Drew's First Soccer Game

Here are some pictures of Drew's first soccer game. And so the years of sporting events begins...

Drew's First Soccer Game

Drew's 4rd Birthday Party - KC

Drew had a wonderful time at his Dinosaur Dig Birthday Party with his friends.

Canada Fishing Trip

I went on a Fly-In Fishing trip to Canada with my my dad and two bothers, along with two more family friends. I am not a big fisherman, but had a great time getting away, being in nature and spending some time with family. Here are a few pictures:

Crazy Hairs!

New Year Update

You know you have had a busy year when you sit down to prepare your taxes and you are asked to check all the boxes of major life changing events for the year – and you check all the boxes. Moved from a foreign country, had a baby, found a new job, bought a new house. Not your typical year!

We have been State-side for 8 months and are just now starting to feel like we are getting settled. Many of you are aware of our time in Bulgaria – we were there for 18 months and just came home in June. We had a wonderful experience, filled with good, bad and strange events – but experiences we hope to learn from for a lifetime. We often reflect on our friends and experiences we had in Bulgaria – they greatly impacted our lives and they gave us memories we will not soon forget. We cannot summarize our journey in one letter – but we would love the opportunity to share with you if you have interest.

In August we welcomed our beautiful baby girl – Adison Jean. She is our little “Markovche” (little Marc.) We now realize how spoiled we were with Drew. Not that Adison is a “bad” baby – she just requires a little more attention. However she is showing great signs of improvement lately as she is now showing great interest in her toys and giving mom a bit more rest at night.

Adison is now sitting up by herself and eating stage two foods – she loves the Gerber Puffies. She is also very vocal – a lot of noise comes out, but you can’t really understand what she is saying – a lot like her mother. ;-)

Drew is resilient - bouncing from place to place until we arrived in our new home. When we moved in he asked if we could live there “forever!” He now has a lot of new friends and many new influences – some good, some not so good – so now the “fun” part of parenting begins! Drew is excited to get a new bike and start playing in his new big yard. He is also excited to start pre-school this coming fall – what a big boy he has become.

Marc is back with IBM at Sprint. He has a similar project management position, but is now on a smaller team, whom he really enjoys working with. We are still trying to figure out what God has in store for us in regards to our future profession – but for now He has given us our place.

Lisa’s workload has increase as a full time mom of two, along with managing the home. As time will allow she hopes to get involved with some design projects on the side to keep her connected to her profession and serve as a creative outlet. Drew and Adison remain her top priority and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

We were blessed with a wonderful new home this last fall in lovely Overland Park, KS. Yes it is suburbia – but a nice resting place with many wonderful amenities and a great place to raise little ones. We always have an open guest room for our friends – please come see us.

We are looking forward to the coming of Spring – warm weather, bike rides and meeting new neighbors. We feel extremely blessed with the opportunity to re-establish our family’s foundation – as we work to nourish our family and prepare to live out God’s great adventure for our lives.

October 2007 Update

“The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm…” Nahum 1:3b



A friend shared this verse with us and we find it very fitting for our situation. I can’t say we are facing any Storms – but our life right now very much feels like a “Whirlwind.” And just like the storms of life, we are very comforted to know that the Lord’s ways are with us in the middle of this whirlwind.



It has been awhile since we have touched base with a lot of you – and a lot has transpired over the past few weeks. As most of you may recall, we returned from Bulgaria in June, spent some time in Illinois, moved into a missions house in Iowa in July, welcomed the arrival of Adison in August and I started a new (old) job in September, back in Kansas City and started house hunting. See what we mean about a “whirlwind?”



Adison has been a pure joy and growing like a weed. She has continued to keep the long black hair and dark brown eyes. She has begun to smile and coo as she studies the faces of those in front of her. Drew still enjoys being a big brother – letting others know this is “his baby.” We have not yet witnessed much jealousy, however he is very vocal that he does not like “crying babies” – including his!



My job: I was on a two year leave of absence with IBM at Sprint in Kansas City for our term in Bulgaria. Returning to IBM/Sprint was always an option, just not at the top of my preferences. I talked with a lot of people about different job opportunities from ministry positions to corporate positions. I sent out a lot of resumes and had a number of interviews – most of all – we prayed hard. We have been praying for the past year that the Lord would lead us to where He wanted us, to the job that He had for me, to the city He wanted us to serve. We were very excited to see where the Lord would lead.



We felt the Lord speak when we went to Bulgaria, so we had expectations that He would “speak” again in similar fashion. As time went on – no jobs “spoke” to me. I didn’t really feel the Lord “speak” to me either. A wise mentor of ours shared this advice with us over a year ago: “Continue to walk the path the Lord has set out for you, but be willing to deviate from the path if the Lord were to call you off.” For the past year we have followed that advice. We knew we had IBM to return to, but were ready, and almost expecting the Lord to pull us off that path.



As we have continued down our path, the return to IBM/Sprint is the path the Lord has sustained. Not just sustained, but has lined it with some nice blessings as well. I am returning to Sprint with a similar position, but more customer facing (a good thing). It is with and old manager/friend of mine who is very flexible with my schedule. We have the great blessing of staying with new friends (friends of friends) who are adopting a baby in Guatemala and living in Guatemala – thus their house in KC is open for us to stay in. Okay – maybe the Lord does speak and I’m just not a good listener.



The transition back to the corporate world has been difficult. I find myself putting a lot of time and effort into tasks that at the end of the day seam to not have much significant value. Many have had to remind me that my ministry continues in the people I meet and the fact that the Lord did not send us to Bulgaria to just “return” to our old life. We return renewed, we return with a new outlook and a new desire to serve. (Easier said than done, I’m finding)



Between living part time in Des Moines and Kansas City and starting a new job – we also need to find a new home. This too provides its own number of challenges. My biggest concern is for our little guy – Drew. Many times he asks “What home are we going to?” – the mission home, the “peoples” home, papa and Jejes, Granddad and Nanas – which home? My little boy does not have a home right now and that tears me up.



God will provide – He always does. We need to be faithful and patient. We are tired and we are longing for a place to call home. We will persevere because God is our God and the four of us are together and healthy. We also have all of you. You and your prayers have been such a blessing to us.



We would appreciate your continued prayers and we hope to share good news soon about a new home.



We love you all.



Love,

The Sheps – Marc, Lisa, Drew and Adison.

Bulgaria Entering the EU

This is a Bulgarian Made video on their take on Bulgaria entering the EU.

Free Hugs - Bulgaria

You may have heard of this "Free Hug" campaign. Young people travel the world and walk cities with signs that read "Free Hugs" in their native languages. Here is their experiment in Bulgaria...