You know you're a Blackwood when...

• You know how to argue by the time you're 2 years old.
• When you're upset with someone, you simply say their name in a disapprobing/disgusted way.
• You've actually eaten green eggs and ham.
• You carry your Bible in the box that it came in.
• Your scedule gets all messed up if you dont have Frideay night pizza and Saturday morning chocolate-chip pancakes with peanut butter and syrup
• Your birthday just isnt a birthday without monkey bread.
• Nearly every phrase reminds you of a song (and you start singing the song out loud)
• Thr front row of your church is often filled by you and your family.
• You're late to everything except for church.
• You're known by nearly all RP'ers as "Ed's kids"
• Pouring/spilling water/food on somone is a common accurance during dinner
• You're very easily entertained.
• Your disagreements often go something like this...

"Allen, you are wrong"

"No, Zachary you are wrong"

"Allen, no you are wrong"

"Zachary, No! Zachary you are wrong" etc

• While driving along in the car with your siblings, you enjoy loudly singing along to weird music and bobbing you heads back and forth in rythem with the music
• You've always Loved "Adventures in Odyssey" and often quote lines from them
• You're used to at least six people talking at once.
• One of your favorite things to do with people is tell them your life stories for hours and hours
• your big vacation of the summer is covfamikoi
• You start crying when you hear the words "look at your feet" and "put your hands on the bed"
• You think the shoulders on the side of the highway are for spanking kids.

Feel free add on

My First Australian Job

On tuesday night I babysat 3 kids from the church here. James (7), Bethany (5), and Josh (3) Glover. When I got there, Josh was already asleep, so I was really only watching Beth and James. As soon as I got there, Matt Glover, their dad, told me where food and drinks were if I got hungry, and just to make myself feel at home. He also warned me that Josh might wake up screeming, but not to be alarmed, just feed him a bottle and if he doesnt stop crying, then I should call him. They then left. First Bethany tried to convence me to let her go outside, but I knew her parents wouldnt want her to so we just played games. First Beth and I were playing a game with blocks, then James asked me to play with him. I played checkers with him, and in the middle of the game Beth interupted and took me and showed me the smoke alarm, and showed me all of the escape plans in case it should go off. It was very cute. James and I finished our game. When that was done the got ready for bed, and then we watched Princess Bride. Half way through the movie, it was time for bed. Surprisingly they put up no fight when I said time for bed. The went directly to bed. I said I would read them. We got out a book, and went to James room to read. In the middle of the book, Josh woke up crying. We went to the kitchen and fixed him a bottle and took him to bed and read to him. He was fine untill his bottle was empty, then he started crying again. I called Matt, and he said that he would hed home. We read untill Matt got home, and he comforted Josh, and my Job was over. It was a very fun night even with Josh waking up and crying.

Quote of the post: "Maria must be here, I can smell her" Josh Glover
as the pulled into church

This is home

I think that all of us are realizing that this is home. It is hard accepting it at times, but this is where God wants us to be. I still refer to Indiana as "back home"(and I will probably keep doing that for a while), and Australia as my "new home", but it is home. There have been many times that I feel homesick, but talking with my family (especially my sisters) about the fun times that we had with people always helps. There will be certain times like my birthday and Christmas that I am really going to miss family and friends, but I feel like this is where Gods wants me to be, and he is using my and my family for his purpose.

Please pray that the Frankston and McKinnon churches would grow.

verse of the post: Romans 8:28 God works all things together for good to those who love him, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

PICTURES!!!

Go here to see pictures Charity and I have taken recently.

And don't forget to read my story about our trip if you haven't!!!

