lookin' people! Jim, Gaye, Sandy and Dave.

Enjoying an early morning swim.

On Father's Day, we enjoyed church on the lake! It was a gorgeous morning!

Happy 30th Anniversary!!! We are so glad we got to celebrate with you.

Matching brothers at The Spring House.

The view from our table at dinner.

Sam and I at The Spring House.

The night we got home, our sweet dog slept with her head under my side of the bed all night. Oh how I missed this dog!

Surprise visit!

This past weekend, we had some surprise visitors! Uncle Tom, Aunt Maria, Seth, Nathan and Faith came to visit us on Saturday, on their way home to Peoria from Texas. What a wonderful surprise it was!

For those of you who don't know, my Uncle Tom was in a very scary medical state two months ago. A text on March 29th from my mom read:

"Tom isn't doing well. His lungs can only do 20% of his breathing, the ventilator (life support) is doing 80%. Conflicting reports from doctors. He is in too serious of a condition to do a biopsy. He is so swollen he can barely open his eyes. He is still in critical care. Keep praying."

I went to Peoria to visit Uncle Tom the previous weekend and could barely stand the sight of seeing someone I love in that condition. It was heart wrenching. When I visited, Uncle Tom couldn't talk because of the life support tube into his lungs, he couldn't walk due to the high volume of blood clotting, but he was still the strong man I knew him to be. He is a fighter. It was an extremely scary time for all of our family. During his month in the critical care, his wife, Maria stayed a constant encouragement and source of "chuckles" for Tom. As well as his kids who constantly prayed, visited and sent cards. What a beautiful picture of God's intention for family and community.

We kept praying. We asked Covenant Seminary to pray along side us, as well as our wonderful church family at South City. On March 30th we received this text, after a "miracle doctor" came into the picture, identified the source of the problem and took Tom into his own care:

"He is doing well! Praise the Lord! They will start giving him more nutrients as well as begin an insulin drip today. He is beginning the weaning process off of the life support. Slow process but good news. Tomorrow or Sunday they want to get a cat scan done and check on the two masses. Other than that, he has had a great day! :)"

What a journey the past few month have been for Uncle Tom and his family. Its not over yet, but he continues to fight the medical battles. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful praying community around us, who cares enough to lift Tom and his family up in prayer daily.

PRAISE THE LORD! For he does work miracles, and has brought Tom out of a very scary time, into a time of surprise visits and sweet times with his beautiful family. Our God loves us, he cherishes us as his children, and he holds us in his mighty hands. We praise you, Lord, for the miracle healing in Tom!

Needless to say, their visit was beyond wonderful. The kiddos enjoyed some fun Wii time with Sam (not sure who was enjoying it more), as I got to stare in amazement at Uncle Tom sitting in front of me without a breathing tube! And of course, visiting with him and Maria (and Faith too, who enjoyed the adult conversation more than the boy Wii time :) ).  They were such a blessing to us this weekend, and we hope to find time to visit Peoria later this summer. We are so thankful for all of you, and your fun surprise visit to St. Louis.

Love,
Katelyn & Sam