Rockdale, TX

January 16-19 we were blessed to be able to spend some time with Katie, Jesse and his girlfriend Krystal at Jesse's house in Rockdale. Jesse and Brancent have been friends for a long time and Katie knows him as Uncle Jesse. Jesse and Brancent are two peas in a pod and are so funny when they are together. We had a blast. Katie got to play games with Krystal, ride and feed horses, and ride 4 wheelers. Krystal was great helping with Jacob, who was into everything!!! Jacob got to see and pet his first horse and would get so excited any time we would walk near the horses. Jacob did so good on his first plane ride. He played with the seat belts, tray tables, flirted with the flight attendants and tried to play with the people's hair who sat in front of us. Getting off almost every flight people commented on how good he did. Please God let that continue!!! Thanks to all of you who prayed for us concerning our trip. One of the highlights was Katie getting to go hunting with Brancent and Uncle Jesse. They didn't get any pigs but she said "I could hear them but we never saw them!" sneaky porkers. We also got to watch Jesse train a horse for his cousin. (but first she jumped the fence and Jesse had to get her from the neighbors field where other untrained horses were, there was a small fight then everyone went back to grazing-it was pretty exciting. and of course Jesse caught her. She stayed penned up for the night. Katie and I decided that was her time out). We went to church Sunday morning where Jesse's uncle is the pastor, his mom plays the piano etc. Brancent had always told me about Jesse's parents and how Jesse's dad would teach them in Sunday school and tell him stories from the Bible. Talk about a rarity, a dad who signs and teaches his deaf son the Bible. I had to fight back tears watching him teach. How I long for every deaf (and hearing) to have a parent like that. Here are a few pics and of course more will be on the shutterfly site.

Katie and Krystal

Ready to hunt!

Celebrating Jesse's 32nd birthday! We ate lunch at his parents house after church. We couldn't have had better food or company. His family is fabulous.

Feeding Tuff and Socks

My favorite picture!