Baby Esther

Read my post below the pics first, so you will understand more about the pics. Thanks! ;o)
Okay, I promised more pictures, so here are more pictures! This is Jerod and Alex playing checkers at a friend's house.


Are you wondering what this is? Well, in our villages it is very normal to have your baby way over dressed and even if it is 80 degrees outside, they cover their babies up like this. I am amazed that more babies don't die of SIDS. I mean this baby is completely covered. Look below!

I pulled back the blanket so you could see there really was a baby underneath!

This is baby Esther's big sister, she is so proud of her new sister and Annie just loves to play with her!

This is their little flower garden. Isn't it cute? They make do with what they have and it always makes me think, "Now why haven' t I done that?"

This is their kitchen. This is the kitchen for 4 adults and 5 children. Now try and complain about your small kitchen! ;o)

Annie and her 2 friends. Don't you just love the plug hanging down from the roof?

Jerod shooting marbles.

This is our friend Luisa's ( the mom of the new baby) mom. She was washing dishes and I just happened to catch her in the act. All you need is some rain water and an old orange bag (you know the green netted bags oranges come in) and wala you have a dishwasher. :o) Oh, and if you have a little soap that might help too. If you have some.

This is me and Luisa. She doesn't like to smile, I don't know why, she is very sweet, but doesn't really like to smile. Anyway.. that is Luisa.

Of course this is precious little Esther. She gave me a half smile.

Today we went to say good~bye to some of our friends. They just had their 5th child 2 weeks ago and we wanted to see this little blessing before we left for the states. Her name is Esther.

How precious! While I was there I tried to capture some moments that would interest you.

Many of you have asked us how long we will be in the states and the answer to that is that we don't really know. It will be between 10 and 12 months. Others have asked when we are leaving. We are leaving our village on June 17th and heading to Puebla, Mexico for a week. From there we will fly to Charlotte and then we will eventually arrive in Wake Forest, NC where we plan on living.

My friend Katie asked me how our children are going to handle the transition from simple life of playing marbles and checkers to the fast paced life of the US. Well, I don't know that either. I am a little concerned about that as they really like the simple life. We are going to try, try, try to keep many of the same traditions we have here. Like, on one night a week, we have movie night where we pop homemade popcorn and watch any movie they want as a family. NO interruptions. Now that isn't always possible, the NO interruptions part but, we try. We eat dinner together as a family every day of the week and oh how I want to make that a priority. I know many of you are rolling your eyes. But... if I don't try, it won't be a priority. That could help us. Anyway, that could be our biggest prayer request in regards to the children.

Okay, if you have any other questions, please ask!!

Graduation pics!

Jerod receiving his diploma from Principal Greg.


Alex receiving his diploma from Principal Greg

Annie isn't quite sure what she is receiving, but she is happy to get a picture with a sun on it because her nickname from her daddy is "Sunny" or "Sunshine"

We were at Sams once again and I had to take this picture. I acted like I was taking this of Alex but since I think that 95% of you are women, I thought you would get a kick out of this picture. Look at this woman behind Alex, she is sitting in the restaurant area of Sams PLUCKING her eyebrows. Now I can understand putting on makeup, but PLUCKING YOUR EYEBROWS??? Gross!!! Click on it to make it larger if you don't believe me!

Here is Annie with Uncle Mark as she calls him. She absolutely thinks he hung the moon!


Yay, no more school! So, today being the first day I didn't have to get up and do anything I thought oh how nice to be able to sleep in! NOT! 7 am the phone rings, "Brother, I wanted to see how the meeting went last night?" Okay I am sooo happy that our new leader is excited about our new church and all that happens there. Prisiliano (new leader) couldn't be there last night and so he decided he would call at 7 am this morning, yes the first day I could sleep in, to ask how our study went last night. Wasn't that nice of him? If you think I am writing with dripppping sarcasm, you would be correct! ;o) So, anyway, our study did go well, but I just wish we could have shared this with him at, oh say 9ish! :o) Well as Greg said as he was wide awake then too, "I guess it's time to get the juicy worm." I for one, prefer the crusty, dry ones, but that is just me!

So, I thought I would share some pictures from our graduation ceremony. We were very proud of our children. They did very well this year. Jerod continues to excel in Math, although he doesn't really love the subject he does very well at it and Alex is an absolute wiz at Geography. He amazes us! I gave him a blank map of the US and he handed it back to me 5 minutes later completely filled in. Then I handed him a map of the world and he handed it back to me about 20 minutes later with about half of it filled in. Oceans, seas, countries I have never heard of filled in , in the appropriate places. Anyway, it's a gift. So, we are proud. Just had to brag a little since we don't really get to do that very often. Oh, Annie did very well too!

We had a quick one day visit from a friend of ours who lives in Puebla, Mexico. His name is Mark and he came to do some work on our storying project. It was a short and sweet visit that as you can see from the picture, Annie thoroughly enjoyed! (as we did too) I am sure we will be busy little beavers this week and I will do my best to fill you up with bunches of pictures that will interest you! Love to all!