First Snow of the Season

Fall Frolic

We are loving the fact that we have some trees in our yard with some beautiful fall foliage.  Emma and Luca were my big helpers this week in getting the leaves raked and picked up…but first, there was lots of fun and play to be had in the leaves. (Note: Samuel was working hard too, but at school)

:: Emma turns NINE ::

The countdown leading up to Emma's 9th birthday was an intense one.  For the past month, not a day went by that she did not express her excitement about the upcoming day and drop hints and requests about gift ideas.  Then when she found out we were going to have her party a day early, she began to tell others that her birthday was on November 3rd, instead of the 4th.

As mentioned previously, we had a house full of guests over her birthday weekend.  And they came bearing gifts galore that were toted around for the previous 2 weeks during their European travels.  I think their sore backs were soon forgotten seeing and hearing the sheer excitement exude from Emma's mouth all night long.

 …party glasses, balloons, candles, candy…they came ready to party!

 Not shy to being the center of attention all night long, this little girl went over the top with her "oohs" and "aahs" with every gift.  In a seriously genuine, very grateful and decidedly happy response with each gift, it made for a very entertaining night.  Her facial reactions say it all...  

  "WOW!…this is soooo CUTE!"

 "AWESOME!!"

We couldn't be more proud of our one and only daughter.  Emma, you bring so much joy and enthusiasm to our lives, a lot of spunk in the middle of your two brothers, creativity and artful living…because you are so uniquely and wonderfully made by our great God!  We pray God will continue to grow you in every way so that you will reflect His love and glory to all around you.  You are loved always...

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY, EMMA PATRYCE!

This note just warms my heart and reminds me just how special these moments of celebrations are in the life of our family…just 346 more days to go!

USA Visitors

November started off with a bang, as we hosted our first group of visitors since our move.  A team from a supporting church in Ohio, Patterson Park Church, was in France for a mission's trip and asked if their presence might be of encouragement to us for a few days.  We have a long standing relationship with PPC as Jonathan did his internship there in 2001, and they were one of the earliest supporters to our work.  The team leaders, Mike and Dawn, have served on the missions committee over the years and know us well, but nothing gives a person a better idea of how to pray for you than by a personal visit.

Mike, Grace, Becca, Dawn, Amy, Darlene, Chip & Karen

The team's visit was brief as they arrived on November 1st and departed on the 4th.  We housed half of the team, while the other half stayed in a rental apartment 15 minutes away.  They braved the public transportation system by using the train each day to get to our house where their meals were served.

They joyfully offered to serve us anyway they could, even when given the monumental task of stripping, sanding and staining our parisian wooden shutters on the backside of the house.  Jonathan has been having neck problems for the past two months, making the most simple of tasks difficult, so this intense manual labor was a huge help to us in completing the much needed restoration prior to the arrival of the harsher winter weather.  The job was nearly completed in two days as many hands make light(er) work.  What is left to be completed, I can now do much more easily.

The kids were off the wall excited for all the attention and company!  Games were played, walks were taken, nails were painted, and Luca's infamous weekend poem memorization was learned with their help while my hands were busy in the kitchen.

We enjoyed a night out for pizza where they were able to take in the cultural experience of tasting what a true Italian pizza is like.  Someone asked Samuel if he knew what Pizza Hut was and his response was "Yea, it's that place with the greasy pizza".  Truly, there is just no comparison to an Italian pizza!

Then to top off the weekend, we celebrated Emma's 9th birthday with our guests.  (Party post to come later).  For us, their visit came at a great time and was such an encouragement.  Our hearts were full come the end of our time together.  We hope that they too gained a valuable insight and perspective on the great difficulty in ministry and need for the gospel here in Italy.

It was an intense and exhausting weekend, not just because of being in "hosting-mode", making a birthday cake and feeding a crowd, but in addition, Samuel got sick the first night of their stay and was up until 3:30AM.  God gave me strength and kept me out of a fog until Monday when I just crashed.  I loved every minute of it and being able to host in our new home was such a gift to see how the Lord is already using this home to be a blessing to others.

Thank you PPC team for ALL that you did for our family!!

Looking back at October

October came and went far too quickly!  We enjoyed the month of moderate temperatures in the 50s and 60s with some rain thrown in the mix.  Walking to and from school with the color changes on the trees and the crunch of leaves underfoot were soul refreshing times of the day for me.  Summer gardens were turned and were replaced with hearty winter vegetables or left to rest for the coming months.  

The past month our house was filled with smells of homemade applesauce, pumpkin bread, coffee with homemade pumpkin creamer and afternoon tea. 

 The garden was turned with some enthusiastic shovel digging kids.

At the supermarket we found a somewhat descent pumpkin to carve, from the choice of four pumpkins.  We missed the experience of going to a pumpkin patch and purposely avoided f*cebook so as not to become jealous of the American traditions we so miss out on this time of year.  But maybe next year we will have a patch of our own.  Fatty batty was the kids' choice this year and Jonathan did his annual carving for them.

We participated in the community "trick-or-treating" where the kids ran from store to store collecting candy or in the case of the bakeries, warm cookies out of the oven.  Free hot chocolate, that is more like pudding it is so thick and delicious, kept us warm while the kids got their faces painted and played games in the piazza.

Then in a blink of the eye, we entered November.