16 year old in the house!

Elizabeth turned 16 at Auntie Sara and Uncle Brian's house last June 22nd.  She went back to the states to take part in her online school's "end of the year gathering" and then travelled to my sister's house and had a wonderful time with the nieces and new nephew.  We love family.

Happy 10th birthday John!

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast

 A peach pie with all 10 candles in the middle! We are so glad that you are in our family, John, and pray that Christ in you will glow like those candles on your pie.  We love you!

Happy 14th birthday!

Oh my! Look at the height of this young man! May he continue to grow in wisdom and stature.

We woke up on his birthday (January 27th) to a requested breakfast of cinnamon rolls and homemade eggnog!

We traveled south that day about 3 1/2 hours to stay with friends for the night and celebrate his birthday with his friend whose family is moving back to America. We were thankful that Elijah could have this time together with him and say goodbye. We enjoyed chocolate (of course!) cake and ice cream.

Ready to rock our house down! He can play acoustic guitar pretty well so when the family that moved was selling this, we thought he would enjoy it.

Elijah adds so much to our lives through his wit, his thoroughness, his adventure, his discipline, and his thoughtfulness. May the Lord use this next year to mature him and make him more like Christ. Love you buddy!

"Don't worry mom...

...this isn't dangerous at all."

I'm impressed, but not convinced!

Happy Birthday 12 year old!

My Josiah was born on December 30, 1999 right before the dawning of the new millenium. He is our kid of new ideas, new jokes, new kicks, and lots of fun. We are thankful for him!

We enjoyed a tagine with some dear friends.

And had a fun day that included some American football.

May the Lord give him much joy and wisdom in his 12th year of life!

Happy Birthday!

A big 7-year-old on December 4! I can't believe it!

We made cinnamon rolls (gluten free!) for the AM and of course put in some candles and sang.

We visited our friends, 1 hour north of us, for the day and had this cake with

a ladybug m-n-m decoration.

She visited with a little friend and ate ice cream at her favorite place!

The next day, our neighbor made her a tart and her 3 boys each made her a present.

Very thoughtful!

May our sweet little girl grow more and more in love with her Savior this year.

9 years old already!

Can't believe that the little buddy is already 9!

He requested coconut cream pie. Smart boy! I hadn't made them for years so was surprised at how easy my recipe was. We'll be making this one again!

There are a group of teachers here for 2 weeks doing seminars for kindergarten teachers in our city. They are doing a fantastic job. We were happy that they could celebrate with us!

May the God of hope bless you, JP, and fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

A visitor

We had a tall visitor at our house. He refused to have tea with us, in fact he didn't even sit down, but happily shook hands with us all.

Wow! He was also a little wide!

He thought of sitting down but decided against it. Maybe he was a bit put off by the mess in the room?

After JP aggressively tackled him his identity was revealed--J and E dressed in the traditional garb! Who would have thought!?

Happy birthdays, though belated...

We've had a happy whirlwind of a few months, so first we will catch you up to speed on birthdays!

J turned 11 on Dec. 30! He wanted a "Klondike" bar birthday--

hence the one decorating the cake!

An adventurous day spent at the Cleveland Zoo.

Every birthday is special when Grandpa Lisy is there!

E turned a big 13 on Jan. 27! We celebrated in Arizona with a free rib meal from Joe's. Nice! (Notice the lack of a coat, what beautiful winter weather in AZ!)

A fun birthday party with some AZ friends.

We are so glad that God has put these boys in our family. May this next year grow them closer to Jesus.

Happy Birthday!

So happy to have this little huggable dearie in our lives. May the 6th year be a growth in grace and stature for her.

Mice? Nice. Lice? Not nice.

The itching started Wednesday night and then we saw a bug on her forehead at breakfast on Thursday. Poor dear. So, she got a lice treatment and a combing to remove a lot of the critters and eggs that were accumulating. Hopefully the rest of us are clear (though we have been adding tea tree oil to our shampoo as a preventative) and our house will be rid of them in a few days. I don't think her golden locks have ever been so snarl-free!

Now...while lice are yucky..."I think mice are rather nice"

Comic relief

She always makes us smile!

