IM NOT PREGNANT BUT...It's a Boy!!!

NO ITS NOT WHAT YOU THINK. I am not pregnant nor are we currently trying. But I have made the move to FINALLY sponsor a sweet baby boy from the orphanage that I visited this summer. It is something I have wanted to do since I returned from China but never made the move to actually do it. Since returning I have made many visits to the web site but I could never decide on which child I actually wanted to sponsor. Well last week I could not sleep, so once again I visited the Philip Hayden web page. Upon clicking on the link to children who need sponsors, something caught my eye. It was a little boy named Jason who arrived at SFCV on June 24, 2009, WAIT I was there on June 24, 2009!!!! This was the boy I watched being whisked into the orphanage by two women. He was only 6 weeks at the time he arrived and I got the awesome chance to hold and love on him. What is even cooler is that he is named after one of my teammates husbands. My teammate Ana had a request to the doctors that were giving the young boy his first exam. She asked if they would name the sweet little boy after her husband Jason. I never heard anything more about it but I was blown away to see that they had granted her wish and gave him the English name Jason. Another reason why I felt connected to this boy was because his special need is clubbed feet, just like my sweet Jacob-Jai. Also notice how Jacob-Jai and Jason both start with the letter J.God is so good, its so cool to see how he works some things out. So I am excited to say that I have a sweet 5 month old baby boy in China that I am now sponsoring. Here are some more pictures of him.


Me holding Jason this summer






If you want to sponsor a child like Jason just take a trip over to www.chinaorphans.org
It doesn't cost a whole lot and you can make a huge difference in a child's life.
Please pray for Jason. May his health continue to improve and may his forever family come to get him real soon.

In Him,
Vanessa

What Year it has Been!

It is still hard for me to believe that this is the last day of 2009. Chad and I have had an amazing year, it really will be hard to top. I had hoped to write a family letter to include with our Christmas picture card this year, but other things got the better of me. To remember and show what God has done in our life this year I thought I would at least take the time to blog about it. So let the recap of 2009 begin!

Together Chad and I have had a whirlwind of a year. We began the year by going to Tahoe for a long weekend of skiing and hanging out alone. We had a great time despite me taking Chad out on the bunny hill. I found myself wiped out after a few short runs and let him take off to do the more advanced hills. In July we took a road tip to Vegas and took in the sights for a few days. We then headed down to Victorville to visit with his family for a few days. While in the LA area we went to both a Dodger and an Angels game. We hope to be able to visit every ball park in the country, we know this is a goal that will take years. Upon returning from vacation we received a call from our real estate agent saying that if we wanted to buy a house, now is the time to do it. We hopped on the house hunting wagon and 30 or maybe 45 houses later we finally got the news that our bid on one of the houses had been accepted. We moved into out new home on October 17. What a blessing this home is and we are so thankful that God made one of our biggest dreams come true. We have been working non-stop on house projects since move in day, and the projects will continue for years to come. But hey we are enjoying it!



Chad has continued to work hard at In-N-Out. He began the year by being flown down south for his very first kick off dinner. The kick off dinner is a black tie event that In-N-Out throws annually and is usually only attended by first managers and those above first managers. Basically Chad was surrounded by In-N-Out royalty, a dream come true for him. He made his rounds around a couple different stores landing in Gilroy just in time for the busy Christmas shopping season. The biggest news came in October when Chad found out he would be opening the newest San Jose store just after the first of the year. He will still be a second manager but this is a huge opportunity for him to get a leg up in the company. We are thinking a promotion is somewhere in the near future but we are trusting that God is going to allow that to happen when Chad is fully ready for the responsibilities. Chad will celebrate his ten year anniversary with the company this May.



I had a busy year myself. I started my second year as a Kindergarten teacher at Calvary Chapel Christian School. It's a job that definitely keeps me going. I continue to tutor the two children that I have been working with for over two years now. My biggest news of the year came in March when I prayerfully decided to go on a mission trip to China. It had been something I had wanted to do for years and I finally decided to go for it. The trip was more than I could have ever imagined. The Lord worked though me and my teammates as we worked with the children at Shepard's Field, an orphanage that is home to 100 special needs children. I made lots of new friends who are located all around the USA. My heart was broken many times on my trip but I completely fell in love with the country. I want to go back desperately but I am waiting to see what the Lord wants me to do. Upon returning from China I started training for my very first triathlon. I completed my first sprint triathlon in late September which was a huge accomplishment for me. I hope to continue doing more races in 2010 and I hope to get Chad on board. Right after our big move in October, I got Swine Flu and battled that for weeks. I am just now returning to normal and hope that I will not fall ill again for at least another year.



Milo our cat has fit right into our family. In February Chad (dad) built her a kitty condo. I think it is more like a kitty paradise. She was a little distraught over my absence while I was in China and she was very confused when we moved to a new house. It took her about a week to adjust to her new home but she is right at home now. Her favorite things to do are sleep in the front window and cuddle with me or Chad. We are very thankful for such a sweet kitty.



