The Long Lost Morgans

Between a crazy holiday schedule, David's new year of rotations and my conference planning I must apologize for a lack of staying in touch. Inexcusable!  Please forgive me. Now, onto the good stuff.

I had to share funny photos.  The Newberry side of the family (Debbie's side) gathered in St. Louis for Christmas weekend.  I believe there were 20 of us in Dave and Melissa's house.  A Pyrex pan holding ham exploded in the kitchen while ornaments were flying like torpedos off of the Christmas tree.  Carolyn looks a little guilty in her photo.  Hmmm...she is sitting by the tree...It was indeed a bit chaotic, but lovely nonetheless.  To add to the excitement, we (of course) went shooting.  And I somehow broke the target holder.  How embarrassing.

Immediately after Christmas, we hopped in my car and drove down to San Antonio.  Thank the good Lord for sweet grandparents - Ed and Bobbie let us stay the night with them, complete with a turkey dinner and loads of laughs.  Then we finished our trek and landed at the Gloege household the next evening.  What a blast!  That's me and David somewhere in Arkansas.  Love the pic of Amy, Mom and little Gus at the River Walk.  Unfortunately, I am a loser aunt.  Forgot to get a picture of Matthew when he and Rob  met us for lunch in Allen.  Darn!  The child is precious.  Next time. :)

David started his rotations on January 3rd.  First stop, women's health.  Yes, friends.  That was no typo.  Pelvic exams and STDs (hope you are not eating) were the core of his first three weeks last month.  And then he moved onto psych for another three weeks.  Needless to say, I can't wait to get home everyday and hear his top story.  Be impressed - David Mikel Morgan has been waking up everyday at 5:15 a.m. to be out the door by 6:20 a.m.  I have evidence that he is surviving quite well.  Enter into evidence exhibit A, an iPhone pic of him about to head out the door, PA smock and all.  I married a handsome early-riser.

Once we got into the swing of things after the holidays, me and my team were working fast and furious on the annual conference.  My job is way cool.  35 farm women gathered with 35 staffers in Charleston, South Carolina last week to talk about farming and food.  Ladies, if you grocery shop and you have heard of the "Dirty Dozen" list, you will want to hear this!  We had a guest lecturer and scientist, Dr. Carl Winter, from UC Davis speak to us about his research regarding pesticides and their true effect on human health, most specifically the study done that created "The Dirty Dozen" list.  My takeaway - unless you are planning on eating a full truckload (or 34,000 pounds) of any fruits or vegetables in one day yourself, you need not worry the tiniest fraction about insecticides impacting your health.  If you did eat that much, you would still be in the clear!  Check out http://www.safefruitsandveggies.com/ - it has a cool calculator tool.  Makes me feel better about what I feed our little family.  Anywho, cool pic of Dr. Carl and a group of us at the airport afterwards.  We look energized, but I think we all collapsed once the plane took off. Also might've been the cheese popcorn.

My last bit of news is pretty exciting!  David and I had been praying about how to be serving God with our time.  We even discussed being open to me serving in BSF leadership again if God so desired.  After much prayer, I knew where God was leading me.  Um, not where I wanted to go!  But there it was...not going away.  I ended up sitting down with my BSF teaching leader here in St. Louis.  We had both been praying for God's guidance.  She asked me where I felt God leading me to serve.  I felt like I had glue on my tongue, but I did indeed obey and say, "I can't believe I am saying this out loud because it would never be a desire from my heart, but I feel strongly that God is leading me to working with children."  If you know me at all, you know that what I said is crazy!!!  I love the little people, but I have no idea what you are supposed to do with them. 

As God would have it, there was one opening in leadership.  In the Children's Program.  So my first day in training will be this Friday evening.  Pray for the children!  All kidding aside, please pray that God will equip me to know what to do.  I am walking into this with nothing but a willing heart!  I can't wait to see what He has in store.  I imagine we will all share a few great laughs along the way.  Big thanks to Julia and Jan for encouraging me.  And to Debbie for praying for God's guidance.

That's it for now.  We miss you and love you.  Quite a bit!

Missy Morgan