My Babies!

Things have gotten busy!! And I'm loving it! I began my au pair work last week. I am now going 3 days to week to help with the housework and give Vero some extra time to herself. I'm still trying to learn how she does certain things, and working on getting Veerle more comfortable with me...but it's AWFUL nice to get out of this church building every once in a while. And the public bus has since become my best friend. Not as scary and frightening as I once thought! Still not as convenient as a car...but faster than walking, and much cheaper than a taxi!! Anyway, I thought I would introduce you to my babies! Posted to the left is 6-week old Neo. And yes, he is named after the Neo on the Matrix. They've gotten some interesting comments on his name...no doubt! He will smile at you constantly 30 minutes after he's eaten (approximately when this picture was taken!) and tends to be a very happy baby, in general. Isn't he a cutie? And posted to the right is 1 1/2 year old Veerle...who is the sweetest and most obedient 1 year old I've ever met! However, she wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a good picture...hopefully I'll get a better one of her and post it. She has her own vocabulary...and once you know which word means what...it's just as normal as though she were actually speaking a language! She is, in fact, a bilingual child...so in case you were wondering, I am able to speak to her so that she understands. She can absolutely melt your heart with the word "huggle". When she says this, she is usually right in front of you with her arms up in the air. "Huggle" means "I want a hug", "I want to sit in your lap", or "I need attention because mommy is holding Neo." It's so cute! "Ba" means "I need to go potty", "ghana" means "What is that?", "dry" means "turn", "ugh" means "up", "down" or "help". And the rest, she can sign for! She's a pretty amazing child...I'm enjoying spending time with her a lot!

And let's not forget the newest member of my family, Scarlet Joanna Smith-Farray!! Two weeks ago, I adopted (with another girl) a Nederland's Dwarf Rabbit. She's great! She fluffy, cute, and likes to cuddle! As you can see in the picture, she'll just lay in your arms, content to be held. This is her "other mother", Sheritha, who has "joint-custody" and will be keeping her after I leave. We were so excited the day we got her, that we forgot to ask how old she was. So I've still got to run back over to that pet store and find out! She's really good about Sheritha cutting her nails, and hasn't ever bitten us before. Overall, we're really happy with her!! She definitely keeps me company on the rainy days when I'm stuck inside!

And last night, I had the pleasure of witnessing a baptism for the first time since I've been here! A man named Frans, well into his 50's and raised Catholic, decided after two years of studying with a member of the church, that it was time to commit his life to God. So at 9:00 at night, approximately 20 members drove to the closest river, and watched as Remco asked for his confession of faith and baptized him. It was so dark, the only light we had was from the few flashlights people brought with them! But it was a wonderful experience. We...well...THEY...were blessed with relatively warm weather, and said the river wasn't too cold. So that was good. Afterwards, we all came back to drink tea and eat some snacks. It was a fantastic night!

This weekend, I have a day planned for children, ages 3-10. The theme is "Through the Eyes of David". It's kind of like VBS...except in 4 hours on one day! We'll start out with the story, a skit, and songs...then divide into 3 groups, where they will create a shield of truth, a belt of faith, and be able to "measure up" against a real-life size Goliath before throwing paper rocks at his head. Then for snack, we're going to have 6-foot roll-ups (creative, isn't it?) and award them with a "Certificate of Armor". I'm excited about it...but have an absolute TON of stuff to get done tomorrow in preparation. Anyway want to help me cut out 30 cardboard shields of truth?

My works of art!

Okay...so as most of you know...I'm not an artist. Not when it comes to writing, not when it comes to drawing, and definitely not when it comes to painting. The closest I've ever gotten to art is slapping a flyswatter with paint on it on a piece of paper hung up on a fence (and it's tons of fun, too!). Thank goodness my passion is with children, and not anything that involves serious contemplation. :)

Anyway...one of the projects the church gave me to work on this summer was to paint a mural on each of the classroom walls. The idea made me laugh. Apparently these people did not know what they were about to get themselves into. Despite my inability to create even a drawing of a human look-a-like, I began brainstorming appropriate scenes out of the bible for each age group. We (Mellisa and I) decided on Noah's Ark for the 4-6 year olds (which Mellisa did), a scene of the shepherd's looking up at an angel in the 7-10 year old room, and a scene of Jesus being baptized in the 12 year old classroom. And so we began.

Now, 2 months and 3 murals later, the church has asked me to do another mural on the kitchen wall. This work is currently in progress...and will be shown later. I thought I would go ahead and show you the two I have done myself at this point. I'm pretty happy with the results...and surprised, as well!! This first one is my absolute favorite...the mural in the 4-6 year old room. The one one the left is the mural in its entirety, and the one on the right is just more of a close-up of it. I had difficulty figuring out how to paint the angel (my selection of paint was limited)...but it turned out better than I expected. The sheep are my favorite, though. They make shepherding look like fun!!

And the second one I did will not upload on here!!! In general, I like it...I just prefer more simplified paintings like the one above. This mural is in the 12-year old room and represents the Holy Spirit descending down on Jesus in the form of a dove after His baptism. I will keep trying to add the pictures to the blog...but I will also add them to my shutterfly account under "church family and activities". And here's a test. Check out the picture of Jesus being baptized and find what's wrong in the picture. I made a relatively funny mistake and am curious how obvious it is!!! Just go to www.travelingwoodenshoes.shutterfly.com and check it out!

Aside from all this, my sister Charity and her husband John came to visit me a week and a half ago! I was so excited! They only got to stay for the weekend, but it was great getting to see her pregnant, feel the baby...I mean, "Eric", kick...and see John after almost a year and a half!! They got here on Friday, and we spent the night touring the city of Eindhoven. Then we left early (for me!) on Saturday to drive to Amsterdam. I have also added an album of pictures from that day, as well. Thankfully, the two days they were here, we were blessed with warm weather. And the second they decided to leave, it started raining! But we were glad to do our touring without the burden of carrying umbrellas around all day!

Since then, I've had to start teaching myself Dutch (taking a class didn't work out), the number of readers has picked up (I got 3 new ones last week!) and I should begin my au pairing sometime next week. Things are getting much busier!! But so far, so good. I've been organizing a "Newcomer's Dinner" for this Friday night...and I'm pretty excitement about the people who have committed to coming. I think it will be a great time of fellowship together. And options already seem to be opening up for me for when I return. So I've relieved at that, as well. The less stress, the better!!!

Well...that's it for now. And how are you?