The Hen coop

Our new home is on Hencoop Road. Thankfully it didn't come with any hens and there aren't any around. Here are some pictures of our new home, since so many of you have been asking to see it! It's still real messy right since we moved right before Christmas. I think I will put some of the pictures from before we actually moved in.

The front of the house, our property goes all the way back to the tress behind! The boys standing in front of the house. The house in the distance has four children also! This is the kitchen island, looking into the greatroom. Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree is in the background. This is Aaron and Ethan's bedroom. The beds are from the previous family, we have bunk beds for them. The border is great, bugs and frogs, perfect for our boys!

This is the view from the loft/hallway looking down onto the greatroom. The previous owners had great taste for decorating, I would love to have her to decorate it with us!

God has blessed us in so many ways, and I can't beleive I am living in such an amazing house, in this amazing country setting. My dream come true! My husband is a blessing to allow me to come live in the country. It is actually only 5 miles from the village in which he works so that helped matters. We have been out on the snow mobile, building snowmen, sledding, and can't wait to enjoy it in the rest of the seasons. In the back of our lot, beyond the trees there is a small stream with some tiny little waterfalls, so sweet and a great place to catch frogs and all sorts of wildlife. As you can imagine, Aaron is in heaven back there (and secretly, I think I will be too! ) In the spring I will be starting a garden and am so excited to do so as I have been wanting to garden for quite some time now. One day at a time. Our sea freight is due to be delivered on January 7th and I will have ots to organize and sort. It will just become more of our home by then, I can't wait!

Thankyou Lord for this amazing blessing.

This is a common sight around the house, I am so blessed the children love to read so much!

Guilty as Charged!

I wrote a post back in the summer about Caitlyn's quiet behavior, even when supposedly sleeping, and am back to write about it again. I am always a fan of a child resting during naptime, even when they can't actually sleep. She's young, and I need the one on one time with the children for school. I knew she was awake in her room, and not sleeping today, but had a relapse in memory somehow. I blocked out the time she had colored all over herself during a time she was to be napping. She did it again! 1 1/2 hrs later I here her complaining to come out and play, so I decide it's been long enough and go in to greet her with a "mama missed you" kindof smile, only to have it fade and be quickly replaced with shock. She found a drawer with Sharpie markers in it, along with a pink highlighter! Needless to say, the crib, her body, blankets and cabinets next to her were all graffitied by a known artist named Caitlyn.

Grace Sufficient

2 Corinthians 12:9 "But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me". 2 Corinthians 12:9

This has been the whole of my strength and ability to go on daily without giving up. Since we have arrived in NY we have been bombarded with every illness conceivable, as well as very trying circumstances. This past week Steve had to fly to Portland for business, my parents went to Fla and I stayed with the children intending the best of homeschool and daily living. Suffice it to say, God had other plans for us.

As Steve left, the children and I were battling sinus infections, without an "in network" Dr whose philosophy I agreed with. That's ok, I thought, I can handle it. And off I marched to the Health Food store to buy every remedy I could find to relieve our symptoms and rid the infections. Awesome, it worked! We were doing great and ready for schooling and life skills they so desperately need (or is it me that needs for them to have those skills?). That night Caitlyn slept through until 6am, which is completely unheard of, Praise God! But, Aaron woke up vomitting like there was no tomorrow. UGH. Let's just say that it went through all of us in the course of the week. At one point, there were 4 of us being sick almost simultaneously! Not a pretty sight. I was here on my own with noone to help. Grace Sufficient.

Grace Sufficient is all I could manage to think, pray and believe to keep going. And truly, by His Grace alone, I am standing here healthy and ready to take on what God has for me. For when I am weak, He is strong, and what better strength to go on daily!

Christmas on Orchard

Every year we would stroll down Orchard Road around Christmas time to see all the lights and decorations. As you can see, they really go all out. Sometimes it's actually overwhelming to see everything at once. We wanted to take our stroll one last time before we left, it felt kindof nostalgic, in a wierd way. It always made me want to go home and celebrate with family and friends the way we always used to. This time, I was a little bit sad to leave my friends and family in SG at this wonderful time of year.

A Huge Screen TV just like in Time Square

Aaron sitting on a small pillar, he got tired and decided it was more fun to watch the huge tv than to keep walking. Only in Singapore!

This is what I like to call the Singaporean Dunkin Donuts

A street Seller

It feels more like Candyland than Christmas!

Goodbye ICS, We will miss you!

