LTM March 2012

We're home! We finally made it after many hours in airports and on planes, often times with one or more of our children crying. I think there was only one time when we had all 3 going at once though, so that's good. :-)

We've been enjoying time with family since we've been back, and yesterday was my little brother's wedding. He and his wife are living in North Carolina, so even though we are back near my parents and sister, he is not very close, so we took this chance to take a family picture!

Since our last LTM (Lott, Thompson, McGrew) picture in December 2010 in Jordan, we have added 3 new members: Jeff's wife, Arianne, my nephew Micah born last November, and Camry.



The Last Days

Is it just me, or are the last weeks/days before a big life change super hard?! This week has been pretty rough, just waiting on Monday night to come so we can go the airport and get on with the next phase of our life. I'm still loving spending time with our friends here and trying to enjoy Jordan because I know there are things I will miss...but let's face it, we have been in transition mode for a long time now and we are ready to be somewhat settled again!

I'm ready to have a more structured day with the kids again. Caedmon is doing good with everything for the most part. We haven't been doing homeschool, so he spends a lot of time on the computer. Many of the games he plays are educational, but we're still going to have to set a better schedule for his computer time because it's all he wants to do all day long!! Camille has been sensing a disturbance in the force, as Matthew says. She has been super clingy, especially with Matthew, and has been acting out a lot. Camry is...well she still sleeps most of the time, so she doesn't care what's going on. :-)

We attempted some more pictures of Camry yesterday. I always say attempted because it never goes the way you hope it will. :-) I wanted to do some fun shots I'd seen on Pinterest. Here's some of the best ones.



Hard to see...but it's open to Psalm 139 - "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

Five more days left in this season of life. We have plans for each day, to enjoy this place and be with those we've grown to love over the years before we say goodbye.

Our Life in Numbers

4 Valentine's celebrated in Jordan

 

3 weeks old today

 

21 months old today

20 times a day this guy amazes me with how smart he is

 

15 days until my brother gets married


9 days left in Jordan

Attitude

Somewhere along the way here we ended up with the book,"Just As I Am," which is Billy Graham's autobiography. I have been wanting to read it, but never got around to it. It is way too big to bring with us (735 pages to be exact!) since our packing space is limited, so I decided to tackle it in our last few weeks before we go. I guess in some weird place in my mind I thought I'd have free time...HA!

Anyway, last night I was reading about a time he was doing a crusade in India and he talks about how as he was shown to his quarters he was introduced to Nihuli, the man who would handle their baggage, make them tea, and do whatever else they needed. He even took their shoes to wipe the mud off of them. The next morning they went to an early morning Bible study attended by 100,000 people. And who was the leader of this Bible study? Nihuli.

Billy writes, "The man cleaning my shoes had just taught me a lesson on the servant attitude and spirit of ministering so often adopted by Christ himself. I have never forgotten it."

When we went to India in 2005, I was also struck by the servant attitude of those we worked with. One of our interpreters slept on the floor in front of the door where some of our students were sleeping to be there if they needed anything.

Lord, help me have this serving spirit and be able to model for my kids this kind of attitude!

Siblings

I have all these grand ideas for cute sibling pictures in my head (most seen on Pinterest), but getting the kids all happy at the same time, sitting still for more than 2 seconds and then for us to actually be able to get the picture to look like what I want is quite a task!

We had a "photo shoot" this morning, and while we didn't get everything I wanted, we got a few keepers!