This is most likely the last post you will read until next week. Not that that's anything new, but next week I will be writing from the Land of the Lemurs! We leave on Friday morning and arrive (our time) at midnight Saturday night. I think we will all breathe a sigh of relief when we board the plane and take our seats! Please pray for a stress-free trip. I know that's a big request, but really, I'm trying to think of it as being relaxing. We will, after all, be SITTING for most of that time (something I haven't done a whole lot of the past few weeks)! And speaking of praying, here's a few things to get you started...
1) Pray for safety and health especially for me and the baby. I'm a little concerned about putting my body through the stress of time changes, and I most likely won't be taking any malaria pills.
(It shouldn't be a big issue this time of year, but it's still on my mind)
2) Pray that Daryl and the girls and I will have a good time apart from eachother. 4 weeks is a long time for us, and I will need extra wisdom to be a single mom.
3) Pray for peace for all 7 little girls that will be living in the same house for 5 + weeks! We are super excited about being with family, but anyone knows that many kids can quickly get under eachothers skin.
4) Pray that God will open our eyes to the needs of those around us. This is the first time Daryl and I have been exposed to overseas missions firsthand, and we want to gain a long-term perspective (could God be calling us to this?) as well as helping in ways we see immediately.
Okay, I think that about sums it up. (If you want to add anything, Rhonda, feel free!) Thanks for being interested in us! I look forward to "keeping you posted"!
Monday, May 28, 2007
Here is Adrienne with her absolute favourite book. Yes, it's all about baboons. We have the other books in the series, but this is the only one she'll sit through. She brings it to me about 5 times a day! (And yes, I'm quite tired of reading about baboons.) Hey, I just had the brilliant thought that I better take it on the plane with us!Tuesday, May 22, 2007
We just finished a great long weekend! On Saturday Daryl got up early and left to go fishing with a friend. I must say, after I went outside and realized the temperature, I wasn't envious at all! Around noon on Saturday my parents arrived. It is so fun to see the girls' reactions, especially Adrienne since she knows them now.
I was so glad to have dad and mom here this weekend to help get ready for The Trip. Mom packed like crazy (everything except our personal clothes and stuff), and that took a huge load off of me. Dad kept the kids entertained by taking them to the park a few times and out for ice cream.
Sunday was quite relaxing. It was raining off and on all day and it was a good day to sit and drink coffee, go to church, and have some friends join us for a bbq in the evening. We had promised the kids that we could roast marshmallows over the fire pit and just as we were heading out it started to rain again. The kids didn't care! So we all headed outside and let them roast a few in the rain. It was fun and we made a memory, that's for sure.
Holiday Monday dawned pouring rain - again! But by mid-afternoon the sun was bright and it got very warm outside. Daryl asked Dad to show off his grilling skills (even though we don't have a Weber!) :-) and he made us some excellent bbq'd chicken. It was so wonderful to eat outside and enjoy the gorgeous evening. We hadn't had quite enough ice cream over the weekend, so we went out for more. Yeah, I think we ate a lot of ice cream this weekend... Anyway, it was a good way to end the day.
We ended the day with a good movie and thought about having more ice cream...decided against it.
So in the end, we had a fun time with family, and I feel much less stressed about our trip. In fact, as each day passes I am getting more excited. The girls are counting the days - we're at 10 until we leave.
Cheerio, until next time...
I was so glad to have dad and mom here this weekend to help get ready for The Trip. Mom packed like crazy (everything except our personal clothes and stuff), and that took a huge load off of me. Dad kept the kids entertained by taking them to the park a few times and out for ice cream.
Sunday was quite relaxing. It was raining off and on all day and it was a good day to sit and drink coffee, go to church, and have some friends join us for a bbq in the evening. We had promised the kids that we could roast marshmallows over the fire pit and just as we were heading out it started to rain again. The kids didn't care! So we all headed outside and let them roast a few in the rain. It was fun and we made a memory, that's for sure.
Holiday Monday dawned pouring rain - again! But by mid-afternoon the sun was bright and it got very warm outside. Daryl asked Dad to show off his grilling skills (even though we don't have a Weber!) :-) and he made us some excellent bbq'd chicken. It was so wonderful to eat outside and enjoy the gorgeous evening. We hadn't had quite enough ice cream over the weekend, so we went out for more. Yeah, I think we ate a lot of ice cream this weekend... Anyway, it was a good way to end the day.
We ended the day with a good movie and thought about having more ice cream...decided against it.
So in the end, we had a fun time with family, and I feel much less stressed about our trip. In fact, as each day passes I am getting more excited. The girls are counting the days - we're at 10 until we leave.
Cheerio, until next time...
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Life As We Know It
Aaaaah! It's only about 2 weeks until we leave for Madagascar!!! I can hardly believe it. Thankfully we bought some suitcases now and my mom rounded up some bins for us to pack stuff in. My mom and dad are coming out for the long weekend, and I'm very glad for that. I need someone to think for me!
I had my ultrasound last week - there's only one baby! (I've held my breath every time) Too bad I couldn't see if it was boy or girl, but I guess we'll be surprised now (or not!).
We had a great time with Daryl's sister Rhonda. She came here from Tammy's place on Thursday night and stayed until Saturday. On Friday we had a relaxing morning since Daryl didn't have to go into work until noon. He made us lattes and it was fun to sit and visit on a dreary day. When Daryl left for work, we went out for empanadas! Mmmmm. It was a fun day. Daryl had to work late so Rhonda and I fed the kids early, put them to bed and had a bbq! The intent was to wait for D, but he was very late (as in 11:00) so we ate and had our lemon cheesecake (uh-huh!) and watched one of the worst movies I've seen. It was very lame. But we still managed to have a good time!
