Flying On Standby

In the morning we drove to the airport, just me and the kids. Michael had been in Minneapolis for a couple of weeks training for his new job. I have only flown on standby with Mikayla when she was a lap baby and it was easier to get just one seat, but we were going to attempt to get 3 seats and hopefully in a row(at least that's what I asked everyone to pray for). Pray, take a deep breath, let it out and here we go. The first time doing something is always more challenging and a bit terrifying. There's the unknown of, well, everything in an airport. With my trusty double jogging stroller(yes, you can gate check that giant thing) we headed toward our gate - all the way at then end of the terminal. 

First ride on the plane train.

The whole morning I was explaining to Mikayla and Maverick that we might not get to ride on this airplane if it was full and that we could try to catch the next one. With a goofy excited smile Mikayla seemed to understand somewhat of the information that I gave her. She was way too excited to see Michael, I don't think anything I told her would be processed quickly(or comprehended at all). The first flight was full and we didn't make it. We were blessed to be in Atlanta where there is a train that is perfect for passing time with littles. So to distract them from the devastating news that we were not going to be able to fly the airplane, that we stared at for over half an hour, we went to ride the plane-train. I believe that we rode it for 2 round trips. It was perfect. Happy kiddos and a happy mommy. 

When we got to the next gate to see if we could fly on that plane, we had already been bumped. Again. If you're a mommy, you know that you've got to have a bag of tricks so that there are minimal tantrums and freak outs due to unchangeable circumstances. But your kids don't exactly understand everything about those circumstances(makes life truly exciting). It was getting close to lunch time so I pulled out trick number two, Chick-Fil-A for lunch. The Atlanta airport has only one Chick-Fil-A at C-Gate. So thankfully, we had to take the plane-train again. Who wouldn't want to take a train just to go eat Chick-Fil-A? I usually pull out all the stops when it comes to food while we are in a situation where melt downs are a dime a dozen. So we had pretty much whatever the kids wanted for lunch, with sweet tea and lemonade - sure, why not?! We got back to the next gate just in time for the kiddos to eat and the gate attendant to say that the flight was full. Awesome. Although I get quite positively sarcastic when it comes to situations like this to keep it light, I truly do I love that The Lord is the only one who knows what is going on and we are bouncing around from gate to gate! The next flight was a couple of hours from departure so I thought that if we rode the plane-train again that it would pass the time way better than waiting around. So, we did - about 7 or 8 times. Thankfully, that never gets old for the kids and we were blessed with Mav taking a nap through half of the multiple round trips. By the time we got to the third gate Mikayla was getting a little concerned with the fact that we weren't on an airplane yet. 7-8 hours in an airport can be a bit trying on a 3 year old's day. I was feeling positive and thought it would be okay to wait once more since it wasn't too long from the next departure. I was only worried that Mikayla couldn't handle one more disappointment and have to come back another day. Michael FaceTimed with us and we started to talk it out and it was looking pretty full for the next flight too, if we actually got on the plane it would be a miracle. Mikayla started to realize that we may not be able to see daddy that day and got really upset(crocodile tears-upset). It had been two weeks with out him and she was done with that. It's really hard to see your children cry about things that truly do matter and you can't do hardly anything about it. So, we prayed and we went to the next gate with hopeful hearts. All day I had been telling Mikayla what would happen when it was our turn to get on the plane and one of the things was that they would call our name. We got to the gate(funny that it was the same one that we started at that morning). They stared to call names off the standby list and Mikayla would say "Have they called our name yet?". I had a list that I could look at to see where we were in the line-up. Our names were just under the number of people who would get to board the plane, so we weren't going to be able to make it by the looks of it. The lady at the gate was giving a last call for a party of 3 "Jones, party of 3 ---- Jones, party of 3". And then we heard it. "Ferris, party of 3." Mikayla immediately jumps up throwing her fists in the air saying, "She said my name! She said my name! We get to ride the plane to go see daddy!!!" The lady at the gate said, "I guess that's y'all?" Not only did The Lord provide us 3 seats, but they were 3 seats in a row. We boarded the plane, me with tears in my eyes and Mikayla and Maverick with huge grins on their faces. Sometimes it's the small miracles that speak louder about what The Lord does and is doing.

We made it!

Mikayla - first to pass out.

Mav - passed out ten minutes before we landed.

