This looks SO COOL.....

Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai
Daily, November 14, 2006 - March 4, 2007

Exhibitions Pavilion, Getty Center


The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai, Egypt, is the oldest continuously operating Christian monastery in existence. The basilica and fortified walls were commissioned by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 6th century. This exhibition features a selection of artistic treasures from Saint Catherine's, which possesses one of the world's finest collections of Byzantine icons and manuscripts. Forty-three icons, six manuscripts, and several precious objects used in the celebration of the liturgy are on view. Icons from Sinai reveals the central role of icons in Byzantine spiritual practices and conveys their vital function in religious celebrations. It also shows how the monastery's geographic and historical position as a major pilgrimage destination engendered its astonishing collection of icons and books. The exhibition, accompanied by a major scholarly catalogue, features a film about the monastery and the site, including footage of Greek Orthodox Easter services.

UPDATE...in bright purple(as of 9-7-06)

We have another offer already!!!
Prayers appreciated as we now begin a new search for our new home on acreage and that the process for this inspection and appraisal goes well.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!


The offer has gone great...they just signed off on the inspection and now we wait (at the edge of our seats) for the appraisal.

We made an offer on a house Poulsbo, WA yesterday...seems promising. MUCH closer to Church and ferry for a shorter commute than the original house we offered on.

Thanky ou for your prayers!

We will have the appraisal done on our sale here in Bothell tomorrow, 9-8-06, on the beautiful day The Nativity of our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary.
Please pray unto God and the Most Blessed Theotokos for us and for the appraiser. This is our last hurdle, I think.

BTW...here is a picture of our soon-to-be home in Poulsbo, God-willing.

My handsome boys!

HOUSE UPDATE

This is the email I sent to Fr. James and friends here from Church. It explains everything!

I wanted to thank you all for your prayers through this stressful waiting time regarding the sale of our home. We have just learned that the buyers have officially terminated their offer. Their appraiser won't change his approach to the remodeling and they don't want to go through this same scenario if they try to sell later on. It's been a tough couple hours for me (Susan), fighting feelings of frustration and anguish, uncertainty and even despair - especially since we have done so much for these buyers already and now need to find a means of absorbing the financial costs that were supposed to be paid out of escrow. But we have talked and prayed and refuse to let the evil one lead us into despair. We will be moving forward with renewed faith and courage and will relist the house immediately! We are asking the sellers of our new home to extend closing and extend the financing contingency. We have invested lots into the new house already and feel it is where we want to be. So GOD WILLING the owners will accept our request to extend.

Pursuing this dream of ours is bittersweet in that it requires us to put some distance between ourselves and you, and now it is apparent that it is also going to be difficult and challenging in other ways we had not foreseen. Needless to say, this Sunday, the 27th is not going to be our last Sunday and that change of plans is one amongst many that we are having to make at the moment...we are sorry that it affects your plans as well. You are stuck with us a bit longer!

Thank you for your continued prayers.

peace and love
James and Susan

In the midst of chaos and uncertainty I took these pictures that I absolutely LOVE.
Thank you for all your prayers...I still don't know if I'm moving or not but DO KNOW...that God knows!

In the last week and a half we've been losing teeth left and right here in the Ferrenberg home.
From the left, Kelsey lost her first molar! It's hard to see but she does have a gapping hole on the left side of her mouth. Charissa lost her first top tooth and is amused at how her talking has changed. And Nicholas lost his first ever tooth! It happened at 10pm one night and our house was all full of excitement for about an hour!

These two were taken by me while cuddling with Joe. Nicholas had to get in on the action!

Prayer Request on House stuff still!

Here
and here are James' and my first requests on this matter.

UPDATE.....They are still requesting permits of which there are none. The house appraises at more than sale price but is contingent on permits. The city says it is a VERY long process.
We have written a letter to the buyers lender urging them to reconsider. In this we will send a copy of our original sale 3 years ago that shows the conversion and our being granted a loan regardless.

Please pray that this big corporation has mercy on all those involved, ourselves and the Nunez family our buyers.

An Ice Cream Kind of Day

I took these just now while the children were enjoying themselves savoring a wonderful treat. I love how they turned out.

PS...thank you for all your prayers(see below).

House Prayer Request ---Immediately

A snag has been hit. I'm trying not to worry because I feel so strongly that everything has worked out thus far so smoothly and that is directed by God. I have faith that God's Hand will be on it until the end.
The snag is the appraiser on our current home. He wants permits for work that was done prior to our even buying the house...the garage was converted into living space and he want permits or recording from the city. There are none. This really shouldn't affect the value of the house if he is doing fair comps, but he's being a stinker. Please pray that this snag will go away so that the house will appraise for just the right amount and God's Will be done!!! It's really out of my hands, there is nothing we can do to change this except trust in God! And I do!
Thank you!

We just arrived back from 4 days of camping. (pictures here) It was suppose to be 5 but we were cut short one day at the start to go look at a house that had just come on the market. And being that we knew we were going to be homeless in 3 weeks from last Tuesday we thought we ought to look. We got a sitter and made the trip by ferry to look at this house in Seabeck. It has 5 (FIVE!) acres with a 4 bedroom home (2.5 baths). We were astounded at the price lower than we thought we’d ever get. We were even more surprised to get their and both completely fall in love with EVERYTHING! It has just about everything we were looking for and more. All I can say is GLORY TO GOD!!!!

We made an offer Monday night and while camping and via fax received and signed their counter offer. We had our inspection today and it turned out VERY well. And to top it all off there are eager to leave and have no problem with an incredibly short close. It is ours on August 31^st. Everything is moving sooooo quickly but yet so smoothly all I can do is give all Glory to God!!! Two weeks ago we were so stressed and nervous about having no place while this one sold so quickly. But we prayed and God heard. (PICTURES OF HOUSE)

Thank you all for your prayers!!!!!

Our camping trip was great! We had nearly perfect weather, just one night of rain, and the sand and sun were so fun! Picture link above.

Prayer Request--UPDATE(in bold)

After 2 1/2 weeks on the market we have an offer on our house. We haven't even signed it yet, the agent comes this afternoon, but if all goes well, these people want it by the end of AUGUST.

Please pray that God will open a door to a new place and that our ever-failing sight will see this door open.
And for a smooth transition and that we may not be homeless for too long.

Thank you so much.

We countered our offer to get back a bit more as it was a tad low. They accepted our offer with no changes and the inspection is TODAY at 4:00PM!
Please pray this goes well, we are very nervous as we've done so much work on this house ourselves.
Also please continue to pray that God will open a door. We will go house hunting tomorrow.
Thank you so much for your prayers.