Trusting....

Wow so much has happened this past summer. Brett and I have been challenged to really trust God a lot! As stressful as this summer was our relationship with each other and Christ has grown tremendously. I am truly blessed and amazed daily to be able to see God working for His will to be done!

Ok...so where to start.

On May 23,2011 Joplin, MO was struck by a deathly tornado. This hit home for us since Brett grew up just minutes from Joplin and knew numerous people affected by its path. Thankfully his family and friends were all safe. This tornado also stirred chaos in our lives in another way. I was scheduled to start my first clinical rotation at Freeman hospital in Joplin on May 31. The clinic I was suppose to work at was destroyed. This meant that I would not be doing my rotation in Joplin and would have to go wherever was available. After a few days of waiting the school contacted me and informed me that I had a place at St. John in Tulsa, OK. I was not planning on being away from home this summer (since I planned on commuting to Joplin) so I was a complete mess! Very quickly Brett and I realized we were going to have to trust God that this is what he has planned for us at this time. So we quickly got things ready to send me to Oklahoma for 8 weeks! I did not have the best experience but learned so much about myself, my husband, my faith, and others. Looking back I would not change a thing! I am now home for my last bit of classwork before heading out to OKC in October for my second rotation. I am not thrilled about being gone for another 8 weeks but very thankful for the time I have at home now. Just yesterday I found out that my last two rotations will be in Springfield! Which means after coming home from OKC I will be home for good! God is amazing to provide these two rotations at home and even a pediatric rotation! I wasn't even sure if I would get a rotation with pediatrics and now I will have a ped's rotation and be home!

Brett was very busy this summer. He had youth camp, Mission Springfield, chidren's and youth activities almost every week, children's camp, and still managed to come visit Tulsa a couple times. He has been very busy revamping the childrens and youth ministry at church because the youth group is adding 6th grade! We are so excited about this move and for the junior high department to flourish. Our church is also starting a new study that follows the book Radical by David Platt. This is a very challenging book and I am looking forward to seeing what God does in the life of Hamlin Memorial Baptist in the next few weeks.

Our dogs are doing great...spoiled as usual. Maybelle especially enjoyed Hunter and Jack visiting this summer. I still catch them going and looking for the boys in the spare bedroom. I guess they think someone will appear eventually.

Trip to Memphis right before I left for Tulsa. We had a blast went to a baseball game, Sun Studios, Gibson factory, and my favorite Graceland!

Clinicals and Graduations

2 YEARS DOWN AND 1 TO GO!!!! I really can't believe that I have two years of DPT school done....looking back it has flown by (however at the time it couldn't go any slower). I finished my last final of the semester today and can't wait to start my first clinical rotation on May 31st. I will be at Freeman Health System in Joplin, MO for 8 weeks. This will be a ton of driving...two hours in the car every day. However, I am glad that I will be able to come home to my husband every night! I have almost 2 weeks off before clinicals start and will probably drive myself crazy with no tests to study for, but I hope to enjoy these next couple of weeks. Brett and I are headed to Memphis for a few days next week to celebrate our 2nd anniversary and the start of my clinical work. I have always wanted to go to Graceland and Brett is very excited about eating good barbecue.




My little sister graduated from high school this past weekend and we were able to spend the weekend celebrating with her. I don't know how she could be old enough to go to college....but she is. She is coming to MSU and will be in Springfield. I am so excited! We do not get to spend much time together and her coming to Springfield for college means lots of sister time! It is so weird to think that next fall my parents will only have two kids at home. I keep trying to convince them to adopt a baby girl because it is going to be way to quiet in that house.

Every Wednesday Brett and I pick up several kids on the church van for SLICE. Most of these kids do not come from the best of home situations and have opened my eyes up to many things. On Easter two of the kids asked if they could come to church for Sunday service for the first time. Praise God for this (we have been ministering to this brother and sister for almost 2 years and they are currently asking many questions about Jesus)!! After service Brett took them home and something that the little girl said I have been thinking a lot about. The little girl was talking about how much she enjoyed church and wished her mom would come with them. Brett asked her why her mom wouldn't come with them. And her response was "My mom says she wouldn't fit in at church" This has been bothering me for days...what do we do as a church that makes people think they would not fit in? What does this mother see when she looks at the church?

A little catch up...

We have been so busy like always! I am nearing the end of my second year of PT school! And at the beginning of June I will start my first clinical rotation. I will be going to Freeman Health Systems in Joplin, MO. I have also found out that my second rotation starting in October will be in Oklahoma City at Mercy. Please keep Brett and I in your prayers as this last year of PT school will be very hard for us as I will be away alot. I know that God has a plan for every clinical site I will go on; and we are both excited to see what the future will bring.
Just a few pictures from this past holiday season. I know its way late but better late then never!!


This is a picture from my mission trip to Lima, Peru. I had an amazing time getting to use my physical therapy skills to serve the Lord. We were able to help so many people with their physical needs and at the same time share the Gospel with them! I can not wait to get to have this experience again! We gave out many wheelchairs....I worked alot with the wheelchairs that we handed out to children.
After a week of serving at the clinic we took a short trip to Machu Pichu. The mountains were amazing!! It was so beautiful here that I felt like I wasn't even on Earth any more. Every where you looked you were surrounded by Gods amazing work. I don't know how anyone could see this amazing countryside and not believe in a Creator. If you look closely at the mountain range you can see a face...with the tallest peak being the nose of the face. We climbed this peak at the end of the day. One of the hardest things I have ever done....but so worth it!
I was in Peru for Thanksgiving and then over Christmas Bret and I went to Disney World. This was Brett's first trip to Disney and my 5th or 6th trip! I love Disney and now have a husband that does at well.

Kelcey's Peru Update

Hello everyone!

