Yes, well, it's been a little while, hasn't it? We've all been really, really busy, and I'd love to give an update...post lots of pictures...etc., but that's not happening yet, sorry! =) Our summer is going well; I in Indy, the rest of the family in Pennsylvania... Here are a couple of pictures I borrowed from Suzi's FB...precious. =)


Sara Kate is getting sooooo big! I miss her!






Ben doesn't look very happy in this picture... ;)

Rural Pennsylvania landscape in the Springtime... isn't it lovely?


Becca Joy


Shiloh!


Skyler, Sam, and Seth heading out for an overnight camping trip


Seth and our little puppies...Lilly and Eponine.


Ben...our cute, little, bald-head baby is almost two. And as you can see, his hair is finally starting to grow! ;)


The little girls...they love to play together and can be quite silly. :)

Sara Kate

Smilin' brown eyes


Seven weeks old already!


Mommy kisses :)


The two Saras...I don't think we look much alike. ;)

What we've been up to!

We’ve long thought it was about time for another update and a few pictures =)...wouldn't you agree? But finding the time to DO just such a thing has been next to impossible! Finally though, here it is, and I think we've made it long enough to make it worth your while. =) We are doing well in Pennsylvania and can see so clearly the Lord’s hand continuing His work in our family -- God has been so very good to us! We’ve had a very mild Spring so far with little rain, but enough to keep the lawnmower going. =) We’ve loved watching the many flowers bloom around our “little white house,” and we have yet to run out of fresh flowers from the yard to make bouquets with (when we do, we‘ll have plenty of dandelions to spare)! We also love living in the country again where the cows graze across the road from our house and we hear the familiar “whirr” of Amish buggies traveling along the road.

A little update on the family… The Lord has provided Dad with consistent construction work so far--something that we praise Him for each day as an answer to our earnest prayers. The Lord has opened up the door for us to buy a house... Our grandparents were looking for another smaller home to purchase and offered to sell their house to us--the home where both my grandpa and dad grew up! We're excited about this opportunity and are continuing to seek the Lord about it...but it's almost a certainty that we'll be moving again by the end of the summer. ;)

Shiloh is almost as tall as the twins now (he definitely weighs more!), he talks a lot, and he doesn’t walk--he runs…everywhere. Since he’s not quite two yet, you can imagine that makes for lots of bumps and bruises (and a few pretty deep cuts too) for the little guy. =) Our blonde, curly-haired, blue-eyed baby absolutely LOVES to be outside and is never happier than when he’s allowed to roam the yard away from the confines of the front porch!

Savannah and Sophia are so glad to live next door to Anna and Becca, whom they play with every possible day. Their favorite thing to do is play in the sandbox together! And they love to go “camping” in our travel trailer, even if it is right beside our house. =) They have such servants’ hearts and like to help me with whatever I’m doing, whether it’s hoeing the garden, baking bread, making cookies, or cleaning the bathroom…they like to be right there helping in any way they can!

Silas, ever mischievous, likes to help Josh haul pigs and play with Anna…Everyday after his schoolwork and chores are finished he seeks out Anna and they go off on their adventures together. Of course, he always takes his little stuffed puppy with him wherever he goes--you should hear the stories Silas tells about his little puppy ;)…one moment his puppy’s been carried off by the giant dog, Abby; the next he’s been swimming in the toilet (seriously!) or buried under a mountain of sand. =)

Seth loves to “hunt” with his bb gun, catch wild birds (like the robin he literally picked up out of the yard and set in a cage in our garage, feeding it worms for days =), ride his bike everywhere, experiment with different ways to start a fire (not always outside either!), explore the surrounding fields and woods, and do small work projects for others to earn some money. =) Last I heard he was saving up to buy himself a laptop. ;)

Sam helps Dad and Josh a lot with various work projects, and he’s become our official lawnmower because he loves riding the lawn tractor so much! It’s no chore to him at all. =) He helped a lot with the maple syrup-making this past winter and splitting nearly nine cords of firewood to sell. Sam helped Seth and Silas build a fort on the other side of our garage and they all love to play there together! All of the boys LOVE to fish, and a farmer down the road gave them permission to fish on his pond whenever they’d like, so they’re always asking to be able to go and do some fishing. =)

Skyler seems to be the busiest of us all, yet always makes time for fun and encourages the rest of us to do the same. He made a volleyball net for us to tie up across our driveway…we usually only play with just us children and Josh and Suzi, but sometimes we invite friends over to play with us as well and we have lots of fun! Skyler’s Spring has been filled with rock-picking fields (the soil around here is filled with stones and every year the fields have to be picked over before the farmers can plow them), splitting firewood, helping Dad with construction jobs, finishing up his final year of home schooling, and trapping and hunting animals. ;) He’s planning a wilderness camping trip this summer too, of course. =)

Stefanie keeps Suzi and I accountable with our Biggest Loser fitness program that we do together every morning (yes, Mrs. Rodgers, can you believe we’ve stuck with it for five weeks now!?) and is a huge help with home schooling younger siblings. Ever an avid reader, Stef often goes to the library and checks out huge piles of books…and somehow manages to read them all in a week or two!

Other than staying busy with the usual home-keeping (cooking, cleaning, laundry, baking, changing diapers, etc. =), I (Sara) have been giving sewing lessons, volunteering at Miracle Mountain Ranch and a local Mennonite church (helping with community service projects), landscaping around our yard and over at Suzi’s, and doing lots of organic gardening--Spring to me means gardening and I look forward to it all winter long! I can hardly wait for enough fresh produce to spare for smoothies and juices…my favorite!

