beach day!

The cousins are in town! Yesterday we all escaped the North County heat and met up at Avila Beach.

The fun was doubled when our friends came along too. Jason braved the waters for his first boogieboarding adventure. Cameron dug the deepest hole ever and Hayden stayed on Pops' lap most of the day to avoid the pesky sand.

Cameron reminded me that sometimes you just have to put the camera

away and enjoy the moment!

why Scotland?

If you know us well, you may suspect that this whole Scotland thing is a sneaky way for Darren to play golf on some amazing courses and for me and the kids to spend our days touring castles. But the truth is, we were willing to go a number of places and Scotland is where God landed us. Here are two reasons why Scotland is in our future:

1. Because God is leading us there. Sorry, not trying to be redundant, but in all honesty this is the truth. And to be sure, it is a big, crazy idea to pick up your comfortable, content family and move them across the world. This will be our 3rd "career" change and 2nd time moving away from family in our 15 year history together. But looking back on our life together we can clearly see that every time God has moved or changed us it has been to form us for this very task. We also are confident that He will carry us through the transition. So with this assurance we can't help but be excited for our next adventure.

2. Because Scotland needs help. We are joining an amazing team of people dedicated to the awakening of a nation. Here are a few snippets from Operation World to help you understand the need in Scotland:

"A national awakening is needed.... the steep decline of organized Christianity in the UK is almost unparalleled in Europe..."

"...(there is) widespread loss of confidence and certainty in the veracity of the gospel, in the uniqueness of Jesus.... (these are) simultaneous with increasingly assertive and confident atheism and Islam."

"Christian leadership is under intense pressure... from intense scrutiny by the public and from lack of effective Bible teachers and expositors."

You might read these quotes in disbelief. After all, Scotland was once a major force in sending the gospel out to the world. Only a few generations of apathy an indifference can change the state of a nation.

So those are just two of the reasons we are going. We would love to talk more with you about this big life change so feel free to leave a comment or get in touch with us by email :

darrenrusco@hotmail.com . (This blog is registered under an address I no longer use, sorry for the inconvenience. I'll try to change it soon!)

the rusco house is on the move!

Ahem... please excuse my absence. I realize that my last post was in January, this is tad embarrassing! How about a cute picture to make up for it?

There, that's better. Am I forgiven now? Thanks!

So what do I mean by "on the move"? I mean that our family is moving across the Atlantic to the beautiful nation of Scotland, land of bagpipes, kilts and haggis... and more importantly a land that needs help in their churches.

Last summer, Darren caught the missions bug. As he thought about Paso Robles and the great churches we have in the North County, he began to feel a need to go to a place that had a greater need. When he studied the church all across the world he saw that many former Christian nations had lost their way and the church had faded into a sleeping institution. He felt a pull to go back to those people and bring the gospel of Jesus to light once more and help wake up the sleeping church.

We first looked into Ireland, France and Italy. We talked with missions organizations that had projects going in those countries but we never felt a connection with those teams. One day the Multnomah alumni magazine arrived and Darren read and article about a man who had gone to Glasgow, Scotland to start a church. The man's story resonnated with Darren because they had both been so committed to preaching the Word of God that they had neglected to develop a prayer life. Once the prayer life was explored and developed, both men began to see their ministries increase. Darren wrote to him to thank him for the article and to his surprise, the man responded with an invitation to visit Glasgow!

In November, Darren boarded a plane to Scotland. To be honest, I thought this was just a silly idea that he needed to get out of his system and I didn't expect much to come of it. You may have seen this on facebook around that time:

Although he was incredibly homesick, he was able to listen to God's direction as he traveled and met with the team in Glasgow. When he came home and told me all about his experience, I knew this was not just a whim, this was our family's new direction.

While in Glasgow, Darren learned a lot about prayer. When he came home, he began to implement these things into our services and home groups and we began to see God do mighty things. Over the past months we have both felt confirmation that although amazing things are happening at PRBC, it is ok that we move on, because we know our church is in good hands.

In March, Darren, Jason and I went to Glasgow for another visit. Darren was adamant that if I wasn't happy, we wouldn't go. We had a fabulous visit with the team and the Ingraham family. Here are a few pictures from that trip:

The gang in front of Edinburgh Castle.

Jason and his pal Emma run into a little trouble with the law...

Finally, justice is restored when Jason is rightfully returned to his throne.

As you can see, we had fun. While flying home Darren and I had a moment where we just looked at each other and knew that we were meant to move to Scotland. I think my exact words to him were, "I'm in!".

Our next step was to join the organization that supports the Scotland team. This is Church Resource Ministries or CRM. Please check out their website www.crmleaders.org . We really like CRM. We just completed our orientation week in Anaheim this last week and we are very impressed with the way they care for their staff. They are an established organization with a rich history and an innovative ministry that is strategically looking to the future of world missions. We are very happy to be a part of this group.

I'm sure one of the main questions in your mind right now is, "so, when are you guys moving?". That's a good question! Our goal is January but there are a lot of factors necessary to make that happen. We are making our plans toward that end but we fully understand that God is ultimately in control of the timing.

