When did she grow to be so tall?

As you can see we now have purple crocuses. Today was a special day for Danika...she turned 7! What a little sunshine the Lord has blessed us with through her life. She had a wonderful day, starting with special pastries brought back from Hamburg last night as a gift. After school, Danika had a date with her Daddy for lunch, and pretty much as soon as they got back, Doreen, Lynette and I went shopping. Sloppy Joes were Danika's request. Our guests arrived around 5 p.m. and we enjoyed the supper and cake time with all of them. Danika's little friend, Helene, was also with us to celebrate.

Near Hamburg

The kids had a fun time traveling, playing Bohnanza on the seat which is down and while they were there. Their host family has a home near a wooded area which was perfect for walks and playing. Bradley was thankful for the Lord's help and blessing on the evangelistic message Friday and the three sessions on music on Sunday. We were thankful, too, that the Lord brought him/all of them back to us safely right around mid-night last night.

Initiative

On Saturday night Dustin and Donovan did an especially nice job on their room clean-up. We certainly do have a lot of stuffed animals, but the kids love playing with them, and divided by 10 (10 children) the numbers may not be quite so bad. :)

Hamburg

This afternoon Bradley left with several of the older children to minister in Hamburg this week-end. I don't have a picture of the church, but got this glimpse of the port off of the internet. The Elbe River which flows right through Magdeburg (south to north) flows into the North Sea there. Bradley preached tonight at their evangelistic banquet and has three more messages on Sunday.

Alligators Galore

This past week Dustin has been studying reptiles in his science class. Today Miss Amber had prepared an art project which, to quote Danika tonight, was "the best art project ever!" :) What was intended to be a project of one alligator each turned into lots of alligators, in several sizes, nests, eggs, and even two little ones hatching (lower picture). They had lots of fun playing with them, too. Tonight before bed, Danika set them up for me again, so that I could get a picture of all of them.

Greenville Glimpse: Part of Everyday Life

The girls love their little cherubs. Here Dalene is enjoying one of "hers". Danae is enjoying her art classes. The last two pictures were a recent project for calligraphy. We are so thankful that the girls are good about taking pictures and sharing them with us. Donovan (5) asked me if those were Danae's "A, B, C's" ? :)

Greenville Glimpses:February 2008

Our girls continue to stay busy. The are thankful for the various moments sprinkled throughout their weeks (mostly on week-ends) that help to lighten the load, so to speak. Last week they each received a box from a supporting church. They attended part of a soccer game that their cousin Erik's girlfriend played in. They are good friends with Laura L. and have known her through the camp ministry in Germany. The special treat that night was sitting with their friend Laura K. from Mt. Calvary. A dear couple in our home church bought tickets to the church banquet for the four of them. They had a wonderful time.

Impact -- the yearly board meeting

The search for a camp site in Germany continues, so Kevin, Bradley and three of Kevin's older children checked into two places on their way down to the annual board meeting. There are many pretty places in Germany. These two places were not at all promising. The beautiful place in the first pictures is a special reserve, or so without any buildings. The second was very small, with no larger meeting rooms. The potential camps were visited on Friday, and then the board meeting was all day Saturday. Bradley came home by train that night.

Miss Amber's Art Class Last Week

It seems like it has been forever since I have written. The days are flying by. Tonight I am working on some book work on the computer, so I decided to post a few pictures while I am working. The children all enjoy art day, and Miss Amber has lots of good ideas for them to make. This was Valentine's Day. The ladies at church were telling that they had never heard of Valentine's Day before the reunification of Germany.

Finishing Up

Derek put his bed together, laid in the slatted frame (these are used under the mattress here in Germany) and finished making his bed. By the way, the wall color is apricot (not pink like the pictures seem to show! :)) that we had left from upstairs. I hope to find a border yet. We'll see. At any rate we are happy for all Derek's good work, and that his room now is mostly his...Four of Bradley's book shelves remain. :)

Adventures at Miss Amber's

Edwin and Dustin enjoyed the Wednesday afternoon before the winter vacation at Miss Amber's home. She kindly takes the kids shopping for goodies and supper on the way home. Then they bake, play games (which this time included playing store), color, and fix supper together before it is time to get ready and walk to our meeting place in the center of town to pickup before church. Doreen and Lynette had the special joy of an overnight, since they visited during the vacation time! This time they didn't bake...they made no-bake cookies instead. :) (They kept us hanging with this announcement when they first got to church. We do all look forward to our little snacks of baked goodies when we get home from church,..but alas...we weren't disappointed.) They did all the other things, too, including coloring and making little wall hangings with bunnies on them.

Never Too Much

Bradley is always happy when Danielle arrives next to his chair with a book, and Danielle is always happy to climb up and hear a story. [Brad adds: I'm glad it comes across that way. Actually, I do tell her sometimes that she will have to wait; "Daddy is reading the Bible (or something else) right now." Learning to wait is perhaps as important as learning to read. This session was especially interesting. Danielle insisted that the oranges were apples. I kept repeating "orange," and she kept repeating "apple." This went on for a couple of minutes while I showed her the difference between apples and oranges. She, a 1-year-old, was actually insisting: "No, Daddy. Apple!" Finally she understood and called the oranges by their right name.]

A New Look

Derek moved into Bradley's former study at the end of last summer. Not until this vacation did we take the time to make the room more personal for Derek. For the last couple of days he and I worked on moving three of Bradley's book cases out into the hall to open up a wall for a bed. This afternoon Derek stirred up his paint (the swirls were fascinating!) and painted his room (after first "posting a message on his wall" for his big sisters) until it was done several hours later. We think he did a great job. (We'll post a finished look when it is done.)

Belated Birthday Date

Derek and Brad had a great time at supper together tonight. They posed for me after they got home, too. :)

This is the Day We Go to the Dump :)

In our seemingly never-ending process of de-cluttering, a trip to the dump was on the agenda for today. As you see, the kids and Bradley went on a very sunny day! That made the loading and unloading process very pleasant. The three troopers, Dustin, Danika and Donovan enjoy this outing with Daddy. It is usually combined with some other opportunity. Today it was lunch at Subway (a very special treat!) and helping Daddy put the rest of the Chinese calendars in the boxes of university students whose names look Chinese. Today is Chinese New Year!

Clips that Donia took during the Shoot-Outs

Devon shot three goals during the games (10 minutes each), blocked four in the shoot-outs and shot one in.

Soccer Tournement

Often the teen guys, and sometimes the men, go into Magdeburg on Friday afternoons to play soccer for awhile at a field close to our former church facilities. This past week-end the teens were invited to take part in a tournament for 13-15 year olds. Only Devon fit the age bracket, so he became part of a team of soccer players who play on the school's soccer field. There were 12 teams to begin with from various schools around Magdeburg. Some were school teams, but some seemed to be as loosely formed as Devon's. They played their way through to the semi-finals (which ended up necessitating a shoot out (7 meters when you are inside) and the finals which they won, also in a shoot out. We had a great time cheering him and his team on! :)