Murder threats, princess cakes and Merry Christmases

So it's December 27. Christmas is officially over for another year and we're alternating between crazy tired, cranky "when can normal life resume?" and post-Christmas happy contented little boys who play for hours on end with their new treasures.

One of the hard parts about life here around the holidays is trying to find the balance between celebrating our own American traditions and embracing the traditions and culture around us - which usually means forgoing our traditions. For the past few years, I'll admit - we've shut our curtains, locked our doors and tried to stay in a tiny American cocoon for Christmas week. But the kids are getting older and we're getting more involved in our local church, so we decided this year we would jump in and celebrate with our national brothers and sisters.

So Christmas Eve found us at church. The service was to start at 5 pm, but knowing the local views on time, we planned to leave our house at 5.... which still put us at the church before the pastors showed up! :) By the time the service started, the boys were a bit on meltdown - we were supposed to eat after the service, but since it didn't start til almost 7, we were all starving and had already raided the snacks I had packed. :)

The kids had a service at the same time the adults did. I'm not quite sure what happened in the adult service, but I can tell you there were about 150 little kids crammed in a tiny room and the speaker told the story of Herod chasing Baby Jesus and trying to kill Him! There were no angels or shepherds guarding their flocks; no Baby in the manger. Mary and Joseph were hiding Jesus, running from soldiers, scared to death. Every other word was "murder," "death," or "die." The kids' eyes were wide and horrified. You know, I don't think it really put anyone in a Christmas mood. :) I took the liberty of "translating" the story a bit differently for the boys - threw in the manger and animals and hay and left out "kill" and "die."

After the Bible story we had Birthday Cake for Jesus... I think. It was a huge white frosting tiered thing... similar to a wedding cake.... with Disney princess figurines all over it. I kid you not. There was Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and a few others I didn't recognize because we don't do princesses in our house. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. We sang their version of "Happy Birthday" to Jesus but the words translate somewhat "May you live long this year" which I also didn't think was real appropriate to sing to an Eternal God, but I figure He got the gist. :)

The evening wasn't a total bust though. There were snacks for the boys and they left happy. :) We rushed through baths and threw down a piece of pizza and tried to get them in bed before 9.... so much for "early to bed so Santa can come"!!!

Christmas Day we had a beautiful day at home. I was so thankful. The boys were so excited about all their presents... very simple, small stuff - I think they each had about 5 or 6 things to open, so it didn't take us too long, but was so much fun. We didn't have a present for Ezra so Brant made a chalkboard - cut a thin piece of plywood and painted it with chalkboard paint and then cut a rag for an eraser and got a box of chalk. I think the whole project cost us about $2. He LOVED it. He was screaming so excited drawing and erasing as fast as he could - drawing and erasing, drawing and erasing. Both Brant and I almost cried - it was one of those "perfect gift" moments and was so much fun to see him so excited.

Gift giving is a very touchy subject among missionaries. We are very blessed to have family and friends who send us packages so the boys get import toys for presents and we usually have candy canes and other seasonal treats. But many of our friends don't get presents and packages from out of country, so we have to be very careful when talking with our friends. So right before our friends came for dinner Christmas Day evening, the boys packed up their new toys and put them away.... we celebrated in the evening with a new family from another mission organization. Was fun in a "nice to meet you; have a Merry Christmas" kind of way. :):)

Was such a fun day and we are so blessed to have healthy kids, a nice home, fun presents, and friends to enjoy life with. Very blessed. We all went to bed happy and slept well.

Monday is "Christmas Day 2." I kid you not. It says that on the calendar and is an official holiday. Actually not a bad idea, though I'm not sure it would fly in America with all the after Christmas sales starting in earnest. :) On "Christmas Day 2" you spend the day going around town visiting friends and associates. Every house is EXACTLY the same... really no creativity at all going on here. The kids are given Strawberry Fanta to drink. The adults are served Coke. Room temperature. There are little round plastic boxes of store bought cookies on a table in the middle of the room and you have to eat at least one of each kind. No one has ovens here and buying store bought cookies is a sign of wealth, so even if you are starving the rest of the year, you serve store bought cookies - the wealthier the house, the more containers of cookies. You stay for an hour at each house; eat cookies, drink Coke, chit chat. Then the boys are given a treat to take on the road and you start all over at the next house. Needless to say, we were so sick by the end of the day! But the boys were in heaven... or a sugar induced high, I'm not quite sure which. :)

