Hello and Happy Thanksgiving! What a blessed holiday we had. We went out to spend the holiday with our friends near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Matt, Kimberly, Jonah, Gracia and Benjamin, THANK YOU so much for opening your home to us and for the wonderful day!!!

We met Matt and Kimberly in Uganda when we went to bring Timmy home. In the brief time (ten days) I was with them we had formed a great bond. Little did we know how through the tribulation of both of our adoptions that we would become much closer. Like in most things in life, adversity reveals character. I am here to attest that this family is of the highest character and without both of them we probably wouldn't have been able to bring the kids home. Kelly and Matt lived in a guest house together, after Kimberly and I went back home, for over a month while fighting and clawing for the small victories as far the adoption of our son and their daughter. Imagine two big bald white guys walking the streets of Kampala each day with a Ugandan baby. The locals must have had a hard time not staring. MUZUNGU (Lugandan term for White), was often shouted at them as they were out and about. I don't think Matt misses hearing that term and would probably prefer never to hear it again. There are actually T-shirts with printing reading "My Name Is Not MUZUNGU" that one can purchase.

Here is the picture of their beautiful daughter, Gracia and our sweet mini man, Timmy. These two are two of the cutest Ugandan Americans ever!

Matt and Kimberly have a farm in Lancaster County, PA. Matt offered to take us on a hayride and the kids had a great time. We fed their goats, donkey and we attempted to feed their Holstein calf to no avail, he prefers his bottle. But Luke was able to pitch a corn ear in his pen and I think it was the highlight of his trip.

We stayed a t place called The Red Caboose Motel in Ronks, PA. It was a blast! They have forty train caboose' all outfitted like camping trailers, we spent two nights in the red caboose with Southern painted on the side. Right next door is the National Miniature Train Museum. We visited that the day after Thanksgiving. It was great the kids were allowed to push many buttons to animate different parts of the miniature trains displayed.

We also ate breakfast in The Little Red Caboose Motel's dining car. We watched buggy after buggy "klip klop" by on the road while eating. The dining car even shakes to give the illusion of riding the rails. What a fun time and great holiday! Thank you to Matt and Kimberly and their sweet kids for sharing the holiday with us! We love you and we are so glad to have met you in Africa. What a blessing to see you in your element in Pennsylvania. Please come and visit us anytime, we will keep the guest room open for you. Matt, I promise we won't even call you, MUZUNGU : )

We are once again preparing to leave D.C. and we HOPE to be flying out the middle of next week. It is a Muslim holiday, so the Kuwaiti Embassy is closed. Please pray for everything to come through and for us to get the visas early next week. As I look at these photos I am so thankful to God for the gift of friendship. What are you thankful for?

It looks like we will get to see Virgina in December after all. We have had a problem with our visas. Sadly, we have to wait till the seventh of December for approval. In the meantime we hang in Arlington for awhile longer. BUMMER! We are so excited to get to our new home. The kids are ready to start school outside of the home and make new friends at the embassy compound pool. I guess with life in the Foreign Service it is important to be flexible. So, we will flex and pray that we will be on a plane in the first week of December.



We have all our luggage packed and ready to go, should I unpack? I can't do it, most of what is in the bags is clothes we are not using currently. I think my new decorating theme will include large luggage piles in each room. If only my luggage was more decorative, I guess I could always add some nicely positioned throw pillows. There is always room for a pillow.


This weekend we are off to our friends home in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. We are excited to get to see them as we met them in Uganda as we were in the process of adopting Tim and they their sweet baby, Gracia. Kelly and Matt spent many weeks together helping each other get through the frustrations of third world adoption. Kimberly (who was pregnant on the trip to Africa) and I were able to chat about all the frustrations we were having with our hubbies a world away and the fact that we didn't know if we would see our newest children ever again. We are so glad after our disappointment of being grounded to have this time away from D.C. It will be such a blessing to see them again and chat about old times in Uganda.


Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Me, I am so thankful for a God who has forgiven me, a warm apartment, healthy family and the best husband a girl could ever ask for~

The picture is of our house in Kuwait all decked out for Christmas : )

Happy almost Birthday to our sweet daughter, Hope. She will turn two officially while we are in London. Because of being forced to travel on her birthday we decided to celebrate her day sooner. Last Friday we had a party with my mom and all the bunch. I cannot believe THIS baby is turning two!

Hope, you are truly our joy! We have been surprised by Hope since we found out she was baking in my tummy. We named you Hope because our hope is in Jesus and him alone. It is interesting to be inside the beltway and see everyone with their "Hope" bumper stickers. Without getting too partisan or political, that Hope is not at all what you are named after. I pray someday your hope will be firmly placed in our Lord and his redemption for his people.

