20 Year Anniversary

I mentioned in my last post about our friends in Italy that we went to university with. Marc and Jason met at a MK retreat in 1989 at Ouachita Baptist University. They were 14 years old. Aren't they cute?


(Marc is the second from the left and Jason is the fourth from the left)

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It was at this retreat that they both decided to attend OBU and that they would be roomates. And they did! I just think that is so cute! So when we met up with them in Germany at our conference, the guys took a 20th Anniversary picture! Here they all, all grown up and still really good friends!
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We just love this family, their kids were so hilarious! And if you know Jason, then you know why they are so hilarious.

Germany, Part 1

We set off bright and early on a Friday morning to drive to Folkstone, England to catch the chunnel crossing- over to France. We had never done this before with a car so we were not sure how it was going to be, but it was actually super easy. We had made reservations for us at a certain time that afternoon but ended up getting there several hours early due to lack of traffic! We were allowed to switch to an earlier train which was awesome- it meant getting to our hotel a lot sooner than expected that night! (Always good when you are traveling with three, four and under!)

The picture below is just from our car waiting to drive onto the train. They give you a letter of the alphabet to hang on your rear view mirror and you just follow the signs, then drive right on to a train. It was double decker, but we were on the bottom. It was just basically a shell of a train that you drive all the way through and then park. It takes about 35 minutes to cross under and you are allowed to get out of your car during that time. It worked out great because we bought lunch and then were able to eat it while on the train, and I was able to feed Addison which meant one less stop!

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We arrived at our hotel and quickly got some dinner. A lot of European hotels are small and only hold a few people, so we had to have two separate rooms. I was not too thrilled with that but what can you do? Nothing. Just get over it. So Addison and I took one room and Marc graciously volunteered to have the big girls with him. Neither one of us slept much because Addison was all over the bed, rolling around and snuggling up against me. Marc said that Bailey was all over the place too and he didn't get much sleep. Here is Addison at about 10:30pm. She was wired! I was trying to read and do my Esther study by the bathroom light, but she was just too happy for sleep!

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The first part of our trip was for a conference with our sending organization. We stayed at a nice hotel for a week, had lots of meetings and got to visit with friends we have not seen in years!

Our good friends who live in Italy. We went to university together and he and Marc have known for 20 years- another story for another post!

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This sweet girl I met for the first time this week, but I went to elementary school with her big sister- and funny enough, her sister and I got married on the same day, same year and her husband came last year to lead worship for another conference. Small world!
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The Borders, a very sweet couple that we have enjoyed getting to know over the past few years. They live in Hungary! Their daughter is a friend of ours too, and she and her husband live in France! Her blog is one of my favorites!

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Our good friends, Chad and Amy and their little baby girl Lauren! She was born a month after Addison in Paris! How many of you can say you were born in Paris? Anyone?

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Addison and Lauren hanging out. Amy and I switched babies for a few minutes and Lauren was so lightweight- well relatively. She's probably in the normal weight range for a 5 month old! Ha. They were checking each other out and even had a little conversation, it was really cute! (Please excuse my fat arm! Ugh!)

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I mentioned before about the wonderful week we had- the teaching and seeing all our friends was just so refreshing! We really needed it. The girls were in VBS all day while we were in meetings and they too had a great time. Cerys especially has been talking about what she learned and singing the "Boomerang Express" song! It was a huge blessing to have our children taken care of all day, we are VERY grateful for the teams that came over to do that! It's sure nice of them for them to take their vacation to come babysit! :) Thank you Ladies! (And Dr. Mac Brunson and his wife Debbie- they worked in the baby room in the mornings!)

After this week was all finished and we said our goodbyes- it's never easy but part of our life now- we drove away to start our family vacation!

Stay tuned!

What's New?

This is what is new! Addison has two teeth!!! The first one broke through the day before we left for Germany and the second one came in last week.

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I am in shock that she is so early to get teeth. Need I remind her that she was two weeks late?!?! Shouldn't this mean that she is late for everything else like rolling over, sitting up and crawling? I suppose not because we think she is very close to crawling and sitting up on her own. I didn't know the girl could get around like she does- the first night of our trip it was just me and her in our hotel room (European hotels are small and only hold 3 people usually, so we had to have two rooms) and instead of getting the pack and play out of the car I just let her sleep in the bed with me. Well I hardly slept all night because she was ALL OVER that bed! I had pillows everywhere but they did no good.

We are trying to get back to normal- whatever that is- after our holiday so bear with me. I have lots of pictures and a few stories! The girls did great in the car- we had a few moments of insanity but overall they did pretty well considering their ages.

Stay tuned!

Guten Tag

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This is where we have spent the last 6 days- go ahead and click it. A-mazing!

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Bathing Beauty at the pool!


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We had an auction for Lottie Moon. Marc bid on these 3 packages of Nutter Butters and we won! I won't tell you how much we paid for them, but it was over $100. It all goes to Lottie, so it's worth it!