Over the next few weeks I plan on blogging more about Scotland, why we're going and how a family of five picks up their lives and moves it across an ocean. Also, Darren will be sharing more details in church about our transition so be sure to show up on Sunday or "like" Paso Robles Bible Church on Facebook. Sermons are usually posted there for you to download. Until then, check out CRM's site and take a look at our team leader's blog for more info about the church in Scotland www.brianingraham.com .

Thanks for making it to the end of this post. How about one last picture?

This was one of our many attempts at taking Hayden's passport photo:)

3rd child

Sometimes I wonder what Hayden will remember when she looks back on her childhood. Does she care that mom was so burned out on preschool songs that she never sang to her? Or will she simply be grateful that mom never sang to her? The other night we were playing with a toy bus and I started to sing "The Wheels on the Bus". Hayden looked at me with wide-eyed amazement and announced "MO!" (more). 23 verses later I was able to put that song to rest.

Last week we did marble paintings. I needed a quick and easy art project for our Tuesday art lesson and I'd also been stockpiling cereal this month (crazy coupon deals-- I'm trying not to go overboard but...). So with a quick dig in the recycle box we had all our supplies.

I didn't realize what a great project this would be for Hayden until she grabbed a box of her own.

Silly me. I need to do my best to remember what the other kids were doing at 2 years old so that Hayden doesn't miss out. Look at this face:

Now she points out her painting with pride. What else am I forgetting? I should look back at my own blog to get ideas for Hayden.

Or I could just ask this girl. She loves to remember back to her days as a 2 year old. In fact, marble painting was her idea. I think by the time I finally put all the paints and paper away Cam had completed 7 paintings!

library card

Today was a big deal. A milestone for Little Miss 5 Year Old. She signed her name on the very important form (and mom did too) and POOF! just like that, Cameron is SLO County's newest library patron. She feels like hot stuff.

I made a little pocket on her library bag for her new card. Hopefully, this will deter loss. Hopefully.

Little Miss 5 Year Old developed quite an unpleasant attitude toward school this year. She learned to read early on and now she can't understand why in the world she would need to continue doing school work. She can read, what else is there?

Perhaps being the ever-so-important reader of books for her little sister can satisfy Miss Cam.

It seems to make Little Miss 2 Year Old very happy.

Very.

Happy.

me time

Tonight Cameron is at her first real at-a-friend's-house-sleep-over! Of course, it's a double sleep-over with Jason, his best friend Jacob and Jacob's little sister Taylor. Look at her, she's so excited!

It was an easy trial run since their friends just live across the street.

Everyone's excited for the big night. Well, almost everyone...

She soon cheered up when she realized that she would have mom and dad all to herself this evening. We spent some good quality time playing babies tonight.

After Hayden went to bed I spent over an hour blitzing through the kitchen, school area and Jason's room. We are decluttered! For now. And now I can catch up on what went on in the Rusco house during December.

The big kids got to see two live shows this month. Nanny and Pops took them to see a production of Peter Pan and I took them to see The Nutcracker. I love it that they can have these opportunities.

Wait, I better back up. We got our tree Thanksgiving weekend. I know it's crazy since we always buy a live tree and it's anything but live once we get to Christmas, but we JUST CAN'T WAIT! Our addition to our Christmas village this year was a log cabin with a fireplace and family reading inside. It's such a fun tradition to go to Kohl's every year and pick out a new piece.

As you all know, a very sweet baby was born in the month of December and we had quite the party! Happy Birthday Hayden!

No time to smile, eating birthday cake is very serious business! Earlier in the day she had found big sis's Dora nightgown, so she just HAD to wear it to the party. She got a new Dora backpack, watch and doll, so it was a very Dora birthday. ¡Feliz cumpleanos Hayden!

We spent the next night in our car as the rain came down on the San Miguel Electric Light parade. I don't quite know how to put into words the (thrilling? magical? spectacular?) experience of the parade. Just in case you ever want to come up and see it, you'll be impressed to know that the parade route loops around so that you can see it twice! We pulled up at about 5 to six and were home by 6:30. So, yeah. Ahem. Here are the pics:

And there you have it. Obviously, the parade was a smashing success.

I'm gonna call it a night right here. Hopefully, I'll have you caught up on Christmas before the year's end. Good night!

Oh my, this is embarrassing! It's been so long since I've visited blogger that I nearly forgot how to log in. I won't give you any excuses, I'm sure you can imagine the things that keep me away from blogging. First of all, this kid continued to be cute:

This kid turned 5:

And she got a new scooter:

And then this guy showed up. Twice.

He brought his family along.

And then a little of this happened:

And then there was this:

Then this little one discovered how to climb up on the dining table to get to her big sister's stuff. Mom snapped a pic then removed little sis before big sis blew a gasket.

And finally, this boy who grew into a giant, read through the entire 5 books of the Percy Jackson series. Here he is reading in the special reading fort with the girls.

Of course, then there was Christmas, but I'm going to be ambitious and promise you another blog post before the year's end.

Does anybody have an explanation for why blogger started underlining all my text?