Thanksgiving Pics

This Thanksgiving was super fun with 18 people at our house!

We were joined that day by the Zuchers (from Atlanta), Hoffs(Sioux Falls), Montgomery's (Atlanta) and McCormicks (Atlanta).

We enjoyed a day of fried turkey, football, friends, board games and a little crazy tight-rope walking!

We are so thankful for our "Waco" family! It made being away from our families during a holiday just a little easier. It wouldn't have been the same without you all. Love you guys!

My family!

I don't think I've even showed you all pictures of my beautiful family! I'm putting together a calendar for my grandparents this year for Christmas so I have recent picture of them all:) Love you guys!

The first picture is my oldest brother Matthew, his wife Katie and their daughter Eliana.
The second picture is my older sister Charissa, her husband Josh and their son Micaiah.

The third picture is my younger brother Mark, his wife Megan and their son Jude.

The forth picture of course are my parents, Verlyn and Carol.

Birthday, Baby and our Kitchen Floor

Aaron-We celebrated Aaron's 4th Birthday with a Sports Party with all his friends! Daddy grilled chicken, hot dogs and spicy brats and Mommy made yummy cake! All in all, a very fun day. Thank you everyone for making his day special with phone calls and presents!

Isaac-is growing so fast. The other day someone at the store said, "that's a big 7 week old" after I told them how old he was. I wasn't sure how I felt about that but he's healthy so I'm thankful. I think I'm adjusting pretty well to being a mother of three. It still feels a little strange to say that. It is definitely busier but great!
Sydney-has just completed her first semester in school! I am so proud of her. Kindergarten has been so fun for her. She is learning so much. Everyday she comes home singing a new song about the weather, days of the week, silly songs or Jesus!

On another note, our kitchen floor has been peeling up since...humm...1980 I'm guessing. At least that's how old the cockroach looked what we found under it. No, I'm kidding but long before we moved in. Andrew told the landlord that he would replace the floor himself if all the costs would be covered and...drum-roll...2 months later...we have our new floor. Thank you Andrew-it looks AMAZING! Can you tell which floor is new? I hope so;)

The last 2 weeks:)

Yay! My parents came to visit and see Isaac (their 6th grandchild)! It was fun to have them here and such a blessing to help with cooking, cleaning, entertaining Sydney & Aaron, holding Issac, dropping off and picking up Sydney from school and just allowing us to relax.

Dad and Aaron spent most days outside. Aaron loves the outdoors so he would trim trees, ride his bike, do side walk chalk, and plant anything he could find.

Sydney sewed with grandma (thanks for the great curtains Mom), read books, did homework and played outside as well.

Then on the weekend Issac had his first trip away from Waco (outside the womb that is). We visited the San Antonio Zoo! The zoo is always a great time with the kids and visitors from out of town. You feel really close to most of the animals too. Then after a full morning at the zoo and after nap-time we made our way down to the Mexican Market. I got myself some more of the delicious vanilla they sell and we all had a fun time smelling the yummy foods from the local vendors. All in all we had a great time and made it home in time for Life Group on Sunday night.

Dad left on Wednesday but Mom stayed to help take care of Sydney and Aaron while Andrew, Isaac and I were in Norman, OK for our Elevate Fall Outreach (more to come on that). Thank you thank you Mom for changing your plane ticket and continuing to bless us! Parents are such a blessing in so many ways.

I also just want to say that there is no replacement for being in community. Our family has been so blessed by so many amazing people over the last 5 weeks. We have been blessed with many meals, gifts, babysitting and more! With both our families be far away, having great community has made this transition and phase of life so smooth. We can't say thank you enough.

Introducing Isaac Andrew

Some of you have asked me to share Isaac's birth story! So, at 1 week and 4 days old here we go...

Saturday morning, Sept 24 we got 2 phone calls. The first from Andrew's brother Michael (who was the birthday boy that day) saying that his wife Jessica had their second daughter, Kiersten Jemma. We were rejoiced with them when we received a second phone call from Andrew's sister Laura and were told she also had her 4th boy, Jace Nicholas. Andrew sister and our sister-in-law Jessica delivered in rooms next to each other! How crazy is that? Wow, the pressure was on! I was dilated to 3cm but no effacement yet and still 3 weeks to go on my due date. How long would it be for me?

