Celebrating Christmas with Friends

Our helper and her precious family came over to celebrate Christmas with us. She has seven children and is a wonderful lady. She has been a true blessing to our family.

1st B-day

On Sept. 11 our sweet Jedidiah turned 1!
He loves trying to be like his brothers, so he really wanted to wear there batman mask. It just didn't fit quite right.
He was imagining how good his cake was gonna be before he took the dive.

Catching Up!

For those of you who look at our blog, I'm really sorry it's been way too long since we've updated. But I'll try to catch you up with some glimpses. We moved to a new city, taken some trips, celebrated the holidays and birthdays, and had friends visit. That's just scraping the surface, but you'll get to see some pics.
One of our trips was to Singapore. This is our brave Joshua at the Singapore Zoo.

Look What I Can Do!

It's pretty bad when your 7 mon. old has had enough breathing treatments he get do it by himself! Although I'd rather him not have to have them, it makes it easier on me that he actually likes doing it. Jedidiah's been sick a good bit with colds which for him causes respiratory issues, but glad to say he hasn't had to do a breathing treatment in quite a while. Praise the Father!

Worst Day?!

For those who want the rest of the story of this past sat. ...well here is the short version:
6am...wake up late and leave buy 6:30 with breakfast in hand
6;30 -meet bus to follow to city 2hrs away
7- leave
8-car breaks down and we barely make it to an exit
9-told by "mecanic" that car was almost dead but he could revive it for a months wage!
9:30- talked "mecanic" down to two weeks wage to fix car, whew...close one.
10- told will be ready in an hour
10:10- told will be ready at 3pm
(meanwhile) kids and candace are hanging out at roadside food stall hanging out with the women.
11- try some roadside food (not roadkill!) quite tasty
11:30-make plans to go to mall 45min away, but no taxi will come to where we are?
12-Rent a car and driver (only $8)
1-Arrive at mall (driver tells us he needs gas money and after i give loan it too him i cant get in touch with him again)
1-3.. boys play and candace eats
3-get another taxi and the guy rips us off, (but indo lady we met fights for life to try and stop him!)
4- Get to share with lady at food stall and mecanic!
4:30-Car is ready for 1 hour trip home
5, 5:15, 5:45, 6:20, 7:30.....car over heats and we have to stop to let it cool and add water. (walking around in the coutry side looking for water to put in your car at night is some experience)
9-fina lly get to within 1/2 mile from home and car dies (push car home with help of several neighbors)
9:30-Push in the driveway!

Life happens no matter where you live! We believe that our father had plans for two people who may have not heard otherwise to hear from us today. We are just glad everyday has easier opportunities to do so!

Bumber Motorcycle

Most people here drive motorcycles so they're very good at being effecient with what they have. We found this one pretty funny. Although we've also seen rams and sheep in between two men on a motorcycle! You just gotta get a good laugh once in while.

Finished with his first BATH....after 4 months!!

March Madness!!

Well coaching in a foreign country was not as foreign as you may think, considering half my team are westeners and all speak english. The season was alot of fun and 2 of our loses to high school teams where to the best team in the country (they made 20 3ptrs to our 0!) and the biggest international school in the country. Our other two loses were close games to 2 of the top college teams in the country. Thats right we played several college teams and beat some of them. Needless to say the college competition is not as strong here. The college games were always competitive and physical.
So...how did the national international tournament go last week? Well the boys went 5-0 winning convincingly in the championship game! The boys played extremely well on defense, setting tournament records in points allowed. We played better in each game and peaked at the right time. We had an eight grader, 2 ninth graders, and only 2 seniors on a team that played very mature. I am extremely proud of our team and not just for the win.
These group of young men are the most respectfuli have ever coached. They adjusted to a new coach and played with all there heart. We saw the Lrd move in a mighty way as we learned about how to live and play before an audience of 1!!

Happy 2nd B-day

It's a little late but on Dec. 29th our precious Caleb Wade turned 2! Our babies are growing up so fast!! We're already sad and their still toddlers, haha! We are so blessed to have such great and "energetic" boys. Besides Joshua, Caleb is the cutest two year old ever. His facial expressions are unmatched. All too soon will he be out of his cute two year old stage. We're soaking it up along with soaking up Joshua's growing out of toddler stage and Jedidiah's eatable baby stage! Lord help us, we can hardly keep up!

Little Gamecocks

Ofcourse for Christmas we asked for Gamecock gear! People over hear gotta know who we pull for, eventhough most of them have never even seen American Football! It makes us feel better anyway and it also reminds our boys who we pull for as if they don't hear from their daddy. Aren't they so cute!!

Safari with Papa

We had such a great time when Papa, Josh's dad, came to visit! One of the places we went was Taman Safari, one of Joshua and Caleb's favorite places. Ofcourse having Papa there to experience it with made all the more fun for them. We stayed 3 nights and did all there was to do. We wanted Papa to get his fill of the best attractions here! We'll be writing more about our adventures with Papa.

Just 23!

