Great start

We drove to Nashville today with hopes of seeing a friend battling leukemia. We were given a free place to stay and arrived around 5. It just so happened that our youngest started having a runny nose and we were around some sick friends over the weekend. That meant that our friend and his weakened, almost nonexistent white blood cells couldn't risk a visit from us. SO...we had to scratch the visit and start asking the Lord what His plan was for us in Nashville.
It didn't become clear until we arrived at our free place to stay. Right across the street was a park. Lots of people playing basketball, walking and the sound of a bass in the trunk of a car. The area of town is not the ghetto but isn't the suburbs! We headed over after dinner and started at the playground. Larry had a frisbee in the field and I started praying and picking up trash. The kids were great and after we were there for about an hour each of us stepped out and talked with people. Larry shared Christ with the kids he was playing with and I was able to pray with a lady who is 12 weeks pregnant and on bedrest because of bleeding. After Larry finished wither the frisbee group. We headed over to a girl, not a day over 15 and due with her first baby, that we met right when we got there. We asked if we could pray with her. She agreed and it was sweet. She was shy but appreciative. I am so encouraged tonight as I go to bed. Thanks for your prayers tomorrow we are headed out again.

Our first stop

We headed toward the North GA mountains to spend four days with 38 of some of our favorite people. We are in two houses on top of a beautiful mountain with amazing views. The kids are covered with dirt, filled with goodies and smiles on every face! The adults are eating, playing guitar and spending good times of prayer and worship together. We treasure these times as a season is ending and a new one begins for so many of us.

Fun with Loading the Van

We are off

After weeks of preparation. Lists updated at least 4 times. Hugs goodbye and tears. We are on the road. We are confident the Lord has sent us. We are excited to meet new friends and spend time with old ones. We look expectantly toward the next eight weeks for amazing stories to tell and glory of God revealed.
The time is 3:30pm. The date is the 28th of July and our mileage at the start is 133251. All systems go!

Successful Move

It was a day full of hands willing to help and do whatever it took to have all our stuff cleared out and over to my parents. My heart was full as I looked around and saw so many people who love us. We have journeyed with them for years now and as we prepare to travel roads unseen I am comforted by the strength I find in their prayers and support. Mommas caring for my babies, sisters cleaning right by my side, brothers lifting/sweating and getting the job DONE! Although there were some that were my blood family, all of them were my family in Christ. I get ready for bed tonight thankful, for so many things.

Dry Run

Today we awoke with a full day to do whatever we want ;) As wonderful as that would have been we were just thankful to be free of any commitments that would keep us from getting moving/packing stuff done. The Deaton's and Henderson's were here to help and assist us today.They were especially helpful in two areas. The first was trying out our new topper!

The second was helping us get all of our stuff into bins and the topper. We have gone back and forth many times about how many bins, bags, and equipment we would need. This you will see by the big "X" over the first list. The second list is what has become the final list, but as any of you know with three more days to find and see things we didn't see before it just night change again. The Lord was with us today. No arguments, misunderstandings or melt downs from the kids. We are getting excited. Because of our friends we were able to have a successful "Dry Run"!

They love a camera

I was working on Larry's computer and found this video from last Summer. I love Evan's facial expressions on this one!

It's the final Countdown

We had great time in NC for our family reunion. We barely got above 60 degrees, it rained most of the time so we all snuggled 'round the fire. We played plenty of games that had us all in stitches.
Now that we are home I am feeling the weight of all that needs to be done before we head out across the USA. Clothes are being washed, Bills are getting paid and lists of all kinds are formed. Yesterday was one of those emotional days where nothing bad has happened, no one has pressed any buttons but I just wanted to sit in a corner and cry. Our lives are going to be turned upside down. I kept saying to myself it is ok you want this, you are prepared for this but I still just wanted to stay put. I love our friends, family, and church community so much. They have been such a delight to my heart for so long. It will be hard to leave, there will be tears! I ended the day with those wonderful friends. We ate yogli mogli, laughed and sat real close. I will  miss them terribly when I leave in 8 days.

Family Reunion-Day 1

We arrived to a breezy 70 degrees and ate dinner with Gram. Afterward it was time to get some energy out having fun at the city park. Larry had a chance to play around with his new camera.

Our New Adventure

We depart in 14 days. We will be headed to North Ga for our first stop with 40+ of our favorite folks. We will be in two cabins for four days enjoying the uninterrupted time of fellowship, laughter, eating, and late nights! These are the community of folks that we have been serving God together for over 4 years now. We have been through a TON and it will be wonderful to celebrate with them all that we have overcome and seen change in our lives.

Here is a letter we put together for those of you who didn't get it so that you can know a little bit about what we will be doing for the next two and half months and beyond ;)

Dear friends and family,


We wanted to let you know about some changes that are taking place with our family that we are very excited about. As some of you may know, I’ve been unsatisfied with my job situation for several years now, but haven’t really had any clear direction on what to do about it. I’ve considered several options, but haven’t had a real peace from the Lord about pursuing anything.



A few weeks ago we found out that our landlords are expecting another child and due to needing more room are wanting to move back in their condo. We pursued finding another rental close by, but didn’t have much luck. Again, we considered several options, but didn’t really have a peace about anything. This is when a strange idea popped in my head that I wasn’t able to shake. Why not quit your job and travel the country with your family. Go out west and see a lot of those places you’ve always wanted to see. Take this time to really pray and seek God about the next phase in life. Where would He have us go and what would He have us do. Fortunately we are presently debt free and were recently blessed with some inheritance money that will enable us to make the trip.



Please keep us in your prayers over the next few months. We would also welcome any input or advice you might have to give. We look forward to hearing from you and will keep you posted as things develop. As it stands now we plan to leave August 1st and will see some friends in Tennessee and then will head to Colorado. We will make our way to California to visit some friends making several stops along the way at some National parks.



Charlotte’s addition :)



I can’t think of a better time for us to go on this trip. In the last year we have learned quite a few things about living simply, sharing daily life with people not in your family and what homeschooling means for us. All of these lessons will be used daily as we live in a tent, stay in people’s homes and do our schooling on the road. I will be attempting to document our trip with video, pictures and journal entries using our blog. For those of you who have gone to the site and seen our story for the last couple of years you know the way but we would like to invite all of you to stop by. www.three-fold-cord.blogspot.com You can click on the link it will take you right there (that is for you Gram) Ok, I think that is all except please pray for us. Pray for unity among the children, wisdom for Larry and grace for this suburb girl.

We love you all,

Larry, Charlotte and the kids

Homemade pizza

We headed to the Hay homestead tonight for dinner. The kids were excited to see that we were going to make our own pizza from scratch. Out came the aprons, flour and rolling pin. We all enjoyed and came home with the extra pieces for lunch.

Family breakfast

The kids look forward to Sunday mornings. We have been taking them breakfast to have family time just the Vick's. See we have lived with other families and/or single guys for almost a year and this is a good time for us to be just us. We usually land at Ihop but occasionally they convince me to go to waffle house. Today they look so big to me sitting all by themselves on the other side of the booth.

Spa day at home

What a wonderful day I had with my girl. Mash banana face masks, homemade hand scrub and pastel painted toes.

swimming fun

and here it is...this is my first video upload from our yout tube account and I am SOOO excited that it uploaded so quickly.