Christmas time is here....

Merry Christmas everyone!  We pray you all had a splendid Christmas rejoicing in our Savior's birth.  For our holiday celebrations we were joined by most of Tyler's immediate family.  It was wonderful to share the joy of Christ and the gift of family during such a special time.

Tyler is still enjoying his holiday break up through next Monday.  So far we have been staying in pajamas half the morning, playing with Caleb's train sets, doing a little shopping, napping, and trying to finish up or get rid of all those holiday sweets.  Plus of course the few house projects we'd like to accomplish while Tyler is home all day.

We can't believe how much both kids are growing.  Aaron is starting to cruise around the furniture.  He is all smiles and happiness (except for last week while he was teething and dealing with a second cold...).  Caleb is picking up more and more phrases and words, like "Ow knee mama" when I banged my knee on the stairs earlier while chasing him.  It's fun to be able to communicate with him more as he develops.

As usual, we can't resist putting up a few pictures of our lives.  Here are some Christmas photos to enjoy!

 Aunt Danica and Aaron

 Playing "Bohnaza" card game

 4 generations of Schmidts

 One happy child

 Christmas Day meal and one happy family

Oh Christmas Tree...

This is one holiday season that we do not have to travel, and instead, family will come and see us.  To celebrate, we decided to upgrade from our scrawny fake tree to a real Christmas tree.  We went to our local tree farm and got to pick out a beautiful 6 foot tree and cut it down.  Here are a few pictures of the event.

 

What is a family event without a picture?

Peeking through the acres of trees

Caleb had a fun time running in between all the blue spruce and pine trees

Renae and Caleb posing

Renae and Jodie Toews "clink" coffe mugs while watching the men "work" :)

Bringing out the mountain man in Tyler as he poses with his latest "kill"

Warming up by the fire after a long walk at the tree farm

Aaron helps Russ Toews (Jodi's father-in-law) get a baby fix

 The tree almost didn't fit though our back door

There...it is straight as long as you tilt your head to the left

  Caleb gets into the decorating spirit

 

The final resting place

Getting lights up

Playing with the light settings on the camera

Caleb has discovered how to plug in lights now

 "Squirrel" (for all you Pixar fans)

The final touches and we will have a beautiful tree.

Merry Christmas to all of you and thank you for your continuing prayers and support.  A new letter from the Schmidt's will be coming soon in the mail with news about Tyler's switch to Moody Aviation, his tentative date to take technical evaluation next year, and progress on our support team raising.

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles!

Trains...

Planes...

...and automobiles

Imagine taking enough trips in a year to travel by plane, train, and automobile all in the same year!  That is the kind of year it has been for us.  Beginning with last Christmas, when we flew to ND for deputation and vacation, followed by a summer trip by automobile to ND for more deputation.  Then an unplanned and spontaneous flight (in the Kodiak!) to ND, again, while Renae spent time with family and Tyler spent 11 days on the Kodiak touring the east coast. Then ending with our recent expedition, yet again, to ND on the train for the week of Thanksgiving to spend holiday time with my (Renae's) entire immediate family (which we were not able to see earlier in the summer).  Talk about being traveled out!  We are ready for a nice long break from traveling now as we settle back into our routine again in Spokane. 

We are so thankful that we were able to spend lots of time last week with my brother and his family, as well as seeing extended family for Thanksgiving, and sharing a Christmas celebration with all of my immediate family.  Unfortunately many of us shared in spreading the joy (or dread) of the stomach flu!  It managed to pass to most of the kids and some adults, making the trip a little less fun but just as memorable.  Poor Caleb caught it the morning we left on the train to come back to Spokane.  Oh the joys of catching throw-up while traveling on a train!

Here are some pictures of our time with family:

Caleb on the train with a bucket near by

Family picture

Everyone is helping with the puzzle

Renae's sister Andrea and Tyler's cousin Jonathan, who happen to be married :)

Renae's brother Ryan and Mindy with their twin girls Emma and Aubery

They all wanted to play piano

Aaron was happy to just standup and grin

All the little babies of the family, just missing the three older kids.

Today is Tyler's last day at Spokane Turbine Center.  Tomorrow (Friday) he will move his stuff out of his office there and transfer it over to Moody Aviation.  We are excited at this next step towards preparing to join MAF.  Tyler is tentatively schedule to take his technical evaluation (TE) with MAF in October of next year.  Please being praying with us that he would be able to adequately prepare for the test, and that God would overcome our burden to student debt so that we will not have that obstacle still in our way in a year.

