Our weekends

It has rained a ton the last two Saturday mornings. A ton. This is a bridge that normally has no water under it.

Brett had to go pick up his nurses so that they could get to the hospital because the bridge was impassable by motorcycles.

The cool rainy Saturdays makes the special weekend treat of a mocha extra special. Got this mug this summer. It just makes me smile.

Especially the blue inside. It makes me giddy just looking at it. I love it.

I told Brett that Saturday rains are awesome. They are kind of like snow days because everything shuts down. But they will be even cooler when the boys get older and want to sleep in. Instead, they still get up at their 6 am wake time ready to conquer the world. And at this age, rain just makes them hyper.

Kenan requested that I take pictures of him being silly.

and the grande finale.

Rainy Saturdays are also good for watching movies.

They are watching Star Wars. It took two weekends and they still didn't make it through the whole thing.

We play games, like Memory, until Silas and Kenan come and take all the pieces. We try red light green light and listen to Kenan say things like, "red light....what does brown light mean?" It means nothing. "black light??" nothing, Kenan, just red, green or yellow. "what about blue light?"

Then I try to be creative. I always get these waves of feeling like a bad mom who doesn't do things with her kids. I laugh afterwards because it always go down the same way...

I make a fort. They weren't impressed. Maybe they were in it a few minutes. Nevermind it took me thirty to make. Why did I always think it was cool when my parents made forts in the living room? Maybe when they are older...

And then we saw on this show about making boogy eyes. We decide to make them.

You may notice that the pictures are all Silas. That's because by the time the glasses were done, he was the only one happy. The other two were upset about various things and didn't want to wear their glasses.

And this is what my house ends up looking like. Yes, Kenan is putting glue on the floor.

yeah, we got another one wearing glasses!

Now the guy on the show who made the glasses said they would be loads of fun. Nope. Not for my boys. I just have to laugh (since screaming in another room isn't the godly thing to do, though I may have done that too). I try to be creative and do activities but they just aren't into it. Then I just get frustrated. I guess I should just go back to letting them watch tv. Then we are all happy. :) I know they are boys, that's the issue. And they are young. can't expect them to sit for long periods and create. I just wish I'd remember this lesson BEFORE I make a mess everywhere. :) But then where would the memories be? :)

Off to the pool for our Sunday swim!

Hello!

I've been thinking of making my blog private for awhile. In researching it, I realized that even if I made my old blog private, one could still find it through google from old posts that weren't marked as private. So I was kind of in a holding pattern until recently there have been some threats towards Westerners. We are not concerned at this moment, but I thought that now would be a good time to change my blog. So now it's private. Now it no longer has our name in the title.

All who read my blog regularly know that fear is something I constantly struggle with. Receiving emails about threats to Westerners close to where you live can cause fear to arise. And it did. It was a terrible day or so where I was just fearful. The adrenaline, on edge kind of fear. I decided that I couldn't live like that. I had a long tearful, prayerful talk with my dear Father and He gave me great peace. As I was looking up verses on fear, I was struck on how many talk about fearing the Lord. That's who I need to fear, not threats of things. Matthew 10:28 "Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." He also impressed on me Psalm 91. The need to rest in the Shadow of the Almighty, to take refuge under His wings. Since "Shadow of the Almighty" and "Under His wings" were already taken, I chose Refuge Under His Wings for the blog title. I am changing my blog, sure. But I'm not doing it out of fear. Just trying to be responsible with what has been told to us. Anyway, I'll leave you with more of Psalm 91. And just a clarification, it talks about no harm coming near you and being kept safe. I am fully aware that this means that when I am in His hands, nothing can touch my relationship with Him. Despite what happens to my physical body, I am safe in His arms. So no I don't think this means I will always be safe. I just think I must seek to find my rest, my refuge, my security in His hands, not my own and what I may think is best.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge-

then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."

Going Private

I've decided for several reasons to go private. If you read this blog, leave a message or send me an email so I can add you to the list. Thanks.

