We have Moved!

We've Moved!

2007-09-13T11:08:00.001-07:00

You can do 1 of two things our new address is www.ntm.org/jim_abbott/ or you can still use www.theabbottjabber.com. So please update for Internet Browser and enjoy our new Site!!

Jim, Joy, Arika and Baby

Kickin' Off

2007-08-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well it is official, we are starting our Partnership Development time. Starting with our home church, Bethel, here in Jackson, MI. We are supposed to share in a combine Sunday School the first week in October. We are taking any and every opportunity to share this ministry that the Lord has laid on our heart. We also have our "invitation" to the field of Indonesia which is sent with a letter from our Pastor to Sanford, FL (NTM's Hq). From there once our School bill is Paid (which is at $1500! as soon as our check makes it to Durham, ON....) We will be accepted to the Field of Indonesia! WOW it is all coming together and we are SO thankful that our God is the one getting us there!

The Hot Air Balloon "Glow" at the Hot Air Jubilee

In other News... :) We have a new member to the Family.... :) No no no Not our little one, Wes and Jodi Had a Son TODAY. Landon Wesley Chadek weighed 8.6 lbs and 22in long!!! Congratz Guys! We are praying for you and Arika is SOO excited to have a new cousin and close by too!

OH yah. Our landlord told us that we will have internet in late sept. But in the mean time we are working on keeping you more up to date on the latest Jabber... :) And we've thrown a few Pics in for free.

Still Alive....

2007-08-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well we are still alive in case you were worried. I (Jim) have been busy working with my Dad. This has been a HUGE blessing to get to spend time with him and be able to help him. Joy is busy with Arika, and keeping the baby in her belly fed. He likes to eat and grow. We hope to have Internet at our house in the next two weeks. We will keep you posted.

We love our new place. God has been so good, This place has Lots of windows (Joy and Arika love this!). The owners are in the process of fixing up the place. New windows, roof, siding, etc. It is really nice. Oh and did we mention a DISHWASHER!! Its so awesome to see how God provides for our needs and even some desires that really are just wants that He loves to give us.

Thank you all for your prayers and Support over the last months. We truly are encouraged by you all. We are currently getting all of our Literature, Video's and Whatnot all ready to share. As far as that goes we are sharing at our Church in Sept. and hope to make that the Kick-off of our official Partnership development time. Please pray for us in this. That God would be the one to raise the prayer partners and supports we need to see the Gospel shared around the world. It is our desire to purely share what God has put on our hearts to do. It is Him that will be faithful to get us where He has led us.

We are in His hands,
The 4 of us

PS Pictures and some changes to come soon. Keep checking back.. :-)

We've moved!

2007-07-27T07:45:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody,
Just a really quick post! On Tuesday night we moved into an apartment! We are so excited to see how the Lord has porvided for us to rent the apartment. The couple we are renting it from are the sweetest people. It is such a nice set up. We are still settling in, as Jim is working with his dad in he days, and I can only get so much done with munchkin and lifting with being pregnant. (My belly keeps getting in the way!)
Please pray for Jim's family. Grandma Kibbey is in the hospital, and his dad is having some health issues along with some other things that are going on. So please keep Jim and Brenda in your prayers.
Also, we found out that I have placenta previa. Which means the placenta grew at the bottom of my uterus and is covering my cervix. Worst case senario is a C section. I'm not worried just concerned. My dr. said the placenta moves 90 precent of the time. So, I will have another ultrasound at 31-32 weeks to see if it has moved. It's not that I am worried about a c-section, I just want to be prepared for it if I'm going to have one. So we thank you for your prayers, and until next time,
Joy for the 4 of us!
If you would like our new address please email us and we'll get it to you!
P.S. Arika is very excited about her new house!

hihavinababyitsaboy

2007-07-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well if you read that right then you know the "results" of the Ultrasound last week! Its a BOY! We did the hard part and now we need you help! We cant agree on name... We need suggestions so leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

In other news we checked out the apt we hope to rent and LOVED it. We are a little over a mile closer into town that we were before and in a very good location for all we will need over the next year as we raise support and head to Indonesia!!

Well thats our update for now. Hopefully we can get a Internet Connection soon so we can keep you all up to date more often!

Jim for us 4

Praise...baby shower...wedding!

2007-06-29T11:26:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody,
It is nice to actually have time while we are in town to sit down and make a post!
Arika's testing went well! She did really good. The only time she was upset is when the dr. said to keep putting more contrast in so she would pee. She said it hurt! But other then that she did awesome! She is now in the clear! She is free from the bladder reflux. We are so excited and praising the Lord.

My appointment went well. I am now 19 weeks and my due date is November 25th! Around Thanksgiving. So I will definitely feel like I have I turkey in my belly! My ultrasound is one week from today!! We are hoping to find out what we are having. So we will do our best to keep you updated.
I had the opportunity to go to my sister's baby shower! She is having her first! It was so much fun to be their for her! So here is a picture of her and one of me with a good friend of the family!

