A Ninja & a Monkey

Day 183 (Monday 9-23):

This whole day almost passed without me getting a picture. Kees helped me make malt ball and Grandma's house and I snapped this picture.

Malt Ball (it's oatmeal power balls, in case your new)

As I was getting ready for bed, I ran across this cartoon, made me think of when we were leaving Thailand. I actually told one of our co-workers and friends that the ONLY thing that would drag me away from Thailand was God himself. So, of course, when I found this, I HAD to save it!  Also, Footprints in the Sand is one of my favorite poems. :)

Yep.

Day 184 (Tuesday 9-24):

Well, we spent this day in OKC.  I have one photo, and zero memories from this day. Wow, I'm old!

Breakfast: malt ball and grapes

Day 185 (Wednesday 9-25):

This was a FULL day! We got our costumes in the mail that we picked out with Grandma. Kees is a ninja and Kora is a monkey. They both "shopped" on Amazon with Grandma and picked these costumes out. Kora was so excited about hers. She kept smiling and chattering. My mom says Kora speaks monkey, she learned from Monkey George (that's what Kees calls Curious George).  So she's ready!

Ninja

Monkey

He said he was hot

Silly kids

Daddy helping put the rest of her costume on.

Grandma showing Kora what she looks like in the mirror.

He's invisible

Awww!

These are amazing, I bought them at Aldi, they were a "special buy", so only for a limited time, it's probably for the best, cause I can eat A LOT of them.

We went to Capitol Hill Baptist church for their Wednesday night service, and boy were we encouraged. The pastor had us share after the prayer time, we didn't have any thing special planned, but we just thanked them for praying with us as we transition and shared our hearts.  We both cried.  It's always so humbling to meet with folks that have prayed you through the good times and bad.  Such a blessing!

After church, we headed to Paden to Gramee and Grampa's place. Kees FINALLY got to crush his hoarded soda cans.  He was thrilled. Grampa had to try to entertain Kora/keep her OUT of trouble while they were in the garage. They all had a great time!

CANS!

He's a hard worker.

Kora was pulling stuff off of the freezer.

She's fun.

Day 186 (Thursday 9-26):

Thursday morning, we left Kora with Gramee, took Kees and headed to Morris to meet with our good friend, brother Jeff, pastor at Liberty.  I was able to serve with him in Mexico twice and at Children's camp once. We're buddies!  So it was great to catch up and share with him about how we feel God is leading our little family.  We also got to see the new building they are working on and here how God is working at their church. 

Flag at Brother Jeff's place.

It was a gorgeous morning in the country.

Their new building.

Kees came with us because he's still "adjusting to America". 

Kees got a new playhouse that Mamaw bought for him.  It's so cool!

In the evening, we went to the men/women's bible studies at Paden. We love being able to meet in a small group to pray and study God's word. After that, we traveled to Webbers Falls for Miss Deanna's princess party.  I stayed up late preparing party favors and such with my one and only sister. It was a blast and I was so thankful to be a part of her special day!

Grandpa Boo's house of fun...

(...and Ginny's house of food)

Had to include this, about all of Gwen's yummy food because it seems like she always makes a lot of our favorites when we visit!  Good home cooking!

Day 181 (Saturday 9-21):

I literally have one photo from this day, and it sums everything up!

I'm not sure how Grandpa Boo has enough energy to run these kids around the yard in a wheel barrel, over and over again, but somehow he manages. It's like he fit 2 1/2 years worth of playing with these kids into one day.

Yep, our kids spent the entirety of their day (except Kora's nap) being entertained by Grandpa Boo.  I was actually bored an ended up getting some blogging done while they were occupied.  It was so strange, they spent a lot of time outside, so no one was asking for anything or making any kind of noise.  Don't get me wrong, it was nice, but very weird.

Day 182 (Sunday 9-22):

Sunday morning we went to church with Doug's dad and Gwen.  They had guests from Teen Challenge sharing about how the program saved them from addiction.  It was so cool to see how God is using that program to change people's lives and demonstrate his amazing LOVE.

After church we had a good ole traditional Sunday lunch: roast! (and other things)

In the evening, we got to have dinner with some friends of ours, the Newberrys. They are adopting a little girl from the Ukraine (in real time it's 15 more sleeps!).  When we visited them, they did not know the date yet. They were waiting, much like we are waiting. It was cool to swap stories about how God is blessing our families during this time. I'll include more info at the bottom of this post, if you'd like to learn more about their family and their adoption journey.  I recently saw a cool photo on someone's facebook page, and I think it sums things up pretty well...I'll post it first and then some of the others from that day!

This is how I feel, in fact, I feel like I can see the open door, we just have a few more steps to walk in the hallway before we get to it.  I think this would accurately sum up how they were feeling as well.

You'd think after the previous day, that Grandpa Boo would be tired, he probably was, but he didn't let on.

Yum!

Zoned out.

Doug loves mixing his foods, not sure how we ever got together.

Open mouths!

This boy loves cleaning, I really hope this sticks!

At the Newberry's place, playing in their back yard. We had BBQ for dinner, Kees asked everyone for their soda cans (an extremely rare treat at their house apparently...to have soda I mean), so he can take them to Grampa's to crush.

We also ended up swapping tornado stories. We weren't here for the May 20th tornadoes, but we have family that live in the area, so we swapped their story for them. :)

Okay, as promised, here is a link to the Newberry's blog, you can find it here.  There's a tab on the right side of the page, they are raising funds to help curb the cost of traveling overseas to pick their daughter up. They are also selling really cool scarves, if you'd like one, she can make them in any color you like!  I got an awesome red and white one to wear on game day (OU in case you're new here).  This family has been praying over this decision for some time, God has led them directly to this time and place, and I am so thrilled to see how HE continues to go ahead of them.  I could cry, but I'm trying really hard not to.  Adoption is awesome, at home (like my cool sister), and abroad (like this family)!

