The CUT

YES!!! We finally did it...we cut Nathaniel's hair!!! Well, not actually us. We took him to our favorite barber. Think 'Old West', 150 years ago, only the barber speaks Spanish, and you just about have it. The difference was stunning, check out the pics below.

BEFORE


The barber waves goodbye!


AFTER

Our New Baby

Here she is! This wonderful contraption is what took us to the beach, and other places since then. Around the beginning of December we seriously started contemplating buying our own personal vehicle, due to our growing family and the amount of travel we have in the next few months. Plus, we hope to see more of Nicaragua, and several hours by bus can be, shall we say, a bit tedious with 3 little ones? So we bought this the week before we went to the beach, and we are quite happy with her.

This is something you will hardly see in the States, like many of the vehicles here.

Okay, all you car enthusiasts...can any one guess what it is? (and you have to say more than "Toyota")

Specs to follow later...

Beachy Christmas

We got away for a fun-filled 4 days and nights at an all-inclusive resort on the Pacific Coast from the 19th to the 23rd. Here are a few highlights.

We were able to get a decent family shot...I think self-timer shots are the greatest addition to cameras!!

Mommy and Nathaniel enjoying the waves. There was a bit of riptide, so we weren't able to stay out in the big waves to our heart's content, but I think Nathaniel will take after his mommy and be a beach bum :)

The boys were impressed with the large nativity scene. Here, Nathaniel is giving a pat on the back to one of the wise men. Zachariah was concerned about baby Jesus, and wanted to make sure he was in his bed.

The boys had a good time digging a hole and putting daddy in it, although Nathaniel was a bit concerned when he saw Steve's toes coming up through the sand.

A view of the beach.

We had a marvelous time at the all-inclusive resort. The food was buffet style and were impressed with the variety. We were able to sample foods that we haven't seen since coming here, oh the cheeses, vegetables (like green beans!) and desserts...Mommy really enjoyed all the cheeses, especially the Swiss cheese! Not everyone shared our enthusiasm, however; Nathaniel stuck mostly to what he knows...rice and beans and plain chicken :) He has no idea what a green bean is, or cheddar cheese or apple pie!

We started out our days early...after all, vacation with kids means getting up at the crack of dawn so as not to miss anything!! We were up at 6 am, had a hearty breakfast, then spent most of the morning at the beach. Chairs were strewn around the beach by the resort, which was relaxing for mommy and daddy. The boys loved the waves, running and jumping.

Around 10 am, when the sun became too strong to handle, we headed to one of the kiddie pools and got a few drinks at the nearby snack bar. Then off to lunch, a quick nap, then back to the beach for the afternoon. We spent some time at the kids area, which included ping-pong tables, pool tables and an assortment of games. The kids played on the jungle-gym while we sipped our fruit juices and occasionally ran after them.

The history is interesting. The last dictator, Somoza, had built his personal private beach resort here. But when he was overthrown in 1979, it went downhill, until Barcelo Resorts bought it and renovated the area.

We had a wonderful time and hope to go back next Chrismtas...Zach is already asking when we can go back!

Brotherly Love

Now that Nathaniel can get out of his playpen by himself, he loves to come visit us during his naptime or as we are going to sleep. Last night, we heard the warning squeaks of his escape, and waited a few minutes to see what would happen. A few minutes later, our curiosity got the better of us and Steve went to check on him.

Nathaniel had crawled up into Zachariah's bed and was getting all snuggled in! Zachariah was fast asleep and hadn't woken up during all the moving (no naps means he passes out in record speed at night). I guess Nathaniel really missed Zach and wanted to be with him! Either that, or it's time to get a toddler bad....

How to eat an Orange...Nicaraguan-style

Take the orange, and using a mechanical apple peeler, peel the orange until only a thin skin remains. Cut the top 1/4 off the top, eat the flesh from the top section, and suck all the juices out of the rest. Throw it out, wherever you are. This is how some people make their living, by peeling and selling oranges all day long, standing by the side of the road with their basket of oranges, peeler and machete. They think it's hilarious that we actually eat the flesh of an orange!

Who are We?

The night sky here is absolutely spectacular...even with living in the city. I love to look up at night and gaze on the brilliance of the stars. While looking at the heavenly sky the other evening, I remembered David's words to God (paraphrased)

When I look at the stars in the sky, the works of your hands in all creation, I wonder, What is man that YOU are mindful of him, the son of man that you take notice?

Then I remembered that God loves me so much, He sent His son, Jesus, to die for me. He created me just for Him, and made me unique and special. I slept well that night.

