Furlough... part 1

Where to begin?... At the beginning I guess... There's so much to try to remember and to write about our time in the U.S. that it's a bit overwhelming. :) I guess I'll start at the very beginning and go from there. We went to the U.S. for Christmas and the New Year holidays and we had a wonderful time seeing our family and a lot of dear friends. I have so many pictures to share that I'll let those do most of the talking and I'll add some things I never want to forget along the way..




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Aunt Hopey, Logan, and Ashlyn teaching Jakub how to jump on a trampoline. He loved it!!





He might have been timid at first, but it didn't take long for him to start jumping and flying all over the place.




Then we made Christmas cookies with the cousins, Aunt Hopey, Nana, and Aunt Cindy. What a fun afternoon!





Of course, while Logan decorated the cookies Jakub decided to eat them instead. Go figure. :) Thanks, Logan, for being patient and helping Jakub decorate some of them!




Ashlyn's beautiful Christmas tree!



I'll finish with some "Cousin Time!" photos from my side of the family in the week leading up to Christmas:

Jakub and his four cousins on my side- Ashlyn, Lillian, Logan, and Harper. They are all such beautiful, sweet girls and I loved getting to spend so much time with them while we were home. Jakub did, too! He still says their names all the time and asks about them.





How adorable are they?! They were snuggled up watching the movie Tangled. That was just one of many "girly" things Jakub experienced while home. He also learned to put bows in his hair, put on make-up, wear bracelets, and get his toenails painted... what can you do when all your cousins are girls? :) At least he was taught to call his brown and blue toenails "football toes..."








Playing ball outside with Harper and Logan...



Isn't she lovely? I didn't even tell her to pose like that... :)




Ashlyn reading to Jakub. That look on his face sums up perfectly how he felt about all his cousins and getting to play with them every day. What a joy it was for me to see them all together and to see how much they love Jakub, and how he loves them in return. What a blessing! Thank you, God, for our family!

Ok, jet-lag setting in now... Zzzzzzzz.....

Feels like Christmas!

Well, I wasn't sure if I would manage to write one more blog post before we leave for the U.S., but I think I will. :)

I have a few, early, Christmas pictures to share from our Christmas time in Olomouc. We started celebrating early here so that we could have some special moments in our home with Jakub before we leave. We also hosted last week our Moms and Kids Christmas party and final program before leaving. We had a wonderful time together and had one of our best-attended programs yet. What a special time it was of singing together, reading about the birth of Jesus, celebrating the best gift of all, and making traditional Czech Christmas cookies together.
Here are a few pictures from that time, as well as some other "Christmas" pictures we've taken recently.






This is Jakub's new doggie, which we gave him as an early Christmas gift, and even-more-so as a "thank you" for working through some difficult sleep issues with us and getting back into a routine of sleeping on his own. :) After a one-week trip to Germany a couple of weeks ago Jakub decided he liked sleeping in the same room as us (even though he was in his own travel-bed) and upon our return home had many anxious moments (and a lot of crying) about us being out of sight at bedtime. We had one really tough, emotional, and sleepless, week and now he is sleeping much better, and through the night, on his own again.










Other special "Christmas" moments we've had together recently:

- Ice-skating with friends outside on the square (Jakub immediately learned the word "skate" and kept begging to do it himself. I can't wait until next year when he can!)
- Shopping at the outdoor Christmas markets and seeing all of the beautiful, handmade, items.
- Watching Jakub ride on his first carousel. He rode in a "blue auto," which he couldn't stop talking about. :)
- Putting up our Christmas tree together and listening to Christmas music
- Hearing Jakub call Christmas trees "ho-ho-ho tree."
- Watching the fireworks in the square on Svaty Mikulas and seeing Jakub watch in awe.


We're looking forward also to making many special Christmas memories with our friends and families in the U.S. We look forward to seeing some of you soon and we would also appreciate your prayers for safe travels and good health. :)

Happy Birthday, Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you, Grandma and Papa, for this castle set! Jakub has loved playing with it so much! Above I caught him saying "thank you" to you in the picture. :)

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy! We already celebrated a couple of weeks ago with friends, which I wrote about in another post, but we also celebrated recently just as a family. We took Jakub on a long walk outside, fed the ducks at the river, the weather was beautiful, and then we ate out just as a family for one of the first times with him. Then, we were in Germany for an annual retreat the day Jakub turned 2 and to honor and celebrate him our church family there, about 80 or so in attendance, sang him Happy Birthday. Of course it made me cry to have so many people I know and love be a part of Jakub's special day and to want to do that for him. He just watched them all in awe and couldn't believe they were singing to him when he heard his name. After that every day of the retreat when he woke up he asked if it was "birthday today." :) It was also a Sunday on his birthday so we had a special day of worship and praising God with our "family" around us. The singing and scripture reading at this retreat always moves me to tears. It's a special moment to worship and sing in English with so many believers gathered together. We miss this type of community a lot and it continues to make us long for that even more in Olomouc. We hope there will be a strong church body here one day.











Here are a couple of pictures from the place we stayed in Germany. It's so beautiful and every year I'm still amazed by it. When you see it decorated for Christmas it's like a place you would imagine Santa to live. :) The weather this year was cold, but beautiful and sunny, and we enjoyed some nice walks through this village.












Jakub and I really like to do art and craft projects together! Josh's Mom sent us this really cute turkey to make together for Thanksgiving. Jakub loved making it and still walks up to the fridge to see it and to say turkey.











On our way home from Germany we stopped in Ceske Budejovice to visit Jamie, Ashley, and Luke Sides. They are missionaries living and working there and have been friends of ours for several years now. They offered for us to visit them, their city, and to stay for a couple of days over Thanksgiving so we could celebrate together. It was nice to cook our traditional foods with Jamie and Christie, and for Jakub to have Luke to play and celebrate with.