Over the past two years we have been in Birmingham and truly seeking The Lord for where we need to be and what we need to be doing. We know that we are meant for something more than what we are pursuing right now, but we weren't completely sure on what it was supposed to be up until a several months ago. Our church was partnering with the IMB on something called the Global Cities Initiative (GCI) and the moment we heard about it we felt like The Lord was pulling us more towards vocational ministry instead of just serving as missionaries through an organization. Our hearts had already been softened towards a working and serving life after seeing many of our friends taking businesses overseas and church planting wherever they were. After all, isn't that what we should be doing where we live already? We learned more about the GCI and already started researching jobs in the 5 cities that they were focusing on. The bottom line was that for us to do vocational ministry we needed to start flying for regional airlines. After going through a extensive pros/cons list we narrowed it down to a couple of airlines. With the idea of serving vocationally we looked at what cities were these airlines based and how could we start serving now? The main one that we were looking at had bases in New York, Detroit, and Minneapolis. So, we asked ourselves where can we serve in these locations? Our  home church has established teams in New York and Detroit. We prayerfully considered and decided that Detroit would be the better option. Michael interviewed and accepted the job. The Lord has been leading us, open doors all the way with this new position. It was like The Lord was "calling our name" after we had been through such a long waiting period and trying what we thought would be the "right time or right flight" for our family to take. We have been blessed with so many people from our different stages of life and different locations. The Lord has truly been preparing us for the task that He has put before us to disciple and love on an unreached people group in Detroit. We are still on track to serve with the International Mission Board via the GCI within the next 3-4 years, but we are truly excited to see how The Lord uses us in Detroit. 
(Once Michael is finished with training we will reveal our new employer. In the mean time, please pray for his final check ride on Tuesday and our last couple of days without him. We are also trying to sell our home so that we are free to move up to Detroit, please pray for it to sell soon.)

From Dothan to Birmingham and continuing to move towards missionary aviation

Family Beach Trip(Daytona Beach)October 2014

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope that you are all doing well and you are having a great holiday. This year may be different for us on the blog... hopefully we can do a better job keeping you all up to date on our adventures and all that The Lord is doing in our lives(with Mikayla and Maverick constantly on the move, we aren’t sure that this will happen).

We were blessed dearly by Calvary Baptist Church in Dothan and cannot express how grateful we are for our small group and many friends that we connected with during the 9 months that we were there. Mikayla is still talking about all her friends as if we saw them yesterday.  We miss you all very much and will never forget the memories we made and the impact that you have all had on our family. Thank you.

We have moved back to Birmingham, AL and hopefully for a good stretch this time. Back in August Michael accepted a position at Air Ops LLC in Bessemer, AL and one month later we made the move. He is working for a startup aircraft management and charter company building more flight time including multi-engine and jet time in the future. We took the job to make more money to pay off student loans quicker and be back at the Church of Brook Hills where we first met.

Living in Birmingham has been great. We are blessed to be in a great apartment and close to friends we love. We are starting to feel like we are home again and everyday is an adventure with Mikayla and Maverick. They both are growing and learning so much, it’s getting harder to keep up with them. Mikayla talks non stop and Maverick is constantly on the move and getting into everything. They adore one another and we couldn’t ask for more. 

We are rejoining The Church at Brook Hills and we have joined a small group of families that push us to dive into The Word. We feel so blessed to be surrounded by Godly men and women. The Lord has been constant in providing us with great relationships throughout the past 6 years that we have been together. We look forward to many more. 

Please continue to pray for us as we continue to move towards missionary aviation. We are slowly taking bites out of our school debt and are excited to see what The Lord has in store for our family.

Mav's first beach trip! March 2014

Mother's Day 2014

Easter 2014

Cow Appreciation Day July 2014

 Disney World October 2014

Daytona Beach October 2014

Halloween 2014 Pirate family and monkey

Christmas Tree shopping November 2014

And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” Genesis 37:17

So we have been in Dothan for almost four months now; we are adjusting well. The winter weather has been a little crazy. It has not been consistent at all, with really warm weather followed by sudden drops in temperature with passing fronts. Spring has not quite come full force yet. We are all struggling with some form of allergy over the last week as the pollen count is quite high in this area of the country. Please pray it's all related to outdoor allergies as our rental house does keep a lot of moisture in certain rooms because of old construction and subpar windows.

We just became members at Calvary Baptist Church and could not be more excited about it. We have connected with a lot of great families and feel very welcomed. Calvary has been under new leadership over the past two years with Paul Thompson and we feel the church body is being transformed to a more biblical model of how God designed the church. They are learning to live more radically for the Gospel and how to make disciples as part of their everyday lives. We would love to stay in Dothan up to leaving for a missionary assignment and have Calvary be our home church while away.

Katy and I have been prayerfully considering narrowing down our focus to one missionary organization in which to serve. We have come to the decision and are feeling led to join with Mission Aviation Fellowship upon qualifying for entry. We are very thrilled to announce this and feel motivated as ever to have one organization to focus and advance towards. This means I still need to complete some bible classes before application, and even bigger, we need to pay off our school debt. We have made it under 100k to around $96,800 of remaining student loan debt. We have been living as frugal as possible and have no other debt from credit cards, mortgage, or cars. We only have student loan debt which was pretty difficult to avoid. Please pray we can accomplish all this while in Dothan.