I wanted to offer a few updates on what I've heard from Kelcey down in Peru. If I've seen you at church I wanted to take a moment to say thanks for all the love, prayers, and concerns for both myself and my wife as she loves on the Peruvian people this week. Some of you might have heard some of what I'm about to share, but others many have not. So, let me bring all of you up to speed on the latest developments.

Kelcey and the rest of the mission team arrived safe and sound yesterday in Lima, Peru. Because of the work they're doing there, they had to take a TON of medical supplies with them. Each member took one bag for themselves and packed another bag full of supplies to give away to the people they come in contact with. One of the team's biggest concerns was that they were not going to make it with all the supplies. If you've traveled at all lately you know how crazy and tight security is. Not only that, traveling that far there's no guarantee you're going to see all of your luggage when you arrive! However, as we all know, God is certainly working for their benefit. When they arrived in Lima (almost 24 hours after they began their journey) every single piece of luggage they checked came through the first time. All the wheelchairs, medical supplies, and of course their clothing made it as planned. What a HUGE answered prayer for them all!

God-sighting #2 came when they arrived. I guess they had some "issues" with their previous lodging arrangement. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I know they didn't have running water and other necessities for them so their team leader was forced to come up with a "Plan B" immediately. Somehow, someway, a leader made connections with someone who had other connections with a Swedish Hostel where they were going. This hostel "just happened" to have 15 spots available for their team which was just enough for all their members. Last I heard, their hostel had running water, free wifi internet, and was very nice for what they were expecting. Obviously, God had plans for them that they didn't even know of, but how exciting is it to see God working so much already within the first few days of being there.

Tomorrow the team begins their clinic. They have spent most of today and yesterday getting set up and ready for the services they will be offering. This morning they worshiped at a local church which happens to be the same location that they will be doing their clinic. Kelcey also told me they saw the best and worst of Peru: from the poorest of the poor villages to the most beautiful scenery on the coast.

Keep praying that God will guide and direct all their paths this week. Thank you to everyone who's been praying for me too. I've had a lot of awesome people in our church invite me over for dinner this week and I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate that. I'm so proud of Kelcey. It has been awesome to see her grow in her relationship with Christ. Moments like this where she leads everything behind to follow His call in her life make me tearful in so many ways. It's sad to let her go for a while, but then I have to remember that it's not about me. It's about what God wants her to do and I know she's being obedient. Most of my tears are joyful though. Like I said, it's so exciting to see her being obedient to the Lord. I know that when we have kids one day my prayer for them will be the same for my wife: "Lord, take [them] wherever you want them to go, allowing them to be obedient to Your call upon their life." There's no doubt in my mind that this simple prayer will be echoed by my beautiful wife as well. Even now, without kids, she's beginning a legacy that I'm overwhelmed to be a part of.

I'm going to be posted some photos I've received on my facebook. Take a look there to see them for yourself.

I shouldn't wait this long to update

Wow it has almost been 6 months since we updated our blog. So much has happened in the past six months. In May we celebrated our 1 year anniversary, I am officially a 2nd year DPT student, and Brett started his MATS degree at Midwestern. Time flies by so fast!! We were just talking the other day that we will have been in our house for a whole year this coming December. We are so excited to get to decorate for Christmas and actually have our first Christmas tree together. As some of you may remember last year we were somewhat homeless during the end of December! Buying a house and all the struggles we went through were hard at times, but now we laugh about living out of our
car for 3 weeks and "crashing" at a variety of friends and families homes. We were very thankful for our family.

Right now I am preparing to go to Lima, Peru for a medical mission trip with SBU. I am so excited for this opportunity that God has opened up for me. I know that I have been called into the medical field and I am so excited to see how God can use me in a mission trip setting.

Brett has been very busy with church lately. So many amazing things are happening in the life of Hamlin Memorial Baptist Church! It is so exciting to see the Spirit working in the lives of our church members and the neighborhood surrounding the church!! A special note for all the Hamlin people be looking for a Trunk or Treat announcement for Halloween night. I have heard one is in the planning!

I know there is so much more that has happened lately but if I caught you up on the last 6 months this post would be way too long! I will leave you with a few pictures from recently.

Spring is Here!

If you're Kelcey's friend on facebook you can get a good look at the progress we've made on our new home. It's hard to believe that spring has arrived already especially when you live in Missouri. The first day of spring for us resulted in a freak snow storm that dumped a few inches of snow on the ground. It was also the start of Kelcey's spring break, so it made it even harder to get into "swing on Spring" with it being 30 and icing/sleeting/snowing outside. However, the week of spring break, the temps climbed back into the 60's and 70's.

At the end of the week we had the privilege of going to a marriage retreat weekend with our Sunday school class down in Branson. If you're already married or engaged, the conference we went to was fantastic. I would highly recommend going. You can get more information about it at www.familylife.com and research the many conferences they do all over the country.

As far Kelcey and I are concerned, we are really looking forward to taking advantage of the spring weather and updating our house even more. I've got a lot of yard work to do, and Kelcey wants to do some miscellaneous jobs around the outside of the house like putting up shutters and a little landscaping. This spring and summer looks to be very busy for the two of us as far as work and school are related. Kelcey is trying to finish up her first complete year of classes, I'm planning all kinds of events for the youth this spring and summer. I'm really looking forward to taking the kids to Orange Beach, AL this summer for camp. I'm sure it's going to be a blast.

God has been very good to us lately. There are so many small blessings we see each and every day in our lives and for that we're very thankful. We're getting along great with our new pastor and his wife. They have become very good friends of ours over the last couple of months. We're excited to see where God takes us as a church. Hamlin is a fantastic church and God is watching over her everyday. Be praying for us as we continue to seek His will for our lives, our marriage, and our ministry.

Blessings!

The Blairs