On the same day we had a wedding to go to. This is Rolf and Amber. Jim's cousin was married on Sat last week! WE say Congratulations! We are so excited for them!!
I hope to have some pictures to show you of me and how big I have gotten so far in this pregnancy!
Thanks again for all your prayers!
Joy

Wondering...Where in the world are they?

2007-06-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody, Okay so it has been awhile. We are now back in Michigan. We got in last night! And are off and running with errands that have to be done!
At this time we are living with Jim's parents. We do have an apartment lined up that should be ready sometime in July, as well as some furniture we would need, We ask that you pray with us as we wait and seek the Lord's direction, as financially we don't have the income to rent the apartment.
PRAISE the Lord our school bill is down! We only have about $2000 left to pay.
We thank you all for your prayers and support it means so much to us!

Oh and also, we don't have internet at Jim's parents so we will most likely only be able to get on about once a week to make posts and check email. We are going to work very hard at keeping you all updated!

And really quick since I'm not sure when I'll get to post again.
We would like to share with you that we are expecting our second little one at the end of November! I am now 17 weeks! And have a Doctor's appointment on the 22nd of this month.

Another prayer request is for Arika as she adjust to a different schedule, and she has some testing she needs to have done, like a follow up from when she was born, they weren't able to do the testing in Canada, so she goes in on the 19th, Please pray as we try to explain to her what will happen. they will be using a catheter to put contrast in her bladder to see if she still has bladder reflux and then turn her on the table to check and see if it will go into her kidneys. So please pray for her and Jim as I will not be allowed in the room while they do this, do to being pregnant!
Thanks agains so much, we love you all
Joy for the 4 of us!

Kids do and say the darnedest things!

2007-05-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

Our Munchkin sure does! Monday, afternoon, early evening, Arika was riding her tricycle, we were outside with her talking to our neighbors. She's riding on the side walk and all the sudden I look up and she has pushed off the sidewalk, put her feet in the air and is riding down a little hill, but little did she realize or think about(she's only 2!)Arika's view as she heads down the hill!

View of hill from the side.

that there is the top of a brick wall that drops straight down, four feet. I see her start going, I yell for Jim and start running to get to her, I know that there was absolutely no way for me to get to her in time. Her front tire hits the the top of the brick wall, she goes flying over the handle bars, and the bike goes after her, and this point I am at the wall, on my way down around it.

Where I ran down around! And the wall she went flying from!

I hear screaming. At least that is a good sign, she's breathing, and conscious. We both get down there, I was afraid to move her, thinking maybe she hurt her neck or broke a bone, but she stood up and went right to Jim. We carried her inside. She said the only thing that hurt was the upper right side of her forehead. She didn't even get a goose egg or anything, just a couple little scratches, and a grass stain! Later we saw that she bit her tongue a little bit. But praise the Lord she is fine!Just to give you an idea of how high the wall is. I'm 5' 2", and as you can see that is quite a fall!

After it was all over, I broke down crying. Jim had Arika come in and he has her tell me, "mommy, I sorry"
me "it's okay honey, you didn't do it on purpose"
Arika "why mommy sad?"
Me "you scared mommy, I thought you were going to get hurt really bad"
Arika "I okay mommy, I okay."
Let's just say that helped cheer me up. She is so stinking cute!
Again, we Praise the Lord that she is okay and has no other injuries!
Joy for the 4 us!

munchkin!

2007-05-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, Arika got her hair cut. She looks adorable,(course that might be a bias opinion) I mentioned it to her one day and she got all excited about getting it cut, so I thought, let's go for it. Easier to wash, brush,take care of, and cooler for her for the summer!
So here are the pictures!

an Encore... :)

2007-04-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well she did it again, Here it is SleepY beauty!

Jim for the 4 of us

Work, work, work, and ....

2007-04-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

Us inside the restaurant! standing in front of the old vault!

We have pretty much been going non stop the last couple of weeks, with cultural investigations (in our live practicum that is going on), papers, etc.
So after much work, and more work, my wonderful husband took me out for dinner!
We went to a local Chinese restaurant that was established around the 1930's. It use to be an old bank, then there was a fire, and then it was turned into a Chinese restaurant, called Young's Garden. The old vault from the bank is still in there and used as a storage room. The tables and benches are still the original ones that were put in. We stared off our meal with delicious egg rolls. We then had Szechuan Style Beef, which was brought out ona a sizzling skillet! And a huge plate of chicken fried rice. The food was very, very, good. And since we hadn't really had any good chinese food in the last year and a half it was a nice treat.

Our Room!We had sparkling juice waiting for us along with many other wonderful goodies to eat!