Anna, Becca, and Ben come over often to our house, and we love having them around! They’re growing so big so fast and they all just dote on their baby sister Sara. =) Sara Kate Heagy was born on March 25th, and she’s just the cutest little thing in the world! I love having a little namesake, and it’s neat that she not only shares my name, but I was there to assist the midwife with her birth and we all think that she looks the most like I did when I was a baby. =) She's growing bigger (and chubbier!) every day...

And we have the wonderful addition of two little puppies now too! They're Papillons, sisters, and the cutest, craziest, little things. The family's puppy's name is Lilly, and mine is Eponine (the little ones call her "Epie")... Our family has always had a dog or two (we had five once upon a time!), so we're so happy to have some again. The little ones love on them all day long, and the puppies like to return the favor too. =)

As much as we’re all greatly enjoying this Spring, we’re really anticipating Summertime…picking fresh berries and fruit, spending days at the peninsula on Lake Erie, family cook-outs, camping adventures…we can hardly wait! I (Sara) will be heading to Indianapolis at the beginning of June and will be there until the middle of August or so, and the rest of the family will join me at the ITC the last week of July to help with the Indy Regional ATI Conference--we’re looking forward so much to serving there and seeing so many dear friends once again!

At Home in Pennsylvania!

Most of you are already aware that we have moved back home to Pennsylvania...but we just wanted to give a quick update and let you know that we're settling in and doing well--although most of us have been pretty sick the last couple of weeks and we don't have internet access. ;)

We have pictures and lots more to say, but it'll have to wait! We're so grateful for your help and prayers during the last few weeks. God has blessed us with the most incredible friends!

At the moment we're tapping maple trees for syrup and anticipating the arrival of Heagy baby #4 any day now (Philip or Sara Kate, which will it be?)...

More to come later! The Lord bless you all.

We're still here and doing well, in case you all were wondering or anything! Twenty-ten has just flown by for us so far...we're barely keeping up. ;D In family news, we celebrated Stefanie's 20th birthday on the 14th, and little Becca turned three years old last Friday! One of Becca's birthday gifts was a new puppy, affectionately named Abby. =D Becca's not so sure about her yet though!

Becca and her new puppy.


More like, Anna's new puppy for Becca's birthday! ;D

Last week we hosted our dear friend Hannah from Oklahoma for a couple of days. She was with us on her birthday, so we were able to celebrate that with her too! It was so nice to have her be a part of our family for a short time.

And this week promises to be especially busy for us as we prepare for the IBLP Dad's Conference beginning on Thursday! A number of people are coming to help us with the conference, and we're especially looking forward to having the dear Ferraro family from Illinois join us this week to help--hopefully we'll get to have some extra time to spend with them! There will be over 350 people here for four days, so it's definitely going to be an exciting week for us!

Right now we're in Pennsylvania enjoying the company of our entire family! We're so grateful for the goodness of the Lord, the hope that we have in HIM, and the incredible peace that has filled this season. This past year has been a year of adjustment for our family--adjusting to a new home in Indy, new work with the IBLP ministry, and a new "ITC" schedule particularly. And although we anticipate more change in the coming year, one thing we've learned: the Lord is here. With us. He's unfailing, unchanging, trustworthy, and FAITHFUL. And that gives us tremendous hope for the future, wherever we are, whatever we're doing!

May the Lord bless each of you with the unfathomable riches of His grace this year. With continued hope, and peace that is truly above our understanding. Happy New Year!

Christmas Conference!

Each year the ITC spends countless days (weeks?) planning, cleaning, decorating, practicing, and preparing for the IBLP staff Christmas Conference—a retreat much looked forward to by so many people from all across the States! This year’s Conference was amazing (even if I didn’t happen to attend a single session, help with any of the usual chores, go ice-skating, or well, do pretty much anything other than work the entire weekend!). Being able to see, spend time with, and enjoy the fellowship of much-loved friends for an entire weekend was pretty much close to perfect. =)

Every Christmas Conference tends to be different, but for our family, this Christmas Conference was especially unique. Not only were we privileged to have Josh and Suzi stay with us for the weekend (!!) and be able to enjoy their company, but the responsibilities of some in our family have changed rather dramatically since last year’s Conference, lending to different areas of work and not so much flexibility as an entire family. But even if we never happened to be all together even for one moment this weekend, some (if not all) of us were able to participate in all of the traditional Christmas Conference festivities!

Altogether, this year’s Conference was said by many to be the very best one yet! Andy Andrews happened to be the key-note speaker for the weekend--you can imagine my family’s excitement when we found out that he was coming! Months ago we had purchased a few of Mr. Andrew’s books, The Noticer, The Traveler’s Gift, and Mastering The Seven Decisions, and simply devoured them! So to hear him speak first-hand so enthusiastically to the staff here was an awesome and memorable experience. And I’m hoping I’ll not live too long in renown in Mr. Andrew’s memory as the Sara “who spells her name the proper way and let me borrow her bright red hairdryer for the weekend.” ;)

The blessing of the Lord was very evident at the Conference. Our family was so grateful to be a small part of it, and we're especially thankful for all of the extra help the ITC received in preparation and clean-up before and after the weekend—we couldn’t have done it without the faithfulness and willing service of so many others!

And now…our family is back in the swing of work here, attempting to recover from the weekend, and finishing preparations for Christmas as a family! Then, Lord willing, we’ll be traveling to Pennsylvania for a few days of respite with family and friends. We’re looking forward to seeing many of you again soon!