I wanted to send out an update on our girl just as soon as I heard the latest. Most importantly, the good news is that Anna is safely there and in their new home!! She arrived last night with L. (the mom) and the two little girls she is going to nanny. Praise God for His protection and provision so far!
The travel to Africa proved to be very stressful, as their flight out of the States was delayed by storms for 2 hours, causing them to miss their connecting flight out of Rome to Africa. But, after many delays, lots of frustration and over 24 hours of travel, they are there! They even got bumped up to first class for one round of travel due to the hassles. What a treat for them!
Their apartment there is spacious and bright, although M. (the dad) and his brother-in-law (who flew out with M. a week before to get everything ready) had to clean and scrub for 20 hours to get it ready for the girls! Wow! Anna has a bedroom with her own bathroom and they are in a pretty nice part of the city, near a main thoroughfare. It is hot and the air is pretty polluted, so it's a big change from our lovely Michigan weather.
The sad news is that they will not be able to get internet access in their apartment until their visas clear, which could be up to 2 (maybe 3) months. Yikes. My heart sank when I heard that, but there are other friends there with computers, so we may be able to get sporadic contact from them. My webcam will just have to wait!
Saying goodbye to Anna was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do as a mom. My heart felt like it was ripping and still is very sad today, but we are confident she is in the center of God's will and being a nanny to those two precious girls for a year is the very thing she is meant to do! Please keep us all in your prayers and Anna and the rest, as well. M.and L. will begin language school right away next week, so it will be another big adjustment for them all.
Thank you all for your care and prayers and love....
Well, the day is finally here. I've know this day would arrive ever since she read her first missionary biography book and turned saying, with tears in her eyes, "Mom, I have to go, too." She leaves tomorrow for a year in Africa as a nanny to our friends' two little girls, while they are in language school. My heart is overflowing with absolute joy and assurance that she is completely in the center of God's will, awe at our marvelous God who made all this possible, and sadness at the thought of her physical absence in our home. She is a girl full of joy, sillies, bounce, noise, delight and fun. She blessed us all yesterday with thoughtful and tender goodbye gifts and cried at our goodbye gifts to her. She wept yesterday at church when her friends gathered round her and prayed for her, crying and hugging her with all their might. She has packed all that will be essential into two containers and tomorrow we bring her to the airport and wave goodbye. Please pray for her and for our family. This is huge and our God is great! We rejoice in this and weep.
Enjoy our pictures from a lovely family day yesterday!
Till next time, Julie
(p.s. today is my birthday and my girls blessed me with a webcam to "see" Anna while overseas! Yesss!)
This one was an "oops" picture, but so cute, I thought I'd put it in, too!
I love watching our backyard wildlife, particularly the beautiful birds that visit my feeders right outside my computer/family room window. It has been very traumatic for me (and, I'm sure, the birds) to have predators terrorizing our normal tranquil back yard and surrounding woods.
Yesterday I was happily watching a cardinal, yellow finch, purple sparrow, and tufted titmouse all peacefully feeding together, when like rockets, two Cooper's hawks soared out of the woods and into the midst of the happy dinner party. My birdies didn't return for quite a while. The hawks perched in our maple tree, licking their chops. Well, OK, not really, but that's what it seemed like to me. Wretched raptors.
Apparently, Cooper's hawks love to eat little birds and will stake out feeding areas to hunt. So, in a way, I'm helping the Cooper's hawks. I'm luring their dinner. I'm their accomplice.
That makes me feel rather sad and a touch guilty.
For now, all I can do it continue to dash outside and wave my arms at them. Glaring at them through my window didn't do anything.
I've realized I've never posted a picture of our pug, Maggie, although I reference her in my profile. Maggie is our nearly 5 year old pug, who LOVES to cuddle, can still "crazy run" when excited (gotta know pugs to understand what a pug crazy run is), and, sadly, is nearly blind. She's my girl, though and I love her!
My Viking and my sweet husband (who is not a Viking)!
I LOVE my Viking Husqvarna sewing machine. Even though I haven’t really sewn with it much the last 5-8 years, that little machine has done its fair share of buttonholes, seams, pleats and collars over its 25 year life. Yes, you read that correctly. Twenty-five years.
