After the Homecoming...

Life is sweet.

Sometimes I just look at Jeff and smile, as my happiness over simply having him home continues. It's so good to see him sit in his place at the table. It's so good to have him kiss me goodbye when he leaves for work in the morning. It's so good to hear peals of laughter coming from the boys as he tickles and roughhouses with them. It's so good to have him doing his usual Wednesday errands with the boys so they can have that extra daddy time.

Last evening was especially delightful since my parents were willing to babysit for us while Jeff and I had a date. I've really been trying to do a better job of scheduling dates for us (since organizational stuff is fun for me, it basically falls to me to plan babysitters, etc.)...and I find myself very refreshed in our marriage by this simple act of getting away for an hour or two to have uninterrupted conversation. Last evening, we went to a new-to-us restaurant, Clementine's, (and to Kline's afterwards for ice cream for me--Jeff didn't have any--oh, the self control!) while my parents were here with our boys, eating supper, reading stories, and playing Old Maid (David never did get the hang of that game since he would gleefully announce, "I've got the Old Maid" whenever he grabbed that particular card!) :) Over our dinner, I asked Jeff only a thousand questions, plus or minus a few. Now I feel like I really know how his trip went!

We still haven't taken the time to sit down together and look through all his pictures so he can tell me about them, but I have looked through them by myself and wanted to share a few for now. More later...

~ four of the members of his group (Eric, Beth, Loretta, and Steve), standing in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (if I'm not mistaken...and I could be, since pale-stone buildings like this are extremely common there)~ Jeff surrounded by some of the students from the English camp
~ Jeff at the Western Wall, the evening of Shabbat, during their last weekend in Israel

Celebration!

He's home!!!!!!!

Yesterday, about 4:30 p.m. he arrived in town; and the boys and I jumped in the van to go pick him up. I don't think there was a happier carload of people driving around anywhere in Harrisonburg yesterday! (Well, Twila Yoder might have been kind of excited to have her husband back, too...but I still think the eagerness in our car surpassed hers.) :)

Despite his fatigue from the trip and the inevitable jet lag, Jeff hit the ground running. The first thing he did when we arrived home (even before he went into the house--can you believe it?) was to take some wire up to the chicken coop to fix that little "issue" we were having there. :) Also last evening, after a supper of tacos (we had to get that into his system immediately, since he certainly didn't get his usual dose of Mexican food while he was gone), he headed off to a church meeting he had--but that he wasn't expected to attend at all! However, he wanted to be there, so we all went together; and the boys and I had fun on the playground while he had his meeting. It just so happened that some other children of the church were there, so it made it extra special and fun for my boys to have companions while we were waiting.

This morning Jeff was at the barbershop by 6:00 a.m. (they open at 7:00 a.m.) to get set up and caught up there. After a full day of work, he came home to supper here with our neighbors. We had 12 around the table (and Tobin in the highchair), and we all listened eagerly to Jeff's stories.

I think hearing his stories has been one of the most fun things for our family during the past 30 or so hours. I was incredibly grateful for the email communication we were able to have during his trip; but there's nothing at all like sitting around the table together, eating a meal, and listening to him share story after story. We're all eating it up.

I love this picture of him in Jerusalem, with the Dome of the Rock in the background...but oh, I so much more love the sight of him asleep on the couch in our living room right now...

Days Seventeen & Eighteen - Waiting for Daddy

Waiting is the name of the game these days. With Jeff's return so close we can almost taste it, I marvel anew at how time plays tricks on us--sometimes racing, sometimes dragging, sometimes doing both at the same time.

As I write this, Jeff is in the air, somewhere between Tel Aviv and Germany where they have a lay-over. The last I heard from him was a few hours ago, from the airport in Tel Aviv, when they had cleared security and were waiting to board their plane. I pray for safety, first of all...and beyond that, at least a little sleep for him on the plane. :)

This evening here at home was one of those times when the minutes seemed to crawl by; and I finally got to the point of feeling like, "Hey, would somebody please come rescue me?" :) Josiah had gone to play with the neighbors, and David was finding it hard to be entertained without his big brother. Even Tobin was a little grumpy. The solution was simple: I asked my mother if she and Dad would like to have a movie night at their house with their youngest two grandsons...oh, and could they please provide the popcorn as well? :) Why yes, Mother said, they certainly could! And what's more--she thanked me for asking them. "We don't know when and how you need help," she said, "so we want you to let us know what's going on and ask us when you need us!" I often feel a bit reluctant to ask because I don't want to impose on them or take advantage of their hospitality and assistance, but I am learning to simply open my mouth and ask when I feel like things are going downhill. I've got the best parents! :) With their help, the evening passed splendidly...and three tired boys got tucked into bed a few hours later where they quickly fell asleep, leaving me to enjoy a quiet, peaceful home.

I suppose this will be my last official picture of the day from Israel (although I'm sure I'll post more pictures from Jeff's trip after he gets back). Here is a sunset over the Mediterranean, taken near Haifa, from March 2005.