Thank you so much for praying with us and sharing in our lives. 

holiday blessings (and hopefully not such a long wait until our next blog...)

the Schmidt's

Living in the "Now"

Tyler and I have now lived in Spokane for over 4 years.  When we first moved here, our immediate plan was:  attend Moody Aviation flight school for 2 years.  After that we knew Tyler would need to gain more experience and we would need to pay off student debt, but did not know the "where" or "how" of these two things.  Neither of us thought we would end up staying in Spokane as long as we have.

 The move to Moody is not that far, only down the road.

The Lord certainly surprised us by opening up the doors of the Spokane Turbine Center (STC) internship, and allowing us to be missionaries with Proclaim Aviation these last 2 years.  We are so grateful for the time we have spent with STC, but as we continue to move towards to an overseas missions, we are taking another step in that direction.  Starting in December, Proclaim is allowing Tyler to switch his responsibilities at STC over to Moody Aviation as a maintenance instructor for the 4th and 5th year students.  The goal of this is to give him the required maintenance experience on the single piston engine (like a car) that he will need for the technical evaluation (TE) he must take to join any mission organization.  We are also hoping that switching over to Moody will give him a little more time to fly the aircraft he will also be tested on, a Cessna 206.

 Cessna 206

Our original plan was for Tyler to take his TE in 2012 at Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).  As we continue to pray about this, we face two issues:  Tyler may not have enough time in flight and maintenance to prepare him for the test by spring, and, our other big obstacle of our student debt.  We still have a little over $21,000 in school debt and to be able to join MAF we need to be debt free (or very close).   Because of these two factors, it is more likely that our goal will be for Tyler to take the TE in 2013 sometime.  We are in constant communication with the MAF recruiters about our time table for TE and a date has not been nailed down as of yet.  It will still be an act of God (a miracle) if we can get our debt down to almost zero by that time. But when things are impossible for man it just opens up the way for God to work in a mighty way, and this is a great opportunity.

Sometimes I (Renae) feel like we are often in "limbo land".  We know we're not here to stay, yet we are not at a point where we are able to go overseas.  It makes it hard for me to feel "settled", and to make permanent connections.  We are still learning how to "live in the now", and make all the relationships and interactions we have here as important as if we were going to live here the rest of our lives.  I, personally, am learning how to ask God to help me live how He would want me to each day; to love Jesus, to love people, be myself, and take advantage of the opportunities we have here and now while we wait for the next bend in the "Schmidt journey."

Please pray for us as we:

• Make a plan for Tyler to take the Technical Evaluation (TE) in 2012 or 2013
• Reduce our school debt to zero by our TE date 
  
• Try to take advantage of opportunities to know and serve people better
• Learning how to love God more and teach our kids to love God through our actions

til next time,

the Schmidts

There and Back Again...

 The Schmidt's are finally back in Spokane after almost 2 months gallivanting around the States. It has been a wonderful summer seeing family, visiting supporters, and flying the Kodiak to new places. Over the two weeks that Tyler was gone he had traveled over 4800 miles, given rides to 300+ people and gained 17.8 hours of valuable flight time in the Kodiak.   The Spokane Turbine Center crew also visited over 9 States on this trip, and even got to play a little in the Colorado mountains with the Kodiak. We are so thankful for the safety that God provided during that time and the almost problem free trip with the Kodiak (some lights didn't want to work on the Kodiak). 

A heavy dew on the cowling at Smoketown PA

Ken Smoll and his dad, fixing the strobe lights that didn't want to work.  This was due to the moisture from the dew getting in the power box of the strobes, but as soon as they dried out we were set to go.  Thankfully it was not a major problem at all

Tyler doing what he does best...Shutting the door

Tyler flying one of the many legs to the next destination

Jeremy and Jill Hart were our host family in Colorado and good friends of Ken's.  We took them out to Eagle CO for lunch in the mountains and had a blast.

Got to see some pretty neat stuff like this waterfall

Also thunderstorm clouds started to "pop" and we got to "work" the weather and fly around some rain showers

The Hart family and STC crew in the Kodaik heading back to Centennial/ Denver CO

The dramatic walk away (with theme music of course) after a good flight

 

These are some of the kids we gave rides to in Grand Rapids MI from Western Michigan Aviation Academy, some of these guys had never ridden in a plane before

 

The man in the white shirt is Dick DeVos. He is the one funding the Western Michigan Aviation Academy and invited us back a second year to give rides to the new incoming freshman class.

Our "small" Kodiak parked next to a Gulfstream 5 in Dick DeVos's Amway hangar.

 

All packed and ready to head home!

 

Tyler is snoozing while Aaron is contemplates the complex pattern on the blanket he is face planted on

After two weeks of not seeing my family I am sure glad to be reunited with them

As we passed through North Dakota to pick up Renae, we were able to give a ride to Renae's sisters family.  It was their first ride in an airplane and they enjoyed it!