I turned 23 on Christmas Eve, I know I'm getting old, haha! And my precious husband took me out to dinner while Papa watched Joshua and Caleb. If I've said it before I'll say it again, We couldn't have gotten a better babysitter. The boys didn't even know we were gone, but being the old married couple we are instead going to the theatre to watch a movie we decided to come on home and watch one on our own TV! I have to pinch myself sometimes when I realize I have three boys, make that 4, and living in the situation I am living all by the age of 23. The Father has blessed me!

Family Christmas Photo

With Tony, Josh's dad, here visiting we were able to get a family picture in front of our Christmas Tree but ofcourse you can't see our Christmas Tree now that our family is growing, so there's another picture of our Christmas Tree. We did all we could to make our home feel like Christmas and ofcourse our tree was a great way to share about the Son. Sad to say but this was our first Christmas actually having to buy Christmas presents for our kids because usually they already get way too many from family. We really enjoyed buying them gifts though. This was definitely the beginning of different Christmas's for us but still celebrated for the same Reason!

Christmas Tree and Joshua

It cost a little more here,($13 for one strand of lights!), but we have a fake Christmas tree and have got to share the story through it to several cousins! From the star (virgin birth), tree (cross), lights (light of world), and gifts (greatest gift of all). I thought about it and cant remember sharing these things in the states but want to encourage you to do so.
Joshua also has taken advantage of the many visitors to our house lately by sharing the full story with his teacher last week as he walked her through his picture "book".

Merry but not too "Gay"

Not that i am feeling insecure, but the other day i was in line paying my water bill talking to a guy. The conversation seemed to be normal and we parted ways. Well after i payed my bill i saw him waiting on me outside. He appologized before he asked,(usually not a good sign), if i was gay! It caught me a little off guard and i told him i was married with children. But it did get me thinking if my accent is that bad or if the shirt i was wearing said more than i wanted!

Mother and Son Christmas Baking

This is mine and Joshua's Christmas Baking Master Piece. Joshua loves helping me cook. It was so much fun to make this Christmas Tradition together. And believe it or not we made some pretty good cookies to be in a foreign country!

Where's the White Kid?

Can you find Joshua? These are a couple of Joshua's school trips. I don't know what kinda parents he has (ha ha). Do you see any other kids with their hands in their pants. Don't think so! With that said, our kids are in a different world than the national kids here. They were born to be wild. We never see kids running around in resteraunts but our boys never sit down. Get the picture? Their daddy loves it!

Not too long ago we took a day to go to the park. This was our first time to go to this park. We had seen it driving by and it was quite a large park in the middle of such a big city. But it was just as we should've expected, nothing is ever as you expect here. There were big blow-ups there so we let them play and they were having a good ole time when the power cut off and the blow ups went flat. After about three times of having to pull them out quickly because they blow ups were going flat, we decided to move on to something else. We let them ride little battery cars, it was a mistake to put them on one together, they weren't on 2 minutes when Joshua slung Caleb off when going around a curve. We couldn't help but laugh but Caleb was not happy to say the least. Poor Jedidiah just sat in his seat and looked at his mesquito net the whole time but he was a trooper. The boys had a great time though, but they were exausted. I caught them both knocked out in their hats. What precious boys!

Basketball Update

For those of you interested in b-ball over here i will give you a quick run down. First of all the team i have been playing for and coaching played our toughest game of the year last friday and fell behind by 15 early. I was a little late b/c i was still at my other practice. we came back and played the best we have together and ended up winning by 10 or so. Although with about 5 min left i had to leave the game with a sprained ankle. So i have been a little hobbled this week.
The high school varsity team i am coaching has finished our first week and may it through tryouts successfully. i hate having to make cuts but really saw the Lrd at work through the process. i am real excited about the guys on the team as we have a mixture of ages and nationalities. (few seniors, few juniors, and few sophs) (4 americans, 4 koreans, and 4 Indos) We are young but pretty athletic and big for over here. I hear that we should compete for the city championship! (which is a pretty big deal considering this is a city of 5 mil. people) I guess we will see b/c right now we are still a long way off. Ill keep you posted.

Something about that Name

Well the rainy season is upon us....and i mean upon us always, everyday, in every way. Kinda like the great philosopher Forest Gump described it as side ways rain, staight down rain, big rain, small rain, stinging rain, misty rain, and even rain that seems to rise from the ground! We are getting used to it though and the positive side is that the rain knocks the pollution out of the air so my contacts dont burn my eyes any more. The flip side is with a country with no dryers it is a little tough to dry clothes or sleep in a damp bed. But it could be worse (like if we were clemson fans!)
So to the point of my story....The other day i was coming out of an office in the middle of a normal mansoon when i saw a homeless lately under the awning staying dry. I smiled and spoke a greeting and then saw her face. It looked as though she had been beat badly and there was no return smile. My heart ached as i got in my car and prayed for her. The Lrd moved me to get back out there and give her the equivilant of $100 for her. I told her that JC told me to give her a gift. She was a little taken by that and kinda shook her head. I then offered the money in a closed fist (not wanting her to see the amount) and she refused. I insisted it was not from me but from JC. She again resisted and so i placed the money in her bag and went to my car. She followed me to the car in the mansoon and through the $ in my car and returned.
I have never had anyone refuse money here before for any reason. Esp a homeless person whom me meet everyday. All i can think is that the name with which it was given was not worth the gift for her. I pry earnestly that she would recieve the greatest gift of all!