Thursday, May 19, 2011

If only...

If only it was the thought that counted then I would have posted on this at least every couple weeks, if not every week. Instead we're looking at five plus months of no posts. Oh well, I will try to be better. Also, at some point I think we may be switching to doing some more updates by email, so if you are interested in getting those my wife (the more reliable one) will be putting together a list, so let her know.

Alright, so what has gone on this semester. Wow, so much (sorry if this is long). In terms of the fam, everyone is doing real well. Kel still loves school and is eagerly looking forward to her birthday party tomorrow, girls (princesses) only, but Bri and I are allowed in on the fun as well. It is a bit late as we wanted to wait until things freed up after the kids ended soccer. Her team of 4/5 year olds is, of course, hilarious to watch as the mass moves around the field. She is really funny as she will run all the way to whoever has the ball, but is not aggressive enough to take it from them. My sister tried to give her the advice to imagine the person was her brother (whom she has no trouble tormenting), but the advice did not seem to work. She had a blast though, which is great. She is already becoming quite the girly girl as she loves clothes, dolls, anything pink (which according to her, Uncle Will, is a color boys should not wear), shoes, and talking on the phone. Most of her phone time is still limited to her play phone though, on which she is constantly calling her friend Edessa, whom she is sure is in every white mini-van which we see on the road.

Bri played soccer and from watching some pros play he figured out the cool move of slide tackling... had to have a talk and let him know that might be a bit too much for his age group. But he had a blast and we just finished our second trip to Cici's Pizza in as many weeks for end-of-the-year parties. He's doing well in school, but is looking forward to the summer when he has more free time for his three favorite past times: video games, Legos, and watch TV... little does he know that we get to be the evil parents and just make him go outside and play more :)

Allie is steadily plugging away at her schooling, just two classes left! She will likely finish up this fall or next winter depending on how our plans work out. Schooling for me is winding down. I have an internship left this summer, but I walked this past weekend. A lot of my family made it down so it was great to see everyone... and we had some great food as well, at my graduation party... but especially in some trips to Waffle House and Inakaya for sushi. We miss them all a lot (Kel especially misses having my sister's dog to boss around... although he never listens to her), but we will see them again soon as they will be back down soon for some stuff at our church.

Many ask what our plans are now. We are not really sure. We still are looking to go overseas and are all working on our Russian, but past that we need to get a lot of plans in order. That is the main goal for the summer. But things are winding down here. We finished Bible Clubs with the kids from the church and neighborhood. It was difficult at times, but we have had some very encouraging talks with parents and kids lately. One in particular was great. It was with one of the kids who has caused us the most problems and we felt his grandparents were always frustrated that we kept bringing him home. However, they let us know how much they and he appreciated what we have done. Also, we talked awhile and it was great to look back and see that although he has caused some problems, he has been getting a lot better over these years. This was especially encouraging as we have seen some other kids starting to get caught up in other issues; this kid has been improving and it was a real encouragement to see God working in his life, and some others whom we have talked with recently.

Alright, that's about it for now... a little long, but wanted to catch people up. I'll try to be more diligent, but I'll leave you with a funny quote from Bri. He was telling us about something from school and Kel wanted to add her thoughts. He looked at her and said very seriously (stressing the last word), "Kel, you won't understand, this is SCIENCE." Speaking of Kel, she just came wandering out of bedroom... her excuse this time is she's looking for her stuffed animal, Hippo. Time to be off to solve the world problems... of a 5 year old.

3 comments:

  1. Congrats again, John! That's so great to hear that you've made it through your formal studies. Looking forward to catching up with you soon and hearing about your internship. Take care.

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  2. great stuff! glad to hear an update from y'all. I finished classes in December and have my internship to complete this summer. Cristi and I will be working w/ an English-speaking international church in Kiev for 6-7 weeks.

    We've been more intentional in our outreach w/ the kids in our neighborhood, and had two parties in the last 2 months where I got to do a Bible lesson w/ the kids. you guys set the example for us! :)

    blessings and do keep in touch as future Russia plans develop. we hope for the same but will be in Charlotte at least several more years.

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  3. Thanks for sharing, miss you guys!!

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