{"id":2397,"date":"2021-01-19T12:14:23","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T19:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/?p=2397"},"modified":"2025-12-23T13:01:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:01:58","slug":"snowy-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2021\/01\/19\/snowy-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowy Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While our mission organization, ReachGlobal, has me staying put for the meantime awaiting the lifting of travel restrictions, I&#8217;ve been throwing all my energy into trying to complete the writing and editing of my dissertation. But in the midst of long days in front of the computer, a brief diversion was necessary to visit our boys up north in Bellingham and celebrate Andrew&#8217;s 20th birthday.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2398\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2398\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2398\" src=\"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Andrew-and-Allie.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Andrew-and-Allie.jpg 600w, https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Andrew-and-Allie-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2398\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew&#8217;s birthday cake &#8211; an amazing creation Allie made from scratch!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Andrew requested a snow trip for his birthday present, so after having a fun evening together, the boys and I headed up to Mt. Baker the next morning. Each year we try to do one snow trip and one backpacking trip together.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2399\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2399\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2399\" src=\"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-4.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-4-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-4-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2399\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adam, Andrew, and I head up the Mt. Baker slopes. Baker is in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We couldn&#8217;t have asked for a more beautiful day and a better experience.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2400\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2400\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2400\" src=\"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-2.jpg 800w, https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-2-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">What gorgeous views!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We had a blast together as Andrew snowboarded and Adam and I skied down gorgeous slopes and marveled at God&#8217;s creative beauty.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2401\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2401\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2401\" src=\"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-3.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-3-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2401\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I&#8217;m the guy on the left, Andrew in middle, and Adam on right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Although Andrew is quite uncertain of what God has in store for his future, I&#8217;m thankful the most important things are in place for him. He loves the Lord, he knows his family loves him, and he has the foundation of godly character and trust in the Lord that will lead him to honor God in whatever adventures unfold.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2403\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2403\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2403\" src=\"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-01-Ski-1-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2403\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Creating awesome memories with my boys!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It ended up being a big day by the time the girls and I got home, but fun memories were made, and now I&#8217;m refreshed and ready to race down the homestretch of completing my dissertation, Lord-willing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While our mission organization, ReachGlobal, has me staying put for the meantime awaiting the lifting of travel restrictions, I&#8217;ve been throwing all my energy into trying to complete the writing and editing of my dissertation. But in the midst of long days in front of the computer, a brief diversion was necessary to visit our &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2021\/01\/19\/snowy-birthday\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Snowy Birthday<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2404,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions\/2404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}