My Boys...Professionally Done

This picture doesn't really need explaining...but yes, they really are brothers :)

And more Chocolate...

We've been experimenting with some new recipes and have enjoyed the help of our little ones, as well as a very old Betty Crocker cook book we found in the MCC library here that contains an amazing array of wonderful recipes...Here are some of our latest creations.

Chocolate and caramel covered apples....I robbed a bank to pay for the apples, but they were worth it. But don't ask me how many teeth I have left!

Elf cookies, from the VeggieTales movie, Lord of the Beans. A basic, rich cookie dough, cooked in shapes then with crushed hard candies put inside them. They are baked for a few minutes, then done! A nice combination of heavy cookie dough with sweet candy. Zach enjoyed making shapes with the dough.

Happy Birthday Zach!

We enjoyed celebrating Zach's 5th birthday on the 8th. Zach had been asking for a pinata for months, so he picked out Spider-Man. We spent the day opening gifts, eating chocolate cake and ice cream, and then finishing it off with the pinata.

Nathaniel was a little unsure about the pinata, but he valiantly tried a few whacks. However, any movement by the pinata sent him running...it seems he thought the pinata was "alive". We tried not to laugh, but a few giggles managed to escape.

We were thinking that this would be a good therapy for anger management class. Zach certainly expended some energy trying to break the pinata!

Zach could hardly open his presents fast enough...

Here he shows off the chocolate cake he picked out at the local bakery...as soon as we got the cake out of the box, he had run his fingers across the top and swiped a sizeable amount of frosting off. He was so engrossed in licking off the frosting, that we never made it to the candles part :) I don't think he noticed.

Ferrocement Tank

Steve recently started a main part of his project, building tanks to hold water. He decided to go with a ferrocement tank, instead of the normal block tank they generally build here, due to cost, skill required and just the sheer fun of trying something new! A ferrocement tank uses a strong mix of concrete, sand and water on top of a chicken wire mold, which means most tanks are cylindrical in shape. Steve wanted to try something a little different, called a Thai water jar. If you want to see more photos, click on our link to the right. an inside view of the tank
mixing the concrete the old-fashioned way

Last Day of School

November 19th, Zachariah graduated from 2 level pre-school, congratulations! Here is a picture with his diploma and his teacher. He had a great time at school, and I give it most of the credit for his language progress. Next year, he goes into 3rd level pre-school, then 1st grade after that.

Below, some of his classmates recite a poem in traditional Nicaraguan dress.

Let the Holiday Season Begin!

Nicaraguans LOVE to party, and they show it off by their many parades and fireworks. You can always tell when December is around the corner when you hear the fireworks going off, every night, through the night....Being mostly a Catholic country, December is a pretty big month. December 8th they celebrate the Immaculate Conception, which means the whole first week of December there are parades with a statue of Mary being carried by the parishioners, and lots and LOTS of fireworks.

For us, it means lots of baking! I tried out my hand at truffles the other day for the first time, and from what I heard, they were good. (I'm not a chocolate eater, just a chocolate sniffer :) I think my boys, big and small, ate them in record time!



Also, if you look really close, you can see our little baby peeking out from my belly (I think he or she wanted a bite!). I will be posting more pictures as we both grow!

Normal in the Third-World

Last week seemed to be one of those weeks, where every time I turned around, somebody was asking me for money, clothes, food or work. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about people begging me for their very survival, how ludicrous that would be! Only that the constant poverty is, at times, emotional draining and overwhelming. In one day alone I had 4 people beg me for something, and it can be absolutely heartbreaking.

One morning, a young woman came to my door, looking younger than me, and she carried a 4 month old baby on her hip and had 2 small children standing beside her, both younger than 4. They were all dirty, with unkempt hair and rags for clothes. Even the baby had only a rag for a diaper and slept peacefully with a dirt-streaked face. She asked me for $0.50 to pay for her trip back to the countryside. I told her to wait a moment, and as I walked to our change jar, my conscience pricked me. How could I let her walk away with only $0.50? It was obvious they needed some food and clothes.

So I quickly walked to the kitchen, filled up a plate of food, a bag with some water, and raided my closet and my kids’ closets for some clothes. I returned with several bags and quickly handed them through the door. The kids looked up at me silently, waiting, their faces not revealing the joy and innocence of other children their age. I asked the mother if the father was helping her at all, and she replied, No, he is not around. She thanked me profusely for the food and clothing, and as they walked away, I felt empty. What had I really done for them? They were still totally poverty-stricken, with no education, no work, and no chance for a better life for her or her children.