We put our Christmas tree up with Jakub the Saturday we returned from our week-long trip because it's the only day we would have for just our family before we return to the US in 2 weeks. Jakub was a good helper and loved saying "ho, ho, ho!" to us. :) Christie helped Jakub, Evan, and Thompson make those sweet angels in Bible class a few weeks ago with their hands and feet, so I decided to make Jakub's an ornament for the tree. He's our sweet angel. :) Sappy, I know... I can't help it. After the tree we cooked all day because Sunday we hosted our annual Thanksgiving worship with our closest friends and it was a wonderful event! We had about 40 of us gather together this year and many of them were brave enough to help us make the food by following our American recipes. The food and the fellowship was great. Praise God for that and for them!























Happy Thanksgiving to you all (really late I know!) and I hope you had a great holiday time with your family and/or friends. My next post will likely be from the states. Please pray for our safe travel there and back, and for sanity while traveling with a lovely and lively toddler. :) We look forward to seeing many of you soon!

Fall! Yeah!

On the playground



Where we feed our ducks behind our home


Taking a walk





Watching the ducks








Love him!

Celebrations!

I will be honest and say last week was one of the most difficult for me in a while. Still, God gave me over the past few days many, many beautiful moments with our friends and family here. And I like to try and focus on the positive. So, here are some of these moments in pictures:






Look at that big hand and tight grip on his mug! Bigger still is the smile that follows a first-time hot chocolate. He helped me make it on the stove and obviously really enjoyed drinking it. :) We also dipped our graham crackers into it. Yum!





The next several pictures are from Jakub's birthday on Saturday. No, he's not really 2 just yet- not until the 20th. My friend Stana and I wanted to share our boys' birthday celebrations this year so, we invited a few of our closest friends to my house and we had a party. Mikulas actually turned 2 on Saturday. We can't believe 2 years have gone by so quickly. I still distinctly remember the dinner I took Stana to the day before she would check in to the hospital to have Mikulas- and 2 weeks before Jakub would be born. We were both so big by then and people were watching us as we laughed a lot and talked about what our lives might be like with our boys. I'm thankful we've continued to grow closer over the years. It was a lovely birthday celebration together!



The Birthday Boys! Don't they look like they know how to get in trouble? :)




Jakub's birthday gift from me and Josh. He set it up with Jakub and Mikulas just before everyone arrived for the party. It was perfect for all 4 of the young boys to play and eat at. I look forward to many afternoons spent here with Jakub this winter as we do arts and crafts. :) Right now he really loves to paint so we often do that.







The birthday cake. We had a lady Stana knows make this for us. The collar had a name tag on it for each of the boys- so sweet!




Stana made these wonderful, tuna bread snacks for us before lunch. I don't know what to call them in English, but it was a spicy tuna spread with sweet, red bell peppers on top. They were so good! And I made lasagna and salad for lunch.







Starting to open gifts together... Both boys received some wonderful gifts! Jakub got Bob-the-builder stuff (his favorite cartoon right now- he even sings the tune now), Thomas the train things, 2 cars, and some Krtek items (a famous children's fairytale character here- he's a mole who goes on lots of adventures with his frog and butterfly friends).






Here is Krtek tent the Keen boys gave him. Neither look thrilled here for some reason, but they were all laughing and playing in it together. All 4 boys at the party could fit in there together.







I love the tradition of giving and opening gifts here. Even towards young children it's a very polite and thoughtful way to give gifts. No matter the age, when you give a gift here you first shake the person's hand and while shaking it you look them in the eyes and tell them all the things you wish for them or you want to say to them to celebrate their special occasion. It was special to see everyone coming up to Jakub to wish him well, tell them they love him, and give him his gifts. Then you tell the person thank you and give them a hug or kiss or something to say thanks. It makes gift giving very meaningful and personal and it helps the children slow down and learn to appreciate what they have.







All of the boys playing with the new toys together.



Yummy cake on top of lightening McQueen car plates. Perfect for the boys!


On Sunday we celebrated the Keens and had a final worship time with them and farewell party with friends. I'll have pictures of it soon, but I'll have to get them from Christie first. 55 people responded to say they would come... I didn't ever count, but I'm sure that's how many were there, or more including all of the children who came as well. Though emotionally difficult to get through, it was a beautiful afternoon and evening together!

5 years!

Well, God did it. God answered our prayers regarding our dream to work here in Olomouc together for at least 5 years. He has blessed us in many ways while we have lived and worked here trying so hard to grow his Kingdom in this difficult and beautiful place. We are thankful! We celebrated on Saturday by getting together in our home one last time (with the Keens present at least) for pizza, telling stories, viewing old pictures and videos, discussing our greatest and hardest moments together over the years, and sharing with the Keens how much they mean to us. I can't believe they leave in 2 weeks! It won't be the same without them, but we're determined to keep planting the seed here for as long as God sees fit for each of us.





Apparently, not everyone got the memo for a "crazy shot." :)






Our 3 boys... I can't begin to describe how it saddens me to see them go. I know Jakub won't fully understand it, and is just young enough to not hurt like I will, but I know the moments are coming when he'll ask for them or wonder why they aren't at Bible class on Sundays. It hurts already knowing it's coming and I just hope we'll get through it with strength from God and a positive view towards being excited to discover what God has in store for these boys next in their lives.

We're hosting a party for the Keens on Sunday after worship with all of the people invited who they've become close to over the years here. It's sure to be a bitter-sweet celebration. I'll have more pictures and stories to share after that.

Please keep our team and God's work here in your prayers as we transition to life without the Keens here and what that means for our work. Thank you!