Waiting...

Hello all!

It has been far too long since our last blog.  FAR too long, so for that, I apologize.  We have had a lot going on, and nothing going on at the same time.  Let me explain:

So since we have written my parents (Robin) came out for a visit!  It was so wonderful and refreshing to have them here.  They arrived on Thursday the 18th and didn't leave until the next Friday the 26th.  The day after they arrived we all woke up early and drove up to Mt. Shasta, this is the largest mountain in CA and is also a volcano! Ack!  We had a great time, stopped for some awesome lunch and then went up the mountain.  We went to about 7500 feet and that's as far as they let you drive up, you have to hike the rest and we weren't doing that.  Then the next few days we mostly hung around here showed my parents around the town and then that Tuesday-Wednesday my parents, the kids and I went to the coast! We saw the ocean, went to Agate beach, went to see Redwood trees, and saw herds of elk!  It was a trip we will never forget.  I am so thankful for those precious moments.  The next day we celebrated the kids birthdays that had passed just before they had arrived.  The next morning my parents woke up and went to San Fran to walk around and see sights before their plane left early the next morning.  It was hard watching them leave, but I was so grateful for all the time we spent together.  It was needed and oh so refreshing for me.  Thanks mommy and dadee! Here are some of the photos from the trip:

My parents with Hailee and Nathaniel walking to see the headwaters of the Sacramento River.

My mom and I at the headwaters. :)

Dad pushing Hailee at the park at the headwaters.

We drove up Mt. Shasta and got out to take a picture.  Then Brian sat next to this sign that said "sensitive area".  So Brian felt the need to get in touch with his sensitive side.  Haha! 

Pretty girl on the mountain!

Baw and his little man Phan walking together. :)

This is when we went on the trip to the coast with my parents.  It was a COLD beach! 

At Agate beach with my mommy!

The kids at Redwood national with a "smaller" tree.

See the red speck at the bottom?  That's Hailee with her arms spread out.  I wasn't even half way up the tree in this picture.

My babies are so big! Two and Four. Wowzers.  This was when we were celebrating with my mom and dad. 

I do have a few updates but sadly not many.  At this point we both still are looking for jobs.  However Brian is at an interview as I write for someone who needs some CAD work done.  For now it's part time and just more of a contract type of job, but could turn into steady work.  So we are praying that he gets the job and it does turn into a regular flow of work and income.
**EDIT: It seems Brian has gotten the job!!!  It will start off as part time but will hopefully move to more work!!! Praise God!  The kicker?!  This guy went to BSSM (the school Brian is in now!) about 3 years ago.  So he understands his schedule completely and is willing to work with his schedule.  God is so good!!! :D More details to come.**

As far as my job stuff, well my licensing paperwork STILL isn't in.  Somehow my paperwork has gotten lost (TWICE!) in the mail from GA to CA.  So they haven't gotten it.  It's the last thing they need to approve me, so until then, I can't even apply for nursing jobs.
However, we aren't worried or concerned, just frustrated.  God has got us taken care of.  He has blessed us with checks in the mail and money we weren't even expecting! He has been so good to us.  And we know he will continue to provide.  He has shown us HE is our provider and will take care of our every need.  We are for now, just waiting.

As far as recreation and friends, things are going well!  We are starting to meet with a regular group of friends about once a week that are married and have kids.  It is great just to do life with them.  They actually were the people that sold us our kitchen table at a yard sale! Haha.  God has a sense of humor to line awesome things up like that.  Brian is making great friends in his Revival Group (the smaller group of 65 people from his school).  We are having people from his Revival Group over about once a month for dinner at our place and it has gone SO well.  We are blessed to have a place we can all fit! :) So far it has been an average of about 25-30 people that come in and out through the night.
The next few photos were of an awesome dinner and worship night we had this past Saturday.  After worship people felt moved to wash others feet and prophesy over them.  These are some pictures from that night:


Gerson washed Brian's feet.  Gerson is an awesome guy who is in Brian's core group.  That is a group of 4 men that meet weekly for close study and accountability.

Brian was pretty moved by what God is doing through their relationship and Gerson and Brian becoming close. :)  Sweet bro moment.

Sara washing Gabi's feet.

Gabi washing Angela's feet and giving a word for her.

Gerson washing Jeremy's feet.  Jeremy tried so hard not to laugh but he has very ticklish feet! Haha.

Uh-Oh (yes this is her name… she is from Thailand and tells everyone to call her this) washing Coleen's feet.  

It was an amazing night of fun and breakthrough, laughter and love.  We are so blessed by all these people coming into our house and loving on us.   It is truly wonderful.  

