Aramai

We've been so overwhelmed with the support and prayer from many many people for our precious little girl. She had a very successful surgery. She remained in the hospital for a few extra days due to fluid build up around her lungs. They gave her extra doses of lasiks through an IV and in a couple days it was completely gone! We got the phone call Christmas morning that we were dying to get all week. The nurse said "you can come get your baby girl and bring her home for Christmas". My heart was just thrilled to be able to do just that. I couldn't wait to have her in my arms in our own house again.

Christmas was a busy day at the Sareyka's house. Lots of people and lots of presents! When we returned home in the evening, we put Avalee to bed and just sat on the couch admiring Aramai and thanking God for all He had done for us. While I was praying, Aramai smiled for the first time at me. I can't even express what my heart felt at that moment. God is so good - and I know God was smiling at that moment too. I'm going to enjoy every moment with my girls because I know how fast they can grow up. Thank you all for thinking of us, praying for us, and taking care of us during these very hard weeks. We love you all!

Crazy Holiday's

This will be one of the most interesting Christmas' ever. I'm praying hard that Aramai will be home for Christmas this year but chances are she'll still be recovering from Surgery at Children's hospital of Philadelphia. Dan and I may be moving our Christmas morning to the hospital so our family can be together. We actually got all of our Christmas shopping done in one day. We drove to Lancaster with a couple of friends one saturday and managed to check off our list one by one in no time - it was awesome! I never got all my Christmas shopping done in one day before.

We cut down our Christmas tree in NJ a few Sunday's ago. It was FREEZING and WINDY. Avalee was dressed as "I can't put my arms down" girl. She could barely walk. As soon as we got off the tracter our entire family picked the first tree they saw. We went VERY small this year. Not quite Charlie brown but small enough to fit right on top of our dining room table. This makes it easier for Avalee to not be tempted beyond which she is able.

I wrapped all of our presents and placed them strategically in the corner. I went to feed Aramai, returned in 25 minutes to all of my presents completely unwrapped and all around the house. Yikes --- Avalee already had her Christmas. This takes the guessing out of whether she'll like opening presents or not. Now I have to wrap all my presents again!

Please pray for us Thursday. Aramai is going to CHOP for open heart surgery in the morning. I'm very scared and nervous but know that God has everything in control. We would greatly appreciate all your prayers. Merry Christmas :)

Update on Aramai

After our visit to the cardiologist yesterday it seems like our baby girl is not gaining any weight. She only weighs 5lbs 8 oz...not even her birth weight yet. She was put on yet another medication to help with her potassium levels. Since they don't see her getting to 10 pounds within the next month they will be moving forward with the surgery. We go to Children's hospital of Philadelphia for a second opinion the week after thanksgiving. We'll get a chance to meet a few surgeons and they'll schedule her surgery for sometime in December. Please keep Aramai in your prayers. She's such a little peanut to need heart surgery but we all know God will keep her little heart in His hands.

A New Baby Girl

We brought Aramai Loretta home Tuesday afternoon - election day. She was born 5lbs 10oz. She looks EXACLTY like Avalee! She's such a little peanut. Dan says she's very breakable and too fragile to hold ;) Labor and delivery could not have been easier. Sure, I was having labor pains for a week and they only got worse towards the weekend, but delivery was the easiest thing possible (I bow down to epidural's)

Avalee is adjusting quite well. She has not mastered being "gentle" quite yet, but loves her little sister and is quite curious as to why she just lays there all day. It will be a challenge with a 15 month old (soon to be 16 months) and a newborn in the house but who needs sleep and showers?? Thank the Lord for a wonderful church family, friends, and family who take great care of us!!!

Aramai was born with a hole in her heart. It's quite big for her size and they are assuming it won't close on its own and will require surgery to close it. She's been seen by the cardiologist twice already and many visits to the pediatrician in one week. Their watching her like a hawk and she has us all worried, but God is good and completely in control. We serve a higher physician who can do ALL things! They would like to see Aramai get a little older (at least a month) and weigh at least 10 lbs before performing the surgery on her. It's all a big waiting game right now, all we can do is love on her and pray for her to be safe!

I try to catch cat naps here and there. She actually sleeps more than I remember Avalee sleeping. I have to wake her at night for her feedings, otherwise she would sleep right through - I'm counting my blessings now because I know as she gets older, the sleeping all day and night thing will go away! We truly thank the Lord for another little blessing in our lives!!

Ultrasound

I went in for what will hopefully be my last ultrasound (cross my fingers). Baby's growth is finally catching up. now weighing 5 lbs 9 oz...and measuring between 36 and 37 weeks. I should be 38 weeks right now - so this is good news. Last time I went in for an ultrasound I was supposed to be 35 weeks and was measuring 31. All of these ultrasounds and I've managed not to find out the sex. of course I'm not very good at reading the sonograms and knowing the difference between a leg and an arm until someone points it out to me - I'm a perfect candidate for staying surprised!

