Happy Christmas

happy_Christmas from waldenfamily on Vimeo.

Stephanie and I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Here is the best take we had singing Happy xmas, by John Lennon. We will also be posting an outtake video as well... should be quite funny.

God bless you all during the Holidays!

Jingle Bells

Here's Sterling and Elle wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Jingle_bells from waldenfamily on Vimeo.

The road doesn't stop here...

Once we got back from our road trip, we found out a few days later that we needed to move. We had been renting from some friends that were selling their house while we were living there and knew that it was temporary. We prayed about what to do next. About a week later, Brandon's parents graciously invited us to stay in 2 of their bedrooms for a few months until we can transition into what is next.
So, here we are for the next little while and Brandon got a little bit of stone work (which he used to do when we first got married).

That has been a blessing. And shortly after we got back from our trip we also had to give back the van we were borrowing. It wasn't a big deal since we are staying with Brandon's family because they have let us borrow their car if we needed anything. But a few weeks ago, we were praying....and Brandon said he felt like we should be praying about a car because he felt like someone was going to give us one. Crazy right....someone just giving us a car!

Well, 2 weeks later we were asked to come to a church to be a part of a service and share some testimonies of our life. After it was over the church had a car that was donated to them and they gave it to us that morning! Wow! This was so amazing and even better that Brandon was hearing from God just weeks before. It's times like this that we are so thankful for God confirming that we are hearing His voice. I mean we could have just got the car but this was just an extra!

Keep the faith.

Elmo's Song

We still can't get our original video we made of Texas to be published. There is some kind of glitch. But we do have tons of other silly things we recorded and such. Here's one of us in Texas waiting for Brandon in a parking lot. Sterling kept singing the Elmo song over and over, and she really doesn't even watch Sesame Street. But I guess this is just one of those crazy tunes that gets stuck in your head! I can't believe I'm actually going to post this, but it's pretty funny. Elle is so funny. She just listens to all of our craziness most of the time. I couldn't even get her to smile. Hope you enjoy our silliness.

Elmo's song from waldenfamily on Vimeo.

Mississippi

After 4 hours to Houston, we then left my uncle's place around 10:30pm and drove another 4 hours to go as far as we could. It was rough for all of us. So, the money that was given was well used for the closest hotel we could find at that point (somewhere in Lousiana).

We then got up the next morning and drove to Leland, Mississippi (northwest). There I got to meet up with my aunt which is my mom's older sister. This was great for me because I hadn't seen her since I was about 6. The only thing I remember about that trip was that she bought me my first pair of Nike sneakers. My grandma still has a picture in her kitchen of our trip and we were all huddled together on this same fireplace. I would see this picture for years, with the only memory I had of my aunt, uncle, and cousins. So, in honor of that memory we took another picture on the fireplace.

Our time was kind of short there as well because my aunt had to work and such, but I left satisfied that I just got to see her and talk a little. We hope to see her again at some point. And definitely not 30 years later.

We were so blessed to experience the reuniting of so many people in our lives on this trip. We hope you are encouraged, that God is interested in the connecting with others. Even if it sometimes means you going the extra mile, literally.

Houston, TX

As we headed out of Texas, we drove down south a bit to visit my uncle in Houston. This is my mom's older brother that I haven't seen since I was about 15 or so. My family is distant, as many are, and it was great to see him....even if just for a few hours. He tried to convince us to go to Mexico (just 4 hrs away) before we went home, which was quite tempting but we had to take a rain check. If we head out through Texas again, this will be on our list of things to do.

I'm so glad I got to reconnect with family.

Reuniting....

After visiting with our friends in Euless, Texas we headed to Allen, Texas (about 30 mins from Dallas) to stay with Brandon's cousin and family. It has been almost 20 years since they have connected, so this was a real treat. It was so great to stay with them a few nights. The girls got to play with their kids a bit, we went to the park, ate together, Brandon played them a song and just talked a bit. It's always wonderful to reunite with family on any level. It was cool to share a bit of history together. Afterall we share the same last name.

We are so glad that this was part of our trip, and hope to stay in contact with them for sure.

Here are the cousins....second cousins that is, but nonetheless still cousins.

And here is one of the outtakes trying to set the timer. I just really liked this one cuz I like candid pictures, and the lighting kind of gives a cool effect.

So, as we were leaving, Brandon's cousin handed him $15 (which was all he had in his wallet at the time) and said if we ever need anything that they would be there for us. We appreciate this Walden family opening their home to us.

PS. We did get to hear Heidi Baker (in Dallas) at a place called Christ For The Nations for free! Much better than $100 per family deal.