But it’s at times like these, when it feels like my presence here is making no difference at all, that I remember a bulletin my church sent back in August, which hangs in my room. On the back is a litany, and the ending prayer states,

Send us, O Lord, to speak of your peace, to show your mercy, to conduct ourselves in a right spirit that is true to your message. May your word and your Spirit transform us from seeing how lost the world is, to having a vision that believes all can be saved. –Kenneth L. Thompson, Bronx, New York

And I am encouraged. God isn’t asking me to save the world, but only to do my part, His will, and He will do the rest. I need to lift my eyes from the circumstances and keep them on God, to remember that He is God and that nothing is impossible with Him.

Dreamer

"When I grow up, I want to be a giant", Zachariah told me one evening. I just love the things kids say, my boys continue to surprise and humor me. "Sure," I told him. "Be whatever you want to be!" I believe dreams are the wings God gives us to start crazy and impossible things. If we don't have dreams, our lives become one endless, boring day after another, and then what? Maybe a few of us mature adults could learn from our amazing kids and let our minds soar...who knows where they might take us?

Feliz Cumpleanos 2

We had a fun yet relaxing day for Nathaniel's birthday. He received several gifts from family members, and just enjoyed watching Zachariah open them. I think Zach enjoys opening the gifts more than the actual gift itself!


We decided against inviting all our friends to keep it more low-key. Steve made brownies and topped it with normal candles. We thought we had birthday candles from last year, but when we opened the package, it was empty! But he didn't seem to mind, he enjoyed huffing and puffing on the 2 fat candles.


We were planning on cutting his hair, but with work and MCC stuff, we haven't made it there yet. Someday...

Bye!

Yes, Nathaniel is actually trying to ride that little bicycle. I wonder how far he will get? He's a pretty determined little guy.

Our Spirtual Journey

It’s amazing how much one can learn, spiritually, when you are living outside of your comfort zone. Steve and I feel like we entered a spiritual wilderness a few months ago, not a wilderness without God, but a place where God is challenging our beliefs in what church and our Christian lives should be. While we know that living here has been instrumental in bringing us to this place, we have also been pro-active in pursuing God and asking the hard questions, What does God really require of us? What are we here for? Do we have value if we can’t be useful and do things? We feel like God has been bringing us to a place of greater understanding of our relationship with Him, that He loves us just because we are us, not because of what we bring to Him, or what we can do for Him, or how many gifts we have, or even how many people we witness to. When we reflect on our life back in the States, we marvel at how busy we were, and how even though we went to church, small group, and a variety of other activities, we didn’t feel the near presence and voice of God like we do here. And we are less involved in church! Was it because we were SO busy that we couldn’t hear His voice? When we remember our busy lives, mixed with a tinge of stress and tiredness from the constant flow, we ask ourselves, is this what life as a Christian is meant to be? A constant to-do list of activities, that do… what? Did all these things, while good, bring us to any deeper relationship with God? Or with our families, or friends? While we don’t think activities in and of themselves are bad, when they take away from what is most important, we wonder, who is controlling who? We are eerily reminded of Jesus’s words to Martha in her busyness, “Martha, Martha, why are you worried about so many things? Mary has chosen what is most important and it will not be taken from her.” We realize now how shallow our relationship with God really was, and even with most of our friends. God was somebody we had relegated to Sunday mornings, and small group meetings. Now, we are learning to see God in everything we do and think, and how our lives should reflect His constant presence. While at first we struggled with feeling valuable here since we weren’t doing so many things, it has given us time to think about God and our life as Christians. We have come to realize that all our busyness and activities were merely substitutes for having a deep relationship with God. We would fill ourselves up with feeling important, useful, loved and valuable by surrounding ourselves with friends and things, but at the end of the day, the feelings would all slip away. Jesus said, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. We had replaced the love of God with the love of everything else. But we wonder, Is it possible to have this kind of life in America? The whole culture seems swallowed up in a “I have a million things to do, and don’t have time to chat now, but I’ll schedule you in” or “You don’t really matter unless you are involved” ideology, where activities have replaced real relationships and value is obtained from the number of things you are involved in. The more things you do, the more important you are. But when we were busy running here and there, there wasn’t time to talk about the deeper things of life, our struggles, concerns and even loving correction. We don’t have the answers, but after stepping away from the American culture, it has become painfully obvious that although Christians are supposed to be different, how different are we really? Church was not a time of spiritual growth for us, but a chance to “hang out” and chat with friends. God was on the margin. This is simply our reflections of how much we have missed in our own Christian walk, how we had not been living in the “fullness” of it all, and are now just getting a taste of a deep relationship with Christ, and how we are struggling with being able to bridge our two worlds. We wonder if we could survive again in the States, if our relationship with God would slowly be replaced with to-do lists and activities. We are praying for wisdom and guidance as we continue this new path…only God knows the way!