Again, this was the first year we spent the day visiting. It actually was quite fun and a good reminder that we have built some good relationships with nationals. Most of the people we visited aren't believers and so good to be able to deepen relationships and share our life with them. We visited some people from our old neighborhood and Penny's family and took bags of food - oil, salt, powdered milk, bread, etc.... which is totally not cultural at all, but something we wanted to do to bless them.

To top it all off, today was a wedding! (Yes, we are totally exhausted!) Our pastor at our national church got married... but that is a whole other story in itself! Think bride prices and sermons on why women are worth more than outboard motors... Maybe I'll get around to telling it someday when I stop laughing. :)

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Ten years!!!

Not quite sure where the time has gone, but Brant and I celebrated ten years of marriage today! So thankful for the marriage the Lord has given us!

Kiss-kiss time

So it's Christmas here on the equator, which means I'm sweating as I write this and listening to a garbled version of "Deck the Halls" coming through the window. Christmas 12,000 miles from family and traditions is full of contradictions.... We go all out decorating and having parties and celebrating to combat homesickness. We relish the non-materialistic culture that we currently live in (thought I have spent hours scouring GREAT deals online!) but are going a tad crazy with the non-stop music and firecrackers that disturb any sense of "Peace on Earth." We love getting to create our own traditions and set the tempo of our family's celebrations, but we miss our family and the busyness of the holiday season in America and finding gifts for our kids is really hard (and requires a lot of creativity!)

You can't really get a full grasp of our December without the blaring music in the background, so sorry, just use your imagination. (Or you could find the worst old cassette you own, put it in an old cheap boom box and take it out to the garage and turn it up as LOUD as you can possibly make it.) Wait until you get a headache then you'll get the full experience. :) Sorry, not trying to complain, but the music has been really bad here in our new house and we're all going a bit crazy.

There was a break in the music this morning and Ezra turned to me and said "Where the horses?" When I asked him what horses he was talking about he said "The horses in the church make the music."

Elijah used to think kangaroos made the music in the mosques. :)

So a visual of our life lately....

There has been ornament painting....


(And I was shocked at how good a job they could do! Caleb especially, could stay in the lines on each little ornament.)

There has been tree decorating....


Two guesses on which kid this is.... Brant and I did a double take; we both were sure it was Caleb. But it's Ezra. He's been going around saying "Merry Kiss-kiss tree" all week. My baby is growing up way too fast.

The finished tree.... the boys are really looking forward to getting a BIG tree next year. :)

Because of the poverty and non-gift giving emphasis on Christmas, we never put out presents before Christmas. On our previous island when we had house help come daily, we put out the gifts late on Christmas Eve and then had to have them all cleaned up and put away before she showed up the day after Christmas! Here, my house helper only comes once a week and so we have a few extra days. :)

And there has been lots and lots of cookie baking, decorating and eating. :) My friends and I here in town are swapping cookies - the thought being that we each have to make one type of cookie all season, but we end up with lots of different types. Yeah, really I've been baking kinda non-stop. :) But the more the merrier, and I haven't heard one boy (or man) in this house complain. :)



Our favorite little project so far was putting together this gingerbread house. Last year Brant's aunt brought a "real" gingerbread house ("real" meaning that in theory you could eat all the pieces that came in the cardboard box from Walmart) :) This year we had a foam house - simple to put together and the boys love it. I think the ants and geckos won't like this one as much though!