On the boys' last day of school, at International Community Scool of Singapore, I went in to hand out cookies and take some pictures, I thought this would be a nice way to say "goodbye" and have closure for them. They have seen many friends go and some new students join thier class, and now it was thier turn. I tried to have them talk about it, but we all know how easy it is to get boys to talk about thier feeling! Ethan and Ryan chose Oreo cookies and Aaron chose Chocoalte Chip, so we passed them out at lunch time and had some pictures with thier friends and teachers. This week was also School Spirit Week, so everyone dressed down each day, and this day was Pajama Day, so that's why Ethan's teacher has rollers in her hair. Ethan and Miss "Ringy". Thanks for being such a great teacher!

Ryan's class, he is the one in the middle left of the pic with blue pajamas on.

Aaron's class, he is the one in the middle right of the pic with brown pajamas on.

Aaron and his buddies

If the house is quiet and Caitlyn is not sleeping, you really need to wonder what my little inquisitive wonder is up to. She is very resourceful, as you can see, we didn't have a stool at the apartment, so she decided the garbege can would do. She loves playing in the sink, and this is how I found her at one of those "Oh No, it's too quiet, were's Cate" moments. You see the smug little look on her face when she got caught!? This is the same day she actually locked herself in that kitchen and I had to call housekeeping up to get her out! Luckily I managed to get her out before they came, boy was that traumatic!

Little Mother

This is our room in the serviced apartment. She really had fun in front of the mirror. Super Cute!

Happy Un-birthday to you

Caitlyn turned the Big 2 yrs old yesterday, November 18th 2008. However, because we are moving internationally, and the packers were coming a day later, her birthday celebration wasn't quite the norm. I did bring her to Parkway (the mall close by) and get her a dog balloon, at which she will screech with excitment every time she sees. You'd be amazed at the eagle eyesight a toddler can have for something they want! It's so cool, a helium balloon, on accordian style paper legs with a leash so you can pull it along and it "walks" like a real dog. Great idea! Unfortuantely, I couldn't get a picture of her with it, because Ethan enjoyed playing with it a bit too much, and it popped. :-( I also made her chocolate avocado pudding and strawberries - one of her favorites - but she slept through it, because she also caught a cold the same day! So I have decided to celebrate her birthday officially when we get to the states. I am a real traditions type girl, so I feel the need to celebrate her birthday the "right" way. You know, have a cake (or other favorite dessert) with candles, then she tries to blow them out and everyone sings "Happy Birthday"! So, who's up for a birthday party!!??

Farewell Camelot

This process of saying goodbye is not likely one I will ever forget. In this transient society, we so quickly make friends, friendships that most often become our family. Unfortunately, as quickly as we develope these relationships, we have to say goodbye. In our 4 1/2 yrs here, we have seen many families leave. We have had farewell parties, helped them clear out their pantries, and gone through the last days with them. It always felt odd, wanting to be happy for them , often going home, or another luxurious location, yet feeling sad to see them leave. Sometimes there was a bit of jealousy, wanting it to be you whose going home.

Now it's our turn! This is bittersweet as you can imagine. It's time for us to go home, and leave our friends behind. Those whom we have gathered around the Thanksgiving table, and spent Christmas with. Those who we've shared our joys and saddness with when missing our homeland. They have been with us throuhg thick and thin.

Our friends from Camelot had a farewell party for us on Sunday evening. All the children ran freely around the pool and ate tons of sweets and crisps, swimming and playing thier fvorite game of cops and robbers. Everyone asked about our new house and what it's like "back home" They spooke of how much they will miss us when we are gone. It's so hard to balance the emotions in this situation! We were blessed with great neighbors in Camelot!

Here arre some pics from the night............

Patsy and Wendy

The guys of Camelot

The Camelot Ladies

Beena and Wendy

All the children lining up for a peice of Erin's homemade cake

(this is after they've already decorated 2 of thier own cupcakes!)