And one more video that Jeff sent a few days ago. This was a drum class (?) that was part of the English camp. Wouldn't you love to be this drum teacher? You wouldn't? Nah, neither would I. I'd rather keep my hearing! :)

Days Fifteen & Sixteen - Flying By

Time seems to be flying by these days. Suddenly that paper chain made by Josiah and zealously shortened each day by the boys is looking delightfully short!

Jeff's teaching is over; and in fact, as I write this, he is saying goodbye to his host family and preparing to go south with the team to visit the Dead Sea, Masada, Qumran, then back to Jerusalem for the night before heading over to Tel Aviv on Sunday to spend some time there before flying out early Monday morning for HOME!!!

Jeff sent some more pictures which I was delighted about. Here he is with his host family who have been incredibly hospitable and gracious.
And here he is with one of his classes.
On Thursday evening, the English camp teachers and assistants and host families (and probably others that I'm leaving out) had a potluck and celebration/ceremony, with delicious food, Arab dancing, etc. Once again, the local news covered the event. For LOTS of pictures, click here. To help you spot him, I'll just let you know that Jeff is NOT wearing red silk pants, in case you suspected that he might have been transformed into a dancer by all this time in the Middle East. :) (He's actually wearing a blue shirt.)

Pic of the day from Israel: looking towards the ocean in Tel Aviv. This picture seriously makes me long to be there, walking along the tayelet (promenade)--a place where we spent countless hours when we lived there.

As has been our custom during Jeff's absence, we've been keeping ourselves busy and have had lots of fun activities the past two days. Our friend Janet Blosser from church invited us to go to the park with her yesterday. She packed a scrumptious picnic lunch for us with all the things two young boys would like to eat (and even garden-fresh mint tea and tomato sandwiches for me!), gamely chased the boys around the kids' castle at Purcell Park, carried Tobin to give my arms a break while twisting through narrow openings and climbing numerous steps...then topped it all off by treating us to Kline's ice cream at the end. What a treat! :)

Last evening, just about the time I was looking in the refrigerator and wondering what on earth I was going to serve for dinner besides leftover lentil stew, Dad called and asked me if I would like to go to Country Cookin' for dinner. Would I?! The boys and I were all delighted to go to Plan B for the evening, and we had a wonderful dining experience--literally, one of the best there in recent memory. First of all, our server was Maria Yoder, the daughter of one of my high school teachers; and it was fun to meet her and chat a bit. Second, David was a hungry little tiger and gobbled up his first plate of food, actually wanted more, then with my help ate a second plate of food. (Just so I'll remember in years to come what David, at this stage of life, likes to eat at Country Cookin', I'll mention that he ate cold kidney beans and grated cheese from the salad bar and corn, green beans, and pinto beans from the veggie bar...think he had enough beans?...but hey, that's what he likes!...Josiah, on the other hand, goes heavily towards the fruit when we eat there, although he likes plain romaine lettuce as one of his food choices, too...someday I'll take my camera and take a picture of each of our plates because we're all so different!) It was so refreshing to actually see David eating heartily, rather than sitting and lingering and having to be persuaded to eat his food. Third, Tobin was a happy camper the whole time. He sat in the carseat and looked around at everything but didn't fuss a bit. Usually when we're there, my dad (who is a fast eater and finishes first, unless Jeff beats him) ends up holding Tobin when he gets restless in his carseat and carrying him around while the rest of us finish. But last night was just so relaxing with everyone being happy and content. :)

Another historic moment from last night that Josiah wanted me to mention: he offered to help David get buckled in his carseat when we got in the van--a first. Since both Josiah and David had their carseats in the back seat of the van, it was a little awkward to reach back there to buckle David; but I had not made any effort to teach him how to do it himself. I was grateful for Josiah's offer of help (although, of course, I would check David's straps, too, to make sure they were done properly)...but then, even better, David learned how to buckle himself! I've written before about how tired I sometimes get of buckling and unbuckling carseats, but recently I've usually had a much better attitude about it and haven't tried to jump ahead to the next step of Josiah and David both being able to take care of themselves in that area. But let me tell ya, if they're ready to make that leap, I'm ready, too! :)

Yet another historic moment happened today, and this time I had my camera handy so I could capture it for posterity. Josiah, for the first time, fed some baby food to Tobin! He asked if he could, and, well, who am I to say no? :) So I let him have a go, and he did well! He didn't end up feeding the whole serving of oatmeal to Tobin, but he did sit there for a while and shovel it in. If he keeps this up, I'll just be able to sit around and put my feet up while I watch him take care of everything! ;)

After reading on this blog that Josiah had done a 100 piece puzzle by himself, my parents dug around in their storage in the basement of my dad's office and unearthed a box that had quite a few puzzles that we had done as children. I had forgotten all about them, but fortunately my parents had not...and they brought them up to our house for Josiah to enjoy. He jumped right in and did this puzzle this morning while...
...my friend Nell-Marie was here visiting. She just had a baby, beautiful Anna, a few weeks ago; but oh my, she is so on top of things, sending out beautiful birth announcements and handmade thank-you notes, getting out and about with two children, etc. I'm impressed! :) I thoroughly enjoyed the time we had together, just sitting (on the floor--where else?) and chatting about life and childbirth and kids, etc.