Part of our dilemma this year has been whether or not to teach the kids about Santa or not.... They actually think it's hilarious that we celebrate Jesus's birthday with images of him being a little baby because "He grew up a long time ago." :) So that part is perplexing enough without throwing in the whole Santa thing. Today Caleb came in and we had the following conversation:

Caleb: "Mom, is Santa real?"
Me: (trying to be very neutral) "What do you think?"
Elijah: "He is real."
Caleb: "Dad says he's not real."
Elijah: "If he's not real, then where do we get presents from?"
Caleb: "We get them from all the people who love us so much."
Elijah: "Well, who do you think gives them the presents in the first place?"
Me: "Well, Christmas is more about celebrating baby Jesus's birthday, not really about Santa or presents."
Elijah: "Mom, baby Jesus grew up a long time ago. He's not a baby anymore."

So that's our week before Christmas. I'm thankful for the fun with the little boys and tired of the music and missing home and a little bit sick from so many cookies. :)

Merry Christmas!

This and that

Life has been a blur since we got back from the tribe. We celebrated Thanksgiving (again!) with friends here in town; we celebrated Caleb's birthday (my brown-eyed boy is five!!!) and we're in full on Christmas mode... all the while trying to keep up with school for Elijah and get ready for furlough (4 months!). And did I mention Brant's work is crazy right now? He was gone til 8 the other night shopping in the big city.

But life has been fun and we're having a good time. Here are a few pics...

The boys on the back porch playing. Caleb is driving the "car" Ezra is the passenger and Elijah is "hanging onto the back like in the movies." I don't know what movies he's been watching lately! :) I seriously don't know where they come up with some of the stuff they do... the other day they were playing "House." I helped them build a fort and they said "Mom, we're going to play 'House.'" Brant was a tad concerned when I told him later that night... until I told him that while playing House they chased off the bad guys who came in, put out a fire when the house caught on fire and then dug out from underneath when the House collapsed in an earthquake. I need a daughter.


Ezra's into "I do it MYSELF." New territory. Guess the first two are lazy as I have never once heard them say that (even to this day!) So he's into dressing himself.... poor kid has stretched out a lot of pairs of PJs this way. 4 more months til we're in the land of dryers and I can shrink stuff back up! :)


I took this pic last night of the boys. It is by far the best pic I have ever gotten of all 4 of my men on the first shot! I love it.


We had such a nice cool summer, but lately it has been HOT. We have been eating tons of watermelon. So nice on a hot day. Not very Christmas-y though. :)


I cook a pumpkin about once a month to get enough pumpkin to make breads for breakfast. The little boys always pick out the pumpkin seeds and we roast them. I never do this kind of stuff in the States. I buy canned. :)


Us all in the heli on our way into the tribe.... I though the boys would freak wearing the head-sets but they did so well.


One last pic from the tribe... Ezra enjoying hot chocolate in long PJs. We really had fun enjoying the cooler weather!


My yogurt failed... I have been making yogurt for 3+ years and had lots of failures early on, but have kinda gotten the knack down. But last month I went to get it when the time was up and this is what I had... I have NEVER seen it do this, nor have any of my friends in town (who all make their own yogurt too!) Prize to anyone who can tell me what in the world happened to it???
(And yes, we did still use it - I mixed it up and used it to make muffins.)


The boys painting "Turkey" hand print cards. I do them every year to keep track of how big they are getting.


We found Ezra his own pair of sunglasses. He was SO excited.


Caleb and his little preschool class on my day to teach.... They were all little Indians for "I" day. (Caleb was too scared to get his face painted!)

I am thankful

I smiled as I just reread my Thanksgiving blog post from last year.... pretty much thankful for the same things this year. :)

This year has been a hard year - death of friends, tension with co-workers, uncertainty about our future ministry. But thankful for some sweet times together as a family and all the lessons the Lord has been teaching me.

So some little things I'm thankful for this year...

- That we can get import turkeys and cranberry sauce and fake Christmas trees and Christmas lights here. :)

- That Elijah is reading. I was terrified to teach my children to read, but somehow he's learned! One down, two to go. :) I love reading time with Elijah in the afternoon - I love hearing him read "Frog and Toad" and "Amelia Bedilia." I enjoy reading "chapter books" to him - we've read "Henry Huggins" and "My Father's Dragon" and "Boxcar Children" this year - all favorites.

- That my children get to grow up without commercials and TV. And that they are growing up around other children who don't watch commercials or TV.