Hope you are so cute, fun loving, funny, and full of spunk. You are a 5 year old trapped in a 2 year old body. You think you are one of the "big three" and heaven help the person who tells you that you are the youngest. You love your older siblings, each has a special game they commonly play with you. You are truly a Mommy's girl. You just adore me, and don't ever like to be farther away than a couple feet. You are very good at climbing anything, swinging on the big swings at the playground and eating black beans, which are your absolute favorite. Your father and I adore each of our children, but I think we have been the best parents to you. We are experienced parents and are much more relaxed with you. We know what will fatally wound or maim you, and everything else is fair game. You are much more free to explore and play. I have loved parenting you and I wish I could have relaxed more with Grace and Faith when they were your age.

You are an interesting mixture of a happy go lucky girl with a spit fire of a will. You are uniquely your self, but I see flashes of Grace, Faith and Luke come out commonly. This picture was taken of you on our recent Capitol tour. You had been a trooper, but in this photo you have come to your end. If you were my first child I would have been horrified, but no sweet girl you are the fifth. I thought it was cute photo so I began snapping away. I am sure the gentlemen watching both you and me thought I had gone crazy. Oh well, maybe I have, I'm crazy for you!!!!!

We can't wait to see you grow and change over this next year in Kuwait. We thank God for making you and allowing us to parent you!!! You are so special to us~ Love Mommy and Daddy~

This past week was a busy one for our family. As we prepare to go to our new home in Kuwait, we are working on accomplishing all the things that seem to creep up in the last few weeks before a move. Wait a minute, didn't we just move ten weeks ago?

Last Sunday we had a special guest arrive to be with us for the week. Grandma Nettie came to snuggle the bunch. We are so thankful to her for all her help. She washed millions of loads of laundry, YAY!!!! She played kitties with the big girls, dogs with Luke and read to the twins. Needless to say, we will miss her.

I don't like goodbyes, so I pretend we will see each other soon. My prayer is I will be able to convince her to come to Kuwait and stay with us. I am truly so glad we have Skype. What a blessing to at least be able to see family and friends, even if it is blurry or the camera freezes up. What a blessing to at least have a glimpse of those we love from so far away.

Here are some photos from our time with my Mom. We had great weather and fun times! The signers of the Declaration of Independence have a park dedicated to them. We spent the afternoon there with my mom. It was a gorgeous day. Kelly claims to be related to on of the signers, John Hart. I of course am going to ask my in laws if this is true.

We love you Grandma Nettie, see you soon~

As I type this I realize we have less than one week in D.C. First we are off to London for a few days. Wow, the time has both flown by in many respects. We visited everything we could with five young children. They have loved this time. I am amazed at how much they have learned about our nation's history, the Revolutionary War, President Washington, and all our monuments and memorial. I hope Grace, Faith and Luke all have memories of this time. I know Luke's will be limited he is only 4 1/2.

The other side of leaving the "Beltway" is great relief!! How do people live in the BIG city with children? I am excited for a larger home in Kuwait and a small patio on the ground level. I am ready for our youngest, Hope, to be sleeping again in her own room. I am excited to see my Mommy Chair once again. I am ready to make new friends and see a part of God's world I NEVER thought I would travel to. God has built our excitement, now we have work to do this week as we "pack out" yet again.

The picture of Kelly, Hope and I was taken by Luke he loves to take photos on an angle. I love his creativity, so I had to share it with you. Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving~

Hello to all! This is a photo collage of our recent activities. We had a great time last weekend at the National Arboretum. Our favorite exhibit was the Bonsai trees. One of which they have been "training" for almost four hundred years. It was a gift to someone in our government from a high ranking Japanese official, amazing! I barely can keep a house plant alive. Imagine the pressure of keeping a tree that began it's life as a Bonsai in Japan over four hundred years ago alive. I couldn't do it, very impressive!

On Veteran's Day we had our tickets to tour the Washington Monument. It was chilly and raining, but we did it! I have been to Washington D.C. many times in my life. I have never in all those visits actually went up in the Washington Monument. Kelly hadn't been up the giant obelisk either. We all had a great time and enjoyed seeing this historical city from the sky.

After our tour came to an end, we went over to The American History museum. I have wanted to see Julia Child's kitchen while here. I loved seeing that. Her coffee maker even had masking tape on it with the number of scoops per cups of coffee. I am sure this is for her husband, Paul to use : ) The kitchen was wonderfully organized. I think she may have inspired me. We finished out time with lunch in the cafeteria, a tour of the first ladies dresses, finding Dorothy's ruby red slippers from the Wizard of Oz and checking out a bunch of political buttons (my favorite is the last photo).

