Allow me to share with you some highlights from the past few months.
Anna celebrates her 10th birthday on July 15th!
It is hard to believe that my oldest is double digits! She decided on a sleepover with her two gal pals, Deborah and Anya. The girls baked Anna Banana Bread for their dress up tea party, made crafts, had a pizza party for dinner, ate cupcakes and pie for dessert, and ended the night with a movie including all the fixings (popcorn, Twizzlers, Cracker Jacks and Good & Plenty.) I was very surprised that they actually got to sleep! Anna is growing into a lovely young lady who is always ready to read a book, make a craft for someone, bake a treat for the family, wash the dishes, or help with Della. What a blessing!
Jim heads back to Kalimantan (Borneo!)
The last week of August saw Jim heading out to the jungles of West Kalimantan to share the Good News with school children in the villages. He traveled with a small group from church and they covered many miles and met many warm and inviting people. The schools were poor, but rich in spirit. Jim's simple game of marbles was all it took to elicit smiles and bring two worlds together.
Jim celebrates his 50th birthday in Jakarta!
Of course, I couldn't let this big one slip by unnoticed! Not one for much of a fuss, we surprised Jim with some cake and cookies after church and enjoyed a lunch out with friends. The next few days were spent relaxing on a tiny island with beautiful beaches and best of all...no cars. It was quiet and it was wonderful to be outdoors! I sent Jim for his first ever dive and he also enjoyed some time snorkeling. Here's to fantastic family time!
George joins rugby!
We were introduced to the Komodos Rugby Team of Jakarta. They have a youth league that plays on Saturday mornings in the south of Jakarta. It is just outside the city and provides all of us (except Jim, who has meetings) with a breath of fresh air. None of us has actually figured out how rugby is played yet exactly, but we are having fun watching George learn. Having this new found connection with ex-pats, is already serving us well. We were alerted to a fiddling group that would be playing in the Irish pub downtown. We met some friends there and had a fun evening filled with good food, good fellowship and good fiddling. The highlight of the evening was watching George "Riverdance." He is a self taught stepper, thanks to watching the movie "Happy Feet" when he was two. Hope we have a chance to do it again!
Mary and Della's Days!
Mary is progressing in her reading and loves to do math. She enjoys her time in ballet class and longs for the day that she is old enough to join the choir and take piano lessons. (They start both here at the age of six. ) She has shown great aptitude in tennis, wielding a superior swing...for a five year old! Of course, she sports a pink tennis racket, pink sneakers and a pink water bottle. She is quite a sight on the court!
Della builds with blocks (using my math manipulatives) for hours on end. She builds hotels for her little Polly Pockets to stay in and continues to enjoy dressing up and playing with her dolls. We are proud of her ability to memorize the books of the Bible and chuckle each time she says "Deuteronomy - icus"(...think Leviticus.) As she was taking a bath one evening, I came in on her scrubbing herself. With each swipe of the soap, she sang another book of the Bible. Totally funny and precious and... possibly inappropriate as she was cleaning her derriere!
God provides again!
Jim suspected that he may have a hernia, and sure enough, he did. We started contemplating surgery. Within hours, God coordinated a surgeon, a hospital and a date for surgery. That was Thursday, October 10th and Jim flew to Singapore for surgery on the 14th. A member of our congregation, who lives part time in Singapore, accompanied him the entire time and provided housing, transportation and medical support (he himself is a doctor.) We prayed over our insurance, as they did not have a relationship with the hospital...meaning we would have to pay $10,000 up front! Well, God knows we couldn't and we just trusted and went forward as scheduled. Thankfully, all the paperwork went through and all the right people connected for a direct payment between the hospital and the insurance company. The surgery was a complete success, although, not without a few laughs along the way (we thought Jim only passed out because of needles!)
In other medical news, we are thankful for the recovery of Jim's grandmother, known to all as "GG." She had a bad spell for about a week and, at 99 years of age, no one thought she would pull through. Instead, God saw fit to keep her around to continue on as our prayer warrior.
We are gladdened to see and read about the progress of a precious little boy named Timmy, who just had surgery to reconstruct his skull. His family is very dear to us and we are so thankful for God's Goodness.
So here we are, celebrating Autumn the best we can. We hope that you are enjoying the scenes and scents of the season in your neck of the woods. We may be many, many miles away...with time zones that frustrate communication...but we think about and pray for everyone just the same.
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