- That Ezra is potty-trained! Do you know how much we are saving on diapers each month?!?!? :)

- Pizza Hut and "nasi kuning" night (Sunday nights we get fried yellow rice from a street vendor - so yum! - and a nice break from cooking) and "Frappacino" night at the MK school once a month (last night they made peppermint mocha frappacinos!)

- That cheese can survive a month in a package mailed from America. :) That we have family and friends who send us packages and treats from America.

- That international calling rates are so cheap. SO good to get to talk to friends and family and keep connected with life in America and call my mom (and mother-in-law!) for recipes or to pray together or to cry on a really hard day.

- That our house has a view. It's so beautiful and peaceful to look out over the valley. And I love all the fresh (FREE) fruit.

- That our boys have had so many experiences - helicopter rides, hiking in the mountains, playing with children who don't share their language or culture, but share their love of soccer and peanuts and popcorn. That our boys get to eat passion fruit and fresh pineapple and papaya daily. That they love foods from other cultures and can speak words in another language.

- That Brant is good at his job and enjoys it. That it allows him the flexibility to be home for lunch some days and take the boys along with him some days.

- That Caleb, even though he turns 5 on Sunday, is still my little boy and loves to rock and make up little songs and play with Play Dough and laughs with his big brown eyes.

- That Brant and I are celebrating 10 years of marriage next month. SO thankful for a great husband. We really have a lot of fun together and it's been a really good 10 years together. (Also thankful that we will be in America soon to get away someplace nice and celebrate by ourselves while Grandma watches the boys!)

- That people all around the world pray for us. We have felt their prayers this year and have experienced incredible peace during difficult times.

- That God is patient with me and forgives my sins. I am learning I am a Grade A sinner and yet God loves and forgives me. When people are Grade A sinners towards me (or Brant!), God forgives them too... and loves them too.

Praying that wherever you find yourself on Thanksgiving, you will have a beautiful day celebrating God's goodness with your family and friends!

The tribe

We just got back from our trip interior. (We say "interior" because we live on the coast and all the tribal works are on the interior of the island.) Wow. What a trip. I am past exhausted, but wanted to get my thoughts down before the craziness of this week starts tomorrow. (Thanksgiving and Caleb's birthday!)

We had a great trip. Several times during the trip I just got this sense of "I am so thankful that we are able to do this and I am so thankful that my kids get to experience this." Rather than give a play by play, I'm just going to list out some memories/highlights and then dump a bunch of photos at the end. If you have questions, feel free to email or comment. :)

- Riding on the helicopter with the little boys. We wore these headset things to protect our ears from the noise and so that we would be able to talk with each other.... the entire first five minutes of our trip in the boys were screaming and yelling - they were SO excited. I'm not sure the headset did much to protect my ears in that case. :) But the ride was so smooth - no long taxi take off or landing - we just floated. Plus we could see so much and flew really low to the ground - the mountain peaks were above us in most cases.

- Watching Elijah play with the tribal kids. He played soccer with them, handed out candy and peanuts to them and tried to communicate using a hilarious series of grunts, national language words and facial expressions. I was so proud of him. Yesterday he and I got to visit a tribal house, just a round thatched low roofed hut with a bamboo floor and fire in the center. He did great.... though I think it was because he got to play with the fire. :)

- Getting to see the missionaries' homes and how the ladies had decorated and turned a rough plywood and plastic and pole house into a "home." We had a ladies movie night one evening and just had so much fun eating cheesecake and talking about their struggles and victories in tribal ministry.

- Staying in our "own" home. We stayed on our own in the home of a missionary on furlough (pic below). On previous tribal visits we've stayed with someone... this time I was responsible for cooking some of our meals and Brant had to keep track of the solar electric system and we sat on our own front porch and interacted with the tribal people without the experienced missionaries around us. It was definitely a stretch but I so enjoyed the experience!

- Eating soups and stews and drinking hot tea and hot coffee in a cool climate. We were in the mountains so it was COLD - I mean, it probably got down to the low 60s, which definitely warrants sweatshirts and long pants and down comforters at night. I loved it! We are going to freeze to death when we go back to America. :)

- Looking up at the stars at night.