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On our way out of town today, we stopped at this Alpsee Coaster, oh my word, SO much fun! You take a ski/chair lift up to the top of a mountain and ride down in this. Marc took Bailey while we waited at the bottom, then I got to take Cerys. It was a lot of fun! (This is some random picture of someone else going down, we couldn't take any once we got on)

We are now in Munich, and will be here for a few days having some much needed family time before heading back home.

Our speaker this week was David Platt. All I can say is WOW. Jesus, give me a hunger for your Word!

Auf Wiedersehen!

We are headed out soon for Germany! Not sure if/when I will have internet access, but we are taking our camera and Mac, so I hope to update while I'm there, at some point!

The car is loaded down, I have my bag of goodies (snacks and activities) for the girls and I'm just praying Addison is a good car traveller. Last time we travelled far, she was 6 weeks old and slept the whole time!

We will be in the car for two days- if you are a pray-er, we would greatly appreciate your prayers on our behalf-

*safe travel- we are driving to the other side of England, putting our car on a train to go under the channel and then staying the night, and will finish our drive to our destination on Saturday! (And I will be trying NOT to think about how we are sitting in our car, on a train, under a lot of water for about 40 minutes)

*for the girls to be good and happy travellers! (4 yrs. old, 3 yrs. old and 5 months old = many potty breaks and nursing stops!)

*for patience for us parents and for each other! (This is what memories are made of right?)

*And please pray for my good friend Lisa, she did not get the news we were hoping for today regarding her pregnancy. Thank you!!! ( Love you Lisa!)

I'll update when I can!

God Smiles

*Whoa, I just read what Beth Moore wrote here and how cool! I just love her!

It was a rainy Monday, about 4 weeks ago, we were at the park for Cerys' sports day. It was not a very fun day. I would say it was pouring down rain, but that would be an understatement. It was coming down in buckets!!!


I did not recognize quite a few of the other mum's and had just assumed they were all in the afternoon nursery session since it was a combined sports day. A young couple with three girls (!) came over to us and asked how old our girls were. We chatted, laughed about the weather and learned that our girls are pretty much the same age! They explained that they were just visiting and were going to be moving here from another city (about an hour away) and that their two oldest girls would be going to the same school. They had been on a tour of the school and were told about the sports day so they decided to come down there just to see if they could meet anyone. (God smiles.) As the rain got even worse and we were all about to get out of there, I asked if they had a mobile (cell) phone number in case they needed anything during their move, etc. The husbands exchanged numbers and we said goodbye. I commented to Marc how nice and kind they were and wondered if she wanted to be my friend. Ha. I am not kidding, I had to resist the urge to grab her arm and say, "Sowillyoupleasebemyfriend?"


See, I've been praying for a kindred spirit, and preferably one that is in the same stage of life as me. And to be completely honest, I had stopped praying about it because after two and a half years, it just wasn't happening. I know, real mature! I have been very lonely at times. But that is why I love how God works. He is faithful, even when we are not!


A few days after this encounter at the park I mentioned to the teacher that I had met that nice family and she said they were moving here to work with some church but she could not remember any details. I kind of coughed and cleared my throat and said, "Oh really, how wonderful!" I got home as soon as I could to tell Marc about it. God was up to something!


Over the course of the last few weeks, we have sent texts back and forth and spoken on the phone once.


To make a really long story short- they are about our same age, have three girls about the same ages, are coming to be the pastor of a nearby Baptist church, and will live about 10 minutes from our home. Our oldest girls will be in the same Reception (Kindergarten) class next year, and our middle girls will be in the same morning nursery class. Are you kidding me?


The other really cool part is that God has confirmed in my heart the school choice we made for Cerys. It was with fear and trembling that we chose this particular school. We are in a very diverse "inner city" area and I learned a hard lesson this past year about God's protection and provision for my kids. We have had a lovely teacher this past year and she and I have had many conversations about faith and life. She has been so kind to us and I've just been so thankful for her. Upon hearing that we had met this family she did some rearranging and pulled me aside the last week of school to tell me that she had asked permission of another parent to move their child to afternoon nursery so that this little girl could be in the morning class with Bailey. She also spoke to the Reception teacher and was able to get Cerys and their oldest girl to start school on the same day. At the start of a new school year, they stagger the start days for kids so that not all the kids start on the same day, which makes it easier for them and they don't feel so overwhelmed. So this precious teacher has shown our family favor by working it just so!


They all came over today for lunch. And stayed for 5 hours. All the girls played lovely together and had an absolute blast!


God is in the details. And even when I had lost hope, one unsuspecting, rainy day He plopped this family right in the middle of our path. And I bet He smiled. I'm so grateful and frankly kind of blown away right now.

The Last Day

The last day with our interns was Thursday, and we headed over to Caerphilly Castle- about 15 minutes from our home. Here's Addison, ready to go!

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Beautiful, isn't it? (Go ahead and click it to see it full size!)

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Here are a few of our interns- I just loved our interns. Two of them were here last year, so it was cool to see them again. Ethan (below) is one that was here last year! Hey Ethan!


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The group in front of the castle-

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And, just like our banner at the top of the blog, we had to re-create this picture now that Addison is here. It is really dark in there and Bailey had just fallen of the chair- so it's not a happy or decent photo. Ethan, where were you man? We should have had you take it!