We then went to a bed and breakfast that one of the couples her on staff own and run. One of their ministries is allowing students and staff to come out for a night. It was our first time staying and a B&B! We absolutly loved it. It was so relaxing. On arrival we were served rhubarb and peach crisp with ice cream. It was very good.

WE had the whole downstairs to ourselves. Our friend Melissa kept Arika. It was so nice to not have our daughter to put to bed or get up in the morning. We love her and missed her, but enjoyed our time.

In the morning the table was filled with delicous food. Fresh fruit, homemade granola, banana muffins, sourcream coffeecake, and them we were given 3 buckwheat pancakes, sausage patties, and eggs! VERY,VERY GOOD. We thank STEVE and Mary for their wonderful hospitality. We had a very nice visit with them after breakfast. Thanks so much.
If any of you want a great opportunity to get away, I know it is far for most of you.
It is called, Country Road Bed and Breakfast. It is open on the weeknds. If you are interested let us know and we'll get you some info.
Also a wonderful thanks to my husband who put the weekend together. Thank you! I love you SO much!
Joy

A post on Peanut!

2007-04-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

Our Baby..

Well April 5th was Arika's big day. She turned the BIG 2. It is amazing to me to look back and see how much she has grown! We have been blessed with ( biased I know) greatest kid ever. And shes Cute to boot. Anyway I just wanted to share some of her special day with all who were unable to come.

Jim and Joy

Ps. You can check out the rest of the Pics HERE

Mom's are so wonderful!

2007-04-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

To a mom who has always been there, to encourage me, pray with me and have a part in my life.
Mom, you have always been there to help me. To teach me to learn from my mistakes. That when the going gets tough to look to the Lord and keep going. Thank you for not only being my mom but also my friend. We love and miss you bunches!
Happy Birthday to a wonderful Mom and Nanny!
Hope you have a great day!
Joy for the 3 of us!

March Break!

2007-03-27T15:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm a little slow, now that we are almost half way through another week after our break. (does that even make since?) And I'm just now making a post!I had a wonderful opportunity to visit my sister's in Michigan. My oldest sister Tina and her family head to Southeast Asia in like a month and she was up to visit my sister Jodi. So I had a wonderful opportunity to go and see them for a couple of days! I got to surprise her! The Meyers were nice enough to let me ride down to Jackson with them and back!! I was gone for 4 days! My wonderful, dear husband kept Arika, who is still potty training! He is such a good Dad! I am so glad that He is my husband and the father of my daughter!
I also had the wonderful opportunity to visit some friends that are on staff at the Bible school in jackson. I got to eat lunch with Chris and Denise. ( they did our wedding ceremony.) I enjoyed my chat with them. And got to see some other friendly faces as well.
When I got back from the trip, Jim and I spent some time working on a presentation for Indonesia

New Touches

2007-03-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

Well I thought that since our newest newsletter is coming out soon that I would give every the opportunity to receive it. So if you'd like to get it you can! We will be using this for a monthly email update as well for those who really want to keep tabs on us. So if you already get our newsletter via snail mail you may still want to sign up for continual jabber! You can sign up here our in the sidebar under Links.

Join the Jabber!

Email:

Jim~

A cold Snap and Videos..

2007-03-06T04:33:00.000-08:00

Well I just had to post this morning with a picture of the weather current in Durham. I woke up this morning by going outside to shovel. The instant I opened the door I was frozen! The high for today is only is a whopping -15' C (6 F for those metericly challanged :) Brrr.

In other news some of our fellow students where able to make a trip to the Bible Schools over this last week and encourage them to continue on with NTM. Well they made some pretty cool Video's that show "life in Durham...".Check them out.

Jim

What do I do?

2007-03-05T05:59:00.000-08:00

We started potty training Arika last week. She is doing very well. She now tells us when she has to go! we are still working on going right away! She says she has to go but she'll sit there for 20 mins and still not go! I know it's normal. She has stayed dry for a while! We are very proud of our little munchkin! For only potty training for a few days she is doing GREAT!
But the other night we had her in the bathtub and she said she had to go. but we just assumed it was another one of the games she plays. Jim was with her waiting for me to come wash her. When all the sudden I hear Jim say. She pooped in the tub! AHHHH~ and not just a turd or two, but a turd and a bunch of (how do I describe this?) loose poop! so there were lots of floaties. This was ALOT of poop! Then the door bell rings! haha! I'm trying to calm her down and get her dressed and ready for bed. It was a friend that wanted to download a movie off of our video camera he had borrowed. Which was fine just not at the best moment. So needless to say she was not happy. I think it has scared her for life. She used to love getting baths and would play for a half hour or more. Now she doesn't even want to get in. It is like fighting tooth and nail just to get her in! Let alone get her washed! I knew this day would come, (poop in the tub) but I was hoping it wouldn't be such a mess. Sorry if I grossed any of you out, but hey I'm the one who had to clean it up! Yuck!
I don't really want to do that one again any time soon.
If you have any ideas on how to get her to enjoy baths again let me know! I'd love to hear it!
Joy

MINE!