The Ride to Work

What follows is a verbal snapshot of my ride on the motorcycle from the house in the south end of town to the office located in the north end of town. As I wait for Steve to start the bike, a man walks by, carrying a large blue bucket and bleating like a sheep. He is selling something, like the hundreds of people who walk the streets, selling sandwiches, bread, cookies, veggies, fruits, imitation watches, clay pots, and anything else you can think of, all calling out their wares in their own sing-song way. We aren’t sure what this old man is selling, his bleating doesn’t sound like Spanish or English. Steve is ready, so I hop on back, sunglasses but no helmet. It’s only a 5 minute ride, so I only use the helmet when we go out to the countryside. But the drivers have to wear helmets. A large truck full of glass Coke and Fanta bottles in crates rattles by. Steve is convinced the Coke has a better taste out of glass bottles. We wait for a string of taxis to pass by, then head out down the road. I see the mountains rise before us, today the clouds cover the top, and I wonder if the rain will come before lunch. Men lounge on the corner, watching the traffic and debating about the latest antics of the government or dictatorship, as some have come to call it. We pass large graffiti on the wall that shouts, No to the dictatorship! Yes to democracy! Political tensions are running high, with elections in 2 weeks. We stop at the traffic light, on the corner of the park called Dario, named after Nicaragua’s famous poet Ruben Dario. As always, women sit on the one side, painting their clay pigs, roosters and plant pots. They spend all day, under the trees, painting their creations. The colors are brilliant, and I think, Ooh! I need to get over there and snap a picture, and buy a piggy bank. The light turns green, and we zoom forward, past the park. Several men are getting their shoes shined in the park; there are always boys waiting for their next customer. For a measly $0.20, you can have your shoes shined until they are practically new. A crowd waits for the next bus. A taxi quickly pulls over in front of us as a woman waves her hand. I watch as she quickly tells the driver her destination and then hops in. The streets are busy, men are getting their tables set up and pirated movies arranged. Women put out seasonal fruits and veggies under umbrellas and wave their handkerchiefs to cool off. Groups of school girls and boys in uniforms saunter by, laughing and giggling as they make their way to school. All students wear uniforms, and you can sometimes tell which school by the color of the uniform. We zoom by our old apartment, and as I hear the public bus roar by, I thank God, once again, that we don’t live on this street. I see the old, blind lady in her usual spot, left hand out, shaking, begging for money. When the sun rises above the buildings, she will move to another location where there is shade once again. We stop at the end of the main street, at the stoplight in front of the other main park, Parque Morazon. The police headquarters is to our left, and I watch as two soldiers, dressed in black and with machine guns casually thrown over their shoulders, walk past us, and their eyes carefully watching everything. The presence of soldiers and throngs of police startled us at first, but now I hardly see them. The light turns green, and we zoom past the Walmart owned supermarket, called Pali. Several vendors set up stands outside, hawking their fresh wares at anybody who glances their way. We take a quick right and stop in front of the office. Time for work!

Life on the Wild Side

I grew up riding a Harley motorcycle, so naturally, while I realize that overall, motorcycles carry a bit more risk than cars, they aren’t something that I fear. Healthy respect and knowledge goes a long way. And this is what I want my boys to learn, to not be afraid of things they don’t understand or have no knowledge of, but to learn about them. So we encourage our boys to sit on the motorcycle and try out the buttons and of course, wear the helmets. We do occasionally take the boys out on the bike, but only around the city. Here, Nathaniel tries on the helmet, which I suspect is about 20% of his weight. He barely manages to sit up and walk without toppling head first, but he loves the challenge. He loves to sit and pretend he is riding.

Help us!!! We're drowning!

Wow, we have had over 2 weeks of rain, and can hardly remember what the sun looks like anymore. With all the rain we’ve had a tough time with flooding, and in a community in which we work, a mother and daughter died trying to cross a river, on a horse, no less. Many houses here in Matagalpa have been flooded by the river that encircles the city, and many towns were inaccessible for several days due to engorged streams and rivers. It can be a bit trickier to dry clothes without a dryer during such rainy times, but we are lucky enough to have some roof overhang, under which we hang the clothes. Many others string rope throughout their house, and you simply duck around the rows of wet clothes as you meander through the house.