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Bailey has a nice bruise on her chin and cheek from that huge table.

The interns left at 4am on Friday, and from what I've seen on their Facebook status they saw Angelina Jolie at Heathrow. I always look for celebrities when we fly from there, so I'm totally jealous they actually saw someone famous! Oh, and they saw Rhianna too. (singer, right?)

Anyway. I need to go get ready, we are attending a graduation tonight. I tried a bottle today to see if Addison would take it and she wouldn't. I'm not surprised, the girls wouldn't either. I think she's teething also. So she's kind of cranky. Oops, there she- screaming in her bed. Gotta go!

Five Months

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I'm 5 months old and weigh 18 pounds, 5.5 ounces. I have no idea how long I am, the health visitors don't check that unless asked and my Mummy forgot to ask last week! I can do all kinds of things now- I am trying to do the tripod sit-

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I've still got some work to do on that! I am a little wiggle worm, and on this day Mummy forgot to strap me in my swing. I'm kind of too big for this swing, but it's a nice place to sit while Mummy types on the computer.

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I can roll from my back to front, then I get stuck and haven't figured out how to roll back. Mummy always lays me down in my crib on my back and before she walks out of the room I'm flipped over on my tummy. I prefer to sleep this way now and suck on my thumb. The paci is okay during the day, but my thumb is WAY better!

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I can also suck on my toes! I'm thinking of trying out for Britain's Got Talent, what do you think?

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Starbucks Is Fattening!

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Just ask Addison.

Oh me, this picture just gives me all kinds of joy. I love chubby babies!!! She will be 5 months old on Wednesday and she weighs 18 lbs. 5.5 oz. She can roll from back to front. She belly laughs and it's just precious. She LOVES her big sisters and when her Daddy "eats" her belly. My favorite time of the day is that last feeding before bedtime, she is so stinkin' cute and content and just smiles and smiles. I can hardly put her in bed because I am just trying to hold on to every little moment with our last baby!

Addison Marie, you are loved baby girl.

What A Day!

It's 10pm and all I can hear is the dishwasher. Yes, I have a dishwasher and my husband did not grow up living in a hut. (If you don't get that, don't worry) It's been quite a day, well actually it's been quite a week.

It started off with Cerys' Nursery Graduation. It was really cute and her teacher said some really nice things about her. One thing that stuck out to us was that she described Cerys as having a "calming influence" on the classroom. We are very proud of her, she has done really well all year long. It's not easy going to school at such a young age and in a different country. They had a class party yesterday and today was "bring you bike" to school day.

Today did not start off too well. We were running late. It was pouring down rain. And we are all just a wee bit tired and maybe some of us are kind of grumpy because it's been a hectic (but awesome) month with students visiting. Anyway. Since it was raining, I opted to drive to school. That still means parking a few streets away because that is just the way it is. The girls are in their rain gear- wellies, rain coat and umbrella. I get Cerys out of the car, instruct her to stand on the pavement (sidewalk) and DON'T MOVE. I get the pushchair (stroller) out and get Addison in it and put on the rain cover. I get Bailey out of the car, tell her to stand near Cerys and DON'T MOVE. I get Cerys' bike out of the car (yes, we were all packed in there!) and figure out how I'm going to do this. Cerys wanted to ride her bike up to the school but she couldn't because it was too uneven on the pavement and too many cracks so she kept falling off. So I pushed Addison with one hand, made Bailey walk beside us (she's oblivious, having too much fun in her wellies and umbrella), and Cerys and I walked her bike over to the school. It was just too stressful and I had to resist the urge to throw an adult size fit right there in the street! It just seems more frustrating while in the rain, you know?

After we left Cerys at school, we got back to the car to drive over to where Marc was so we could meet up with some of the students. One of the girls just made my day and offered to keep Bailey and Addison for me so I could sit in on the devotional and music! (Thank you, A!) Plus, I got to hear my husband teach and that was wonderful! We have one more week of students and as hectic as it's been for our family, we will miss them!

Tonight, I was having to discipline Bailey because she lied to me about something. I was standing behind her, bending over her peering into her face. I gave her my speech like this because I was wiping her nose- hope you can get this mental picture- and after my long-winded speech about lying I asked her, "Do you understand what Mommy just said to you, honey?" She responds with, "Ummm, what's dat in your nose? There's something durty in der Momma!" Lovely, just lovely. I just busted out laughing and my whole speech had gone to pot.

So, we are looking forward to the next few weeks. Cerys finishes school on Monday, we have one more week with our interns, and one week of rest...then we are headed to Germany! We are going for some meetings and will get to see many good, good friends that we have not seen in a long time AND we will take a mini-vacation afterwards so we are very excited! Then it's back to work- 10 students from the states will be arriving to do the gap year program and Cerys and Bailey will start back to school!

I know I write a lot about the weather- mainly rain- but I am thankful for it. It is what makes this country so beautifully green! And, I would rather be here in 60 degree weather than 106 in Dallas!

Goodnight!
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