Canada!

We crossed the border into Canada and the kids went wild. They are so excited to be back here, after 4 years, and see all their friends and family. We have such a short time here to catch up with everyone. We have already had Tim Hortons and Swiss Chalet and visited with some friends. We are staying at a house in the country and we aren't used to that. Stu laughs at me because my ears are hurting me (they are ringing) because it is soooo quiet. Jesse is going down the country roads looking for Frank (the tractor off of the movie Cars). The girls wanted to play in the corn field, so Stu let them go in one, then he went in and scared them. I don't think they will be going back in it. :)
Stu was playing golf out in the yard with the boys and hit Jesse right on the top of the head with the ball. Another thing the boys have found to entertain them is to talk to each other through the air conditioning vents.  We don't have those in the DR, so it is another new thing for them. We sure are having fun!

Travelling with Jesse

Well, if I thought keeping up with Jesse at home was a challenge, it only gets worse as we travel. He has so much energy and being in the car for 6 or more hours a day, doesn't help! He does like to help though, Every time the GPS gives a command, he repeats it to Stu. He acts like Stu can't hear it at all! Juls was getting frustrated with him repeating it all the time and kept asking him to stop. So he got to where after it gave a command he would be quiet for a minute acting like he wanted to repeat it and then say, "Juls will you get mad at me if I say it?" Then he would ask me to say it.
Then we were at our first meeting at a supporting church. I was talking to the Pastor's wife, who was very pregnant, and Jesse almost punched her in the stomach. I told him not to do that and said that she had a baby in there so he needed to be careful. He squatted down and looked up under her shirt, then stood up and said, "She does not have a baby in there!". I was trying not to crack up!
My boys have discovered drinking fountains and are fascinated by them. Every time they see one, they want to go get a drink. It is such a new thing for them. It's also weird seeing toilets with seats, cars staying in their own lanes, stores with sale racks outside and no one watching them! I could go on, but I won't.
We will be crossing over into Canada tomorrow. The girls get to go to camp and see lots of their old friends. They are very excited! We are also excited about seeing friends and family and our "baby" Lighthouse Baptist Church in Alliston.
I am off to try to get some sleep. I have not caught up since we left at 5 am on Monday. Good Night!

We have arrived!

We made it to the States safe and mostly sound! We left our house at 5 am on Monday morning. We had a fairly smooth day with no major problems. Our team worked together well! The girls each had a boy to help watch out for. We made it through security and customs without any problems. We made all of our flights without having to run. We did sit on our second plane for an hour while they fixed something before we left. Thankfully Jesse slept the entire time! When we arrived in Kansas City, we did have to wait an hour for our ride and then drive another hour to where we were going. Then Stu had to get all the instructions for the van. We were all sitting on the couch like zombies. Seth was falling asleep. So the wife took me and the kids to the motel while Stu finished up. I got the kids to bed at 10:30 (which would be 11:30 Dominican time). We all slept good and unfortunately woke up early (because someone called Stu's phone at 6 am). We went down and had a great breakfast there at the motel. Biscuits and gravy, fresh waffles, fruit, yogurt, cereal, donuts! YUM! Then we loaded up and drove to Pekin, IL. We will be here until in the morning when we start driving to Canada. We will be visiting Mapleton Baptist Church tonight. They have been supporting us for years. We are off to do a little shopping today. Me and the girls need to find some shoes for my sisters wedding. We did make it to Walmart last night, although I was almost too tired to enjoy it!
Thanks for your prayers as we travel!

Be still my heart!

This morning I went out for my walk and locked the gate behind me as always. We finished our first round and I was so tired that I didn't think I could make it around a second time so we took a shorter second loop that took us a completely different way. As we were coming around a corner close to our street, I saw a little blond headed boy in green Buzz Lightyear pj's running down the street. It took me a minute to realize that it was Jesse! My heart immediately started pounding, and I called him to come to me. When I got to him I asked him what he was doing, he said that he was looking for me. I found out that he had climbed over our wall to get out, he even showed me where. After I "disciplined" him, I was very upset. My mind just kept thinking of all the things that could have happened. I know that boy must have a dozen guardian angels around him. I thank God for all of you that pray for us. I have seen His hand of protection many times! (mostly having to do with Jesse!)
We had ladies fellowship today and had a good group of ladies, our biggest yet. I found out right before we went that I had offended a lady months ago with something I said and she hadn't been back to church since. I had said something in Spanish and apparently it meant something totally different from what I meant. I knew what the word meant but  used in the way I used it, there was a different meaning. I was able to talk to the lady tonight, with the help of Joy translating for me (I didn't want to mess up again!) and explained what happened and asked for her forgiveness. She said everything was fine. I hope she will come back to church now. I just wish I had known sooner, so I could have talked to her then.  Oh the joys of learning another language!
9 days till we leave, the boys are counting down. They are very excited! My list of things to do seems to be growing instead of shrinking. I know this next week will be crazy and then when we get to the States, I'm not sure how often I will have internet access, so my posts my slow down quite a bit. Yes, I know I already don't post very often, but I try. :)
The boys are sick again. Jesse started running fever last week (the second time he got this virus in a month) and then seemed to be better but the fever came back again and his eyes got all swollen, red and watery. I found out he has another ear infection. Today Seth started running a fever, so I guess he finally go the virus. I am hoping he gets over it quickly and the rest of us avoid it. The Wesson kids are also sick with a different virus (stomach) so we are keeping our kids separated!
Gotta go, my eyes won't stay open any longer.

Me and the boys!

Stu and the girls have been at camp this week, so it has just been me and the boys here at the house. I have tried to get a lot of work done, but I don't feel like I have accomplished much. I have a list of things to do in the next two weeks, and it's not going down very fast. Me and Joy took the kids (she is home alone with her 2 little ones also) to a new park yesterday. It was so nice! I know it won't stay that way very long though. They don't take care of things here. The kids had a great time.

Today is Juls' birthday, she is 12 now. We went out to the camp for a few hours. I took her a big card covered in candy and a big sprinkled doughnut. She was happy. I heard that they sang to her in chapel, which I am sure she loved. My kids are growing up fast!

July 4th

We had several other missionary families over on July 4th. When we woke up that morning, it was raining, and when we went to bed that night, it was still raining. It rained ALL DAY LONG. One thing about it, it was nice and cool. The bad thing was that all 25 of us were cooped up inside the whole time. We still had a great time! Towards the end the kids went out and ran around in the rain (they would have done it more, but there was quite a bit of lightening). It was sure nice to have American friends to celebrate the day with. :)

Today we took Juls out for her birthday meal. We have a tradition that on the kids birthday they get to go out with just me and Stu. Her birthday isn't until Wednesday, but she will be at camp that day, so we had to do it early. We went to Chili's. We had them come out and sing to her and she was embarrassed. We had fun though. They love getting their time alone with us.

Happy 16th Anniversary!

Friday, July 1st, was our 16th anniversary! Stu told me he was taking me out to lunch and gave me the choice of where I wanted to go. I chose Chili's! While we were there he said something about enjoying our days. I couldn't figure out what he meant until he told me that he had packed my bags and we were going away for the night. He had arranged for the kids to be taken care of and everything. I had no idea, I was sooo surprised. I love surprises but usually I am hard to surprise. We went to a nice resort right on the beach (only an hour from where we live). It was all inclusive, so we could eat and drink whenever we wanted. They even stocked our fridge with cokes (which Stu liked)! They had the best bath tub ever and hot water. Although I about froze with the air conditioning! We enjoyed a couple of walks on the beach. I love being by the ocean. We had a really nice time! I have a wonderful husband and hope we will have another 16 years + together.