A 4th Family, Part 3

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Abbie

Fireworks on the 4th were a family affair. The rain didn’t want to miss out either. Getting ready…

The audience

Papa, Mark, and Cousin J worked to put on a fun show.

That was slightly loud.

A 4th Family, Part 2

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Abbie

Not only did we have some fun inside, but outside was a source of a lot of activity. Yeah, Papa has a zipline in his back yard. Y ziplined so much that his poor hands got calloused. He loved flying through the air. Then Papa broke out his lawnmower and trailer. Hula Hoop time! Emmie getting a swing from cousin H. He had lots of questions about Emmie’s brace but he also had to tell me a lot about what has been going on in his neck of the woods. He always keeps us up to speed about what the other bunch is up to. Eek. I have prettiest nieces and handsomest nephews. Can’t tell me otherwise.

Emmie was none too thrilled about riding on the lawnmower. Sweet cousin A loved it! Papa let some others drive.

And the big girls jump roped.

Mark got to try out his new birthday gift. A hammock. His audience.

He said it was comfy.

Beautiful rainbow after a bit of rain.

A trying out sisters ear phones.

Pretty cousins.Brothers.

The big kids table.

Hula hooping Zoe.

Releasing the fireflies.

Time for some watermelon eating with good ol’ seed spitting off the deck.

A Family Fourth, Part 1

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Abbie

Like I said, we traveled on Mark’s birthday and enjoyed some awesome family time with fourteen of our closest family members. Eighteen kids all lined up in a row. In age order no less. The two littlest cousins got to enjoy some food.

And play time.

The girls caught lightning bugs.

This was our supply of paper products for the weekend.

Uno with Papa’s cousins. Games are a definite fun part of our family time.

So are books! Ceili Rain and K were the “baby” sitters during family worship time.Little A learning to be a kitchen helper.
Y found a love for etch-a-sketch.

Sometimes connect four makes your eyes pop out!

Fireworks on Base

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Abbie

Moving along to July! I’m only three months behind now. There is an end in sight!

We were so worried that our traditional fireworks viewing at a local military fort was going to be canceled since we were heading out of town to visit family. It’s usually held on July 3rd, Mark’s birthday. We always say that everyone on base decided to celebrate Mark’s birthday with a bang. Anyway, this year, for whatever reason, it was held July 2nd. And ya’ll, for summer in the south…it was cold! We were not prepared for the crisp, er, summer, air but we made the most of it and Y got to see professional American fireworks for the very first time. Y and Bryant also got to check out some awesome army vehicles. Considering that his home country is currently at war, we were a bit worried about how he would react at seeing soldiers and army vehicles. In all appearances, he seemed to handle it very well and loved hearing the marching soldiers and seeing their equipment. He begged Mark for pictures. He was definitely impressed with the fireworks.
But towards the end, we had three really, really tired kids.

Summer Readings

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Abbie

Back to June. I’m determined that I will catch up soon. I have a work day coming up and there may be several days of photo dumps but by the end of the year this blog will be caught up. I hope.

Our summer programs at our local library are wonderful. The kids always enjoy trying to hit their goals as quickly as possible. They can usually do it pretty fast too. The library staff always works hard to bring in great local talent to encourage the kids to read. This year was no exception.

Right after Y got home, we attended a summer music program from Dan the Mountain Man. He told vivid stories.

And sang several fun silly songs. Then he had the kids create their own jug band. My kids all volunteered and some got to participate.

Since Zoe was the tallest kid there, she got “volunteered” to play the jug bass.

This is what Y thought of the all children jug band. Yeah, it was pretty noisy.Ceili Rain didn’t get to participate in the jug band but she did get to help with the finale.

Welcome Home!

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Abbie

We didn’t think it was going to happen until Y actually got on the plane to come to America. None of the 90 plus hosting families knew what God was up to. There was a worldwide visa shutdown in June. At first, they thought hackers had gotten in to the system but then later it was determined to be a computer glitch. Regardless of what happened, it caused visa systems everywhere to completely shutdown. No visas anywhere were being issued.

Y was scheduled to arrive on a Monday. The Thursday night before, through tears, we read that there was nothing that anyone could do. The systems were coming back up but they were slow and in Y’s country there were 39 plus people ahead of our kiddos. We had begged, pleaded and finally contacted our congressional members who also did the same. There was just nothing they could do.

We accepted this. Trusted God had another plan and found comfort in knowing we would see him very soon. But God.

Friday afternoon, I sat down to work quietly (something I get to do on occasion) at a coffee shop. I pulled up my email and burst in to tears. The embassy workers had agreed to come in on a holiday weekend to process our kids visas. All of them.

And so, I got a bit emotional and almost tackled our poor Y when he came walking through the airport with a hint of a smile and excitement in his eyes.

The car got covered in window chalk. And Zoe made sure to put “Welcome to Y” in his native language. Our flight attendants recognized several peoples shirts and came over to tell us how the kids did on the flight over. They sweetly smiled for pictures and told us the kids really enjoyed coke. Oh yay. Super excited sisters having fun with the camera while waiting. Still waiting. We totally forgot his welcome poster at home so I made Mark stop at a Walmart and the kids decorated one while waiting. Super excited Mama. Here they come! Yeah, I think he had a bit of trouble breathing and really wanted to see his brothers and sisters too but I had trouble letting go.