Avalee caught up at the end and weighed in at 7lbs. She came 2 weeks early. I'm hoping I don't go for 3 more weeks but we'll see...either way, it's right around the corner!!!!

Many Updates

Where to start??? I guess apologies first for not blogging in awhile. We just returned from the C3 conference in NY and I loved the way Ed young described ministry. He said things are brutiful and/or beautiful. It's going to be my way of explaining things for now on. So let's say blogging is quite brutiful due to finding the time but beautiful to keep everyone up to date with the McInnes clan.

"Any day now"... has been my three favorite words over the last week. I don't have an official due date because of many discrepancies with the growth etc... I'm due between Oct. 19 and Nov. 15. Yes, it's frustrating (Brutiful). Yet, I'm enjoying the weekly ultrasounds and being able to see the baby (Beautiful). We don't know what it is, and we STILL don't have any names picked yet. We do have at least a top 5 if it's a boy, but nothing even remotely close to putting down on paper if it's a girl. We're getting tired of discussing it so decided to not try to talk about names for a whole week. I'm extremely uncomfortable, LARGE, and have a huge lack of sleep.

Avalee is now 15 months and in her terrible two's. She thinks she's bigger than she is and tries to do things way above her head. She wants to do things her cousins do (especially Rachel) but the child needs to stay a baby for a little bit longer. She's a little peanut who still doesn't quite fit into her 12 month clothes. I buy her 6-9 month pants which fit perfectly around the waist but a little too short (floods). She can get away with capri's for now but colder days are coming right around the corner.

We are working diligently on elevating the KidVenture environment. Dan right now is researching different lighting for the gym which will enhance LIVE! tremendously. It's beginning to all come together and can't wait to see what it will all turn out like. Greater things are yet to come!! KidVenture will soon look like "Disney World on crack". (that's how they describe the children's ministry at Fellowship Church in Grapevine TX)

Dan is still working PT for Harvey's locks and PT for the church. He graciously finished the new room we set up for Avalee to move into for me. It was our "storage room" and we both we're not looking forward to cleaning it out. Where to put everything?? I ended up throwing a lot of things away (brutiful) but I got a chance to really organize myself (beautiful). Dan's been an awesome husband through all of my complaining. Especially this past weekend with our 5 hour road trip. A 9 month pregnant woman in the car for 5 hours is no fun ---- but Dan was WONDERFUL to me!!

Fall is approaching

with a wonderful family vacation to Duck N.C. behind us and labor day weekend one week away I feel that summer is officially over for us. So many kids are starting school this week including my "too little to start school" niece Rachel. It's always quite sad for me when summer comes to an end yet God brings exciting falls for us every year.
I can not wait for KidVenture to start back up September 7th. I miss the kids like crazy! It's a refreshing break and a great momentum kicker to have summers off, and it only makes me more excited about what our kids ministry is all about.
Our elevate series at Fellowship also starts Sept. 7th... this is all about elevating our spiritual growth and I can't wait to see what God is going to do at Fellowship and His people through this series.
I've been telling everyone that the baby is due in the fall. Well the fall is here! I still have a few months, but it's approaching right before my eyes and we'll have a new little baby before we know it. Can't wait to meet him/her!!!
Avalee turned one in July but she is definitely in her terrible two's! we have a lot of work ahead of us with her - I wish she wasn't so darn cute, it would be a lot easier to discipline. (she has Dan's personality :) )

Update

it's been awhile since I posted - which just shows how busy summer's (and life) can get! Here are a few things that have happened the last month:

• Avalee turned one July 18th! We celebrated with a big luau party by the pool with family and friends.
• Avalee is now walking - she just needed to turn one
• we took the KidVenture kids to Dorney Park. we had a great group, great weather, and a lot of fun!
• We've been doing some idea tossing and brain storming for kidventure this year. This should be a very exciting fall when we kick back with our programs.
• Dan and I took a trip to Boston to visit grandma Eaton. We had a blast! there is so much to do there - Avalee loved it and it was great spending time with family.
• Our hot water heater broke while we were away - flooded our basement!
• God is really teaching us a lot - I've been going through some rough waters the past few months and feel God's presence all over me right now clearing the waves and just focusing on Him.
• John's been doing an awesome series on side effects - I'm still working on what's under the surface of the iceberg.
• Our student ministry went to lift camp last week - how awesome it is to hear so many teens come back with life change.
• I'm now 6 months along and going strong. The heat makes me feel very pregnant and I feel my feet getting swollen sometimes but those are the only things I can complain about. God is good!
  