My sweet and generous husband bought me my Viking 190 sewing machine when we were engaged and I immediately stitched him up furry car seat covers in a gesture of gratitude (it took months to get all the leftover gray furs out of my machine). From there I went on to craft my wedding dress, countless curtains, pillows, entire wardrobes for us (I worked through college at a fabric store), baby clothes, more curtains, children’s clothes, and on and on. Over the years, my little machine has suffered many bumps and knocks, had its cord chewed by every puppy and kitten we’ve adopted and been diligently pieced back together by my sweet and resourceful husband.
So, you can imagine my great dismay recently when stitching up an apron (that’s another blog entry...) to discover that I my beloved machine wasn’t working! Oh no! I thought, it can’t finally have gone the way of all machines, not my little Viking, not now, not after only 25 years! I checked all my plugs, pumped the foot pedal up and down vigorously and did what any good woman would do.....yelled ”Honey!!!!!”
Happily, my sweet and patient husband came and began to inspect my beloved tool. He, too, checked plugs and began unwrapping each cord repair he had made over the years, assuming one of the wires had simply come apart. Yards and yards of electric tape came undone as he quietly and diligently tried to find the problem. After checking his wire-patching and finding it still completely intact, he taped it back up and looked again at my faithful Viking machine.
“Julie, did you turn the On button on? Because it was on Off.”
Silence.
I tapped the foot pedal. My steadfast Viking began chugging away, just like the first day I got it home.
My sweet and gracious husband simply smiled and wrapped some more electric tape around the cord.
I’m glad he isn’t in the habit of making blond jokes.
We have enjoyed this recipe a few times at our home and I thought I'd share it with you. It is a Mediterranean Orange, Olive and Onion Salad.
It has a wonderful dressing which is both sweet and spunky. Our family LOVES to try new foods, especially from different parts of the world. Our youngest daughter, Emma (who is 10) just loves this salad! The nice thing about it is you could try it with just one orange and give everyone a little bite to see if it's something your family will enjoy. Be adventurous!!
Orange, Olive and Onion Salad
4 oranges
16 black olives (we used a whole big can)
1 medium mild red onion (they can be spunky, so you could use white onion here), finely chopped
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
pinch of ground chili pepper (I used cayenne)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Peel oranges, removing pith. Cut into thick slices and then in quarters. Put on serving dish with olives and onion.
Make a dressing of the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, cumin, paprika and chili pepper and pour over salad. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.
One month....that's all. One month until my daughter travels across the globe to Africa...for a year! I've known this day was coming for a long time, since the day she finished reading her first missionary biography and came to me, crying, saying she knew she was called to be a missionary. I am thrilled and humbled by this and wouldn't wish for anything else for her. We wouldn't dream of standing in her way at all, to do so would be disobedience to our Father in heaven!
But, my mama heart is starting to ache a bit and cringe when I look at the calendar. How will I bear it? I do indeed know the answer -- the Lord!!! Day by day, moment by moment if need be. He is faithful and a shelter, a strong tower for me to run in to! He is my constant help and strength, as well as our daughter's. We know this full well...
I am very new to knitting and am having a blast. I have been practicing my stitches and learning new techniques all the time. Granted, it is getting a bit too hot to knit with wool this time of year, but I'm going to try to do some cotton projects over the summer.
I just heard about a knitting contest on ali's blog, so of course, I'm eager to enter and expand my knitting skills. My summer goal is to finish 1 good size cotton project and also to explore knitting with beads (so pretty!). Check out her blog and if you are a knitter, please join the party!
What a blessing my oldest daughter is! She decided to take her "little" sister, Jessica, to see her all-time favorite singer, Rebecca St. James recently in Lansing, MI. When Becca was much younger (she is 20 years old now!), she LOVED Rebecca St. James (RSJ) and I took her to a concert where we sat front row and center. Jessica (almost 14!!!) now LOVES RSJ and has inherited most of Becca's CD and old concert t-shirts!
So, for Jess' 14th birthday (which is in July), Becca decided to surprise her and take her to a SHE tour. She didn't tell Jess until they were in Lansing (which is a LOOOONNGGG drive from our house). She was so happy she nearly cried!
They so enjoyed the evening and Jess was even called up to sing along with RSJ!!! Wow! Here they are afterward with Rebecca St. James and her two brothers.
Thank you, Becca, for blessing your sister so much!!
Random thoughts on our life in beautiful Michigan (the mitten!), serving the Father, homeschooling with our four amazing daughters, and cuddling Maggie, our adorable pug.
with thanks to 