Which Holiday are we On?

There are many things we enjoy about the culture here, one of which is the number of holidays and celebrations they have here. It seems to me that there is an enormous amount of parades and days of celebrations, which is great for us and especially the boys. We have actually seen more parades this past year here than in our entire lives in the States. Sunday, Sept 28th, is the Day of the Bible, which most of the evangelical church celebrate with a …. You guessed it, a parade! A famous preacher from Puerto Rico, whose name momentarily eludes me, came in and spoke at the stadium, which was at the end of the parade line and packed full.



The churches decorate vehicles, the children are dressed up as Bible characters and animals, and there are of course, lots of balloons. The whole idea is to celebrate the anniversary of when the Bible was translated into Spanish, which was the 439th year this year. The boys had a great time helping decorate the truck and motorcycle and being a part of the parade.

Our kingdom is not of this world…

Thank God that it is not! Unfortunately recent actions by the Nicaraguan government look eerily similar to those of the Somoza government, under which this country suffered for nearly 50 years. The sad irony is that the people (namely the president, Daniel Ortega) who fought so hard to remove the Somoza dictatorship are now trying to solidify their own form of totalitarian dictatorship. And through it all who are the people who suffer? The average citizens, of course.
Here a few of the events that have transpired recently, as we near the mayors elections in November:
1.The candidate for an opposition party was removed from the ballot by some technicality.
2.The government supported mayors’ candidates continually utilize government property for propaganda activities and post their posters on government buildings.
3.An opposition political party who had planned a peaceful march was met violently by government supporters and was not allowed to march. The government supporters proceeded to threaten the marchers and burn the vehicles of various opposition leaders.
4.A group of students who were peacefully protesting in front of the government propaganda television station were chased away violently by a group of government supporting thugs wielding belts and, supposedly, machetes and knives. The first person to strike a blow against the students was a Congressman who raced out of the building and struck a student in the face. The police, who are increasingly controlled by the President, were nowhere to be seen.
This is just a taste of the seemingly daily conflicts that we read about in the newspaper. However, in all of this we thank God that His kingdom is eternal and someday, be it soon or many years from, we will be free from all of this strife.

First Family Vacation in Nicaragua

(Sorry folks, after several tries to post pics, there seems to be a problem with the website, so you'll have to use your imagination!)
Well, we just returned from a 3-day vacation at the Pacific Ocean at a nice little resort called Vistamar (literally, SeaView). It as a wonderful, relaxing time, and the boys enjoyed themselves immensely. We arrived Sunday around lunch, and enjoyed a sumptuous lunch, then ran straight to the ocean. Zach was a bit timid at first and insisted on holding Steve's hand, while Nathaniel, all 33" and 27 pounds of him, walked straight into the ocean and would have kept walking all the way to China if we hadn't stopped him!!
The wide beach was beautiful and littered with thousands of perfect, tiny seashells. We now own the 2nd largest sea shell collection know to man! The hotel was divided amongst several bungalows, and we took advantage of the free room-service to enjoyed most of the meals on our back porch, overlooking the ocean and swaying in the hammock. The sunsets were absolutely breathtaking, and I had to refrain from filling up my memory card with images of God's handiwork splashed across the sky.
We also sampled 2 of the 4 swimming pools the resort had to offer. Zachariah enjoyed "swimming" on his own, while Nathaniel continued on insisting that he "do it myself!", with a little help from Mommy. Throughout the day, boys and teens from the surrounding villages would stop by on horseback and offer a ride. While Zachariah declared no fondness for horses, Nathaniel was excited to try his hand at the beast, and enjoyed a quick ride with this charming young man, only a boy himself.
This is a bit late, we went away the weekend of Sept 14th.

The God of the Impossible… (by Steve)

On a Sunday afternoon recently I was listening to a teaching on a CD that some friends gave to us. The speaker spoke of the idea that God enjoys doing the impossible and related numerous accounts from the Bible as evidence: Gideon with his weaponless army of 300 against the mighty army of 150,000; Jesus waiting until Lazarus was ‘stinking dead’ to come and raise him; Peter’s release from the heavily guarded prison; etc. His point was that the more ‘impossible’ the task the less likely it is that we will be able to take credit for the miracle. It struck me that often times when I ask for things I ask for things that may be possible (healing for someone who is sick, perhaps), but I never have the faith to ask God for the impossible (fix the tire on the motorcycle).