Beach

We had a great time relaxing at the beach... here is a short (10 sec.) video of Avalee in the water. She wasn't too sure at first but started getting used to it!

Home sweet home

The Russia team arrived safely home. Dan got in around 1:45 Sunday Morning. I of course waited up for him as I was so desperate to see him. when he walked down this morning and Avalee was playing, the face she had when she saw her daddy was something I wish I could have captured - too cute! She was very excited.
It sounds like it was a great trip for all of them and we are so happy to have everyone safely home.

Random things about this week

• I loved the new show "wipe out"... at first I thought it was really dumb but I totally got into it.
• Avalee and I haven't had dinner alone yet this week... we have awesome friends and family!
• I've organized every closet in our house - I'm so proud of myself
• I've organized my clothes... from "slim clothes" to "fat clothes" (maternity) it is now official that I can no longer wear my regular clothes
  
• I thought Avalee would miss Dan's silliness, so I've tried to fill in and make her laugh as much as possible... she just looks at me like I'm weird.
• I'm watching Rachel and Austin tomorrow (Avalee gets to play with them twice in one week, she's in her glory when she's around them).
• Our church is doing the OnePrayer series and It's been awesome... can't wait for our church to hear Ed Young this week because he totally brings it!
• It's a 5th Sunday this week... I better remind my volunteers
• I'm not so sure our kids are enjoying the Rock Solid series we've been doing this summer, hmmm... we need to rethink what to do.
• It's been lonely in the office... even Jeff is on vacation this week, and poor Ben I only work part time, he must really be hearing the crickets.
  
• Michele and I are planning Avalee's first birthday party. I can't believe she turns 1 in 3 weeks.
  
• 6 days down , 3 more to go - Can't wait to see Dan!
  

Volunteers

I've been sitting here at my desk writing a new manual for KidVenture workers. I've been working on this manual for 4 months now and still going strong. I've had several other children's pastors from other churches helping me with ideas and policies etc...
I just got off the phone with one pastor who oversees over 200 volunteers in his children's ministry. He expects a lot out of his leaders and volunteers. He doesn't joke around when it comes to people wanting to work with God's kids. I'm so inspired by his passion to not only lead the kids to Christ but mentor and grow his volunteers. I sometimes feel as if I'm too hard on my workers... all the rules, wearing name tags, signing in, finding subs, arriving 20 minutes early to work in our classroom, or an hour early to practice for LIVE!, the memorizing of skits etc. Then I sat here and listened to another church's policies and my first thought was WOW! Our volunteers have it easy. I began to ask him a lot of questions from how much complaining he gets to what happens when people are late... He actually said, it's rare things like that would happen around our kids ministry because our volunteers "get the vision". Hmmm...
I love the people God has placed in KidVenture to serve our kids. Fellowship kids are so blessed to have these people love on them the way they do every Sunday. I even have volunteers who want to serve EVERY SUNDAY so they can form a special relationship with the kids, otherwise they would miss them too much. I wish I could sit here and name every one of them and tell you what I love about them (and I would except it would take too long and I need to get back to working on the never ending manual... maybe someday).
I just felt a need to stop and thank my volunteers somehow... What you do goes beyond any thing I could express through words - THANK YOU! and Thank you God for sending them our way!!!

Heard from Dan

Dan called last night... very tired after the long trip to Smolensk. Apparently the bus got a speeding ticket so they weren't driving too slow. One bag is missing, but that's pretty good for one to be missing out of 66 luggages and 28 bins. Not too sure who's though. TSA at the
airport had to go through all of their luggage because the jars of peanut
butter came up on the detectors as plastic explosives. Dan had many funny stories to tell already and it's the beginning of the week - can't wait to hear more!
The weather is a bit cloudy and rainy - 64 degrees. Dan says it sounds like it will stay that way for the next couple of days. Hopefully the rain will hold off so they can build the playgrounds and fence. I'll try to keep you in the loop as I hear more.

Avalee and I have been doing great. Our friends and my parents have been taking very good care of us. I enjoyed a night out with some friends Friday night while my parents took care of Avalee. We were at the pool all day yesterday. Church went pretty well - but boy do we miss the guys. Half our team was gone and we definitely felt it. Ben and Stuart were awesome and I have no idea what I would have done without them.

Russia

Dan and the rest of the Russia team left this morning around 7:30. There are 33 people this year (which is the biggest team we've taken to Russia yet). They have a lot of traveling to do - they fly from Philly to Chicago with a 5 hour layover, then Chicago to Moscow, then a 6 hour ride from Moscow to Smolensk. Once they finally arrive I'm sure a big weight will be off their shoulders - but let's all pray they get their safely.
I miss Dan already!