On Saturday we were heading to our friends' place to drop off the 2 oldest girls before going to Grand Forks, and we were in separate vehicles. All of a sudden Rhonda grabbed my hand and yelled and I saw that the car in front of me had skidded to a stop. I was stopping but didn't notice it was that sudden. Anyway, Daryl was 2 cars in front of me and got rear ended. The car in front of him had turned too suddenly and we all had to slam on the brakes. Our bumper is now falling off on one side, but it could have been worse.
So on with the trip...We dropped the girls off and I had to ask them to come tell me good-bye! They were so excited to be spending the day and night at R, M and K's! We got to Grand Forks around 1:30 and right away met a bunch of "old" friends for lunch! What fun to catch up.
After we all parted ways, I got to do some shopping and even found some bargains. We had supper at a great Mexican restaurant and here's a little story...
We were sitting there with Adrienne munching away on our chips and salsa, and letting Adrienne eat bits of tortilla chips. The salsa was not the hottest I've had, but hot enough to be drinking water with it. Adrienne decided she wanted to dip her chips too, so Daryl passed her the salsa. She dipped happily and ate her chips. I kept offering her water but she didn't want any. Soon she noticed the salsa was made out of tomatoes, which she loves, so she demanded the bowl! She was very adamant so Daryl passed it over. She started scooping out the salsa with her hands and eating it straight up! It was awhile before she was scraping her tongue with her fingers and whimpering. I was still offering water but I guess she didn't realize it would help. She polished off the bowl of salsa before she took a drink! Thankfully I didn't notice any "after effects" the next day. :-) I guess we know which family she belongs to!
I had my ultrasound last week - there's only one baby! (I've held my breath every time) Too bad I couldn't see if it was boy or girl, but I guess we'll be surprised now (or not!).
We had a great time with Daryl's sister Rhonda. She came here from Tammy's place on Thursday night and stayed until Saturday. On Friday we had a relaxing morning since Daryl didn't have to go into work until noon. He made us lattes and it was fun to sit and visit on a dreary day. When Daryl left for work, we went out for empanadas! Mmmmm. It was a fun day. Daryl had to work late so Rhonda and I fed the kids early, put them to bed and had a bbq! The intent was to wait for D, but he was very late (as in 11:00) so we ate and had our lemon cheesecake (uh-huh!) and watched one of the worst movies I've seen. It was very lame. But we still managed to have a good time!
On Saturday we were heading to our friends' place to drop off the 2 oldest girls before going to Grand Forks, and we were in separate vehicles. All of a sudden Rhonda grabbed my hand and yelled and I saw that the car in front of me had skidded to a stop. I was stopping but didn't notice it was that sudden. Anyway, Daryl was 2 cars in front of me and got rear ended. The car in front of him had turned too suddenly and we all had to slam on the brakes. Our bumper is now falling off on one side, but it could have been worse.
So on with the trip...We dropped the girls off and I had to ask them to come tell me good-bye! They were so excited to be spending the day and night at R, M and K's! We got to Grand Forks around 1:30 and right away met a bunch of "old" friends for lunch! What fun to catch up.
After we all parted ways, I got to do some shopping and even found some bargains. We had supper at a great Mexican restaurant and here's a little story...
We were sitting there with Adrienne munching away on our chips and salsa, and letting Adrienne eat bits of tortilla chips. The salsa was not the hottest I've had, but hot enough to be drinking water with it. Adrienne decided she wanted to dip her chips too, so Daryl passed her the salsa. She dipped happily and ate her chips. I kept offering her water but she didn't want any. Soon she noticed the salsa was made out of tomatoes, which she loves, so she demanded the bowl! She was very adamant so Daryl passed it over. She started scooping out the salsa with her hands and eating it straight up! It was awhile before she was scraping her tongue with her fingers and whimpering. I was still offering water but I guess she didn't realize it would help. She polished off the bowl of salsa before she took a drink! Thankfully I didn't notice any "after effects" the next day. :-) I guess we know which family she belongs to!
Friday, May 04, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Anna-Christina this morning:
"Even though Miss M is teaching me my ABC's and I already know them, I won't complain to her. Because then she'd probably send me to first grade and make me do math!"
Olivia is in a bad habit of making things up for no good reason. She had the neighbor girl convinced that Daryl was not her real dad. (Her real dad died a long time ago.) So we've been working on this, memorizing Proverbs 12:19 and I've been trying to explain it to them. So now when she makes something up and I remind her not to lie, she says, "Why? Because God won't bless me?" She can keep such a straight face when she's lying, and asking about God's blessings, that it cracks us up (the lying scares me, and of course she doesn't see us laugh, but the stories she comes up with are quite hilarious). She told me the other day that she saw a lady walking around with no shirt on, and, shaking her head sadly said, "...it was just terrible".
Where'd we get these kids?
"Even though Miss M is teaching me my ABC's and I already know them, I won't complain to her. Because then she'd probably send me to first grade and make me do math!"
Olivia is in a bad habit of making things up for no good reason. She had the neighbor girl convinced that Daryl was not her real dad. (Her real dad died a long time ago.) So we've been working on this, memorizing Proverbs 12:19 and I've been trying to explain it to them. So now when she makes something up and I remind her not to lie, she says, "Why? Because God won't bless me?" She can keep such a straight face when she's lying, and asking about God's blessings, that it cracks us up (the lying scares me, and of course she doesn't see us laugh, but the stories she comes up with are quite hilarious). She told me the other day that she saw a lady walking around with no shirt on, and, shaking her head sadly said, "...it was just terrible".
Where'd we get these kids?
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