R&R

Each year we get an opportunity to come together with some of our regional colleagues for a time of rest. We do some business, we have someone that comes and shares with us and we get some much needed spiritual and physical refreshment. This year our group met up in Egypt! However, we try to tag some vacation on to this time of year as well. This year we chose to go visit some good friends of ours from college who are now serving in France!


We had a layover in Jordan for two days and then continued on to France. We had an early morning flight, but the boys did really well with it all. Fortunately there was very little time difference so once we rested up from our travel we were able to get right into enjoying our time with our friends. Our friends have four kids, one of which was a boy just a little older than Zeke. The two boys have similar personalities in being real "boy" boys and Zeke was absolutely thrilled to have someone he could wrestle with. He has often tried to wrestle with other kids here to either find that they ignore him or he upsets them! It was a joy to my heart to see him be able to use his energy in a way that was super fun for him and not harmful to the other child!
We did some touring around (Scott and his buddy took the boys up to Normandy to visit the battle sites), but mostly we took it easy, saw parts of the city and just relaxed. As those of you with young kids know (and those of you who remember back to those days), vacation isn't exactly restful, especially when you all are sharing one room! However, I was so grateful that we didn't plan too much into this trip and didn't feel like we had to go from one thing to another. Our friends put us up very comfortably and we all were able to just have a good time. Some would consider it a travesty that we were in France and didn't see all the sites, but this was exactly what we needed for our family at this time. I do have to say one thing about our experience: the food in France is incredible! Stuff that many Americans probably wouldn't eat if given a description of it before-hand, we tried and found to be delicious! Our friends took us out to one restaurant where they served us four-courses of food....each one good enough to lick your plate clean (although we did somehow refrain from doing so)!


The second half of our time was spent in Egypt. We got to stay at a great hotel where we were able to swim and relax. Ethan absolutely loved being in the water! Zeke is still somewhat hesitant, but overall enjoyed it. We were very blessed to have a group come out from Washington who invested in our kids for the week. It made my heart feel so full to see Zeke interacting with so many other kids, learning new songs, having new experiences, and most of all having others invest in his growing faith.

Overall we came home feeling ready to get back into life here. Its amazing sometimes how you don't feel how heavy a burden you are trying to carry until you get out of your context and can look back. We continue to try and remind ourselves that we have One who wants to carry that burden for us, and hopefully as we enter into a busy fall we will remember to cast those burdens down and to depend on the Lord's strength rather than our own! For those of you that keep up with our blogs regularly, my goal is to try and post a blog at least every two weeks...most likely on Mondays. So stay tuned!

the dog days of summer

As the final days of summer are passing and the fall beginning we realize that we have had a number of new experiences over the past few months. We wanted to share a few of these with you before so much time passes that we forget they even happened!

Our little guy, Ethan, started on real foods this summer. From 4 to 6 months he ate rice cereal, which he did amazing with from day one! I think it helps that mom knew a bit more about how to give a kid a fighting chance when they are first learning to eat, but I was pretty impressed with his overall ability to jump right into solids! This past month we started him on his veggies, and just a few mornings ago tried his first fruit.....pears. Now he refuses plain cereal anymore...I guess once you've tasted the good stuff who can blame him!

We have had some very long, hot days. At times all we could do was just sit as still as possible. You can imagine how hot it was when you realize that Scott had a toddler boy sitting completely still! We are thankful that the electricity has been better than the summer we first arrived, although it had its challenges this summer as well! At least we get some bragging rights for having made it through each day of 110+ degree temps! In fact it was so hot that Scott's croc sandals curled up and melted! We had no idea that such a thing was even possible, but for those that endure this sort of weather, don't leave your sandals outside!

We also were able to have some fun personal experiences. We had a wonderful fourth of July at a park outside of the city. We enjoyed hamburgers, potato salad and watermelon just as though we were back in the US with all of you! Zeke also got to go to his first movie in the theater. He saw Toy Story 3 and LOVED it! He was so cute sitting in that big old chair with his little tub of popcorn. The theater staff were even kind enough not to charge him for a ticket (I love this culture:-)). Now he asks us all the time when we are going to go see his "feater movie"
We also were very excited to finish our long English course that we did in partnership with a new university starting here. Although tiring, it was a great experience for us and we enjoyed working with high school students once again. The picture below is from our graduation day.


Overall it was a great summer. We are looking forward to a great fall that is ahead of us and are anxious to see what God wants to do in our lives next. This week ends the month of fasting for Ramadan and is followed by a week that is full of visits, fun and lots of food! It is a great time of celebration and we are looking forward to connecting with friends we haven't seen for awhile. Following that time things will get rolling at our center as well, so more to come!