Saturday afternoon was exciting. My girlfriends Courtney and Cristie threw me the most incredible baby shower that day at 10am. Both girls really went all out! The decorations were hand-made, paintings, I-S-A-A-C wooden blocks, initialed party favors and all! We enjoyed many yummy foods, played games, opened gifts and they prayed over me and Isaac's delivery. Andrew came to pick me up around 1:30 and all the action then started at 3pm.

Only 2 hours after my shower contractions started. I wasn't sure what to think. Since Sunday was our anniversary we had lined up a babysitter for Saturday night. So all through-out our 7 year anniversary date we were timing contractions (pretty unforgettable)! Then at about 1:30am I decided that these contractions weren't going away. Ahhh...I think it's time...but I'm not sure. So reluctantly I text my doctor and she suggested that I go to the hospital to get checked and then have someone call her. So we woke up our next door neighbor friends (who were the on-call middle of the night keepers of our children) and they rushed over to crash on our couch.

By the time we got to the hospital and got all checked in it was close to 2:30. I was checked and was 4cm and 80% effaced...they kept me. We called our neighbors again to tell them they would need to get comfortable since they would be there the rest of the night until relief came in the morning:) They were great and assured us that wasn't a problem.

Around 5 am came my epidural. Yay! The one medication I didn't want to miss my window on. It was great and working well until all of a sudden at 9am I could feel every contraction and just my low lower parts were numb. Uh oh! Not good. My doctor had run to drop off her kiddos at church and so the nurse called the anesthesiologist and requested more meds. I got more and my feet just went more numb not the contractions which were by-the-way super hard at that point. So just as I'm about to loose it the nurse walks in again and sees how much pain I'm in. She decided to check me again before trying other meds. She says, "oh, I see why you're in so much pain...it's time to push!" She runs out to call the doctor, who is on her way up. She rushes in and PUSHING begins. I pushed through 4 contractions (about 20 mins later), out came Isaac, dark hair and all! AND...that's our baby story!

I do want to say a special Thank You to my wonderful husband who coached me, held my hand, breathed with me and prayed me through. I love you honey!

Also, a big Thank You to my amazing friend Courtney!! There are no words for how well she took care of our family during this time. She relieved our neighbors that Sunday morning, took the kids to church, home to play with her kids, to spend the night, took Sydney to school Monday and entertained Aaron until Andrew was able to come home. There is no way we could have done this without our community. They are our family and we thank the Lord for them!

Pictures of Issac were taken by Jenny Thebault (thank you, thank you Jenny)!!

World Mandate 2011

Every year Antioch hosts World Mandate, a missions conference open to all. It has always been a time of refreshment for us and a chance to be stretched in so many ways. This year was no exception. Despite having the kids with us the majority of the time we were able to enjoy many speakers, worship times and visit Impact Now. Impact Now was a section dedicated to many different ministries from Human Trafficking and Disaster Relief to signing on for a full year of serving with the SERVE Project.

There was so much put into this conference and God was on the move. Some of my personal favorite quotes from this year are:

Jim Yost - The closer you get to Jesus, the sooner you get kicked into the harvest field because that's where his heart is. Don't look back at yesterdays success but start now today!"

Jimmy Seibert - The spirit of fear will enable you the rest of your life if you don't address it.
-Whatever you have, it's enough and it's needed in the nations of the earth.

Floyd McLung - Faith isn't about whether you have money or not, it's about whether you hear God and obey him.
-There are people who have the dream but don't have the discipline to inherit the dream. Who are you?

Christine Cain - The purpose of life is not to arrive at death safely.
-We were born to dispel the darkness.

There is so much that I can't even touch on in a short blog entry, but there was just a taste. Thank you Jesus for what you are doing!

In addition to a great time, we were able to see the 18 people who traveled down from South Dakota from The Crossing and Patmos! It was so fun sharing meals, fellowshipping and just being around familiar faces! Here's a picture of all the kids enjoying birthday cake at Fazoli's for Lainey's big day!

Family Night

The Bissons have officially started Family Night! We have always had family time but with our schedules being a bit busy these days with Elevate, Andrew's work and school things we decided to dedicate one night a week to 'intentional' family time.

It's only a couple hours but it's dedicated to getting to know each other and spending quality time together. One person in the family gets to pull a slip of paper from the container-and let me say, that's half the fun!

The kids had so much fun decorating an old oatmeal container that now holds all the ideas we came up with as a family. Here are some pictures from our first family night! We started out swimming for an hour and then went down to the Brazos to feed all the hungry ducks. All our bread crumbs we had stashed away finally served a purpose:) We love Family Night!

