Facebook Us! ;-)

As you may have noticed, our blog entries have not been as frequent as they once were! This is mainly because our primary purpose for starting a blog was to keep family, friends, & supporters up to date on our ministry in Uganda. Now that we are home in America, it seems that the only thing we have to share with you of interest is our baby boy Jackson! And we realize that you may not get as excited as we do at seeing pictures of the same baby over & over again!

So... we may still be updating the blog occasionally, but our main source of online communication will now be Facebook! I have not yet broken down & opened a Facebook account, but John has! So if you aren't his friend already, and you'd like to stay in touch with us this way, then please send him a friend request! And for now, here are a few new pictures of Jackson! Hope you enjoy!

Our baby is SO advanced, he can already read at just 3 1/2 months old! Just kidding... he just learned how to hold a book on his own though!

Just hanging out with mom! Doesn't he look like a little man?!?! :-)

Jackson's with the Boys @ his First Baseball Game~
the River Bats @ the Louisville Slugger Field
We love spending time with our family!
Tenth Avenue North Concert in Louisville, KY at the Louisville Slugger Field~ They were here last weekend, and were kind enough to make some time to hang out with us & go out to dinner after the concert! Mike, Jason, Scott & Jeff really are all such great guys, and we always enjoy our time with them! And we like hanging out with their wives too while they play!Super Baby!
Happy Baby!
And one last picture just to give you a laugh!

God is SO good!!!

You may be wondering why I'm SO happy today....Well, it's because MY DADDY GOT A JOB YESTERDAY!!! He is the new Small Groups Director for Young Couples at Southeast Christian Church, here in Louisville, KY!!!For the past several months, my mommy & daddy & myself have been wondering what God had in store for us here in America... Since my daddy didn't get the first job he prayed about with Southeast, we were a little confused as to what God was doing... But we knew that the Lord just must have another plan... And we learned A LOT about waiting on God and drawing nearer to Him in times of uncertainty...
We trusted that God was in control & that He knows what He's doing... And now we see what God was doing... He was giving my mommy & daddy time to just be with me & each other as they transitioned into this next chapter of their lives as parents! He was waiting for His perfect timing to give daddy the perfect job for him! And now that Daddy has not only a job, but one that he feels called to & passionate about, we are all 3 just so thankful & excited! We can't stop smiling & thanking Jesus!GOD IS SOOOO GOOD! And we knew all along that HE IS FAITHFUL and that He would have something GREAT in store for us! And today, we are just SO THANKFUL to God for providing this job, which is a PERFECT FIT for John & for us as a family! We are so excited to see how God will use us in this new ministry and chapter of our lives!

Oh, and by the way, John had a wonderful First Father's Day too! It was very special & very fun! Jackson and I are so grateful to Jesus for giving us such an AMAZING husband & daddy! We are truly blessed to have him in our lives! And of course, we are so thankful for the AWESOME Heavenly Father we have as well! We have a lot to thank Him for today!

Graduation & Appreciation

This past weekend we were thankful to be home in America to celebrate times like these... On Saturday, we attended two graduations. Many of our friends graduated from Asbury College on Saturday, including Teresa & Tiana Duncan (pictured right), Joanna Ury Pittman (pictured below) , & Elizabeth Key. It was so good to get to be there with them for this special day and see so many friends from Asbury & from Africa!
And then we left straight from Asbury's graduation to see Erica's stepbrother, Landon, graduate from University of Kentucky! We are so proud of him & so thankful we were able to be there to witness this milestone in his life!

And finally, yesterday we had the blessing of being home in America on Mother's Day. As my first Mother's Day, it was very special to be able to spend it with my own mom & grandmother! (Pictured right with my mom, sister, & Granny) And I must say, John did very good at making it special for me~ he's such an amazing husband & daddy, and I am so thankful for him! And even though we couldn't be in New Jersey with John's mom, we were able to talk on Skype with them & use their new web cam for the first time, & it felt like we were right there with them, so that was fun!

I am so thankful for the gift God has given me this year of being a mother! Jackson is such a blessing to us, and having him in our life really is teaching us more about how God's love for us is so unconditional & SO huge for us! I am reminded of one of my favorite verses when I think of how much I love Jackson & how much Jesus loves each one of us!...

Ephesians 3: 18, 19~
¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

In Awe & Awaiting

Jackson is 3 weeks old now, and we're learning how to live on a lot less sleep & plan our life around our new member of our family! We truly do LOVE being parents & we ADORE Jackson! We find ourselves just staring at him & constantly saying, "I can't believe he's ours!" We can't help but look at him & think of how amazing God is to create life! We are so thankful for this healthy baby boy!

He already has so many people who love him so much! I can already see that we're going to have to be careful not to spoil him! Among the many who love Jackson are my (Erica's) brother & sister, Uncle Ryan & Aunt Ashley (pictured below) & John's parents (pictured right) who just came to visit us from New Jersey for a week. It truly was a blessing having them here! They took such good care of us & spoiled us just as much as Jackson!

I have to say, I think one of my favorite parts of all of this so far is watching John become a father. He is such an incredible daddy & does SO well with Jackson!

And finally, for those of you who are still wondering what's going on with our job situation... John is substitute teaching right now in order to bring in a little money while he continues to look for work. There have been many prospects & John is doing so good at networking & meeting with people to just put his name out there & look for potential opportunities. But we continue to wait on God & trust in Him to provide for our needs now & a job hopefully in the very near future! He hasn't let us down yet, and we know we can hold on to the promise that there is... "More Faithfulness Ahead!"

Jackson Thomas Rinehimer
Born March 25th in Louisville, KY
9lbs 8oz 22 inches
He's finally here!!! Meet the newest member of our family... Both he & Erica are doing very well. We praise the Lord for this precious gift. Here are a few pictures of our new son:)