In between these various events, the boys and I have had time here at home to cuddle and play games and read books and blow bubbles and visit with the neighbors and swing and--groan--chase and capture a chicken who seems bent on self-destruction, as evidenced by its insistence on getting out of the safety of its pen to wander dangerously close to Molly's jaws. It happened last night and again this evening, but I'm getting smarter. The first thing I do is tie up Molly. The second thing I do is enlist help to stand at strategic places to halt the chicken's advance in those directions. Then I move in slowly before pouncing on the silly chicken and tossing it back into the pen. I feel a little dumb when I admit this, but I didn't realize chickens could fly so high. We're going to have to take some drastic measures to rearrange the chickens' living quarters so they can't get out. At least Jeff will be back in a few days and will be able to deal with it much more effectively than I. Hurry home, Jeff, we need you to fix the chicken coop...and for a few other reasons than that! ;)

Day Fourteen - So Glad...

...to have had a fun outing to Riven Rock park with other families from our church this morning. The boys and I had a fantastic time and would have stayed longer, except for Josiah's dentist appointment this afternoon.


...for helping hands that made the job of caring for three boys during our outing this morning so much lighter.


...for Jeff calling this morning!!! It was the first time since he's been gone (which has actually been just fine because we've had so much email contact), and we weren't even here to take his call since we were playing in the river at that time. But it was so nice to hear his voice again, and I saved the message so we can play it over. :)


...that Josiah's dentist appointment this afternoon to get a little cavity filled went so well. It didn't take long, and he got his usual compliments from the staff about being such a good helper. He told me he was nervous about it beforehand, but tonight he was telling someone that it tickled when the dentist "painted" his teeth. I'm so grateful that he has had such good experiences with the dentist.


...that I got to snooze on the couch for a little while late this afternoon while Tobin was in bed, Josiah was quietly playing a game in the living room, and David was "eating" (or rather, looking at his food to see whether it was still there). I was so sleepy and felt like I could have easily fallen asleep in the waiting room of the dentist's office! At home, I think I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the couch. :)


...for our small group meeting tonight at the Wampole's house. They have the biggest, coolest treehouse I have ever seen in their backyard; it's truly amazing...and since they have two young sons, they have lots of other toys which entertained my boys completely. Plus, the Millers brought homemade chocolate ice cream which rivaled, in my opinion, Kline's chocolate--can't think of a higher compliment than that. The picture below was taken by Amy, and shows a timid (not his usual modus operandi) David holding a sparkler. It's a good thing she took this picture fast, because the moment didn't last long. I thought David was going to throw the sparkler at Mike in his haste to get it out of his hand! ...to have our neighbors home from the hospital! SO, SO GLAD to see Marlene again!!! To see her running out of her house across the lawn to welcome us tonight seemed nothing short of a miracle! They got home this evening; and although Marlene will have to continue to take some anti-seizure medicine for some time and is continuing to have a little trouble focusing her eyes, she is fine! FINE!!! In the end, the diagnosis was California encephalitis which she apparently got through a mosquito bite. What an experience! Josiah, my little tenderheart, was emotional about it all tonight. He was so happy to be over at the neighbors seeing Marlene again; but when we came back over here and he was tucked in bed, he put his head under his pillow and cried. I was getting David ready for bed so I couldn't go to Josiah right away, but he came to me and I held him on my lap in the glider rocker and we talked about the possiblity of death and God's power over it and the fear we sometimes feel. He didn't want to go back to his own bed because he wanted a place away from me and David and Tobin where he could cry, so I told him he could go down to the living room to the couch there. After I got Tobin nursed and in bed, I checked on Josiah and he was sound asleep on the couch--an exhausted (from the day's activities and from the emotions of Marlene's ordeal) little boy.


To close for tonight, here's a picture from the shouk in Tel Aviv. I loved this place, but it also drove me nuts sometimes! So crowded most of the time with people who are not...shall we say?...known for their politeness. I had to be mentally prepared to go here, or else I would come out utterly frazzled!

Days Twelve & Thirteen - With Pictures from Jeff!

It's much too late at night for me to attempt to formulate and record my thoughts in any way that makes sense, so this will be succinct tonight--mostly pictures and captions.

I was very, very happy to get some pictures from Jeff today! I love him...sigh. :) Josiah picked up right away on the fact that Jeff is wearing a floppy hat in these pictures. Jeff used to have one of these when we lived in Israel, but somewhere between here and there it disappeared. He was wishing that he had one before he left on this trip but wasn't able to find one in the short amount of time we were devoting to shopping in preparation for his departure. Josiah surmised that he must have found a place to buy one in Israel. :)

The first three pictures are of Jeff on the cliffs of Arbel, a prominent geographical feature near the Sea of Galilee and a fun place to climb around and explore.