Latest Creations

So I've had a creative streak going on. Well, maybe creative isn't quite the word to use because I've copied all the ideas:) Maybe creative in the sense of "hummm...how do I copy that?"

So here are my latest copycat creations and an updated prego picture (tomorrow I'm 35 weeks)!

Grandpa & Grandma Visit, Elevate Retreat & More

In mid-August Andrew's parents were able to escape the farm and come down for a quick visit! It was wonderful to see them and the kids had such a wonderful time being "spoiled" by Grandpa and Grandma. We went out to eat, got donuts, enjoyed a long ride, shopped, and the kids played and played! We were all so sad to see them go:( We keep reminding the kids that a Christmas visit is only be a few months away. That always makes for fun conversation on time frames. Yes, that's after the baby comes, yes, that's after Aaron's birthday, yes, that's after Thanksgiving... Okay now it sounds really far away but really it will come fast:)

The following week Sydney started school (see earlier post) and then we packed up on the weekend and headed for a great weekend at Three Mountain Retreat Center in Clifton, TX. The Elevate Opener Retreat was so much fun and refreshing for our family. Being on staff this year has a much different feel rather then being a student like last year - but still so good! The kids enjoyed play times, movies and activities with their 'new friends' while the adults enjoyed great teachings, worship times, team building activities, group times and more. I do also enjoy the perks of not having the cook for the whole weekend!

Now we are trying to work on our duplex that we moved into. We are so thankful and grateful for more space. The kids room is practically finished and we are encouraged that it's done before the baby arrives! Andrew is going to start replacing our linoleum floor tonight (big project) so we'll see how that goes. He's been so wonderful at working overtime on this place to make it a great place for our family for at least the next couple years.

The next big thing up for us is World Mandate Conference! We are super excited about this conference. Every year God shows up to us in a new and exciting way. Major things in our lives have come out of attending this conference. In addition to the amazing conference, some of our friends from South Dakota will be attending so it will be great to see them too. We are also housing 3 people from the College Station church plant so that should be fun too.

So now you are all updated on the Bissons! We'd love to hear from you all about what your summer was like and how we can partner in prayer with you!

1st Day of Kindergarten

Sydney's first day of Kindergarten was on Wednesday. She was more then ready after meeting her teacher the day before. She was told where to hang her little backpack (My Little Pony, of course) and told where to put her water bottle, snack and purple folder.

We were all excited for the next day. Then that night when everyone was asleep, I was woken up at 11:30pm by some slightly painful contractions. Being only 31 weeks I was concerned but not too concerned. I thought they would go away so I tried going back to sleep. 2.5 hours later with over 25 contractions (Yes, I timed and tracked them all:) I was nervous. I woke up Andrew and we prayed and talked about what to do. We still felt like it was false labor and I refused to miss my little girls first day of school over nothing. So finally at 3am I was able to fall asleep and when I woke up at 6:30am they were gone.

Sydney woke up at 7:00am and ate what every mother feeds her child on their first day of school: oatmeal, fruit and juice. I continued to offer her food not wanting her to be hungry before snack time since I wouldn't be able to feed her when she asked for a snack (tear, tear). She got dressed in her super cute little uniform and tried tying her own shoes (we'll work on that this year). Then Andrew came home so he could drive with us so we could all send her off for her first day. We took some pictures, talked and prayed with her. I drew a little heart with a pen on the inside of her hand and told her that if she got scared or nervous or lonely she could look at the little heart and think of Mommy. Well, no surprise to me when we got to school she let us take a couple pictures and then darted off saying ,"You don't need to walk me in. I know where to go. Bye." "Ummmm...wait, wait, no, not today hunny", I said. She came back and grabbed my hand. Daddy videotaped us walking all the way into school. Sure enough, she knew where to go and what to do. I don't know why that surprised me. She was totally excited and smiled at her teacher and went to sit down saying, "Mommy you can go now." I insisted on a hug and she gave me a big, long hug that brought tears to my eyes. My little girl has entered a new phase of life. She went right to her table and started coloring. As I left, I rushed out to see other mom's crying but held it together until I get to the car noticing that Andrew had been videotaping me walk out alone and continued to interview me as I'm tearing in the car. I was early to pick her up, anxious to hear about her day. It was a great First Day for her! She loves school and is so excited to go back! Thank you Jesus!