We have come up with an idea for an Etsy business; it may spread more by word of mouth than online. The plan is to make pendants and keychains that remind to pray for unreached people groups of the world that have not heard of Jesus at all. The pendants will feature a map of the location of the unreached people group and will come with a information card with items to pray for. Pray that the product will come together with quality and will be well received.

We just updated the look of our blog and our website www.discipleaviation.com has been updated. Please prayerfully consider partnering with us in our pursuit of the world's unreached through Mission Aviation Fellowship.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14

Welcoming Maverick, our little blessing #2.

Our little guy started off with a little jaundice but is doing great now and is pink and happy now. 

The day we went home with our little aviator.

We rocked the jaundice baby look while chilling in the sunshine.

Bundling up for bedtime. One week old.

We are happy and so in love with this little guy. He eats like a champ, sleeps like it's his job and is a sweet little snuggler.

On top of everything, Mikayla absolutely adores Maverick. Here is the first time that she met him:

Dothan, Alabama

So if I've said it before, I'll say it again, We are not very good at keeping this blog up to date. We have moved to Dothan, Alabama. I am still working with Mountain Air Cargo, but as of mid November I have switched positions to Captain in the Cessna 208 Caravan. I fly a route to Memphis four times a week at night delivering cargo. We fly pretty much exclusively for an Oncology supply company which is kind of cool to think that I am getting out time critical shipments. Flying the Caravan is perfect experience for the future mission aviation pursuit because it is the same aircraft type that is flown overseas with Christian missions.  We moved to Dothan, Alabama in order for me to get this position. Since we have been down here we found a great church last month and lots of couple around our age with kids of their own.
Maverick Aiden was born this past Sunday!! 2-2-14. He has a little bit of Jaundice, not to serious, pray it will go away with just continued good feedings. Mikayla loves having him around when she remembers he is in the room. He is a very quiet baby unless he is hungry. Katy's mom is in town for a few weeks to help us transition to having two children.
I tried to audit some bible classes last fall, but things got pretty crazy with the new position and the move to Alabama. Pray that I can complete some this year; maybe just one at a time as I tried to do two at once.
Our biggest hurdle for missions is our student loan debt. We have brought it below $100,000, but now with living on our own again, we barely make enough money to pay for regular living expenses and the minimum payments on the loans. Katy stays at home to raise the kids, so I really need to find another part time job to help us pay expenses. The ideal position would be flight instructing locally on my days off, or just anything that uses my talents.

We are going to try to get into the habit of updating this blog regularly so everyone can stay connected.

-Michael-

Prayer Requests
-Pay off student loans
-Maverick gets over Jaundice symptoms
-Build relationships with new Church family
-Time management with increased time in prayer and bible study

Charlotte in the Summer

So it's July now, and we are living with family in Charlotte. I am still working at Mountain Air Cargo as a maintenance controller, and I am setting my sights on flying for them. Praise to God for a couple things in the flying pursuit that happened in the last couple months. First off I passed my Color Vision Waiver with the FAA, so I no longer have to worry about getting disqualified medically for my eye sight. That is a huge blessing and just today I took and passed my ATP written test which I will need to have upon switching over to a pilot position. I also found a place to flight instruct and have been able to keep current in the meantime. I am patiently and anxiously awaiting a Caravan pilot opening at MAC. I am hoping a position opens up in Greensboro so we don't have to move far, and we can be around friends up there. We are open to other locations if our choice is limited. Please pray that the right pilot position would open up and I would be able to pass an interview. I would rather stay with MAC longer term instead of switching companies, especially for the Caravan experience. Katy and Mikayla are doing well. Mikayla is very close to walking in the next couple months. She is enjoying time at the pool and I love being able to spend time with her each day. We have family visiting within the next few weeks, and Mikayla's first birthday isn't too far away. We recently joined a church in the area. Please pray we will get connected with a small group of similar couples. I am going to audit some bible classes this Fall to further prepare for missions. Praise that we recently paid off one of our student loans, but still have quite a ways to go. We just pray to do what God wills. More updates as they come.