A little news about me: I have started singing in the choir!  I have loved it.  I have met great friends and enjoyed getting to know some of these people well. We sing some on Sundays and will be singing around the area this holiday season.  I had the privilege of singing this past Sunday morning.  I even had someone tell me they saw me on ibethel.tv. (This link should take you to the Sunday worship I sang in- Jeremy Riddle led.)  I have had it prophesied over me that I will be involved in the music/worship out here at Bethel.  I received that and I am praying that this will be just the beginning of learning more about ushering in His presence through leading His people in worship!!! :D  Oh be still my heart, as I feel this is my biggest calling in life.  Shortly after joining I was asked if I would be a part of a choir doing background recording for a Title Track of a CD!  Here are a few pictures from that awesome experience!  As soon as the song is available to me, I will make it available to you guys!

This is the woman, Bec, who is recording the CD.  She was just wonderful.  :)  I really loved the song she wrote and can't wait for it to be used by God.  Good stuff.

We continue to miss you all so much.  It is hard to be out here and miss seeing the every day or even every week faces that we were so used to seeing regularly.  Thank you for how well you have been taking care of my family, especially Mark and Lisa and fam.  They desperately need your help and love right now and we appreciate anything that you can do to help them.  If you are wondering what that is, just ask them, or my parents Rob and Leslie Kelley.

Hopefully a few more blogs will be coming soon and we will be better about writing them! Thanks for bearing with us through this blog drought/chaotic time in our lives.  We love you so much!
Love,

The Walkers

California Beauty and a roomie...

Well, this should be an interesting blog post.  I (Robin) honestly am sitting right here not fully knowing what I am going to write on.  I just felt and had someone walk up to me and tell me I needed to write a blog (she didn't know I even had a blog) about God revealing his beauty.  So here it goes.

Since we have gotten to California we have actually seen a beautiful scene at every turn.  In Augusta there are beautiful places, but some places that are just dull parts of a town.  We have "dull parts of a town" here in Redding, but behind the dull scene are beautiful mountains.  For example:

This was taken from the street we live on:

This was the view from the Wal-Mart parking lot.

This was as I was leaving Lowe's.  Crazy, right?  SO pretty!  You see what I mean about not quite Augusta.  This is the sunset every night with mountains in the foreground. 

Not exactly the view you would see leaving those stores in Augusta, right?  It is amazing to see God's creation in all its splendor. I still have yet to not be awestruck as I see Mt. Shasta in the distance or the river that runs through town.  I hope I enjoy it a lot while we are here.

But I think more than that- God has revealed so much other beauty to me since we have been here.  First of all, I have had a new rekindling of the Word. God is awakening a new and refreshing love for his Word!  It is awesome.  He also is showing me how great is love is for all of us through the gospel story again.  Something about reading it this time just feels fresh.

Another way God has shown me his beauty has been by revealing his presence to us often.  God has been gracious and making sure we know that he is in control of our lives.  From getting us a home, finding us great friends, impromptu worship sessions at our house, awesome worship and messages at Bethel, the list goes on.  I am thankful that I see God coming through so many facets of our lives.  His provision for us has surpassed belief.  God put us on someones heart the other day and they blessed us with a check in the mail today!!!  It is a great great help.
Right now I am waiting on my nursing license to come in to find a job as an LPN and I am still looking for a waitressing job on the side.  So in this time of seeming limbo, the God of the universe clearly had us in mind and wanted to remind us that he hasn't forgotten us and loves us so.  He is so good that way.  I believe God has the right jobs in his timing and that he is providing for us in the midst  of our confusion on why we haven't gotten jobs yet.  But God isn't confused,  Jeremiah 29:11 clearly tells us that when it says:

^"11 For I know the plans^(T) I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper^(U) you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.^(V)

But wait! There's more:

 ¹² Then you will call^(W) on me and come and pray^(X) to me, and I will listen^(Y) to you. ¹³ You will seek^(Z) me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.^(AA) 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord…"


Again, there is his word telling me how much he loves us and how he has our backs.  So when we are seeking him, searching after him, looking for him he hears our cries, our needs and helps.


Impromptu worship and prayer session after dinner one night at our house.  We just put on a worship CD and soaked, prayed for one another and worshipped our King!

This was a Sunday night service at Bethel.  So great to see so many surrendered to God and are willing to follow him to the ends of the earth.

One of the sweetest things I have recieved, I got in the mail yesterday.  It was a devotional book from one of my best friends mom.  She has been like a mom to me growing up (one of the many).  It was just such a joy to receive a package to just me.  I was so thankful for it.  Again my heart sang to know that God laid me on someones heart enough to send me something.