Pool

Avalee has been loving the pool life. I'm so glad - it makes it a lot easier on me since I love the sun and love being outside in the summer. We've been swimming pretty much every day I'm not working. Avalee is fearless and takes lots of risks. She'll dunk her head in, try to drink the water, push away from whoever is holding her thinking she can swim, and splashing like crazy. Avalee had an opportunity to swim with two friends yesterday. David from Minnesota (Shari's nephew) enjoyed the pool with Avalee for a couple hours. David is a week older than Avalee and they were very cute together. Rachel and Austin then came over later in the afternoon. Avalee loves her Rachel - She enjoyed watching every move that Rachel made in the pool. So far we are loving the summer life. I can't wait to see what Avalee does at the beach. Here is a picture of Avalee with her mommom.

Weekend

Weeks just fly by don't they? We are heading into another weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. Last night Dan and I took Avalee to get her 1st year pictures taken. She couldn't have been in a better mood. She smiled and laughed during every single shot, which only made it harder for us to choose which ones we were going to purchase. She reached her limit when the photographer pulled out a rubber duckie to get her to laugh but all she wanted to do was chew on it and play with it. When she realized he wasn't giving it to her and he just wanted her to look at it she got pretty upset...so picture time was over.

We are having a picnic for all the people that work with our kids in KidVenture. Dan and I are really excited to honor our volunteers and spend some quality time with them since Sunday's are so rushed. We have the BEST volunteers and I wouldn't trade any of them. They work hard, they sacrifice a lot, They love the Lord and they LOVE our kids. We have a GREAT children's ministry because of them and our kids LOVE to come to church because they make it so much fun. - if any of you are reading this please know that I love you and truly appreciate you!

Sunday is Father's Day. Avalee and I having something very special in store for Dan, I'll have to post more on Monday since I can't give it away yet. We'll be having a BBQ at my parents house to spend time with my dad. What do you get for a man who has everything and wants nothing...hmmm??? Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers! Enjoy your day!!

Trip to N.C

We had a great time in North Carolina visiting Elevation church. All I have to say is Fellowship Rocks! I love our church, our people, our kids, and my job. Dan went to help them set up at 4:30 in the morning (our set up team has it easy). They run 4 services at their one campus, two at another, and are opening another campus in the fall. We walked away with a lot of insight, new ideas, and inspiration but most of all we walked away knowing we LOVE where we are.
The worst part of the trip was being delayed in the airport all night Sunday. We were supposed to be home by 9:30 and instead got home at 12:30AM. Oh well - Dan and I bonded in the airport.

These last couple days have been brutal with the heat... It was 104 in N.C. but felt like 120 with no breeze and bad humidity. It's a good thing Avalee LOVES the pool, I hate being stuck in the house with no AC. Hope you are all staying as cool as possible.

Time Flies!

I always ask myself "where did the time go". I feel like it's going by even faster than ever before. Sometimes I can't even catch my breath before another day begins. I never want to take a day for granted and hope I can always thank God for every moment He gives me. If only time would slow down a little bit so I can enjoy it more.
I can't believe Avalee is going to be a year old next month... where did this year go?
I can't believe it's summer time already...did we have a spring?
I can't believe Dan is going to Russia in two weeks!
One of my brothers just turned 34...and he's not even my oldest brother - yikes!
October will be here before we know it and we'll have another precious baby to enjoy...I need to savor every moment.

We are headed to North Carolina this weekend to check out a fast growing church called elevation church. Dan and I are excited to see how they do portable church there. We fly out Saturday morning and return Sunday night. Only sad thing is leaving Avalee - but we know she'll be in good hands!

DAN CAN SEE!!!

Dan pulled through - and he is just overly ecstatic at his ability to see. I'm so happy for him. He opened his eyes and things are a little bright for him (even with sunglasses on). All the lights are off and it makes him happy but I'm having a little trouble seeing now...hmmm.
He's been napping all day since his eyes should really stay closed and now that I'm ready for bed he's ready to party! Thanks for the prayers, we appreciate all of you for thinking of us :) Can't wait til you can see Dan without glasses!!!!

Dan

I'm so thrilled for Dan today. He has been waiting for six years to get lasik eye surgery done. We are in the Washington D.C area now and Dan is in surgery! Apparently it only takes 7 minutes on each eye. He won't be able to see until tomorrow. I'm praying everything goes right for him. Dan has worn glasses since the 1st grade (our kids don't have a chance of being able to see).
Avalee and I will be slaving over him for two days - but it's worth it! just pray he doesn't drive me nuts.
I'll let you know how everything turns out.

Weird Night!

