Author: Joyce

Arrived

Mark at site
Mark at transmitter site, almost 3 years old

After watching a map all afternoon to see approximately where Mark was, we knew that he arrived in Jo’burg at 9:18 on Tuesday evening. We knew that he would be exhausted.

Today, around 3:30, Mark called. He said the connection was bad, so he could not e-mail, but he could talk for a little while. He mentioned he was tired, that the flights were long, whenever he started to get hungry they started passing food out again and it was mostly cloudy the whole trip.

They spent the night at a guest house and drove to Swaziland this morning. He would have talked more, but the phone was acting up and Mark was sounding so tired.

Thank you for praying for his safe trip there. If you want to see what he is doing, check out his blog here.

Today’s Smile

meganmomPumpkinMegan said, “this is Megan and Mommy pumpkin! Audrey helping me do each le’er”

Audrey will tell Megan what the new letter is, or write it on another paper.  Megan than writes it down.  She does not write all her letters, and they don’t always turn out so nicely, but she is doing very well.

World Traveler

MarkAnother nice thing about teaching your children at home, is the opportunities that become available when students are not required to be in a class room to learn.

Mark was born in Swaziland.  He was little when we moved back here, but he has always wanted to visit Swaziland.  He does not remember much of Africa, but he has heard us talk about it.

On Monday, Mark starts his journey to visiting Swaziland.  He leaves Chicago mid afternoon and arrives in Jo’burg the next evening.  Then he will journey to Swaziland to stay for a month with his Opa and Oma.

For school, he is taking some math and books that he needs to read for Literature class.  He will using his writing skills to send me notes and write blogs.  Past that, his job is to learn whatever he can.

We are not really sure what Mark will be doing there.  He is hoping to learn about the transmitter site Opa and Daddy used to work at.  He is looking forward to helping Oma do different things.  Exploring the town and meeting people is exciting too. He would love to visit game parks.  He wants to learn a little siSwati. There are so many opportunities!

Please pray for Mark and his grandparents!  Pray for safe travel and patience during the long trip.  Mark gets to experience jet lag and missing his family. Pray that he can be a great help and an encourager to those he meets.  Pray that so many new experiences won’t overwhelm him.  Please pray also that Mark’s relationship with his grandparents grows as he learns more about what they do and interacts with them on a daily basis.

Most importantly, please pray with us that as Mark leaves most everything he is comfortable with,  he grows in what he knows about the true God.  We would love to see the faith that he has to grow and become stronger.

Accident

It was such a beautiful day, that when I went shopping, I left the kids at home to enjoy the weather.  When I returned home, Audrey came out of the garage and told me that she had a bad accident on the swing set while I was gone.  She said she fell off the swing and scraped her nose on a rock.

I noticed her limping and her foot wrapped in a bandage.  I realized that she was covered in bandages–in all different colors of face paint!

Accident

Flower Girl

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Megan was asked to be the Flower Girl for Esther’s wedding. She did an excellent job!  She stood with the bride’s maids during the whole wedding and then followed them nicely when they paraded behind the newly weds. You could tell she was a little nervous, but when the ring bearer broke away from her and ran down the isle, she still walked slowly to where she was supposed to be, tossing the bird seed she had been given.

She did not have flowers to carry, but we borrowed a small bouquet that Esther had for the flower toss at the reception because Megan thought they were pretty. She enjoyed being able to hold Esther’s bouquet some of the time too.

Here is what she thought of being a flower girl:

I wore a purple dress. It was sparkly! It was so sparkly in the sun. Miss Tracy painted my nails green and purple. Miss Crystal put my hair up in a bow and put flowers in my hair. Esther helped me put on my dress. Someone put on shiny lip stick.

My job was to walk before Essie and smile and show everyone my dress. They knew the bride was coming next!  It was an important job. I walked down the hill. I dropped birdseed down the hill before Esther came. I stood by Miss America and the girls. They were nice.

I was just standing when Esther got married. All the girls were watching too. When Esther kissed Essie’s Alan* it was the end. I followed the girls down the hill to the bridge.

Then we took ten pictures. Then we went inside. I ate lasagna, bread and cheese. Then I just had to look pretty. Then I went to Oma and Opa house!

I liked being a flower girl.

*“Essie’s Alan” is how we differentiate between my Allan and Esther’s new husband.

Assistant

AssistantLast weekend was my niece’s wedding. Esther had an outdoor wedding near my parent’s house. The weather was perfect and the leaves were starting to show their colors. It was a wonderful day for a wedding.

Esther had asked me months ago to be her photographer.  Knowing I would need a second camera, I recruited an extremely handsome and talented photographer.  Not only was he the assistant photographer, he was my encourager!

Thank you Allan for all your help. You are wonderful! I love and respect you very much!