Nana & Papa's Visit: July 2010

We were so glad Jess's mom and dad got to come in July. We were all just certain Moses would arrive by the end of June, so imagine our surprise when he overshot his due date and waited just about 36 hours after their arrival in Istanbul to make his debut!

So, the first day, as bleary-eyed Nana & Papa got used to our time zone, we enjoyed a picnic at the seaside park:

complete with a soccer game

and rock climbing!

That night, labor contractions began, and by the next morning, they were holding their 8th grandchild in their arms-- Moses Henry had arrived!

Enjoying getting to know him...

...burp him...

...watch movies while holding him...

We were all so glad Moses had waited until after their arrival! It made it all the more special.

Of course the other kids got lots of Nana & Papa time too!

It was such a special visit, and we're all so thankful for the week we had together!

Moses Henry's Birth

Our sweet little man arrived July 12th. I just realized I've shared pictures via e-mail and Facebook, but never posted them here... so here he is, in all his preciousness:

Our new family of 7, ready for action! :)

Bodrum Beach Vacation - 2010!

...snuggling with Silas in the shade...

This year, for vacation we were fortunate to find a home to rent near a beach in southwest Turkey. We all enjoyed every bit of it!


The kids enjoyed having grass to play in... a yard all their own for this one week!

And while we all got in the pool to swim throughout the week, Baxter, Maranatha, and Silas had the most fun just sitting on the side and dumping water from bucket to bucket (and splashing Ethan and Daddy occasionally!).

The house had beautiful flowers around it... which Silas enjoyed "watering" with his water gun :)

(randomly, here's a pic of me in the garden @ 35 weeks pregnant, for anyone who's curious) :

While we all loved it, Ethan enjoyed the pool most of all and spent a good portion of every day paddling around in the water:

And we ALL enjoyed the beach-- our first time as a family!

Silas thought Doug's sea monster impersonation was hilarious! He couldn't stop laughing at Doug snorkeling around the bay:

A nearby island with ruins was attached to the beach by a rocky sandbar, so we trekked out through the water to the island to have a look, only to see a sign prohibiting us from actually entering the ruins site once we got there (bummer!):
But still, we made it out to the island and had a good time!
Sandcastling was a big part of the fun for Doug, Ethan, and Baxter:

Well, mainly Doug... :)

The various finished products of three days' work:



Ethan and Jess enjoyed swimming out to a buoy and back!

One day while we were at the beach, Doug found a crab in the shallow water and scooped it up for the kids to observe. That crab scooted around the bucket so quick, and Maranatha offered pretzels while Silas tried to feed him seaweed (he liked neither). We named him "Sandy Claws" (though Baxter was still a bit partial to the name "Mr. Crab").


Maranatha loved playing in the sand:

On the last full day, we took turns, each of us taking one of the older boys for a kayak ride around the bay:

Ethan burst with excitement and joy for the entire ride, and declared that it made him feel like a grown-up man to go on such an adventure.

Doug took Baxter out for his ride (with Ethan running out to see them off), and they had a great time too!

We're so thankful to have enjoyed this week as a family of six... cause it won't be long now until Moses makes his debut. :)

Two conversations I don't want to forget.

Haven't written in a while, but that's OK. Does anybody but me even read this? :)

Anyway, I had two conversations yesterday that I don't want to forget, so I thought I'd record them here. If, by chance, anyone is reading, please don't think that this sort of conversation is representative of every day here or that we're something akin to the Walton's, always having heart-lifting moments at every turn. If it was that way, I wouldn't be recording them here as something unique and special. Anyway, here's the first:


MARANATHA: "the best thing in the whole wide world"
I was combing Maranatha's hair after a bath:

She said:"Mom, you are doing the best thing in the whole wide world, you know dat?"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Her: "Like, you take care of us, you brush my hair, you play with us, you read to me, you teach us so many tings, you love us, .... like that."

(Yes, she said tings, not things... I want to be able to remember just how she talked.)

I have no idea if she grasped the blessing she was speaking into my heart and life. But she's absolutely right. Though it's devalued by our culture as something meaningless, mindless, or something anyone can do, there's nothing I could be doing right now that would be as eternally or personally meaningful to so many people as "just" being mom and wife to these five, going on six, people. :) And on days when I forget that, I wanted to have this special minute of life recorded here to re-read.

BAXTER: About that bright sun
We were driving home from a mall after buying a birthday present for a young Turkish friend:

Him: "The sun is so bright!" [note: it really was-- it's been hiding for days after snow and rain... so it was particularly bright and shining right in our faces, bouncing off the wet road]

Me: "Yup, it is very bright today."

Him: "I'm so glad that in the next world, there won't be a sun."

Me: "God Himself will be our light and we won't need it anymore."

Him: "Yeah. [pause] Will He stop shining at night time when we sleep?"

Me: [slight chuckle] "I don't know. The Bible doesn't say anything about nighttime or darkness in Heaven. It only talks about days being divided up on earth. It does say that God is light and in Him is no darkness. Maybe we won't sleep in Heaven, but I'm not sure."

Him: "But then we will get so tired at the end of the day!" [keep in mind, this is our nearly 6 year old who still on his own opts for a nap every now and then... the kid likes his sleep. :) ]

Me: "Maybe not. It says He'll give us new bodies; maybe our new bodies won't get tired. Or maybe we'll be able to peacefully sleep even in God's light."

Him: "Yeah. Well, anyway, it sure is a bright day today!"

I loved that... the way natural life just flows right together with Scripture and anticipating Heaven in his heart and mind. I only remember this subject (about Heaven not needing a sun, because God Himself will be our light) coming up a time or two, and not recently, but his little five-year-old brain has stored away this important piece of information and faith, and I'm so glad.

And it WAS a bright day yesterday. :) In many ways.

Little Tomb Raiders :)

We visited Saqqara & Dashur today and were able to go into three different tombs-- an overseer's, the King's butcher's tomb (this is us with statues of 5 of his 10 sons), and then a third one that we had to go underground through some tiny shafts to get into!

The kids all had a great time exploring and checking out this awesome site. Saqqara is pretty much the center for information/archaeology for Egypt's Old Kingdom (the dynasties of Egypt that ruled roughly 5,000 years old).

There were other sites, near the ones we went down into, that had not yet been dug out-- literally, hieroglyphic-covered stones sticking up right out of the sand:

They had fun playing in the dirt too. :)

Inside of one tomb (The Tomb of "Ti" for anyone who's interested), the walls were COVERED with "daily life" sort of hieroglyphics... truly breathtaking.