Lately Avalee has been trying her hardest to climb out of the crib. Usually by the time we get to her in the morning at least one leg is hanging over and she's not quite sure how to untangle herself from the position she's put herself in. It's funny and scary at the same time to walk in and see her like that. Dan decided it's way over due to lower her crib, so that's what he did yesterday. When we went to put her to bed she was terrified. She was confused, and scared to be in what probably looked like prison to her. We would go in and comfort her every 15-20 minutes but she just would not calm down. I gave in and decided to rock her to sleep. The second I picked her up she fell asleep on my shoulder, but then when I tried to lay her back in her crib she immediately wailed. It was very confusing for us and we weren't quite sure what to do. We finally just left her in there until she fell asleep...which didn't end up happening until 5:00 in the morning. What is up with that?? I only got a good 3 hours sleep last night and now I'm exhausted. Let's just say naps were good and long for her today! Let's hope this night is much easier for all of us.

What a weekend!!

So many exciting things have happened this weekend!
Congratulations to Jeff and Jennifer on their new baby boy, Hudson Ream. Hudson was born last night...we were all very eager to meet him and couldn't wait for his entrance into this world.
Congratulations to Ben and Courtney on their new home! It is beautiful and we are so excited for them.
And Finally congratulations to Dave and Evelyn on their wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding with a gorgeous bride - and it turned out to be a beautiful day.
We had a great night Saturday evening at our VIP event. Our staff pulled off an awesome evening. Worship was amazing and God has blessed us with awesome volunteers at Fellowship. John shared elevate with our VIP's and were excited to see the greater things that God has in store for Fellowship Church.
Thank you to all of our KidVenture workers who make our kids ministry the best ever! We have such a talented group of people who have an amazing passion for kids and I couldn't thank the Lord enough for bringing them to Fellowship to invest in our kids lives. Thanks for making a difference! I love you all!!

Exciting weekend ahead!

Lots of exciting things happening this weekend. Dan's sister gets married Saturday. We have our VIP elevate night Saturday evening. We've been anticipating this weekend for a while and can't wait to dive in.
The beginning of the week was rough. Dan and Avalee came down with a stomach Virus, then decided to pass it along to me. I'm glad we didn't end up being sick at the same time, that would have been a nightmare. God pulled us all through, we are all healthy and ready to go!

weekly update

Not much has been happening around here this past week. We've been enjoying the wonderful weather. Avalee loves it outside! She's gotten used to crawling on the grass and now has discovered ants - ugh! If I'm not watching her closely she'll attempt to pick one up and eat it (everything goes in the mouth).
We enjoyed the day with my niece and nephew Austin and Rachel. Avalee now gets what it means to "play" with Austin and it's too cute to watch. They pass each other toys, "talk" to each other, and just laugh, to which Rachel will then say "hush babies! you're too loud!"
We have our final UpStreet with the kids tomorrow before we break for the summer. We are serving them a big dinner and have lots of fun activities in store for them. I'm looking forward to it and hope we have a great turn out (especially with all the food we have!) Also looking forward to the weekend - relaxing and getting ready for Sunday.

Good Days; Bad Days

This weekend started off great. A Friday evening to ourselves, a productive Saturday around the house followed by a fun evening of pizza and a movie with friends...life doesn't get any better than that. I had time to meditate on my lesson for Sunday morning and "extra" time to dig into God's Word without being rushed or having other things on my mind - that's what I call a good day. Then Sunday rolls around which is the most exciting day of the week for me and nothing seems to go right. What happened? I thought I was doing good - the weekend was great, I was on a high and my world comes crashing down - that's what I call a bad day. We all have good days and bad days. It's a reminder to me of what my relationship with God is like - good days, and bad days.
Pastor John recently challenged me about God's wisdom. How much do I want to know God? Proverbs uses words like search, store, turn your ear, look up, call out, cry aloud...then you will understand. In other words, God's not just going to hand me wisdom. I have to want it bad enough to seek out. My relationship with the Lord can be a roller coaster of ups and downs, but it's during the downs that I realize how much I need God and how much I need to cry out for his wisdom so I can apply it to my life. It's those "bad days" and moments of when I want to quit and give up that only make me search and look up more and more and those are the moments I never want to let go of. So thank you God for the good days, but thank you also for the bad days.

Orange (Part 2)