Well that pretty much sums up our year. We are so thankful for the many blessings that the Lord bestowed on us this year. We are very thankful for you all as well. We do not know where we would be without all of our family and friends. We pray that you and your families are well and that you receive a multitude of blessing in the year ahead. God Bless and happy 2010!
-Chad, Vanessa, and Milo

Remembering an Angle

Six months ago I arrived at SFCV, the orphanage that I would spend the next week at. Although it was dark when we arrived, I was able to see some of the grounds. There was a row of houses lined up perfectly. These were the houses that housed the children. I could see the lights on in the first house, the house known as Samaritans House. This is the house where the sickest children at the orphanage were housed and cared for. Coincidentally the children in this house were among the first that we met the following morning. They were outside with their nannies, some on little toy cars. It is where most of us held our first of many children that we held on that trip. There was Adrian, Tristan, Emily, Margaret, and Tiffany to name a few. Tiffany was one who sat on a toy car. At four years old she was very inquisitive, and very smart. Many of the girls on the team would say things to her in English or Spanish and she would repeat it back perfectly. Looking at Tiffany, you knew she had a very serious condition. Her lips and fingers were very blue. As we found out later children that appeared to be blue usually had a heart condition. I never found out what her heart condition was nor did I think that it was as bad as it really was. One of my teammates informed me that Tiffany went to be with J*sus last week. That was a tough blow and my heart broke. Tiffany was five years old and she never got to have her own home with a mom and a dad. While it is very sad for me to think about, I know that she is now in a much better place. Tiffany is now in the arms of J*sus. No more heart condition, no more pain or hurt. She can run and play freely, something she was not able to do here on this earth.
Yesterday in the mail I received a beautiful gift from fellow teammates John and Allison. It was a Ch*na flag glass ornament. I so so overjoyed to get such a precious treasure. A message was included with the gift and this is what part of it said. "We hope that each time you see it, you will remember to pr*y for those sweet faces that we were able to love on and the countless others that G*d holds in the palm of His hand. May they all one day come to know the love only He can give." I say AMEN to that! While I want to save every child that does not have a parent, I know that I cannot. What I can do is pr*y that they will each come to know of our Fathers great love.
A part of my heart is still in Ch*na and I know it always will be. I wonder when God will bring me back and what that trip will entail. Until I hear what G*d wants me to do next, I will be waiting prayerfully for Him to tell me. Is anyone on board with me?! Think about it!
In Him,
Vanessa

A Long, Overdue, Floyd Update

What happened to her?! You may or may not be asking where the heck I went to. Life took over and our laptop went into the shop (again) so it has been hard for me to sit here at the desktop and write a complete blog. However the more time goes on the more I have to write about! I guess I don't have to, but where is the fun in that?!
Well, last time I left you I had just completed my first triathlon and we were gearing up to move out of our tiny condo and into our very first home. Moving date was October 17 and boy what a job that was. We were blessed by many friends and family members who were able to help us on that day. We really couldn't have done it without them. We loaded everything up and in one U-Haul swoop, most of the stuff was out of our condo. It was tough moving an entire household of stuff but well worth it in the end. We are settling in well and working little by little to make it our very own. We love home ownership so far, hopefully we will still feel the same way a year from now! FACT: Chad and I moved into our house on the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Loma Preita earthquake. For those of you who may not be familiar with what I am talking about it was a huge 6.9 earthquake that shook our area in a way that most people had never experienced before. Chad and I were 6 at the time but we were old enough to remember the events of that date. We are prayerfully hoping that if we ever endure another earthquake of such size that the Lord puts a hedge of protection around our home and does not let there be any damage to it or all who live inside. I'm not gonna lie, earthquakes scare the heck out of me.
The move actually threw my back out and I was unable to go to work on the following Monday. I was in immense pain and spent the whole day on my back. I returned to work Tuesday only to come down with a horrible headache on Thursday. Well low and behold each day got progressively worse until Sunday when the body aches were unbearable. To urgent care we went and a simple test later showed I had the dreaded H1N1 virus. lol, yes I got swine flu. I missed an entire week as a result. Returned to work the following Monday which we figured out later was way too early. By Tuesday I had relapsed and each day got worse and worse. Sunday was awful and I called the doctors and my boss. Upon hearing me my boss said there is no way you can come in sounding like that. To make a long story short I had come down with an awful congestion, cough, yuck I don't even know what it was cold and missed ANOTHER full week of work! I have never missed so much work, not even close. And wouldn't you know it now I am fighting a sinus infection. The pain is horrible and the meds they have me on do not seem to be helping me very much. Thanksgiving day was a mess, I was in so much pain I was in tears. There has to be relief soon, although at this point we are starting to wonder if there is something in the house that is making me sick. Oh how I hope that is not the case.
In between all of my illnesses, there have been some exciting events as well. One of my best friends Yasemin is getting married in August and I am a BRIDESMAID!! I have known Yas since 6th grade and am thrilled to be able to be a part of her wedding. We went dress shopping the week after I had Swine and it was a blast. She picked out a gorgeous dress! We get to wear brown dresses which I am absolutely thrilled about! I have always wanted a brown bridesmaid dress.
My other good friend Autumn is having a baby in January. I was lucky enough to be able to throw a baby shower for her. It was my first real big hosting job and while it was a lot of work it was totally worth it at the end. We had a ton of god food, fun games, and good laughs. I cannot wait to meet Micah Reed Lindsey in January.
Chad is doing well also. He got moved to the Gilroy In-N-Out and had a black Friday like no other. A 12 hour shift starting promptly at 5:30am! What a man I tell ya. He has another exciting move coming up in about another month, he will be opening the new San Jose In-N-Out located close to the airport. I am so proud of my Burger man. Next stop, store manage ;)
So now we are preparing for Christmas. I have been trying all day to get Christmas stuff up but I have to stop after a couple minutes and take a rest. This darn headache will not go away! I have had it for 6 weeks now and I am a bit tired of it. I would like to reach out for prayer. I do not know exactly what is going on, but if you could pray for the Lord's healing upon me. I do not want to spend another month sick and out of commission. I appreciate all of your prayers and support.
Chad and I are very blessed, and you are a big part of that!
Hopefully more updates soon.
Vanessa