Another awesome thing has been the arrival of Alan Abdelhadi! HOORAY!  Alan is going to be staying with us here in California.  This was actually something God laid on Brian's heart and mine especially was that Alan was going to come here.  It was very up in the air for quite a while but God has a plan here for Alan and we are REALLY excited to have him here!  He has been a wonderful addition to our family and a big blessing to us already.  :) He has been playing with the kids a lot and they have loved it.  He is currently looking for jobs (and has an interview Tuesday!) and is hopefully auditioning for the Bethel worship team at the end of the month.  We will see how it all goes!  Please be praying for Alan for both of those things to pan out and go well.

Great video of Alan playing with the kids.  This side of Alan might be a new sight for most of you but rest assured- it is alive and kicking! So sit back and enjoy the show:

Well I feel like I am supposed to end with this song:

Oh Lord, You're beautiful
Your face is all I see
And when your eyes are on this child
Your grace abounds to me

I wanna take your word and shine it all around
But first help me just to live it Lord
And when I'm doing well help me to never seek a crown
Cause my reward is giving glory to You

Thank you God for new revelation!






Hope you all enjoyed reading my ramblings.  Thanks for sticking with me.  Love you all.

Beautiful Stenciled Table

Alright everyone.  Here is the post you have been waiting for.  Seriously.  SO great.

We bought this table at a yard sale for $30.  Yes only 30 bucks!   I am a bargain shopper and I was in love.  Not only was it only 30 dollars but it was wood!  And that shape… and those legs! Come to mama!  Drool.  Ok so I love things with funky shapes and weird angles.  So this table for $30 was a no brainer.  Loved it.

I had seen an amazing pinterest post of a table I loved.  So I pinned it thinking not a lot of it since we didn't need a table at the time.  When we moved to CA I immediately remembered it and hoped dearly that I would be able to the project!  So I went back to this website where I originally found it at Domestic Imperfection.  Go check it out!  She did a great job with her table. 

So we brought it home and got started.  There was a pretty thick and chunky layer of black paint on it and our goal was to stain it so we knew that had to come off.  So first we tried stripper.  That actually helped on the top surface a good bit, but the legs because of their shape, it made it really difficult.  Plus the top layer of paint on the top surface didn't come off all the way.  So we went and got our orbital sander.  Let me tell you… this thing is so awesome, I wouldn't recommend doing a job without it.  It really got all the rest of the paint off and smoothed the table out so well!

So then came the stenciling.  Let me tell you, Ashley over at domestic imperfection was sent a stencil that was gorgeous.  They were also one big stencil instead of several little ones.  We looked into those but they were anywhere from 40-60 dollars after shipping!  We didn't want to spend that kind of cash and we also didn't want to wait the time it would take to arrive.  So off to the craft store we went.  We got two different sets of stencils for about 10 bucks total.  But of course it took us much longer than the 10 minutes Ashley's took hers.   So basically it's either you need to have the time or the money.  Haha!

Here's where we started.  The middle!  We loved the big middle pattern but then thought we should start from the outside and work our way in.  So that's just what we did.

Now I know that it seems seamless and perfect without mistakes, but let me assure you that wasn't the case.  Here's a close up to show you.

Here's a close up to show you.  See that to the left of the corner stencil?  That is smudging.  Right before staining time sand it down a little, but overall it won't show a lot, just a little.
Well can you just take a quick guess and tell me out of Brian and me who you think was better at stenciling?

It was BRIAN!  I was so impressed with him.  We both got started, but his stencils turned out so much sharper and straighter so I told him he could finish.  ;)  But seriously,  I think he enjoyed making something and was pleased with the results.

This was the end of day one:

There was two seconds we thought about leaving it like this.  Simple.  But we ended up thinking it looked kind of empty.  So we pressed on.

And glad we did!  This was after the stenciling was finished!  Aren't you in love?  I could almost leave it like this and be happy, but we didn't. 

We had decided on a dark stain.  Like really dark, I believe it is called Ebony by Miniwax.  But first we put a pre-stain conditioner.  Even that added a richness and we liked what we were seeing.

See the difference in the "top" of the table near Brian (has conditioner), the middle of the table (no conditioner), and my end of the table (has conditioner)?

Close up with the conditioner:
I love how you can see the grain of the wood so well!

Here is the whole thing with conditioner:

Then we went and put on one layer of the stain, anticipating we might need several layers of it.  We were wrong.  This is how it turned out after the first round of stain:

Wow, right?!

 We are seriously in love with our table.  We slapped some wipe on polyurethane and the top was done.  As for the bottom we decided we couldn't get all the paint off well enough to stain it.  So we just painted it black and again, ended up really loving it.