What a great conference. It was such a refreshing time away and also a great time to learn. The speakers were awesome, the break-out sessions were insightful, and the time spent with some of our staff was a great reminder of how blessed we are.
Here's some quick info I walked away with:
Reggie Joiner talked on a "prodigal generation". In the story of the prodigal son there is a loving father and an older brother. The older brother wasn't quite as thrilled about the other brother coming home as the loving father was. Reggie talked about the church having a loving father mentality rather than an older brother.
Sue Miller talked on "unedited children's ministry". She discussed how children's pastors need to set the bar higher on systems, policies, and procedures. Too often we don't stand firm enough and people take advantage of this work for the kingdom. This is one thing Dan and I can really push harder at.
Craig Jutila had a great talk on replacing yourself. A good leader trains someone to take over what they do. If you are constantly filling in for someone or running the show, volunteers will ultimately think that "it's your job." No one will step up and do it. We need to train people to do what we do so there are no holes to fill when we leave.
This conference was all about getting on the same page with your student ministry. Working along side your youth pastor rather than having two separate ministries. The best part of this whole trip was the relief of knowing that Ryan, Dan and I are doing an awesome job at working with each other. Of course, there are some things we could work at but all in all we are not too far off. Ryan and his wife Jessica are amazing with our teens. Ryan is the best at what he does. Our students are blessed to have him be their pastor. I look up to Ryan and all his gifts and knowledge, he amazes me at what he can do. I'm so glad to be on the same team as Ryan and the rest of our amazing staff for that matter.

We flew in last night and got home around 11:30pm. As much as I wanted to drive right over to my parents house and wake up Avalee I refrained. I waited until this morning to pick her up. It was so exciting to see that cute adorable face!! (I think she got fat - they must of fed her junk food the whole time :-) ) I haven't put her down all morning, we've been cuddling - against her will - and I've only given her ten thousand kisses so far. Poor Dan can't see her until he gets home from work. He called to try and talk to her but all she wanted to do was eat the phone. so, until 5:30... he'll have to wait. It's good to be with my baby girl again!

Orange

Dan and I flew to Atlanta, GA. Sunday afternoon with our lead pastor, John and student pastor, Ryan for the orange conference. We are very excited to learn what it means to have a family ministry and how to sync up our youth and children. We are also excited about spending quality time with John and Ryan over the next few days.
We attended the pre-conference workshops today which were very insightful. It's always neat to hear what other churches and ministries are doing around the country. When I sit through different seminars I am nothing but amazed at how far God has brought Fellowship and the things he has allowed me to be a part of. I can't wait to learn more about how to keep reaching the next generation.
The only sad part of this whole conference is being away from my little Avalee. She is staying with my parents until Thursday morning. I will say, one side of me is enjoying the break and remembering what it was like to just be Dan and I... on the other hand I am sobbing inside with how much I miss her. I'll write more about our trip tomorrow.

Avalee

Avalee is now 9 months old and a very curious little girl. The past few days have been very rough for her. She woke up Monday morning with a very high fever. She wanted to cuddle with me all day. It was the first time I wasn't able to put her down at all. The only thing that made her happy was being in the bath tub (which helped bring her temperature down). She didn't nap well, woke up about 3 times in the night sweating, and I could tell she was just very uncomfortable. Tuesday came around and she still did not feel well. Her temperature kept rising through out the day. I finally called the doctor who didn't really help too much. She hasn't eaten solids since Saturday, she would only drink her formula. Last night she finally had some applesauce and would get on the floor to play. I was hoping she started feeling better. She went to bed around 8:30 and surprisingly did not wake until the next morning. When I went to get her she was completely happy, with no fever, and actually ate breakfast. She's now crawling all around looking for things to get into. I'm so happy she finally feels better. I hate when babies get sick because they can't explain to you what is wrong yet. Hopefully she remains well and we can get out of the house this afternoon and do something fun!!!

random things...

Sorry it's been a week since I last posted. It just goes to show how time flies around here for us. Last weekend we went to Maryland to visit with Dan's dad. It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful drive down. It was nice to visit with them. They got to play with Avalee, see her crawling all over. We had a wonderful meal, and we were able to celebrate birthday's as well.
We've been trying to catch up on projects for our ministry. We have some people coming in from Atlanta to help us with our kids environment this coming weekend so we are definitely looking forward to that. Dan will be going on a mission trip to Russia with our church this June. He had a meeting Thursday night for several hours. The missionary there, Buddy Thigpen, flew in to speak to the group. Dan is looking forward to going and working at the feeding centers and orphanages again.
On another note, did any of you watch Survivor last night? I know some of you are going to give me a hard time about this so please no hate mail... but I am VERY disappointed they did that to Ozzy. I actually liked him - and I thought he was going to win the whole thing. I know - I should of known better. At least Kristy Lee Cook is off American Idol now!
We are so glad it's Friday with no plans but to relax with the family.

Updates

It's been an emotional roller coaster this week. We've had some great and exciting things happen, as well as some pretty tough news to bear.
This past Monday our friends Phil and Jenna had a baby girl, Skye Raylyn. We've been praying for 9 months that Jenna would have a girl, so we are so thrilled that God blessed them with a new little miracle.
Also this week a man named James that Dan worked with at Master Locator's passed away. He was only in his 30's. He suffered a stroke, was put on life support, and within a few days we lost him. James had a fiance, Kim who has 4 children. James recently started to attend our church and turned his life over to the Lord - so that we can be thankful for. I just saw James on Sunday as happy as could be with a huge smile on his face. Things can happen so fast and we can only take things one day at a time. I'm so thankful the Lord has my life in His hands and I can trust Him no matter what. Pray for Kim and the rest of James' family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!