- Hiking with the all the kids - the MKs and the tribal kids - we could only hike single file down a narrow path. At several points some of the little girls picked up Caleb and/or Ezra and hoisted them up on their shoulders to help them over rough terrain.

- Going to bed before 9 at night... can't believe this night owl would admit that. :) But electricity is a precious commodity and we couldn't waste it by staying up late, so we went to bed early and were up when the sun came up!

- No malaria mosquitos, no ants, no geckos. Too cold. (Could have definitely done without the huge fly infestation that plagued the missionaries - who knew flies could handle the cold weather!)

- FAST internet - the missionaries have a satalite internet system, so it was so much faster than what we have here in town. :) I even got to call my dad via Skype on his (60th!) birthday, which was really special.












Still have more photos from my camera to get onto my computer, so might add some more.

Thanks so much for praying for our trip! It was such a fun time, a great learning experience and a trip we will not forget.

Things I would never do in America...

- Explain to a 5 year old how to wear a head-set and microphone for his upcoming helicopter ride.

- Explain to an almost 3 year old what a long sleeved shirt was. Try long sleeve shirt on for the first time in his life.

- Call half my friends in town looking to borrow said long sleeved shirt.

- Cram my 7 year old into pants and long sleeve shirts and pajamas 2 sizes too small because he owns nothing appropriate for temperatures below 75 and because none of said friends own any of those things either.

***

Can you tell we spent the afternoon packing for our upcoming trip to the tribe!?!?

We leave on Wednesday - SO excited. Looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving in sub-88 degree weather. :)

Someday I might laugh...

We're in full on party prep mode here. (Tomorrow's the big day - pray it doesn't rain!) So after plastering all week, it was finally the day to paint the pinata! Brant spray painted the body black this morning and then we were going to hand paint in the Batman logo.

So this afternoon Brant was painting when I walked in...

"Hey, Em, how old is this black paint?"

"Couple years old, probably, why?"

"It's going on really goopy and thick. And it doesn't seem to be drying very well."

I had tested the paint this morning, so wasn't sure what was up. So at this point I walk out on the porch....

He was using the black food dye to paint the pinata.

The food dye that I had borrowed from my friend, promising to use only the *smallest* bit. The food dye that came from America and was expensive. The food dye that now had dirty paint brushes shoved in it.

The food dye that we will be replacing. :)

The Calm Before the Storm

These last couple weeks have been mercifully quiet and normal. I've so enjoyed it - nothing to think about or deal with other than schooling the little boys and trying to get dinner on the table. :) The biggest excitement was that I celebrated my birthday - I guess I could post about it, but it would look exactly like last year's celebration - lunch at Pizza Hut with obscene amounts of ice cream and toppings following. :):)

But life is about to get exciting again....


My baby is about to be 7. Next week, in fact. So the preparations have begun in earnest for "THE BATMAN PARTY."

Elijah making invitations....


I am not quite sure why he decided on a Batman theme. Elijah has no idea who Batman is or what he does and I'm not in any particular hurry to clue him in. :) I think he heard somewhere that all 7 year old little boys are supposed to think Batman is cool. He got a Batman toy last year from a family from our church in San Diego and he saw a Batman cake at the grocery store in the big city. I think the cake is what did it. :) It was a COOL cake. :)

Anyways, today we stuffed goody bags. There are many, MANY drawbacks to trying to throw a COOL birthday party in a 3rd world country, but the goody bags are not one of them. :) Because people cannot afford much here, ALL snacks are packaged in individual servings - small amounts, small price = more sales. (It also ensures that the contents are eaten so they won't be spoiled by the humidity or bugs.) But it makes it so easy to buy stuff for goody bags and stuff is way cheap! So we went down the snack aisle at the grocery store and let Elijah pick out snacks for the bags. Then we had a fun mess trying to get all the bags filled this afternoon.


Notice the pack of tissues... all 3 boys are sick with nasty colds. :(


The finished product with the VERY excited little boy. :) Party pictures next week. :) Although maybe I will do a post on the PINATA making that we are going to attempt this weekend. :)

Caleb's birthday quickly follows Elijah's; which is backed up by Thanksgiving, Christmas, Ezra's birthday and then our return to America. I think the next few months are going to fly. (At least Caleb hopes so, as he's already asking when it's time to stuff goody bags for his party!)