My mom is flying in to visit on Sunday and we have tons to get done before we leave for our new home. We are excited, tired and so ready to be out of a three bedroom apartment. This week we actually get to see what condition our HHE (Household Effects) are in and sort them for shipping. I hope you have a great weekend! See you next week~

Today we found my new favorite place. The closest nature center. I have missed "Green Space", which is apparently what it is referred to here in the big city. Back in Michigan "Green Space" was our yard.

I rarely lose track of time. I am a descendant of many Germans. I am always on time. Today, though I think I slipped from our space-time continuum into heaven. I was able to photograph my beautiful children, spy some birds, listen to the water rushing over the rocks and enjoy the amazing fall foliage. It was perfect for a time. The kids were all happy running, laughing, and watching leaves float down the stream. Had I stepped off into another world? Where was the traffic, the loud sirens of the millions of firetrucks constantly going here or there? The towering buildings were replaced by the towering trees. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end. Is that Hope crying because Timmy had the audacity to breathe? Snap, just like that and I am back to life, back to reality!

I cannot believe it is already November. Where did October go? On November 12th we will have lived in Virginia for two months. The time has flown by in some respects, but at the same time certain days have dragged on like the movie "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray.

Let me preface this next statement with a disclaimer. I am truly an optimist, at best, a realist at worst.

This time in northern Virginia has been the hardest parenting of my life. Harder then when my husband was in Uganda for seven weeks to bring home our son, Timmy. During that time I was at home in Michigan praying for all to go well and his return to be quick. I was responsible for all four of our children during his absence, but let's just be real the oldest three were in school quite a bit.

That was a cakewalk compared to the BIG city with five kids under eight years old, living in a small apartment, and burning through large sums of money on food like it was growing on the ugly fake ficus tree in our temporary apartment. I miss my support systems I had set up over the four years living in Michigan. We had a wonderful church family, a small very family friendly Christian school that the "Big Three" attended, great friends, mentors and surrogate grandparents, Kelly's amazing co-workers at his office, My side of the family close by, our favorite restaurants, playgrounds, beaches and our home. I have been stripped bare my friends, truly bare. O.K., so that would be somewhat dramatic.

I still have those things that are important to me, my God, my husband, my beautiful children, safety, a nice temporary apartment, and coffee (I miss my birds terribly). This time has taught me many things. The first lesson is a spiritual one. God wants me to give all of this concern and control to him, to lean on him alone, daily, hourly and moment to moment. It is easy when you are comfortable to remain comfortable. It is easy to think, I don't need to ask God, I have "so and so" I can share this with. I highly recommend breaking out of your comfort zone, I have found in my own life God is always there with me as I show up lost, wandering and wondering what to do next.

Each day as I have been pondering my total dependence on God, I have also watched my homeless friends that live on the park benches across the street. There are days I have been down, it is raining and I am trapped in a three bedroom apartment with five rambunctious children, and no car to escape.

It is usually then that I notice one of my friends all covered up on the benches near the library, most likely freezing in the cold rain. God can reveal to you what your perspective should be in his still quiet voice. He is homeless and alone, I am RICH (by most of the world's standards and have everything I need and much more) and have my best friends living with me. He is cold, I am hot. Even little bodies produce large amounts of body heat especially in a small apartment 18 stories up, heat truly does rise. He has all his earthly possessions in that cart, I have them stored in a warehouse in Virginia getting ready to be shipped overseas. It is about this point as I talk to God in my mind and he encourages me to rethink my pity party. He is always patient with this wretch, after all he has time in the palm of his hand. He graciously teaches each lesson.

Is life ideal here for me, no. Has it taught me big lessons, yes! I pray I will always appreciate the people who educate my children. Do you know how hard it is to home school? I am struck as I type this maybe my teacher gifts we gave for Christmas last year weren't enough for all the work they had done with my kids. Do you take your outdoor "green space" for granted? We have a three foot wide balcony. I am being prepared for the desert.

God has an amazing sense of humor, only he could add to the huge excitement we already have to get to Kuwait. He has worked in his awesome way. After this time in Virginia I am so ready to get to the desert I can hardly stand it. I can't help but think of the Israelites and their time in the desert. I am learning to be content even in circumstances that are less than "perfect" The lesson is sinking in, I am thankful as I type this I am warm, dry, with my family and getting to go on the adventure of my life.

Being stripped bare is so humbling in many ways. I see now that for me this life in the Foreign Service is all about making fast friends, putting support networks in place quickly and for me as a Christian total reliance on God.