Click here if you'd like to view all the 1st Day of School Pics

Tonsils, Birthdays and Burgers

The last couple weeks have been full of change for us. We moved! We are so blessed with more space with baby number 3 coming in October. We have moved closer to the church and we are able to have a backyard! We are now in a duplex so still sharing space but we are now on the lower level so the kids can run around.

Then last Tuesday my mom came to help us with another big change on Wednesday - Aaron's tonsils coming out. Above are the pictures of our little man. He did great! They said that he would be in recovery screaming and crying when I saw him most likely and instead he was quiet as a mouse and just annoyed by the IV in his arm. He is still on the road to recovery however he is handling it all like a champ! Our fears of him not drinking and eating were dissolved on day one when he was doing both. He actually didn't have a choice because his meds couldn't be taken on an empty tummy. The only thing I really have to transition to now is his tiny little voice. He used to have a deep voice and now it's like a little mouse:) I'm so thankful this is all over and we can move on with our summer.

My mom was such a huge blessing. She helped with Aaron in every way, entertained Sydney, cooked, cleaned blinds, and sewed. She sewed all our kitchen curtains and our bathroom curtain! Thank you so much Mom we don't know how we would have managed without you.

Then we celebrated Andrew's 33rd birthday with my mom at Red Lobster on Monday night and then Tuesday (on his actual birthday) we brought her back to the Dallas airport. I surprised him with a visit to In-N-Out Burger on the way home from the airport!! It was partially selfish motives but he didn't mind:) So yummy!

What's next? Next weekend we start the first steps of Elevate PM Staff with our staff retreat all weekend. Then 1.5 weeks later Sydney will start school and Elevate also begins AND our summer is over. World Mandate Missions Conference is in Sept along with our Anniversary and then October brings a baby!!! We continue to pray for refreshment in the midst of it all so any prayers in that category would be much appreciated!

We are back!

Peru was incredible. Prayers were answered! So many people heard the gospel, the kids did amazing and enjoyed the trip so much, everyone stayed healthy most of the time (besides Andrew's run of strep throat) and we made it back safe!

Here are some details. We had incredible favor in the city with people, administration, schools, police (to the point of them escorting us at times) and saw Jesus move in so many ways. Beyond just going around and meeting people and sharing with them and praying for healing, we had several creative outreaches that were an awesome success.

The Tournament
Five teams competed in this heated soccer tournament, and let me just say that South Americans know their futbol! Whew! Our team of blancos (with Andrew on it) didn't stand a chance. Before the championship game, we performed a drama of the gospel, which our team learned two days before, and 29 people gave their life to Jesus!! That night, several team members went to the hospital to pray for a woman's friend who was terminally ill with cancer. She was encouraged and looked visibly better the next day. By the way, Aaron and Sydney were spoiled with all the attention they got everywhere they went. Everyone wanted to touch them, kiss them and take pictures with them. God used them both in powerful ways! Many salvation conversations started with peoples interest in Aaron and Sydney.



School
We were invited to a school and around 230 middle and high school students gathered for our performance. Gustavo shared about values, we presented the drama and Casey and Pastor Ysrael shared the gospel. After the drama, a mob of 75 people came forward to give their lives to Jesus. Almost 30 of those students stayed for more than 20 minutes to receive prayer. One girl was so touched by the presence of God that she wept right there in front of her peers. We decided, to be conservative, to count 40 of those in the mob as salvations. A couple of them just wanted our autograph!



The Quechuan Woman
Later that day, we were in the plaza and Jesus told Davin (one of our leaders) to go pray for a woman sitting on a nearby bench. As she approached her, she realized she was Quechuan because she couldn't understand Spanish. The Quechuan tribe lives in the villages outside the city and are one of the most unreached people groups in this hemisphere. Her daughter, who was about 30, was there, so she asked her to translate. Davin spoke English, Melissa (the translator) translated it to Spanish, the daughter translated it to Quechuan and finally the woman responded... so the cycle began. Davin asked if she had pain and she said she suffered from years of back pain. They prayed and the first time she felt heat. They prayed again and it felt a little better. Davin felt like Jesus said to go ahead and share the gospel so she did. Though the woman could not understand her, she would answer with the correct answers to her questions before it was even translated. It was as if her spirit completely knew what she was saying. She gave her life to Jesus. Then, they prayed for her back again and it was fully healed! Now, she can take the message back to her village! Praise Jesus!

