Fun Vacation

I uploaded these pictures backwards so we'll start with the last day: Thursday we made a visit to Daytona Beach on our way home to Greenville, S.C. The kids have always flown over the ocean, we thought it would be fun for them to see it up close. Joey always yelled, "the ocean!!" when we crossed over a lake so he now knows just how big the ocean is!

Wednesday, we spent the whole day at Magic Kingdom! It was a magical experience. I enjoyed sharing with my kids something I really enjoyed as a child!

Tuesday and half a day Monday we went to Sea World. The kids loved getting soaked by the whales and they even have quite a few good rides there!

Twins Birthday

We celebrated the twins birthday a couple weeks before their actual birthday. They turned 8 on April 22. We had a great time with pin the tail on the donkey, relay races, and a favorite was wheelchair races!

This was their first birthday in America. They were so excited. We are still awaiting the infamous blue passports. We have had a few issues with getting them but we are praying that before 90 days is up (and we loose our money that we paid for them) that all the papers are in order and everything sent in and the passports issued. I don't think they will be done before we head back to Romania, they will be disappointed to have to travel back with their Romanian ones!

We leave at the end of this week to head back to South Carolina. Pray for our kids, it will be difficult saying good bye to their cousins...they've formed relationships with them and it will be hard to leave.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter with Baron's family. We all went to church together. This is my favorite cousin picture: ages 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 11, 11, 13, 13, 15, 17, and 8 months!

So thankful for the time we have had with family and getting to know cousins that we hadn't seen in 5 years, some we had never met!

Family Fun in Branson

We have had a great time out here in Missouri. We arrived in March and after just a few days we headed out to a week long family trip with Baron's family to Branson, MO. We went to Lambert's Cafe, home of the throwed rolls, yes they do actually throw the rolls at you. We were all spread out and Joey and his cousin Campbell actually kept putting their hands up to catch rolls and ended up with about 15 rolls to take in a take out box! We then went on to Branson.

We had fun hiking and going to the fish hatchery. The highlight was 2 days at Silver Dollar City. Our two oldest road rollar coasters for the first time. Spencer loved them Zach wasn't so sure he loved them but he kept going on them because that is what you do when you are 13, you go on the rides even if you don't like them! We bought the video of them riding the coaster called Wild Fire and posted it on Facebook, that is a fun video to watch!

Update

I just don't feel as if I have much to say, that is how boring life in America is :-)I decided it was time for an update on the blog. We have had an exciting fun time and although it is still about 3 months before we return to Romania we are on the down hill of our time here. We have applied for the twins passports. They are thrilled and can not wait to receive blue "passaports". That is what Joey used to call them, he just says passports now. The kids are all asking when we return to Romania and are ready to go home.
We head out to Missouri on Wednesday for 8 weeks. We had a marvelous time of fellowship this past week at Calvary Baptist Church in Simpsonville, S.C. They made us feel so welcome and at home and encouraged us with their fellowship at the missions conference. We are truly blessed to have so many wonderful churches behind us.
I have learned to knit since Christmas. I also want to learn to crochet. I have enjoyed making scarves and hope to be able to pass on knitting to others in Romania.
The kids have grown. We have had trouble keeping up with school and will probably be doing school through at least part of the summer.
Pray for us as we continue to travel and prepare to head back. While we look forward to getting home, we still have to say good bye to a lot of friends and family and that is the most difficult part. Thank you for your prayers.

God is good.