Triathlon- The Story

Well yes it has been a full week since the triathlon and I am just now blogging about it. But better late than never right!
We spent the night before the triathlon in Pleasanton. The Smith family, the family I used to work for, graciously opened their house to us for the night. It was perfect because they were less than a mile from the park where the triathlon was to take place. What was even better was that Kaaren has been doing triathlons herself and has weekly swims with a group of people on Friday nights at the lake where I was to swim the next day. She took me out there for a practice run. It was great to get in and used to the water before I was to get in to do the real thing. Kaaren and another friend also did a practice take off where they practice bumping into and hitting me, which they said would happen the next day. It was great to get so many pointers from experienced triathletes :)
The next day started early-5am! Oh I am so not a morning person. We got to the park and got everything set up. Reality started to hit me. What was I doing?! Am I really here preparing to do a triathlon?! We had a lot of time so we walked around for a bit. My father-in-law arrived soon there after. He himself is also an experienced triathlete and so he did a good job of trying to keep me calm and assure me that everything would be OK. Finally the time came and the race was beginning. I was the second to last group to go out so I had some time. I put on my wetsuit and got in the lake to warm up. The water felt good and I was feeling better. My mom arrived while I was in the water. We soon realized that the race had come to an abrupt stop. We first knew something was really wrong when we saw a lifeguard run across the beach with an oxygen tank! That's not good. It became apparent that someone was in trouble. As I heard a bit later a woman had been pulled out of the lake and had no pulse. I still do not know the complete story as to what happened. But it was a scary reality as to what could happen. Regardless I tried to stay calm knowing that thinking about such things would not help me, they could only hinder me. The race was delayed a good 30-45 minutes so I just hung out with Chad, Clyde, and my mom. Finally my time came. I was ready, I had prepared for this for months and I was ready to get started to see how I would do. I made my way pretty close to the front of the group. The horn sounded and we were off. It was chaos and it was hard to get my swim grove with people everywhere and water splashing in my face. I kept going. People were running into me, people were close on my heels, and people were passing me. I just kept going. As I rounded the last buoy I finally got my swim grove. Two breath strokes and I was picking up speed. I hit land and took off running off the beach. I found my family and they were cheering me on. I gave them a positive fist pump to let them know I was doing good. Now onto the bike. I changed quickly into my bike clothes and shoes and off I went. Right away there was a hill I had to get up in order to get out of the park. I was amazed at how quickly I climbed up that hill and out of the park. I was winded, tired, I needed to rehydrate and catch my breath. Finally I caught my breath and peddled hard. The bike portion was my favorite park. It was a a nice ride that took us into some nice parts of Pleasanton. There were people motivating and cheering throughout the course which was good to have. The course was mostly flat except for the initial climb and a small but steep climb that came more towards the end. I reached the end of the ride and my family found me and cheered me on again. What a great positive support I have. It was then a quick transition to the run portion. I took off strong, but soon took it to a walk. I knew the run was going to be the hardest part for me. For one, I am not a runner, and two, it was the final event and I figured exhaustion would start to set in. It was getting hot but I needed to finish. The run was also a lot more difficult because as I soon found out there were lots of hills to climb and then run down. My stomach had started to hurt, I am thinking now that the GU may have done that one, and at one point I thought I was going to loose my breakfast. Whenever doubt set in I kept telling myself no you have worked too hard not to finish this. No matter how long it was going to take, I was going to finish it! I would jog a bit and then walk a bit, jog and then run. Finally the end was in sight. I pushed myself I ran the rest of the way. Right before the finish line I spotted my family again. I did it, I crossed the finish line, I was done! They gave us a medal as you crossed the finish line which was pretty cool. I was a little heartbroken to see that the time on the finish line clock said my finish time was 2 hours and 1 minute. I had so wanted to finish under two hours. But I figured the run had slowed me down, oh well no biggie. My family met me as I was still trying hard to catch my breath. After a calm down and some pictures Clyde suggested we go look at my times. I was nervous to look at them but I am so glad I did. As it turns out they never stopped the clock when there was a delay in the race, I had finished the race in 1:41:22! Way better than I thought I would ever do. I was elated!!! I couldn't believe it! My spirits were lifted way up.
I had a great time doing this event. It showed me that I can work hard, push my body, and complete a goal that I once thought was impossible for me. To add to it I also was able to loose 10 pounds in the process of training for this. That's always an added bonus. I hope to keep training for future triathlons but for now the triathlon season has come to an end. I hope to run some 10k's here soon so as to work on my running. Who thought I would ever be doing this stuff!? I sure as heck never thought I would be doing any of this and having a blast in the process!
Here's a link to my results if you wish to check it out. Vanessa Floyd