Here is the finished product (yes there will be chairs around the outside):

And here is another hint to our next blog:

So the total thing took us about 12 or so hours over several days.  Because of the stain and poly and everything you have to wait hours in between to put on other layers and such.  So because we would mostly do it after the kids were in bed, we just did it several nights in a row.  So we are ready to tackle more!  This was our first encounters with stain and poly but we weren't disappointed.  It was worth the time and effort.

Hope you enjoyed it!

School begins!

Hello everyone!  Robin here.

Just a quick update to tell everyone a little bit about what is going on in our lives.  Biggest news is Brian started school!!!  We all hopped in the van and dropped him off on Tuesday as a family.  We took a picture of the civic center in town where they meet:

 I tried to take a picture of him on the first day but he was uncooperative.  So like my mother I took this pic:

My mom always said "That's what you get when you don't pose for a picture," and she would still take the picture to forever remind you next time to smile.  Ok, perhaps it reads a little harsh from my mom, but it was really wasn't harsh and it was all in good fun when she did it.  :)

I also snapped this picture as he walked away:

As you can see from the crowd this is a big group!  That line goes way to the left of the picture and towards the right it goes pretty far and then loops around the back as you see in the back right of the picture.  They told the class there was 1150 students in this 1st year class alone.  It was only at 950 last year so you can see that there has been a big increase in just one year!  He said it has been amazing so far.  He has loved it.  Each day has had about 45 minutes of worship from great worship leaders.  Today was no different as Jeremy Riddle led.  He said they started by going over core values and what to expect out of the year as well as just some sound, Biblical teaching.  He has already been very busy with Bible reading, book reading and group meetings.  He already has a good bit lined up as well as a retreat next week.  I will end there for now because Brian will be writing soon in more detail about his take on things! :)

As far as the house goes, things are coming right along!  We have been so happy with where we are and the kids are loving the back yard.  We are still working on quite a bit around the house and things are still in a state of disarray.  So be looking forward to a blog on in the future of all the furniture and updates we have done!  For now enjoy a quick sneak peek:

Remember this coffee table?

Here's the after!

Don't you love it!?  It really turned out just how I wanted.  I was so pleased!
Here's a picture of it and it's matching TV stand in the living room.

The picture isn't the best as it was taken with my iPhone.  I wish you could see the brightness of the table.  Again, more to do but it gives you a good idea.  Brian and I sanded, painted and antiqued the two pieces to match ourselves and we are really happy with how it came out.  We are now working on an amazing kitchen table, but that will be a whole tutorial blog in and of itself!  :)

As far as jobs go, I had a second interview at the optometry place and it went really well!  They were really great and I got along great with the Dr.  Basically the only downside was they knew that they couldn't pay me exactly what they were hoping.  Although, to me that's not the only deciding factor.  I do however have other options.  There was a home health place in town looking for a LPN with pediatric experience.  Know anyone!?  Me, right?  So I went in and took my resume and they looked really pleased but of course I don't have my CA license yet.  I have been working on getting it and should be sending in all my paperwork by early next week.  So right now, Brian and I will have a big decision to make if I am accepted at the optometry office.  Please keep us in your prayers for wisdom and discernment about what is best for me and our family.

As far as Brian goes, he has a meeting set up tomorrow for a possible job.  He is getting lunch with a guy who owns his own firm and is looking for an engineer to work with who does exactly what Brian does.  He works from home and has flexible hours.  Which is just what Brian would need right now, so it's kind of perfect.  We are really hoping this turns into something great, so prayers are needed again!

Alright prayer warriors, you have your assignments!  Haha.

One more assignment (ok, more like a request) before we go.   We really are missing our east coast family.  As we are getting settled into our place, I have decided I would really love to have pictures of all of you and your family.  To me, it doesn't matter if I have talked to you much recently, or not.  If you are reading this, send us a picture!  Just to see a familiar face and for our kids to be able to look at the people that are supporting us through friendship and prayer will mean the world.
If you get a chance (and we hope you do) please just go to Walmart or anywhere and print out a picture and send it to:

The Walkers
1786 Lazelle Ct
Redding, CA 96002

Seriously! It would make our day.   I know our kids would love this fun activity of checking the mail for pictures and putting it on our wall.


Here's a picture of my sister and me when we were little and the kids love seeing it.  It also reminds us all to be praying for their family!  See how awesome it works? ;)   So go do it now! Hehe.

Hope you are all doing well.  As always, if there is anything we can be praying for you all for, please write us at:   thewalkerfamilyblog@gmail.com

We love you all!