Dan turned the big 25 on Saturday. He basically had a birthday weekend... and it's still not over. It started Friday night where we celebrated with some friends at the Melting Pot. It was a lot of fun with some good food. Saturday Dan enjoyed the day with his ATV - he went riding with Uncle Steve and Jared through the woods all afternoon. It was a gorgeous day for it, and I'm so glad Dan was able to enjoy himself. It rained all day Friday, so it was a bit muddy in the woods, but that only made it more enjoyable for Dan to ride through puddles and get real dirty. Him and I then went out together for some seafood. We enjoyed a bunch of crab legs - right up Dan's ally! Tomorrow night my parents are taking Dan out for a birthday dinner as well - it just keeps getting better. Dan is enjoying having his birthday extended over a few days.
Dan is the best husband and father anyone could ask for - I thank God for him everyday. Happy Birthday Dan!

Avalee and Rueben

Dan brought in a horse for our UpStreet theme "On the trail" to welcome our kids as they came in last Friday night. Avalee's face just lit up - she loves dogs, so she probably just thought it was a BIG dog. Of course she wanted to taste the horse, and put it's fir in her mouth - but she enjoyed petting him.

Lonely Night

Dan took a trip with the guys up to New York to take care of some "church business". Avalee and I went out with my mom for dinner, we then grabbed some dessert at Dunkin Donuts and we were home by 7:00. Avalee usually goes to bed at 7:30 or 8:00 but since Dan wasn't around I wanted her to stay up with me and keep me company. Well, after her bath and reading a few books she decided she had enough of me. I couldn't even keep her up past 8:15 - she was done! There was nothing left for me to clean, no more laundry to do, no more dishes, so I became bored. The thought of waking Avalee up crossed my mind a few times but we all know that wouldn't fly with an 8 month old. So what else is there to do but read or watch TV. I of course caught up on the show "big brother" as it's very rare I get to watch TV. I made some cookies and muffins, which I will have eaten all by tomorrow (there's nothing like hot fresh baked cookies right out of the oven!) It figures that every other night I am extremely tired and ready to go to bed by 9:00 - but not tonight, not when it's convenient to go to bed early!
After all this "boredom" I decided to work on my lesson for Sunday and read more of "Starving Jesus" (great book by the way, recommend it to everyone!) low and behold our lesson this week is on spending time with Jesus. Teaching kids on making Jesus a priority in their life. Isn't it funny how I'm trying to find things to do all night long because I'm "lonely" and the thought of spending time with God was the very last thing. I became completely convicted with my priorities and pray that everyday my relationship with God will only get stronger so I can get to know Him more and more. It's all He longs for with us - what more could we ask for!

Fun Weekend!

We had a great weekend... flew by like always. God is doing amazing things here and we are just trying to keep up with the vision. Friday Night was great at upStreet. Dan pulled out all the stops as he launched our new series "On the trail". He transformed our entire youth room into a western desert... We even had a horse out front welcoming our kids as they came. Avalee loved the horse - I'll have to post a picture of her and the horse later.
I had the great privilege of meeting Jon and Kate Gosselin from the discovery health show "Jon and Kate plus 8". If you ever watched it you'll know that these two are the nicest people - who have a great challenge of raising twins and sextuplets, but admit to only being able to do it with the Lord's strength. I have a picture of them writing on the chalkboard in the classroom behind the stage. They spoke at Elk Creek Church on Sunday. A friend of mine, my mom and I went to see them. Pastor Mike (of Elk Creek) allowed me to go back and meet them, and even ask them some questions of my own -- VERY COOL!

What a week!

This week has flew by for us. It's a hard thing when you try to balance family, work, friends, and then just having fun. At the beginning of the week I said to myself "I'm going to do fun things this week". After mentioning that to my friend Shari, she took it upon herself to make sure it happened. We had lunch together 3 times this week, we went shopping for others and ourselves, and we continued to work on Avalee's scrapbook. Thanks Shari, for making my week "fun". Dan and I just had a great week - yet we didn't do anything 'spectacular'. I love being able to say that. Everyone's healthy, Avalee has been great, and has taken really long naps all week. Dan came home on time for dinner every night, and we were able to watch some of the television shows we like - American Idol, Apprentice, and Big Brother.
We usually have more busy weekends than weeks. Most people use weekends to relax and catch up on family, where as for Dan and I it's the complete opposite. We try to relax as much as we can during the week because we know it will be non stop all weekend. We have UpStreet tonight, I have a baby shower to attend Saturday afternoon, we are going out with friends in the evening... and of course Sunday, well... you know - Sunday's for us!

