February 25th - Peter's Birthday

Here comes the lego cake Aleana made!!!

What a happy birthday boy!!!

Crazy Cousins.

Look how big Dylan is!!

"oh no, I think a nail might have chipped!"

Auntie Michelle all nicely curled up on the couch.

Dad cutting the cake.

Yummy cake!!!

Don't Ethan and Peter look alike?

Cupcakes at Coffee Break

We made cupcakes for the coffee break kids and had a small party for Peter's b-day. 

Look at how big this kid is getting!!

really?  What is the point of socks anyway?

Half the mix ended up on his face.

More birthday pictures coming soon!!!

The School Dinner

Welcome to the 2012 William of Orange School Dinner!!  Peter took these first few pictures while I was working in the kitchen early in the afternoon.  It was a rainy day so it was nice to pretend we were at a Luau!

Don't you love this five year olds perspective?

Hi Peter!!

Me, wearing my Oma apron.

Here's the gang making drinks to greet people at the door.

"Aloha!!!"

A was a big help as usual.

I hope that you like pineapple!!!

Mahalo for stopping by!!!

Will's Graduation from BCIT

On February 16th, 2012 Will was honored a Degree in Technology from BCIT with distinction.

He would never say that himself, he doesn't talk about it alot - neither did he want to go to the ceremony because that's how he is about it.  I had to almost drag him there!!!  However, I felt it was important for the chidren to see and experience the event and realize that hard work does come with a reward and that it is blessed.  The whole family has made sacrifices over the past 7 years and so in a way it was a degree for all of us.  We didn't arrive late but REALLY we should have been there WAY earlier.  At 6:45 already there were no more seats in the church.  They offered for us to sit in a room off to the side to view the ceremony on a big screen.  "No way Jose!!"  Is what I said.  I wasn't going to settle for just watching everything from a TV screen.   

Soooooo...with five children in tow (yes, I insisted that ALL the children come along to witness their father's graduation) we made our way up to the balcony and found ...

this deserted corner on the stairs where we could all hang out.

The seating was a good number of feet (like ten or more) away from the stairs so that we didn't bother anyone.

Peter and Nadia lasted for about an hour (the guest speaker was good but too long) and then I took them downstairs.

At that point I had resigned myself to missing the whole thing and I was just thankful that the older children could witness it. 

I managed to sneak in and get this shot - thankfully he was sitting at the back.

Then...I was shocked!!!  We went to find him a second time and his seat was empty - could it be that he hadn't gone up yet?  Yes, we found him in line to get his degree.

Oh Gloria stop making such a big deal out of this - I didn't even want to come here!!!

That's my man.

So I snuck back in at the back and tried to get a good picture but this is the best I could get.

One of the organizers was kind enough to take a picture of all of us - notice how the two youngest have rosy red cheeks?  That's what happens when it's two hours past bedtime. 

We went to Timmy's after for donuts to celebrate and that was the end of a very eventful and exciting evening!!! 

Congratulations Will - we rejoice with you in this blessing. 

Brazil - The Long Way Home

One last view of Brazil on the way to the airport. Notice the donkeys grazing in front of the gas station!!!

We flew over the Amazon river and forest - it is AMAZING!!!  God's world is so beautiful!!!

That's us on our way to Miami.  It's an 8 hour flight from Recife to Miami. We arrived in Miami around 7pm and by the time we went through customs (long line) it was about 8:30.  We went straight from the airport to the hotel, ate a snack and had a very restless sleep.  Will was very concerned about missing the morning flight so he was waking me up every hour in a panic - by the end of our trip we were just alittle bit paranoid about having cockroches in our room at night.  At that point I was so tired that I really didn't care if we spent an extra day in Miami :)>.   We got up at 4:45 for our morning flight and I was thankful that we were able to lay horizontal for a few hours as opposed to sitting in an airplane all night.   

More of the Amazon.

The airport in Houston was pretty cool - wouldn't you like to have a lollipop that big?

I do believe that here we are arriving in Vancouver and that's the Richmond

delta down there on your right.  You can see the airport in the middle of the shot. 

Will was fascinated with the airbrakes and flaps as we landed.

At this point I always breathe a sigh of relief. If you crash from only 100 feet up - one could survive yes??

Almost down!!  Almost home!!! Can't wait to see the kids again!!! 

Yippee!!!  Safe and sound - Thank you LORD for all your care and guidance in such a BIG trip. 

What a blessing it was!!!

I bought similar souvenir shirts for Nadia and her partner in crime. 

Nadia was confused when we first picked her up and didn't know us at all -  it took three days for her to want to nurse again.  Somebody warned me that that would happen so I was expecting it and planned for it in my mind - that was good because otherwise I would have been devastated.  It just showed me how well she was taken care of and loved - Thank you so much Alice!!  For nursing, eventually I just shoved her on and hoped for the best :).  I cried when she nursed that first time because  it was tender sweet to reconnect with her in that way.  It was also good for me to pump in Brazil - I did it two times a day and that gave me time to relax, think or pray for the kids.  It helped me to feel connected to them, Nadia mostly, when we were so many miles away from each other.  I'm still nursing her months later and I'm really happy about that :). 

Well, that concludes our trip to Brazil - I have some more pictures to go through from Suzanna yet - she is an excellent photographer so hers have more artistic flare than ours and a different perspective - I'll be publishing some of those in the summer (once I've caught up around here). 

I think I've said everything I want to say about the trip but one thing is definitely worth repeating. 

We could NOT have done this trip on our own strength and we could NOT have felt so safe when in fact the places we were in were very unsafe if the LORD had not been with us.  His Spirit guided us and gave us peace every step of the way.  If you were one of the saints praying for us I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  We could feel those prayers and we experienced the good ness of the LORD because of them. 

This trip strengthened my faith in ways that I could never have imagined.  With faith you can move mountains!!!  Not of my own doing of course but out of God's eternal grace.  Three years ago my health was soo bad that it seemed impossible to see a future on this earth.  Fear of almost everything took over.  I still fight those fears but through Christ I can conquer them, have conquered them and will continue to conquer them.  I know this is true.  

I am very thankful for spiritual and physical healing that have allowed Will and I to be a blessing to others in the church and in the world.