A big thank you to everyone who helped me, encouraged me, and were there to support me. It means the world to me :)
-Vanessa


Swim

Bike

Run

Triathlon!!!

What Kids Say Wednesday

People are always asking me what funny things my kids say. I thought it would be neat to try and give you one each Wednesday and call it What Kids Say Wednesday. However, with the way life goes over here, it may not be every Wednesday!
This story is about a child in the room next door to me. He is a sweet little boy who talks in his own little sweet way. Yesterday his class was doing prayer requests and one of the other boys in the class said "pray for my dad, he got bit by a bee. He is allergic." This other boy then responds, "well my dad got bit by a Cheeto!" "A Cheeto?" said his teacher. "Yes, a cheeto!" Come to find out that what he meant was his dad got bit by a mosquito!!! hahaha! It had me laughing the entire day!
Hope that brought a smile to your dad like it did to mine!
Vanessa

A House Update...She's Pending!!!

Yes its true, Chad and I are just a mere week away from being home owners!!! But maybe we should back up a bit as it has been quite a few weeks since I updated everyone on the house situation and A LOT has changed. The last time I wrote about the house I told you that we had been picked out of a bunch of offers to have the opportunity to try and buy this beautiful short sale home. I didn't think about it at the time, but the time we would have waited for the outcome of that house could have been months. But the house was all done, small, but all done. A few days after we said yes to that house, out real estate agent called us and said another house we had looked at just had a higher offer fall apart and the sellers agent said if we wanted it, the house was ours. Now I got this call, literally 5 minutes before I was to leave for work. I panicked! I was like I can't make this decision in 5 minutes. This house was big and unlike the other one, needed a lot of cosmetic work. All doable, but I had gotten used to the idea of moving into a home that was completely finished. But this house was quite a bit bigger and gave us both a family room, and living room, something that none of the other houses had to offer. The other drawback was that we would back up to the freeway but we would be at the end of a cul-de-sac (I know I spelled that wrong) and because of both of those factors we would have a 7,000 square foot lot. What this means, we would have one huge back yard! My boss was kind enough to give me an extra 45 minutes to talk and pray it over with Chad. Chad was like lets go for it, I took a little convincing but I soon hopped on board. And with that we started to go into escrow. All seemed to be going well. We had to buy some things here and there to get through some of the inspections. Got through the inspections and an appraisal with flying colors. Everything with the loan was going great and we were expected to have final papers by last Friday. But instead of papers we got news that an out of town appraiser had come in and totally screwed up the appraisal. Now I don't completely understand the situation but we had to put in a rebuttal to the back, and this and that... well let's just say God worked it out so there is no reason to go into all the mumbo jumbo. Plus like I said, I never fully understood the situation to begin with. So here we are, about a week away from closing on our first home! I am so excited. The house is structurally sound which is great, it is all cosmetic stuff that will need to be done over the years notice the lack of grass in the picture above). I love it though, the house is a blank slate ready for us to come in and do what we want to it. It is 1500 square feet and so it has enough room for us to grow into. We will have a garage and our own backyard! (Remind me of all this excitement when I am paying my first mortgage payment in a month please). So the process is almost over and boy am I relieved! I can't wait to be moved into our new home. Our very first home :) Oh how good God is!
Please keep praying for us that all will continue to go well. And of course thank you for your prayers thus far. We can't wait to have you all over to our new casa:)
Vanessa