First Easter Egg Hunt

Today Avalee had her first Easter Egg hunt. She loved sitting in the grass! As soon as she picked up her first egg she decided to see what it would taste like. After about 3 minutes of eating a plastic egg, she then discovered she was sitting in grass and wanted to try to eat that - she loved it! She thought the grass was hilarious, and would laugh every time she picked the grass.
Dan did an awesome job with the church's Easter Egg Hunt. We distributed 6000 eggs, had over 100 prizes, and about 170 kids. The funny thing about egg hunts is you put in so much preparation, 3 hours of set up before the event... it took us an hour and a half to lay out all the eggs on the grass, and all the organization of volunteers. When all the kids show up, they line up then go on the whistle - the event is over in ten minutes flat! What a fast thing to watch - but the kids always love it.
Tomorrow is another busy day - Big Day at Church, family dinner, another family egg hunt for Avalee (and Dan). I can't wait to dress Avalee in a beautiful Easter dress from grandma Eaton! gone are the days Dan and I get to dress up for Easter, we have to wear our team Jersey's to church for now on. Oh well!
Happy Easter!

March Madness

The Sareyka's and the staff at Fellowship are all really into this march madness thing. If you know Dan and I at all, you know that we (especially Dan) are not into sports. (Dan didn't even know what March madness was???) Just to be "cool" and go along with the crowd I decided to do one too. Now grant it, I have no idea whether any of the teams I picked are good... but I did go for the three philly teams. (isn't that what you're supposed to do anyway - root for your hometown?) Well hopefully at least Temple and Villanova will do somewhat decent. As for Dan, he'll continue to not care what everyone else is doing, and will continue to not really know what March Madness is. Are any of you doing this?

Interesting facts about Easter

I found this on Pastor Mike's blog and found it very interesting myself... I was wondering why Easter was so early this year!

“Have you realized how early Easter is this year? As you may have heard, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare. Here’s the interesting info. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!

Here are the facts:

• The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you’re 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
  
• The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!”

weekend reflections

Have I ever told you how wonderful my husband is? Dan is an incredibly hard worker - to which most goes unseen because he never toots his own horn. Dan is a part time Children's Pastor at our awesomely cool church in Glen Mills - www.fellowshiptoday.com - we just had a complete stage makeover with lights, truss, and fabric. It totally rocks - to quote our lead pastor "we now have the best portable church stage in the country". Dan put in lots of hours to make this stage happen. for the past month or so, i have not seen much of Dan due to his WAY overtime amount of hours he put into the project. On top of that, he helped me pull off an incredible UpStreet Friday night (our small groups program for kids) and an amazing Sunday morning in KidVenture which set the tone for Easter next week. I love Dan, I love partnering with him, serving with him, and watching him make things happen.
Friday started Spring break here in PA - Friday night was our UpStreet program to which we expected low numbers due to most families going away. We still had a great time talking about the fruit of the Spirit of Love, and having pizza and soda for the kids. We had an awesome turn out of volunteers come out that night to stuff eggs for our Easter Egg hunt - over 5500 eggs were filled. I know they never want to see another egg again, but boy am I glad I didn't have to do it! We got home around 10:30 and Dan went straight to the garage to finish working on the lights and truss to be put up by Saturday afternoon.
Unfortanetly with such a busy weekend, we missed out on Dan's sister, Evelyn's shower in Boston. Evelyn is getting married to Dave (who she met at LBC) on May 17th in Lancaster. We are thrilled for her and Dave and couldn't be more proud of what they've accomplished. Can I just say - I've never seen two people being tested before they were married as much as these two have. If you name it, they have been through it, and yet their faith and trust in the Lord is still as strong as ever. These two amaze us - and we are so blessed to be a part of their wedding.
Avalee woke up Saturday morning with two top teeth poking through. Of all the misery this girl has been through with teething - Dan said if they don't pop through soon he will drill them in. FINALLY we have some evidence to her crankiness - and we as parents are very relieved - for her of course. Avalee continues to get better at crawling (backwards of course... anyone with a mix of Sareyka and McInnes blood will not do anything normal) She babbles constantly - sings in the car to veggie tales, loves peek a boo (especially when her daddy plays with her - he's more dramatic than mommy) and may have just mastered the sippy cup. My 8 month old baby is getting big!!

Blogging Land

Well... Dan and I have finally decided to start a blog due to the large amounts of whining and complaining (kidding!?!) from family and friends of how we don't keep up with staying in contact. Is being busy really an excuse to not maintain the wonderful relationships in our lives? of course not! So here it is - our McInnes blog. We will try to post regularly to keep you all in the loop with what is happening in our lives. Remember we love you all - and hope this will be a blessing to you as you peak into our world.