Many thanks to Marie

We were so blessed to have Marie in our midst for a month during November. She came over almost everyday and gave the kids piano lessons, spelling, and graded papers. Overall, she encouraged us and made our kids laugh. This video is an excellent example of her smiles and love. (And a cute one of our girlie!)

HR is 5 years old!

Our littlest turned 5 this month. She loves pink, giving hugs, singing, and chattering. We love her and are so thankful that she is in our family.

Happy Birthday Poppy!

Poppy enjoyed some cake today (so did her mama). It's fun for the whole family to celebrate Poppy's birthday every few months because everyone benefits from a freshly baked gluten free yummy.

H is such a cutie with Poppy and her other doll Kitty Rose (who was my childhood friend too!). She likes to dress her, feed her, and stroll her around. One day on the trip to the neighborhood market, H confided in me.

"Mom, when I get too old and don't want Poppy anymore, will you take care of her?"

The question caught me off guard and a flood of emotions overcame me. "Oh, yes...I would love to do that," I choked out. We continued to walk home--me with a grocery bag and her with her baby.

I think I cried after that. I can't imagine HR without little pink bows in her hair and Poppy. How I need God's grace and courage for every step of parenting. Sometimes I just want to sit with a cup of tea and just stare at my kids. Watch their noses crinkle, see their eyes beam, their fingers move, hear their voices laugh. I'm so thankful for each of them and I trust that the days will just get better. They are changing before my eyes.

So, when the time comes, I will be the one who puts Poppy in her pink dress and bakes her a birthday cake. Because even then, the mama and the rest of the grown crew will benefit.

School days

Well, the little honey loves her uniform and her backpack, but hasn't taken a liking to Arabic school. She has a very nice teacher who allowed me to sit with her for the whole afternoon. And the next afternoon. And the next. One day Patrick stayed, one day B stayed. She did fine when we were there, but had a terrified look when we would try to leave and would even cry about it at lunch. So, we took her out and plan to try again in January. It is a bit intimidating to have a whole new language (actually, two languages) thrown at you and no one to comfort you (big cultural difference in how they comfort). But the Lord will give her the grace to handle it at the right time, not sure when that will be, but we will know when it comes.

Some cute "class memories"--

One day her seat partner had a delicious looking snack. And, to top it off, too much of it! She was eating and eating and it was time to clean up for something else. H, who hadn't said anything just eaten up her own food, looked slyly at the girl. She got up and came back to where I was sitting and whispered, "How do you say, 'Can I eat some of that?'" Cracked me up!

Another day as we entered the room she whispered to me, "Let's sit next to each other, so that we can hold hands."

All I want for Christmas is my...

Back to school

Walking home from school

I think she looks darling in her school uniform.

Monday marks the first day back at school after spring break.  I don't think this creates "warm fuzzies" in my kids.  Would you pray for them as they reenter into their French/Arabic school?

--That they would know that the Lord is near

--That they would be bright lights for Him

--That the teachers would have much joy (they tend to spend a lot of time dealing with discipline issues which in this context is hitting and yelling) and that their students would learn (truly important for the next generation of our country)

--That our kids would desire to learn these languages and that God would give them love for others

Thank you for holding the rope for us!  

An olive lover

“I’m hungry,” said H, at that belly-rumble-before-dinner time.
“Here are some nectarines or bananas,” I replied.

Our little girlie wasn’t craving those things. She grabbed for the olives!! She took a whole handful and was satisfied. Our Mor. friends would have laughed and nodded. She is one of them!!

Another cute thing she did yesterday was to hold open the automatic door while I steered my cart out of Giant Eagle. She then watched, surprised as it closed and opened by itself! There’s a lot to be amazed of in these here parts!

She's a Grand Ole Flag

"America! America! America!" the kids shouted from the back seat for each flag we passed on the road. The street was lined with flags, like the 4th of July, so the car remained noisy.

"Is the president coming?" B asked sincerely. "Dad, is the president coming down this street?"

Nope, that is in our other country. When a city puts up flags it means that the king is coming. We've even waved to him once or twice.

We love flags. E said today that he wants 3 flag stickers on his water bottle--USA, Spain, and our couscous country. Flags. They truly are emblems of the lands we love!