The Long Jounrney

Sorry that this is so long, you dont have to read it all if you dont want to.
I know that you all have been waiting to hear all about our trip here, well here it is.
It all started on Monday Janurary 23. When we were loading up the suitcases, we figured out that we had 32 instead of 30, and we decided that we were going to fix it later. We 8 Blackwoods set out for Layafette in four different veheciles all full of stuff. I was with my Dad in the moving van, Tamara was in the mini van with my mom, Charity was in the Buick with Allen, and Benjamin and Zachary were in the Big van. We went to the Nelsons first to drop off a piano. At around 11:30 we got to the Larsons. We brount all of our suitcases in, then went to sleep. At around 4:30 am, my Dad realized that he had left our paseports back in Indianapolis. He got up and drove back to get them. He got back home around 7:30am, which was when we all woke up. We started condensing suitcases. We tried and tried, but we ended up with 31. My Dad left with Allen and Benjamin in the moving van. The rest of us packed up the big van with our suitcases. We left the buick and the mini van in Layafette, then headed off in the big van. We met my dad, Allen, and Benji at a Pensky drop off place where we dropped of our shipping crate. When the crate was pulled out, we saw that we had left some stuff that was supposed to be for the Saunders in the moving truck instead of in Layafette. We tried to stuff as much stuff as we could into the big van along with our 31 suitcases, and all 8 of us. We got some of it in, but some of it we had to throw away in a dumpster. We all stuffed ourselvs in, and drove to the train station. We unloaded everything, and then we put lugage straps on everything, and name tages. We then went to the cafateria, and ate our last meal with the boys. After lunch we went down to the train station lounge, and talked to the boys, and took a few picture, and cried...a lot. We said our goodbyes. It was the saddest goodbye that I have every had to say. The boys couldnt come past the train gate, so we had to leave them at the gate, and when we were trying to say goodbye a lady was yelling at us that we were going to miss our train. We boared the train. Charity and I shared a room, Benji and Tamara shared a room, and my parents shared a room. The train was delayed, so we were on the train a 1/2 an hour before it moved. Charity and I read all of our notes from people before we even left the station. My mom said that she felt like we were in a movie, but instead of the parents watching the children leave on a train, the parents were leaving their kids. Charity were listening to the song that Andrew Doerr wrote for us, and it was almost like the background music in a movie. We sat in our room being sad for a while, then we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory untill dinner. Charity and I then listened to Odysseys, did our Quiet Times, then went to bed. The next day we were in the mountians most of the day. Tamara and Benji played on the train, and made some new friends. Charity and I stayed in our room and wrote letters to people, and listened to Odysseys. We did stop once, and we all got off the train and walked around, and then got ice cream. Charity and I stayed in our rooms the rest of the day except to eat and take showers (it was a very scary experience to be knocked around while taking a shower). Then we went to bed. The third day on the train. At breakfast, the stewards and stewardesses sang happy birthday to benjamin, and the brought him a peice of cheesecake with a glowstick in it. After breakfast we all packed up, and we waited around for a while till we made it to LA. We arrived at Union Station, and we put all of our luguage in a storage room, and headed out to see the sights. We rode the metro to the LA library where we all got on the computer, and my dad printed out our plane tickets. We then rode the metro to China town where we looked around, then we ate lunch. We then rode the metro to a stop called Allen LA, and we took some pictures of us by the sign. We then rode the metro back to Union Station. Then we moved all of our lugage out to the shuttle bus that was going to take us to the airport. We stuffed the van full of all of us and our suitcases and went to the airport. When we got there we had to repack our suitcases to get rid of one, and to make our carryons from the train weigh less, but our checked could weigh more, so we finally figured it all out. After we brought all of our suitcases through security, we ate dinner with the Elders and Fishers. After dinner, we wernt through security, then we got on the plane. It was my first plane ride since I was three months old, so it was pretty exciting. Charity and I listened to Odysseys then fell asleep. Sometime on Janurary 27th I woke up, and said happy birthday to benjamin who was asleep, then fell back asleep myself. When we woke up again, the served us breakfast. They anounced Benjamins birthday over the speakers, and gave him some toys for a birthday present. A while later when the sun was just begining to rise, we landed in New Zeland. We got freshened up, and then waited for 1/2 an hour to board. When the anounced that small children could get on, my dad told benji to ask a lady if he was a young child. She said yes, so we got on early. It was a four hour flight. They fed us another breakfast. Charity and I listened to Odysseys for most of it. We finally, after a week of traveling, landed in Australia. We went through security, then went to the baggage claim. We all got carts, and stuffed them full of our suitcases. We had 6 carts full, so we all grabed a cart and pushed through security. When we finally got through, we found most of the church waiting for us with signs that said Blackwood, and Fishers. Everyone was so welcoming. We got hugs from everyone,, then we headed off to our new house. We were finally in Australia.
Quote of the post: "We dont have a home or a time zone"
-Charity said this on the train while we were going in and out of time zones.
Verse of the post: Have I not commanded you be strong and corageous do not be terrified do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua1:9
-this verse was very encouraging to me for the whole move