2007-02-26T13:34:00.000-08:00

Arika has learned the word that all parents dread! MINE! Or another way she says it is "my cheese", "my water", etc, You get the idea. So after about a week of getting really frustrated, Arika getting put in timeout and getting in trouble... we didn't know what to do! They had even written it on her sheets from childcare.
So one day Jim was walking Arika home from Nursery, when they walked by the car and you guessed it, Arika says, "my car!" It was at that point we realized that she wasn't saying it from a MINE perspective, but that she was realizing what belonged to her!
So we were really glad to finally get that figured out!
Then we decided to try and get her to say "Arika's" instead of "My" for example "Arika's water". So, we worked on it one morning while we were getting ready. We asked her to get her boots on so we could go. And again she said "My Boots" and Jim corrected her and the next thing we we hear is MY ARIKA! Kids you gotta love em! We had a good laugh over that one! So needless to say we haven't heard it too much more!

Great Video!

2007-02-21T16:11:00.001-08:00

Hey all

This a Video of Brad Buser, the man that the Lord used in my life to bring me/us into NTM. Ben and Ruth posted it yesterday on there blog and Its Really good! If you can at least watch the first 8 mins. and come back for the rest later if you can. REALLY GOOD and it may just change Your life!

Jim

What's all this?

2007-02-16T04:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, So we have been getting a decent amount of snow since we returned from break in January. But is has just been here or there maybe a couple inches at a time. So we had about 1 to 2 feet of snow on the ground. UNTIL.....

This shows how much we got just last night!

This morning! Jim was on Snow crew this morning. ( the guys on his crew take turns.)
He went out and was gone for a couple of hours shoveling over a foot of snow with Norm that we got last night! I tried to get some good pictures. Hopefully you can see how much there is!

Here our some of our neighbors on their way to school. Shows you how much we have!

A beautiful shot of God's creation!

We all hope you have a wonderful day!
Staying warm,
the Abbott's

Meatball Sub?

2007-02-13T05:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend we made some meatball subs. MMMMMMmmmmmmmmm. Were they good.
Munchkin enjoyed them very much as you can see...
That's all for now.
We'll post more soon.
The Abbott's

Kids and Cats

2007-02-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

Allie is the brown one, Alex is the white one

While we were staying at my sister's house, Arika fell in love with my sister's 2 cats. Allie and Alex. She still asks about them every once in awhile. Any cat she sees now is Allie!
You just have to go read my sister Jodi's blog. She made 2 posts about them. They are too funny.

Here are some pictures of what Alex would let Arika do to him. Any time they came upstairs from the basement she would chase them non stop! I guess the cats got their exercise for a couple of weeks. Hahahaha...
Arika trying to pick him up!!

Alex makes such a good pillow!

Enjoy.
The Abbott's

A post

2007-01-31T19:18:00.000-08:00

HEY!

Well here it is. Im sure all of you are wondering whats going on are they dead? Nope alive and well. Its been a long time since I made a post so im not sure I remember how... Just kidding. We have been going hard at Phonemics (the study of making an alphabet) and Phonetics II (the study of Speech sounds). It has been a blast learning how the work of a Tribal Church plant is done. Next on the Class list is Grammar (a hard subject...). Well I just wanted to let you all know we are living and looking forward to filling you in more.. I need to go to sleep....

Jim

Henry Ford Museum

2007-01-18T04:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I wasn't sure what to post and I couldn't find our cord for downloading our pictures! But I found some of us when we went to the Henry Ford Museum with Jim's brother and His family as well as anther nephew. We had a total blast that day and are glad we had the opportunity to spend the day with them! Here are some pictures for you!This is Jim and His brother Rob in front of the bus that Rosa Parks road on. She was arrested because she was black and wouldn't give up her seat to a white guy.

Here's Derek, Robbie, and Julia by some of the trains.

They had a fun spot to build cars and test them out. As you can see all the kids had fun!
(Iris is behind me, she's Rob's wife. She is so much fun!)

These are just a few, I hope you enjoyed!
Love you all,
Joy

Happy Birthday Andrew!

2007-01-11T18:29:00.000-08:00

We want to wish our nephew Andrew a very Happy Birthday.
We hope you had a wonderful day! We wish we could be there with you to celebrate! You are getting so grown up! Seven years old! Time sure does fly! We remember when you were about 3 years old and we all went out to Wendy's to eat and your mom said you could have one sip of Diet Coke, so you only had one sip, but it was a really, really long one! You drank so long your eyes started to water! We had to tell you to stop so you would breath!
We Love you Andrew
Happy Birthday!
Love,
Uncle Jim, Aunt Joy, and your cousin Arika