~ the Sea of Galilee is visible on the far right in the above picture
~ Jeff and Eric relaxing in the shade...in such a climate, shade is CRUCIAL...it's amazing what a difference it makes to find a bit of shade in which to cool off

This is a picture from a newspaper that includes an article about the English camp and a picture of the camp that shows three of the team members and a number of students. To see more like this, go to this site. What? You can't read it??? Oh, well, enjoy the pictures at least. :)

Here are two pictures from Banias, one of my favorite sites in Israel. There is a stream here (which actually flows into the Sea of Galilee) and a waterfall, not a common thing in Israel! Reaching this spot demands a certain amount of exertion, but it's well worth the sweat! :)

This picture, obviously taken out of the window of their van, is of people riding up the ski lift at Mount Hermon which, at this time of the year, doesn't have snow on it, but definitely does in the winter. Israel is a lot more varied geographically than most people realize. Whereas the majority of people seem to imagine hot, sandy deserts when they think of Israel, the country actually includes very fertile agricultural areas, gorgeous oceans and seashores, and--yes--a mountain on which to ski.

This is at Nazareth Village--shepherds in the watchtower.

And, for Jeff's sake, a few pictures from here. Last night, I had the fun of going out for dinner with my friends Julie and Misty. We three were pregnant at the same time, with Misty giving birth to her daughter Elissa first and Julie delivering Mairi only 5 weeks ago. It was so nice to have some girl time with them, and I was especially blessed to have Julie's daughter Shannon keep my boys while we went out. Josiah did this 100 piece puzzle this morning all by himself. I've done it with him once, I think; and Shannon did it with him last night. But today he did it all and was proud of himself. It was definitely worth the 75 cents I paid for it a while back at good old Gift & Thrift. :) In the past, Josiah has enjoyed puzzles, but never been obsessed with them. Seeing him do this one though reminded me that I should be on the look-out for more puzzles for him.

And now, some pics of the day from when we lived in Israel. These are all from the school (a public junior high school) in which Jeff taught English for 2 years.

~ the entrance

~ the security guard that manned the gate...he was always asking Jeff to bring back a certain kind of shoes and a certain kind of alcohol (can't remember what kind for either of those categories) for him when we went on trips to the States...he thought he could get a good deal on those things by purchasing them outside of Israel ~ some of the students during an end of the year trip to a park in Tel Aviv that had a lake on which they could waterski

Days Ten & Eleven - Second Weekend

The days of Jeff's absence are passing by--only 8 more to go! We're over halfway, and that's a very good feeling. :)

To begin this (long) post, I'll give an update on Marlene, our neighbor girl. All of my information (except from a conversation this evening with Douglas, Marlene's father) has been second-hand (or third- or fourth-) so I hope I have my facts straight; but as best as I understand it, here's the story. Friday night, after being admitted to our local hospital, Marlene was determined to be in need of more advanced care, so she and her mother Wilma were flown by medical helicopter to UVA in Charlottesville where she is even now. Apparently, Marlene had swelling on her brain and had been having seizures...at the time, the doctors didn't know if the swelling was causing the seizures or if the seizures were causing the swelling--a chicken-or-the-egg type of situation. Marlene was unresponsive; in fact, the only two indications of any kind of response from her were when she flinched when being pinched on the leg and when she bit on the tube in her mouth when a nurse yelled at her to "WAKE UP!" (to test her response...obviously, not to be mean). A spinal tap was done on Marlene, but it takes a significant amount of time to get the results back from that--maybe 24 - 48 hours? I didn't hear this for sure; but my dad is positive that high doses of antibiotics and steroids were being given by IV the whole time, even before the results were known. It was a tense situation, and Marlene's complete lack of response was extremely troubling, to say the least.

Last evening (Saturday) there was one positive sign: Marlene woke up enough to say that her head hurt, then she curled up in her usual position (rather than being stretched out unnaturally as she had been) and went back to sleep. Her grandmother (Douglas's mother) was staying with her when this happened, as Douglas and Wilma had not gotten any sleep the previous night and had gone across the street to a hotel to crash (which Douglas said he did from 8:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.).

Fast forward to this evening: when the boys and I pulled into our garage from being over at a friends' house (more on that later), who should be coming across our driveway to meet us than Douglas himself?! It was obvious from his body language that the news was good; and we were all incredibly relieved to hear that Marlene was sitting up, talking and making sense, and even laughing this evening!!! He said that she was very surprised to hear that it was Sunday already and she thought it was really interesting how she got where she is now (since Old Order Mennonites don't ride in airplanes or helicopters normally). :)

The diagnosis given to her condition was "viral meningitis," and one of the medical personnel told Douglas that the pain that Marlene probably experienced was 10 times as bad as the pain of a migraine. She still needs time to recover fully; but what a relief (and that's a complete understatement) that she's come this far already.

Marlene's birthday is on Tuesday; and if she's still in the hospital, Douglas and Wilma may take their other daughters Rosalie and Wanita (who are currently staying with Wilma's parents) over the mountain to see Marlene and celebrate her birthday there together. What a celebration that will be!!!