Prayer Requests
-Deeper relationship with God, More Prayer
-Opportunities and Wisdom for witnessing to others, following Gods commands
-God directing our finances, continuing to pay off student loans
-Pilot position at MAC

Back in Charlotte

So to recap on what has been going on in our lives for the last year or so. I took a job with Mesa Airlines in Charlotte last May when we found out Mikayla was on the way. We decided moving in with family was the best option to be able to pay off debt. We moved to Charlotte in October. I stayed with Mesa till the end of the year and finally found a job closer to preparation for Missionary Aviation. I started working with Mountain Air Cargo, a FEDEX feeder operation, at the beginning of the year. The fly ATR 42's and 72's and my favorite the Cessna 208 Caravan. The Caravan is a good aircraft for a lot of missionary aviation applications which get me excited about learning as much as I can about it. I work as a Maintenance Controller and basically coordinate the maintenance operations for the aircraft. We stay in the loop with everything maintenance related for the aircraft. Part of my job is to assist mechanics in troubleshooting problems with the aircraft. So I am pleased to be able to attend Cessna Caravan Maintenance Training at Flight Safety this year as well as G1000 Avionics training. This training is definitely going to help me in terms of future missionary aviation work. The company also reimburses for college classes so I should be able to finally take some bible classes, most likely online. We are adjusting to life with family around, and we're excited that we get to see them so much. Please pray for my hopefully soon application to the FAA for a color-vision waiver, and for a place I can flight instruct in the area. Here is a picture of the Cessna Caravan.

Blessed Beyond Our Wildest Dreams... Picking up where we left off

Dear friends, we are really horrible at blogging. There are so many things to catch you up on. First off... little did we know that while posting our last blog, we were pregnant with our sweet baby girl, Mikayla. We will just say since then, our time hasn't been the same :). We found out on December 4, 2011 that we were pregnant. Looking back at the weeks before I, Katy, really did indulge a lot more on Thanksgiving than usual.

First Ultrasound December 14

Due Date is August 12, 2012

Second Ultrasound December 22, got to hear the baby's heartbeat!

It was such an amazing sound, we were so blessed to be able to tell family for Christmas!

Katy didn't start showing until about 14 weeks, here is her progression(if you missed it on Facebook or Instagram) :)

 

 

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

Overall the pregnancy went very well and we were blessed to have no complications. I craved sushi, chili cheese fries, watermelon and Krispie Kreme Doughnuts.

Labor and Delivery
The evening of August 14 the contractions started, it was insane! At 12 minutes apart for the whole night, we thought for sure that she would be here by the 15th. The morning of the 15th contractions were at 5 minutes and the doctor said to head to the hospital. I had really wanted to go "all natural", I'm so glad that I was open to other options and I knew what my choices were. We got to the hospital around 7:30 am. My BP was up and I was at 4cm so they wanted me to admit me and I had to stay in bed until my BP went down. I also had to have an antibiotic for Group B Strep. I'm allergic to the main antibiotic that they usually use so they had something different... I still had a reaction so they just pumped me with something else. Only pop-cicles, jello and fluids for me from here on out.

Here is the scripture that I tried to keep in mind while I was in labor: 

Hebrews 10:35 

"So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! [a baby!] Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that He has promised." (NLT)

I am walking in God's will when I demonstrate patience! It brings great reward! My sweet baby girl is coming soon!

We had an amazing team of nurses, I say team because I literally went through 3 different work shifts while there. Mikayla was taking her time and making me very uncomfortable. I had not progressed any and it was past lunch time(about 1?) and I was very tired from all the contractions. I couldn't relax any between them, so we talked about getting some pain medicine to help me to feel better. I was able to take a nice nap with minimal pain, only hoping to wake up just in time for her to be here. When I woke up the contractions were easier to manage and I felt that I had enough energy to make it up until she was ready to be here. Little did I know that she had decided to turn her head and was about to make it very difficult for me to do anything. I was in lots of pain and was doing my best to push through, but i was getting no where. Every time my Midwife came in she said that I hadn't progressed anywhere past 5cm. I had an amazing cheering team with me. My Mom and Pop (now known as 'Gigi' and 'Papa'), one of my best friends Gayla and her daughter Leia and Michael's mom. They were all amazing to have by my side.

By about 11pm the pain was unbearable and I was getting sick to my stomach. Michael and I talked and we decided that I needed to induce and have the epidural. when my midwife checked, I was 8cm! Only 2cm away from my baby girl being here! I don't think that I could have lasted however long it would have taken for 2cm. Meanwhile.... it was the longest hour of my life waiting for the anaesthesiologist to come and make all the pain go away! Have I mentioned that Michael was just cool as a cucumber the whole time? He was so relaxed(even if he wasn't inside). I have never needed him so much than when I was getting my epidural. I was going almost hysterical. The contractions felt seconds apart and I couldn't have relaxed if he wasn't there. He is amazing. I love him so much. 

I had the blessing of sleep until about 6am the next morning when my medicine ran out. By now I have gone through 3 midwives from the practice that I go to and who knows how many nurses. After about two hours and a whole lot of action on my part, our sweet baby girl was born!

The Lord was the only one that knew I was really going to need patience through this whole process :)

Baby girl had other plans than being here when we wanted her to. She was born on Thursday August 16, 2012 at 8:14 and weighing in at 8lbs and was 21.25 inches long.

 Mikayla Jordan Ferris

 Check out those long fingers!

My first time holding her.

Snuggles with Daddy... He's a natural.

First Bath and Footprints