Charlottes Blessing Day

Sunday, Septemeber 28th Levi and Torrie blessed baby Charlotte. They drew quite the crowd at church. We all enjoyed spending the afternoon together, visiting and laughing. We even got to sing "Happy Birthday" to Grandpa Haupt, who shared his birthday with all of us. Levi and Torrie leave Wednesday to head to New York. Thanks for spending the day with us, we love you and will miss having you so close, but know you still be just a click away, as we keep in touch through your blog.

Emma, trying to be happy for a piece of chocolate, that Granny Haupt has for her.
Yes, I am trying to smile. Are we done yet?
Proud Grandma Haupt with Charlotte, and Great Auntie Vicki

Proud Grandma and Grandpa Haupt and Charlotte

Adventures of Living in the Mission Field

We are absolutely thrilled to break ground for our new stake center. It has only taken 3 years to get to this point. (You may not truly appreciate the excite as we do but I will try to share the "mission field" view point.)

We were organized as a the "Leesburg Florida Stake" 3 years ago. Our stake stretches 125 miles by 50 miles. Our ward - here in Apopka is on the east side and the stake goes to the west-gulf coast. We're talking "hours" to drive from one end to the other (not blocks or minutes.) The church purchased property and we met the requirements to "get a building" but then.... the TURTLE CHALLENGE began. You see, Gopher Tortoises are "King of the Hill" here because they are an endangered species. When you have these "inhabitants" you must carefully re-locate them in order to build on the land. Well, the church has paid over $60,000 to have "turtle hunters" come and clear the land. The cost to remove, vet examine and relocate each turle is $750! (I was thinking that I am in the wrong profession until I heard that some of the "inhabitants" were tunnelled down 15 feet and had to be retrieved without harm. Wow!) Now that the "kings" are gone - We finally get to begin our building. Saturday was our ground breaking! YIPPEE!!

Wylee was in charge of the "decorations" -which meant finding outdoor plants to "borrow" and transport to the site. He also was in charge of setting up the stage (on the tilled dirt). As you guessed it, the family had the blessing of helping with this assignment... But we were really happy to because we are starting our Stake Building. In just 11 "short" months - we should hold our fall stake conference in it. This means - that for the first time (which will now be 4 years) we will ALL meet together as a stake. We might actually get to know some of the other members o the other border a bit better.

Here's some photos for our "BIG" moment. I know.... you all have a stake center or an LDS chapel on every corner but we can have hundreds of miles in between them so it's a "BIG" deal to us.

Linda