In our Sunday school class today, we talked a lot about healing which I thought was highly appropriate since healing has been on my mind so much the past few days. In recent memory, I can't think of another situation in which I have prayed so fervently for physical healing. I felt like I was begging God for her life (and I know many other people were praying, too). I always want to pray in accordance with God's will, and I do believe that things which seem tragic to us can play an important role in His plans...but in this situation, I found myself praying over and over that God would raise Marlene up and restore her to complete health. Josiah and David were well aware of what was going on, and we prayed a number of times together for her healing. Our custom as a congregation is to have an open mic at the end of each service for anyone to speak what is on his/her heart, including any requests for prayer. Josiah asked me this morning if I was going to stand up and tell everyone about Marlene so we could all pray for her, so I did that...then told him that next time, I would let him stand up and speak. ;)

Many heartfelt thanks to all those who have been praying for Marlene! I mostly wrote all this info for Jeff's sake since I know he was concerned about the situation and will want to hear the details; but I've heard from others of you who have been praying for her as well, and I (and our neighbors) deeply appreciate that. The sense of relief is enormous, and I treasure the sight of Douglas being so filled with joy tonight that his little girl is going to make it. I think only if this had happened in our own family would it have gripped me more.

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On to Jeff... :) Just for fun, I want to share an email that Josiah dictated to me this morning to send to Jeff.

Daddy,

I miss you. A lot. I wish you could come home today. But you can't. Our ring chain isn't empty yet. And I love you no matter what.

Love,
Josiah

And the response he got back from his daddy...

Josiah,

I miss you a lot, too. Please tell David I miss him, too! I wish I could be with you right now. I love you so much. I can't wait until the next 7 days are over!

I only have 4 more teaching days... it has been hard to teach the Arabic kids English. They always want to play instead of pay attention to learning.

Tell Mommy I love her bunches and oats!

Daddy

Awwwww, isn't that sweet??? :)

On Friday, all the kids (200 or so) from the English camp and the teachers got to go swimming in a nice big pool with a huge water slide which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, despite using sunscreen, Jeff still got a sunburn which is particularly bad on his shoulders and is entering the itchy stage.

This weekend was full for him with driving the van for their service team and touring a number of sites in Galilee: Dan, Banias, Tabor, Hermon, passed Gamla (which I mentioned in my Day 7 post), then dinner at a Lebanese restaurant on Saturday evening and the night in a hostel in Tiberias. Today they toured Capernaum, Tagbas (there is a famous ancient mosaic there which commemorates the miracle of the fish and loaves), a drive around the Sea of Galilee to the entrance and exit of the Jordan River, another drive-by of Gamla (it's a great place, what can I say?) :), Arbel, Zippori (Jeff wrote this in an email, but I'm actually not sure what it is!) :), Nazareth Illit, a shouk (open-air market), then to his hosts' home for a BBQ of lamb and chicken shish kabobs which were very good, he wrote. (Hey, I had chicken shish kabobs tonight, too!) :) He and the others sure packed a lot into their weekend, but I'm glad for his sake that he's getting to revisit these sites...and I'm glad for the others that they're getting to see them as well. Now when they read the Scriptures about Capernaum or Nazareth or Dan or the other sites, they'll have an image to go with it, and there is no better way to learn than that.

Tomorrow it's back to teaching those kids who "always want to play instead of pay attention to learning." Hmmm...sounds like some kids I know. :) It's a good thing Jeff knows how to combine learning with play!

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Israel pic of the day: yes, there are McDonald's restaurants in Israel--lots of them, as a matter of fact. This one happened to be fairly close to our home, and (maybe I should be embarrassed to admit this) it was quite a treat when Jeff would stop by and bring McDonald's food home for us. :) Josiah was particularly fond of their free balloons--and their ice cream cones.

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I've been thinking recently about the theme of "continual feast" since that is how I'm feeling these days...which is a surprise to me since I thought that this time of Jeff being away would feel very empty for us; instead, it has been very full (although a huge hole still remains where he would normally be, of course). It's just that so many people have run to the rescue to fill in the gap for us and my focus has been on providing joy and laughter for my boys (rather than organizing the garage or even keeping up well with the laundry!) so our days have felt abundant rather than sparse.

Here are some aspects of our recent continual feast...

Yesterday morning, we went berry picking at a local arboretum with our good friend Anna Kathryn and her granddaughter Makayla (who is in Josiah's Sunday school class and whose mother is Melanie who graduated from high school with me). Guided by Anna Kathryn, we picked wineberries--a first for me--and then had a delightful snack of vanilla yogurt over fresh-from-the-vine wineberries. The weather was perfect...the environment gorgeous...and the company delightful!

~ Makayla, Josiah, and David picking wineberries...Makayla and Josiah both managed to get a sizable amount in their containers, but David was definitely "doing a Sal" (from Blueberries for Sal) because he would pick a few, put them in his container, then promptly reach in and eat them all!...I admit that even for me, it took a great deal of self-control to pick the berries for my container, rather than do what I really wanted which was stuff them in my mouth as quickly as I could pick them...they were SO yummy!