No one dies early

Two weeks ago we had the funeral for our friend who died when the plane he was piloting went down in the mountains. Really, really hard days. There are no funeral homes here; no events coordinators; not even a pastor at the missionary community church we attend. Thus, the task of arranging the countless details of everything from preparing the body and having a casket built to renting chairs for the memorial service fell to his grieving friends and co-workers. Because most of the pilots and higher ups in the aviation missions were busy with government investigations and insurance paperwork and all the stickiness with Embassies that comes when an American dies overseas, the details of setting up 800 chairs and arranging the obligatory funeral meal for 1200 fell to people like Brant. Needless to say, by the end, we were totally exhausted, mentally and physically.

The funeral itself was amazing and it's kinda hard to put into words. It was not joyful or a great tribute to his life and no one laughed. There were lots and lots of tears, but it was full of hope. Hope so real and tangible it enveloped the auditorium. Hope in God's goodness and His sovereignty over every detail over our lives - including clouds and mountain peaks and plane engines that stall and take a friend's life. The funeral was not a chance to remember a friend as much as it was to remind us, the living and crying, that God is good and He is in control. We say that often as Christians. Here, we either live it or we give up and go home. We cannot say it and not fully commit our lives to the Truth. So to live in God's sovereignty is to not question His decisions, but to accept them and then to ask His help to bear the pain that sometimes comes when His plans are not our plans. Sharing that with hundreds of other missionaries was amazing and when we sang "Blessed be the Name of the Lord" our friend on the other side of town watching the boys said she could hear us and got goose-bumps.

While our friend was sharing during the sermon, he said "No one dies early." Maybe I've been in the dark all my life, but that was a new concept to me. Me, the American who has been taught that good eating habits, enough exercise and proper health care keeps you alive longer. I know I thought that this summer when Penny died - that her death was wrong and a direct result of her poverty and citizenship in a 3rd world country. I thought Paul's death was due to an error, bad weather, you name it....

Wrong.

We all die. God has given us a day to be born (and I had a great day celebrating mine this past weekend!) and a day to die. There are no accidents, tragedies or mistakes and *oops* someone dies. God ordains the number of days we each have and when they're up, they're up. He might choose to use some horrific circumstances to take us out of this world, but in reality, the circumstances didn't end our lives - He did.

Very powerful stuff for me. God will end my life (and the lives of those I love) when it's time. My job is to accept His timing as perfect and to trust His goodness, even when I hurt. And my job is to enjoy each day I have with my family and friends, knowing they are gifts from God and knowing that He doesn't give us tomorrow, only today.

After the funeral and all the whirlwind of preparations, we just took a few days to rest and recover and process... and to enjoy the little boys and the life we have today.

We built forts....

We did school.... these are Caleb's Doggie ears (for D day!) He wore them NON-stop for 3 days, taking them off only for showers and to sleep. :) It was a nice comic relief for everyone here in town (because, yes, he wore them whenever he left the house!) :):)

We blew bubbles with the suds from the washing machine...


We celebrated one of the boys' friend's birthdays. When you're two, is there anything more fun than a new balloon?

Thankful for the little boys and the life the Lord has given us and for another day to enjoy it all. Thankful that God is in control.

God is gracious

We're potty training Ezra this week. I'll spare you the pictures; I'm not sure Brant would want them posted all over the Internet anyways. :) It's gone pretty well overall - more successes than accidents and he's dry during nap times and during the night, so I really can't complain 4 days in. What has been hilarious is that we've quickly figured out that Ezra likes total privacy to do his business! So early the first day he pushed his little potty chair from the living room where we had set it up, down the hall, into his bedroom. Now, when I take him, I help him get his pants down, sit him down and then leave! He's very particular. :) It's also hilarious as I'll watch him scoot around his room (we have tile floors) sitting on the potty chair the whole time - he'll scoot himself over to his bookshelf, toy box, whatever. He even scooted over to his dressed this afternoon and pulled all the clothes out... all while sitting!