A couple days later I had an opportunity to test my faith and ask God for something that seemed impossible. I was driving my motorcycle in the countryside and in the process I lost a small notebook somewhere that contained a lot of important irreplaceable information. I thought, “Well I could try to retrace my steps and search high and low for the notebook, but that would take an incredible amount of time and it is not likely to be successful. Or I could ask God that someone else would find it and return it to me”. But I felt like God was challenging me to ask for the impossible, that the notebook would be in my pocket when I returned to the house.
I struggled with this for almost an hour as I was riding, and each time I would try to ask God for this the voice of doubt would say, “but you know that it will not happen”. I was amazed at how difficult it was to ask God for something impossible without thinking at the same time that if it does not happen it will be because it was not God’s will. I realized how little my faith really must be to not be able to ask, believing, for God to do something so small.

In the end, without looking for it, I came across the notebook in a place that I had been earlier that day. So was that God’s answer to my prayer? I don’t know, but I believe that the revelation of faith and believing were well worth the experience, and I expect God to continue to challenge me in this area.

BAKERY WORKSHOP

I have been working with the ladies in teaching them how to bake bread and cakes, for them to eat and to sell, to supplement their eager income. Usually between 20 and 30 women show up, but there was a mix-up on the date of this workshop, and so only about 7 arrived, which actually worked a little nicer. It was a bit more relaxed and the women could see what I was doing. Here, we are preparing the vegetables for the soup for lunch. A picture of the outside of Doña Julia’s house. Doña just means Missus. Her house is actually one of the nicer ones in the area; it is made of wood and is quite large, with 2 stoves in her kitchen (made with bricks and mud). Here is a picture of her outside clay ovencan see what I mean about the lack of temperature controls! She begins by putting wood inside the oven and setting them on fire. After an hour or so, she sweeps out the ashes and whatever is left of the wood, and then puts a piece of rusted steel over the doors to keep the heat in. When the cakes and bread are ready, we slide them in with a large, flat piece of wood, like the pizza workers in the States. Generally, the baking time is quite a bit shorter than called for in the recipe, but it usually turns out pretty good. Here, I am showing the women how to knead the coconut bread, and the women here are frying sweet bread twists. I plan to teach a few more workshops and am writing a small book of recipes, but then hope to turn it completely over to the ladies to organize and manage.

FRIENDS

We spent last Saturday with friends Roberto and his wife Candida. They have grandsons the same age as our boys, and we enjoy their company immensely. Here is a picture of Candida, in her kitchen, working hard in preparing a lunch of fried chicken, beans, rice and salad. We have decided that she is the best cook in all of Nicaragua, and are never disappointed when we eat at her place. Here is Zachariah with their grandson Evert, sitting on the rocking chairs, watching one of the VeggieTales movies that Zach brought over. Evert is about 5 months older than Zach, and they have a good time together. The other day, Zachariah whispered that he would like to sleep over at Evert’s house sometime. Sigh….already come the sleepovers, another sign that my babies are growing up!

GARDEN

I really enjoy our quaint, small garden, and the few flowers they produce. As I aimed and refocused my camera on the white flowers here, I remembered the words of Jesus in Matthew, “Even Solomon, with all his finery, was not dressed as beautiful as the flowers in the fields.” And then a poem that I read the other day, which was a conversation overheard by a bluebird and a robin. The bluebird says that he doesn’t understand these human beings that rush around, to and fro, with so much worry. The robin replies that he thinks humans must not have a heavenly Father such as they, to take care of them. It was such a good reminder for me, to remember that even in the midst of all our little stories and dramas, sicknesses and busyness, there is a Father in heaven is who is watching over us and every day is using our trials and circumstances to bring us closer to Him.

BUDDING ARTIST

Zachariah arrived home from school the other day and raced into the kitchen, with excited yelps of “Mommy! Come see what I made!” Quickly putting down the food I was preparing for lunch, I followed him back into the living room, where he quickly unzipped his school bag and pulled out his beautiful creation. He was so proud of it, and rapidly told me how he made it, step-by-step. Then we had to decide where to hang it, so all could see the work he had done. We decided to hang it above his bed, inside his mosquito netting, so he can see it while he goes to sleep at night. It is fun to imagine what our children will become when they grow up, as they explore different interests. Oh, and just had to put in a quick picture of Zachariah in his Red Sox shirt, courtesy of my dad and sister…go Red Sox!