Meanwhile, Tobin was lying contentedly on a blanket in the clearing which was ringed by wineberry bushes. He looked at this toy and made the parts spin...

...then decided to chew on it for a while.
If he wasn't such a contented baby, I wouldn't have the freedom to do nearly all the things I've been doing recently!

While Josiah and Makayla looked for honeysuckle before our little picnic, David hung out by the pond and let me take his picture.

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This evening, our church held a Guess Who's Coming to Your Backyard BBQ; and we were fortunate enough to be sent to the Bontrager's house for dinner. Burdette and Carolyn made the BEST chicken kebabs; and from that to the homemade ice cream that Chris and Monika brought, it was all delicious! The real treat though was having the opportunity to get to know people in a deeper way through a different context than a Sunday morning worship service. I had so much fun, and my boys enjoyed it so much that David got a little teary when it was time for us to leave. I think Burdette's promise to have us back sometime to roast marshmallows over their fire pit helped David get over his sorrow though. :)

The Mumaws brought up this blog since they've been checking in to see how Jeff's trip has been going...so of course, I told everyone that I would put pictures from the night on the blog. Here they are! :)

~ the Bontragers have three boys, too, so they must be a great family :)...in any case, they have lots (and lots and lots) of trains and other things with wheels so Josiah and David were well entertained!

~ Carolyn holding Tobin while he prepares to bite down on that poor purple bear's nose...by the way, all the Carolyns I have ever known have been such extremely nice people: my mother's cousin, my good friend in college, my mentor and very close friend in San Diego were all named Carolyn...and now this Carolyn joins the ranks of "very nice people" in my mind :)
~ of course, this Ruth is a very nice person, too, even if she did insist on messing up the dominoes game with all her doubles ;)
~ we played Mexican train--only my second time ever playing it--I did NOT win, but I had a great time...I LOVE games and was glad when Clay suggested this

Thanks so much, Bontragers, for a wonderful evening!!!

Day Nine - With a Lot of Help from My Friends

I didn't hear from Jeff today so no update from him... But two things are heavily on my mind tonight.

First, I continue to be amazed at how supportive so many of our friends have been of me and the boys during this time. This morning, for example, the Sacra family kept all three boys for me so that I could have a morning off; then when I returned to their house to gather my flock, they fed us all a picnic lunch outside under their willow tree. I loved my alone time (and the boys loved their time with the Sacras)! I went to Gift & Thrift (twice in one week is quite the exciting splurge) where I was able to actually go in the dressing room and try on some things for myself. :) Then I went by the barbershop and had fun chatting with the women there...and I even happened to see Chris and Houston there, too. After that, I came home and had some time to spend on the computer, organizing my digital pictures. It was a wonderful time of refreshment for me, and I'm so very grateful for the Sacras' willingness--even eagerness--to do this. I'm very conscious of the people who are "holding up my arms" during this time.

Second, the ambulance came and took our neighbor girl Marlene to the hospital tonight. When Douglas and Wilma couldn't reach their doctor right away, they called Dad (it's good to live next to a country doctor!); and he examined Marlene who wasn't responding appropriately. They made the decision to call the rescue squad to have her transferred to the hospital for evaluation. Marlene has been fighting a sinus infection which could possibly have progressed to meningitis or even a brain abscess, but we're not sure at all at this point. My heart is so heavy as I think of her.

No new pictures tonight, just two Israel pics from April 25, 2005.

~ David (8 days old) and I at the Jerusalem Wall Restaurant, my favorite (ever since Abu Shanab's closed down) restaurant in the Old City
~ my mother and Josiah

Dancing in the Streets

Did you dance like this at your wedding? ;)

Day Eight - One Week Down

Highlights of Jeff's day:

~ finishing the last day of English classes in this first week...tomorrow everybody at the English camp gets to go swimming--hurray!

~ cleaning oil lamps, putting wicks in them, and putting them in gift bags at Nazareth Village this afternoon (every visitor who walks through Nazareth Village is given one)--an easier job than building a mikvah :)

~ going with his host family to an Arab wedding tonight...Jeff said that the wedding party is 7 days long, and the part they participated in tonight was just the groom and the men dancing to LOUD music, with fireworks and tons of delicious food, all outside in the streets...it was all in Arabic, of course; and there were hundreds of people there...when I asked him (we were Instant Messaging) where the bride and the women were, he answered that they were all on the other side of a fence, and some were standing on chairs trying to watch...the women were eating and drinking (but not alcohol since that is forbidden for Muslims)...one woman is allowed to join in the dancing with the men...want to guess who that is?...it's not the bride--rather, it's her mother!...Jeff took a little video clip of the dancing, and I'm going to try to post that separately to give a feel for the atmosphere of the festivities...Jeff said that he was dragged into the dancing, and I'm very, very sorry that no one took a video of that! ;)

Here is a picture of Jeff and Steve Yoder in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in the grotto where, as the tradition goes, Mary delivered Jesus:


Highlights of our day:

