Matt wrote a year’s worth of words (for him–seriously, it was over 1000 words) in his last blog post, so it is my turn to write a little 🙂 We’ve had a fun couple of weeks here, starting with some visitors two weeks ago. Jaelah’s dear friend from Illinois, Maggie, was here overnight and the girls packed a lot of fun into 24 hours–we so enjoyed having her here! The same day Maggie left, my mom arrived to attend Grandparents Day at Luke’s school. We made applesauce while she was here, and Matt & I even got a date night thanks to Grandma baby-sitting!
Halloween 2011- a Brazilian soccer player, a gymnast, a cowboy (who was SUPER excited to wear Mom’s belt buckle–which is covered up in this pic by the princess’ wand), and a purple princess. The extent of our trick or treating in the past was about 5 houses, mostly family. Trick or treating here was quite the experience–it was like an event, tons of kids going from place to place, and people sitting outside–some with a fire going!–to hand out candy.
Some families that we go to church with hosted a Harvest Fair as a fundraiser for Lifesong for Orphans, an adoption/orphan care ministry. The girls got their faces painted, and all the kids had fun playing games, bobbing for apples, eating doughnuts, and seeing their Sunday school friends. And I won a jar of candy corn! (one of those ‘guess how many is in the jar’ games)
The girls and I made a spur of the moment trip back to Illinois this past weekend to take care of some ‘administrative details’, and so I could help surprise my youngest sister Jen for her 30th birthday. Her husband Aaron (also our awesome website designer) did a great job planning it–she was surprised and we had a great dinner at Biaggi’s! Matt & Luke had boys weekend here in MI–rode go-carts, played the Wii, and ate lots of pizza 😉 Mariah, Jaelah, and Sierra spent an evening with our great friends John & Emily Maurer, who have been so wonderful to our kids over the years. We went to church with my parents on Sunday and then headed back north–very thankful for a smooth trip both ways!
Luke celebrated his birthday this week. Two boys from his class came home with him after school, and we had pizza & cake, opened presents, and of course, they played with the (Nerf) guns he got.
This is a toy….he wanted a real one, but mom said no. Didn’t help that Matt came home from school today and told Luke that a guy in his (Matt’s) class said that he had a real chainsaw at Luke’s age. I don’t think there’s anything around here that he needs to be using a real chainsaw on! He has already figured out how to take the blade off and pretend it’s a leaf blower–we see and hear a lot of those around town. Too bad that’s not real–would save some time with the rake 🙂 That’s been a new experience this fall, raking leaves–we never raked in the country, the leaves either blew away or rotted where they were–I’d never have gotten done with that job!
I also had a chance last week to get together with some of the other SMAT (Matt’s school) wives which was refreshing. We are all at different points on the journey–some of us know what country we’re headed to & some are just starting down the road of mission aviation–but like any situation, it helps to talk with other people who are experiencing or have already experienced the same things.
Other exciting news this week was that Matt’s sister and brother in law, Joy and Jason, were able to travel to Ethiopia and meet the sweet, beautiful girl who will be joining their family (hopefully) very soon–I am excited to be an aunt again!
We’ve said it before and I’ll say it again tonight–we couldn’t do this without the prayer and financial support of many of you reading this–we love & appreciate you and thank God for you!! Til next time….