New School Year!!

                                                      My precious preschooler!!

My fantastic fourth grader!!

My terrific third grader!!

I was a little behind on taking our "first day of school" pictures. So we'll just call these "first day of school with Phillip's cast off" pictures. 

Our schedule of 3 weeks of school then 1 week off has been great. Having a week to plan the next 3 has worked out very well. I feel like we are actually accomplishing some things. Also it gives me time to get my house really cleaned. 3 weeks is about all I can take of some things piling up. 

Last year we attempted to use the work box method, but I just wasn't really happy with the storage bins that I had bought. We really didn't have an official place for them and I felt that they just looked pitiful. I am very excited about how we have things organized this year!

Each of the boys have their own set of drawers for their daily school work. You're probably wondering what Phillip's is filled with; puzzles, coloring books, lacing cards, flashcards, books, his Cubbie book. 

Each of the boys did pick out what picture they wanted on their own drawer tags. Phillip likes Ningajo, so he picked Jay. Patrick chose a Matrix Lego guy and Trevor picked his favorite football team, Steelers.

 I also made the workbox tags that show what they accomplished during the day. 

Here's hoping we have another great school year!!

Where did Summer Go??

 It's hard to believe that August is almost over. Where did the summer go? The boys and I had made a summer bucket list hoping to cross off them all. I think we had about 30 fun things listed and we crossed off 7. I think we will save our list for next summer.



Building with marshmallows....

Phillip has been in his cast for about 5 weeks. We had a doctor appointment and next week he gets it off. I am so excited!!! I know that Phillip is ready for it to come off. He has been a real trooper about not being able to do a lot of things that his brothers can do.

Phillip napping.

16 weeks pregnant! Just starting to show a little bit. I go back to the doctor at the end of September for an ultrasound. We are planning on having a Gender Reveal Party to find out if it's a Little Prince or a Little Princess! I think most everyone is thinking pink for us. 

                                                                
We have officially started our 2012-2013 school year on July 30. Trevor is in 4th grade and Patrick is now a 3rd grader. My plan is to do some basic things with Phillip if I can figure out a daily schedule.  Maybe this week we can get some beginning of school pictures done. Better late than never right? Our schedule this year is something a little different. 3 weeks on then 1 week off. So far it's working for us. Hoping to be able to get ahead so we can take a little longer break when our baby arrives late January/early February.

Crayon Artwork!

 What can you do when it's really really hot outside?? 

Melt crayons inside!!

 I glued the crayons on each canvas board in the pattern that Trevor and Patrick made. Neither one of them wanted to use the hot glue gun. Both were very excited to use the hair dryer to melt their crayons!

Both boys are very proud of their art.  The art is hanging in our hallway and it looks BEAUTIFUL!!

Saying Goodbye to New Life

We are preparing to leave this morning from Munkacs and drive to Budapest. It has been a wonderful week here. Seeing the amazing things God is doing among these people. It's hard to say goodbye knowing that I won't be returning next year. I do look forward to the year that I will be able to return. We do have a 6 hour car ride to Budapest. Hopefully crossing the border will go as smooth as possible. I am looking forward to the tour of Budapest tomorrow! Thank you all for your prayers and support. It has meant a lot to me and I know that it has helped me tremendously thru the week. I love you all!!

Seeing God Work

This morning we had VBS at New Life Church. We divided up the children into 5 groups instead of 6, since Archie, Teresa and Alicia were meeting with her landlord. Praise GOD that all the details were worked out today and everything is set for Alicia to stay at this apartment in Munkacs.

I helped in the craft station helping the children make butterflies. They really seemed to like them a lot. After VBS we had several hours of downtime. I took a nap since I wasn’t feeling very well. It was very hot today and I think that the heat was really getting to me.  We learned after lunch that a small gypsy girl was hit by a car this morning as she was cross the street to come to VBS. We were told that she wasn’t hurt (no broken bones) but also that the hospital refused to treat her since she was a gypsy. Talk about heartbreaking!! I did get to meet this little girl when her grandmother brought her to the church. I sat outside with her and helped her make the butterfly craft. She had a big smile on her face when we were done.

Alicia and her parents, along with Pastor Jonas meet this afternoon with the mayor of Munkacs to talk about the kindergarten. The report that we got back from them was that it was a good meeting. They are trying to work out the details of registering the kindergarten. Our entire team met outside and surprised the Mayor and sang him Happy Birthday in English. Ana, one of our translators said that he was very surprised and loved it.

Our plan for this afternoon was to walk thru the local Gypsy camp, where the children live who have been coming to the church for VBS.  We instead drove thru on our way to Porchahaza. The team last year did not visit this camp. I am really glad that we didn’t walk thru the camp. It was very hard to see the conditions that they live in. There is lots of trash just everywhere. I remember seeing it last year when we visited different camps.  The sad thing is that these people don’t know any different lifestyle. Seeing the conditions they live in and then thinking about how we as Americans live is sickening. We have SO much stuff t hat we just take for granted. Having food, clean water, clothes that fit. We worry about missing our favorite TV show or not having the newest electronic device. This is nonsense in comparison to how these people are living.