~ walking with Amy and Melanie this morning at the Waterman track while the boys played on the nearby playground...or rather, while the boys thought about playing on the playground but decided instead to try to walk along with us, ask a few dozen questions, make a few hundred comments, try to "help" by pushing the stroller, wish aloud that we had taken their bikes, ignore the inflatable dice that we had brought for them to kick around, and then--finally--to decide to go play on the playground, shortly before we had to leave! oh, well, it's all good

~ dinner at the McClay's house tonight...Julie just had a baby 4 and 1/2 weeks ago, and here she is having us over for dinner already!...I don't think I was doing that when Tobin was that old!...I always enjoy our time together, and am so grateful for Steve and Julie's example of focus on God rather than the world--and peace in spite of noise :)...it's a true blessing to call them friends

~ starting a new plan for learning US geography (in a very laid-back, fun way)...I printed out a blank map of the USA; and as we read stories that link to a certain state--whether because the events of the book happened there or for some other reason--we fill in that state on our map (and put together a list of which books correspond to which state). We started with Massachusetts with a book about the Pilgrims, as well as Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. Josiah is very excited about this; it appeals to his organized side just as much as it appeals to mine! But lo and behold, I discovered that the vast majority of the books on our shelves (and we're talking hundreds of books) are not linked to any particular state. Some are stories which could occur almost anywhere...some involve things like outer space or other countries of the world...some involve general knowledge about things like animals, but again, no specific mention of a certain state...some are fairy tales...etc. I realized that the category of books that we haven't delved into very deeply is historical and biographical--books that are tied down to a particular place. I plan to remedy that situation, and I hope to read at least one book for all 50 states. But I'd be grateful for any input about this goal, if anyone cares to leave a comment or email/tell me in person: maybe good biographies at Josiah's level (rising first-grader), or a book that is connected to a particular state? Any suggestions would be much appreciated! So far, we've got books for Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana, and North Carolina--maybe more, but those are what come to mind immediately. Valerie, I'm particularly counting on you to help me out! ;)

Here's the Israel picture of the day: Josiah and I with the Tel Aviv beach in the background. This was taken on May 21, 2005, one month and four days after David was born. I sure wish my figure would have bounced back this quickly after I had Tobin, but then again, I don't walk several miles every day like I did in Israel as a matter of course. Speaking of my figure, I know I have some new readers who are checking in on Jeff's trip; but those of you who have been reading for a while know that I'm trying to lose weight--17 pounds of baby weight--and that I'm using this blog as a huge dose of public accountability! With everything else that's been going on, I didn't report in for the week yet--something I usually do on Mondays--but I'm happy to say that the scale registered at 150.4 pounds on Monday. The weight is coming off--yippee! :)

Day Seven - Much Better!

I knew I was having a better day today; but when I found myself singing "Skip to My Lou" aloud for all the neighborhood to hear while we were feeding the calves this evening, I realized how high my happiness level had gotten. :) Whew, one day like yesterday is enough for a long while!

The big event of the morning was a trip to the dentist, dear Dr. Greene (who was my dentist when I was a girl), for Josiah. My boys actually love going to the dentist. For example, David was disappointed that he only got to go to the waiting room today and didn't get to go back into the rest of the office to have his teeth checked. And Josiah is truly excited about the fact that he gets to return to the dentist next week to have a small cavity filled. Between this dental practice's extremely good manner with children and our own bit of brainwashing, our boys think a visit to the dentist is grand! :) All three boys were so well-behaved in the dentist's office; I don't think they could have done any better, which was quite a boost to my parenting confidence after last night's trouncing of it!

In any case, it got the day off to a good start which was enhanced even more by our visit to Gift & Thrift to donate some stuff and buy some other stuff. This is how it is--we have a revolving-door policy with Gift & Thrift, a true give-and-take relationship. And the best part? It's all for a good cause. That's what Mother and I tell Dad, anyway. :)

We happened to see a few people we know while we were there; and the day brightened even more by conversations with them. Thanks, Diane, Becky, and Jenny!

After we got home, my neighbor Wilma called and asked if we could keep her youngest daughter Wanita this afternoon while Wilma took the other girls to the doctor. Of course we could, so Wanita spent a few hours with us which passed pleasantly with lots of story-reading and other forms of entertainment.

While she was here, David got a hold of her bonnet which she had laid aside when she came in; and not being content to simply admire it in his hands, he had to try it on which made us all laugh. :)

~ let's see, I know they do something with these strings...wonder if I can do it like they do?
~ well, how do I look???

Speaking of laughing, my dad made us all roar tonight when he tried on a mask that Josiah made during VBS. My dad is usually fairly dignified, so I'm not sure what he was thinking when he did this uncharacteristic action. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for him), I happened to have my camera handy; and before he knew what was going on, I had taken a picture of him. As soon as the flash went off (this pic was too important to me to try to capture it with natural light!), he realized his error...but it was too late. He knew instantly that this picture would end up on the blog; and obviously I wouldn't want to disappoint him! ;)

What I really love about this picture though is that David is so happy to see Grandpa with the mask. It's a tough job to entertain grandkids, but somebody's gotta do it!

