Please pray for Richard

Hi all,

Although life in Sioux Falls has been great, we have encountered a little 'hitch' in our adventure. Last Tuesday Rich herniated a disc in his lower back and has been in the hospital since. Lord willing, he will be able to come home on Monday after he receives a cortisone epidural that afternoon. Please pray that his body responds well to the treatments and that the pain he is experiencing subsides and eventually goes away completely. If he does not feel relief, then possible back surgery becomes a reality.

The church here has been such a blessing to our family as they continue to provide meals for us, help unpack the hundreds of boxes in our house and even provide free babysitting so I can visit Rich alone in the hospital. Although this trial has been a difficult one to deal with, the Lord continues to be our strength and holds the victory in our life.

The kids are doing well and they miss having Daddy around. Noah loves Kindergarten and is making lots of friends, Jonah is getting a little used to not having Noah around all the time and Anna and Josiah continue to be the dynamic duo of the house. As for me, well, I'm hanging in there! Although I did not envision having to squeeze a 2500 sq. foot house into a cozy 1300 sq. foot house, having my hubby spend a week in the hospital with a slipped disc and taking care of a Kindergartener with 3 siblings surrounded with boxes from floor to ceiling, it's all okay and just part of the big adventure of life. All I can say to that is "Praise God!" for the many trials in our life that build strong character and produce wonderful godly hope.

Love to all...

All is well in South Dakota!

Ah, a chance to blog...how wonderful. It has been a whirlwind of a month for the Flood family! We have made it safe and sound to Sioux Falls, South Dakota; in fact, we have been here for a week and two days thus far. The trip up was...interesting to say the least! After 3 days and 2 nights of travel it was a relief to arrive at our destination. Rich, me, four kids, a dog and a fish (and all our luggage) fell out of the van and into our beds late last Sunday night. Since then, we toured the entire city, fellowshipped with encouraging brothers and sisters in Christ, found a great house to live in (should be closing early next week) and enrolled Noah in Kindergarten which began two days ago. Talk about whirlwind!

Another update will come again soon!

Movin' on up!

There is great news to share with you all about this Flood family. (No, baby # 5 is NOT on the way! We really are done with adding more people to this world!)

We've lived here in Northern Alabama for three years and have enjoyed every minute of it. From the beauty of the terrain to the wonderful friendships we have made, living in Alabama has been a blessing in so many ways. Not only did we complete our family here, but we have also been able to craft good memories with some extended family members, to enjoy living in beautiful country, to learn how to cook up some tasty southern cuisine and to fellowship with amazing christians who attend the Mayfair Church of Christ in Huntsville.

I'd like to announce that God is calling Richard Flood and his family to higher (or more northern) ground. Although we consider our life to be our full-time ministry, it has been six years since we've been involved in ministry on a professional basis. God has opened the doors for us to serve a congregation in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as thier full-time evangelist. Rich and I were blessed to visit with the wonderful members of the Church of Christ in Sioux Falls (www.wefollowjesus.org) two weeks ago and it quickly became apparent to us all that we were a perfect match. These people want to win the city of Sioux Falls for Christ by sowing gospel seed and have chosen the Floods to help them do it! We are so excited about this new upcoming spiritual adventure.

Of course, the transition will be a bitter-sweet one. As we venture on to exciting new ground, in a territory that's pretty far from here, we leave behind good friends and loved ones, including Richard's parents. We are also moving about 200 miles further from my family in New York City. The only thing that keeps Rich and I thrilled about going is knowing that we are living out God's will for our life. Knowing that this is God's answer to our prayers and actually doing what He is calling us to do motivates us to move on and serve Him with all that we have.

We love you all and ask that you keep us in your prayers as we transition Northward. Thank you for keeping up with our family through this blog. It has been a joy for me to be able to keep you up to date. I will post all of our new contact information as it comes.

Until then!

Our Nature Boy

Jonah Benjamin loves the outdoors and every creature that lives in it! While Noah loves to learn about living things through books and at arms length, Jonah has the need to experience them hands on. Here are a few photos of him with the some creatures we have come across out here in the country in Northern Alabama.

These first few are my favorite. It's like the lizard knows that Jonah is his friend!

I love you Jonah Benjamin!

Father's Day 2008

Here is a tribute to Daddy this Father's Day, June 15th, 2008.

Our children are so very blessed to have a father who is so wonderful; a father who loves them unconditionally, who desires to spend time with them, who wrestles with them just about every night; a father who shows them the way to Jesus and teaches them to obey God's word not only by mouth but by example; a father who is patient, kind, caring and thoughtful.

Richard, you truly are an amazing father. Thank you for loving our children the way you do. I love you so much!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Easter 2008 Slideshow

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

A Great Easter Sunday

A beautiful day was ahead of us. Although expected to be a little chilly, the sun was going to shine and highlight the beautiful white pear tree blossoms that had bloomed overnight. Rich and I woke up early this particular morning, anticipating an exciting tradition that has been in our lives as far back as we can remember. This time, it was our own children's turn to wake up with puffy eyes to realize that the 'Easter Bunny' had come for a visit.

"There's no such thing as the Easter Bunny Mama," Noah told me one day last week. "Is that right?" I said, amazed at how my children come up with these ideas despite the absence of conversations of such things. Contrary to how Rich and I grew up, we both agreed that we were not going to raise our children with the belief in things that are not really real. Instead, we would raise them up in believing in who is real ~ Jesus Christ~ and let their own imaginations come up with the rest of the stories. It's really cute having the boys come up to me during Christmas time, one day telling me there is no such thing as Santa and then the next asking me if Santa was going to put coal in their stockings because they've been pouting.

Although it was a little stressful getting four little ones out of bed to see what's in their baskets and then quickly get ready for church, seeing their excitement about it all was a joy to Rich and me. We even gave in a little bit and let them each have one candy from their baskets after they were dressed and ready to go. Of course, Josiah was already through opening and eating his two mini Cadbury eggs he found in his loot.

So off to Huntsville we journeyed, to join our church family for a finger-food breakfast before an enriching Easter worship. As I listened to Gary Bradley's thoughts about the empty tomb and the hope we have as christian believers, I was brought back to the realization I had a few years ago about our risen Savior. Born and raised catholic and then baptized into the Lord's church at 19 years of age, I must have heard the resurrection story hundreds of times. However for some reason, on this normal day in the life of Rachel Flood, I realized that if Jesus died on the cross on Friday, came back to life on Sunday and then ascended into heaven later on, then that means...he is STILL ALIVE! How amazing is that? Jesus is still alive, to this day, living up in heaven with God, waiting for those who love him to join him. To me, that is AWESOME. I hope it serves as an encouragement to you all as well.

After all of the festivities of going to church, sharing an Easter dinner at Uncle Richard's and Aunt Janice's, hunting for easter eggs and playing at the park, the kids fell into their warm beds at 7:30 pm and didn't get up until 7 am. If you ask me, I thought it was a great Easter Sunday.