It is hard to believe that the time we have spent in the states so far is usually the total amount of time we spend in the states. Previously we have only spent 3 months here and 3 months is already up! I wanted to share some blessings of this past week. We were part of a missions conference in Fort Scott, KS. We stayed on a 150 acre farm with a family. I want to share with you what a blessing this family and this church were. These people are true examples of people living out the gospel. Humble and sweet spirits. Never afraid to quietly share their testimony and faith in their community. The family we stayed with had no t.v. They were a true example of what it means to write the Word of God on their hearts and the hearts of their children. They do chores on the farm together, learn how to care for animals and provide things they need for their family. They lead a simple life, not caught up with the things of this world. Their father has his own buisness and he is not concerned with making money, the first thing he does even if he looses busines is share his faith with potential customers and give them a track. These peoples mission is to live a life with a passion for Christ that is above all else. It was really refreshing and convicting and I'm so thankful for the time we had with them. They memorize Scripture together, they pray together, they have missionaries stay in their home often (and it is not at all a large home, the kids were kicked out of their rooms as we invaded them). They shared their food with us from Saturday night until Wed night. The kids LOVED the farm. Spencer has decided to become a farmer. The drove "Mater" around (a small off road vehicle for driving around the farm), the did chores, fed the animals, played tag on the hay bales, made boats and raced them in the water running off from the pond after it rained all day, and they made new friends. It was difficult to leave. Our oldest son especially took it hard. If you think about it pray for him especially. He is almost 13, the oldest child, an mk and this is the first time he has made friends really his age. The last time we were here he was still too young to understand what it means to say goodbye, now he understands and it isn't easy. He really enjoyed this family and their children, especially their 15 month old daughter. My kids just love babies and continue to ask when we are "getting another one." He understands now that he either won't ever see these new friends again or by the time he does, they will all be 3 or 4 years older. He is enjoying things here and meeting people but he struggles with good byes and he is missing his home in Romania. It is hard to explain but really our hearts or in two. We love being here and seeing friends and family but our hearts also miss home!

On a lighter note, we are going Christmas shopping tomorrow for the cousins. We will be busy next week with two missions conferences and won't have time before we celebrate with them on Thanksgiving week. We bought our first bags of Christmas M & M's. But I noticed that people are already saying Merry Christmas and playing Christmas music...have they forgotten that Thanksgiving is next and not Christmas?

We took the family to IHOP this morning since we got back late last night we didn't have anything here at the house for breakfast. We sat down and ordered. Then the waitress surprised us by telling us the 3 men (veterens) sitting at the table next to us wanted to pay our check...wow, God's kindness in meeting our physical needs while here has just really been overhwelming!

I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks be to God from whom ALL blessings flow! We have been overwhelmed with the gifts He has lavished upon us!

The Twins

The twins speak English really well without much of an accent BUT, you can tell sometimes they haven't completely grasped the English language. Joey takes everything literally. For instance, I said we were going to "run over to the church office." We got in the van and headed over there and he said, "but I thought you said we were running over there." I had to explain to him that "running somewhere" meant we were going to make a quick trip!
Another Joey moment. My sister told him to , "talk to the hand" and he put his lips near her hand and began to speak to her hand...soo funny! So, she explained to him what that meant. She said it again a couple days later and I looked at Joey and said, "you better talk to her hand, that's what she told you to do." (I wanted to have a little fun with him) I could see his wheels turning, my sister reminded him of what it meant and I taunted him a bit and said, "come on Joey, talk to the hand" so he kind of got a funny look on his face, bent over and said (to her hand), "ok, I'm talking to your hand." It was so funny!!

Scripture memory with the twins is always fun. We use the NKJV just because most of the verses I have memorized are in the KJV and it is hard for me to learn another version BUT I may have to re think that because the twins really struggle with the words like, therefore, whosoever, etc. We have to repeat, repeat, repeat those words before they can even say them let alone memorize them. We are learning Psalm 1 and I just have to re phrase some parts so they can understand and so they can actually say the words!! They really struggle with words where a letter is said quickly and not heard.

Another example of a language blunder. We were at the zoo yesterday and we heard the Gibbons before we saw them. We discussed going to see the gibbons and Gina commented, "I'm ready to go see the bigots." She was referring to the gibbons!

We struggle a bit with phonics and reading so if anyone has any brilliant ideas with how I can help the twins with this let me know!!

Baron is stateside and will join us Friday...I think I need a month long vacation to recover from taking care of the kids for 6 weeks without him :)