~ am I cool or what? maybe I can wear this while I see some patients tomorrow in the office!

The history-making part of the day came this evening when I fed some real food to Tobin for the first time! Yummy rice cereal--everyone's favorite. ;) Tobin will be 6 months in a few days, so it was definitely time...and oh my, he sure gobbled it up! He was obviously very ready for this. It reminded me of when Josiah turned 4 months, the earliest age when it was OK to give him solids without the baby food police showing up at the door. I eagerly fed him rice cereal, but he didn't receive it quite as enthusiastically as Tobin did tonight! With David, we waited until he was 5 and 1/2 months; and I think he did OK with it. Notice how the ages kept getting older before we fed them solids. With Josiah, I thought, "This is going to be so much fun to feed him; I can hardly wait!" With Tobin, I'm thinking, "It's actually easier to just nurse him because the milk is always ready and I can do something else (like read to myself or to the boys) at the same time so let's just wait on real food." However, seeing how eager Tobin was to eat tonight made me realize that it's going to be a lot of fun to feed him, too. My hungry little birdie. :)

~ we do have a highchair, but it's a cheap one that doesn't give good support for this age of baby at all...Tobin slouches over and practically gets lost in it, so for tonight it was just simpler to feed him in his bouncy seat...I miss the really nice highchair we had when Josiah was a baby
~ the only hard part about feeding Tobin this evening was that he kept putting his thumb in his mouth between bites, so I had to try to hold his hand down while also holding the container of rice cereal and feeding him at the same time

By far, the best surprise of the day was when I went into Josiah and David's room a few minutes after tucking them in and yelled, "Surprise!!! Pajama ride! Come on; get in the minivan. Here we go!" They had no idea what was going on because this was our first ever pajama ride...but certainly not our last (many thanks to Renee for this idea). I really should have been taking a video when I did it to capture that moment since it was especially delightful to see Josiah (Mr. Command Man) so completely caught off guard and clueless about what was going on. :)

I didn't tell them where we were going, and it wasn't until we saw this lovely sign... ...and pulled into the parking lot of my favorite ice cream place that they knew our destination. Jeff and I had each been given a gift certificate for free ice cream as a thank-you for our help with VBS so I used those and didn't have to spend a dime (except gas money, but let's not think about that) to create this special memory for the boys. For the first time, Josiah got a cone at Kline's and did a pretty good job of keeping up with the melting ice cream; only once did I have to rescue him and lick some of it up before it got too far ahead of him--tough job. :) David and I shared a cup of chocolate (my current favorite ice cream, edging out my long-time favorite, Breyer's mint chocolate chip); and I sat on the floor of the minivan where I had removed a seat and doled out bites: "one for you, one for me."
Tobin just watched and didn't get to have any, although David didn't really understand why we didn't share with him, too! :)
And then, on the way home, we got to watch a spectacular sunset, a sight that I never get tired of or lose my admiration for. My sons thought I was crazy when I got them out of bed for a pajama ride, but they really thought I'd lost it when I kept pulling off the road on the way home to take pictures of the sunset. :)

~ the building of West Side Baptist Church silhouetted against the sunset
~ the sunset from Mountain View Elementary School

Despite the sugar they had just consumed, Josiah and David fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow; and I haven't heard a peep out of them since!

Another highlight of the day was continued email communication with Jeff, including pictures! of him!!! :) In the first picture, he's with Eric Trinka, the leader of their group; and in the second picture, he's inside the Church of the Assumption, built to commemorate the spot where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she would give birth to a son who would save His people from their sins.

Jeff wrote that the day went well, and that he drank a lot of coffee this morning. Think there's a connection? He also wrote that the work on the mikvah was not so bad, especially because he was the "go get" boy for the guys who were really working. Tomorrow he will attend a wedding with his host family which I'm sure will be an extremely interesting cultural experience. We've seen/participated in some Jewish weddings; but unless my memory is failing, I don't recall an Arab wedding that we've been a part of. I wish I could zap myself over to the Middle East and go to the wedding with him!

Last, the Israel picture of the day...the pointed hill behind me that looks like a camel's hump is the site of an ancient city named Gamla (obviously related to the word "gamal" for camel). If I'm not mistaken, the synagogue ruins here are perhaps the oldest in the world? (I'm sure Jeff will correct me in the comments if I'm wrong.) :) The significant aspect of this site, however, is that it is where Jeff prayed specifically for God to give me to him as his wife. This was back in 1996 when it looked like everything was against our relationship and only a miracle would make his prayer come true. Thank God for miracles! :) This picture was taken during my first visit to the site; and since I was 8 months pregnant with our second son and we had 8 years of marriage under our belt, it was obvious that Jeff's prayer had been answered with a resounding YES!
Now, if you want to see some awesome (and I'm not using that term lightly...it's truly awe-inspiring) photography from the Middle East, go check out this site. Jeff emailed briefly to give me this link and tell me that he met this guy today. I don't know anything about him, except that he seems to sincerely have a passion for God...and have an exceptional talent for capturing the Middle East in pictures.