A God Story
One day Andrew and I were out sharing with another teammate and our translator Melissa. I started talking with a parking garage attendant. She was not that friendly at first but soon she opened up and I was able to share Jesus love with her. We talked about knowing Jesus as a friend and she was interested. After a long conversation she made a decision to follow Jesus! Shortly after, she said that she wished her husband was able to hear what we were saying. She shared that he was an alcoholic and her family was suffering because of it. We asked if we could meet him and share with him too. She said that she wished we could be he never came to the store, he was a lawyer and very busy. Not even a minute later the phone rang and it was him. She got off the phone with wide-eyes and said, "he's coming here, right now". Five minutes later he showed up and we were able to share with him and Andrew shared his own testimony. He too after many questions give his life to Jesus. Our last day in Arequipa we were able to follow-up with the couple and answer more questions about Jesus. Their hunger was unmatched from what we had seen from many others and he even said, "something has changed in me since that day you prayed with me!" Thank you Jesus!

Passport Miracle
Joshua (our administrator of funds during our trip) passport, among many other things, was stolen and the U.S. State Dept. told us it would take 2 weeks for him to get another. That was bad news because we were leaving in three days! He and Mark (another team member) flew to Lima to the closest Embassy consulate to apply for a new one. That day, while Joshua was talking to his mom, his four-year-old niece prayed and asked Jesus where his passport was. She said, "Jesus has uncle Joshua's passport and He's going to give it to him today." She was right! By 4 p.m., Joshua had a passport and he and Mark flew back to surprise the team! Yay God!



Art Outreach & the Police
Our last night, we took huge pieces of paper that displayed two questions to the plaza. "What is freedom?" and "What is truth?" People then came and painted their answers and we engaged them in conversation. Since Arequipa is known for protests, the police were sure we were there to cause trouble. When I told him we loved Jesus and were just asking people to paint, he was thrilled! Later, when we asked if we could also do the drama, he said, "Of course. Anything you want." Yes! So, we did, and 43 people gave their lives to Jesus!

**There's so much more, but this is getting long! Overall, 176 people gave their life to Jesus, 16 people were healed and 756 people heard the gospel! Yes, there were challenges (Andrew getting Strep throat and long plane rides with the kids), but it was all worth it!

I owe you one:)

So I the thought just popped into my head while I was sitting at my computer thinking of the 100 things to do and guess what dawned on me? I haven't posted anything since May 30 and it's now June 15! How is that possible? Well, I know how but I'll choose not to dwell on the past:)

So here are the things rolling around in the Bisson brains lately:

-PERU: We leave in 3.5 days and boy are we excited, nervous, and just plain ready to go! The prep shopping is done, the bags are packed, the flight entertainment settled, and many snacks purchased. We will be there for approximately 2 weeks and are looking forward to watching God work in lives in a powerful way while getting a short break from the 100+ Texas heat:) I'll be sending an email shortly with prayer requests to all you supporters out there.

-SYDNEY'S 5 YEAR PICTURES: Our little girl who loves pink, puppies, bugs, loves to draw, paint and do anything artsy is growing up. She will be starting school in August and I can hardly process the thought without some tears. She is more then ready though! We visited her school, picked up some uniforms (she looks adorable in them by the way) and even found out that another little girl who she plays with at church (the worship leaders daughter) will be in her class. She was soooo excited! So all that to say my wonderful friend Courtney took Sydney's 5 year pictures at Cameron Park Zoo last week. Sydney was fun and adventurous as usually but soon got bored (and some pics reflect that too). She is only 5. Here are some of the pics to enjoy!

TURNING 30: Okay, so I told myself that it's not that big of a deal. I'm not sure if I believe myself yet:) I know that this birthday will be super memorable at least for one reason...I'll be in Peru! Most people who turned 30 already said that they didn't really think much of it. I guess I'll let you all know after I get back:)

WE ARE MOVING: We will be moving sometime between July 15 and Aug 1. We have been so blessed at this little apartment and can't say enough good about our landlords. It has been a great place to transition into Waco. With a 3rd child coming in October we were fully prepared to make the little 2 bedroom place work however God had different plans in mind. I expressed the concern to an Elevate friend who know about a duplex that would be great for us. Still 2 bedroom but more room. After many phone calls and a visit the place is ours AND for the same rent and cheaper utilities!!! Only God:)

AARON'S TONSIL REMOVAL: Not to add more to July but then again why not...after suffering through most of his life with enlarged tonsils they are finally being removed. Though the recovery is painful and 2 weeks in length it will be nice to finally have them out and his speech to sound normal. Please pray with us that it all goes well!