A Blast From the Past

Blog Post About May 2021

To help take Keira's mind off of Kylie leaving, she went swimming at some friends' house.

May 8, 2021

While Keira was swimming, Doug was discussing things with the neighborhood guys.

And soon enough, Kylie was back in Nashville, back to school, and back to babysitting.

May 11, 2021

This sweet, curly haired lady is the mom to the four children above. We met her in 2009 before we went to Africa. You can see how young Kylie is in this picture (7) when this lady babysat my three one night.

Now, we've come full circle. 

This lady lives in Nashville, and Kylie babysits her crew weekly.

I love how God connects us.

Caleb's team won a soccer tournament in May.

You can see that Caleb is one of the tallest guys out there.

May 15, 2021

And the cat (Aoife) continues to be a source of entertainment for the kids.

May 16, 2021

December Arrived

Blog About Fall 2020

On December 1st, there was a light frost on the ground and we were so excited! We were hoping for snow, and we are "snow" thankful we got to see some actual snow before we flew back overseas, but my condolences to those of you who endured the Snowpocalypse that hit Texas in January, a few days after we left.

Caleb continued to play soccer until we left in January and loved it! He was coached well and learned a lot. Now that we're back, he misses these big fields and disciplined coaching.

December 3, 2020

My daughter had been seeing these giant squish-mellows online while we were overseas, and it was so easy to say, "I'm so sorry, honey. I wish they had those here." 

But back in America, she decided this was one of the gifts she would like to have for Christmas. I left it at the store and went to ponder with Doug how we would get it back in our luggage (because we needed all our weight for school books and new clothes we had purchased).

Doug was optimistic and said, "We can get it back. No problem." 

And he was right. This cow with a unicorn horn (I'm joking, of course) shipped easily in a box and arrived shortly after we did. Keira lies on it when watching movies, sits on it while playing, and sleeps with it every night taking up half her bed.

Yeah for giant squish-mellows...

December 4, 2020

We took advantage of beautiful weather and having an outside eating area as much as we could. This is a real treat we don't often get to do at our home overseas, mainly because we live in a city in a house with no grass and a tiny, tiled sitting area.

Caleb and Doug also took advantage of a place to throw the football.
 

This same night, Karis and Keira had their holiday ballet performance. It was first planned to be inside with just a few people, but more relatives and friends wanted to see it.

The first two performances were put on zoom for others to see, and the studio let in a few people to each one. We watched online first, so I just drove the girls and dropped them off.

Karis' friend came to the first performance,

and then Doug and I drove up for the second performance.

Soccer ⚽* Driving * Thankful * Mail 📬and Rain 💦

Blog Post About Summer 2020 

We got back to Texas and enrolled the girls in ballet at the same studio they had attended four years earlier, and through a friend, we found a soccer club for Caleb to join.

He quickly had his very first game, and it was on a regulation-size field. 

There are very few regulation-size fields in our overseas country, so he had never played on one. Not only that, the heat this particular day was nearing 100 degrees. I was burning up just watching him, but when I went on the field after the game was over, the heat emanating up from the ground was mind-blowing! I have no idea how those guys don't pass out every time they are out there because the temperatures on the field seemed at least 10 degrees hotter!

August 16, 2020

A big day for Karis was August 17, 2020, when she got her provisional license (hard copy) in the mail.

I am so glad she had time to practice in America before coming back overseas because it's just hard to learn how to drive when so few people around you obey the rules.

August 17, 2020

August 18, 2020

*She's thankful for her brother and her mom

*She's thankful for Target and her mom

*She's thankful for Macaroni & cheese

*She's thankful for kangaroos

*She's thankful she gets to play "Littlest Pet Shop"

Keira rarely gets to bring things like this home, so I found great joy in seeing what did in Sunday school one day.

As we traveled around to visit friends, we often visited different fellowships, and if Covid rules of the church allowed, Keira got to visit a different Sunday school class each time. A couple of times we would get to a church and they would tell us you had to sign up the Wednesday before each Sunday to attend.  Since I rarely knew about this rule, I must say, there were a few really gracious places that let her go to class anyway!

On a side note of her being thankful for her brother (whom she adores), I love pictures like the one below from 2015 that show how early on she started modeling him :)

August 8, 2015

Keira had also never received a letter in the mail.

When my father learned this, he made the effort to send her a letter every week or so telling her about things going on at his house. 

She liked roller skating out to the mailbox to check to see what had come each day.

August 20, 2020

Keira has always loved to play in the rain. The pictures below are from when she was 2 1/2  years old.

May 2015

A warm Texas rain with no lightning present was a welcome invitation to play outside...every single time.

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August 26, 2020

 

Mountains and Other Notable Things in October

Shortly after her birthday, Keira wanted to get a haircut.


October 28, 2019

Check✔

Where's Waldo Caleb?

October 26, 2019

One afternoon, everyone except Caleb decided to get out of town and take homeschool, reading, dolls, etc to the mountains. 

The older girls downloaded all the things they needed for homeschool.  Doug and I took books and music, and Keira didn't want to be left out, so she drew a computer on a piece of cardboard and pretended to type along with the girls.



She also enjoyed walking around, discovering nature and talking to herself.

She also made time to take care of her baby, which she has named "Kathryn." 💗

As the sun was setting, the girls took this beautiful picture.

It wasn't long before they were photobombed.

And the "third party" kept getting closer to the camera.

She's was really thinking about something.

Then they lost control.

October 30, 2019

It was the best day of homeschool! 

We had blankets, sweaters, a big thermos of hot coffee, and an amazing sunset. 😁

I wish we had more time to have days like this.

A Fresh Start to Fall

The start of school meant the start of dance and soccer.  The kids are always glad to get back to their extra curricular activities.

The dance ladies went out for sushi to celebrate being back together.  

I'm definitely NOT a dance lady, but they were kind enough to include me.

The first soccer game (not practice) was at this field across town, next to this mall.

 Why waste electricity running lights for the field when the lights from the mall do just fine.

Not.

After about 30 minutes, someone actually did turn some lights on which was nice for my more "mature" eyes.

Also, I decided to clean off some of our upstairs balconies so as the weather got more delightful in the fall, the kids could do school outside.

I worked hard hauling water in buckets from the bathtub to the balcony and then squeegieing it down a hole...not knowing where that hole went...I assumed the street.

Wrong!

All the bird poop and 9 months worth of dirt came rushing down this little spout...

onto part of our front entryway, so I had to clean it all again.

This one was about to start losing some front teeth, so I wanted to grab one last picture before they all started falling out :)