Ezra with a sucker - his treat after going potty. :) Proof I do give my children sugar... sometimes. ;)

Anyways, Tuesday was NOT a good day potty training and by noon I had changed 4-5 pairs of dirty underwear. Yesterday was much better and when Brant came home for lunch I remarked, "God is gracious today - Ezra hasn't had an accident yet." As soon as I said the words, I immediately regretted them. Is God gracious only when things go my way? Was He not gracious on Tuesday giving me patience to clean up messes? Does God - or my view of God - change depending on my circumstances?

Today has been a rough day. Brant was down at the airport this afternoon getting stuff ready for a flight when he said "all hell broke loose." A plane went down in the mountains. Just like that one of our good friends, a missionary pilot who has been serving here for 20 years, was in the presence of the Lord. Tonight as we cried and prayed for his wife and kids, I tried to picture what their last morning together as a family was like - did they recognize God's grace in the moments they were spending this morning, not knowing they would be their last?

I am not a good missionary. My faith in God is weak. I see God as faithful and gracious this morning, and yet question His plan and timing this afternoon. Yet, if I question the God Who Never Changes, then why am I here - in this hot, horrible place, 1200 miles from the nearest Starbucks and half a world away from my family and friends? Is not the very reason we are here in the first place to proclaim in the darkness that there is a God Who does not change? His love does not fail when a plane engine does. His grace is the same whether my child messes in his underwear or makes it to the toilet. His faithfulness does not waver even when my faith falters.

I am thankful we serve a God like that.

Summer wrap-up

I know summer officially ended in America a couple weeks back, so I'm a tad late. But this post has been several weeks in the making. Half the pictures got deleted after two hours' worth of downloading so I kinda gave up for a while. :) Besides, we live in the land of perpetual summer, so the changing of the seasons is only something we study in school - kinda like the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China. :) But, for what's it's worth... here are some of our favorite memories of Summer 2011....

We moved to a new house at the beginning of June. This is the view from our porch. I love it; it's so peaceful and beautiful and amazing to watch storms sweep through the valley up to our house.


Ezra moved to his big boy bed...


To celebrate the end of Elijah's first year of school, we had a camp-out at a friend's house. Elijah and his little friend who finished kindergarten!!!


The best part of camping is playing with the fire.


The graduated kindergartener and the daddy. :)


The little boys and I came and joined the big boys for dinner around the camp fire. (A tad smokey!)


What's a camp fire without marshmallows? (Sent over from the States just for this!)


One of my best friends and roommates from college, Jen, came to visit for a week in June. SO fun! Of course we had to take her to the beach.


Our annual 4th party with LOTS of yummy food....


And lots of little friends to share it with....


Brant was most excited about the apple pie. :)


Elijah helping crank the 4th ice cream.


Ezra with his ice cream on the 4th.


The summer was not all fun and games... both Brant and I had amoeba in July. :P For two weeks, I took this many pills twice a day. Ugh.


One of the highlights of the summer... peaches. :)


I tried to keep the kids on some sort a routine, so every Tuesday we did a craft. Here's Elijah with his clay creations... he's into space stuff now. :)


We also had "pool day" on Wednesdays and met several other moms and their kids for swimming and a picnic. It was a tad crazy - but way fun - about 15 kids under age 6 and 5 moms trying to make sure no one drowned. :) Hence, no pictures. :)

On the boat on our second beach trip of the summer. Note on Ezra's progress this summer.... on our first trip to the beach this summer he called it a "boap." Now he can say "boat."


We really enjoyed all the fruit and veggies we are getting at our new house... but after 19 pineapples in one week, I decided it was getting a little out of hand...


So I borrowed a friend's dehydrator and had my husband (who has a home ec teacher for a mom) show me how to use it. :)


It took two DAYS to get all the fruit dry.


This was all we got from 6 pineapples.... (we did eat a FEW pieces along the way, just to test the dryness) :) But still, not much...


But the consensus was it was way yummy, so I might try it again...



So thankful for a fun summer with Brant and our little boys!