Our time this evening at Porchahaza was great. There was a smaller group of children, only about 70. They did great listening to the bible story and making their tambourine bracelets. We then took the children outside to a field beside the church to play games. Lindsey and I jumped rope with some of the boys. I also helped the girl’s team when it was time to play tug of war. The girl’s team won a few times and they were very very excited!!! Before we left we sat the children down and gave them each an apple to eat. Afterwards we came back to the church to eat dinner. Stuffed cabbage and fried chicken meatballs. Very Yummy!!

It is amazing to see God work among these people. They are eager to hear the word. Our team shared that 4 youth were saved today! Praise GOD!!! 

A day full of VBS!

This morning our team went to a village named Rat to have VBS with the children. Several times while we were preparing for our trip we were told to be flexible, plans may change. As we had our evening devotion last night and talked about today's plans, we came up with our plan for VBS at Rat. They have a church building in their village with 3 rooms. Our plan was to use all three rooms, but when arrived we saw several men working on filling in the floor of the church. The other two rooms were not two rooms but one room with a start of a wall in between. Alicia came up with another plan and I have to say that this was an awesome VBS!! The kids were great! Even after they played games and colored in the hot sun, they still were very excited that we were there. When we returned to the church we had a few hours before VBS started at 5pm. Josh worked more with some men building the tables and chairs. The table and chair look fantastic. I hope I can post pictures of that soon. Alicia was very excited seeing the finished project. She is hoping to have the tables painted in different colors for the classroom. Our team decided to feed the children sandwiches instead of biscuits before VBS. The ladies on the team with the help of the translators made over 250 sandwiches! It seemed like we had a smaller group of children this evening for VBS, but there were still alot of children. Alicia and Candace shared the bible story of David playing music for the King. The kids really liked the tambourines that they made. We did send the children home tonight with a piece of fruit. Our plan tomorrow is to have VBS at New Life church in the morning at 9am. Tomorrow night we will have a church service. Kyle is going to share an encouraging word, our team is going to sing a few songs while Kyle and Marty play their guitars. I think that Josh, Deanna, Aubrie, Ada Faye and Aubrie are going to share a testimony. Prayer Requests: For Gods presence to contine to be felt during all of our activities. For strength for all of the team with the heat outside For our team as we prepare for and share during the church service tomorrow.

VBS at New Life Church

Today we had our first VBS at New Life Church. Compared to last year I think that it went great! We had a meeting this morning with the youth of the church and were able to get them to be group leaders. It was great to give them that responsibility because the younger children look up to them as role models and have respect for them. 80% of the youth are new believers. They each were given a colored cross to lead each group. It was awesome to have their help getting the children divided and kept under control. This was a big relief for our team. as we were able to really focus on each task assigned to us.

We were given some shocking news about the number of children to expect. We heard that the last team had 500 children. This worried us a little because we had planned for 300 children with the crafts. It was truly amazing to see just how well word of mouth works. This morning several youth from the church went to the local village and told the children to come. Before I knew it, the driveway in front of the church was full of children! I think our final count was 220. God knew how much we had prepared for and he knew how many we would have. Praise God!! 

I worked with Stacey at the coloring station. Our station was right after the bible story. I thought this was great because the children knew about the picture they were to color. The chant we are teaching them this week was caught on pretty quickly. Today's chant was "God is King. God takes care of you and me." 


Deanna, Lindsey, and Marty were in the puppet station. The kids were very attentive to the puppets and to Marty as they did the EvangaCube. During one of the rotations, a youth from New Life Church shared his testimony. Marty said that the kids had their eyes glued on him as he spoke. I believe that this was the first time that the youth were given such a big role with the young children. 


Teresa and Ada Faye worked with the children making a sheep craft. Kyle and Aubrie were leading the children in songs and dance. Josh and Archie were playing games with the children in a big field beside the church. Candace and Alicia were sharing the bible story with the children. I think everyone had a great time in their stations. 

After VBS was over we fed the children lunch before they went home. While the food was still being prepared, we tried to get the kids to help pick up the trash that was around the church. Candace shared that she had talked to some kids, telling them that they did a good job and that God saw what they were doing.  Hearing this made the children even more eager to pick up trash. This showed that they got the message today that was taught. HUGE PRAISE!! Planning the food didn't work out like planning our crafts. Unfortunately not all the children were fed something to eat before they left. 


Our team divided after lunch. Josh, Archie and Marty went with some men for New Life church to go and purchase the supplies and tools needed to build the chairs and tables for the kindergarten. The store that they went to was more helpful than we ever would have thought. They cut all the tabletops, chair seats and chair backs for a very reasonable price. . The store even put and edging around the tabletop. The ladies on the team stayed and prepared the crafts for tomorrow. We are going to go out to Rat, a Gypsy village nearby in the morning to do VBS.

HUGE PRAISE!!! Alicia has found a place to live. All the details will be finalized later this week.

Thanks you all for the prayers for Candace. Her knee did not bother her at all today. Thank you also for the prayers for me, I felt much better today.

Prayer Requests:

Ada Faye - she did fall in the shower but seems to be ok, Please pray that she won't begin to fell pain.