Wicked!

Day 177 (Tuesday 9-17):

If you remember, the last post was about me being sick.  It took a whole 'nother day of rest for this momma to catch up! Yikes!  So, no pictures, but I think Grandma Sheryl has some, somewhere of the kids eating ice cream on her "falcony" (that's what Kees calls her balcony). In the evening, we watched the Wizard of Oz, Sheryl and I were going to see Wicked the next day, so this was our research. :)

Not sure if this is when we were watching Wizard of Oz or not, but this is basically how it happened and the photo is from some time this day, so let's all pretend I know what I'm doing.

Day 178 (Wednesday 9-18):

WICKED!!!

Okay, so my MIL (mother in law or mother in love as some people say when they like to be mushy and gushy, which I usually avoid, so yeah) had tickets to go see Wicked with her boyfriend.  I told her I was jealous because I'd love to go see it. Next thing I knew, their 2 tickets turned into 3, and I got to go!!! We also went to eat dinner before the show, at a restaurant called Vast. It's in OKC and it's way at the top of the Devon building.  We had a pretty great view and the food was amazing as well. Every time I eat fancy food I think of my foodie friend Amanda and wish she was with me.  So I always take the pictures with her in mind.

Getting ready to leave for Wicked, stealing kisses from my sleeping girl.

Kees was desperate to turn this light out,  I tell ya, desperate!

Kees's new picture face, the tongue out look, continues. Sheryl (my MIL) let me borrow her pearls.

Very appropriate for Oklahoma and for Wicked, saw this on the way to the show in Bricktown.

This makes me happy. Oklahoma used to have zero professional teams, now, we have the THUNDER! Still no baseball or football teams, so we all unite on this!  Now college ball, that's a whole 'nother story.

Inside the Devon tower.

Outside view

Some of the wood is from THAILAND!

Shirley Temple

Various breads, one had dried tomatoes and olives, one had some type of cheese and jalapeños  (it was my favorite), and then there was a cracker thing that had pumpkin and a bunch of other stuff, but let's be real, we're all lucky I remember as much as I do.

Sheryl's food: filet mignon, potatoes, that were gutted, mashed then piped back into themselves, beets, and asparagus.

Neal's food: duck, sweet potato puree, and some type of green, it wasn't cale, but I can't quite remember what it was.

I got a steak, with asparagus, and blue cheese sweet potatoes. I didn't really like the blue cheese in my potatoes, sorry Amanda, but the steak was the best I've ever had.

Neal and Sheryl have been dating a year, they got a special cake.

Neal and Sheryl

Whoa!

I'd forgotten that Neal was an Alabama fan, then I saw this and remembered.  I rode in his vehicle under protest.

Half time or intermission, whatever you want to call it. The bathroom line was outrageously long, I barely got to go before they were rushing everyone back to their seats. On my way back up, the concession stand was nice and empty so I ran to grab a Dr. Pepper, imagine my dismay when all they had was Coke.  I needed the caffeine because I'd lost so much sleep the night before.  This helped!

I feel like this shot could easily have a batman sign super imposed over it and it'd be so believable!

I did not take this picture, I found it online.  We were allowed to take any in the show.

Day 179 (Thursday 9-19):

While we are in "transition", we are trying to get together with as many friends/supporters as possible to  update about what we did in Thailand the last year and a half and where we feel God is directing us next.  We feel like we have a pretty good open door, but we're just waiting for final confirmation at this point.  This day, we got to go eat with the Littlefields at a yummy Mexican-ish restaurant. I feel like it had some other ethnicity blended with the Mexican, but I can't really remember (It's October 9th in real life so this was a while ago).  Some day, I will blog every day again, and just skip here and there. For now, I am playing catch up, sorry folks.  Every, single time we visit with people, I walk away feeling so encouraged. It's amazing how the body of Christ works, so thankful to be a part.

Playing with Grandma.

Napping

Kicking myself for not getting pictures with the Littlefields. I vaguely remember asking Doug to do it when we were leaving and he said he didn't want to. But I did get this picture in their son's nursery, so cool!

Day 180 (Friday 9-20):

This day we went to the park and then in the evening we went over to visit Grandpa Boo and Ginny for a few days. If you haven't caught on yet, my life is nutso. We are traveling every few days, which in itself is stressful, but we don't even really have a "home base", we have most of our stuff at my parents place, but quite a bit of stuff at Doug's mom's place, not to mention we're halfway living out of our van.  Okay, I feel like I should just write a separate post to include exactly what that's like, and when I do, I'll link to it here...if I remember.  So here's the pics!

Doug and Sheryl took the kids to the playground.  I enjoyed some quiet alone time.  Doug enjoyed playing with the camera on his phone since he'd just downloaded the new IOS.

Running.

Thoughtful.

My babies.

Kiddos with Grandma Sheryl.

On our way to Grandpa Boo's place.  We saw these pumpkins!

Ginny (Gwen) made the best enchiladas. They were chicken and had a homemade cream cheese sauce on top. She cooked the sauce separately from the enchiladas and the enchiladas were kind of crunchy, it was so, so good!

Doug saw this picture on facebook, that's our pastor's wife (in Thailand) and she is reading the "By This Name" book in Thai while waiting to take a test.  This makes me so excited!  So thankful the Thai church has a great resource to help them, not only for their own biblical understanding, but to share the gospel as well! Ahhhh, seriously, so excited, I could do dance, sing a song, and/or clap my hands while jumping up and down.  I'd do this a lot more often, but Doug thinks it's embarrassing and over the top...I think not, but I also don't want to embarrass THE MAN. (Love you Doug!)