Kylie: Home for a Visit

Blog Post About April 2021

Kylie came home for a visit for her 10-day break at the end of April.

We kept the surprise of her arrival from Keira, and when Kylie walked in, Keira sweetly burst into tears.

Kylie was busy while she was here. She met with a local businessman about increasing his instagram traffic.

April 25, 2021

She had lunch with her graphic designer friend and went to see her new office space.

April 27, 2021

She surprised quite a few people with her arrival, and we loved having her home, even if it was for a short while. 

April 28, 2021
 

It's now December 2021, and we anxiously await her arrival for Christmas in 15 days!!

The Big 5-0

Blog About Fall 2020

Doug was about to turn 50, so Kylie and I thought it would be fun to surprise him for a weekend visit. She hadn't been gone long, but we already missed her and wanted to take advantage of seeing her when we could while we were in America.

I wasn't home the day she flew in, so a friend of mine picked her up and delivered her.

I let Caleb in on the secret so he could video the moment Doug opened the door, but we didn't tell Keira or Karis so we could surprise them, too.

Kylie arrived and was able to help Keira get ready for Halloween and take Keira trick or treating with Doug.

The next day we had planned a surprise party for Doug, which was disguised as a dinner at a friend's house. It was the day before his birthday, so he still didn't suspect anything.

The best gift I could think to give him was to let him know how many people he had impacted in his first 50 years. We shouldn't wait until someone is gone to verbalize what they mean to us, right?

So many of you graciously wrote him a letter to tell of how he had impacted you or what he had meant to you, and it became a beautiful book, full of almost 150 letters.

You guys were amazing!  Thanks!

Peanut Butter Pie is a must!

The hosts of the party have been friends of ours for close to 28 years. In fact, Doug performed their wedding ceremony 25 years ago!

More friends from our early days in college.

Eight of these people were in the student ministry Doug first worked in when he was 19 years old, and the man next to Doug was his first employer in the ministry world. These guys have all remained close to us over the many years that have passed since then.

Our three oldest serenaded Doug with "Happy Birthday," sung in two different languages from our overseas country.

And while all of this was happening, back across the sea, our host country was still doing school online.

I hate to say this, but it was a blessing for us, because Keira could attend school online and not miss anything while we were in America.

"Free" service / A surprise visitor

We came down from the mountain on the 4th, which was my birthday, so my family took me out to eat.  While we were eating, a friend of Doug's spotted us and came to the table.  He said a female friend of his was trying to build her clientele at her salon, so I should go and get my nails done for free.

Two days later, I was in the chair.

My nails are far from glamorous, so she had to "create" some nails so she would have something to work with.  I had never had this done before, and it was quite an interesting process.

What I learned along the way is that she wasn't just short on clientele, she was short on trained workers. 

I was put with a "trainee" who was learning the process of gel nails. 

She worked on me for over three hours!!

Something else that came along with this "free" service was the absence of my opinion.

They said, "What color?"  (I showed them)

They said, "What accent color?" (I told her I didn't want an accent color)

They said, "Oh yes you do! How about white?" (I repeated that I really didn't want an accent color)

They said, "What sticker would you like?" (I told her I didn't want a sticker)

They said, "Oh yes you do!  Look at these books." (I looked and then said I was really ok without a sticker).

They said, "OH! This one is pretty.  How about this one?" (I just smiled).

                                                                                                    

January 6, 2020

And that is how I got nails like I have never had before :)

Eleven days later there was a missile attack at our airport.  

We had a surprise guest for Karis flying in at the end of the month and now our airport was closed!

But somehow, God worked it out.

I told Karis I was spending one night in a hotel to have some study time, but I really flew to a nearby country and met up with her friend who flew in with her mom (who was on her way to another destination). We had a quick visit in the airport with her mom, and then Karis' friend and I slept in the airport waiting for our flight the next morning to go back and surprise Karis.

It worked!!

We have the sweetest video of Karis answering the door when she arrived :)

One of the first things on the agenda was taking her out for a national breakfast here.  

It was amazing!!

Anyone else want to come for a visit??

Our second grader (at the time) finally lost the tooth she blackened (at age 3) by hitting it on a table and killing the roots.

And guess what?

She misses her black tooth :)

January 23, 2020

Sweet Sixteen

Well, it's been 8 months since Kylie turned 16, and I'm JUST getting around to writing about it.  

Sixteen is a big one, and Kylie was excited to celebrate but she wanted it all to be a surprise, so we tried.

I attempted to reserve a fancy restaurant for her special night, but it happened to be a live-band night with a appetizer buffet, so I backed it up a night to the eve of her birthday, which helped with surprising her.  We all got dressed up, invited some friends, and we even had a guest in town from Texas that joined us.

This was the fancy bathroom at the restaurant, so we decided to take pictures in there, too.

The next morning, her breakfast included some special earrings from us and a dear friend in Texas and a red notebook full of letters from friends and relatives from all over the world.  She LOVED it all. Thank you to all of you who participated in writing her letters when I asked!

She's also had told me how she loved the special birthday posters she has seen on-line, but since I couldn't order one, I spent a few days making one. 







































After gifts and coffee, we took her to her favorite breakfast restaurant, and we all indulged.

This restaurant is owned by Syrians, and we think it's one of the best breakfasts around.

After that feast, we were all too full for lunch, but we had a Mexican dinner surprise at our friends' house.

 When we walked in, they threw confetti on her, and we enjoyed a night of homemade Mexican food.

Karis had decorated her breakfast cookie with an insignia idea that came from one of my girls' favorite book series.

Let me put a plug in here for the book series, Gateway Chronicles, by K.B. Hoyle.  I read them along with Kylie after Karis had told us how much she loved them.  They are 6 tremendous books!  And they really have an incredible story, seeing as how they mirror the greatest story of all time.  His Book.

Since I'm posting this 6 months after all of these pictures were taken, you can see how much Caleb has grown since August.  He is now about as tall as Karis.

Even when we were done pulling out all the stops for Kylie, her party seemed to continue.

One of her dear friends surprised her the next night by taking her out for sushi.

And when she came home, some other friends surprised her at our house with a slumber party!

So, happy belated birthday, Kylie.  I hope you felt loved and celebrated because we think you are amazing! You made us parents 16.5 years ago, and the adventure has continued ever since.

You are a talented, kind, hard-working, beautiful young lady who loves the Lord and desires to honor Him with her life.  What more could a parent ask for?

Dinner at Surprise's Mom's

Our language helper had our family and another over for dinner at his parent's one night.

It was quite an affair, like most dinners hosted in this country.

Biryani, dolma, greens, cabbage salad, eggplant salad, okra soup, smoky yogurt water

The husband of the other family is also a teacher with Doug, and he introduced us to Surprise.

Surprise's mother is sitting to my right.

She raised 10 children.

Here she is smiling at some pictures.

The men visiting with Surprise's father, a retired teacher.

Dinner with "Surprise"

Our language teacher's name means "surprise."  

He had us over for dinner a couple of weeks ago.

It was a lot of fun.  

And the food was delicious!!

We watched an English-speaking channel (ibaby) for his 1-year old to whom they are trying to teach English.  Caleb watched with him.

Clean up time.

We had tea and enjoyed conversation.  The fruit (as a way to end the night) never came.  I didn't know the appropriate thing to say, but around 10:30pm, I said we needed to go home.  Keira was T.I.R.E.D.

She fell asleep in the car on the way home, and we went home with full stomachs and fun memories.