Clarification

I just realized many of you reading the blog might not be aware of all the goings on since I have last posted. The comment in my last post, "Cate and I stayed home from church so as not to scare away any visitors with her cough and purple face" may have found you quite curious and possibly frightened! Well, about the 3rd week in September Ryan came home with a cough from school. No big deal, they pass things around a school like candy on Halloween day. The thing with this cough was it was really severe. What started out as a minor cold turned into a very violent coughing spasm! What's worse is Catitlyn started coughing just a few weeks later, when we were in the states. After much research , a few trips to the Dr (which, again, proved pointless), lots of sleepless nights and many phone calls to my mom, God bless her, we decided they had Whooping Cough, aka, Pertusis! Whoa! Where did this come from? The Drs wouldn't support this theory of mine because "he had the vaccine, so surely it can't be that"! Well, in my research (www.whoopingcough.net) i discovered there is a rise in Whooping cough cases between the ages of 11-14 due to the vaccine losing it's affects. Now, if they had exposure every few yrs, they would be able to build up immnuty and keep strong, but thats another topic for another day. That's why Ryan came down with it and Caitlyn did because she hasn't had the vaccine (again another topic for another day). Aaron and Ethan didn't come down with the full blown illness but have a cold and bad cough. With Pertussis, you start coughing and go into a violent fit, often losing your breathe completely, turning shades of blue and purple, eyes bulging, and finally vomitting before you can finally catch a breathe again. It's really quite scary! They have been on antibiotics and are doing MUCH better, even though the Drs insist the antibiotics don't kill this bacteria. I truly don't understand Drs. Ryan got better over 6 weeks, and after missing much school. But he started to have these breathing attacks in the middle of the night. All of a sudden he would wake gasping for air! It is a horrifying sight and sound to hear, let alone be woken by in the middle of the night! This would last from 30 seconds to 2-3 minutes! It continued for a week or so and I took him in again in hopes they could tell us what was happening. She didn't give me much hope of a diagnosis but sent us to a Pediatric Pulminologist. I won't bore you with all the details, as it was quite an ordeal-par for the course in SG. Anyway, turns out he has something called Spasmodic Croup, characterized by just that, the throat spasming starting and stopping at any time. Scary! It can often be triggered by an allergy as well as an illness. We had him tested and he is severely allergic to dust mites! Now he is on a low dose corticosteroid for 3 months to keep this from happening. We need to find a Dr in the states in quick order to get him updated and continued support for this. So there you have it. This is why I haven't posted much lately, our house has been sleepless most nights and we are exhausted! Good news is, the children are on thier way to being healthy again, and, God Is Still On The Throne!

Baking with Mommy and Cate

On Sunday morning last week, Cate and I stayed home from church so as not to scare away any visitors with her cough and purple face. Well, I could have chosen any activity like going for a walk, reading books and the ever popular cleaning up the house, but I decided we would have our first baking experience as Mother and Daughter! This may not sound that exciting, but when you have baked banana bread with 3 boys "killing" the bananas and making sounds of anguish only boys can think up and having the ingredients beat eachother up in the stirring process, you would understand! Caitlyn took her job very seriusly! She wanted to add every ingredient and stir each time. I can tell, this is going to be lots of fun!

What does it feel like mom?

She had no problem adopting the rule of "every baker gets a taste". This is the boy's favorite part, and I think hers as well.

After a while she got a bit antsy, and just wanted to eat all the dough, so I decided to get a little crazy and give her the almost empty flour container and a measuring spoon. That kept her busy for a good half hour!

I was kinda proud of myself, can you see the mess? Inside I started to get anxious about all the mess she was making and I wanted to put an end to it immediately. I mean, when the boys come home and I am exhausted from the morning with just the girls, what will Steve think? Well, I held back those reservations and just let her go at it. She was so happy! Putting the flour in the container and taking it back out again, then smearing it all over the floor, repeat steps one and two 25 times.

The true test of a woman came when I told her it was time to clean up. I totally expected a meltdown only a 2yr old could give when in the middle of such fun. But to my delight, she said "OK" in her adorable little voice and promptly got the towel to clean it all up. I gave her the broom and she was content for another 15 minutes while I got everything cleaned up on the counters!

I am blessed by such experiences and can only imagine the fun she and I will have in times to come. Thank God for little girls!

Celebrations around the world

Last week Singapore had another public holiday called Deepavali. Also called Dewali, its an Indian holiday much like our New Year. This is a very important holiday to them, celebrated over 3 days in some parts. Our neighbors are Indian and they invited us over to celebrate with them. The children painted candle holders in preperation for that night. They also had a party for the rest of the complex this weekend. They had fireworks, aka, sparklers, henna painting, and amazing Indian food! We donned our Indian attire and headed our for a night of fun and festivities.

If you look closely on the boys hands, you can see the henna tatoos they got. Made from a paste of henna leaves, green tea and some other stuff I am not sure of, it stays for about 3-5 days.

Julie getting a henna tatoo Cate was so excited about getting her hands painted. She had her first one, a little flower, and then it got smudged after she tried to touch it. So then she got back in the queue to have it fixed. That wasn't good enough, she had to have the other hand done as well. So cute!

Ryan got a scorpion

Ethan got a peacock on one hand, and a heart with his name hidden in it on the other hand

Aaron got a peacock and a scorpion too.

Preperations for the special day

Creating a picture with colored rice

All the children gathered and painted small candle holders for the "festival of lights"

P.S. these picture are all backwards. I am still technologically challenged and can't figure out how to load the pictures when i have several that have a specific order. So, the prep obviously happned first and the pic of me and the children was actually the end of the night.