Andy

Last week we said goodbye to our dear friend, Andy. Amazingly, we didn't even know him two months ago. We met him at the airport on our way back to Mali. Poor guy flew with us across the Atlantic. I'm thankful he didn't run after that. He was so helpful and it was awesome to have another hand during travel. All month, though, when Kenan was tired or not feeling well, he would look at Andy and say, "I'm mad at you because you were mean to me on the plane!" I never knew what he meant but the last night Andy was here Kenan finally told us that it was because Andy took his blanket while he was sleeping. Really, the blanket just kept falling off as he moved in his seat, but he blamed Andy for it and didn't let him forget it. However, except for those moments of complaining about the plane, Kenan loved Andy. Each night, if not during the day as well, he would crawl up in Andy's lap and sit for long periods. All the boys loved Andy. Dawson said the last night that "his nose was running because he was sad Andy was leaving."

Andy was willing to do whatever. Many visitors come and SAY they are willing to help however, but really they have their own agenda/desires of what to do/accomplish. He was up for anything, even if that meant drawing lines in a notebook for an afternoon to make a clinic register (and it was decided once he had done all the lines, that it would just be easier to use the computer!). He offered to come over early one Saturday morning so we could sleep in. He watched the kids that whole day (and said at the end that going to the hospital was easier!) :) He was just so great. He was humble, recognized that he was in a different culture and respected what that meant, and was just all around great.

He was also a cook. A single 20 year old guy. We made fried okra, brownies, butter pecan ice cream, key lime pie, and banana cream pie. We also made the graham crackers from scratch. It amazed me what he knew about food. Frankly, it amazed me what he knew about everything. I don't know that there was a subject that he didn't know about. Countries, history, animals, insects, plastic surgery, the list goes on. I did love, though, when I asked one night why he knew all these kinds of plastic surgery. His response was "Doctor 90210." Ha! The boy was amazingly smart and again incredibly humble. I often forgot I was talking to a 20 year old college student, esp since he was teaching me all month! :)

Andy was truly fantastic. I think our family would have been perfectly content had he just thrown away his ticket to return home and stayed with us permanently. We all miss him and look forward to his return!

More pictures from the summer

Here are some more pictures from our time in the States that I wanted to post, even though they are out of order.

Family at the lake

Dawson and Zachary

Holden Beach

Brotherly love

More love

Even more love

These two were a pair.

My blondie. The last month his hair has started to darken. Kind of sad I won't have a blonde child anymore. I liked having one of each color. :)

This is how Silas sat for most of the pictures when we tried to get a shot.

July 4th

how they watched our home fireworks put on by Uncle Patrick

All eating corn, a favorite while in the States. And I must say that this was some of the best corn ever.

and one that doesn't belong but as I took the picture of Silas eating corn, it reminded me of this photo of D at the same age. Similar but Dawson definitely had a lot more chunk than Silas.

Little Brett

While we were home in the States, Jeremie's wife had a baby boy. His name is Brett. :) He is a cutie. We are so glad all went well with the delivery and that they now have a healthy baby!

Two steps forward, one step back

Dawson lost another tooth. He already has two new (crooked) teeth coming in. He really is getting bigger everyday.

The other day I came home from work and he and Kenan were sitting in kid sized camping chairs talking. I asked them what they were talking about and they told me that they were telling each other their dreams from the night prior. It was just humorous to see as they looked like two old men sitting on the porch talking about life.

This guy, however, wasn't quite as big as we thought.

After a long week of trying the bed, he moved back to his own room and into a pack-n-play. I decided we were having a battle of the will and thus needed to show that I was the adult. So one day at nap I put him in the crib. He screamed. And screamed. And screamed. He threw up, I went in, took off the sheets and left him in the crib. He cried some more. Threw up again. Went in and took out the mattress (so I could clean it before bedtime) and left him on the wooden board of the crib and a towel. He continued to cry and threw up once again. He FINALLY after an hour and 15 minutes fell asleep, even though it was only for 45 minutes. That seemed to break him, though. That night I pulled out both our pack-n-plays and had the crib ready as well as three sets of pjs. I let him choose his crib of choice which was a pack-n-play. He went right to sleep (I assume because he hadn't napped and had been up for several hours the night prior). We haven't had an issue since. Praise the Lord! So who knows when he'll make it into a bed. I'm guessing we will have to do it next hot season so he can have some A/C at night. We shall see.